Hello all you good people. I was wondering what you all feel is the perception of the future of management development out there. Do you think that in-house management development has lost it's focus? Do you think there is a greater need for a specialised outlook in management development that focuses on the specific needs of the organisation and is therefore developed in-house, or do you think generic development courses offered by business schools will continue to be the "lazy" organisation's way out? Any thoughts on this topic? Feel free to throw in your own thoughts not addressed above. Thank you.

I don’t believe something like management development should be outsourced. Office cleaning and desktop support should. Management development is something pretty strategic and core for a company, large firms should all have a Management R&D department to study and develop ideas for the business, like new management tools – structures – policies etc. They could then hire consultants for the implementation of some of the new policies and to provide specific training. Sometimes the perception is that many companies have good employees but OK managers and these managers could be helped more, from inside rather than from outside (not sure this goes against our friends, the management consulting companies!!). I guess the internal strategy department could be seen as something like a Business R&D, but now it’s too small and narrow in scope. What's your view on this?