In my acceptance speech at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Alumni Achievement Award 2020, I said, “What I would like to see and what I've practised for many years in business and corporate professional work and teaching is that management education should be taught only for the already successful people. I believe management courses for people without a few years of real proven management experience are a waste of time. Planned, systematic work by the students while at management school must be in real work assignments in actual organisations is the equivalent to the MD or CEO residency.”
I added, “Far more emphasis on government, society, history, and the political process. Teachers must acquired real management experience and enough of a consulting practice to know the real challenge. The emphasis on non-quantifiable areas outside the business that are the real challenges - at the same time much greater quantitative skills, that is, in understanding both the limitations of the available numbers and how to use numbers.”
The global alumni community of the AIM recognises exceptionally outstanding fellow graduates each year through the AIM Alumni Achievement Award (Triple A). This is the most prestigious recognition to be awarded to AIM graduates. As of 2020, only 153 alumni have been conferred this prestigious recognition out of more than 45,000 graduates world-wide. This award is given only to illustrious individuals who have achieved outstanding performances in the professional, developmental and entrepreneurial professions.
Much has been made in business schools of “scientific management” and the need for highly educated, professionally trained managers. In reality, we can't learn and practise to be a competent manager in a classroom - beyond a few simple principles, it's a skill best learned through experience. Management is simple, but not simplistic. In essence, it is the act of coordinating a group of people to achieve a specific Goal while accounting for ever-present Change and Uncertainty.
It's like taking the helm of a ship during a storm: all we can do is move the wheel back and forth, which is simple, but it takes years of experience and skill to do it well. It is based on what I've learned and experienced in the effective practising the real-world of Management and teaching as well as developing Management Education.
Zulkifly Baharom is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
