'Strategy and Practice in a Dynamic World,' 'Future Thinking,' and 'Scoping, Planning and Motivating' – the names convey the focus of the University Aberdeen Business School’s curriculum.

The MBA (Global) incorporates disruptive thinking as a core component of its curriculum. "Disruptive thinkers change things from the way they've always been, to move them to a very different place in terms of what happens next, in other words, they challenge existing business practices," Heywood explains. The idea also, is that a company innovates faster than their customers' needs evolve.

Former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs would be the perfect example of a disruptive leader. Exiled from Apple, he returned years later to upend the company, ridding it of many of its product lines, laying off staff to hire 'true believers', and saving the business from bankruptcy by engaging in market research that enabled Apple to offer products customers weren't even aware they wanted: the iPad and iPod being two prime examples.

The MBA (Global)’s mission is to teach disruptive theory and disruptive thinking though real-life case studies, but also aims to give students the opportunity to develop these skills in practice. This comes in the form of online business simulations, where students are asked to plan and execute a strategy with limited resources.

The cumulative intention is to create leaders that are adaptable, flexible, responsive, and resilient, but also balanced in their business approach. These are traits that can help managers to successfully run organizations that are able to respond to change in the internal and external environment, without losing either momentum or vision.

The University of Aberdeen Business School calls it 'the futurist's toolkit', unpacking the skillset graduating MBAs need to competently lead within an environment of constant change and disruption.

Digital technologies are transforming the world's markets and business practices. This means that leaders today require a very different set of competencies to managers of the past. One related advantage of doing a qualification such as the MBA (Global), which utilizes an innovative online platform, is gaining digital experience. Business simulations have been mentioned already, but other industry-standard technologies are employed as well, video conferencing being one of the more familiar examples.

Teaching students to be digitally competent is, indeed, one of the main objectives of the MBA (Global). MBA candidates are taught the theory on the technologies and processes involved when working in a global business environment, but they are also encouraged to put what they have learned into practice. The University of Aberdeen Business School calls this 'whitewater' learning – applying theory as you learn, not afterwards. Most students of the MBA (Global) work while they study, meaning that much of what is learned in the minimum of 15 hours of study they set aside per week, can be applied to their organization with immediate effect. This could involve analyzing financial statements for example, or linking finance to strategy and operations.

Finally, as the name of the program indicates, the MBA at the University of Aberdeen Business School has a global outlook. Students on the program  come from many countries across the globe, and while they might be thousands of miles apart, they still work together on team projects, reflecting the transnational nature of business today. This is not to say that students studying in the same cohort will never meet – events for MBA (Global) students are organized on-campus, or locally in other parts of the world. You just need to RSVP!

This article is sponsored by the University of Aberdeen Business School.