Placement Students and Business Education

I recently discussed the importance of understanding exactly what business studies is and how misunderstood it can be by many who choose to devalue business education without really ever understanding what it is.?

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I have taught strategic management for over 20 years at Sheffield Hallam University and ran my own company for longer. During each of the 20 years of developing buybrandtools Ltd, ?we have offered a year’s placement to a student from ?Sheffield Hallam.??We have employed many of the placement students that worked for us, and they have proved to be invaluable in taking the company?to where it is today. ?

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I thought it would be interesting to reflect upon the impact the subject I teach can have on students and whether there is a connection with the successful contribution my placement students have had within Buybrandtools. For the record, I have never taught any of my placement students and I am not trying to look for a connection between my teaching and their performance in my company.??I have, however, taught hundreds of students studying business studies at Sheffield Hallam who hopefully went on to successful careers.

The question I raise is; was the success of these students who came to work for me underpinned by the teaching during their degrees (business studies education) ?or were we just cleverly employing talented people from a demographic that many SMEs cannot normally access? ?

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I think the answer lies somewhere in between both sides of the question. ?

I see business education in three layers; the first layer has within it subjects that are more fact-based with some subjective interpretation such as accountancy, HR, and marketing etc, and the second layer has within it subjects that rely more heavily on predictive models and concepts that help deconstruct the complexity of the business environment, which strategy is the best example of, the final layer is understanding self and the art of reflection.

When asked by my students what strategy is, I ask them to think about what they think the MD or boss of a company does on a day-to-day basis and try to get them to think of strategy in terms of taking responsibility for a company as a whole. I also raise the question “ can I teach you to be successful ?” This question leads to a discussion about the limits of using models and concepts where future predictions are based on retrospective analysis. This could lead to a debate over whether the strategy can be planned or is a result of emergent events, but I will?leave that for another day.?

So, after being exposed to all the different models and concepts are the placement students that I have employed using these models during their time working for me??The answer is yes and no.

Having spoken to many of my employees about business education and their contribution to my company their answers underpin my conclusions.

Many of the placement students have taken on small important projects within the umbrella of the overall strategy. ?For example, one student developed a forum that produced revenue beyond all my expectations within the framework of my company selling scaffolding tools through a very traditional route. ?His idea was inspirational and I could never have conceived this idea as it was not within my?rational thoughts: another lesson in employing people from diverse backgrounds who bring their own experiences of the world. ?The limits of bounded rational thinking !!!

?The students have come up with new innovative solutions or ideas within the framework of our overall strategy to become one of the biggest internet retailers of tools in the hand tool industry. ?So, are they using models and theories to underpin their thought processes??

The answer is that yes we have cleverly taken on staff from a demographic we might not otherwise have had access to without the placement scheme that the university run, but also I ?think their thought patterns when approaching problems have been developed within the second layer of business education that I talked about. Strategic thinking is multiple-perspective thinking. It is deconstructing the complexity of the business environment and comes up with creative solutions that have no definitive answers.?I see these students approach problems with multiple-perspective thinking, and ?I think that is the answer to the question. They might not use a PESTEL etc every time they are given a project, but I see them approaching problems from a range of perspectives and it is the ability to think in novel patterns that strategy can teach.?

I have found within my company that the best way to use creative talent is to allocate an area of responsibility within the overall strategic plan and then allow them to look at a situation from their world, not mine: maybe Ralph Stacey was right after all when he suggested breaking down the complex business environment into more manageable chunks by giving people the authority to deal with their smaller and more controllable world' was the best approach. ?