FROM THE CEO
CREATING A WINNING CAMPAIGN
In the context of another year of uncertainty, AMBA & BGA CEO Andrew Main Wilson encourages business schools to be more proactive about self-promotion and marketing and to start thinking about submitting entries for the 2025 Excellence Awards
F
ollowing another year of amazing growth for both AMBA & BGA, it felt appropriate that we were able to welcome a record number of guests (almost 300 in total) to
As we enter an uncertain year, with geopolitical, economic and military unrest around the world, organisations will have to work even harder to promote their brands’ qualities and points of di erence, versus their competitors. Winning an award outright, being highly commended, or even shortlisted, can send a positive message to all stakeholders, from business school sta and current students to potential MBA cohorts and employers. A proactive marketing team and, in particular, an expert social media team, can spread this good news extremely e ectively. I notice a huge di erence between those business schools that promote an active, continuous stream of good news and others which, in my view, do far less marketing and brand promotion than they should. A great example of this is Egade Business School in Monterrey, where I visited just before hosting our Latin America Deans & Directors Conference in Mexico City last September. The
school had just been informed that they had been shortlisted as a finalist in our Best CSR & Sustainability Initiative award category. They had proudly featured this achievement as the lead story on their website that week. Our judges subsequently voted for them as the overall winner – and I am sure Egade will proudly communicate this in their marketing campaigns over the next few months. I would encourage all of you to consider which categories your school, faculty, students or graduates might consider entering in our 2025 Excellence Awards, strongly reflecting the quality and innovation of your institution. Full details of all the categories, entry requirements and timings of next year’s awards will be posted on our website and emailed to our accredited and member schools in April.
the 2024 Excellence Awards and gala dinner, held at the Park Plaza Riverbank hotel in London on 19 January. Our 11 award categories attracted the highest-ever number of entries – some 217 – and our judging panels, comprising 38 experienced practitioners, commented that the quality of entries this year was notably superior to what had gone before. Our guests arrived not only from Europe, but also from business schools as far away as Colombia, India, New Zealand and Thailand. The atmosphere was electric and once again showed the value of building deeper customer relationships face to face, compared with the time-e cient, but much less engaging option of online video conferencing.
38 | Ambition FEBRUARY 2024
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