Mentors

Learning & Development Specialist
International Professional Doctorate
MBA – HR
Co -author – Skills needed at modern workplace
Corporate Social Responsibility Member

When Industry Moves at Lightning Speed, Education Cannot Walk

The rules of business have changed over the years. Routine tasks are being replaced by automation, AI is enhancing decision-making, and businesses are reorganizing around agility rather than hierarchy. However, a lot of curricula are still based on linear models, predictable case studies, and memory-based assessment methods rather than mastery.
The outcome? graduates who understand theory but find it difficult to deal with the emotional complexity and fluidity of work place
Management education needs to become a living ecosystem with strong ties to business rather than a "academic island" in order to stay relevant. This entails learning in real time, solving problems in the real world, and developing connections with practitioners that go well beyond the occasional guest lecture.

Having studied how the KASH framework (Knowledge–Attitude–Skills–Habits) improves the learning process during my international Professional Doctorate and having spent thirty years immersed in corporate learning, executive soft-skills development, and management education - I see today’s landscape as both a challenge and an extraordinary opportunity.

Why the Future Belongs to Agile, Human-Centric and Industry-Integrated Learning?

You might experience an odd sense of time travel when you walk into many management classrooms currently. A large portion of management education still uses models designed for a slower, more predictable world, even though we live in a time characterized by artificial intelligence, hybrid work, geopolitical change, and unrelenting innovation. Not only is the gap between what academia produces and what industry requires growing, but it is also becoming unsustainable.
The question is now, "How do we reimagine management learning so that students are future-ready the moment they step out of the classroom?" rather than, "How do we upgrade the curriculum?" 

For years, industry representatives have shared a consistent concern: students arrive qualified, but not prepared. They possess degrees, but not the industry-calibrated competence needed to deliver from day one.

The answer - The New Learning Formula: Less Lecture, More Life

To bridge this gap, academia must move from episodic engagement with industry to embedded collaboration. This means designing curriculum with ongoing industry participation, integrating live corporate projects into coursework, and transforming classrooms into simulation labs that mirror real business environments.

The future belongs to institutions that do not “teach about business”—they teach with business.

When classrooms become labs rather than lecture halls, students transform from passive note-takers into problem-solvers with professional maturity.

In a world where every industry is being disrupted, skill longevity is shrinking. A tool learned today may be outdated a year later. The only skill that remains timeless is the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn — the core of agility.

Agility is not built through information overload; it is built through structured behaviour-shaping frameworks like KASH (Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Habits) and through iterative design approaches that encourage experimentation over perfection. When students develop the mindset to adapt, the courage to try, and the habits to persist, they become future-proof — not because of what they know, but because of how they grow.

Even as AI enters boardrooms and analytics becomes the new corporate language, human capability remains the differentiator. Emotional intelligence, listening, cultural sensitivity, empathy, ethical reasoning, and the ability to influence — these are the competencies shaping contemporary leadership.

Ironically, in an increasingly digital world, the “soft” skills have become the hardest to ignore.

Management education must treat these not as optional add-ons, but as foundational. They are the skills that determine who collaborates effectively, who leads with trust, and who navigates crises without losing clarity. A manager today does not need to code — but must be comfortable with data dashboards, AI-based tools, digital workspaces, and cybersecurity basics. Digital illiteracy is no longer an academic gap; it is a leadership risk.

The modern curriculum must integrate digital fluency not as a standalone course but as a thread running through finance, marketing, operations, HR, and strategy. No discipline is untouched by technology, and neither should the learning process be.

Management Education at the Dawn of Reinvention

If we want our students to thrive in tomorrow’s boardrooms, co-working spaces, entrepreneurial ventures, and global teams, our academic reforms must be bold and human-centered. Curriculum must become fluid. Classrooms must become laboratories. Education must become experiential, immersive, and industry-integrated. And ultimately, learning must aim not only to build skill sets—but to shape mindsets.

Because the managers of tomorrow will not succeed merely by knowing what the world is. They will succeed by reimagining what the world can be.