Between a soft and a hard place

Recruiters want 'soft skills' as well as hard analytical minds. But as the economy picks up, will the trend last? asks Wilf Altman

What qualities are recruiters really looking for in MBA graduates? It's a question which exercises the minds of students and careers directors alike and - if recent research from London Business School is anything to go by - the answer is a complex one. In a survey of over 100 executives, the School learned that recruiters had their sights on managers who possessed integrity, could work in global business environments and be effective players in multi-functional teams.

Post Enron, it should not be surprising to find integrity on the list of priorities. Courses on ethics and corporate social responsibility are now available, if not compulsory, in many MBA programmes. But business schools find it harder to fit in the so called "soft skills" courses - including anything from communicating effectively to teambuilding - that help develop students' people management skills.

"Business schools have never made a good job of teaching soft skills," says leading headhunter and former Visiting Fellow at Manchester Business School, Andrew Garner, chairman of Garner International. He claims that if you look back over 20 to 30 years, most recruiters of MBAs wanted analytical rather than soft skills for high-earning posts with banks and consultancies. "Perhaps that's why the majority of analysts have never finished up running businesses."

While two-year MBA courses may allow more time for honing interpersonal skills, many one-year programmes have also recognised the need to provide soft-skills training. Edinburgh University Management School sends its MBA students on an outward-bound course, while Cranfield's MBA students go through a personal development programme, including presentation skills through to crisis management.

At Durham Business School, students from 25 different nationalities also go through a boardroom simulation programme to encourage teamwork and develop social dynamics and presentation skills. Many MBA directors claim that, even when these kinds of luxuries can't be squeezed into the programme, the teamwork involved in MBA syndicate groups is the best introduction any student can have to the art of diplomacy and teamwork.

Not everyone is convinced, however, that traditional MBA employers such as banks and consultancies are changing their priorities when it comes to recruitment. Professor Tudor Rickards of Manchester Business School believes there is "some evidence of 'double-think'" when organisations say they seek MBAs with good communication and team management skills but continue to hire mainly for harder financial knowledge. The ability to analyse a balance sheet, he says, still matters. "MBA students continue to give preference to boosting their educational profile with advanced knowledge in subjects like strategy or marketing." And although the best business schools recognise the need to get students involved in discussing business ethics, he says, even this can be problematic. "What business schools would like to see is more focus on ethics, but it's difficult to fit into an already crowded curriculum."

The past few years have seen MBA graduates diversifying, taking up jobs in a wide range of sectors, from bio-technology to charities. Many aspire to run their own companies. The need for a broad range of management styles and skills has become increasingly evident and business schools claim to be responding to changing recruitment needs. But will the fact that banks and consultancies are returning to the MBA job market (albeit on a smaller scale) change things? Could business schools find themselves catching up with the soft-skills trend only to discover that the recruiters are after hard-hitting financial experts with top marks in corporate finance modules?

"Leading financial organisations in the city are still focusing mainly on analytical skills," says Julian Smith, managing director of ARQ International, recruiters who specialise in global custody, fund management and private banking. Graduates looking for a career in the financial sector, he says, need to meet the core needs of potential employers, especially as MBA recruitment is not returning to the levels of the late 1990s. "There is still more interest in qualitative analysis and financial modelling rather than in so called soft management skills."

Other sectors, though, may be looking for a broader range of qualities. Lilly UK, part of the international Lilly pharmaceutical group, looks for an analytical mindset, problem-solving abilities and a leadership profile that fits the company's own. The company regularly visits Cranfield University Management School in the search for MBA graduates, and defines pre-MBA experience across different business functions as more important than a focus on any one management style. Ian Knowlton, a UK business unit manager for Lilly UK, has been hiring MBA students for 10 years. "We were often blinded by intellect - analysis, strategy, marketing in the past. Now the focus is more on the rounded individual. Soft skills are necessary when you want to create change. Our criteria are now based more on achieving results through people, anticipating change and creating exterior focus."

The ability to listen, understand, talk and persuade will be just as important as analytical thinking as the economy picks up, according to Professor David Sims, Director of MBA Programmes at Cass Business School. "Soft skills aren't about being warm, wet and hugging trees, more about knowing how to make what you want to happen, happen - knowing how to get what you want from humans." At Lancaster University Management School, Malcolm Kirkup, of the MBA programme, agrees. "We have invested heavily over the years in teaching interpersonal skills and we attract some of the best students because of our focus on this area." These aspects of the course are, he argues, the essential preparation for anyone who aspires to lead a diverse team of employees in their future career.

In a tough, competitive world it should come as no surprise that recruiters are producing a long list of requirements when they speak to business school careers departments. Why hire an MBA graduate who understands corporate finance but lacks communication skills or international experience, when you can choose someone with all three qualities?

At London Business School, MBA students are encouraged to make sure they make themselves as marketable as possible. Julia Tyler director of the full-time MBA programme at LBS says those who succeed must be able to motivate and work well with colleagues whether they are city traders, accountants or sales managers. "The world economy is global. Globalisation is an art based on understanding how people work together, how knowledge is transferred and how you get things done in different cultures. It's something that you have to practice day in and out. A top business school is an international laboratory which allows students to practice that art."