Thought Leadership

Chairman’s Corner: A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste

November 4, 2020

This current year certainly has been a very special year – one which I am confident no one anticipated. The global economy is trying to cope with a unique pandemic and educational institutions are at the heart of the challenge. Business school leaders have to deal with the complexities of a multi-faceted crisis – affecting the health of our communities, the core operations of learning and the finances of our institutions. With a possible vaccine in sight over the next six months, some are hopeful in seeing a small beam of light at the end of the tunnel. However, much uncertainty reigns as the second wave of the pandemic has recently triggered a series of second lockdowns in multiple countries.

World After COVID-19: Franz Heukamp, IESE Business School

October 9, 2020

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 >

Redefining the Boundaries of Business Education

October 7, 2020

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.

Hybrid by Default: The Future of Education has Changed

August 6, 2020

The Covid crisis has forced colleges and universities to move to fully online instruction over the last months. Some may yet continue in a fully online mode for parts of the next academic year. However, looking ahead beyond the pandemic, it is very likely that education will not revert back to the “way it was before the pandemic”. Education will evolve to become hybrid in nature integrating the best what in-person instruction can offer and the unique aspects of what online education can provide. Some of these changes, such as flipped classrooms were already starting to appear before the Covid pandemic but these trends will accelerate now. While a small minority of faculty were doing flipped classes before, the vast majority of faculty will integrate such approaches and shift to a different mode of learning and class discussion.

Transforming Into a Purpose-Driven Network

August 6, 2020

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 >

Moving Executive Education Online: How Much & For How Long?

July 8, 2020

On July 1st Prof. Jörg Rocholl, Martin Möhrle, and Dominique Turpin provided an insightful discussion about the future of executive education. For the foreseeable future, executive education will not be able continue with business as usual. The current state of the world demands that educators and educational institutions be creative in delivering their material and engaging their students. 

Chairman’s Corner: Thriving in Technological Disruption with Outside-In Innovation

July 3, 2020

where do we stand in business schools in the face of technological disruption? In response to the Covid crisis, we have just witnessed a rapid acceleration of the deployment of digital technologies in our teaching programs. Business school leaders now concede that online education will be a very important component of their future program portfolios. However, the disruptions being caused by digital technologies is much more than just in the shift of teaching delivery to the Internet.