Just like in business, in business education the winds of change are always blowing. Unlike business, however, these winds usually seem to pass without significantly impacting the industry. In recent years, however, the pressures have been mounting. And the Covid-19 pandemic has spread the view that profound change is inevitable.
When I was a teenager one of the popular television news magazines aired a segment about women who wanted to become firefighters. Although I’ve lost track of the details, I will never forget my reaction. It was nothing short of a profound awakening. In the segment, women candidates were shown doing physically demanding tests, such… Read more >
It’s not as if the world was on track to achieve the by 2030. Of the 38 targets assessed in, the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development declared we hadn’t made sufficient progress on 37 of them. Now, the Covid-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact across all 17 Goals and threatens to turn back progress by years in several areas, such as poverty, hunger, education, and justice.
Meanwhile, in business schools, scholars have been engaged in an epic struggle to replace the dominant intellectual foundations of business with new ones that better reflect the needs of society and the changing rules of business. While there has been steady progress, anyone familiar with higher education knows that paradigm shifts can be painfully slow. It’s not just about what we should start teaching, it is especially challenging to identify and remove the content we should stop teaching.
We held our annual Members Meeting last Thursday, 3 December, with more than 50 participants from 30 countries. As with anything that GBSN does, the meeting was designed to be interactive and thought provoking. The agenda included a pre-meeting for Asian members, two networking breakout groups, an insightful presentation on “Skill, Reskill and Upskill –… Read more >
Erika James is Dean of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In conversation with Soumitra Dutta and Dan LeClair of GBSN, she discusses the importance of engagement and outreach when dealing with global crises, as well as the positive developments she has seen during the pandemic. The interview took place 12 weeks after… Read more >
Next week’s GBSN Beyond Virtual Conference includes a series of panel discussions on the Leadership Roundtables that took place in October. What can you expect if you join us? It all started this past summer when we identified the three topics that GBSN leaders most wanted to talk about. We then invited experienced educators to… Read more >
Franz Heukamp is Dean of IESE Business School at the University of Navarra. In conversation with Soumitra Dutta and Dan LeClair of GBSN, he discusses important global trends that the pandemic is accelerating, as well as the increased responsibility of business and business institutions to society. The interview took place 12 weeks after COVID-19 was… Read more >
Boundaries are everywhere in business education. They inform business scholars about which journals they are supposed to publish in for tenure and promotion. Boundaries help us to neatly organize degree programs into categories, such as MBAs and specialized masters, based on objective criteria. Boundaries can be physical; it is not uncommon for university-based business schools to be physically separated from the main campus.But the environment has changed. Our traditional boundaries have become less helpful. They supported a focus on quality improvement, but are hindering efforts for impact leadership. Quality is about rules and rubrics. Impact is about creativity and collaboration.
Two months ago, we announced something new and different would take the place of our regular annual conference this year. It would be more inclusive and reflect a strong commitment to action in pursuing our mission. And it would demonstrate support for the schools that make our mission achievable. We named it GBSN Beyond and… Read more >
July was a big month for the Global Business School Network (GBSN). With leadership from the Board of Directors and network, and the hard work of the team, we achieved five milestones in our transformation to a “purpose-driven network organization” and efforts to significantly scale our impact. Transitioned to a new website Quietly, we switched… Read more >
