Time to fly the flag

It’s time for the Da Vinci Business School to become more visible, says CEO HB Klopper.

The school is broadening its executive education base and, since last year, has launched both a master’s and doctorate in business leadership. While its blue-chip corporate clients include WesBank, MTN and Sibanye-Stillwater, Klopper says many employers are unfamiliar with the school — a view supported by market research for the FM.

He says the school no longer wants to be “below the radar” or the “best-kept secret” of the business world. At the moment, its executive education takes place predominantly in the mining, engineering, financial services and technology sectors. But Klopper says it broadening its knowledge and speciality base to include sports management and aviation management.

Last year, it started mentoring and coaching programmes aimed at in-house corporate interaction. Having encouraged employees to work from home since early 2020, many companies now struggle to reinstil the culture and teamwork that used to exist. “Working from home may have been good for productivity but it was bad for corporate relationships,” says Klopper. “They are not healthy.”

Unlike some schools, he says Da Vinci experienced little reduction in demand for corporate education during Covid. In fact, he says, the pandemic forced schools, like the business world at large, to embrace new technology and working practices.

“It forced us to leapfrog the gap we had created for ourselves. Without Covid, we would still be stuck in the old world. It was a disaster but it was in our face and unavoidable. We had to react.”