Business Impact covers the big challenges facing global management education as the world asks more of its future business leaders.
THE MAGAZINE OF THE BUSINESS GRADUATES ASSOCIATION (BGA) | LEADERS NEVER STOP LEARNING | ISSUE 14 NOVEMBER 2022
PLUS: • PREPARING
FUTURE LEADERS • MODERNISING MANAGEMENT EDUCATION
PROTECTING THE PLANET HOW AUDENCIA AIMS TO HELP STUDENTS BECOME CUSTODIANS OF THE PLANET AND PRESERVE BUSINESS
xcellence E Awards AMBA&BGA
2022/23 & Gala Dinner
The AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards and Gala Dinner celebrates the quality and achievements of postgraduate business education at the forefront of leadership excellence, recognising the talents and contributions made by AMBA-accredited Business Schools, their students and graduates. Winning, or being shortlisted as a finalist, is a fantastic way to tell the world about the great initiatives your Business School has launched.
Join us at our Gala Dinner on 9 December 2022 as we reveal the winners in every category
www.associationofmbas.com/school-events/gala-dinner-2022-23/
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
Going for green How business schools can support the development of early-career professionals to better enable them to lead in the current environmental crisis
Taking care of planet Earth
Modern times Today's management education is limited in scope and in need of reinvention to better serve society, says BGA’s Victor Hedenberg
“We still need to understand the world around us to take care of it.” José Maillet on Audencia’s Gaïa school and programme offering
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CONTENTS Issue 14 November 2022
30 0 Keep on flying
04 Editor's letter Looking after mother Earth 07 Guest column The impact of cultural intelligence 08 Modern times Today’s business climate has exposed the presiding model of management education as being limited in scope, and in need of reinvention to better serve business and society, says BGA’s Victor Hedenberg
10 Going for green Executive director of CEMS Nicole de Fontaines on the skills needed to lead in the current environmental crisis 12 Cover story: Taking care of planet Earth José Maillet on Gaïa, Audencia’s new school of ecological and social transition, and the course it offers on its Grande École programme
16 Reaping the rewards The finalists of the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards 2022/23 20 0 Going the extra mile INTO University Partnerships’ Sam Clews on trends in student recruitment from China 24 Tackling global challenges Removing the trade-off between doing good and making money
IMD’s Arnaud Chevallier and Albrecht Enders on beating ‘analysis paralysis’ 34 Personal journeys Business school representatives discuss personalisation, micro-credentialing and other emerging trends 42 From the CEO An optimistic outlook
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
EDITOR’S LETTER
EDITORIAL
environment is the greatest concern facing modern-day business leaders. Executive director at CEMS Nicole de Fontaines talks through the report in more detail and its lessons for those working on programme offerings and curricula on page 10. “We need to integrate competencies and skills from the core fields with sustainability competencies and skills,” she argues by way of example. BGA, with its focus on sustainability and responsible management, appears well placed to help business schools define and achieve their impact on these global societal concerns. The organisation’s business development manager, Victor Hedenberg, discusses ways in which management education can better serve business and society ( see page eight ). In considering the relative merits of different educational models, he also offers insights into BGA’s ethos and accreditation process. Lastly, for anyone in need of inspiration and examples of best practice, on page 16 we bring you news of the finalists for the BGA Business School Impact Award 2022/23, as well as those shortlisted for AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards 2022/23 in the areas of CSR and sustainability, diversity and inclusion, lifelong learning and more. Tim Banerjee Dhoul, Editor, Business Impact
Content Editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@businessgraduates association.com Head of Editorial Colette Doyle c.doyle@ associationofmbas.com Art Editor Laura Tallon Insight, Content & PR Manager Ellen Buchan e.buchan@ businessgraduates association.com C orporate Business Development Manager Victor Hedenberg v.hedenberg@ businessgraduatesassociation.com Senior Marketing Executive, BGA Shareen Pennington s.pennington@ businessgraduatesassociation.com BGA Account Manager Ben Maheson b.maheson@ businessgraduatesassociation.com Head of Commercial Relations Max Braithwaite m.braithwaite@ businessgraduatesassociation.com Head of Marketing and Communications Leonora Clement l.clement@associationofmbas.com Finance and Commercial Director Catherine Walker Director of Accreditation and Director of BGA Services Mark Stoddard Chief Executive Officer Andrew Main Wilson Executive Assistant to the CEO Sharon Sidaway s.sidaway@ businessgraduatesassociation.com General Enquiries info@businessgraduates association.com
Looking after mother Earth
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“There will be no more business if we do not take care of others and the planet.” This strikingly simple sentiment, relayed by Audencia’s José Maillet, is a growing realisation among many in management education. Maillet outlines Audencia’s moves to meet its responsibility towards the global problems associated with climate change and widening inequality in our cover feature ( page 12 ) of this edition of Business Impact . Emphasising the need for multidisciplinary approaches, Maillet explains that Audencia’s new Gaïa school and programme is aiming to help business students to
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better understand the world around us so that taking care of the planet in their thoughts and practice will be second nature to them by the time they graduate and embark on influential careers. For Maillet, the emergency situation in which we find ourselves obliges us to accelerate action in this regard and with “a certain form of radicality”. Taking such an approach certainly chimes with the standout finding of a new report from CEMS: that the “The emergency situation in which we find ourselves obliges us to accelerate action”
Copyright 2022 by The Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association. 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, BGA 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 BGA. Whenever an article in this publication is placed with the financial support of an advertiser, partner or sponsor, it will be marked as such. BGA 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.
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 IMPACT TRAILBLAZERS
ACHIEVE AMBA & BGA JOINT ACCREDITATION FOR YOUR BUSINESS SCHOOL
AMBA & BGA joint accreditation emphasises the importance of an institution’s overall impact and value creation for students, employers, and communities, with a focus on responsible management, while maintaining the same level of rigour found in AMBA’s accreditation of postgraduate business programmes. Achievement of joint accreditation allows your Business School to demonstrate the quality of its MBA, as well as responsible management practices, and positive impact on stakeholders.
Undergoing a joint accreditation means that your institution requires only one visit of highly experienced assessors,
and combines required documentation from the two accreditations, reducing the amount of administrative work and tasks required to achieve two internationally recognised Business School accreditations.
EXPLORE AMBA & BGA JOINT ACCREDITATION FOR YOUR BUSINESS SCHOOL AT: www.businessgraduatesassociation.com/AMBA-BGA-Accreditation
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
GUEST COLUMN
How cultural intelligence impacts DE&I
o be culturally intelligent is to adapt and operate effectively in a range of contexts. These
Additionally, some organisations look to hire based on ‘culture fit’. Both of these tendencies can result in teams that lack diversity of thought and approach problem- solving in the same ways. By developing our cultural intelligence, we can tackle these tendencies by increasing our understanding of, and familiarity with, those from different groups. Additionally, being comfortable and effective when working across different cultures will turn us away from seeking to hire based on ‘culture fit’. Equity Equity is not the same as equality. Equality means providing everyone with the same, regardless of their needs or circumstance. Equity, however, looks to give people what they need in order for the resulting playing field to be level. Cultural intelligence allows you to account for the cultural differences across your organisation and the needs of different markets and people. It also facilitates developing an understanding of the way different groups will need to be supported and empowered in order to have an equal, meritocratic experience of work. Inclusion High levels of cultural intelligence can support workplace inclusion. An essential part of cultural intelligence is being able to modify our behaviour consciously to be inclusive and help create a safer environment for those around us. It limits micro-aggressions and allows us to build a workplace culture where all of our
colleagues feel able to be themselves at work. This, in turn, will help drive the innovation and effective problem solving at which diverse teams excel. Improving your cultural intelligence • Create a safe space: Psychological safety is critical to inclusion, but is often overlooked. Creating environments where all colleagues feel that they can share their true experiences without fearing judgement or backlash allows us to understand each other’s backgrounds, needs and motivations better. • Acknowledge fears: Many of us will have avoided challenging conversations because we fear the repercussions of saying ‘the wrong thing’. We can commit to our learning by normalising these feelings of fear and discomfort in order to have better, more insightful conversations. • Name it: Don’t dance around issues that need to be addressed. Using vague, indirect language for specific problems means it is unlikely that these issues will be tackled. Cultural intelligence can be developed and enhanced, just as we develop muscles at the gym. With a better understanding of people who are different to us, and proactively learning more as time goes on, we can become leaders and managers who create inclusive environments for those around us. Lydia Cronin is marketing manager at consultancy Included and a contributing author to The Key to Inclusion , edited by Stephen Frost (Kogan Page, 2022).
can be across national, ethnic, organisational, generational and departmental settings. Cultural intelligence is made up of four key capabilities. These are drive (the curiosity and motivation needed to work well with those who are different to us); knowledge (learning and understanding different cultures); strategy (embedding this understanding into your plans); and action (adapting your everyday behaviour in light of your knowledge). If we build our own cultural intelligence, we can play a significant part in improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) at work. Diversity In a globalised world of work, managers and leaders often need to have the ability to manage teams who live in different countries and represent different cultures. A diverse workforce will be made up of a range of demographic groups and, post-Covid-19 pandemic, these groups are also likely to have differing flexible working arrangements and needs. This diversity is the reality of organisations and our society. With cultural intelligence, you can leverage the power of a globalised workforce as your ability to perform in a
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cross-cultural situation is increased. In recruiting, there can be a risk of
confirmation bias. This is a natural human tendency to look for evidence that supports our held beliefs and avoid information that conflicts with these.
community.mbaworld.com
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
MODERN TIMES
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Today’s business climate has exposed the presiding model of management education as being limited in scope and in need of reinvention to better serve business and society, according to BGA’s Victor Hedenberg, who spoke to Business Impact editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
SPECIAL REPORT
I f you had to explain management education to someone who had no prior knowledge of the world’s teaching systems, would it make sense? Would an alien, for example, find it strange that the majority of people study degrees for a fixed length of time before venturing out into the world of business for the rest of their career? Today’s business world is, after all, one that is marked by constant change and uncertainty against a backdrop of rapid technological advancement, so it seems likely that anyone looking in from the outside would have some follow-up questions. “How can any qualification completed now prepare you for a future that is as yet unknown?” they might ask, or equally, “How can you keep pace with new techniques later in life if you have no access to ongoing learning?” That’s why business education needs to look at how it can reinvent itself to better serve society, argued Victor Hedenberg, BGA’s business development manager, in a session at the recent AMBA & BGA Latin America Conference 2022 in Cartagena, Colombia. From Prussia to Ancient Greece Institutions of higher education across much of the world are, in Hedenberg’s opinion, based around a structure of offering fixed degree programmes. This makes them rigid in scope and means that they are only able to provide a small part of what we need from management education. These structures, he goes on, may have outgrown their original purpose. This is because their roots lie in an educational model that took shape in Prussia in the crucible of industrialisation, with the onus on meeting the state’s nation-building aims. While this was a great way of producing large numbers of graduates who possessed a certain homogeneity of thoughts and skills that chimed with the needs of the state at that time, Hedenberg says that it should not be assumed that it remains the best educational model from which we can draw today. He points to Ancient Greece’s system of mentorship by way of example. In this model, mentors supported and advised their mentees throughout their lives. It was also a two-way process in that the mentor would learn from the mentee by addressing problems together. For Hedenberg, such a model has a lot of relevance to management education and the increasing need to adapt to change and acquire new skills over time. Business schools embarking on BGA’s accreditation process are assigned an academic mentor, with precisely this value of continuous learning in mind. No single path to quality management education Mentorship is also a way in which BGA encourages business schools to break new ground as they seek to make a positive impact on business and society. Once assigned, they help schools form a measurement plan that fits their specific circumstances and aims, using BGA’s continuous impact model (CIM). The CIM features six areas against which schools can measure their
impact, from intent, graduate achievement and value creation to ecosystem, society and academic scholarship. It is designed to allow schools to focus on areas where they are best placed to specialise, while encompassing all the necessary attributes for meeting international standards of quality. The underlying belief for Hedenberg is that other methods of accreditation can sometimes be too prescriptive in their criteria and that this might even hamper innovation and the development of alternative models in management education. BGA, on the other hand, takes the view that there is no single destination offering impact and value to a business school’s stakeholders and no single path to get there. Imagine, for example, an entrepreneurial-oriented business school with no formal degrees that instead offers bite-size courses taught largely by practitioners to small cohorts. Such a school might find it hard to secure recognition from many established accreditation bodies, but BGA’s CIM model can be adapted and tailored to its unique set of circumstances and objectives as long as it can demonstrate the quality of its educational offerings and the impact on its intended audience with the help of the CIM. As Hedenberg postulated in his presentation at the Latin America Conference, accreditation doesn’t need to be purely a case of “my way or the highway”. It can also be an opportunity to help broaden the possibilities of management education and better serve both the business sector and society in general. “Business education needs to look at how it can reinvent itself to better serve society”
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Victor Hedenberg is the business development manager for the Business Graduates Association (BGA) at AMBA & BGA, with responsibility for growing the BGA network, improving its membership and accreditation services, and managing BGA- related projects. He holds a degree in economics and business administration from Hillsdale College
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
GOING FOR GREEN
Nicole de Fontaines , executive director of CEMS, looks at what early-career professionals need to know to lead in the context of the environmental crisis and how business schools can support their development
I n 2002, the then French President Jacques Chirac uttered the phrase, “notre maison brûle et nous regardons ailleurs” to open his speech at the Fourth Earth Summit, held in Johannesburg. This translates as, “our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere”. Fast-forward 20 years and his words are finally sinking in. For too long, we have treated Earth as an infinite resource to plunder. In very recent years, however, humanity seems finally to understand that, without urgent action, we are heading for environmental catastrophe. Since its inception, CEMS (formerly, the Community of European Management Schools and International Companies) has been committed to preparing responsible leaders capable of innovating and driving change within global organisations. Responsible leadership is deeply embedded within the CEMS culture, curriculum and ethos. In 2021, a survey of 4,206 alumni from 75 countries told us that the environment is the greatest concern facing modern-day business leaders. We decided to harness the resources of our unique global community to combine insights from the corporate and the academic world into how we might tackle this challenge and develop the critical skills needed.
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BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
OPINION
“The environment is the greatest concern facing modern-day business leaders”
I’m seeing graduates with this double skillset being fast-tracked as the current generation of managers were never taught these skills.” Leading for the Future of our Planet includes actionable takeaways for young professionals to equip themselves with the skills required. As the decision-makers of the future, they will be key to driving change. We are pleased to share these insights with the wider business education community. actively towards a better, brighter, more peaceful, sustainable future for generations to come • Students shouldn’t leave business school without sustainability skills and competencies in their ‘toolbox’. They should be supported in educating themselves about the complexity of the environmental agenda, past, current and future thinking, and then encouraged to bring these concepts with them into the workplace STUDENT OUTCOMES ON SUSTAINABILITY: RECOMMENDATIONS The following recommendations come from contributors to the CEMS report, Leading for the Future of our Planet . • Students should acquire a broader, deeper base of knowledge around environmental issues and stay curious about their unique position in the bigger picture • Students should learn not to accept the status quo and believe that they can make a difference. They should see themselves as agents of change and reclaim their futures by working
The need for collective leadership Our new report, Leading for the Future of our Planet contains interviews with four global corporations – L’Oréal, Kearney, United Overseas Bank and ABB – and four leading academics from the University of Sydney Business School, NUS Business School at the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Norwegian School of Economics and the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, outlining current challenges, thinking and practice from around the globe. Many of our contributors agreed that we need to move to collective leadership. “We cannot leave the solution to grand environmental or societal challenges to governments or global corporations. Every one of us can make decisions that influence the world for future generations. It takes all of us to succeed, every single day,” comments Heidi Robertson, group head of diversity and inclusion at ABB. “For an organisation to make a meaningful impact, I believe we must shift from hierarchy to an ecosystem-oriented modus operandi,” Robertson continues. “In ABB, we operate in a decentralised model where empowerment and accountability are key principles. Each of us comes together as pieces of the puzzle to drive the company, environment and community forward. Younger generations, in particular, thrive on this bold approach. There is an expectation and a desire to
influence change, not to be part of a pattern of directive leadership. That is why I am so positive about the next generation – there seems to be an innate courage to take real and decisive steps.” Double skillsets However, contributors also highlight a current skills gap. As Lars Jacob Tynes Pedersen, head of the centre for sustainable business at the Norwegian School of Economics, points out: “Many organisations are quite open when it comes to saying they have a competency gap when it comes to sustainability. I believe in having a combined set of skills and competencies – a double competence in business and sustainability. While you can hire people with sustainability skills to do specific sustainability jobs, we need people who understand how they can impact the sustainability agenda to effect real change. “We need to integrate competencies and skills from the core fields (accounting, finance, strategy and marketing) with sustainability competencies and skills. In this new reality, we must enable financial institutions and markets to operate in a way that supports the green transition, and marketeers need to enable and encourage consumers to buy greener products. “We must also have reporting that speaks to the sustainability footprint of the company, as well as its economics.
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ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS FOR STUDENTS
• Balance academic study with intelligent networking and try to understand the business environment through interacting with corporates • Explore environmental topics and issues deeply • Seek internship/work experience opportunities with companies of all sizes in different industries that are working on the sustainability agenda • Understand that having sustainable business on the curriculum provides a competitive advantage and use this to specialise and/or fast-track your career • Bring your voice and knowledge of environmental issues into the workplace • Bring fresh perspectives to the table – but be patient, it takes time to turn a tanker • As a global citizen, bear witness to the impact environmental issues are having • Invest in self-awareness and understand your purpose and values
Nicole de Fontaines is the executive director of CEMS, an alliance of 34 of the world’s leading business schools and 70 corporate partners who together deliver the CEMS Masters in International Management
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
TAKING CARE OF PLANET EARTH
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BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
INTERVIEW
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“There will be no more business if we do not take care of others and the planet,” warns professor José Maillet, as he tells Tim Banerjee Dhoul about Gaïa, Audencia’s new school of ecological and social transition, and the course it offers on its Grande École programme
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
T o take care of business and ensure its personification of the Earth, and she has therefore become a natural choice for those seeking to preserve the environment; not least after the Gaia hypothesis – a theory centred on the mechanics of a complex system that shapes the Earth's biosphere and maintains it as a fit environment for life – came to prominence in the late 1970s. At Audencia, Gaïa aims to further multidisciplinary understanding to help students and business take better care of the Earth. As environmental movements and awareness gather pace, it has begun by offering a programme for business students within Audencia’s Grande École master’s in management programme, as well as executive education modules for companies. longevity, we must take care of the Earth. That’s the message of Audencia’s new school for ecological and social transition, Gaïa. In Greek mythology, Gaia is the The school is headed up by Audencia professor José Maillet, who has a firm focus on climate solutions. The course he developed on economics and energy transition in 2019, for example, has now been integrated into the basic knowledge base of Audencia students and taken by more than 1,000 participants. In this interview, Maillet tells Business Impact more
of the relevance of a transversal education, combining hard sciences (physics, climatology, biology), human sciences and management sciences. In the end, 193 out of an intake of 550 students joined the Gaïa course in September. A recent survey shows that a large number of first-year students want to join this course next year. It is therefore very likely that we will have even more Gaïa students in 2023.
Do you think a programme like Gaïa could or should become a mandatory part of the Grande École master’s in management programme?
about the programme for students, its aims and the responsibility of business education towards addressing environmental concerns. What is the problem that the Gaïa programme is trying to solve in business education? The devastating consequences of global
“We still need to understand the world around us to take care of it”
The teaching of ecological and social transition topics is not new at Audencia. Students can choose the ‘CSR Track’ in their first year, but whatever track
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they choose, all students follow a compulsory course of 24 hours [on these topics] in the first year of the Grande École programme. By the end of this course, they will already have a clear vision of the major changes to come. The specific aim of Gaïa is to allow students motivated by transition subjects to go faster and further, to experiment and ultimately offer them a truly
warming, the collapse of biodiversity and the widening of inequalities (to name a few) place us in an emergency
situation and oblige us, at the same time, to accelerate and to make the choice of a certain form of radicality. This is the whole point of Gaïa, the first school of ecological and social transition backed by a business
school. Gaïa is not just a programme for Audencia students; this is a school that caters to a much wider audience. Audencia employees, companies and many of its stakeholders already benefit from Gaïa's expertise. Further programmes will appear in 2023 for students from a wide variety of backgrounds. The new programme at Gaïa is an optional track on the Grand École master's in management programme. What proportion of Grand École students have chosen this in the programme's first year, and how do you expect this number to change over the coming three years? Initially, we estimated that about 10 per cent of our intake of 500 students would be motivated by the Gaïa course [available in the Master 1, or M1, segment of the Grande École programme]. But as early as February this year, while the programme was in preparation, we discovered growing enthusiasm from Audencia students for these topics. All the recent major climatic events – the megafires, the floods, and now the war in Ukraine – have made many students aware
transformative experience. Audencia does not aim to train only managers of ecological and social transition. Other professions with strong technical expertise remain essential to the implementation of a successful ecological and social transition. For example, the school trains highly technical financial experts, capable of integrating environmental and social issues into management tools. On the other hand, at Gaïa we train ecological and social transition managers with a solid background in finance, making it possible to take on board the necessary changes in this sector. Both sets of expertise are complementary. This kind of synergy already exists in certain disciplines. For instance, today's biology research needs not only biologists, but also computer scientists with knowledge of biology to produce more relevant results. It is this kind of synergy between technical experts who understand Gaïa topics and managers of ecological and social transition that we seek to develop.
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
INTERVIEW
The Gaïa programme is divided into seven mandatory courses and three electives; which single course are you most excited by, and why? There are plenty of amazing courses. One example is Climate Intelligence. First, the students learn about the works of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and climate forecasts for 2030, 2040, 2050 and 2100. They will then meet real companies that are questioning their own future. For 12 hours, the students will support those companies and help design business models according to the IPCC scenarios. Working to anticipate and provide clarity about a highly uncertain future deeply engages both students and company executives, who discover a very different future from the one they had anticipated in their traditional business models.
Can you tell our readers more about the findings of the ClimatSup Business project ahead of the release of its final report in November? I do not yet know the exact conclusions of the report, but it should show the importance of decompartmentalising expertise in management, academic research and pedagogy. Many teachers/ researchers have expertise related to ecological and social transition, but there are not enough links between these areas of expertise to reinvent our ways of producing, working, consuming and living together. We probably need more sharing of our internal expertise on these topics to better help future managers make the transition. What is the responsibility of business schools in helping to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals? Are you optimistic that they will be achieved by their target dates? Scientific and technical lessons related to energy, climate and biodiversity are essential, but they do not allow us to make the transitions that we so badly need. Proof of this is that 2022 will mark the highest level of net CO2 emissions ever recorded. Engineers have been working for years on technical solutions aimed at improving efficiency, decarbonising and regenerating but they are not yet equipped to give society the inspiration and impetus to carry out the huge ecological and social transition projects that are required. To get companies on board, we need inspiring and motivating narratives, something that marketing does very well. We also need competent HR experts who are aware of employees' present and future energy constraints; business strategists who are capable of integrating environmental issues into the heart of companies' business models; financiers and accountants who take into account biodiversity, climate, and energy challenges and ramifications to meet future compliance requirements. Engineering schools do not train people in these skills specifically, so it is up to business schools and management universities to do so. Engineers know what to do to decarbonise, but they do not know how to ensure that this project is shared and carried out collectively. Gaïa, by reconciling hard sciences with social sciences and business, offers solutions to this problem. But the effort must be made collectively, with academic partners, companies, states, NGOs and individuals. Will we be able to go fast enough in the transitions to avoid a bleak future? At Gaïa, we will do everything in our power to achieve this goal.
How important is a multidisciplinary approach to the management of environmental and social issues?
Students have become aware of our dependence on the living world and know that there will be no more business if we do not take care of others and the planet. Everyone understood that we had to develop new business models, products, services and practices capable of creating new balances that are necessarily sustainable and inclusive. But we still need to understand the world around us to take care of it. The true understanding of fundamental biological mechanisms, climate inertia, rebound effects and fossil energy dependence are all part of enabling our students to adopt a systemic vision of the challenges to come. Dismantling companies’ traditional management practices and enabling them to go beyond their own perimeters are major challenges necessary to tackle for the transition. Multidisciplinarity reduces blind spots and allows for a better understanding of the complexity of the world. This additional acuity is also very stimulating for our students. What else has Gaïa, the school of ecological and social transition, done since its launch last year? We have developed four executive education modules for companies. These four modules are a gateway to understanding the need to transform an organisation in order to adapt to the major changes to come. These executive programmes have been a great success with managers and business leaders. For Audencia employees, we also offer ecological and social training throughout the year.
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José Maillet is professor of ecological and social transition at Audencia, where he also leads Gaïa, the school for ecological and social transition. Highly committed to CSR, Maillet supports and advises companies and public organisations on strategic topics related to CSR and supports the deployment of CSR performance indicators, vectors of innovation and performance. He holds a PhD in management sciences
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
REAPING THE REWARDS
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Find out which BGA business schools have made the shortlist in six categories of the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards 2022/23, including all those nominated for the BGA Business School Impact Award 2022/23. Tim Banerjee Dhoul reports
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
AWARDS
“The BGA Business School Impact Award aims to recognise all the areas through which an institution is making an impact”
P rogramme design, social outreach programmes, alumni relations, That’s why the annual BGA Business School Impact Award aims to recognise all the areas through which an institution is making an impact on its stakeholders – be that students and graduates, or the wider communities in which they operate. This year, business schools in India, the Netherlands and the UK are in the running for this prestigious award. Here are the nominees in full: • Arden University (UK) BGA member business school – for flexible and digitally driven programmes that are designed to broaden access to business education • Athena School of Management (India) BGA member business school – for its focus on collaborating to maximise impact in the fields of ESG, digital transformation and the SDGs careers services – all these facets of a business school’s operations and educational experience can be fulcrums for its impact. • Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences (the Netherlands) BGA member business school – for enhancing internationalisation, diversification, employment and entrepreneurship in the region in which it is based • Wrexham Glyndŵr University (UK) BGA member business school – for its investments in improving student teaching and learning
THE AMBA & BGA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2022/23 The BGA Business School Impact Award is one of six categories of the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards 2022/23 that are open to business schools in the BGA network. Designed to recognise industry excellence worldwide, the remaining five categories recognise the work of business schools in areas that are synonymous with many of the principles of BGA, such as lifelong learning, diversity and sustainability. It’s no surprise, therefore, to see business schools in the BGA network shortlisted in each of these categories. The winners of the awards will be announced at the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards and gala dinner, to be held on 9 December 2022 at the Biltmore Mayfair, overlooking Grosvenor Square in the heart of London. You can book your place at the event by visiting the BGA website: https:// businessgraduatesassociation.com/bga_events/gala- dinner-2022-23/
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BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
“The Best Lifelong Learning Initiative award recognises the efforts of schools that are reinventing teaching and learning”
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BEST LIFELONG LEARNING INITIATIVE 2022/23
• Essex Business School, University of Essex (UK) for Open to All: Essex Business School's Inclusive Events Guide BGA member business school • Graduate School of Business, Almaty Management University (AlmaU) (Kazakhstan) for GSB AlmaU Limitlessly Capable project BGA-accredited business school • School of Business, the American University in Cairo (AUC) (Egypt) for AUC Egypt Women on Boards (WoB) Observatory BGA member business school • Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (China) for Centre for Female Leadership and Student Career Development BGA-accredited business school
The Best Lifelong Learning Initiative award recognises the efforts of schools that are reinventing teaching and learning among students, graduates, alumni networks and custom and executive education. • Berlin School of Business and Innovation (BSBI) (Germany) for Learning outside the classroom: events and initiative, and the Synthetic Hybrid Online Model BGA member business school • School of Business, the American University in Cairo (Egypt) for Community-based learning Econ 3071 BGA member business school • Shantou University Business School (China) for The lifelong learning platform of the MBA Education Center BGA member business school • Universidad Externado de Colombia for Privilegios Program
BEST BUSINESS SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP 2022/23
The Best Business School Partnership award recognises organisations that have adopted a proactive and innovative approach to strategic collaboration. Partnerships can be with another business school/group of schools, an employer, a consultant, education partner or technology provider, a social impact group, an individual, a charity, or other organisation. • AESE Business School (Portugal) with PwC Portugal • UPF Barcelona School of Management, Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) (Spain) with CaixaBank • Dongwu Business School, Soochow University (China) with Soochow Securities BGA member business school
BEST CULTURE, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE 2022/23
The Best Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative award recognises the work of business schools to create, incorporate and develop culture, diversity and inclusion practices, while balancing and involving fair working environments.
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
AWARDS
2022 BGA member business school • School of Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (China) for T raining Global Talent with CSR Competency and a Sense of Sustainability BGA-accredited business school • School of Business, the American University in Cairo (Egypt) for Hack 22 BGA member business school
• POLIMI Graduate School of Management (Italy) with The Mind at Work BGA member business school • Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Netherlands) with Dutch Brazilian Chamber of Commerce BGA member business school • Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa (Canada) with Kinaxis
BEST CSR AND SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE 2022/23
BEST INNOVATION STRATEGY 2022/23
The Best CSR and Sustainability Initiative award honours Business Schools that are leading the way when it comes to creating a sustainable future and teaching students about social values, as well as making a positive impact in practical and measurable ways. This award gives schools a chance to showcase their innovative and original CSR and sustainability initiatives on a global stage. • Audencia Business School (France) for Gaïa by Audencia: a school for social and ecological transition • POLIMI Graduate School of Management (Italy) for Training initiatives to support Ukrainian students in dealing with these difficult times and to be prepared to rebuild their country BGA member business school • MCI The Entrepreneurial School (Austria) for MCI Earth Day
The Best Innovation Strategy award is a celebration of innovation and radical thinking in business education delivery across all areas of the business school and has been developed to recognise and reward game-changing new practices, risks and creativity. • Shantou University Business School (China) for Innovation in Teaching, Assessment and Social Responsibility BGA member business school • TBS Education (France) for The Blind Search (TBS) • University of Leicester School of Business (UK) for Online Sustainability Challenge (OSC) • Wrexham Glyndŵr University (UK) for North Wales Business School Simulation Suite BGA member business school
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Book your place at the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards and Gala Dinner, to be held on 9 December 2022 at the Biltmore Mayfair in London, by visiting the BGA website: https:// businessgraduatesassociation.com/bga_ events/gala-dinner-2022-23/
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STUDENT RECRUITMENT
Covid-19 restrictions led one education company to charter flights solely for international students to meet the demand for travel. INTO University Partnerships’ Sam Clews tells Tim Banerjee Dhoul more about this initiative and the latest trends in student recruitment from China
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mid travel restrictions and a shortage of options, the demand for flights from China to the UK among international students was so high that education company INTO University Partnerships set up a series of chartered flights to get students to the start of their courses in time for the start of this year’s academic year. It did the same thing in
worse the next year, in autumn 2021, when all scheduled flights were suspended, so we organised more flights then and again in January 2022. Although scheduled flights [between China and the UK] resumed in August 2022, there was not enough capacity in mid-to-late September to meet the demand, so we again organised an additional six flights in September this year. What were the main challenges in making this initiative a success? The travel agencies involved can’t issue the tickets until all the final approvals have come through and these sometimes don’t come through until the last minute, so students who sign up for the flights are often waiting until just a few days ahead of their travel date before their ticket can be issued. We have never had an issue with getting these approvals and they have always come through in the end, but there are always some students who are a little concerned about not having received their ticket until just a few days before they travel. What was the role of advocacy body Universities UK in this initiative? Universities UK helped connect us with the relevant people at the British Embassy in China to get the approvals from both the British and Chinese side. Universities UK also promoted this initiative to other UK universities to help get enough student demand together to fill the aircrafts. Are there any plans for similar initiatives in conjunction with students/university bodies from other countries? We did help to promote a special student charter flight to Chicago via our Chinese social media channels earlier this summer. However,
both 2020 and 2021. The flights are just one indication of how the market for international student recruitment has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the ability to travel has varied widely between countries, and continues to do so, China makes for one of the most important case studies due to the sheer scale of numbers involved and its significance to the market as a whole. In the UK, for example, more than 600,000 international students enrolled in higher education institutions in the year 2020/21, of which the largest number – almost 100,000 – came from China, according to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). To tell us more about the chartered flights initiative and the outlook for international student recruitment, Business Impact spoke to INTO’s operations director for China, Sam Clews. He also sheds light on student motivations and their interest in online and hybrid modes of education. What were the reasons behind INTO’s decision to take the lead in arranging chartered flights for international students travelling from China to the UK? We first got involved in chartering flights for students to the UK in autumn 2020 due to a lack of scheduled capacity [for flights] at the peak time when students are looking to travel. The situation was
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“As a longer-term initiative, institutions could help connect students from the same country who may wish to co-ordinate travel arrangements”
BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
STUDENT RECRUITMENT
“There is likely to be a wider market for shorter, non-degree courses” there seems to have been a lot more demand for flights to the UK. Hopefully, this is the last time we will need to get involved with chartering flights for students. More airlines seem to be planning to restart flights to and from China from around March 2023 so we are optimistic for next autumn. Do you think universities and business schools should do more to assist international students with relocation and integration for the duration of their studies and beyond? And, if so, why? Students do seem to like the idea of travelling together, so perhaps as a longer-term initiative, institutions could help connect those who are travelling from the same country for the same intake who may wish to co-ordinate their travel arrangements. Several universities already hold pre-departure activities in China and these seem to be appreciated by students. Advances in the use of technology during the pandemic have removed barriers for international students who were unable to travel to attend programmes but could participate online. How can universities and business schools factor this into their plans for international school recruitment? Although short-term exceptions have been made during the pandemic, it is likely that once it is over, the Chinese authorities will stop recognising foreign degrees that have been obtained through online or distance-learning courses (as was the case before Covid. Therefore, [online education from overseas] will most likely go back to being a fairly niche offering at degree level. However, there is likely to be a wider market for shorter, non-degree courses that don’t need local validation in China. This might be an area business schools could look at for China. They could perhaps focus on pre-sessional courses that could be completed online prior to arrival for the main degree programme. Universities and business schools can meet the demand created by this increasing appetite for online learning by investing in facilitating access to this market through improving online provision and creating more pathways from online to face-to-face learning. This might allow students with limited finances to obtain a high-value qualification, as well as some experience of being overseas at a significantly lower cost to studying entirely face to face. Recent research from INTO suggests that international student numbers are increasing once more. Do you think they can reach pre-pandemic levels? Although it varies by country, with some markets bouncing back quicker than others, we are hopeful that overall things will be back to pre-pandemic levels by 2024 and we predict growth beyond that.
How, in your opinion, have the motivations of those looking to study abroad changed over the past three years (in light of the pandemic’s restrictions on travel)? I don’t think the main overall motivations for Chinese students studying abroad have changed significantly since before the pandemic. However, there are longer-term trends to be aware of, such as the amount of local provision available in-country, as well as the demographic changes we will see in the years to come as different cohorts finish high school and start looking at higher education. We also see students making different choices about where to study, with the UK and Asia (particularly places such as Hong Kong) being in high demand as overseas study destinations at the moment. Covid-19, and geopolitical dynamics between China and the West more widely, have also played a role behind the trend towards considering Asian destinations. In your opinion, is it important to look at trends in international student motivations at a regional, or even country level, rather than globally? I’m mostly familiar with the mainland China market, but I know from my colleagues at INTO around the world that the things students look for vary a lot between countries with different factors such as rankings, affordability and job prospects being of varying significance in different markets. Aside from chartered flights, what other services might facilitate international student recruitment in the next three years? We have been involved in a number of special one-off initiatives during the pandemic, such as running online courses and opening campus centres in China, in addition to the chartered flights, but hopefully this will not be required again. It’s hard to predict what the future holds right now, but the main factor is likely to be offering courses that students want to study, at institutions they want to study at, and having an efficient marketing, recruitment and admissions process so students can find out about these courses, apply, get accepted and enrol. Improving the relevance of education-to-employment opportunities is another key theme at the moment. Those institutions that can evidence improved outcomes in the employment market can lay claim to having certain USPs. In turn, these will speak strongly to students who have made their overseas study programme a top priority.
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Sam Clews is operations director for China at INTO University Partnerships (INTO). Originally from the UK, he has been working at INTO’s Shanghai office for more than 14 years recruiting students for the UK, US and, more recently, Australia
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