Because 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… Read more >
Thought Leadership
Additive Manufacturing and Design Thinking: Two Cutting Edge Approaches to Business Education
Encouraging 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 Ume School of Business and Economics, both members of GBSN. Darden’s Professor Jeanne Liedtka ran a GBSN webinar… Read more >
New Research Sheds Light on the Positives of MOOCs
Massive 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… Read more >
The Rising Entrepreneurial Spirit in Young Africa
In 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… Read more >
Design Thinking Pedagogy and Practice Webinar Highlights
On September 9, 2015, GBSN hosted a webinar called, “Design Thinking Pedagogy and Practice,” featuring Jeanne M. Liedtka, a professor of business administration at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. The webinar discussed the process of Design Thinking using a case study, and the methods in which it can be… Read more >
Arguing the Case
The case method is alive and well: reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. When I became Director of The Case Centre six years ago I was unfamiliar with cases and how they are used in business education. I read some cases, researched the topic and became a little skeptical. It seemed hard to… Read more >
Bridging the Gap between Academia and Employers’ Expectations
Are business schools imparting the skills employers need most? In 2003, soon after GBSN was launched, one of the first things we did was question how companies/employers in developing countries rated local business school MBAs. I was then working at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, and we leveraged IFC’s extensive network of developing world… Read more >
Riding the Tide of Disruption in Higher Education
This is a modified excerpt; please find the original article here In an article posted on Dialogue Review, authors Dr. Mark Farrell and Dr. John Davis addressed the two main triggers of disruption in education: technological change and cost pressures. These disruptions are forcing universities (especially those deemed ‘non-elite’) across the world to evolve if… Read more >
Tools for Teaching About Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid
A few years back I was fortunate to sit in on a presentation by the late C.K. Prahalad, who, together with Stuart L. Hart, published the seminal 2002 article “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”. Professor Prahalad put up a slide on the screen of a typical Indian village. It looked somewhat like… Read more >
Higher Education in sub-Saharan Africa: Why the Neglect?
Our CEO and founder, Guy Pfeffermann, recently contributed an opinion piece to the 2015 eLearning Africa Report. He focused on the challenges facing higher education in sub-Saharan Africa and explored possible solutions. Below you can find screenshots of Guy’s opinion piece, to read the entire eLearning Africa Report please click here. Guy Pfeffermann is the… Read more >