Professor Roger Mumby-Croft, assistant dean (enterprise and management development) at Oxford Brookes University, argues that a back-to-school approach is essential if British businesses are to thrive

Business in the UK needs fewer buzzwords and more understanding of the benefits of management, education and personal development, if it is to compete in the 21st century Entrepreneur, enterprise, entrepreneurial activity these are today's buzzwords among policy makers and business support groups.

We are increasingly being told that we cannot compete unless we become more enterprising. The concept of enterprise is often linked to the high-tech, high-growth type of company, as if entrepreneurialism is all that is needed to ensure business success.

However, judging by the number of business start-ups in the UK per year, it could be argued that we do not need any more entrepreneurial activity at all.

If we examine the number of, and reasons for, business failures, it could also be argued that what we desperately need is a coherent and structured approach to management training, at all levels of the company life cycle.

Yet, as David Storey of Warwick University has indicated, a lot of the initiatives aimed at increasing management competency in small and medium-sized enterprises have failed to have any significant impact.

One of the possible problems of the British business culture is an intrinsic aversion to a management approach that is inclusive and knowledge based.

In many cases, hierarchical and authoritarian organisational structures are still seen as the model to follow in many new business ventures.

The idea that short-term and practical on-the-job experience are all that is necessary for training the workforce, and that experience is the best way to learn management practice, are deeply embedded within our psyche.

Business education of any type is generally regarded as a cost, rather than an investment, in the company's future.

If this concept is added to another popular concept that successful business people are born and not made then we can begin to understand the size of the task confronting us.

Whatever the roots of the problem, there is one inescapable fact the UK does not create and sustain anywhere near enough dynamic middle-sized companies (those employing between 150 and 500 people).

What can be done to change this situation?

There is no quick fix. This is why education, as Mr Storey pointed out, has failed to change SMEs. It has been piecemeal and ill co-ordinated.

We need to teach business studies as a subject across the whole school system, starting at primary level.

This would mean tackling the sometimes highly formulaic national curriculum.

Also, it is important that business and enterprise studies are taught in a manner which motivates the recipients to recognise the worth of what they are learning.

There needs to be far more interaction between industry and the whole education sector if we are to acquire the skills we are going to need to compete. Universities and colleges might also examine the way they teach business and enterprise studies.

Moving away from the disjointed corporate approach, where each discipline is seen as a separate subject, to a more holistic and interactive perspective, might begin to create the changes of view needed among the business people of tomorrow.

At present, the UK has one of the lowest levels of applied management education in the developed world.

This coherent approach could also be applied to the SME sector through mandatory management education courses for all prospective business start-ups, linked to further management education for companies entering the expansion stage.

Those that take up such education could then have access to long-term, low-interest funding.

Moving on to the corporate world, there is a distinct need for ongoing management development for managers.

Such a programme linked to career development would help to build the higher levels of competency needed to achieve profitable sustainability and competitive advantage.

But none of this education will have any effect unless there is a move away from employee relations based on a them and us' attitude towards a model based on incorporation.

This means recognising that personal and professional development of all will help to create the level of competency we require at all levels of industry.

Employees who may, in some cases, only be with a company for a short time, still need to have their skills developed to maximise their contribution to the company while employed.

The notion of Employee Lifetime Value' is a much needed change from the if we train people they only leave' mentality that bedevils our approach to developing our part-time/short-term employees.

It is only by realising the depth of these problems, and by adopting a coherent approach where education and industry work together, that we will be able to build the management capabilities we need to ensure the UK can successfully compete in the 21st century.

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