While many have been enjoying the summer holidays, BlueSky has still been hard at work. For us, August has mostly consisted of securing top-tier media coverage for our clients, driving important conversations in global business and higher education, with maybe one or two Saturdays at the beach here and there.
Across global outlets like Forbes, Poets & Quants, Yahoo Finance, BusinessBecause, and QS Insights Magazine, our clients have been weighing in on some of the most pressing issues shaping education, leadership, and the future of work.
In Forbes, Professor Olga Epitropaki of Durham University Business School explored the idea of “psychological closeness” as the new KPI for remote leaders. As hybrid work becomes increasingly commonplace, emotional intelligence and genuine connection are proving to be essential leadership tools to establish trust and the willingness to go that extra mile.
Similarly, soft skills were the focus for Emylon Business School, who featured in Poets & Quants alongside other B-school leaders. The article unpacks why technical proficiency alone is not enough, and how skills like empathy, adaptability, and communication are critical for today’s students and tomorrow’s leaders.
Also in Forbes, GMAC offered insight into the AI-ification of higher education with their survey of 1,100 employers. What the survey revealed was that AI fluency is rapidly becoming a hiring must-have across industries, making this gap not just educational, but also economic. The Forbes article highlights how it is faculty who will play the most crucial role in shaping how AI is implemented in the educational space.
Two features in BusinessBecause with Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, EHL Hospitality Business School, and Trinity Business School offered practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, examining what kinds of businesses students can realistically launch post-MBA, and what it takes to succeed in an ever-competitive market.
Looking to the future with Yahoo Finance saw Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) tackling a concerning HR trend: the rise of fake candidate profiles. With Gartner predicting that 1 in 4 candidate profiles may be fake by 2028, the piece emphasises the growing importance of digital trust in recruitment.
Finally, QS Insights Magazine featured Fernanda Rates, International Partnerships Manager at Nova School of Business and Economics in a powerful piece on Brazil’s social impact culture. The piece explored how Brazilian universities are fighting to embed social impact into their mission and increase participation for all.
So, as summer is brought to a steady close and the pace begins to pick up again, these timely insights from our clients offer the perfect reading to inspire and inform your months ahead.