Published on the 12/01/2015 | Written by Newsdesk
On a recent trip to the region the CEO of the Association of MBAs was impressed by New Zealand’s coverage of technology in MBA courses…
Andrew Main Wilson, CEO of AMBA (the international authority on postgraduate business education) made the comment during a trip to New Zealand for the 2014 Asia Pacific AMBA Conference at the end of last year.
“While visiting New Zealand I was impressed to see that a number of MBA courses are providing specialist Information Systems modules to help ensure managers can to contribute in a knowledgeable and informed manner to information systems decisions affecting their area,” he said.
Information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) have had an enormous impact on organisations and their ability to gain and maintain a competitive advantage over the last few decades. Today they are not only harnessed for productivity gains but are increasingly being used as the change agents for organisational structure and drivers of fresh revenue generation. As such managers must be able to integrate IT into their management plan.
Main Wilson said that previously MBA graduates were highly prized for their strategic and financial acumen in particular but now employers are looking for the graduates who are comfortable and proficient in understanding how to leverage IT and IS systems for optimum short-term and longer-term competitive advantage. With that in mind he was impressed that that MBA courses in New Zealand are helping to provide a solid foundation for IT and IS in local business by providing graduates with a specialist skill-set in this area that complements the all-round general management skills learnt.
One such course is the MBA offered by the Victoria Business School which has a specialist IT module designed to improve the students’ understanding of information technology, its role in sustainable organisational performance, and the many managerial issues that surround its adoption and use.
Dr Arun Elias, MBA Director at the Victoria Business School believes that such MBAs will “have a positive impact on the technology usage in New Zealand business”.
“Courses such as the one at Victoria Business School will encourage senior business managers to implement IT systems in a positive and effective manner. The questions that must be answered to leverage systems cannot be left solely to IT staff. While IT staff will contribute to the decision process, managers need to be responsible for IT strategic decisions.”
