商學(xué)院也要“以用戶為中心”

The term “user-centricity” may not sound exciting. But in an increasingly competitive business education market, schools can use the concept to distinguish themselves.

“以用戶為中心”也許聽起來不怎么令人振奮。但在競(jìng)爭(zhēng)日益激烈的商業(yè)教育市場(chǎng)，商學(xué)院可以利用這個(gè)概念實(shí)現(xiàn)差異化。

What is user-centricity? Many believe it is about putting users at the centre of a company’s process, but it is actually the opposite. The idea is to consider the user’s needs first, and the process second.

什么是“以用戶為中心”?很多人以為，就是把用戶置于企業(yè)流程的中心，但事實(shí)恰恰相反。其構(gòu)想是先考慮用戶的需求，再考慮流程。

For business schools, this means designing courses that can be adapted to the students’ needs — what to learn, how to learn it.

對(duì)商學(xué)院來說，這意味著設(shè)計(jì)能夠適應(yīng)學(xué)員需求的課程——學(xué)什么和怎么學(xué)。

Schools and professors cannot decide what those needs are: we can no longer have a top-down — and condescending — approach to teaching business.

商學(xué)院和教授不能決定這些需求是什么：我們不能再采取自上而下——和居高臨下——的教學(xué)方式了。

But we cannot simply rely on the students to identify what they need either. By asking students, we may be surprised by their conservative answers. As Henry Ford is supposed to have said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

但我們也不能僅僅依靠學(xué)員來確定他們的需求。如果問學(xué)員，他們給出的保守答案可能會(huì)讓我們驚訝。就像亨利•福特(Henry Ford)在這種情況下應(yīng)該會(huì)說的：“當(dāng)初如果我問人們想要什么，他們會(huì)說想要更快的馬。”

Students now expect to actively participate in designing their own courses. We need to find a balance between what students want, and what experts think they need.

現(xiàn)在學(xué)員可以預(yù)期積極參與課程設(shè)計(jì)。在學(xué)員們想要的與專家們認(rèn)為他們所需要的之間，我們需要找到平衡。

Many business schools are providing experiential teaching, enabling students to “live” situations that are as close as possible to real-life work experiences. Soft skills, which are often those that students most want to develop, are trickier to teach.

很多商學(xué)院提供體驗(yàn)式教學(xué)，使學(xué)生能夠身臨其境地體驗(yàn)盡可能貼近真實(shí)的工作情境。軟技能(往往也是學(xué)員最希望培養(yǎng)的技能)教授起來較為困難。

For instance, when dealing with big data, soft skills (or “consulting skills” such as being able to communicate clearly and being convincing) make the difference between a technical report and useful, actionable results.

比如，在處理大數(shù)據(jù)時(shí)，軟技能(即“咨詢技能”，比如能夠清楚地溝通，還有令人信服)將決定是提供一份平鋪直敘的技術(shù)性報(bào)告，還是給出有用、可操作的結(jié)果。

A “user-centric” approach to teaching those skills might involve placing the students in a real-life situation in which they have to present their results and recommendations to managers or executives.

采取“以用戶為中心”的方式教授這類技能，可能涉及讓學(xué)員處于真實(shí)情境中，必須向經(jīng)理或者高管提交結(jié)果和建議。

At Essec for example, business analytics classes, which include consulting skills, integrate projects based on real-life sets of data. Partner companies provide data and business problems to solve: the students are required to analyse the data and come up with a solution.

比如，在巴黎高等經(jīng)濟(jì)商業(yè)學(xué)院(Essec)，包含咨詢技能的商業(yè)分析課融合了基于現(xiàn)實(shí)世界數(shù)據(jù)集的項(xiàng)目。合作企業(yè)提供數(shù)據(jù)和待解決的商業(yè)難題：學(xué)員需要分析數(shù)據(jù)，然后拿出解決方案。

They deliver a presentation to the top management and are assessed on both the methodological aspects (hard skills) and the presentation structure and quality (soft skills).

他們向高級(jí)管理層做演示，并在方法(硬技能)以及演示結(jié)構(gòu)和質(zhì)量(軟技能)兩方面得到評(píng)估。

The accuracy of technical analyses is the fundamental basis of reliable work. However, if it is not convincing, it will not achieve the real objective: transforming the company. Both hard skills and soft skills are a means to an end, which is to improve the company’s ability to achieve its mission.

技術(shù)分析的準(zhǔn)確性是可靠工作的根本基礎(chǔ)。然而，如果不具說服力，就無法實(shí)現(xiàn)真正的目標(biāo)——轉(zhuǎn)變企業(yè)。硬技能和軟技能都是實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)的手段，目標(biāo)是提高企業(yè)履行使命的能力。

Experts — in this case business school professors — must help students understand, and provide them with, all the skills required to act in a real life situation.

專家(在這種情況下是商學(xué)院教授)必須幫助學(xué)員理解——并向他們傳授——應(yīng)對(duì)實(shí)際情境所需的一切技能。

Nicolas Glady is a professor and director of the Center for Digital Business at Essec Business School, France

本文作者是巴黎高等經(jīng)濟(jì)商業(yè)學(xué)院(Essec Business School)教授、數(shù)字業(yè)務(wù)中心主任