Silk Road network promotes sustainable leadership Chaired by Zhongming Wang, AMBA & BGA’s international advisor for China, this session heard from Kenji Yokoyama, dean of external relations at NUCB Business School in Japan. He discussed a capstone project on sustainable business, involving students collaborating with companies in Nagoya that proved extremely popular: “it was oversubscribed, as there were 75 applications [and only 50 places]”. In 2026, the school plans to send students on overseas study tours to countries including Thailand and Portugal. Jun Qi, associate dean at the School of Management at China’s Jinan University, described this as a “pivotal moment” in history, with business schools having to question what their role is in this new era in the context of climate urgency and social transformation. She revealed that the school is rethinking its strategy; under the name, Going Green & Global, it has introduced eight courses around sustainability, ESG integration and eco-friendly supply chain design. Eva Khong, associate dean of the Faculty of Finance at City University of Macau, spoke about the university’s long-standing involvement with the Silk Road Entrepreneurship Education Network (SREEN). This sees it co-organise SREEN’s annual conference, focused on sustainable entrepreneurship, leadership development and AI-driven business. In addition, the Macau-based university promotes inter-institutional exchanges and talent cultivation among universities along the New Silk Road Economic Belt and participates in cultural heritage preservation along the Maritime Silk Road, as well as hosting various symposiums on related topics. Lastly, the dean of the International Business School Suzhou at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Eddy Fang, talked about the way “international is in [the school’s] DNA” as it benefits from a fully English speaking set-up, making it a “cocoon in China”. He singled out executive education as the only thing missing from IBSS’ portfolio and expressed an interest in working with the Silk Road network in order to live up to his school’s mission to be “a window between China and the rest of the world”.
Continuing with her metaphor, Msweli called the beam emanating from a lighthouse a “living network of thought leadership”, while she described the lens as “BGA’s focus on the UN’s sustainable development goals and societal impact”. The tower, meanwhile, acts as the foundation, built on BGA’s core principles of positive impact and responsible management. She outlined four frontiers in which the lighthouse should operate; the first dispenses with the old model of education that involved MBA graduates as agents of shareholder value. The new frontier must concentrate on “educating leaders who create value for the entire system”. BGA can assist with curriculum transformation and pedagogy, moving from case studies about problems to live projects that create solutions with local communities. The AI co-creation campus is the second frontier: previously, the technology was viewed as a job destroyer, but now management education understands the need to harness AI responsibly for the good of society. BGA helps with the development of AI skills, organising thought leadership seminars on the topic. The third frontier is the business school as a living lab for societal transformation, with students able to earn credits by working with local disadvantaged communities. The fourth and final frontier centres around measuring what truly matters; nowadays, it is essential to pioneer new-style metrics for evaluating student success and academic performance. To this end, BGA surveys alumni not just on their salary but on their contribution to societal wellbeing, noted Msweli. Implementation of a dynamic strategic plan The session helmed by Hassan Abu Bakar, dean of the Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business at Universiti Utara Malaysia, along with the university’s deputy vice-chancellor of academic and international, Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, looked at how the Malaysian business school has embraced continuous improvement and incorporated peer feedback to develop a more agile strategy. Abu Bakar began by noting that the school has trialled “student- focused marketing”, made a “significant investment” in teaching cases and changed the style of pedagogy “from traditional to experiential learning”. Sani then explained how OYAGSB is implementing AI into its programmes, based on a government “blueprint for higher education”. The business school dean noted how the institution is keen to attract more international students, while Sani said the university is looking to establish global collaborations, “with a view to creating joint programmes and degrees”. He also referenced the potential of online programmes and micro-credentials. OYAGSB is partnering with industry more than ever before, as Abu Bakar explained. The largest bank in Malaysia has now sent three cohorts of staff for executive education, while a number of medical doctors have joined the school’s MBA programme. Sani remarked on the “pro-business” nature of the country’s current political administration, which actively pushes academia to “engage with the population”. This has attracted a lot of investment, ensuring that students have “a great experience”, he noted.
( From left to right ) Pumela Msweli, executive dean of Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership in Pretoria, extolled the benefits of BGA accreditation as a catalyst to bring about societal change in Africa; Kenji Yokoyama, dean of external relations at NUCB Business School in Japan, outlined the advantages of the case method education system as a tool to develop world-class leaders
22 Ambition • ISSUE 1 • 2026
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