搬入處於曼哈頓下城區(Lower Manhattan)百老匯大街25號的WeWork同享辦公空間的公司,租下的是創業國家的典範設置裝備擺設。
粗拙的木桌出現出一種產業感,租客事情之余可以玩沙狐球,或是來一杯生啤和“微焙”咖啡給本身提提神。在洗手間,漱口水份液機上的口號提示你“拋出一個新點子”。
在如許帶有輕松元素的情況中,很輕易疏忽麥肯錫(McKinsey)的存在。但是,這家嚴正的計謀咨詢機構在這裏開辟的產物,恰是真正有大概重塑貿易教導市場的趨向的一部門。
WeWork空間贊助孵化出了麥肯錫學院(McKinsey Academy)——這個在線培訓辦事讓麥肯錫與作為高管束育傳統供給者的商學院睜開了更直接的競爭。
“咱們自己是引導力工場,”介入該項目標哈佛大學(Harvard) MBA卒業生、麥肯錫高等參謀夏洛特•雷利亞(Charlotte Relyea)稱。她彌補稱,約有400位前麥肯錫人現在引導著年收入逾10億美元的機構。他們包含波音(Boeing)的吉姆•邁克納尼(Jim McNerney)、瑞士信貸(Credit Suisse)的迪德簡•蒂亞姆(Tidjane Thiam)、安聯保險團體(Allianz)的奧利弗•拜特(Oliver Bäte)和沃達豐(Vodafone)的維托裏奧•科勞(Vittorio Colao)。(這家工場固然也會臨盆出有缺點的引導者,好比平安(Enron)的傑夫•斯基林(Jeff Skilling)和因內情生意業務而鋃鐺入獄的麥肯錫前掌門人顧磊傑(Rajat Gupta)。)
麥肯錫在引導力培訓方面已支付了二十年的盡力,然則當前這項事情始於2013年麥肯錫學院在線平台創立之時。該平台是麻省理工學院(MIT)和哈佛大學研發的edX軟件的定制化版本。
該辦事同時面向現有客戶和以前從未應用過麥肯錫辦事的企業。對付前者,麥肯錫稱該辦事可以確保高層制訂的計謀逐級向下貫徹。對付後者,該辦事相稱於一種感受產物。
麥肯錫學院的經典課程大概會用“10條永久測試”練習用戶,麥肯錫在制訂企業計謀時就應用這些測試(個中第5條問道:“你的計謀是基於特權化的概念嗎?”,而第10條問道:“你把計謀轉為行為籌劃了嗎?”)。大概,門生大概浸入一次假造案例研討,研討工具是一個迷失了偏向、亟需再次晉升銷量的遊樂場裝備制作商。
課程內容每每會分成3-5分鐘的片斷,以順應介入者不太大概有許多余暇時光的究竟——介入者乃至可以選取以兩倍速率旁觀視頻。麥肯錫的參謀擔負“助教”,最優良的門生可以登上排行榜。課程中另有“小組功課”關鍵,介入者會被打亂分成小組。
商學院正親密存眷著這個新競爭敵手的突起。“當人們問我的競爭敵手是誰時,麥肯錫學院就榜上著名,”紐約哥倫比亞商學院(Columbia Business School)的院長格倫•哈伯德(Glenn Hubbard)稱。
然則,與英國《金融時報》結合評比年度貿易圖書獎的麥肯錫,絕對不是唯逐一個進軍教導的咨詢機構。瑞士洛桑國際管剃頭展學院(IMD)總裁多米尼克•圖爾平(Dominique Turpin)稱,其他采用相似行為的咨詢機構包含輝煌國際(Korn Ferry)和普華永道(PwC)。
與此同時,其他推出企業培訓課程的新來者包含領英(LinkedIn)的Lynda.com、和英國《金融時報》與西班牙IE商學院(IE Business School)樹立的同盟。
在近期頒布的英國《金融時報》2016年高管束育課程排行榜中,圖爾平傳授引導的IMD在開放課程中位列第一。
咨詢公司紛紜參加高管束育,象征著現在更多競爭敵手試圖將IMD趕下榜首之位,但圖爾平表現,這也為互助帶來了新機會。
比方,IMD聯手波士頓咨詢團體(BCG)為新加坡樟宜機場推出了一項定制高管束育課程。
但他表現,咨詢公司及其他新進機構將在從高管束育贏利方面面對挑釁——即使他們能兜攬充足的專業人材。
固然他認可咨詢公司進入高管培訓範疇反應了市場的需求,但他提出,一些學員大概擔憂,假如報名咨詢公司的此類課程,培訓停止後,他們大概將被傾銷其他產物和辦事:“咨詢公司給人的感到沒有商學院中立。”
何塞普•巴洛爾(Josep Valor)引導的西班牙Iese商學院(Iese Business School)定制高管束育課程,領銜英國《金融時報》2016年定制高管束育課程排行榜。
與典範的商學院主管比擬,巴洛爾對付麥肯錫進入高管束育加倍開門見山。特別是,他傳播鼓吹,這乃至大概給加入課程的麥肯錫客戶造成喪失。
他表現,假如一家企業正從一家咨詢公司接收董事會層面計謀咨詢辦事,那讓統一家咨詢公司培訓董事會如下各層級治理職員大概就像把太多雞蛋置於統一籃子中。
“你終極大概會被這些家夥約束停止腳。很多大型機構都有這類感到,”他說,“假如這些家夥犯了錯,你就死定了。”但即使對麥肯錫表現批駁,巴洛爾仍以為麥肯錫將分歧企業和行業的高管集合到一路的才能與商學院的號令力平起平坐,在商學院,打造公司之間的人際幹系網是高管束育課程的主要構成部門。
夏洛特•雷利亞深信,麥肯錫其實不面對好處辯論,她表現,麥肯錫的課程是定制的,反應客戶的方法辦法,而不單單是麥肯錫的方法辦法。“咱們對他們懂得至深,這使得定制課程加倍有用。”
她還否定了一種預測,即麥肯錫大概以高管束育作為低價釣餌來得到變更治理咨詢的大單。她表現,麥肯錫更多地將商學院視為互助火伴,而非競爭敵手。現實上,麥肯錫已以多種方法與商學院互助——特別是麥肯錫每一年從MBA項目中招募員工。
麥肯錫的學術參謀委員會包含來自麻省理工學院斯隆治理學院(MIT Sloan School of Management)、多倫多大學(University of Toronto)羅特曼治理學院(Rotman School of Management)的老師,和牛津大學(University of Oxford)前副校長約翰•胡德爵士(Sir John Hood)。
哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)院長尼廷•諾裏亞(Nitin Nohria)的意見與雷利亞類似,他以為高管束育市場充足大,能容納新的介入者。
他還指出,由治理咨詢公司開辦的“思惟引導力”雜誌和網站,是咨詢公司與商學院——一樣大批出書貿易書本,好比《哈佛貿易批評》(Harvard Business Review)之類——之間的界限正變得隱約的又一標記。
他預言道:“治理教導將由更多供給者以更多的情勢供給。”
最少,高管束育市場的巨變看起來可以成為一個很好的商學院研討案例。
【參考譯文】
Companies that move into the WeWork shared office space at 25 Broadway in lower Manhattan are renting the usual paraphernalia of start-up land.
Rough wooden tables lend an industrial feel and tenants can break off to play shuffleboard, or refresh themselves with draft beer and “micro-roasted” coffee. In the bathroom, the slogan on the mouthwash dispenser nags you to “pitch a fresh idea”.
It would be easy to dismiss the presence of McKinsey in such surroundings as just glib symbolism. However, the product that the buttoned-down strategy consultant has been working on here is part of a trend that has genuine potential to reshape the business education market.
The WeWork space has helped to incubate McKinsey Academy, an online training service that brings the company into more direct competition with business schools, the traditional providers of executive education.
“We are a leadership factory ourselves,” declares Charlotte Relyea, a senior McKinsey consultant and Harvard MBA graduate involved in the project. About 400 former McKinseyites lead organisations with more than $1bn in revenues, she adds. They include Jim McNerney at Boeing, Tidjane Thiam of Credit Suisse, Oliver Bäte at Allianz and Vittorio Colao at Vodafone. (The factory churns out faulty leaders too, of course, such as Enron’s Jeff Skilling and Rajat Gupta, the former McKinsey head jailed for insider trading.)
The consultant had done leadership development work for a couple of decades but the current effort dates from 2013, with the creation of the McKinsey Academy online platform — a customised version of the edX software developed by MIT and Harvard.
The service is being offered both to existing clients and companies that have not used McKinsey before. For the former, it is touted as a way of making sure that strategy set at the top gets implemented further down the hierarchy. For the latter, it is something of a taster product.
A typical McKinsey Academy course might drill the user in the “10 timeless tests” that it applies when hatching corporate strategies (“Does your strategy rest on privileged insights?” asks test five, while number 10 inquires: “Have you translated your strategy into an action plan?”). Alternatively, the student might get sucked into a fictional case study involving a playground equipment manufacturer that has lost its way and needs to get sales growing again.
The content tends to be broken up into 3-5 minute snippets to reflect the fact that participants are unlikely to have much time to spare — there is even an option to watch videos at double speed. McKinsey consultants serve as “teaching assistants” and top students are rewarded with a place on a leaderboard. There is also a “group work” element where participants are broken up into small teams.
Business schools are watching the rise of this new rival closely. “When people ask me where my competition is, McKinsey Academy is on the list,” says Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School in New York.
But McKinsey, which runs an annual business book award jointly with the Financial Times, is by no means alone in its push into education. Other consultancies making similar moves include Korn Ferry and PwC, says Dominique Turpin, president of IMD, the Swiss business school.
Meanwhile, other newcomers providing corporate training courses include LinkedIn’s Lynda.com and an alliance between the FT and IE, the Spanish business school.
Prof Turpin’s IMD topped the open enrolment section of the FT 2016 rankings of executive education providers, announced today.
The arrival of the consultancies means that there are now more rivals trying to knock the school off its perch but he says it also presents new opportunities for partnerships.
IMD teamed up with management consultant BCG to deliver a customised executive education programme to Singapore’s Changi airport, for instance.
However, he suggests that consultancies and other new entrants will face a challenge making money in executive education, assuming they can source enough professorial talent.
While accepting that the consultancies’ move into training reflects market demand, he argues that some clients might fear that signing up for such a course from a consultant would lead to a sales pitch for other products and services when the training is over: “The consultancies are not seen as being as neutral as business schools.”
Josep Valor heads Spanish business school Iese’s customised executive education programmes, which top the FT rankings.
Valor is more outspoken about McKinsey’s incursion than the typical business school leader. In particular, he claims that it could even damage McKinsey clients who sign up.
If a company is receiving board-level strategic advice from a consultant, he argues, it might be putting too many eggs in one basket to allow the same company to train the echelons below.
“You may end up being handcuffed by these guys. A number of large organisations do feel that way,” he says. “If these guys make a mistake you are dead.” But even as he criticises the newcomer, Valor credits McKinsey’s ability to bring together chief executives from different companies and industries as being equal to the convening power of business schools, where inter-company networking is an important part of executive education offerings.
Charlotte Relyea is adamant that McKinsey does not face a conflict of interest, saying that its teaching is customised to reflect the client’s approach rather than just the consultant’s. “The fact that we know them so well makes the customisation so much more effective.”
She also denies any suggestion that McKinsey might be using executive education as a loss leader to pick up big change management consulting contracts. The consultant sees business schools more as partners than competitors, she says. There are indeed multiple ways in which it already works with business schools — not least in the recruits it scoops up each year from MBA programmes.
Its academic advisory council includes faculty members from MIT Sloan and Rotman business schools, as well as Sir John Hood, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford.
Nitin Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School, leans in a similar direction to Relyea, suggesting that the market is big enough to accommodate fresh players.
He also points out that the “thought leadership” magazines and websites created by management consultants are another sign of how boundaries with business schools — big publishers themselves, with the likes of Harvard Business Review — are blurring.
“The provision of management education will occur in many more forms by many more providers,” he predicts.
At the very least, it seems, the upheaval in the market has the makings of a fine business school case study.