When we designed our new MBA for the digitally transformed world, we were deliberate in our approach. We wanted to create the definitive learning experience necessary for you to make yourself relevant and marketable, now and into the future.
Our MBA therefore positions you for success by fine-tuning your critical thinking skills across various disciplines, and helping you to harness the vast opportunities that digital innovation affords. Learning to leverage the possibilities that technology unlocks is critical to ensuring business growth, and this is prioritised both in the subjects we offer and in our approach to teaching and learning.
We place special and sustained emphasis on the human aspect of business, You will be provided opportunities to learn from and engage with highly respected local and international faculty and business practitioners, which will likely open up opportunities for you across the continent and the world.
What you’ll learn during your MBA
At JBS, our focus is simple: we want to equip you with everything you need to become a business leader in the digital economy. Our MBA is attuned to this, and will give you all the essential skills you require. The core themes in the JBS MBA include:
- How digital technologies are enabling opportunities in business
- Advanced e-commerce platforms for entrepreneurship
- Ethical Leadership in the digital economy
- Competitive strategy: winning in the digital marketplace
- Operations and supply chain management for the digital age
- Advanced digital marketing
- Accounting and financial management
- Critical thinking for business
- People management in the new world of work
- Digital Technologies including Cloud computing and mobile
- Consulting skills, quantitative methods and data analytics
- Economics and International Business
In addition to these core themes, you will also have the opportunity to choose from electives on offer each year – these are drawn from topics such as:
- Virtual reality in a business world
- Disruptive technologies in areas such as tourism, agriculture and medicine
- Advanced cybersecurity for business
- People management for empowerment and collaboration
- Consumer intelligence
- Entrepreneurship and business start-ups
- Developing authentic leadership
- Advanced AI, and robotics for business
- Big Data and data analytics
- Blockchain applications for business
Our teaching approach
Our approach to teaching seeks to bridge the gap between the present and the future, and between the classroom and workplace.
Business leadership is first and foremost a practical and applied skill. Our MBA makes this a reality through our team of business coaches, who will help you to transfer critical skills from the classroom to the workplace by providing one-on-one support. Our coaches come from successful business backgrounds, and are able to help you identify and achieve your goals, and to apply what you have learnt to your career.
Your learning experience at JBS will be intense and demanding, and will involve an engaging combination of debate, dialogue, experiential learning, simulations, and local and international case study analysis. At all times, the content, structure and medium of your studies will be relevant, practical and geared to the technological advances that drive business.
Meet your professors and lecturers
We take pride in the excellent faculty we have assembled for our MBA. Our professors of practice are accomplished business people, who bring their vast knowledge and extensive experience in the world of work to the classroom. Our cutting-edge theory combined with our faculty’s boardroom and operational perspectives offer an unrivalled academic experience.
Your faculty include:
- Professor Lungile Ntsalaze, Professor of Accounting and Head of DPhil Programme at the JBS
- Herman Singh, CEO of Future Advisory
Professor of Practice – Digital Technologies
- Dr Dino Petrarolo, Senior Vice President of Competitive Capabilities International
Professor of Practice – Operations and Supply-Chain Management - Rija Rijamampianina, Professor of People Experience and Leadership
- Monica Singer, South African Lead for Consensys
Professor of Practice – Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies - Philasande Sokhela, Lecturer at the JBS in Digital Marketing
- Wayne Moodaley, Lecturer at the JBS in Accounting and Finance
- Valter Adao, Chief Executive Office and Digital Leader of Cadena Growth Partners
Professor of Practice – Digital Transformation and Business Innovation - Dr Alistair Mokoena, Country Director Google South Africa
Professor of Practice – Technology and Opportunity
The Capstone Consulting Project
At the end of your JBS MBA, you will bring together all that you have learnt in the Capstone Consulting Project. This is not a traditional research thesis. Instead, it is a challenging consultancy project where you will explore opportunities for solving real-world problems in a chosen business and devise a workable solution. You will be guided by a supervisor, who will help ensure your project’s success.
Our International Study Tour elective
As part of the programme, JBS MBA students may choose to go on an optional international study tour, conditions permitting. Potential destinations include China, Argentina, India, Kenya and Ethiopia. This tour offers two weeks of life-changing immersion in the country of your choice, and includes visits to business schools, businesses and government agencies.
Your physical and digital campuses
JBS is located in Johannesburg, the financial and economic heart of Africa. We move to our brand-new green and smart campus at the start of 2024, which boasts plenty of space for safe, collaborative working.
At JBS, we understand that the digital economy is a global economy. Our state-of-the-art classrooms are therefore designed to connect you to the rest of the world, while our smart work areas are equipped with the latest technology to support you. As a JBS MBA student, you will form part of an international intellectual network through our close community links with international business schools. Our digitally enabled classrooms will provide access to local and international faculty, as well as guest speakers.
ENQUIRIES:
- Email: [email protected]
- PGDip: [email protected]
- Telephone numbers (for both MBA and PGDip):
- WhatsApp Business: +27 66 134 4507
- Call Centre: +27 11 559 7600
- JBS Reception: +27 11 559 7570
Our online MBA
Our MBA is also offered online in an asynchronous mode, allowing you to study in your own time. The content of our online MBA and our face-to-face MBA is the same, making this option well suited to students with unique working schedules or who are based outside of Johannesburg.
For more information on our online course, please call or email:
- Tel: +27 800 233 723 (Toll-free))
- Tel: +27 10 003 2546 (International)
- Email: [email protected]
How the JBS MBA will benefit you
Our emphasis is on practical, useable learning and skills development that you will be able to apply to your business or organisation in direct and immediate ways. We are focused on ensuring your success by helping you become:
- A critical systems thinker who embraces complexity
- An authentic leader with social and digital intelligence
- A forward-thinking futurist who is in touch with global business developments
Our MBA is above all a meaningful learning journey that delivers on real-world results and will lend credibility to and heighten your professional position in the marketplace.
Duration and course structure
The JBS MBA takes 24 months to complete, including both module work and the Capstone Consulting Project. There are two streams available to you: Saturday and early-bird lectures. Both streams have two lectures a week of three hours each.
‘Weekender’ lectures
Two lectures on the same day (Saturday)
08:00 to 15:00
‘Early-bird’ lectures
Two mornings a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays
06:30 to 09:30 (includes breakfast)
Teaching blocks in 2024
The 2024 teaching year will be divided into the following four blocks:
Block one January to March 2024
Block two April to June 2024
Block three June to August 2024
Block four September to November 2024
Orientation will take place on 20 and 21 January 2024.
The first ‘Weekender’ class will run on Saturday, 22 January 2024, and the ‘Early Bird’ classes will start on Tuesday, 25 January 2024.
Admission requirements
To qualify for the JBS MBA, you need to have:
- A four-year undergraduate degree, or an undergraduate and postgraduate degree or diploma (NQF Level 8)
- A minimum of four years’ work experience, preferably some in management
- A demonstrated level of maths literacy: an NQF Level 4 matriculation pass in maths or equivalent (preferred but not essential)
- Proficiency in English
- Successfully completed the admissions portfolio
- A study permit for South Africa if you are an international applicant
Please note that admission to our MBA is a competitive process and there are limited places available. Meeting the above requirements does not automatically guarantee your acceptance into the course.