The new business school curriculum: spreadsheets and humility

“Forget anything you’ve heard about bankers,” says Gianluca Corriere, assistant director for mergers and acquisitions in the Milan office of bank Rothschild & Co. “Kindness and humility — without losing focus and determination — are increasingly highly valued in this industry.”

Corriere, who works for clients in the consumer, luxury and beauty sectors, is one of several senior finance executives who visits Bocconi University at the start of each academic year.

A short cab ride from his office, the university is where Corriere graduated in 2015, and he returns to meet first-year MSc in finance students on their mandatory two-day behavioural skills seminar. His advice to those hoping to follow his career path? “Be gentle and humble with everyone at every level,” he says. “I’ve learned that this investment banking job is highly reliant on soft skills, as it’s a lot about managing a multitude of people, situations and expectations.”

Bocconi is just one of the business schools calculating how best to equip finance students with interpersonal skills, whether through dedicated seminars, international trips, one-to-one coaching or “hyper personalised” careers guidance.

Research suggests that “soft” or “people” skills — such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork and adaptability — are now considered by some recruiters to be as important as industry experience or technical competencies. A study by employment agency Reed Recruitment of UK job listings in banking, financial and professional services found that references to “excellent communication” were up 18 per cent in January on levels before the Covid pandemic. By contrast, mentions of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets were down 40 per cent. A separate survey, of human resources executives in financial services, by online course provider Wall Street Prep, found 65 per cent of respondents agreed that improving soft skills was a growing imperative.

“We call them behavioural skills because soft skills sounds too fluffy,” says professor Massimo Magni, who leads a seminar on the subject at Bocconi. It takes the form of a lecture on different behaviours, followed by a team-based pitching assignment: faculty observe and coach students as they figure out how best to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

“We need people in finance to ex­change information and knowledge in the best way possible, so they can make sound decisions,” says Magni. “Decision-making in finance is not just a single-person activity — other people are needed to help assess risk and avoid cognitive bias.”

Other schools attempting to address gaps in soft skills include Insead and Edhec. Brian Sun, Insead’s assistant director of career development for working professionals, says its executive masters in finance students receive career coaching and mentoring. Edhec says it attempts to build on finance students’ “natural dispositions” through “hyper personalised” career training. It trains and prepares students for recruitment, identifying specific soft skills depending on which part of the finance industry they want to work in.

We call them behavioural skills because soft skills sounds too fluffy

Demand among employers for fin­ance graduates with soft skills “has definitely increased”, says Chloe Levy, who heads the career centre for Edhec’s masters in finance students. “Employers recognise that technical skills are not enough, and they’re looking for job candidates who are well-rounded and have strong managerial and leadership skills.”

Finance employers want graduates who have the ability to work in a group and manage change, notes Philippe Thomas, academic director of the masters in finance at ESCP — but he says they must also know how to communicate, express themselves, and have the right attitudes and behaviours for working with both colleagues and clients.

ESCP seeks to equip finance students with soft skills through individual assessments, personal branding workshops, and interview coaching. “The gap is wider now between what employers require, and the soft skills that students bring,” reckons Thomas, “not least because of the isolation caused by Covid, shortcomings in their education and their limited knowledge of the social codes specific to the workplace.”

International study trips are the method used by Durham and Imperial College business schools to acquaint finance students with those “real world” skills. Durham finance MSc students have recently returned from five days in Stockholm where they met local companies and collaborated on a sustainable development consulting project.

“The experience is designed to challenge and stretch the students,” says James Weston, international study tour co-ordinator. “It sharpens their critical skills in teamwork, communication, and strategic consulting.”

Victor Samson, an MSc in finance student at Imperial, was part of a cohort that recently visited New York to gain a real-life insight into quantitative investing. The Imperial study trips include students from other masters courses, so finance students must work with peers who have different skills and priorities.

The experience “made me realise that strong collaboration with teammates is key to delivering high quality results,” says Samson. “It gave us a safe working environment to be able to share our ideas and assign a role to every­one in the team. That blend of soft and technical skills is of paramount importance.”