Ambition is AMBA’s thought leadership magazine, offering regular insights into the challenges and trends that matter most in global management education
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insight OUTSIDE
Industry views on partnerships, CSR, diversity, and more, from the AMBA & BGA Festival of Excellence
Getting the corporate world to adopt environmental improvements
What to expect from the fully online AMBA & BGA Global Conference 2021
Take advantage of AMBA & BGA’s free webinar series for Business
AMBA & BGA is working with Business Schools
School leaders
and business education leaders to develop a raft of fresh online content in the form of live interactive webinars, especially tailored for Business School leaders, decision makers, and professionals. In addition to our growing virtual and hybrid conference programme, our one-hour webinars (all of which can be supplied as recordings to all registered delegates), offer bite-sized insights from industry experts.
Topics include: Education technology Business School innovation Lifelong learning Career development Leadership skills Building partnerships Regional updates And much more
For more information visit www.associationofmbas.com/business-schools/events/ Make the most of your coffee breaks, and keep up to speed with the trends in the business education arena.
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A APRIL 2021 Contents
Outside insight Recommendations for Business Schools and
Outside insight special 14 Highlights from the AMBA &
expert views on innovation, diversity, CSR, partnerships, and lifelong learning
BGA Festival of Excellence, featuring expert views from industry, NGOs and academia on a range of critical topics for business education: 16 Innovation: managing digital acceleration and disruption 18 Diversity: fostering a more equitable and inclusive future 20 Partnerships: forging mutually beneficial relationships 22 Lifelong learning: inspiring the journey beyond Business School 24 CSR: making an impact on business and society
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Sustainability Putting pressure on the corporate world to change, post-Covid-19
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Features 26 Driving change
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How Covid-19 can add impetus to the sustainable business movement 32 Forward-thinking perspectives Employer and graduate perspectives on skillsets, lifelong learning, entrepreneurial mindsets, and more
Forward thinking Employers and graduates reflect on MBA outcomes and the programme experience
News and opinion 04 Editor's letter 07 From the CEO 10 Network news
Research into crowdfunding models and student projects on alleviating poverty feature among this edition's selection 38 Global Conference 2021 What to expect from AMBA’s flagship event as it heads online 42 Guest column Global mindsets and mobility
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AMBA network updates News and research from AMBA-accredited Business Schools across the world
Global Conference 2021 Multiple formats with an emphasis on facilitating interaction and knowledge sharing in a virtual setting await
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Editorial Editor and Director of Marketing and Communications David Woods-Hale d.woods@ associationofmbas.com @davidpaulwoods Content Editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@ associationofmbas.com Art Editor Laura Tallon Insight and Communications Executive Ellen Buchan e.buchan@ associationofmbas.com
Predictions for the new normal
The 'new normal' is a term that's been thrown around a lot over the past 12 months. But, while this has already been relegated to the realms of business jargon – at least in my mind – it does pose the conundrum of what life and work will be like when the pandemic recedes. In saying that, does 'new normal' define the situation in which we're living now, working from home for the most part and practicing social distancing? Or does it refer to the lives we can expect in the wake of Covid-19? We've become comfortably uncomfortable over the past year, in our socially distanced world, adapting
consultancy, social justice, healthcare, and luxury. As part of the AMBA & BGA Festival of Excellence, held in January 2021, we sought 'outside insight' and asked the wider business community, as well as civil society organisations, for their views on business education and how they would like to see Business Schools adapt, in order to continue to survive and thrive. Starting on page 14, we have categorised their thoughts into the overarching themes of innovation, collaboration, CSR, lifelong learning, and diversity. We have also interviewed a spectrum of MBA graduates and employers and, from page 32, you can
Corporate Head of Commercial Relations Max Braithwaite m.braithwaite@associationofmbas.com Commercial Partnerships Manager Emily Wall e.wall@associationofmbas.com Conference Producer Paul Thurston Events Manager Abigail Burke Marketing and Communications Executive Edward Holmes Membership Manager Tariro Masukume Head of IT and Data Management Jack Villanueva HR and Employer Relations Manager Aarti Bhasin Finance and Commercial Director Catherine Walker Chief Executive Officer Andrew Main Wilson Executive Assistant to the CEO Amy Youngs a.youngs@associationofmbas.com Accreditation enquiries accreditation@associationofmbas.com
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and growing used to video calls, working and doing the laundry simultaneously, and demonstrating agility and grit to deliver what we need to. The past year has shown that the seemingly impossible is somehow possible. I've written previously that higher
read their views on topics that include: creativity and entrepreneurship in the current economy; current and anticipated leadership challenges; definitions of responsible management for today and tomorrow; and definitions of success, post-MBA. Our hope is that this 360-degree
'Does new normal define the situation now?'
education has never been far from the spotlight during this time, particularly with regards to student experience: whether students should be studying on campus or at home; how digital learning has enabled a new era of course delivery; and what this new normal will look like for business education. AMBA has conducted surveys with Business School leaders on edtech and the future of business education, as well roundtables, interviews and analyses looking into how the landscape could, and should, adapt further in the coming 12 months. To add fuel to this debate, this month's AMBITION features a host of predictions on the new normal from experts in technology, innovation, sustainability, academia,
insight will give you a flavour of the views and opinions of a wide pool of thought leaders, and offer you an opportunity to take stock of how your stakeholders are sensemaking in spite of ongoing uncertainty. Lastly, following the launch of the AMBA & BGA International Climate Change Report last month, we continue our green thread of sustainability-related content while remaining connected to a new normal theme in a feature from Rotterdam School of Management’s Frank Wijen (page 26), in which he asks what impact the pandemic will have on sustainability and – you've guessed it – how Business School leaders need to work with businesses as well as students to find solutions. David Woods-Hale, Editor, AMBITION
Copyright 2021 by Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association ISSN 2631-6382 All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. While we take care to ensure that editorial is independent, accurate, objective and relevant for our readers, AMBA accepts no responsibility for reader dissatisfaction rising from the content of this publication. The opinions expressed and advice given are the views of individual commentators and do not necessarily represent the views of AMBA. Whenever an article in this publication is placed with the financial support of an advertiser, partner or sponsor, it will be marked as such. AMBA makes every opportunity to credit photographers but we cannot guarantee every published use of an image will have the contributor’s name. If you believe we have omitted a credit for your image, please email the editor.
DELVE BEYOND THE PAGES OF OUR AWARD-WINNING MAGAZINE WITH
Now with more than 25 episodes, and featuring thought leadership from a wealth of business education thinkers and practitioners, The AMBITION podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spofity, SoundCloud, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and TuneIn. The Podcast
Access the platform of your choice at: www.associationofmbas.com/podcast/
TO THE WORLD BRING YOUR SCHOOL’S RESEARCH Leverage BGA’s global network and promote your Business School’s research initiatives to an international audience through the IMPACT TRAILBLAZER initiative.
PRESENT TO AN INTERNATIONAL
GENERATE NEW IDEAS
CHALLENGE KEY CONCEPTS
NETWORK OF PEERS
Discover upcoming IMPACT TRAILBLAZER webinars, view past recordings and promote your School’s latest research, at www.businessgraduatesassociation.com/impact-trailblazer
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CEO'S COLUMN
Gearing up for our first virtual Global Conference
Andrew Main Wilson looks forward to taking the AMBA & BGA Global Conference from a hotel to a film set
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irtual events have become the norm for all of us over the past year, but just because we are able to take part in international
conferences and networking events, but until we can do that – confident in the safety of all our delegates – we are continuing to invest in the highest quality of digital conference that we can. Later in this edition of AMBITION , we outline more information about the programme, features and speakers for the conference. I am sure you will agree that it promises to be one of the most exciting and dynamic conference programmes we've delivered and I'm delighted to welcome senior leaders from Alibaba, the World Health Organization, Ritz-Carlton, EY, Prada, and many more, to join with eminent deans and decision makers representing Schools from every continent in the world. From film studios in London, we will explore digital transformation, alumni relations, Business School collaboration, employer strategy, and lifelong learning. We will also blend these trends in higher education with wider societal issues, including diversity, climate change, CSR, responsible management, economic disruption, international relations, and the impact Business Schools are making on the communities in which they operate, as well as further afield. The 37 plenary sessions, workshops, interviews, roundtable debates, and
panel discussions will also offer you a choice of different formats through which to engage with conference speakers and facilitators. The conference is designed not only for deans and directors at Business Schools, and we would therefore like to extend a warm invitation to all your colleagues to join us in May to learn, share, network, and collaborate. My team is already in the process of creating more intimate and high-level physical, virtual and hybrid events exclusively for deans and MBA directors later this year and into 2022, about which I am very much looking forward to telling you, when plans are in place. As I mentioned, I want to be able to replicate and expand the great sense of camaraderie from across our global network that we felt during January's awards ceremony. As such, we are placing emphasis on the numerous networking opportunities available during the AMBA & BGA Global Conference 2021. These include AI-powered matchmaking to help you form new contacts, topic-led chatrooms, roundtable discussions, and interactive fireside chats. We very much hope that you will continue to feel a connection to the warm and enriching network that we take pride in within the international AMBA family.
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conferences from the comfort of our own homes, doesn't mean they can't offer a unique and immersive experience.
In January this year, I was delighted to host our first virtual AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards ceremony. It was a pleasure to meet and recognise the winners and finalists in all 11 categories, and myself and the team were honoured to see so many of you there during the event. There was a genuine sense of camaraderie in the fact that, while we couldn't all be together in person, one could feel the strength of our global community as people joined the ceremony from all over the world. I want to be able to replicate that feeling of community in our upcoming AMBA & BGA Global Conference from 10-12 May 2021. It goes without saying that, as soon as circumstances allow, AMBA will be reinvigorating its annual schedule of physical
The AMBA & BGA Global Conference 2021 10-12 MAY 2021
Our state-of-the-art virtual conference will offer: Tailored programmes and agendas for each delegate based on your own thought leadership preferences and development requirements. A mixture of plenary and keynote sessions from world-leading speakers, alongside more casual and intimate roundtable breakout sessions, to discuss pressing issues in business education. Innovative networking and collaboration opportunities (including live virtual meetings, business matchmaking, chatrooms, and interactive discussions). Stunning and professional production, facilitated in a high-tech green screen studio and live streamed using high- definition capture technology. Please book early to secure your place. We look forward to seeing you during the event.
Beamed live from our state-of-the-art studios straight to your screen
https://www.associationofmbas.com/ global-conference-2021/ Join expert speakers representing leading corporate organisations and Business Schools around the world from a cutting-edge film studio. The event’s live-streamed sessions will inspire collaboration, facilitate debate, and share personal and professional experiences from the worlds of business and business education.
Sponsored by:
The Speakers
Celia de Anca Deputy Dean for Ethics, Diversity and Inclusion, IE University
Fangruo Chen Dean, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Gunther Friedl Dean, TUM School of Management, Technical University of Munich
Chris Ogbechie Dean, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University
Ivanka Visnjic Director of the Institute for Innovation and Knowledge Management, ESADE Business School
Wen Hai Dean, Peking University HSBC Business School
Carlo Mazzi Chairman, PRADA
Julianna Paola Ramírez Lozano Head of Sustainability, CENTRUM PUCP
Wendy Loretto Dean, University of Edinburgh Business School
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NEWS & R E S EARCH FROM ACROSS AMBA’S GLOBAL NETWORK Crowdfunding, poverty, responsible finance, and the need to do more to protect LGBT+ workers. Delve into this edition’s roundup of news and research from AMBA-accredited Business Schools, with Ellen Buchan and Tim Banerjee Dhoul
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TACKLING POVERTY
studying business administration at RSM, the study was mainly about corporate issues and business case studies. Now, it seems natural for these students to think about complex social issues.’ Complexity, and the difficulty of eradicating poverty altogether, were recurring themes in students’ feedback from the three-week project. ‘Everyone has an opinion on poverty, and all of those opinions diverge in their definitions of the concept, the root causes and the potential solutions. That's what makes poverty so hard to understand… We learned that there's no one-shot solution at poverty,’ said RSM student, Sander van der Neut, whose team sought to reduce the number of young people repeating a year of secondary school. ‘I truly hope that this course changed their idea of inequality in the Netherlands, and that it will have a permanent impact on their way of thinking and future decision making,’ said van Gerven. / Tim Banerjee Dhoul (TBD)
COUNTRY: NETHERLANDS SCHOOL: ROTTERDAM SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT Student proposals as part of a master’s project offer actionable advice to reduce poverty among young people in the Netherlands and help meet UN SDG number 1 – to address poverty in all its forms everywhere. Working in teams of five, 39 proposals were presented as pitches, of which several focused on education programmes that seek to prepare children for adulthood by teaching subjects such as financial education and citizenship. The project is the culmination of the MSc Global Business and Sustainability at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
(RSM) – a programme that focuses on the effective integration of sustainability into a business’ core operations. Tasked with drawing up viable solutions to reduce poverty among young adults in the Netherlands by 50% by 2030, students engaged with SDG 1 Alliantie – a consortium of partners from the government, the business community, civil society organisations and science in the Netherlands – and conducted interviews with different stakeholders. Marjolijn van Gerven, who is the National Co-ordinator for SDG 1 Alliantie, said: ‘20 years ago, when I was
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SHIFTING THE FOCUS OF AFRICA’S FINANCE INDUSTRY
Naidoo, Co-Founder of the RFI along with the former head of the Alexander Forbes Research Institute, Anne Cabot-Alletzhauser. ‘The RFI's intention is to produce practical, replicable, and implementable solutions for measuring and reporting impact, enhancing the asset allocation framework for investors looking to deploy capital along with risk, return and impact frontier, and ultimately provide solutions to fill any funding gaps in capital market mechanisms. This will require a dual but integrating focus between macro and micromechanisms,’ Naidoo continued. While the principles of the RFI model are founded on the UN SDGs, the founders believe that before environmental goals can be addressed, there needs to be a focus on equality, stability, and economic practices. The RFI intends, therefore, to make changes with longevity and sustainability in mind for long-term regeneration, with effective self-determination and governance in Africa being central to its development. One challenge associated with this initiative is to find development solutions for all of Africa, despite the differences in financial ecosystems found across the continent. The aim is therefore not to undermine the existing work of national and global stakeholders, but to help these to work in alignment, using an African lens to produce solutions. / Ellen Buchan (EB)
COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA SCHOOL: GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE
The Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria, has launched a Responsible Finance Initiative (RFI) that will centre on a collaborative model for public, private and civic sectors across Africa. Its aim is to better link capital to the means of production, labour and technology, and ultimately shift the focus of the region’s financial services industry towards being more relevant and responsible to the needs of Africans. GIBS is the, ‘ideal platform for the RFI‘ because ‘it balances academic soundness with robust practice,’ according to Deslin
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CORPORATE MBA COMPLETES EIGHTH ITERATION
COUNTRY: GREECE SCHOOL: ALBA GRADUATE BUSINESS SCHOOL, THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF GREECE An eighth cohort of students has graduated from a specialised MBA co-created between Alba Graduate Business School and financial services firm, Eurobank. Kostas Axarloglou, Dean of Alba, expressed pride in a programme ‘with a significant impact that has already 250 Eurobank executives as graduates,’ before adding: ‘In close collaboration with Eurobank, the programme has evolved all these years along with the evolution of the financial industry and management science.’ The Eurobank – Alba MBA in Financial Services launched in 2003 as a leadership development initiative of the bank,
LGBT+ EMPLOYEES FEEL LESS SAFE AT WORK THAN HETEROSEXUAL COUNTERPARTS
COUNTRY: UK SCHOOL: UNIVERSITY OF BATH SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
which has its headquarters in Athens, Greece. Eurobank CEO at the time of launch, Nicholas
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Nanopoulos, remarked that: ’Observing and understanding important developments in the domestic and international financial markets is better assured when we combine it with the acquisition of a solid educational background in a creative work environment.’ The programme was then fully redesigned in 2018 to encompass emerging approaches and trends in finance, such as agile project management, design thinking, fintech, and lean startup methodology. ‘We needed a programme that would be digitally imbued, a vital part of Eurobank Digitalisation Strategy, aiming to reskill and retool a new generation of Eurobank leaders; a programme designed as an opportunity to learn and grow rather than just an opportunity to advance. And a programme that would aim to create new waves of disruptive growth,’ explained Stavroula Papadopoulou, Head of the Learning Division at Eurobank. The latest programme ended with students presenting senior executives at Eurobank and its current CEO, Fokion Karavias, with their ideas for growth through digital transformation and blue ocean, disruptive innovation. Kyriakos Kyriakopoulos, Academic Director of the programme, said the latest crop of graduates were ready, ‘to act as game changers who wish to make an impact in Eurobank, in the era of digitisation and transformation disruption.’ / TBD
More needs to be done to ensure the safety of LGBT+ employees at work, according to new research launched by UK HR association, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), and co-authored by Luke Fletcher, Senior Lecturer at the University of Bath School of Management. Key findings from Inclusion at work: Perspectives on LGBT+ working lives include the fact that 40% of surveyed LGB+ workers had experienced conflict in a 12-month period, with this conflict usually revolving around characteristics which are protected from employment bias by law in the UK (and which, for example, cover age, religion and sexual orientation). This is compared to 29% of heterosexual workers who reported experiencing conflict in the same period of time. Among trans workers, surveyed separately to LGB+ workers, 55% had experienced conflict within a 12-month period, with only half of these conflicts being resolved. In addition, 12% of trans workers reported experiencing unwanted sexual attention at work, and 2% reported experiencing sexual assault. The report suggests ensuring that policies are in place to allow LGBT+ workers to feel safe to report problems and to train managers to understand the unique challenges they face. There is also a recommendation that employers support individuals and not address LGBT+ as a homogeneous group. ‘The report highlights the different challenges and needs that groups in the LGBT+ spectrum experience. During the pandemic, blanket changes have come into place to protect employee wellbeing, but businesses must also think about how best to adapt broader policies and practices to specific minority groups,' said Fletcher. / EB
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ONLINE CAREERS EVENT DRAWS 58 EMPLOYERS AND 1,600 STUDENTS
YOURS TRULY, UNRULY MOB?
COUNTRY: HONG KONG SAR, CHINA SCHOOL: CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG (CUHK) BUSINESS SCHOOL 'Coronacession' has hit economies around the world hard and could cut supplies of funding through traditional means. This, in turn, is likely to turn attention towards non-traditional models, such as crowdfunding. Although said to ‘democratise’ investment, putting faith in crowdfunding's public process, particularly in an online environment, is not without risk. However, crowdfunding models are not driven by unruly mobs, and even display a relatively high level of sophistication, according to research from Keongtae Kim, an Associate Professor in the Department of Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School. In research tracking investments through a now defunct crowdfunding platform for mobile phone apps, App Backer, Kim found that experts go into projects ahead of the crowd and set the tone for its ultimate success in raising finance. He determined that the crowd also picked up on whether an expert’s knowledge aligned with the risk underlying a project. ‘Crowds can differentiate different types of signals, and act on those signals. They are not naïve. They will only follow experts when the expertise is aligned with the nature of the uncertainty,’ said Kim. In this sense, the more information that is available to the crowd, the better the decisions it makes. The recommendation here is therefore to require ‘professional’ or ‘angel’ investors to be identified on crowdfunding platforms so that ‘regular’ investors can pay attention to what they do. This would lessen the possibility of the wrong kinds of company securing finance and the public losing faith in crowdfunding models as a consequence. Although, right now, the signs are good in Kim’s opinion: ‘Crowdfunding is fairly rational. If bad-quality projects raise more money than good-quality projects, it means this market isn’t working very well. In my research, we didn’t find that.’ / TBD
COUNTRY: PORTUGAL SCHOOL: ISEG LISBON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA While it is still virtually impossible to meet face to face in many countries, online events are becoming more and more ambitious in replicating the feeling of being in a physical space. This was the aim of ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management’s (ISEG) careers event in February. Held on a 3D virtual platform made to look like students were on campus at ISEG’s famous Pátio das Francesinhas, the event was able to accommodate 58 employers, including EY, Vodafone, Deloitte, Banco de Portugal, Accenture and L’Oréal. A total of 1,600 students attended, with ISEG reporting that more than over 6,500 CVs were submitted and nearly 3,000 messages were exchanged between students and companies over the course of the day. The 3D platform allowed students to get a complete view of the fair and all its participating companies, while also allowing employers to customise their stands. The event itself, meanwhile, consisted of company talks, virtual speed interviews, and workshops, with emphasis on providing spaces for interactions between students and employers. There was also an option for students to send their CV through to any open jobs or internships a participating organisation was presenting. Employers and students attending the jobs fair were complimentary of the event’s format and benefits. A recruiter from Deloitte, Ana Rebelo Grilo said: ‘The various interactions created throughout the day, together with the company presentation and the chat, enabled students to get to know better Deloitte’s culture and [its] mission and values, as well as to share experiences and clarify doubts about [its] business areas, career opportunities, and current ongoing recruitment processes.’ Mafalda Palmela, a master’s in management student said: ‘It was a day that helped me organise my future and prepare for it… It is through these contacts and the effort made by the Careers Office that we can find opportunities and expand our network.’ / EB
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Share your news and research updates by emailing AMBA & BGA’s Content Editor, Tim Banerjee Dhoul, at t.dhoul@associationofmbas.com
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OUTSIDE
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insight
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Experts representing corporates, charities, social enterprises, and academia, give their take on the opportunities for business education in 2021 and beyond. Reporting by Ellen Buchan and David Woods-Hale
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INNOVATION for SUCCESS in BUSINESS EDUCATION
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Leaders from Rolls-Royce, PwC and the European Space Agency on how innovation will impact the business world, and what this means for business education. Highlights from a session at the AMBA & BGA Festival of Excellence
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Finding the right balance On this point, Manisha Mistry, Head of Digital Culture at Rolls-Royce, explained that more innovative approaches to business education will produce more innovative graduates, and that both Schools and employers will need to adapt quickly to make the most of a creative, tech-savvy stream of talent. ‘There's a real balance now that I think organisations, in my experience, are working out how they can allow these [tech-savvy] people to come into a world that we've cultivated over years of experience and built to a point where we're safe in the sense of where we're operating. We know we need to shift but [these people] are used to volatility; they're used to changing direction instantly without worrying about all the predicating processes, models or practices around them. They have to do that with us – not to us – and these are the kinds of new areas of focus I think we're going to need to start seeing coming through Business Schools.’ Frank Salzgeber, Head of Innovation and Ventures, ESA Space Solutions, European Space Agency, summed up the session by voicing his support for the notion of ‘social capital’ to enable innovation: ‘Everybody has a kind of social bank account. When you become older, your career is fuller, and you can really use these connections. If you're younger, you have to fill up [the account] somehow. While they will also have to do this face to face, we have to see how we teach students that they can do this online. The challenge is to adapt our soft skills to make them work in a digital format.’ CHAIR Simone Hammer , Global Marketing Director, Learning and Training Solutions, Barco PANELLISTS Rob McCargow , Director of Artificial Intelligence, PwC Manisha Mistry , Head of Digital Culture, Rolls-Royce Frank Salzgeber , Head of Innovation and Ventures, ESA Space Solutions, European Space Agency Bodo Schlegelmilch , Chair, AMBA & BGA; Professor of Marketing, WU Vienna
hat challenges and opportunities await Business Schools in the
this has also impacted on business education. The thoughts of PwC’s Director of Artificial Intelligence, Rob McCargow, chimed with those of Schlegelmilch. ‘We’ve all been dragged into this massive field experiment and everyone had to pivot to remote working within 24 hours,’ said McCargow. ‘At PwC, we had to move our 300,000 people to a remote setting immediately and this has accelerated many of the digital transformation programmes we were building. In some cases, things that had been on the roadmap for four years [from now] have been dragged to immediate action, which has been really quite exciting. ‘This has been radical innovation by necessity – not by aspiration’ ‘This has been radical innovation by necessity – not by aspiration – and that's been an exciting place to be. I keep hearing the phrase, “when we get back to normal,” but if we're being candid, there is no getting back to normal now and we will see a stratification of companies that have a different mindset about the return to normal, post-Covid-19. There will be some laggards who will be desperately trying to get back to a semblance of normality and wishing to adopt the same format as before the pandemic, but at the other extreme, we will see companies entirely reinventing their business model. We've already seen companies disinvest from their real estate portfolio entirely and work to a fully virtual setting. The reality [for most], though, will be somewhere in the middle. PwC is going to be radically different, but we still need to have some face-to-face contact. ‘My biggest concern is the more junior staff coming into the workplace for the first time. We have to cater for them properly and enable the ability to build social cohesion and social capital. We can’t go too far down a digital track immediately and forget about that essence of humanity.’
‘new normal’ of business? How will Business Schools create the leaders who can not only survive, but also thrive, in uncertain business conditions? And how are boundaries being pushed in terms of creativity in theory and practice at Business Schools? A panel of leaders working at the forefront of global innovation shared their take on these challenges and offered solutions as part of the AMBA & BGA Festival of Excellence. Chairing the panel was Simone Hammer, Global Marketing Director for Learning and Training Solutions at Belgian tech company, Barco. She introduced the conversation by explaining: ‘We can see as a solution provider that there has been very quick adoption [of new technology] that we didn't think was possible. So very often in the education sector, faculty or teachers were thought to be technology adverse but the pandemic has meant that they have had to think of a different solution. That's what we call digital enablement and now we are looking into digital transformation.’ Bodo Schlegelmilch, Chair of AMBA & BGA and Professor of Marketing at WU Vienna, agreed. ‘The Covid crisis has been a very big accelerator. We had a number of tendencies which were already visible – for example, more online teaching,’ he said, before adding that the pandemic had brought about, ‘a sudden huge field experiment, into which everybody had to be dragged. We went through stages. The first stage was panic: “How do we cope and how we can we do this?”. The second stage was: “This has worked quite well, so let's experiment a little bit and make it better.” Now what we’re observing is that [Schools] are starting to become much more familiar with technology and are willing to try things out. This is an attitudinal change where they say: “Zoom is fine but what can we do in addition? Can we use virtual reality or AI in order to tailor the programme for the specific needs of students when they come in?” There's much more willingness to explore what is possible and this attitudinal change has been very important.’ The coming stratification Innovations and disruption in the wider business arena have been widespread and
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A BRIGHTER FUTURE: CULTURE, DIVERSITY and INCLUSION
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The opportunity to bring greater diversity and inclusion to Business Schools and, by extension, the business world, in a post-Covid-19 landscape
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s the world looks to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, a ‘crisis environment’ in which creative ideas and innovations have flourished
Taking the conversation further, Paul Sesay, CEO and Founder of
dealing with psychological safety. But it’s also about making sure that it’s clear to everyone that it’s OK to have the debate. Sometimes we have to create safe spaces where people can fail, where they can use the wrong language and where they can ask questions – where they are educated and not simply belittled.’ Closing a lively debate, Juan Pablo Otero, CSR expert and D&I activist, proffered that D&I is not just about presence, but also representation: ‘Sometimes, we think that if we have someone with disabilities in our organisation we are OK, or if we have someone from another race or country then we are okay, but at the end only 5% of the organisation is part of a minority,’ he said. ‘We need to set goals and measure what we are in the beginning and where we want to get to. In that way, we will see our little steps. ‘We all expect big changes. What we have been living through in the last year, has shown us that we are all vulnerable. When we go back to the office, we won’t be the same as we were last year. We are going to be more sensible. This pandemic has shown us that we are so different, but we are living through the same experience across the world. This period has shown us that the only way we can solve problems is by working together. One of the advantages of the situation we are living through is that it has revealed a lot about inclusion because we have been involved in teamwork and working with all people.’ CHAIR Peter MacDonald , Director of Business School Services, Advent Group PANELLISTS Sheree Atcheson , Board Member, Women Who Code Stephen Frost , Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Frost Included Juan Pablo Otero , CSR and sustainability expert, and D&I activist Paul Sesay , CEO and Founder, Inclusive Companies
Inclusive Companies, added: ‘A lot of organisations go wrong because they think that one shoe fits all. D&I is unique to an individual organisation – you can’t cut and paste initiatives. From an inclusion perspective, you have to look at the HR processes that are unique to your leadership culture before you can really move forward with inclusion. It has to come from the very top as well, from the CEO downwards to the operational staff.
also presents Business School leaders with an opportunity to direct their organisations to make seismic changes in diversity and inclusion (D&I). Through direct action and a ripple effect, they can improve the economic opportunities for underrepresented segments of society. As such, a session at the AMBA & BGA Festival of Excellence explored options for enhancing and developing diversity strategies in business education, drawing on insight from experts in the field and those who have developed D&I initiatives in international corporate organisations – with inspiring results. Peter MacDonald, panel chair and Director of Business School Services at Advent Group, explained that there has been a large body of research showing that people want to feel that they are a ‘part of something’, citing demonstrable business benefits in terms of performance in relation to this. With that in mind, how can organisations today fast-track moves towards a more inclusive and diverse culture? What more could and should Business Schools be doing in terms of curriculum development around these points? Defining inclusive leadership Sheree Atcheson, Board Member at Women Who Code, explained: ‘Business Schools can define what inclusive leadership looks like before people go out into different businesses or start their own businesses. I think this opportunity should not be wasted. [Business Schools] have an opportunity to embed inclusive principles and leadership techniques, so we aren’t continually having the same problems in trying to retrospectively train leaders on what it means to run an organisation inclusively, what it means to measure inclusion as well as diversity, and so on. ‘The purpose of measurement is you can check if initiatives are working for you and going in the right direction, or if they are not. The key part of this for Business Schools is the role modelling of this behaviour.’
‘A lot of organisations go wrong because they think that one shoe fits all’
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‘You’ve got to look at the culture within the organisation in order to make change and you’ve got to have difficult conversations to know what needs to be done. You may think that your culture is a certain way but when you dig into the lived experiences of individuals at work, it’s often completely different.’ Embedding learning about difference into core curricula Looking more specifically at the topic of diversity within Business Schools, Stephen Frost, CEO and Founder of Frost Included, explained: ‘It is a core part of leadership that we learn about difference, and that we learn about how to manage difference and how to learn from difference in order to empathise. That isn’t just a soft skill, it’s critically important for customer service, marketing, negotiation, and strategy. So, it’s about embedding this, not as a separate module, but as a core part of curriculum design. ‘This also forms part of the values that are upheld by the School itself. On the one hand, there are some obvious things, like supporting D&I and
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STRATEGIC BUSINESS SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS
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Representatives from AccorHotels, Telefónica and Blue Prism offer advice and insights on the best way to forge mutually beneficial
relationships between the worlds of business education and industry
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B usiness Schools’ links with the corporate world enhance action learning, recruitment, strategic alignment, and collective innovation. Arguably, in a business market defined by disruption and uncertainty, such forms of collaboration between business education and industry have never been more important. But Schools face mounting challenges in terms of understanding needs and expectations, and nurturing mutually beneficial relationships. With this in mind, a session at the AMBA & BGA Festival of Excellence brought together a panel of experts to discuss the benefits of partnerships and how to ensure that ‘win-win’ situations are achieved. Steef van de Velde, Board Member and Chair of AMBA & BGA’s International Accreditation Advisory Board (IAAB) and Professor of Operations and Management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), explained: ‘Corporate partnerships are crucial for Business Schools. It's clear that many of our faculty have personal relationships with executives in corporations for, say, research, teaching, or case writing. But often, Schools might like to institutionalise these relationships for the longer term and leverage those relationships for internship recruitment, projects, executive education, or other purposes. ‘Very often, the expectations from Business Schools are clear, but what about the expectations from our counterparts from corporations?’ Alignment and approach Jon ‘Jet’ Theuerkauf, Chief Customer Strategy and Transformation Officer at Blue Prism, outlined some facets they were looking for from Schools: ‘When we speak with Schools, it's really important that what we are able to convey to them is taken seriously because we are in the market and working with more than 2,000 major organisations and their customers. So, we understand what the needs [of these organisations] are going to be and we can see where trends are coming from. ‘We believe that when we're speaking to institutions and making recommendations to them, that they are building [this] into every student's curriculum and gaining an understanding of evolving technologies. When we look for partnerships, we're looking for Schools and institutions with which we feel an alignment because they've recognised that
the world is evolving and that change is being pressed onto us at a speed unlike anything we've ever seen before.’ Picking up on this theme, Ralitza Iordanova, Director of Global Partnerships and Luxury Brands at AccorHotels – which is responsible for hospitality brands including Mondrian, Raffles, Orient Express, and Banyan Tree – added: ‘From an organisational standpoint, in my experience, we have typically been the ones approaching Business Schools versus the other way around and I think a couple of key things come into play – the values behind a School and innovation – being able to adapt quickly to the current marketplace. ‘The big opportunity is looking at the approach to partnerships’ ‘A perfect example is the current Covid-19 context. The hospitality sector is in a situation where we have an excess of global talent available in the marketplace,’ she continued pointing out that 70% of people in the sector have either been furloughed, made redundant, or are on temporary leave. ‘There are a number of different scenarios, but for maybe a year or two years, this talent will be sitting in the marketplace – not necessarily engaged because no one is hiring – and it's extremely difficult. ‘The big opportunity – both from an organisational standpoint and for Schools – is looking at the approach to partnerships. There are other areas that come into play, such as geography, rankings and so on, but I think [good partnerships are based on the level of] collaboration with which the Business School wants to come to the table, to co-create new programming and new kinds of innovation together, to attract talent and then to develop existing talent. ‘Ideally, we should be doing this on an ongoing basis, and it shouldn't take a crisis to get us in shape for that, but [the key is] what kind of a mindset the leaders behind a
Business School come to the table with, and how they're willing to shape and work with organisations to make something impactful beyond the typical access to talent of interviews, apprenticeships and databases.’ Getting the full picture Antonio Schuh, Director of Partnerships at Telefónica, also had some words of advice for Schools wishing to build relationships with corporates, based on his experience: ‘To create something relevant for both organisations involved, it's important for a strategic relationship to be at a higher level with a broad base. Then, you should make an effort to gain the full picture and identify the people that need to be consulted – even if informally,’ he said. ‘By having the full picture, you will develop more opportunities to understand what's going on on the other side [of the partnership]. I'm talking from experience because it took a long time for us to structure our partnerships at Telefonica. We have dealings with other telecoms companies, and [together] we have built thousands of [initiatives] – for example, international roaming, or wholesale joint presence in communities for inter-standardisation technologies. This can be super complex but once you have a clear picture of the multiple activities that you’re both working on, this can indicate a pattern and an intention, and this will put you in a much stronger position to use that information and do something productive.’ CHAIR Steef van de Velde , Board Member and Chair of the International Accreditation Advisory Board (IAAB), AMBA & BGA; Professor of Operations and Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) PANELLISTS Ralitza Iordanova , Director of Global Partnerships and Luxury Brands, AccorHotels Antonio Schuh , Director of Partnerships, Telefónica Jon ‘Jet’ Theuerkauf , Chief Customer Strategy and Transformation Officer, Blue Prism
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LEADING CHANGE and INSPIRING
LIFELONG LEARNING
22
Changing landscapes
necessitate changing approaches to alumni relations and lifelong learning. Experts from a variety of industries offer their perspectives
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I n a volatile world, even MBAs are School, post-MBA, in a recent AMBA & BGA survey. Growing interest and demand for continued learning presents Business Schools with a golden opportunity to retain close links with their alumni. As such, a session of the AMBA & BGA Festival of Excellence explored strategies and opportunities for Business Schools to reinvent teaching and learning among students, graduates, alumni networks, and in their custom and executive education offerings. challenged to keep abreast of trends and issues constantly – and 34% of graduates were found to have accessed lifelong learning from their Business Chairing the panel was Ivan Mitchell, CEO of Studious Digital Education, who kickstarted the conversation by saying: ‘I'm sure lifelong learning is on the agenda throughout organisations across the world. I want to start thinking about what the future holds for this space of lifelong learning – what are we optimistic about and what do we think is going to happen?’ Bodo Schlegelmilch, Chair of AMBA & BGA, and Professor of Marketing at WU Vienna, proceeded to present a challenge for Business Schools: ‘Business Schools have to become more flexible in two ways. They have to give a lot of delivery options, in terms of the content they are producing, but also in terms of the focus of their content. ‘A lot of Business Schools have thought in the past that graduation is it, the students are no longer our customers. This meant that alumni relations were more of an afterthought – it was maybe about getting money, or getting someone in to give a talk. That is very wrong, because we need to look at education from the cradle to the grave, so we have to address these kinds of customers in a very different way. I think that for Business Schools, that is the biggest challenge at the moment.’ More active roles Offering a corporate and employment perspective, Ehab Abdel Hafez, Head of Talent Acquisition for Africa, the Middle East and Turkey at Johnson & Johnson, responded: ‘Business Schools should be making sure that corporates are playing a more active role in developing curricula,’
Offering the perspective of an MBA and DBA graduate, marketing practitioner and author, Geraint Evans, said: ‘What we must do, in terms of supporting lifelong learning, is challenge the academics, educators and the people who run Business Schools. We have to act now and focus on the fundamentals as we understand them.’ ‘Lifelong learning can be as short as a five-minute podcast you listen to every lunchtime’ Panellists were in agreement that Business Schools have an opportunity to offer more diverse and innovative forms of lifelong learning. However, Schelegelmilch pointed out that other providers exist in the market and threaten the success of this proposed strategy: ‘There's a whole range of institutions that offer various degrees and various types of courses,’ he said. ‘In this context, you have to be careful not to just equate lifelong learning with another degree. I think another degree is always nice, but lifelong learning can be as short as a five-minute podcast you listen to every lunchtime. The interesting question here is how institutions can manage and provide lifelong learning opportunities. And how do corporations entice their employees to participate regularly in lifelong learning? I think that is a key issue.’ So, how is the corporate world reacting to this change in the need for learning and development, and how can Business Schools remain in the mix? Elisaveta Nojkovska, Industry Executive for Central and Eastern Europe, Higher Education at Microsoft, offered some advice: ‘Education cannot stop with university or with the MBA. The technology is changing, the environment is Keeping up with changes to technology and aspirations
changing, tools are changing – so keeping up with trends is something that needs to be a norm and needs to be flexible. Being adjustable to the current situation is something that will help everyone be upskilled.’ Gaya Gamhewage, Head of Learning and Capacity Building, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization (WHO) picked up on the current pace and depth of change, before saying: ‘What change requires is for us not to educate or train, but to learn because the purpose of learning is application in real life. Our roles are changing so, even if you’re academically qualified, you will need constant learning and the systems to support that. I think our aspirations also change. Our understanding of equity and human rights has changed our aspirations, and this requires learning not just in our domains but in a complex system. That requires all of the 21st-century skills of communication, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. ‘All this necessitates constant learning, not just formally in universities but also through informal learning, so we may go to a course or learn from a webinar but there’s also what we learn every day, informally. How are we learning from our experiences, codifying this learning and sharing it with others? It's this whole complex system that makes lifelong learning.’
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CHAIR Ivan Mitchell , CEO, Studious Digital Education PANELLISTS
Ehab Abdel Hafez , Head of Talent Acquisition (Africa, Middle East and Turkey) Johnson & Johnson Geraint Evans , marketing practitioner, academic and writer Gaya Gamhewage , Head of Learning and Capacity Building, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization Elisaveta Nojkovska , Industry Executive for Central and Eastern Europe, Higher Education, Microsoft Bodo Schlegelmilch , Chair, AMBA & BGA; Professor of Marketing, WU Vienna
he said, adding that there is ‘a lot of appetite within organisations’ for this form of collaboration.
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