GBSN CEO

Over the next two weeks business school leaders will gather for two big events, the AACSB Deans Conference in Nashville and EFMD Deans and Directors Conference in Milan. Nearly one thousand deans will attend either meeting or both, giving the gatherings enormous potential to shape the future of the industry.

The conferences will inspire participants and enable them to share experiences and ideas amongst peers, since both meetings are restricted only to the top executives of business schools. The deans will renew friendships and start new ones. They will come from all corners of the world, yet marvel at how small the business school community really is. They will bring questions, lots of challenging questions, for each other. The competitive landscape is indeed changing and everyone is trying to make sense of where management education is going.

Going into these events, I offer words of support and encourage every business school leader to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the most fundamental of all questions: “What makes your business school truly distinctive?” Indeed, I encourage everyone connected to a business school, including faculty, professional staff, students, and alumni, to consider the question.

Something more

Many years ago, I wrote a note following a visit to Morehouse College, which is a private historically black liberal arts college for men based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. In many ways the school is just like others. It “challenges itself to be among the very finest liberal arts institutions in the world,” it offers a wide range of programs, including business and management, and its academic community is dedicated to teaching, scholarship, and service. But that’s not all.

Morehouse College assumes the “special responsibility for teaching the history and culture of black people.” It cares about the continuing search for “truth as a liberating force” and seeks “students who are willing to pay the price of gaining strength and confidence by confronting adversity, mastering their fears, and achieving success by earning it.” Everything about enabling young black men, especially underprivileged ones, to realize their full potential. I was struck during my visit by the realization that every school has something special like what Morehouse has. I wrote about that in my note and called it “Something More(house)” to honor the school.

Something more can be expressed in different ways. It could be a defining philosophy or an approach. I love MIT’s Mens et Manus which is Latin for “mind and hand” and describes the combination of thought and action needed to solve challenging problems. Both mind and hand are reflected in MIT Sloan’s “Ideas Made to Matter.” For other institutions, something more could be an expectation, such as “to contribute to the sustainable development of society” which is the opening phrase in the mission of Funda‹o Dom Cabral, or it could be a commitment, as when Copenhagen Business School says it will make “responsible management integral to all education.” Something more can also stress the importance of a geographic region. The Olayan School of Business at American University of Beirut has a vision to “transform business thinking in the MENA region” and HKUST Business School aims to serve as a “gateway to China.” Or it could be about global leadership, as in INSEAD’s mission to “bring together people, cultures and ideas to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society.“

What do all of the examples in the previous paragraph have in common (besides being about members of the Global Business School Network)? They all go beyond business, adding something that gives meaning to business and connects to the school roots, location, or strengths.

Higher education for business is not just about serving business needs with knowledge and talent, its about shaping the roles and responsibilities of business in society.

Something all yours

Whatever it is or form it takes, something more can be powerful. It has the potential to tie everything together and become an integral part of the school’s culture. It can inform curriculum development, serving as the ever-elusive “being” that gives meaning to the “knowing” and “doing” discussed in Rethinking the MBA by Srikant Datar, David Garvin, and Patrick Cullen. Discovering what makes your school truly distinctive also inspires innovation and can attract scholars and students who increasingly want to engage in a higher purpose.

Many people think that all business schools are the same. I believe every business school has its own reason for being. Every school has something more to offer, because it has unique origins, operates in different contexts, and engages different communities. Most importantly, a school has a unique set of people—the scholars, learners, and professional staff— that give life to the institution. That’s why I believe the process of identifying what makes a school truly distinctive is more about discovery than creating.

Breaking boundaries

The conversations in Nashville and Milan will naturally be grounded in long-held assumptions about what business schools do and what makes them great. After all, every community needs a common language to facilitate communication. These assumptions can be especially powerful in higher education. Most of us have had similar experiences, such as earning a PhD and living the life of an academic. And systems, like rankings and accreditation, reflect and reinforce these experiences and assumptions.

But the times are changing and narrow definitions of “quality” are giving way to broad categorizations of impact. The Positive Impact Rating was introduced this year at Davos, some criteria for rankings are being reconsidered, and accreditation standards are being revised to further elevate the importance of outcomes over inputs. At the same time, mission is making room for purpose and the differences we intend to make. As I wrote in 2016, “For Business Schools, Being Good is No Longer Good Enough.“

So I encourage breaking free from traditions in the many conversations to come. “Question the status quo” (one of four defining principles at Berkeley Haas) and focus on differences more than similarities. Embrace something more for business schools. After all, our strength as a community, especially our collective power as a force for good, comes not only from what we have in common but also from our differences.

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Dan LeClair is the Chief Executive Officer at the Global Business School Network. Widely recognized as a thought leader in management education, Dan is the author of over 80 research reports, articles, and blogs, and has delivered more than 170 presentations in 30 countries.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn and Twitter @drleclair

How would you describe the work of business schools? Most people go straight to the teaching. Business schools teach business and management through a wide range of degree programs and executive education, helping learners to build and navigate careers as managers. Those more familiar with the industry add that business schools conduct objective and rigorous research to inform practicing managers and policy makers, as well as support teaching. In short, business schools develop skills, insights, and opportunities for organizations and the people who manage them.

Of course, this work has private benefit to learners and companies. But there also is a public benefit. By improving organizational performance and educating citizens about business and management, business schools contribute to economic and social development. We believe the connection between what business schools do and the progress we make in society is strong; and that is why the responsibility of business schools has been hotly debated over the years. Indeed, our belief in the strength of this connection is why we put so much effort into improving and expanding management education. If we can raise the standards of quality for business schools, continuously align what they teach to the needs of business and society, assist them to share ideas and practices about research and teaching, and improve access to quality management education, the whole world would be better off.

But what if I told you that this framework is incomplete and we have been underestimating the social impact of business schools as a consequence. In fact, there is a third part to the work of business schools and it has been growing. It has a more direct impact and happens when students, faculty, and staff work together with and for their communities. It often focuses on a specific problem, involves a shared purpose or objective, and serves as a catalyst for innovation and improvement. Let’s call this work engagement.

There are at least three types of business school activities that fall into this category of work. First, through projects and competitions involving business school learners (students and scholars) schools directly address problems and opportunities that are relevant to business and society. This might be a straight business innovation challenge. Or it might involve students at Universitas Gadjah Mada contributing to village development projects in East Indonesia or project teams at Strathmore University Business School developing renewable energy solutions in Kenya. Or it might be something like Oxford Sa•d‘s Map the System, which is a global competition that challenges and supports students to understand problems in a wider context by “exploring, probing, and researching all the connecting elements and factors around it.”

Second, through entrepreneurship initiatives business schools are directly catalyzing innovation and new business creationÑmaking jobs and not just filling them. In MIT Sloan‘s REAP program partner regions form multi-disciplinary teams to work on action-learning activities to enhance their innovation ecosystems. The Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut offers the Global Scaleup Program and numerous schools are engaging in serious social innovation initiatives. We could go on, as business schools have significantly expanded their work in entrepreneurship.

Third, through capacity building projects business schools have been expanding and improving management education worldwide. Some have built campuses to serve developing regions or programs to serve indigenous, or refugees, or other marginalized communities. Others have reached out online to provide open access to education or research. Still others have been committed to the professional development of new faculty and administrative leaders or providing consultative advance through platforms such as accreditation.

While these kinds of activities are not new, they have been growing. One reason is that the future of business schools is experiential — and experiences are created through engagement. As content becomes more open and accessible, it is through experiences that universities and business schools will continue to create value. It is the way established business schools will differentiate themselves from other providers of education. It is how business schools will thrive in the changing environment of higher education.

The focus of engagement activities has been shifting too. Increasingly, experiential activities are addressing social problems as much as business ones. Because of this shift business schools are having a more direct impact on communities and people, and are changing the worldview about the role and purpose of business.

Teaching, research, and engagement are now like three legs of a stool. It has always been hard to imagine proper teaching without quality research. Now it is hard to imagine proper teaching without an array of meaningful field experiences from which to learn. And it is hard to think that students and scholars will create much value for society in engagement activities without effective teaching and research. Finally, in the accelerating world of business, it is getting harder to believe useful research can be generated by scholars who do not engage in activities that provide access to relevant problems and data.

The engagement work of business schools is what drives the Global Business School Network. So I am happy to say that we are growing too. For 17 years we have been involved with capacity building for the developing world, working with business schools (as well as companies, governments, and NGOs) to improve access to quality management education. Now we are connecting schools in ways that amplify the economic and social benefits of their engagement activities, such as student projects, case competitions, and entrepreneurship initiatives. By working together through GBSN the collective impact of our partner schools is greater than the sum of their individual contributions. We invite you to learn more about the Global Business School Network and the difference our member schools are making at our Annual Conference, 6-8 November, in Lisbon.

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Dan LeClair is the Chief Executive Officer at the Global Business School Network. Widely recognized as a thought leader in management education, Dan is the author of over 80 research reports, articles, and blogs, and has delivered more than 170 presentations in 30 countries.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn and Twitter @drleclair

If you could change anything_Ñ_anything at all_Ñ_about your business school, what would it be? In one form or another, that basic question is placed before every business school leader. Whereas “nothing_Ñ_nothing at all” might once have sufficed for the sake of continuity and tradition, it’s no longer viewed as an acceptable response. Business school leaders, like the rest of us, live and lead in an economy described by terms and phrases such as disruptive, exponential growth, Fourth Industrial Revolution, automated, and VUCA. The time to think that business schools can continue teaching what they have, the same way, to the same people, in the same places, and with the same faculty is over. This article is about how business schools are stepping up to the challenge of change and what rankings can and can’t do to support them.

The Challenge of Change

However basic the question_Ñ_”What should our school change ?”_Ñ_the answer is not easy for business school leaders to get to. Different stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, institutional leaders, donors, and local community leaders, have variable and sometimes conflicting needs and expectations. And there is no single right answer that can be shared, passed along across all business schools globally. What truly matters depends on the school’s strategies, strengths, weaknesses, structures, and relationships, as well as on its history and the context in which it operates. Even when a school decides to change, implementing it can be especially challenging in higher education. The culture still favors tradition over innovation and reputation over results.

Like any organization, business schools are part of a larger ecosystem that connects competitors, learners, employers, suppliers, distributors, regulators, and more. The ecosystem includes business and government, startups and incumbents, disruptors and resisters. It includes an expansive group of organizations supporting management education with services, such as admission tests, learning management systems, marketing plans, scholarships and loans, content and cases, certifications, and accreditations. The defining characteristic of an ecosystem is interdependence_Ñ_each organization affects and is affected by the others. Organizations collaborate and/or compete. They flex and adapt. They co-evolve. Change_Ñ_a mutation_Ñ_is risky and may not replicate when it isn’t fit for or doesn’t fit the system, which is itself changing.

Enter the Rankings

For three decades, media-driven rankings have been a significant part of the graduate management education ecosystem. Proponents claim that rankings have been instrumental in turning the MBA into one of the most successful education products in the history of higher education. Some credit rankings for motivating business schools to place more emphasis on soft skills and career services. At the same time, rankings have been criticized for intractable methodological problems, causing excessive and expensive reporting burdens, creating perverse incentives, stifling innovation, and more. Good or bad, the numbers and whether they rise or fall are not inconsequential to the students (including prospects and alumni), faculty, staff, and supporters of a ranked business school.

A new report, Business School Rankings for the 21st Century released in late January at Davos, points to existing research confirming that (a) MBA programs do indeed affect the attitudes and behaviors of students and (b) rankings are a major force shaping what business schools do and don’t do in those MBA programs. Based on this research and round table discussions with deans and other industry leaders, the authors of the report conclude that MBA programs have been slow to adapt curricula in a fast changing world in part because rankings do not_Ñ_by design_Ñ_consider what is actually taught.

Instead of assessing curricula and learning outcomes, the rankings include more easily tabulated variables such as student test scores and prior experience, alumni and recruiter opinions, salaries and placement statistics, and publications in top journals. Over time, MBA programs have adapted to these kind of metrics, with unfortunate results. Change is seen as “too risky”_Ñ_even when there is a strong belief that doing so will improve the quality, relevance, and impact of their program. Why jeopardize our rank by recruiting a more diverse class or one that more favors entrepreneurship? Why expand the business experience of faculty when academic citations count more than relevance to practice? Why take the risk of reinventing the MBA when it could cause even a temporary drop in our rank?

Why, indeed. However compelling the status quo may feel, the report’s main recommendation advises a bolder path: it is time to transform rankings so that business schools will and can do more to achieve a “more productive, sustainable, and inclusive economy.”

If that’s what we want, then transforming MBA education is an effective lever. We can seek ways to revise rankings criteria so that schools are rewarded rather than punished for welfare-enhancing changes. While the authors stop short of offering a blueprint for new rankings, they do offer a list “topics that might be put on the agenda,” and acknowledge that some changes will be more controversial and difficult than others. We can already see signs that these recommendations are being heard, as at least one ranking body is reconsidering their formula and new ratings are being co-created by business and academia.

Beyond Rankings: Catalyzing Innovation in the Broader Ecosystem

With the contributions from dozens of stakeholders, from across the media rankings landscape, it’s hard to disagree with this report’s conclusions. Business schools should be enabled, rather than hindered in their efforts to change. Rankings can and should help business schools that want to lead efforts to move purpose ahead of profit and elevate the needs of tomorrow in relation to today. It is, increasingly, what readers and leaders want, and it is what business and society needs. However, rankings reform isn’t enough. They are only one part of the larger system. Rankings are neither the beginning nor the end of what must be done.

So with that, here are three reasons why we must think beyond the rankings to catalyze the kind of changes that society needs_Ñ_and three directions to explore.

First, media rankings have been limited mostly to MBA degree programs offered by a relatively small number of schools. Meanwhile, fueled by technological advances and accelerating change in business, the broader demand for advanced management education has been growing rapidly. Workers are also learners and will need help navigating their own managerial development, connecting to a growing array of shorter educational programs, and signaling their skills and competencies with new types of credentials. Yet, we have only just begun to build the infrastructure to support lifelong learning and the reskilling revolution. Over the last few years, I have been excited to learn about and support many initiatives to better align education to the changing needs of learners and business. These efforts are connecting business and higher education in new and important ways, essentially rewiring labor markets as well as education ecosystems.

Second, it makes sense for rankings to put more weight on the business experience of faculty, but we also need new platforms to strengthen the connections between practicing managers and academic scholars across disciplines. The current systems and culture supporting research are entrenched and will require more concerted efforts beyond rankings reform. That’s where the growing community of leading scholars across business disciplines participating in the Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) initiative have been making a difference by seeding experiments, building new awards and recognitions, and stimulating policy changes across the ecosystem. We are seeing digital disruption in research from new and established companies. They are for example, redefining social networks for scholars and metrics for measuring impact.

Third, while the most powerful rankings are globally-oriented, many of the needed transformations and impacts are local. Global challenges, including poverty, climate, water crises, and human rights_Ñ_require local solutions that business schools can help to create. How will we help schools deal with the pressure to achieve global recognition, largely supported by rankings, and enable them to be locally relevant and impactful at the same time?How do we scale education, even while providing access to locally-relevant content and experiences in developing worlds? Indeed, more and more business schools have started to measure their local impact_Ñ_tracking the companies and jobs they help create and attract, and myriad ways they contribute to improving their communities. These are the challenges that the Global Business School Network addresses by bringing together business schools, industry, foundations and aid agencies from around the globe to improve access to quality, locally-relevant management education for the developing world.

So, yes we must rethink rankings but should not convince ourselves that it is enough for the world we want. Just as any business school should view rankings as a means to achieve its mission and intended impact, rather than as the end, we all should see reforms as part of a larger, shared vision in which business schools are vital to achieving global prosperity. Every part of the ecosystem, including businesses that haven’t yet been created, can play a role in helping business schools to be the kind of institutions that society needs. It is difficult for every part of the ecosystem to change dramatically and overnight, but the larger vision can guide individual and progressive improvements, bending the current path in ways that will make a huge difference in the future.

This blog article can also be found on the GRLI Blog

The GBSN Annual Conference in Lisbon will continue the conversation around Measuring the Impact of Business Schools. Lead the conversation around measuring the impact of business schools by preparing a session proposal for the GBSN 2019 Annual Conference. Submit a session proposal

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Dan LeClair is the Chief Executive Officer at the Global Business School Network. Widely recognized as a thought leader in management education, Dan is the author of over 80 research reports, articles, and blogs, and has delivered more than 170 presentations in 30 countries.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn and Twitter @drleclair