From teaching politicians about leadership, through the creation of a new generation of managers, to instructing school pupils about society, SA's business schools are working overtime to meet SA's unique economic and societal needs.
But are they trying to do too much?
In developed countries, business schools exist primarily to provide management training and education to the private sector. That's also the core role in SA - but it is a far bigger challenge than elsewhere. Economic growth, past racial inequity, SA's rapid outflow of skills and the acceleration of affirmative action in the workplace and boardroom, have created a huge managerial vacuum.
WHAT IT MEANS
 SA business schools face bigger challenges than international counterparts
Schools play a constructive role in meeting socio-economic challenges
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Simply to fill that, would require every school to work flat out. The volume of work is even attracting a growing number of foreign schools to set up base in SA. But needs are equally great in other spheres. The lack of management and leadership skills in the private sector is even more prevalent in government departments and business schools are often the only source of professional training.
Then there are social programmes. Nonprofit organisations, charities and social support groups - they all need guidance and business plans.
Thought leadership? Someone has to ensure business and political leaders are well informed and in touch with the society in which they exist, to encourage public debate and create catalysts for exchanges of ideas. And what of the next generation of leaders, including those still at school? You're never too young to learn, say business schools.
Mike Page, SA-born dean of the McCallum Graduate School at Bentley College, in the US, and a visiting professor in SA, says local schools are right to take their social responsibility seriously but wonders if some aren't trying to do too much. "SA's requirements are limitless. It's incumbent on business schools to think about the nature of society and what kind of citizens we want to create in the future.
"The challenge for each school is to decide whether it can cover the scope of everything it wants to achieve, and at the same time sustain academic growth. With their limited resources and teaching faculty, I'm not sure some can. They are stretching themselves very thin."
Nick Binedell
Nick Binedell, director of Pretoria University's Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) which has just undergone a R90m expansion, says schools are barely scratching the surface. "Frankly, we all need to double our capacity to meet the demands of SA at this time."
Wits Business School director Mthuli Ncube agrees: "We can't be aloof from the realities of the society in which we live. We have a responsibility."
Frank Horwitz
Frank Horwitz, director of Cape Town University's Graduate School of Business (GSB) and chairman of the SA Business Schools Association (Sabsa), says schools can cope with the added burden "as long as we don't move too far from our core purpose: the transfer of knowledge, business acumen and understanding of context".
Some, though, believe Page is right to warn of the dangers of overextending. Gavin Staude, head of the Rhodes University business school, says: "There is a real danger of taking on too much. The temptation is to take on projects even if you don't have the capacity, and to sub-contract. You sometimes have to be mature to say no."
Ines Nel, acting head of North West University's Potchefstroom Business School, asks: "Can you be all things to everybody? It's a question of strategy. If something doesn't fit in, leave it alone."
Milpark Business School's Barry van der Westhuisen adds: "It's a careful balancing act. There is a crying need for our involvement out there but you must remain focused. You can't afford to over-promise and underdeliver. If it's not within your expertise and you don't have capacity, turn it down."
That may be easier said that done, when a corporation or government department comes calling, cheque-book in hand. Andre de Villiers, head of Limpopo University's Turfloop Graduate School of Business, regretfully admits: "We can't meet all the demands we get." That doesn't stop schools trying. It's generally easier for those attached to universities; they can use lecturers and professors from other university faculties to teach some courses. Eon Smit, head of the Stellenbosch University Business School, says: "When it comes to executive education, we can take on a new programme almost overnight and find new lecturers."
Such schools are more likely to have the resources and programmes to attract visiting professors from overseas. Or they can bring in local business people to share specialist knowledge.
Gibs, for example, recently appointed seven school fellows, including Wendy Lucas-Bull and Roy Andersen. "We are looking for executives who want to give something back," says Binedell.
Stretched or not, there's no denying the contribution made by schools to meet SA's growing socioeconomic demands. At Wits, for example, 800 municipal managers and executive mayors have already passed through a training course funded by national treasury. Within the next four years, 3 000 people will have completed the programme. The school also offers programmes for municipalities and the department of correctional services.
Rhodes provides a leadership development programme for national MPs, teaching them skills like public leadership, business strategy and knowledge management. The school is the lead provider in a consortium that hopes to extend the programme eventually to the nine provincial legislatures. Ordinary SA citizens may take some convincing but Staude says: "The programme is already having an impact in parliament. The Speaker says MPs' speaking, presentation and grasp of facts has improved since we started."
Business school involvement in society happens at almost every level. A number of institutions are involved in initiatives to find the next generation of entrepreneurs. International comparisons show a high failure rate among SA start-up businesses. "One of the major challenges for society is the creation of young entrepreneurs," says Horwitz, whose own school is closely involved with the Raymond Ackermann Academy for Entrepreneurial Development, which identifies young people without formal tertiary education but with entrepreneurial potential. Training is done by the GSB, which also tracks students' progress afterwards.
Young people are also among the target audience for the Dialogue Circle, a Gibs innovation designed to create opportunities for interaction across SA society. Among the programmes is one for senior high school children, to experience SA in a world context. Another aims to develop a network of women with leadership skills.
At most schools, faculty and students are also encouraged to be actively engaged in social responsibility, whether directly or in offering strategic direction to self-help organisations.
Though most schools insist they have the capacity and manpower to take on all their responsibilities, there is no doubt some infrastructures are creaking. It is a common refrain among school heads that the biggest day-to-day challenge is in finding qualified teaching staff and researchers. The experience and skills required by academia are also in demand in the private business sector - usually at much higher salaries.
Stellenbosch's Smit says: "I would say intellectual capital is the scarcest commodity we have at SA business schools. We have sufficient capacity available to deal with many aspects of what we do - either inhouse or by buying in the expertise we need - but there is a true scarcity at higher levels, particularly at doctoral level and in some aspects of MBA programmes."
The only solution, says Wits' Ncube, is "to grow our own timber". That means primarily identifying academic and teaching talent early and then convincing them of a career in academia. It's possible to offer competitive salaries through sponsored academic chairs, and through the income accruing from executive education, for which the private sector is prepared to pay handsomely. Flexible hours, which allow lecturers to share their time between a business career and teaching, are also an attraction.
Binedell notes: "I suggest the shortage of academic resources is the biggest challenge SA business schools face. But it's an issue that's not unique to schools. It applies to all knowledge-intensive sectors. If you can't grow your resources, it may affect your undertakings."
Page suggests another way of increasing resources: collaboration. Where many leading overseas schools can count faculty members by the score (or even by the hundred), several SA schools can do so on the fingers of one hand. Though it's true that many of those employed overseas are engaged in research rather than hands-on teaching - and that, unlike SA, much of that research is not used by students - the available resources make even bigger SA schools envious.
"Internationally, business schools are engaged in a game of scale," says Page. "SA has great teaching talent, it turns out people of amazing maturity, but we're not making the best of it. For example, if some schools were prepared to collaborate, they could provide an internationally-taught doctoral programme."
Most SA schools already have agreements with overseas institutions. Now there is growing evidence of local co-operation. The business schools at Rhodes and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) are using their shared geographic location in the Eastern Cape to talk about issues such as jointly tendering for education contracts, or sharing specialist academic teaching resources.
Limpopo often draws in teaching resources from Wits, Pretoria University and the University of SA to supplement its own staff. "I think business schools generally are talking more openly about co-operation," says NMMU acting director Kobus Jonker. Wits' Ncube adds: "We need to leverage off our joint capacity."
Binedell, though, says there's little need to tamper. "I think our leading schools are doing what they should be doing and that the range they are following is the right one. Their scope is appropriate."
Still, he agrees with Horwitz that for the SA business school community as a whole, co-operation can be valuable. The business schools association provides a forum for schools to discuss policy and benefit from shared resources. It regularly runs courses on specialist subjects, to which faculty from all member schools are invited.
"A key initiative of the association is to raise the levels of capacity of academic research in schools," says Horwitz. "If there is one area where schools should co-operate, it is relevant research."
