As the oldest business school in the United Kingdom, Henley began by teaching public servants, something it has continued to do all over the world, including in the UAE. Hugh Evans, the school's vice dean and head of executive education, discusses the school's history and leadership issues in the Emirates.
Henley Business School has interesting origins. What are they?
It was founded in 1945 at Henley Management College, which was basically set up as part of the reconstruction effort after the Second World War to rebuild the British economy. Its task was to train and develop general managers to run government-run [businesses to] promote enterprise and commercial success for the economy. Even at that point, Henley started to be taken abroad in the context of training people across the empire.
What were you teaching managers?
At that point, they were basically given a broad-based management education as a general manager, so an understanding of planning - as strategy was called then - leadership, project management, finance, commercial.
And you have done the same kind of thing here?
The first time we came here was in 2008, and we basically set up a business academy for the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority. Now we are working with Abu Dhabi General Secretariat on coaching, HR and project management programmes for executive directors and special grade 1 level, so quite senior public servants.
What leadership issues do you see here?
I think one of the issues that is pretty clear is for the Emiratis to find their own voice as leaders, so not to have this kind of imported type of approach, but to actually develop leadership that works in this context and culture. This is robust enough to deal with the pace of change and complexities of the environment here and globally. I think it's really important that leaders here find a way to figure out what great leadership is about in this context.
Henley is not from here, so do you think the school is qualified enough to help UAE leaders discover their potential?
I think there are two answers to that question. Firstly, our approach is not predicated on bringing models into the situation. We don't say 'here's the model you need to work to'. At the core of what we do is … self-awareness and being really clear about where your strengths are. [The plan is] providing them, whether you are from the West, Middle East or Asia, finding them a way to figure out what is their own brand of a leader. What we bring is a process for finding that, [and] they can then draw on their own cultural norms and ways of thinking and behaviour.
And the second point?
The second point I think is this whole business of people locally being involved in the development process. You would have thought there are people who are capable of doing that in the local population because of their experience or wisdom.
* Gillian Duncan
