Half of the business schools in the world will be obsolete in five or ten years, Rich Lyons, former Dean of the Haas School at UC Berkeley, predicted in 2015. Professor Bodo B. Schlegelmilch said that Lyons’s view is overly pessimistic, though it is true that business schools are under increasing pressure to innovate. Changing competition, technologies, geographical focus, and shifts in students’ concerns are the factors that will change the way business schools operate today. Schlegelmilch, Professor, and Chair of International Marketing & Management at Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, and Chair of the Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association [AMBA & BGA], gave a talk at Sasin School of Management about “Educating Corporate Leaders: The Role of Business Schools,” on February 3. Traditional business schools are no longer the grandeur in this digital world. Professor Schlegelmilch cited that one-third of America’s graduate degrees were online courses. Online course providers like Coursera have 113 million registered users, and Udacity has 1.6 million. “LinkedIn Learning knows better than business schools what students really want. They know their CVs, job search histories, and the aspirations of potential management students. Consequently, they can tailor course offerings more precisely than business schools – which gives LinkedIn a huge advantage,” said Professor Schlegelmilch. FLEXA, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, also offers tailored business programs based on the student’s past academic record, career, and future aspirations. Still, he argued that leading business schools, based on their research capabilities, are much more up-to-date when it comes to providing fresh knowledge to students compared to online courses. Then there are business schools funded by corporations like Infosys Mysore Campus, a grand multiplex business school in India, and the Sberbank University in Russia. In line with technological changes, student expectations of business schools have also been changing. “Students want to study whenever, wherever, however, best suits them, ” said Professor Schlegelmilch. Technology makes it possible for this to happen. For instance, hologram technology allows professors to be transported anywhere in time. A hologram professor can teach at different international business schools without ever leaving his or her home university. “A person can be in any place at the same time…in Toronto and Stockholm and there’s nothing to stop [the speaker] from being in Lagos, Nigeria or Shanghai China,” he said, adding that the future is not just about alternative teaching delivery methods, but the use of AI to personalize learning. Another point is that management knowledge was primarily dispersed from West to East, but management knowledge today is more evenly distributed. In the past, Chinese students had to go abroad to learn business in the States, but now there are excellent business schools in Asia, including China. In this context, it is remarkable that Chinese Universities have started to expand into Europe, reversing the trend of European and US campuses being built in Asia. Peking University HSBC Business School, for example, has set up a campus just outside Oxford, UK. Moreover, Professor Schlegelmilch stated that in 1991, China launched its first nine Chinese MBA programs. Today, there are more than 230 MBA programs in the country. “The Financial Times now lists 10 Chinese programs among the top 25 programs in its global Executive MBA ranking; the top three Executive Programs are also based in China. He added that 44 business schools in greater China are AMBA accredited and 15 in India. More and more international students are coming to Asia to learn business. “You want to be where the action is- you want to be in Asia,” said Professor Schlegelmilch. Besides location, prospective students consider sustainability issues, environmental degradation, and social issues when searching for a business school “Students are looking for a more holistic approach and expect business schools to champion the UN sustainability goals,” he said. Many business school text books are now about the environment and titles like “Rethinking Business Responsibility in a Global Context: Challenges to Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability and Ethics,” are getting more common. Professor Schlegelmilch said that one of the ways to hold the interest of students and alumni is to offer continuing education and short business programs that bring students back to update them on the latest knowledge. Another factor to consider is balancing academic rigor with practical relevance. “Business schools should bridge the practical side and the theoretical side,” he said. It is, however, time for business schools to consider the four challenges: competition, technologies, geographical focus, and student concerns, and adapt accordingly. To read more on this topic, see Professor Schlegelmilch’s research here.