Since it was established as the pre-eminent qualification for global business practitioners in the early 20th century, the MBA has offered graduates the opportunity to expand their thinking and worldview, teaching students to evaluate business with a holistic view.
In a volatile world, where rapid change and uncertainty are constant, educational institutions are expected to offer MBA courses that not only teach students the content of business, general management and strategic thinking, but also equip them with the skills to lead in a dynamic environment.
An MBA that is fit for the future must be constantly reassessed and realigned to meet students’ expectations and society’s needs.
Over the past 25 years, GIBS has continuously evolved its MBA offering, integrating both tweaks and major structural improvements to the course to ensure it continues to serve business and society at large.
What does an MBA that is fit for purpose in the future look like?
· A future-proof MBA leans into what AI and automation can’t replicate, placing emphasis on the human factor and problem-solving as an enduring skill;
· Ethical leadership, climate and technological considerations such as AI and data fluency are all considered core content;
· Experiential learning is integrated into every aspect of the course; and
· A differentiated curriculum and specialisations that offer deep learning in areas such as fintech, health care and climate, rather than a generalist MBA, are essential.
An MBA for Africa
Africa is a leadership laboratory. For many of our students who embark on a GIBS MBA, whether they are from South Africa or form part of our broader African cohort, volatility is the basis of their operating environment. Our students are well-versed in the daily realities of currency swings, energy insecurity, regulatory flux and informal sector complexity.
Our graduates aren’t learning about resilience as a module. They arrive already equipped with it.
While many business schools elsewhere in the world may have to retrofit their curriculum to integrate elements of VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity — African managers have always factored these elements into their business environment.
GIBS’s focus is on emerging markets as the future growth frontier, with course content designed to reflect the realities of the business world locally, regionally, across the continent, as well as globally.
According to the IMF’s most recent statistics, global growth rates are expected to reach 3% in 2026. Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth for the same period is anticipated to reach 4.3%, while East Africa’s projected growth rate is 5.8%, nearly double the global projected average.
But doing business on the African continent is difficult.
The question for those embarking on an MBA and those designing course curricula is how to use this unique perspective to help solve Africa’s challenges, such as access to basic services, and needs, such as payments and health care.
The Golden thread and specialisations
An MBA that produces future-fit leaders is one that is suitable for a changing, tech-driven, sustainability-conscious world and takes into account ethical leadership, climate and technological considerations.
Several years ago, GIBS introduced the concept of learning tracks to our MBA structure. While the core degree remains underpinned by general management principles, participants are able to opt to specialise in the focus areas of consulting, entrepreneurship, health care, climate leadership or digital leadership.
Leadership is the golden thread that runs through everything in the business ecosystem, and GIBS’s MBA incorporates aspects of leadership lessons across every one of our core modules. Humane leadership considers leaders as coaches, focusing on the personal aspects of leadership and bearing in mind the African proverb that says: “As we rise, we must lift others.”
Several years ago, we made the important decision to incorporate climate as a core component of our degree.
Our Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PGDip) students, many of whom go on to complete their MBAs, embark on a research project to solve a problem based on one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They unpack the task using critical thinking and problem-solving skills, eventually arriving at a solution that must be both theoretically and methodologically rigorous and practically relevant.
In a world where the intersection between government, business and civil society is required to solve our most urgent problems, we teach them to bridge that gap.
In order to help leaders steer their organisations through the uncertainty and ambiguity of a new digital world, they need to harness technology and AI innovations to solve contemporary social and business challenges.
The recent explosion of AI in the workplace has further compounded complexity. For the first time in history, knowledge work is the field most disrupted by technology, leaving cognitive, creative and professional roles exposed.
Our MBA’s core modules of environment of business, innovation design, leadership, decision-making and strategy implementation all incorporate a technology component
in some shape or form.
The workplace conversation around AI is evolving rapidly, and problem-solving is an enduring skill. While many organisations initially focused on the tools and their productivity gains, today the more important questions relate to strategy, governance, ethics, risk and decision-making. From a leadership perspective, these new challenges mean a move from managing people to orchestrating organisational intelligence.
The GIBS MBA encourages students to pursue deeper thinking, from producing analysis to interrogating the intelligence produced by AI.
Integrating the local and the global
When considering our current MBA offering and any potential adjustments to its core content, electives or structure, it is essential to take into account what makes sense in the context of the African continent, emerging markets at large and the global economy.
Our MBA course is marked by a number of differentiators:
· GIBS faculty are real-life practitioners who bring their experience to the classroom, not just textbook theory. They engage with business all the time, making their teaching and advice practical and real.
· While we use many Harvard and Ivey case studies as tools for teaching a global perspective, we have also built up a repository of local case studies and comparisons that make sure students understand the local within the global context.
· Experiential learning is offered through the final research component. This can now also be completed with the option of a portfolio of evidence for those in the consulting and entrepreneurship streams.
· Our global module, a well-known distinguishing feature of the GIBS MBA, allows students to travel to various international destinations in emerging and advanced markets, affording them exposure to leading thinkers and real-life businesses. A recent introduction is the three-day online global module, which allows students who may not be able to travel internationally to gain exposure to global thought leaders and practitioners facing real-world business challenges.
· In 2027, we will go one step further and begin to offer a blended MBA, allowing a broader cohort of African students to access our faculty and the opportunity to complete their MBA through GIBS with blended online and in-person sessions.
Optionality is crucial
With 100 electives on offer for students in addition to their core modules and specialisation, the GIBS MBA can be customised for maximum personal effectiveness for our graduates.
It is up to students to customise their degree for personal effectiveness, realising through a process of self-discovery whether they need to improve their critical thinking, finance or leadership skills. This allows students to seek out and acquire the skills they need.
GIBS’s MBA clusters include consulting, entrepreneurship, strategy, business in context, finance, leadership and culture, innovation, technology and emerging markets.
A future-fit MBA is not a one-size-fits-all course. The MBA is the enabler.
A forward-looking MBA has the right foundations and core modules, and offers the appropriate level of optionality for our students, allowing them to personalise their experience based on their skill requirements.
Our students walk into our classrooms with an existing sense of resilience and a well-developed ability to deal with volatility. Our role is to guide them to start sense-making and leverage their experience, driving competitiveness for themselves, their organisations, and at the country level. As the world has become more complex, our offering has kept pace. At GIBS, we are constantly reviewing our MBA course content and structure, ensuring we always take into account ethical leadership, remain relevant and help our students to make sense of an ever-changing world.
