“Recruitment at CXO level is all rear-view mirror driven” bemoaned a client last week. Fair enough you may say. But business is missing a trick…

….because, as we know from sport, “form” can be an unreliable indicator of future success. What is needed are people who can bring out the best in us. I predict that within years, not decades, a substantial number of senior people will be “managed” by third parties as in sport and the arts.

Ciaran Fenton

Fenton & Co LLP

MBA students need “intensive face to face tuition” and to “develop skills as well as knowledge” says Jeanette Purcell. Hear, hear.

See today’s Soapbox www.ft.com/soapbox

I agree with her. I believe an MBA programme should focus on developing leadership skills and should be about learning rather than teaching.

In the final analysis it’s about learning to manage relationships effectively in business, not mastering numerous electives. The former is more onerous by far as it involves self knowledge as much as any.

Ciaran Fenton, (pron: kee-ron). Fenton & Co LLP