Editorial: Business school to benefit the nation

There was a time when setting up a business was a relatively easy affair. Gather together a little capital, find some premises, let the public know you were open for business and then start trading. Times have changed. The business environment is competitive and complex, measured no longer by local standards but as part of a global economy.

Where once an enterprise could flourish on the basis of making a product or offering a service, it must now be expert in the business of business. That need has given rise to a galaxy of business books, courses, seminars and business schools. The degree of Master of Business Administration became the goal of aspiring executives but now even MBA after your name is insufficient in itself. In order to impress (and to get the right job) a person must show that his or her degree was earned in the right business school. There are MBAs and MBAs.

The decision by the University of Auckland to build a new world-class business school is a reflection of this need to offer graduate and post-graduate courses that are unashamedly challenging and which are taught by leading business thinkers. It is only by doing so that the university will make the ranks of sought-after MBA courses - and ranked they assuredly are - while providing a much-needed focal point for business thinking in New Zealand.

"World-class" is a phrase that slips easily off the tongue but the university's plans, unveiled last week with a Government commitment to contribute $25 million to the (likely) $100 million project, suggest the right scale and commitment to achieve that goal. The concept, which marries a high-grade physical environment and a much-strengthened faculty, is unmatched in New Zealand and is clearly designed to compete with the Australian Graduate School of Management, the Melbourne Business School and beyond.

One of the encouraging aspects of the development is the role that the business community is expected to play. The university will seek support to the tune of $30 million, which is an enormous fund-raising task. The business community should answer the call. It is the business community that will be the direct beneficiary of the school's output. Initially those benefits may be from projects undertaken within the faculty but later companies will draw their top performers from among its graduates.

It will be important for the university to stress that this is not merely a project for Auckland. The benefits of the new school should be felt throughout New Zealand. It should be seen as a national institution and financial support should reflect that status.

The school does not, to use the corporate vernacular, start from a zero base. The university's present School of Business has the equivalent of 1000 fulltime students and its diploma, degree and short business courses are already well-regarded. However, it is spread across six buildings on the university campus and it has yet to appear on the worldwide business school radar.

It will do so only by expanding its education and research programmes and investing in top academics by paying competitive salaries to attract them away from top-grade schools in America and Europe. That will require a departure from the somewhat egalitarian approach to academic remuneration. The school will have to pay a few people a lot of money but it will be dollars well spent so long as other academics do not see it as an invitation to board the gravy train. Those paid above the going rate will receive that money because they are a cut above the rest and there should be no apology for that.

This desire to recruit internationally is matched by the school's intention to seek partnerships with other universities, presumably those that have well-established business school credentials. Nothing would do more to establish the school's international reputation than a solid link with the business schools of, say, Stanford or Harvard.

A business school can play a direct and practical role in the country's future development, while giving staff and students the freedom to think, as the business gurus are wont to say, well outside the square.

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