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October 7th, 2008
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Home » Archives » Business

10 Questions

with Dee Broquard
10 Questions | Search restaurants | Archives

June 25th, 2008 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Broquard says business leaders must know their flaws when building executive teams.
THE BROQUARD FILE



Job title: Corporate liaison executive, Said Business School, Oxford University
Age: 62
Nationality: British
Previous position: Business projects director, Said Business School
Founded little more than a decade ago, the Said Business School at the University of Oxford has quickly become one of the world’s top programs for business education. In Prague on a fact-finding mission, Said’s Dee Broquard talks to The Prague Post about the inherent nature of leadership and the importance of technical competency.
? You’re on a fact-finding mission. What exactly does that entail?
Last year, when our new dean took over, he focused on forging collaborations with organizations and research centers around the world. We have an international school. We pride ourselves on having no dominant nationality within the school. But with the work we’ve been doing in America, with our work in Asia, we have, to a certain extent, been lax in working with companies and countries in Europe. So, my fact finding is really about looking at countries and leading organizations in Europe and identifying what they expect from the 21st century. Unless we understand business issues in European countries, we cannot truly present ourselves as a global business leader. We’re very lucky in that being new, we can respond quickly to opportunities even on a large scale.
I’m discussing with businesses what they want from MBA students. What their current requirements are and what they expect their future requirements to be. We need to see where leadership development is going.
? Do students coming to your school for an MBA or an executive MBA fund their own education or is it sponsored by their companies?
It’s mixed. It’s changed. Earlier, we used to see a great deal of sponsorship by companies. But now I think many individuals fund themselves. Many individuals take sabbaticals from their organizations to attend full time. We do offer scholarships and many organizations offer scholarships, for different reasons — it may be scholarships for minorities or for particular clusters of study. On balance, probably more individuals fund themselves, by some means.
? Much of your school’s work involves training future business leaders. How much can leadership be trained and how much is it innate?
There is an inherent capability within a person that enables them, from early days, to recognize their competency, either in school, sports, leisure. And they see something in themselves that people follow. That the skills they have acquired, whether it be because of their family environment, because of their culture, because of their particular interests and personality, have caused them to be a leader.
It has to be honed. Leaders emerge in all sorts of fields, not just business management — government, sports, music, arts. Within each of those, it’s then their technical competences that, added to their personal skills, make them leaders. And once they become leaders, there’s so much more they need to be able to do.
? What areas do you stress in your training?
It’s most important for leaders to recognize who they are. Depending on the structure of the course, it can help you find who you are as a leader among others against whom you can benchmark your own style and performance. Once you’ve identified who you are, it’s then a case of what your sky is. There have to be mechanisms of identifying that as well.
You’re not a leader in a vacuum. You’re a leader of people. You have to recognize your own competencies to be able to build a team around that has complementary leadership skills. No individual can satisfy the full requirements of any organization he or she is leading. You have to recognize the context you’ve created.
All of this is needed to face the external influences that are placed upon business leaders by globalization and the large issues of social responsibility.
? What’s an example of those issues?
They’re well talked about — the issues of climate change and the responsibilities of globalization. And the impact of the sciences, the impact of both medical and physical sciences and the increasing speed of innovation that leaders have to be aware of, because it will impact their organization. It’s not just managing a business. It’s managing a business in a global context.
? As businesses are scaling up to a global size, is it harder for executives to keep in touch with the working situations of low-level employees?
It is difficult. Many of the programs we’re developing in a customized area for organizations around the globe focus very much on that issue of communication, through top management down to the more junior levels. It’s a common concern. Companies are looking at how they can engage with their work forces.
? Oxford is 800 years old, but the business school was just founded in 1996. Has it been difficult to carve out a place for the school amid such history?
One of the first challenges was to make sure that the university itself recognized management and executive education as academic disciplines, and that we could bring to it all the university’s strengths. We have that recognition and we are now an all-purpose, full-service business school. But a business school positioned within the University of Oxford. So we can draw on the disciplines at the university to complement and add to an understanding of business.
? For students looking to enter the business world, is it more important to focus on a general business or more specific subject matter?  
This is a personal view, with the wisdom of my age and looking at my own daughters, one of whom is in law and one of whom is in administration. One can have a very general understanding of a discipline, but to have the technical competence underneath is very important. One of the first things I did when I came to Oxford, and this was in 1995, was to develop, within the department of continuing education, a series of courses for technically competent engineers and scientists who needed to have an understanding of business and business skills. I would always suggest to graduates of MBA programs that they move into a very clearly defined sector where they will continue to work.
? Many executive MBA programs are now conducted remotely. Can such programs be effective?
It is very difficult for an individual to have intellectual stimulation at a distance from the school. The strength of Said is that stimulation of the individual and those conversations between peers — there’s a learning environment created for all the participants: the students, lecturers and practitioners. It’s from this exchange that innovation comes.
When I first started at the school, we were waiting for our new building to be completed. My office was on its own, four white walls, a desk and a chair, and I was bouncing ideas of the walls. Once I moved into an open office with others, with transparency, that’s when stimulation really started.
? How much practical business experience do Said’s professors and lecturers have?
It’s always a question that students ask. Are business academics rooted in the academic world? Well, many have practical experience, either coming from business, from the consultancy work they’re doing or the research they will do in business. It’s very rare for lecturers not to have practical experience.
Want your manager to answer our 10 Questions? Contact Paul Voosen at pvoosen@praguepost.com


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