I am writing this blog post because I am somehow frustrated. Frustrated with how little most business schools have changed in order to adapt to the new realities this world is in. As you may know, my Gugin team and I have researched the importance of having a winning corporate culture for decades while helping companies and organisations around the world develop these winning corporate cultures – often with great success, I would say.

There is a famous Peter Drucker quote that says that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. This implies that the culture of your company always determines success regardless of how effective your strategy may be. I know from having worked with hundreds of companies and coached thousands of leaders over the past 20 years that he is right.

So that the quality of the corporate culture is paramount for the success of any company has been known for decades most business schools are not having culture as a key priority in their teaching.

Most business schools still prioritise economics, strategy, technology and processes over culture. But what do the future generations of employees and leaders prioritise? Well, have a look at the survey below.

The facts!

According to a survey of 1,000 employees, more than 35% of workers would refuse a job offer if the company culture does not meet their expectations even if the role is a perfect match.

More than 90% of the managers surveyed also believe that a candidate’s fit with their company culture is as important as skills and experience. With this in mind, recruiters are challenged to strike the perfect balance to ensure that company culture will fit the Baby Boomers, GenXers, Millennials, and GenZers alike.

Here is my frustration!

Why is it that most business schools don’t follow the trends of their future clients? Why is it they don’t have the courage to put cultural intelligence forward as a key skill for future leaders when we all know they need it?

I teach cross-cultural leadership, cross-cultural innovation and global leadership at a number of business schools and universities around the world. I combine my academic knowledge with my 20 years of experience from having worked with hundreds of companies and thousands of leaders in Gugin. But still, the courses I am teaching never have the top priority.

The only upside is that we have a lot of corporate clients who want to upgrade their leadership competencies with everything they don’t learn at the business schools.

But business schools should change their curriculums to reflect the reality. But I am afraid it will not happen until the accreditations institutes wake up and move into the 21st century.

That is, however, unlikely to happen as they make a lot of money sticking to the current scheme, with the motto, don’t fix it, not even if it is broken.

What do you think?

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