By Stuart Wells, managing director for executive education at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS)
We’re living through one of the most disruptive times for business in modern history. With shifts in politics, the economy, society, technology, and environmental challenges, companies are facing new obstacles that are reshaping the business landscape. And it looks like these changes are only going to accelerate in the coming years.
Businesses in Greater Manchester cannot simply be passive and watch this change happen around them. Our city has made huge strides in recent years and is emerging as one of the nation’s key innovation hubs, with recent research from Capital Enterprise showing that this is the most popular place for tech businesses outside of London.[i] And with the government reportedly looking to the North West as one of its AI growth zones, there is potential for this progress to go even further.
To make the most of the opportunities available, businesses need to be able to adapt. The key to navigating this constantly evolving landscape lies in strong leadership. It’s the C-suite and directors who drive a company’s culture and direction, so we need to make sure that our future leaders have the flexibility and resilience to keep pushing innovation forward.
For many, adaptability – among other vital skills needed to run a business – will be learned through doing the job day-to-day. However, faced with an operating environment that’s changing faster than ever and growing more and more complex, it can feel like a fight just to keep up. That’s where business schools can play an important role in helping leaders develop the skills they need to take on the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Executive Education encompasses a wide-ranging portfolio of professional development courses around leadership and management, designed by expert business academics. They can cover a variety of topics, ranging from AI and digital transformation to leadership development and are available to anyone with the ambition and drive to broaden their knowledge of the business environment.
The benefit of learning from business educators is that they’re in a unique position to provide this knowledge. At AMBS, for example, we have strong ties to Manchester’s innovative businesses and political scene. This means the knowledge we share in our courses is drawn from real-world observations and research, grounded in the exciting developments happening right here in the city.
Take AI for instance. Being so deeply embedded within Manchester’s innovation and tech community, we are able to independently observe how these new technologies and processes are being implemented in organisations across the region. This puts academics in a position to provide objective analysis within executive education courses, informing people of the practicalities and best practices in an area that is constantly evolving, but will be a critical aspect of doing business moving forwards.
But executive education is not just about developing a technical skillset. For those looking to step up into managerial roles, developing their leadership skills is just as important as having the proper practical expertise. Executive education programmes are also able to help people develop their organisational and management skills, equipping them with the necessary capabilities to lead their teams effectively.
We understand the importance of sharing our expertise with the entrepreneurial talent that Greater Manchester is home to. To keep the region at the forefront of innovation, we need to foster a culture of lifelong learning, enabling business leaders to evolve alongside the landscape. Executive education plays a big part in that.
This is why at AMBS we have launched discounted executive education courses to mark our 60th year as a business school. These are available to anyone employed by an organisation in Greater Manchester, who has the relevant experience to prove they will be able to benefit from their chosen course.
It’s crucial that we are doing all we can to empower the next generation of leaders, thinkers and visionaries across the city, enabling them to deliver the transformative technologies, innovations and ideas that will allow them, their organisations and Greater Manchester to thrive.
