Five decades of social impact

In the early 70s, when office technology consisted of little more than a typewriter and a telephone, a group of senior academics, politicians and business leaders (supported by Macmillan Publishing, the Ford Motor Company, the Ministry of Defence and Unilever) met to discuss a skills deficit in middle and senior management.

Among this group was Lyndon Jones, an academic who had enjoyed a long and distinguished industry career, and who at the time was running a large Further Education College in the UK.

Lyndon saw that companies at that time offered very little in the way of management training and launched The Association of Business Executives. Its purpose was to provide professional training to a high standard for business managers everywhere.

Macmillan Publishing added its support to the new organisation, its magazine Education and Training was renamed and became Business Executive , ABE’s first journal.

ABE’s founder President was Lord Prentice, a British politician who held the posts of Secretary of State for Education and Science (1974 Labour) and Minister for Overseas Development (1975 Labour) and then became Minister of State for Social Security (1979 Conservative). He was knighted in 1987.

People immediately enrolled for ABE courses in large numbers supported by grateful employers. In 1977, ABE launched the Certificate and Diploma in Business Administration and held its first exams in London, Singapore, and Hong Kong. By the end of the 70s ABE was operating across Asia, Africa and Europe.

ABE was set up as a not-for-profit with a remit to advance business education and so its fees were kept highly affordable. It was soon recognised that ABE qualifications were making a huge difference to people’s lives, particularly in developing nations where few other UK awarding bodies were operating at the time. ABE was providing a route to a professional career for people who faced the prospect of a subsistence-level future due to lack of access to further education. These people were often using their new business skills to set up enterprises which provided employment and prosperity to their wider community.

Empowering people to transform their lives and communities through gaining high-quality business, management and entrepreneurial skills has remained central to the ABE mission ever since. We are committed

to doing this in fragile and challenging environments as well as operating in developed economies.

At the start of the 80s, ABE launched its Advanced Diploma in Business Administration. Demand for ABE programmes grew and our international footprint widened. New programmes were added to the ABE portfolio and the UK head office moved from Wimbledon to larger premises in New Malden (south west London) which has been its home ever since.

In the 2000s, Edward de Bono became ABE’s President. As the originator of the concept of Lateral Thinking, Edward de Bono is regarded by many as the leading authority in the teaching of creative thinking and innovation. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2005 and wrote over 70 books. Edward de Bono remained ABE’s President up to his death in 2021.

Also, during the 2000s, ABE became officially recognised by the UK government regulator the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) which preceded Ofqual. This increased the portability of our qualifications and the number of university progression options, helping learners who wanted to go onto a degree save thousands of pounds. This was followed by more agreements with local regulators in many of the countries where we operate.

During the 2010s Lyndon Jones retired after more than 40 years at the helm. For the thousands of learners who met Lyndon during his long tenure, he was an inspirational figure.

In 2017 Rob May joined as CEO. ABE has built a team of experts who are passionately committed to our core mission to transform lives and communities through advancing business education, whilst also bringing a clear vision to ensure that ABE continues to thrive in the decades to come.

The 2020s have arguably been the most challenging in the half-century of our existence, with a global pandemic, economic crisis, and geopolitical turmoil. Throughout our history we have worked in difficult environments, honing our ability to adapt, as proved by our quick response to ensure assessments could still go ahead during the

2020-2021 pandemic when we committed to an urgent statement of intent ‘No One Left Behind’.

For learners, we’re here to help them develop the skills needed to build a better future. To flourish in the modern world means embracing uncertainty, boldly running towards problems, and turning risk into opportunity. The challenges of today are different to those faced in 1973, but disruption and innovation still require skilled leadership, close attention to business ethics, and translatable management skills. Whatever the future brings, we will not be deterred from our mission to work with delivery partners, learners and education authorities to create a safer and more prosperous world for everyone. That’s the ABE way.