Year: 2015

Grenoble Ecole de Management Director Shares Thoughts on Higher Education in Emerging Countries

In his blog, Jean-franois Fiorina, GBSN ambassador and director of Grenoble Ecole de Management, emphasized the importance of higher education in emerging countries because these countries are now “actors in the worldwide educational ecosystem.” Fiorina discussed reasons why business educators should enter this geo-sector and the challenges that they may face in doing so.

Click here to read Fiorina’s post

Wharton Center Unveils Best Countries, the Most Comprehensive Evaluation Report on Nations

The SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is the first “think tank” on the future of management education. With research projects on subjects including creativity, the 21st century enterprise, and marketing and business strategy, the center is unveiling a new project in collaboration with U.S. News & World Report and WPP’s BAV Consulting.

In analyzing multiple facets, including economic strength, leadership, business and political practices and more, Best Countries, a multimedia web portal, will feature rankings that capture how countries are perceived. In other words, their brand. The new portal will be the most comprehensive global evaluation of nations that allows countries to see what they should improve on or what strengths they should play.

Journalists from around the world and leading experts in business and academia are working together on this project to communicate and humanize the report’s data.

Click here to read the original article and watch the video.

Samara Tu is a Communications and Event Planning Intern at Global Business School Network.

Better Business Practices Lead to Higher Rates of Productivity

guy_pfeffermann_webBecause in most developing economies they are the predominant form of economic activity, from its beginnings GBSN has paid particular attention to what causes very small firms to grow. We worked for three years with Nigeria’s Enterprise Development Center, a remarkable institution, in creating a super-effective Certificate in Entrepreneurial Management. Later GBSN partnered with Goldman Sachs in their ambitious 10,000 Women program, which included the creation and/or strengthening of entrepreneurship education institutions across the developing world.

While these efforts succeeded in enabling owners to grow their small businesses, no systematic research had been undertaken which might show whether and how better management might lead to growth. It is only a few years ago that a team of economists began to investigate the links between quality of management and development outcomes such as productivity and employment growth.* Not only did the surveys show a clear relationship between quality of management and various countries’ levels of prosperity, but an experiment providing intensive management training in Indian textile factories conducted over several years shows that better business practices are a driver of productivity. This will come as a surprise to business school faculty, but hard worldwide evidence was lacking.

This research was focused on large companies located mostly in fairly advanced economies. We still didn’t know whether the findings apply to small firms in developing countries. Fortunately, David McKenzie of the World Bank and Christopher Woodruff of the University of Warwick published a paper in August which addresses this gap: “Business Practices in Small Firms in Developing Countries”. The research draws on over 20,000 observations in very small firms (averaging 2.3 paid employees) in Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

It turns out that what is true for large firms is so for tiny ones: the quality of management practices explains as much of variations in sales, profits, labor and overall productivity as they do in larger firms. Better business practices are also associated with higher rates of firm survival. Marketing and record keeping are particularly important.

Disappointingly, one of the findings is that business training has no perceptible impact on the growth of small firms (this is not the case for larger firms). This is consistent with earlier research, but the authors show that the culprit is the ineffectiveness of the training programs for small firms. The authors conclude that the relatively short training courses which small firm owners received do not lead to much of a change in business practices; there is evidence of longer courses having a positive impact. I assume that low quality and relevance is another reason for unchanged behavior.

How to craft and dispense affordable, relevant and effective content that will help business owners to grow their tiny firms remains one of the greatest challenges to more inclusive business education.

* See Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen, “Management Practices Across Firms and Countries”, Academy of Management Perspectives, February 2012; and Nicholas Bloom, Benn Eifert, Aprajit Mahajan, David McKenzie and John Roberts, “Does management Matter? Evidence from India”, Journal of Economic Literature, August 2012.

Guy Pfeffermann is the Founder & CEO of the Global Business School Network

Gawad Kalinga: Building Bridges the Link Businesses

guy_pfeffermann_webOn the last day of the conference, about 40 conference attendees participated in our Networking Field Visit, which was a hands-on “social-volunturism” experience at Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm. Gawad Kalinga (GK) is a nationwide nonprofit organization focused on integrated rural community development. A key aspect of the Founder and CEO, Tony Meloto’s concept is building bridges that link businesses, including multinational companies and low-income farmers in win-win value chains. The GK Enchanted Farm is a pilot site and breeding ground of social enterprises, formed with the values of using the best of the Philippines’ resources to provide sustainable solutions for the least fortunate.

GK Enchanted Farm is also a venue for experiential learning: one that makes farming “the new cool” – fashionable and desirable for the young to be their career option. Through its programs and camps, the Enchanted Farm attracts visitors of all ages and nationalities all year round. At the same time, the children of the farmers are also given quality mentorship and education. Launched in 2014 and starting with about 43 bright and determined students from various public schools, the School for Experiential and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) aims to produce graduates who will tackle poverty through agriculture and innovation. This is where young students from public high schools will emerge as globally competitive social entrepreneurs. Uniquely, GK is a magnet for interns from top business schools, who team up with young would-be entrepreneurs from these rural communities. We had the opportunity to hear from some of these interns as well as the young would-be-entrepreneurs who they are teamed up with.

Luise is a graduate student who came to complete his first year internship at the Enchanted Farm for half a year as part of his HEC Paris studies. Vincent, a 17-year old child who is part of the GK SEED program is Luise’s partner. Here is their story:

“My first months as an intern I spent slaughtering chickens 15 hours a week, and cleaning chicken poo — going back to the basics, because I realized putting a revolution into an industry or design a business is difficult to accomplish from a computer in a room at HEC Paris. I needed to get schooled from his suppliers. I have been here 14 months and am still figuring it out. I am now actually raising free-ranged chickens, which took me 8 months to realize this was the way to go. Now I am still trying to figure out how to involve a network of small scale farmers into this business, how do I connect them to the city. The way I understand that is working with the students. Basically my future partner is 17 years old, and we are learning how to do this together.”
— Luise, HEC Paris MBA Student

“I’m 17 years old, and one of the SEED students here. My mother is part of the housekeeping team here, and my father was a garbage collector, but now he is a farmer. He is making fertilizers out of worms. And me I am a SEED student. Before, I was one of those kids who didn’t have dreams. I didn’t think I would study in college or even finish high school – I thought I would become a tricycle driver, a construction worker or even worse a drug dealer. But now because of GK and SEED, I now have a dream, I now dream to be a social entrepreneur – that will partner with those french guys – with people who have high standards to help me get out of poverty. Together we can all work to help others in my community get out of poverty.”
— Vincent, SEED Student, 17-years oldThe community is already selling fruit drinks, high-end peanut butter, charming stuffed toys and other products nation-wide and exporting citronella oil Ð a very high value-added product.

Conference participants enjoyed the opportunity to shop and meet with livelihood groups and the social enterprises being incubated at GK Enchanted Farm.Guy Pfeffermann is the Founder & CEO of the Global Business School Network.

World Bank Group to Launch MOOC on Financing for Development After UN Summit Adoption

The World Bank Group is launching a Financing for Development MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on November 16. A function of this course is to facilitate increased awareness about new global goals, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted at a UN Summit in September of this year. These SDGs will require trillions of dollars over the next 15 years and welcome investments of all kinds- “public and private, national and global, in both capital and capacity”.

The objective of this MOOC is to familiarize more people with the new development agenda, the critical role of the private sector, and the use of finance to fund the SDG. It aims to meet the goals of ending poverty and boost shared prosperity by 2030. It will be a four-week course including lectures from prominent government, international organizations, and private sector leaders who have experience in implementing development projects and combining private-public collaborations.

Participants will learn from an array of educational vehicles including video presentations, core readings, discussion boards, Google Hangouts, Twitter chats and other interactive features. This course will educate participants on financing the new development agenda. It is a great way to spread knowledge on the global development agenda and has the potential to make a huge difference in garnering support and financing for the developing world.

Rohan Munsif is a Programs Intern at the Global Business School Network.

GBSN Welcomes Three New Schools

GBSN is proud to announce the acceptance of three new schools into our network. We welcome Leuphana University of LŸneburg, University of Management and Technology: Pakistan, and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business to our expanding list of world-class member schools.

GBSN works with our member schools to build management education capacity for the developing world through cross-border networking, knowledge sharing and capacity building programs to strengthen local business education. For faculty, students, businesses, NGOs, foundations and governments, GBSN is a resource for innovation, collaboration and growth. By fostering these connections, GBSN helps schools and faculty at different stages of development learn from one another. This dynamic network catalyzes new ideas, cultivates partnerships and disseminates knowledge around the globe. Network activities include:

  • GBSN Annual Conference and Members Meeting
  • GBSN Summits
  • Webinars
  • Panel Discussions and Special Events
  • Online Community
  • Working Groups
  • Peer Mentoring

GBSN activities provide a multitude of online and live networking and learning opportunities for management educators to connect and advance their knowledge and careers.

Leuphana University of LŸneburg is dedicated to addressing the problems and challenges of civil society in the 21st century and promoting a humanistic, action-oriented and sustainable approach to higher education. Leuphana focuses on four science initiatives: Sustainability Research, Management and Entrepreneurship, Cultural Research, & Education Research. Leuphana places particular reliance on a broad-ranging change in perspective by questioning presumable settled knowledge in teaching, scientific day-to-day operations, and in research.1310_logo_leuphana_neu_print

“With our sustainable, yet holistic approach, we are certain to make a positive impact on members and the GBSN all together, not just to further advance the knowledge and research at our university, but of management education worldwide, affecting change in the developing world.”
– Prof. (HSG) Dr. Sascha Spoun, President of Leuphana University of LŸneburg

Their Faculty of Business and Economics is mainly concerned with the conditions that allow value creation through entrepreneurship from the perspective of different disciplines. Leuphana is very familiar with global educational formats and has offered MOOCs regarding sustainable city development, negotiation and cultural management.

The University of Management and Technology School of Business and Economics is a research-intensive private university dedicated to academic excellence. They are a growing institution aiming to evolve as the leading community for the purpose of integrated development of the society by actualizing strategic partnership with stakeholders, harnessing leadership, generating useful knowledge, fostering enduring values, and projecting sustainable technologies practices.umt_logo_pk

“There is a lot that a business school can do by retaining boundaries and working inside but there is a lot more that a business school can do for itself as it crosses boundaries and borders and seek linkages and partnerships with othersÉIt has been the long standing aim of SBE to join the very distinctive and select group of institutions under GBSN.”
– Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad, Rector

Their programs are geared to equip future leaders, professionals and executives with the knowledge, technology, skills and insight essential to make a difference in organizations. The graduates are trained in a multitude of fields such Marketing, Management, Human Resource Management, Supply Chain Management, Information Systems and Finance. The School of Business and Economics at UMT is a long-standing member of AACSB, EFMD, ABEST, AMDISA, and AMDIP.

The Indiana University Kelley School of Business is one of the top globally ranked management education programs and brings a great track record to our network. They currently partner with the USAID, US Department of State, Middle East Partnership Initiative, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and many more organizations with a global reach that help the advancement of international cooperation. Their Global Social Entrepreneurship Institute brings undergraduate students from 13 European nations to IU each summer. Furthermore, the Global Business Institute brings 100 Middle East, North African, and Near Asian college students to IU for a month-long entrepreneurship program.kelley-school-of-business

“Ésuccess is dependent on connecting people across the globe, providing opportunities for cultural understanding, and instilling a strong foundation in communication and successful business practiceÉI stand squarely behind this membership application and give our full support to the Kelley School’s participation in the GBSN.”
– Dr. Idalene F. Kesner, Dean

The Kelley School also hosts a 2-week residential program that focuses on international business and less-commonly-taught languages and cultures for American high school students. They are an ideal institution to leverage specialists in these areas to contribute to the development of young global leaders and instill a global mindset though dynamic programming.

GBSN is excited to welcome these three new institutions to our network. With the addition of these new schools, the network is made up of 77 members in 34 countries.

Patrick Awuah awarded MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for work at Ashesi University

Patrick Awuah, a friend of GBSN, was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his extraordinary originality and dedication to Ashesi University, a four-year institution that he founded in 2002.

Ashesi University, which is grounded in a liberal arts curriculum, seeks to educate a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa. It is the first of its kind in African universities to have students hold themselves responsible for ethical behavior through an honor code that they created in 2008.

Since its conception, Ashesi has become one of Ghana’s premier universities, as all graduates have found quality employment and many have started their own information technology business in Africa. We congratulate Awuah on his accomplishment and wish him continuous success.

Click here to read the full article

Samara Tu is a Communications and Event Planning Intern at the Global Business School Network.

Additive Manufacturing and Design Thinking: Two Cutting Edge Approaches to Business Education

guy_pfeffermann_webEncouraging student connections to the “real world” is at the heart of pedagogical creativity. I was fortunate this month to learn about two approaches, one at the Darden School of Business (University of Virginia), the other at UmeŒ School of Business and Economics, both members of GBSN.

Darden’s Professor Jeanne Liedtka ran a GBSN webinar on the Design Thinking, which is defined as “a human-centered innovation process that emphasizes observation, collaboration, fast learning, visualization of ideas, rapid concept prototyping, and concurrent business analysis.” If that sounds forbidding, think of students starting by trying to understanding people’s needs, discovering new possibilities, and where “first solutions” are only stepping stones to better ones. Or, put differently, move in succession from: What is? to What if? to What wows? to What works?

A Danish “Meals-on-Wheels” organization bringing meals to the homes of the elderly, “The Good Kitchen,” is a case in point. Far from being “Good,” none of the people involved in this outfit liked it. Seniors were embarrassed to accept government assistance. They hated to no longer be able to choose their food. They were lonely, eating all by themselves, and missed the joy of seasonal food variety. To complete the picture, workers who produced the food were bored and unmotivated, creating the same meals day after day.

The student team found out about these feelings and asked themselves: What if the public-service food delivery organization were a restaurant? At the end of the Design process cooks felt like chefs, vehicle operators thought of themselves as waiters, and meal descriptions became menus. Job satisfaction soared, and most importantly, not only did the elderly regain some sense of autonomy, they socialized more with one another and with Good Kitchen personnel.

Do watch the webinar recording that discusses this illustration and further outlines design thinking.

And now to the “Business of Making.” Additive Manufacturing (AM), also called 3D printing, free form fabrication, rapid manufacturing and rapid prototyping are the collective names used for manufacturing methods to make objects by joining materials. The UmeŒ School of Business and Economics is a partner in FabLab, where thought and concepts can quickly and easily be translated into physical prototypes.

Say a student or a team of students is working on a business plan centered around a physical product. Opened a year ago, FabLab offers free 3D printers with which entrepreneurial students can turn their concepts into objects. Open source code and cheap desktop printers make the process relatively inexpensive, and the cost of photopolymer (the goo which the printers shape) is coming down fast.AM is a catalyst for innovation, as it brings together people from different disciplines who can collaborate and innovate in unprecedented ways.

AM benefits the local economy, especially small firms, because they can themselves experiment with product improvements and innovations Ð something that only very large companies located far away were able do until now. By using AM entrepreneurs can find new customers and expand markets.

GBSN’s upcoming Annual Conference in Manila is all about disruptive innovation in education. Darden and UmeŒ will be there. I am looking forward to discussions between some of the business schools that use these techniques and schools of the developing world that may find them useful. I expect that together we can find innovative ways to lower costs and adapt ideas like Design Thinking and FabLab to developing world environments.

Guy Pfeffermann is the Founder & CEO of the Global Business School Network

New Research Sheds Light on the Positives of MOOCs

rohanMassive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have been a highly debated topic of conversation from their inception in 2008. Many have argued on both sides about how effective they really are, as well as criticized the percentage of people that use them.

However, in Harvard Business Review’s recent article Who’s Benefiting from MOOC’s, and Why, we see some very interesting statistics regarding its participants. The article argues that many of the skeptics are “overly pessimistic” and MOOCs provide real career and educational benefits for those who do complete the courses. The latest research shows that 72% of those surveyed reported career benefits and 61% reported educational benefits. Moreover, people from developing countries more frequently reported benefits from taking MOOCs.

In the chart “Who’s Getting Ahead at Work Because of MOOCs?” we can see some very interesting data. We can see that in non-OECD countries, the lower socioeconomic population as well as the lower educated population receives the most benefit from these programs. This data reveals if you are able to take and complete these courses in the developing world, you are most likely to receive real and tangible benefits. Furthermore, over 80% received intangible career benefits.

mooc-graphic

The overall takeaway from the article is that a very high percentage of people who complete MOOCs report benefits in either their career or their education. Furthermore, a “substantial proportion” reports tangible benefits, for example, getting hired for a new job, starting a company, etc. The highest rates of all of this come from developing countries.

One of our top goals here at GBSN is to strengthen the pool of talent in developing nations. These types of programs help facilitate access to proper training and educational material that is lacking in many of these countries. Although MOOCs are clearly not a one-stop-shop for all of the answers, they are definitely a step in the right direction.

Click here to read the full article

Rohan Munsif is the Programs Intern at Global Business School Network.

The Rising Entrepreneurial Spirit in Young Africa

rohanIn Walter Baets’ article, “What Young Africans want from Business Education Programmes,” he emphasizes the rising demand for “shorter, more modular business courses” that are more flexible and hands-on than the courses offered in the pursuance of the MBA. The Association of African Business Schools (AABS) recently revealed a growing interest by sub-Saharan youth in programs that are different from the run-of-the-mill business degree.

Although the interest in an MBA is at recent highs in some nations, for example, Europe, the need in Africa for entrepreneurship is driving youth away from the traditional model for many reasons. They desire entrepreneurial classes that are tailored to the rising access to technology and growth of online learning applications. Last year, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor published a report stating that the youth in sub-Saharan Africa are “among the most entrepreneurial in the world.” Furthermore, despite the fact Africa is experiencing economic growth, the unemployment rate is rising. This can explain, in part, why the spirit of entrepreneurship is rising.

Founded in 2015, the African Academic Association on Entrepreneurship (AAAE) created a support network for Africa’s business schools. Developed schools and smaller schools work in accordance with one another to fulfill much of the need, whereas private training shops are popping up to fill the gaps.

This public-private collaboration is going to have to address the demand for these new programs. Contingent upon their success, Africa will cultivate a new generation of qualified entrepreneurs for the foreseeable future, says Baets.

Walter Baets is affiliated with Graduate School of Business UCT and the Chair of the African Association of Business School (AABS).

GBSN was part of the inception of AABS.

Rohan Munsif is the Programs Intern at Global Business School Network.

Click here to read the full article.

>