Cohorts have long served an important role in business education. Students enter together, progress through courses together, and graduate together. The model has many strengths. Cohorts become deep learning communities, foster peer-to-peer learning, and yield powerful and enduring alumni networks that create value for decades. Not surprisingly, business schools have anchored much of their work in a cohort mindset.
But what if business schools were to lead with a convening mindset?
The distinction is subtle but important. A cohort is defined by a shared characteristic and/or experience. Convening, by contrast, involves a shared challenge, one that is grounded in reality, and a diverse group, often bringing together individuals who might not otherwise interact. That’s why we often talk about the power to convene as the capacity to bring different groups to the table to address an important issue.
Of course, business schools already act as conveners to some extent. Executive education open enrollment programs draw participants from across organizations and sectors. Often, they work on a case or project together. Conferences, forums, and community events attract different combinations of corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, investors, researchers, and students to exchange ideas and network about a topic or trend, such as advances in technology. But when it comes to convening, it matters how purposeful we are about the participants and their diversity and how real and relevant the problem is—and what comes after.
Business schools are well positioned to strengthen their power to convene. Many schools already sit at the intersection of research, practice, and policy. They link scholars with executives, startups with investors, and policymakers with industry leaders. And because business schools are built on scholarship, credibility, and trust, they can offer an environment where participants can explore ideas openly and challenge assumptions without many of the pressures that characterize corporate or governmental settings.
What would it look like for business schools to embrace convening more intentionally?
First, we would see more programs built to address societal problems, rather than just business ones. And that will attract more diverse participants, which will in turn reveal new challenges. In addition to executive education titles such as “Strategic Marketing for Growth” and “Digital Transformation,” we will also see titles related to strengthening regional entrepreneurship ecosystems, accelerating local climate solutions, improving supply chains for intra-African trade, and expanding access to finance. The clear sense of purpose helps attract participants who are motivated not only to learn but also to contribute.
Second, more programs would be designed for action, not just dialogue and experience. Typical conferences revolve around presentations, panel discussions, and peer-to-peer networking. Most courses are organized by content, teamwork, and experiences. However, a convening mentality leans heavily on collaborative formats with real and meaningful opportunities and consequences, such as action labs, design sprints, field immersions, and problem-solving workshops. These formats enable participants to convert exchanges into concrete ideas and initiatives, and new partnerships and ventures.
Third, business schools would become more effective catalysts for innovation. Better, and more novel, ideas emerge when people (brokers) bridge the dense, but siloed, networks that rarely interact. With a convening mindset, business schools enhance their own position as brokers and better prepare leaders across sectors to be brokers. By building bridges for leaders from different sectors and disciplines, business schools help connect perspectives that would otherwise remain isolated. And when executives work directly with researchers, when entrepreneurs engage policymakers, or when leaders from different regions compare solutions, everyone begins to see and experience their role in fostering innovation.
Fourth, a convening mindset would motivate different alumni strategies. The most influential convenings create productive relationships and collaborations that continue long after formal gatherings end. Alumni networks become avenues for change, rather than vehicles to facilitate giving to a school. By cultivating ongoing collaborative projects, startup partnerships, and cross-sector initiatives, convening becomes less of an event and more of a platform for ongoing engagement, as well as lifelong “action” learning.
Finally, the nature of business school collaboration would shift. I’m talking about the way business schools work with each other across sectors, borders, and disciplines. No single school has access to all the expertise, perspectives, or networks needed to address complex global challenges. By convening together, especially across borders and disciplines, schools can assemble more diverse communities of leaders and ideas.
At GBSN, we are particularly interested in international collaboration. We believe “the world’s grand challenges form a mosaic of related but distinct issues shaped by local institutions, cultures, and markets.” The fact that context matters, and always will, grounds our work locally. However, working across countries and regions allows ideas to travel and evolve, expanding learning and innovation—and impact. An approach to entrepreneurship developed in one country may inspire adaptation in another. A supply innovation in one industry may spark innovative solutions elsewhere. We are especially interested in how innovation in low-and-middle income countries, often brought about by the absence of resources, can be useful in higher income countries.
In the end, I think of the convening power of business schools in society much like I think of the role of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in our economy. Individually, SMEs rarely command much attention, yet collectively they form the backbone of most economies. They “make up 90% of businesses globally, create two out of every three jobs worldwide, support the livelihoods of over two billion people, and are indispensable to the smooth functioning of global supply chains,” writes Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact.
Like SMEs, most people see business schools and their programs and events in isolation. A leadership forum here, an executive program there, a conference or alumni gathering somewhere else. It’s hard to believe even the biggest and most powerful business school can alone change the world. But as conveners, business schools form a vast global network of conversations among leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and scholars. Collectively, business schools host thousands of gatherings each year that shape ideas, relationships, and decisions across the global economy. By helping schools to work together, GBSN amplifies the convening power of business schools.
Of course, none of this means abandoning the cohort model. Cohorts will always remain central to how business schools educate leaders. They create shared experiences and strong professional communities that few other educational structures can match. But adding a convening mentality expands the mission of business schools beyond providing education and insights. Generating societal impact through expanded convening power is exactly where business schools want, and need, to go.