“Innovative practices in human capital creation: the eBMS case”

Purpose: The coming of the 21st Century is challenging traditional management theories and requires the development of global business leaders able to meet the complexity of the new environment. This entails a rethinking of management education. The aim of this paper is to present an innovative framework aimed at creating human capital suitable for competing in the emergent competitive landscape of the 21st century. Design/methodology: The framework is the result of an empirical study of the e-Business Management School (eBMS) of Scuola Superiore ISUFI – University of Lecce (Italy). For this study we applied a participative observation (Yin, 1994), because we observed the Business School community, while taking part in it, from November 1999 till August 2006. Findings: The result is the creation of a new profile, the “Change Manager” and “Business Engineer” capable to identify and exploit the distinctive potential of the new Information and Communication Technologies reco¬¬¬¬¬¬nfiguring traditional business contexts. We refer this capability as ICT-driven Business Innovation Leadership, an evolution of traditional management education in the 21st Century, which goes beyond the MBA, integrating management studies with technological ones. Practical implications: Leading business schools must be more practical oriented, should undertake research that points towards thought leaders, and should work through lifelong learning networks adopting a “learning in action” approach supported by experiential laboratories. Originality/value: The paper is of value for all involved in management education trying to design innovative programs and learning environments suitable for creating the business leaders of the future