BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
macroeconomic volatility, politics and regulation across many different markets, a host of environmental and sustainability issues, and often things like international investment law. Moreover, we need to teach our students how all of it fits together – how interest rates and financial markets in the US affect things like shale fracking, and how the related shifts in oil prices affect the supply chain for cobalt (a critical input to lithium batteries) coming out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has the biggest cobalt reserves in the world. I think that’s a critical challenge for Business Schools: how do we teach our students to recognise and navigate these incredibly complex global systems? The flipside of that challenge is a real opportunity: Business Schools have a unique opportunity to hold what I think of as an ‘analytical mirror’ to firms, to help them see and understand what they – and what others – are doing in structured, rigorous ways. I think that is one of the most important things that management education did in the last century, and I think there is a huge opportunity for business educators to do that now, with a different set of issues and a broad, complex global market. In your past role at the African Leadership University School of Business (ALUSB) you spearheaded a new MBA programme. Can we expect a similar level of innovation in your new role at UCT GSB? Yes, I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to bring some of the things I learned at ALUSB to the UCT GSB. In my previous role, I had the opportunity to create an MBA that was designed specifically for an African market. That involved constructing a programme that used technology in cutting-edge ways and developing content that was relevant to a very diverse group of students working in complex, fast-paced environments. I love the idea of applying some of those insights to the UCT GSB. I see a future for the UCT GSB that combines its record of excellence and its distinctly African identity with an approach to technology that expands the scope, reach, and flexibility of its offerings. I am also keen to use technology to deepen our faculty’s research on the continent, and to support the School’s commitment to developing and teaching insights that are relevant to business leaders around the world. I think that with this combination of substance and innovation, the UCT GSB can not only provide a bridge for business insights and education across the African continent, but between Africa and the rest of the world. Is the business education sector as a whole responding quickly enough to global disruption and Education 4.0? Last year I would have said ‘no’ to this question, but I think there’s been an incredible amount of movement in
Catherine Duggan is the Director of the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB), as of the start of September 2020. She was previously Professor of Management and Political Economy and Vice Dean for Strategy
and Research at the African Leadership University School of Business in Rwanda where she
spearheaded the development of an MBA programme that blends online and in-person learning, and which draws students from more than 15 African countries each year. Before this, she was a member of faculty at Harvard Business School for nearly a decade and was the first woman in the School’s history to win its prestigious Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Required Curriculum – an award conferred by a vote of the MBA graduating class, and one which she received two years in a row. Duggan has also been a visiting scholar at Saïd Business School, Oxford University, where she taught a popular course on doing business in Africa. She holds a PhD in political science from Stanford University. ‘I’ve constructed my career around a continent, rather than around a management field. That certainly makes me unusual, at least at a Business School’
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the past few months as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. So many faculty members who were once sceptical about online teaching are seeing the opportunities of the medium, and I think this enormous, collective experiment in online teaching and remote working has created an explosion of excitement and creativity in what was once considered a bit of a niche area of business education. I think pandemic-related challenges have also created fascinating new opportunities for research and collaboration. I’m particularly interested in contributions by researchers from the global south and from institutions that have comparatively fewer resources than many Schools in wealthier countries. Scholars in Africa and elsewhere are doing such interesting and important research, but travel and other costs have often made it difficult to establish the kinds of links that facilitate collaboration, mentorship, and a global perspective and
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