AMBA & BGA LATIN AMERICA CONFERENCE 2024
knowledge, skills, attitudes or behaviours. An example of this could be increased graduate employment rates or improved leadership skills among students by the end of their programme. Lastly, output refers to the tangible products, services or results directly generated from activities, often measurable in quantitative terms. Outputs are typically immediate and indicate the volume of work completed. For instance, the number of graduates produced by a business school in a given year, or the number of workshops and courses conducted. Ramos then pondered why impact is considered so important nowadays for business schools; this is due to several reasons, including global competitiveness, economic challenges, changing stakeholder expectations and accreditation requirements. So how can schools best increase their impact? The AMBA & BGA regional representative proposed a number of solutions, including integrating social responsibility into the curriculum, promoting entrepreneurship, strengthening community engagement and enhancing alumni networking. By way of example, he highlighted the work of INCAE Business School and its impact centres: CELIS is the centre of inclusive and sustainable leadership, while CLACDS is the Latin American centre for competitiveness and sustainable development and LACE stands for the Latin American centre for entrepreneurship. Boosting employability in business education Enhancing students’ employability is a fundamental responsibility of business education providers, with seemingly greater scrutiny falling on the strength of a school’s career services every year. To underline this point, Matthew Small and Gabriel Custodio, CEO and regional sales director at Symplicity respectively, began their session by drawing on research from AMBA & BGA and GMAC that highlights how career development lies at the core of students’ reasons for enrolling in business school. The duo then explained how technology can assist schools in embedding career services throughout the student lifecycle and beyond. For example, on entering a programme, information on
It has also collaborated with others to leverage its strengths, for instance by proposing a new bill to the Energy Commission of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. Moreover, Egade has made a renewed commitment to philanthropy in areas where it can channel the commitment and strength of its community; initiatives include organising workshops for non-profit organisations and a charity race called Run 4 the Future. Above all, however, Arredondo said the school has realised that it wants to “lead and disrupt the current understanding of sustainability and social impact”. To this end, it has partnered with VIVA Idea on the Schmidheiny Chair in Sustainable Futures, presented during the Egade Action Week held in May, something that “marks a renewed commitment to sustainability and innovation in business education”, noted the dean. Practical measures for achieving societal influence How business schools in the region can create greater social impact was also the theme picked up on by Carlos Ramos, AMBA & BGA’s international advisor for Latin America. The problem, according to Ramos, is not that schools in Latin America cannot create impact, but rather they have difficulty demonstrating it. Ramos broke down his strategy for achieving societal influence into impact, outcome and output. Impact refers to the significant and long-term changes that result from a specific intervention, programme or activity undertaken by an organisation. It encompasses the broader societal, economic and environmental transformations attributed to these efforts, going beyond immediate outcomes to highlight the lasting value and positive influence on communities and stakeholders. One such example might be a business school that produces leaders who improve local economies, or enhance community welfare over several years. Outcome refers to the specific changes or benefits that occur as a result of a programme or activity, typically observed in the short to medium term. Outcomes measure the direct effects or results of outputs and are often related to improvements in
students’ individual circumstances and aspirations can be collected and used to formulate a personalised career plan. This can then be aligned with practical experiences and activities available during their studies, such as internships. In this way, schools can move from providing transactional career services to a transformational offering. Busy career services teams can, according to the speakers, also save time and money by using an integrated platform, such as the Symplicity Career Services Manager (CSM). This will enable the collation
Ambition | DECEMBER 2024 | 19
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