Small change or major disruption – the future of business education?
04 December 2025
Is the future of business education about marginal improvements or something very different?
Five and a half years ago I spoke to the EFMD Deans conference in Milan and urged the audience to go home and ask their children or grandchildren, what the future held for business education? Too often, those of us have who worked in the sector for many years, tend to focus on changing what we already do, perhaps seeking marginal gains to improve what already exists.
Yet at the same time, the world around us is changing rapidly. At that meeting in Milan, the world was on the cusp of being engulfed by the Covid pandemic. Business schools and higher education responded by embracing online learning which, relatively speaking, at that point, was in its infancy.
Today the challenges are many, but notably AI and Sustainability. How does a business school embrace AI without throwing out the rigour and critical thinking that are a hallmark of great business education? How does a business school make space in its curriculum for sustainability, is it taught as a stand alone topic or embedded into the core curriculum across all topics?
And how do business schools build their own business models that make use of AI and that puts sustainability at the heart of their operations?
In Milan five years ago, I was introducing the findings to a new report, ‘See the Future’, which had just been published by EFMD and CarringtonCrisp. Today, the new ‘See the Future’ report is collecting data on the views of students, alumni, faculty, professional staff and employers across business education, focusing on the topics of AI and Sustainability. Supported by EFMD Global again, the study is also backed by 4uni-solutions and FullFabric.
All schools can take part in the study and receive a free global report when the findings are published next February. Indeed, the more schools and the wider the sample, the better for the results. If you would like to take part or, more importantly, you can encourage your students, staff, alumni and employers to take part, simply send them this link:
https://carringtoncrisp-insights.com/b/405f/seethefuturesurvey
Even a glimpse of the future is better than moving forward without any sense of what may lie ahead. I’m reminded of the words of Marty McFly in Back to the Future, speaking to people at the high school prom after a modern rendition of Johnny B Goode, he turns to a stunned audience and says ‘I guess you’re not ready for that, but your kids are going to love it’.