The business world has moved from leveraging the skills of general management alone to requiring the fortitude of executive and adaptive leadership that encompasses issues of ethics and sustainability to deliver trust to stakeholders.

MBA students at the Australian School of Business will be immersed in the skills required for this new world of business, including communication, teamwork and reflection skills, as part of a new foundation course in the AGSM MBA program.

Academic Director of AGSM MBA programs, Professor Murali Chandrashekaran said the new course is an action packed program allowing students to discover themselves, discover their team, and harness skills they will use throughout their course and future career.

“Foundations of Management is an intensive three week immersion course where we ask participants to dig deep to find out who are they, why are they here, and what strengths they bring as individuals, and as potential leaders, who can then change the world for tomorrow,” said Professor Chandrashekaran.

The first part of the AGSM MBA foundation course introduces students to the main theories, models, and tools of reflective practice including self-awareness, relating to others, emotional intelligence and culture and diversity.

From this base, the course then introduces students to teamwork skills, encouraging them to explore self and group efficacy. Students also explore the role of organizations in shaping society and the issues of sustainability and ethics.

“We have a very rich and diverse student population with students from 28 different countries. We examine teamwork and team building and how to rise above differences and work together to create change in a meaningful fashion,” said Professor Chandrashekaran.

The program then turns to creative and strategic thinking, case analysis and decision-making skills. The decision-making skills component focuses on identifying and overcoming common decision-making pitfalls that human beings tend to fall into as they make decisions in a time-starved and data-scarce environment.

Finally, students focus on making the case – written and oral communication, and presentation skills.

“Some people come in with very little experience of public speaking and they finish the three day component on presentation skills and they are transformed. They are discovering themselves as great voices for change,” said Professor Chandrashekaran.

The foundations of management course ends with a day long case challenge where students read a case, prepare a presentation in 45 minutes, and then make a presentation to the group.

“It is amazing how students transform from day one when they start the Foundations of Management course to three weeks later when they are excited to progress into their studies using the skills they have gained,” said Professor Chandrashekaran.