The business school of the future

Transcription

www.efmd.org Volume 08 | Issue 01 | 2014
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Global Focus Volume 08 | Issue 01 | 2014
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Securing the Future of
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Howard Thomas • Michelle Lee • Lynne Thomas
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This is the second of two volumes written to
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Written by Alexander Wilson, Howard
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ManageMent
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Thomas • Lee
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Drawing on the very rich
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on the theme of change.
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How do you define “quality” for
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EFMD Global Focus: Volume 08 Issue 01 | 2014
1
Volume 08 Issue 01 | 2014
In focus
T
his issue begins with a powerful article (page 6) that calls for business schools
to focus more directly on what the authors call their dynamic capabilities
in order to re-invigorate and re-develop themselves and their students.
The three authors – Howard Thomas, Peter Lorange and Jagdish Sheth – are leading
proponents of a new approach to management education and among the most
respected and experienced academics in the field.
They write:
“If business schools are to be persuaded to embrace the strategic management
concept of dynamic capabilities (which we believe they need to do), two perspectives
are involved:
First, a review of the most relevant, appropriate and useful capabilities and qualities that
management educators should develop in their students. These capabilities (also
known as ‘core competences’ or ‘strategic assets’) represent an organisation’s capability
to deploy resources, usually in combination, through organisational processes to
achieve superior long-term performance.”
Many of the points they raise are expanded on in other articles in this issue.
For example, Kai Peters, chief executive of Ashridge in the UK, (page 42) argues that “A
plethora of challenges are impacting globally on the management education market,
including the continuing evolution of online possibilities, the emergence of new
providers, the role of for-profits, changes to public funding, a turbulent economy and
cost pressures in the competitive environment”.
On page 52 Julie Davies and Toni Hilton suggest some ways that business schools
can be structured to achieve individual excellence as business and management
education come under increasing criticism while Rachel Edgington outlines how a
new book from GMAC warns of troubled times ahead for business schools unless
they embrace disruptive change.
But it is not just business schools that face challenges in this tsunami of change. For
example, on page 12 Thomas Sattelberger calls for a rethink of corporate universities,
saying that they must evolve from being socialisation and knowledge transfer
machines to agents that can help their parent companies undertake effective
transformation.
But let us end on a positive note.
On page 32 Jørgen Thorsell and Justin Bridge explore how to achieve immediate
impact from executive development while Johan Roos explains how Jönköping
International Business School in Sweden is being reformed and reinvigorated (page 48).
We hope you enjoy this issue.
We are always pleased
to hear your thoughts
on Global Focus, and
ideas on what you would
like to see in future issues.
Please address comments
and ideas to Matthew Wood
at EFMD:
[email protected]
2
www.efmd.org/globalfocus
Volume 08 Issue 01 | 2014
Contents
Global Focus
The EFMD Business Magazine
1
Executive Editor
Matthew Wood
[email protected]
4
Advisory Board
Eric Cornuel
Howard Thomas
John Peters
Consultant Editor
George Bickerstaffe
[email protected]
Contributing Editors
Justin Bridge
Marco Busi
Julie Davies
Rachel Edgington
Mary Gentile
Chris Greensted
Toni Hilton
Ulrich Hommel
Peter Lorange
Suzy Moat
Thomas Norman
Kai Peters
Tobias Preis
Johan Roos
Andrew Rutsch
Thomas Sattelberger
Hellmut Schütte
Jagdish Sheth
Howard Thomas
Jørgen Thorsell
Mahmood Zaidi
Design & Art Direction
Jebens Design
www.jebensdesign.co.uk
Photographs & Illustrations
©
Jebens Design Ltd / EFMD
unless otherwise stated
Editorial & Advertising
Matthew Wood
[email protected]
Telephone: +32 2 629 0810
EFMD aisbl
©
EFMD
In focus
Business school impact survey
The key tool for measuring a business school’s impact on the
world around it
6
Dynamic capabilities and the business school of the future
Business schools need to focus more clearly on their dynamic
capabilities in order to re-invigorate and re-develop themselves
and their students. By Howard Thomas, Peter Lorange and
Jagdish Sheth
12
Rethinking corporate universities
Thomas Sattelberger argues that corporate universities
must evolve from being socialisation and knowledge transfer
machines to helping their parent companies undertake
effective transformation
20
Intended Learning Outcomes: friend or foe?
Intended Learning Outcomes are a key aspect of programme
accreditation yet they seem to cause many schools and
programme directors considerable difficulty or even resistance.
Chris Greensted and Ulrich Hommel examine the issues
26
Globalisation: unfinished business for business schools
Business schools have reacted loudly to the challenges
of globalisation. But has their reaction been effective or
appropriate? Hellmut Schütte is not so sure
32
Executive development: a cry for immediate impact
Jørgen Thorsell and Justin Bridge explore new perspectives
on achieving immediate impact from executive development
38
Research that matters: thoughts on reinventing scientific
(management) research
Scientific research, and particularly management research, is
in dire straits, accused of lack of relevance and impact and an
unhealthy preoccupation with theoretical and methodological
rigor. Marco Busi suggests some solutions
Contents
12
3
42
Business schools face the future
Globalisation and technological developments are changing
the business of business schools and presenting new
opportunities to innovate says Kai Peters
48
Making the good even better
Johan Roos explains how Jönköping International Business
School in Sweden is being reformed and reinvigorated
52
60
Building better business schools
With business and management education coming under
increasing criticism, Julie Davies and Toni Hilton suggest some
ways that business schools can be structured to achieve individual
excellence
56
The ‘Holy Grail’: educating for values-driven leadership
across the curriculum and giving voice to values
Mary Gentile explains how a new pedagogical model is helping
to integrate values into the business education curriculum
60
Graduate management education in disruptive times
A new book warns of troubled times ahead for business schools
unless they embrace disruptive change says Rachel Edgington
64
72
Training tomorrow’s Big Data analysts
Big Data is about to become big business, but only, say Suzy Moat
and Tobias Preis, if we can train enough data analysts and alert
managers to its growing importance
68
Collaboration that brings strategy to life
Andrew Rutsch chronicles how Spanish bank BBVA is using
its learning centre, Campus BBVA, not only to facilitate
development but also to engage people with the company
brand, values and strategy
72
Transferring western management knowledge to China
Mahmood Zaidi and Thomas Norman report on how team
teaching and virtual international student teams have proved
a vital ingredient in a successful international EMBA
4
The key tool for measuring a business
school’s impact on the world around it
The Business School Impact Survey (BSIS) scheme
is designed to determine the extent of a school’s
impact upon its local environment – the city
or region in which it is located. The scheme was
initially designed by FNEGE (the French National
Foundation for Management Education) and
is already well established in the French highereducation arena.
The BSIS process has been adapted for an
international audience and is now offered in a joint
venture between EFMD and FNEGE as a service
to EFMD members in any part of the world. The
assessment criteria and the process for measuring a
school’s impact are currently being tested with three
pilot institutions from three different countries.
This new service will be formally launched during
the upcoming Deans and Directors Meeting
in Gothenburg at the end of January 2014.
01/14
This new service will be
formally launched during the
upcoming Deans and Directors
Meeting in Gothenburg at the
end of January 2014
The scope of the BSIS scheme
The BSIS scheme identifies the tangible and
intangible benefits that a business school brings
to its local environment.
For example, a school spends money in its impact
zone; it provides jobs and pays salaries that are
partially spent in the zone; and it attracts faculty and
students from outside the zone whose expenditures
contribute to the local economy.
Beyond this measurable financial impact, a school
contributes to the life of the community in
numerous ways. Its faculty generate new business
creation through entrepreneurial projects and
support local business needs through professional
training. Its students are a source of dynamism in the
life of the region and are a valuable talent resource
when they graduate.
A business school also provides an important
intellectual forum for the introduction of new
ideas in a wide variety of social, cultural and political
areas of concern within a region. Last but not least,
it contributes to the image of the city or region.
Business School Impact Survey
Financial &
Economic
Impact
The benefits of BSIS
At a time when all organisations, public or private,
are being held accountable for their activities, there
is a need to demonstrate the impact that they are
having on their immediate environment. This is
particularly the case when they are financed or
politically supported by local stakeholders.
In pursuit of this objective the BSIS system intervenes
at two levels.
First, it guides a business school in the difficult task
of extracting the relevant data from its existing
information base.
Second, the review provides an external analysis of
the existing evidence carried out by two experts
with broad international experience. The written
report will serve as an objective document in a
school’s communication with its local stakeholders.
The BSIS scheme is, therefore, to be seen as an
instrument for identifying the factual elements
that characterise a school’s local impact. It is not an
accreditation system based on qualitative assessment.
A business school cannot fail BSIS. Neither is it a
ranking system attempting to position institutions at
different levels or comparing them one to another.
Impact on
the Regional
Community
Impact upon
the Attractiveness
& Image of the
Impact Zone
The BSIS process
Once a business school has applied to enter the
BSIS process the first stage is to define the impact
zone for the analysis. The next stage is the data
collection process during which the school works
closely with the BSIS experts to prepare the
documentation required before the on-site visit.
At the heart of the BSIS process is a two-day on-site
visit during which the team of experts interviews
a carefully selected group of key players within the
school and a range of external stakeholders. These
meetings are the occasion to confront internal
perceptions regarding the school’s impact and
external expectations. Measuring the gap between
the two is a significant outcome of the process.
Following the on-site visit the BSIS experts draft
a report setting out the findings related to the
assessment framework, the school’s own input
and the input from the interviews. The report
will highlight areas in which the school’s impact
is strong while also drawing attention to the areas
in which it remains limited.
All organisations, public
or private, are being held
accountable for their activities,
there is a need to demonstrate
the impact that they are having
on their immediate environment
Full details on the BSIS process can be found
on the EFMD website via www.efmd.org/bsis.
If you would like further information or are
interested in your school taking part you can
also email [email protected]
5
6
Business schools need to focus more clearly on their dynamic capabilities
in order to re-invigorate and re-develop themselves and their students.
By Howard Thomas, Peter Lorange and Jagdish Sheth
DYNAMIC
CAPABILITIES
&
THE BUSINESS
SCHOOL OF
THE FUTURE
Dynamic capabilities and the business school of the future by Howard Thomas, Peter Lorange and Jagdish Sheth
I
f business schools are to be persuaded to
embrace the strategic management concept
of dynamic capabilities (which we believe they
need to do), two perspectives are involved:
First, a review of the most relevant, appropriate and
useful capabilities and qualities that management
educators should develop in their students. These
capabilities (also known as “core competences”
or “strategic assets”) represent an organisation’s
capability to deploy resources, usually in
combination, through organisational processes
to achieve superior long-term performance.
Such capabilities may include expertise in the
areas of leadership, strategy, innovation, people
management and delivery/customer service. These
represent different kinds of skills, organisational
systems, routines and so on. The management
educator must make choices regarding which
to focus on and nurture in their students in order
to produce impactful, practical managers.
Second, there needs to be a thorough examination
of the dynamic capabilities of the business school
itself, addressing effectively the challenges of impact,
relevance and competition.
7
Dynamic capabilities for students
and the curriculum
Management educators have long questioned
whether there is “a theory of managing”, and
whether the necessary capabilities and qualities
that should be developed in their students are
clearly understood.
Basing our analysis on Henry Mintzberg’s 10
managerial roles, there are clusters of interpersonal,
informational and decisional skills. Reinterpreting
these, it is argued that management education
should increasingly embrace a cross-disciplinary,
holistic and interactive philosophy that covers:
• the intellectual skills of analysis, criticism and
synthesis (advocated by Cardinal Newman
and other proponents of liberal education)
• the study of the domain of management
knowledge, (ie knowledge skills about the
structure and functioning of organisations,
including process skills about the interactions
and interfaces between the different functions,
for example marketing, finance and so on
• the range of Mintzberg’s interpersonal skills,
including imagination, vision and leadership
capabilities
• the multi-disciplinary nature of the managerial
skill set required to develop the broader skills of
global and cultural intelligence. This includes the
need to be sensitive to ethical and socio-cultural
differences and the adoption of a holistic view of
the enterprise in global networks
The challenge for business schools is to produce
students who have the skills, flexibility and training
to compete in the new economy defined by
globalisation, social responsibility and technological
change.
The management educator must make
choices regarding which to focus on and
nurture in their students in order to produce
impactful, practical managers
8
Many capability models seek to identify and assess
key managerial capabilities. In practical terms,
a full range of capabilities (the exact balance
will vary between organisations) would involve
a combination of effective, efficient and reliable
current operations (ie meeting delivery and
efficiency targets), the ability to develop evidencebased, implementable policies and the more
dynamic capabilities such as:
• continuous improvement in effectiveness (as
perceived by the customer/citizen) and efficiency
• more robust systems and processes and improved
risk management to reduce the likelihood of future
crises
Strategy
Strategy is a contested concept in the literature but
is here defined as the ability of an organisation to:
• a more flexible, adaptive organisational culture and
systems, seeking both to improve the response if
a crisis does occur and to support and deliver new
or reprioritised policies
• optimise outcomes in support of the organisation’s
objectives within the constraints of time and
resources
• t he ability to deliver more radical innovations,
increasingly in collaboration with other
organisations (delivery or alliance partners,
for example)
Most capability models focus primarily on what
are usually recognised as the most crucial areas
of capability: leadership, strategy and delivery
(performance). These managerial capabilities include:
Leadership
The ability of leaders to:
• envision, frame and communicate the big picture
and be committed to working corporately, across
boundaries and organisations, to deliver the right
strategic outcomes
e a role model, promote collaborative teamwork,
•b
foster innovation and creativity, and reflect on how
to improve and drive the development of others
• lead others through the complexities of change
by creating a shared vision of the future that all
can understand and help deliver
• make choices about what is best offered in terms
of products and services and to whom, and
through which processes and which partners
in order to create public and customer value
• act upon these choices
Thus strategy involves:
• a focus on outcomes
• basing choices on evidence
• building a common purpose
Especially important are problem identification,
policy development, strategic prioritisation and so
on. Thus a broad set of people in the organisation
and not just the top management team need to be
involved in the gathering of evidence and analysis
of options.
Performance delivery
Performance delivery is defined as:
• the ability of the leadership team to lead the
implementation of agreed strategy through
the collective action of a network of people
and organisations
•b
e open, honest and courageous and not flinch
from delivering tough messages to colleagues
This involves the need to:
•p
ose tough questions and encourage feedback
and discussion about their resolution
• formulate plans, assign resources
and prioritise goals
Thus strong and effective leaders excel at:
• develop clear roles, responsibilities
and business models
• s etting direction, intent and vision
• igniting passion, pace and drive
• t aking responsibility for leading
organisational change
uilding organisational capabilities
•b
The leadership area thus focuses primarily on
managerial and problem-framing skills. Creating
strong organisational performance and delivery
is also an important leadership outcome from a
balanced scorecard viewpoint.
• manage performance
The performance delivery capabilities of the top
management team involve issues of performance
management, problem solving and managing
delivery across business units. The resulting
higher-level capability judgements, however, may
require insights and evidence from an even wider
set of participants including those at the centre,
various delivery and distribution channels, and
so forth.
9
A broad set of people in the organisation
and not just the top management team
need to be involved in the gathering of
evidence and analysis of options
On balance, existing capability models are seen
to be a good starting point for assessing key
strategic execution skills. The focus on leadership,
strategy and delivery capabilities sets out clearly
the organisational change agenda.
The models may also help to identify common
themes and capability gaps across organisations
in areas such as resource utilisation, talent
management and delivery/outcome assessment.
Nevertheless, the question remains as to
whether identifying common capability gaps
will subsequently lead to the development of
dynamic capabilities.
David Teece, a renowned strategy professor at UC
Berkeley in the US, believes the dynamic capabilities
perspective with its emphasis on managing the
“soft assets” needed for orchestrating resources
inside and outside the firm can provide a framework
for business school curricula. He suggests that the
interactive aspects of managing across functions and
the wider business ecosystem should be recognised
and that three key elements (or clusters) of dynamic
capabilities should form the anchors for a new
curriculum.
Leadership and dynamic capabilities
But Teece believes that dynamic capability
development also requires strong innovative and
courageous leadership. In a Financial Times column
(Oct 24, 2010) UC Berkeley Dean Richard Lyons
argued that leading in complex environments
characterised by fast-paced technological change
and global economic uncertainty requires what the
sociologist J D Thompson described as “inspirational
leadership”.
This concept was reframed during a major
curriculum revision at UC Berkeley by the
introduction of the archetype of a “path-bending”
leader; that is, one who transitions from a philosophy
of incremental adaption to a more innovative,
anticipatory strategic leadership.
Lyons argues that “path-bending leaders are not just
CEOs but people working at all levels in all kinds
of organisations. Path-bending leaders need to
know the fundamentals, such as problem framing,
experimentation, influence without authority,
managing ambiguity and other capabilities”.
In essence, path-bending leaders need to have
courage and capabilities that produce “innovating”
rather than “adaptive” behaviours.
These three clusters are:
Some emerging dynamic capabilities
of the business school of the future
It is also useful to examine the emerging dynamic
capability requirements for the business school
of the future. Of particular interest are:
• sensing – the identification and assessment
of a business opportunity (involving problem
framing, opportunity recognition and definition,
and experimentation)
• the identification of relevant dynamic capabilities
to attract and develop greater differentiation
among faculty members so as to better address
pressures for relevance and impact
• seizing – the mobilisation of resources to address
an opportunity and capture value from doing
so (involving making choices about revenue/
business models, idea valuation, and innovation
and risk appetite)
• the importance of developing capabilities to
monitor new competitors and to respond to
these competitive challenges
• transforming – continued renewal (involving
executing through managing ambiguity,
conflict and governance mechanisms) for
transformational change
• dynamic capabilities associated with future
funding and fund-raising requirements given the
diminishing willingness of the government sector
to fund business schools and the fear of tighter
economic situations. Both corporations and
students are likely to have to contribute more
10
As a result, the following might occur:
Greater faculty differentiation
There is likely to be a need for an increasingly
diverse and more practically oriented faculty to meet
increasing demands from business. Thus there will
be a demand for faculty members with classical
academic training (PhD) and careers (full-time
professor at an academic institution) plus more
applied researchers, teaching practitioners and
innovative business practitioners.
To achieve continuous improvement in efficiency
and effectiveness, and also increase teaching
quality, it might be necessary for schools to
develop a range of dynamic capabilities including:
• creating an effective network of available “affiliated”
faculty from both practice and from leading
business schools
• developing an ability to attract and nurture
“affiliated” faculty by integrating them into
programme offerings and linking them to
core faculty
• promoting continuous training in new
pedagogical approaches involving both
technology and experimental learning options
• revising its organisational culture to encompass
the management of faculty “networks” of core
and affiliated faculty using social and digital media
• stimulating the delivery of more radical innovations
by demobilising old bureaucratic routines
and fostering an open-minded attitude to
experimentation in teaching methods. This might
include changing the role of a professor from
that of an orator, a communicator of knowledge
in a "linear” fashion, to that of a “facilitator”
New sources of competition are rapidly
emerging, partly from the academic sector
itself and partly from those who have
been our customers and partly as a result
of new “blended” learning technologies
New competitors
Clearly, new sources of competition are rapidly
emerging, partly from the academic sector itself and
partly from those who have been our customers
(corporate universities for example) and partly as
a result of new “blended” learning technologies.
Business schools will have to monitor carefully
and respond quickly to these competitive forces.
Various dynamic capabilities will need attention
including, first, the concerns of customers and
students over the efficiency, value, quality and
effectiveness of our teaching. This calls for the
following:
• the ability to deliver programmes in a more
cost-efficient manner involving such capabilities as
outsourcing, blended learning, simpler pedagogy
and creative, innovative designs for programme
learning effectiveness
Second, an understanding of the risks arising from
new competition that require further capability
development. This includes:
• the dynamic capability to respond more quickly
as well as being willing to innovate so as to
compete more effectively against well-funded
“for profit” competition such as the Apollo group
and Hult University. There needs to be an
openness to new ideas and approaches rather
than a stubborn sticking with the status quo
• the capability to offer customers and students
value for money as well as a creative menu
of options that provides appropriate personal
customisation of learning
• the willingness to implement alternative
instructional approaches such as Moocs and
blended learning, which requires an organisational
culture ready to embrace change and creatively
adopt these new approaches.
11
Finances
The continuing tightness in funding models for
business schools certainly requires innovative
capabilities in designing new business models.
For example, the Lorange Institute embraces a
business model that involves both high-quality
delivery focused on practical concerns with cost
efficiencies brought about through lower fixed
faculty costs (ie no core faculty but “networked”
part-time faculty) and associated overheads. In
Porter’s (1980) terms this is both a “cost leadership”
and a creative differentiation strategy.
This is just one example of a model to address
the concerns of Kai Peters and Howard Thomas
(Global Focus, Volume 05, Issue 02, 2011) about
the continued long-term sustainability of many
current rather “luxurious” business school models.
Other innovative business models may adopt
closer modes of collaboration involving creative
co-sponsoring of specific research projects with
corporate clients as well as other practical
funding partnerships requiring deep immersion
with corporate and public-sector organisations.
Further, the creative design of joint ventures,
alliances and even mergers with both academic
and managerial institutions clearly requires new
capabilities. These include co-ordination abilities,
open-mindedness, continued communication
and an atmosphere of trust in order to deliver
quality outputs at high performance levels across
merger or alliance partners.
Mergers such as SKEMA in France and AALTO in
Finland show how to achieve strategic change,
appropriate financial synergies and better capacity
utilisation.
There are many lessons to be learned. The way
ahead is likely to prove tough. But business schools
will have to respond.
Many of the ideas in this article are based on the
authors’ recent book The Business School in the
21st Century, Cambridge University Press, 2013
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Howard Thomas is Dean and LKCSB Chair in Strategic Management at
the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University.
Peter Lorange is President of the Lorange Institute of Business, Zurich.
Jagdish Sheth is the Charles H Kellstadt Chair of Marketing, Goizueta
Business School, Emory University, Atlanta.
12
Rethinking corporate universities by Thomas Sattelberger
Thomas Sattelberger, EFMD's VicePresident for Corporate Services argues that
corporate universities must evolve from
being socialisation and knowledge transfer
machines to helping their parent companies
undertake effective transformation
U
ntil 20 years ago the big companies of
the old "Deutschland AG" dominated
the image of Germany. Whether Daimler,
Siemens, Dresdner Bank, Hoechst, BASF, Thyssen,
BMW or Bosch, successful German companies had
a long tradition of large research budgets, stable
business models, long-term customer relationships
and a reliable legal framework in which to operate.
Digitisation has made value-creation
processes intangible; innovations are
increasingly dealt with through the
backdoor; garage start-ups are growing
into giants
They also had social mechanisms in place in order
to assure the stability of their own culture. These
were not just social agreements with “co-managing”
unions but also ties of loyalty, even obedience,
within their management teams.
The past two decades have called all this into
question. Globalisation – not only in Germany
but also in all so-called old economies – has led
to a "re-measurement of the world".
Industrial behemoths are dying faster than ever,
swallowed up or languishing in bureaucracy.
Digitisation has made value-creation processes
intangible; innovations are increasingly dealt with
through the backdoor; garage start-ups are growing
into giants.
The large corporations of Deutschland AG, which
carry with them the baggage of their history, have
been travelling in dangerous waters. Compared to
the many small speedboats and international giant
liners they often look like Roman galleys.
Of the eight companies mentioned above, one has
died, one survives only through state aid, two
have had life-threatening crises and two have
deteriorated significantly under global competition.
8
20 years ago the big
companies of the
old "Deutschland AG"
(Daimler, Siemens,
Dresdner Bank,
Hoechst, BASF,
Thyssen, BMW or
Bosch) dominated
the image of
Germany...
2
...but today of these
eight companies
one has died, one
survives only through
state aid, two have
had life-threatening
crises and two
have deteriorated
significantly under
global competition
13
14
"Ambidexterity": nurturing core business
and innovation
Long-established large companies are usually
characterised by different polarities: old and new
businesses; established sales areas and emerging
markets; efficiency programmes and innovation
initiatives; centralised bureaucracy and peripheral
dynamics of change; administrators and
entrepreneurs; a dominant number culture
and an experimental ethos.
This was popularised by Robert Duncan and
James March as the concept of "organisational
ambidexterity”. A company must be able to cope
with two opposing issues equally well if it is to
handle disruptive change.
To seize the opportunities of the present and
systematically exploit the potential of the future
demands two parallel organisational structures or
mental maps, one for the full exploitation of the
current business, the other for researching new
business ideas.
Yet this is only effective in the long-term for a
few. Dinosaurs either end up in a crisis situation
and probably death, or are able to transform
themselves radically.
The radical transformation needed is related to
four things:
• the paradigm shift needed in the minds of those
in power
• reform of the overall culture of the company,
its responsiveness and resilience to disruptive
changes, and its diverse capabilities consistently
to find and fit into changing environments
• the rebuilding of the whole organisation (and its
employees) – as IBM did twice – to cope with the
skills shift connected with a change of business
systems in the face of radical technological
breakthroughs or generational upheavals
• incorporating diversity into the enterprise, not just
in traditional categories such as gender and age
but also in critical thinking. William Ross Asby's
"law of requisite variety" states that "variety absorbs
variety". This is fundamental for transformation.
Human resources management (HRM) can play a
significant role in these transformation challenges
since the response to the deeply engraved patterns
within company structure and culture must
acknowledge:
• the significant increase in diversity in all its forms
and dimensions while maintaining good cultural
glue at the core of the enterprise
• the radical improvement of individual and
collective ability to adapt, especially in view
of increasingly disruptive change
Signals, triggers and starting phases
of transformation
How do we recognise that transformation
necessities exist?
Here are a few early signals of the endangered
sustainability of an organisation:
• Over the years, proven business models receive
boosts from new technology but lose energy
or become obsolete unless substitutes are found
and commercialised
• Competitors – often small –find better and/or
completely different solutions
• Internal corporate borders are closed and
encourage isolation; changes in the external world
are inadequately perceived in the inner world, let
alone processed
• Increasing isolation creates an overstressed
internal climate within the company
• Companies behave like a hamster on a wheel,
meeting the challenges of tomorrow with
responses from yesterday with the people of today
• A period of cultural decadence begins, as in ancient
Rome feasting taking place as the enemy stands
at the city gates
• Discontent in an organisation becomes
overwhelming; revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries appear on the scene as well as
“know-it-all” tradition-keepers; old versus new
is debated openly in the decision makers’ offices
and/or tacitly on the shop floor
CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES – DINOSAURS OR ON THE PATH TO 2.0?
Prototype and lab for organisational
renewal and innovation
Cultural nucleus in organisational
change processes
Platform and accelerator for implementing
strategic top-down initiatives
Engine for collective standardisation
Company specific Professional and Management School
for the development of individual competencies
?
Lufthansa School
of Business
GE Crotonville
McDonald's &
Disney Universities
Motorola University &
UniCredit Group Center
15
Finally, dramatic transformation has a number of
ultimately shattering triggers, for example: a rapid
"overturning" of the market models and technologies
of an entire industry (such as print media); or a
crisis degenerates a company into a cost-cutting
machine.
Transformation can also be triggered by external
events such as war, natural disasters, terrorist
attacks or political interventions. Think of Angela
Merkel's planned energy revolution in Germany.
For successful ambidexterity, freedom of thought
and a trial-and-error approach are essential. It is
not just about new or different thinking. An oracle
of Delphi that proclaims (vaguely) what the future
might look like is of little use.
Only when the people within an organisation are
included will they adapt well to changes. This is
especially true when employees are exposed
without protection to disruptive change in the
business.
But sugar-coating the change would be wrong. It
is only when an organisation is aware that it has
reached a dead end in its previous form that the
pressure for change is converted into action.
Therefore successful transformation teams often
encourage a "sense of urgency", creating an “artificial
crisis" to raise alertness levels to that of an effective
fire-fighting team The concept of " irritation" is vital
for preparing transformation.
Here, the concept of the corporate university comes
into play – but with a completely new meaning.
Only when the people within an organisation
are included will they adapt well to changes.
This is especially true when employees are
exposed without protection to disruptive
change in the business
16
Traditional corporate universities serve
the status quo
General Electric (GE) and Motorola are considered
the pioneers of the corporate university approach.
They not only provided training for an exclusive
cadre but also for the general run of employees.
Above all, Jack Welch, the long-time CEO of GE,
revolutionised the procedure in the 1980s. In
Crotonville, GE's campus 30 kilometres from
Manhattan, it was "his" staff and "his" leaders that
implanted “Speed, Simplicity, Self-Confidence“ –
a variant of the Six Sigma methodology that was
the defining mantra for change.
The challenge for Crotonville – and all subsequent
corporate universities – was:
• how will people perform better in existing
structures and cultures?
• how can a worldwide organisation be
streamlined from the top down with the help
of its own cultural and educational centres?
• how can a company run faster, jump higher or
wider and perform better than the others in the
field but within the given business logic?
• how can homo-social reproduction, the
ruling managerial and organisational DNA,
be guaranteed?
The first German corporate university, the Lufthansa
School of Business, which I founded, and centres
at Haniel, Bertelsmann and Daimler followed the
GE model from the mid-1990s and developed
into efficient socialisation machines. Their
mission was to serve both the selection and
cloning of a ruling elite as well as the
"massification" of proprietary content, processes
and philosophies throughout the organisation.
But how should companies, facing radically different
challenges, organise their learning?
The energy, media and print, entertainment,
commercial and automotive industry followed the
telecommunications industry: not evolutionary
change but managing disruptive changes.
30
GE Crotonville campus
is 30 kilometres from
Manhattan
Companies whose key task in dealing with future
challenges lies in the transformation of their own
DNA require neither cadre-training units nor
mass-produced knowledge. Rather they require
what we might call "laboratories" - think tanks and
experiential testing grounds for behavioural change
and experiments with alternate business systems
and also areas where experimental business
architectures, more democratic leadership cultures,
new mental line-ups and unconventional service
initiatives can be assessed.
Corporate universities 2.0 – laboratories
for transformation
If companies need to become not better but
different in order to survive they require the
intellectual and emotional freedom to experiment.
If traditional leadership must become different
it requires space for personal experimentation.
Instead of standardised teaching, behaviour
constraints and predetermined curricula, it is
necessary to encourage the learning and interaction
of people in terms of a complex habitat. From
a variety of perspectives and judgments, laboratories
allow decision makers to radically question
traditional business models and creatively
destroy and reinvent them.
In order to take account of the disruptive dimension,
such a transformation centre must not just drive
the development of new pictures of the future for
business and people. It must also simulate and test
new working environments where the effects of
technology and innovation on the social microcosm
and the creative behaviour of teams and individuals
can be experienced.
If companies need to become not better but
different in order to survive they require the
intellectual and emotional freedom to experiment.
If traditional leadership must become different
it requires space for personal experimentation
There is no question that developing corporate
universities as engines for transformation is a
challenge. Resistances must be overcome; old
and comfortable thought processes must be
left behind. But an "out with the old, in with the
new" approach is the only way to revitalise and
reinvent corporate universities
However, this new type of corporate university can
only be successful if it gets the best out of people's
raw talents and provides them with opportunities
that enable self-examination and self-reflection.
Strategy, technology or professional competence
are superficial whitewash when individuals persevere
with outdated motivations, concerns and patterns
of action.
In order to cure themselves of old patterns and
let go of outdated paradigms, managers need
to acquire alternative management skills – not
only how to alter things radically in a new socialpsychological space but also to experience how
they themselves undergo change. Classic group
dynamics, gestalt therapy (a form of psychotherapy
that emphasises personal responsibility and
individual experience) and sensitivity training
must be utilised as well as value clarification
and dialectic self-discovery.
Since egocentrism, control addiction, lack of
self-reflection and narcissism often lead to the
derailment of careers, personal leadership style
and behaviour must also be addressed: Who am
I? What is driving me? What is my shadow? How
do I seek and deal with power? How do I deal
with differences and diversity? Can I serve those
around me?
Sloan Professor Emeritus of Organisational
Psychology Edgar Schein of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge
coined the concept of "upending experiences"
in the 70s, where harrowing experiences "throw"
human beings, managers and leaders from their
retracted paths and pose powerful questions of
their thought and actions.
For companies in transformation, the framework
and life of a new values architecture, beyond
pure economics, is essential. Enforcing individual
responsibility, learning from mistakes, and the
strengthening of character and integrity are vital
parts of learning design.
17
Corporate empathy and societal responsiveness
This leads to the final requirement for successful
transformation. Society in general, all around the
company, is also part of a modern “laboratory”.
A company is not a fortress, operating only within
the inner circle of stakeholders and shareholders.
The outside world can, indeed must, take part in
the new definition and positioning of a company
on platforms that create encounters, controversial
discussions and build bridges of understanding
from inside to outside and vice versa.
Some companies demonstrate an "organisational
blindness" with all the consequences that occur
when the corporate sensory system fails and the
enterprise and the outside world are too alienated.
Societal platforms help to see and feel the needs
of humans and society. They offer the chance
to reflect and develop a company's standing with
its fellow citizens. Only if we are able to position
companies in a more balanced way can we
embed them in society on a more accepted
and appreciated basis.
There is no question that developing corporate
universities as engines for transformation is a
challenge. Resistances must be overcome; old
and comfortable thought processes must be
left behind. But an "out with the old, in with the
new" approach is the only way to revitalise and
reinvent corporate universities.
Educational institutions aimed at transformation
must respond to four challenges:
1. look for answers to disruptive changes in
the business
2. question the traditional role of leadership
and organisation
3. offer the individual the possibility of selfdevelopment
4. ultimately, put the societal usefulness
of the business or company to the test
Businesses must decide what they expect from their
training centres. Should they be more advanced
technical centres for pure knowledge transfer; should
they be socialisation machines for the cloning
of people; or laboratories to shape the future?
If one keeps in mind the challenges we face,
the answer is clear.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas Sattelberger has worked on the Boards of Directors of Lufthansa
German Airlines and Continental AG since 1999 and from 2007 to 2012
Deutsche Telekom AG. He founded the Lufthansa School of Business as
the first corporate university in the German-speaking world in 1997, and
between 2005 and 2007 more than a dozen Continental AG universities
in countries ranging from the Philippines to Romania. In 2010 he started
Deutsche Telekom’s Telekom School of Transformation Project.
18
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19
20
INTENDED LEARNING
OUTCOMES
Intended Learning Outcomes are a key
aspect of programme accreditation yet
they seem to cause many schools and
programme directors considerable
difficulty or even resistance.
Chris Greensted and
Ulrich Hommel
examine the
issues
Intended Learning Outcomes: friend or foe? by Chris Greensted and Ulrich Hommel
21
P
ut simply, ILOs are a statement of what a
student will know and be able to do at the
end of a (degree) programme or at the end
of each component course (module) of the degree.
This definition of ILOs is easy to say but it is not
so easy to develop ILOs in practice.
In the “good old days”, programme designers
used to write out the programme objectives
and ask faculty members to write course objectives
consistent with them. Faculty then developed
a syllabus for their course and possibly a
supplementary note on how the course would
be assessed.
ILOs are a statement of what a student
will know and be able to do at the end
of a (degree) programme or at the end
of each component course
There was an expectation that in this way the
programme objectives would be achieved but
there was no guarantee that this process would
work. The problem with programme objectives
is that they do not show how achieving them will
be implemented and measured.
We can take an analogy from cookery. The
objective is to bake a cake. The equivalent of the
syllabus is the list of ingredients for the cake but
with no measures given and no recipe. Different
cooks will produce different cakes with the same
ingredients and sometimes no cake at all.
Learning outcomes are essentially about
performance and they are the implementation tools
for the objectives. So it is necessary to have both
objectives and ILOs. The programme objectives
statement is likely to be quite short, stating what
the programme is aiming to achieve and for whom.
To ensure a consistent cake from all the cooks there
needs to be a recipe that includes measures and
process. Even then, the quality of the cake may vary
but at least the product is recognisable as a cake
resembling the picture in the book!
Programme-level ILOs are derived from the
objectives and serve as the starting point for
the curriculum design. Then there should be a
coherent structure of ILOs at programme and
course levels. Achievement at programme level
will ensure that the programme’s objectives are
met while achievement of ILOs for each course
will ensure that overall the programme or degree
ILOs have also been achieved.
ILOs should not only be clearly written but their
achievement should also be measurable in some
form.
ILOs should not only be clearly
written but their achievement should
also be measurable in some form
For example, a Masters in International Marketing
might have the objective of providing participants
with a in-depth knowledge of marketing
management from multiple perspectives and the
skills to meet the challenges inherent in a dynamic
international context.
22
The programme ILOs might include
(non-exhaustively):
• Demonstrate a mastery of the knowledge
and skills required for an entry-level position
in international marketing
• Identify, define and deal with problems that may
arise in their future professional role as a marketer
• Function effectively as a leader and as a member
of a marketing team
These ILOs may be seen as some of the abilities that
a masters graduate should possess in order to be
able to take on a specialist marketing role. In turn,
these ILOs can only be achieved by undertaking
a number of courses whose own ILOs will build
up towards achieving the programme ILOs.
However, each course also needs a syllabus
showing the course content (what will be studied)
and statements on teaching/learning methods (how
the knowledge and skills will be imparted) and on
assessment (how achievement of the ILOs will be
measured).
Faculty / teachers – because they will see how
their courses fit into the overall design in terms
of links with other courses, including identifying
potential reinforcing overlaps or redundancies.
ILOs provide a clear statement of the learning
the teachers expect (or are expected) to impart to
students. For courses taught by a team of teachers
(especially when including adjunct faculty), ILOs
provide a coherent mechanism for ensuring
commonality of achievement by students. It also
allows for the relatively smooth transition into the
team of new faculty.
Quality assurance authorities – because an
effective ILOs structure should ensure that a
degree programme achieves its stated objectives.
The process for developing ILOs will vary by
institutional practice and by types of degree and
subject area. While there are no hard rules for the
development process, there are a few principles.
Overall the structure of ILOs should ensure
alignment between programme objectives, content,
methodology of delivery and assessment methods
and result in a coherent match between market
needs and the “end product” – the graduate.
So, who uses or values ILOs?
Students – because they will have (from the start
of their degree) a fuller understanding of how a
degree programme will enable them to achieve
their personal goal of becoming, for example, a
professional marketer or prepare them for future
study or some other goal.
Employers – because they will understand the
knowledge and abilities that they can expect a
graduate would have on entering their organisation.
If these expectations are met, the reputation of the
school will be enhanced.
Programme managers – because they will have
a clear structure of how the programme and its
courses fit together logically and how intellectual
progression is achieved during the degree
programme. ILOs provide a framework for
programme design.
Overall the structure of ILOs
should ensure alignment
between programme
objectives, content,
methodology of delivery
and assessment methods
23
8
There should not be
too many ILOs at
either programme or
course levels. Probably
there should be
no more than eight
programme ILOs
and perhaps six ILOs
for each course
• There should not be too many ILOs at either
programme or course levels. Probably there
should be no more than eight programme ILOs
and perhaps six ILOs for each course. Not all
learning can be directly measured – for example
some aspects of personal development – and so
proxy measures need to be employed to verify
learning achievements such as pointed and
regular feedback from employers.
• The ILOs should be described by the use of
doing or action verbs whose execution can be
measured. Verbs such as understand are too
vague and do not allow depth of learning to
be specified. They would be better replaced by
verbs such as explain or describe. It is possible to
strengthen these verbs by qualifying adverbs in
order to measure different levels of performance
and progression.
• The process should be one of consensus or
agreement since the resulting ILOs must satisfy the
needs of the various users. It would be unwise for
programme management to set the programme
ILOs in isolation from the faculty delivering the
courses since faculty probably do not like having
ILOs imposed on them. Top-down does not work.
Equally, a bottom-up approach would lead to
a disparate set of ILOs from which it would be
impossible to define a coherent set of programme
ILOs. A programme team approach seems to work
more effectively so that the issues can be properly
discussed and agreed.
• It should be clear how the course ILOs make
a contribution to the achievement of the
programme ILOs and there should be a
mechanism for showing how they fit together.
This could be demonstrated by a matrix
structure although there are also other devices.
• The assessment methods and their relative
weight may vary across courses and will depend
on the respective ILOs defined for each course.
The higher-education community has produced
a rich knowledge base on ILOs, which is freely
available in the public domain. Learning from
best-practice examples is the most effective way of
developing a workable system of ILOs. As discussed
below, it involves much more than just identifying
good ways of expressing ILOs.
There are, of course, always objectors who may
see ILOs as the foe or enemy. These are some of
the arguments raised for not using ILOs:
• In some academic cultures ILOs are an alien or
unknown concept and there is therefore resistance
to change – what is the point of ILOs since
students already graduate with good degrees and
are attractive to employers? This may be so but
ILOs add value through the additional information
they supply to students and employers.
24
• ILOs are sometimes seen as a restriction on
academic freedom, on what and how faculty
teach. However, the specification of programme
ILOs, defining the contribution of different courses
and making the links between assessment
methods and course-level ILOs, should be an
iterative process that does not infringe upon
the academic freedom of each teacher but
allows for group discussion and involvement.
• Some faculty believe that knowledge for its
own sake is enough and that one only needs to
examine that knowledge. Unfortunately that does
not show what the graduate will actually be able
to do. ILOs may be too focused on employability,
e.g. as the result of governmental pressures to
ensure that graduates are productive in society
(which ignores the value of knowledge for its
own sake). That is perhaps a consequence of the
move to mass higher education. However, ILOs
cannot be achieved without knowledge; they
do not downplay the value of knowledge but
they do give it purpose.
• The process of developing ILO is sometimes
seen as too bureaucratic and time consuming
but it should be intellectually stimulating and
enriching.
Many business schools are struggling to use ILOs
effectively. The following are some examples of
problems that arise in specifying ILOs.
• A typical starting point of things going wrong is
employing ILOs as a post-rationalisation device
for existing teaching and learning practices.
Overly generic programme-level ILOs and
omitting course-level counterparts are typically
signs of programme managers aiming to tick
the box in the early stages of external review
exercises. When faculty is then confronted
with the task of specifying ILOs, it is perceived
as yet another bureaucratic layer keeping them
away from their actual work. This indicates that
faculty are not sufficiently communicating what
should be accomplished in the programme.
If, in contrast, faculty engage in a regular and
in-depth dialogue about programme design
and delivery, then ILOs will flow almost
naturally out of these discussions. Faculty will
then appreciate such a process as a way of
structuring their discussions and going beyond
the simple co-ordination of course content lists.
• There lies a danger in becoming overly
obsessed with the measurement of achieved
learning outcomes. It can lead to a culture
where only those aspects that are explicitly
quantifiable are also managed, implying that
other important aspects of student learning
fall off the radar screen. Programme managers
should instead search for proxy measures
(which may be very qualitative) to verify that
students have achieved their learning goals.
ersonal development, for instance, can
P
be discussed with employer representatives
in face-to-face focus group exercises. The
feedback could serve as an important input
for comprehensive programme review rather
than for the on-going evaluation of assessment
policies and outcomes. Information on learning
achievements may therefore be collected
asynchronously and will then feed into different
aspects of programme management. Adding
complexity here is actually very desirable and
can raise the effectiveness of ILOs considerably.
• Students frequently have a limited awareness
of the meaning and relevance of ILOs. In order
for them to perceive this information as tangible
guidance for their studies, ILOs need to be linked
to the students’ understanding of potential career
paths and placement services. In other words,
the proper use of ILOs from the students’
perspective requires an active engagement
by career services from programme initiation
to graduation. Admittedly, considerable staff
support may be required but the rewards in terms
of student satisfaction should easily compensate
for the expense.
ILOs cannot be achieved without knowledge;
they do not downplay the value of knowledge
but they do give it purpose
25
• Faculty sometimes tends to display a “we know
best” attitude and may fail to recognise that alumni
and corporate partners can help to make teaching
a more rewarding experience overall. Carefully
planned interaction points with HR managers,
other functional specialists and alumni in relevant
professional roles represent a motivational force
for the “classroom”, which all too often remains
underutilised. Stakeholder orientation contributes
to the achievement of ILOs and can also help in
designing them in the first place, for instance by
including stakeholder perspectives in regular
programme reviews.
Experienced faculty
would say that the use
of ILOs has considerably
strengthened the
coherence of their
programmes and the
component courses
• While the design of an ILO hierarchy may be
straightforward for programmes without any
specialisation options, it can become considerably
more complex if students can choose majors and
minors. In extreme cases, a general management
programme may even serve as an umbrella for a
host of specialised programmes without separate
degree designations. In order to capture the
richness of learning outcomes, it will be necessary
to place an additional layer of ILOs between
programme and course level, ie at major level.
To put it differently, business schools should not
religiously stick to externally provided templates
but rather work with a structure that really satisfies
their specific needs.
Intended learning outcomes provide a clear
structure that provides information on the
programme objectives or goals showing how these
are achieved through programme ILOs. In turn,
these are cascaded down to course ILOs level,
which then guide course level assessments. Many
experienced faculty would say that the use of ILOs
has considerably strengthened the coherence of
their programmes and the component courses. ILOs
have become friends of the stakeholders and not the
foes foreseen!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Chris Greensted and Ulrich Hommel are Senior Advisors in the EFMD Quality
Services Department.
26
Business schools have reacted loudly to the challenges
of globalisation. But has their reaction been effective or
appropriate? Hellmut Schütte is not so sure
Globalisation: unfinished business for business schools by Hellmut Schütte
27
B
usiness schools have existed for over a
century and have remained structurally
unchanged since the shake-up of the 1950s
following the Ford and Carnegie foundations
reports into them.
Today they are still faculty-driven, US-oriented or
influenced, delivering residential programmes and
are either autonomous of or little integrated into
larger universities. As such they operate rather
independently.
Business schools have, as a group, been amazingly
successful. Very few businesses have been able to
enlarge their clientele (number and quality of
students) and increase prices (fees) as business
schools have done for decades.
Meanwhile, national economies have become more
intertwined. Many companies now have dispersed
activities across the world or at least across their
borders with neighbouring countries. The US has lost
its economic dominance and the European Union
(EU) its momentum. The continuing growth of the
emerging markets, China in particular, is leading to
major changes in global supply and demand.
Along with this comes increasing criticism of ideas,
if not to say ideologies, made in the US: the belief in
rational decision making, private rather than public
initiatives, perfect markets, shareholder value and, last
but not least, the concept that “the world is flat”.
100+
Business schools have
existed for over a
century and have
remained structurally
unchanged since the
shake-up of the 1950s
Very few businesses have been able
to enlarge their clientele (number
and quality of students) and increase
prices (fees) as business schools
have done for decades
For an MBA or EMBA student in Beijing or Shanghai
working for a successful, state-owned company,
such ideas seem bizarre at best. From where they
sit, macro-economic growth rates show that
government-led capitalism and stakeholder interests
can deliver results that are just as good, if not better.
Finally, issues of general economic interest such
as resource shortages, climate change and
environmental protection are no longer problems
that can be tackled by individual countries alone;
global co-operation is needed.
This does not mean that business schools have
done nothing with respect to globalisation. Indeed,
there is hardly a reputable school that does not
claim, in its vision statement or advertising, to cater
to a globalised world.
They recruit foreign students to ensure an
international mix of participants, though it rarely
makes a dent in the domestic complexion of
the overall student body where the majority
are still local.
28
When schools organise MBA,
EMBA or executive programmes
abroad, they leverage their own
“suit cased” faculty and attract
outside students
The true benefit of learning about globalisation,
the broadening of the horizon, the exploration of
different business systems, the insights into a variety
of different modes of operation, the experience of
cross-cultural behaviour, the questioning of one’s
own ideas as the only ones being “normal”, all of this
can easily be eroded and become lost.
We all remember the large numbers of Japanese
students attending top US and European schools
in the past and reportedly learning “nothing of
relevance” for their future careers. How much have
business schools meanwhile adjusted to truly foreign
students on their campuses where Chinese (and
Indian) students have replaced the Japanese?
Faculty and staff also tend to be dominated by locals
who have rarely spent a considerable length of time
abroad. This is the “import model”, which is popular
among deans as it is good for a school’s image and
can be financially lucrative.
The alternative “export model” sends students
abroad for short “discovery” missions, either as a
group of co-students and faculty or individually
on exchange programmes with other schools.
When schools organise MBA, EMBA or executive
programmes abroad, they leverage their own
“suit cased” faculty and attract outside students.
This extends the export of knowledge more
systematically. It can also be financially attractive,
especially when fixed costs for facilities abroad can
be controlled.
What is common to both the import and the
export model is that the centre of knowledge,
the home campus, remains almost untouched
from a conceptual point of view. The underlying
assumption is that management is universal,
and that the teaching of management can be
standardised.
6%
According to Pankaj
Ghemawat of IESE,
only 6% of research
published in the top
20 management
journals and 6% of
case studies used
worldwide deal with
cross-border issues.
A very large variation of partnership models and
alliances between schools add to or complement
existing internationalisation attempts. They range
from outsourcing of single modules to dual-degree
programmes that span the world. At best, they lead
to cross-fertilisation between two institutions of
different cultural background; at worst they rely
on cost optimisation of non-integrated curricula.
The establishment of subsidiaries, often called
campuses despite lacking faculty, has been the
most pronounced move abroad. Costly and difficult
to manage, it is an expensive exercise.
Few have tried this direct investment route, and
even fewer have succeeded. INSEAD probably
remains the best example of a school that straddles
the world with two integrated fully-fledged “home
campuses”.
Compared to multinational corporations (MNCs)
with operations in many – often more than 100
– countries, the difference could not be more
staggering. As MNCs struggle to devolve more
power, try to reduce the dominance of headquarters
and open up towards new ideas and initiatives
of subsidiaries from the periphery, their close
relationship with home-campus-centric business
schools must lose its attractiveness.
Globalisation: unfinished business for business schools by Hellmut Schütte
Who is to blame? Faculty certainly has its fair share
in perpetuating the domestic mind-set of business
schools. While many non-American graduate and
doctoral students spend some time in the US,
Americans stay at home. Faculty exchanges and
visiting professorships are rare and complicated. In
academia one does not make a career by working
abroad, though it is something multinational firms
appreciate when it comes to promotions.
Obtaining tenure requires staying power in
remaining in a given location. Researching local
issues in management is easier and less costly than
looking at cross-border problems. As a result we
see academics in Singapore or Shanghai writing
papers based on US databases because they
are more reliable and the results stand a better
chance of being published in US-based leading
journals. Research (or knowledge creation) has
remained the least globalised part in the value
chain of business schools.
According to Pankaj Ghemawat of IESE, only 6%
of research published in the top 20 management
journals and 6% of case studies used worldwide
deal with cross-border issues. Very few courses exist
on international or global business or management.
In fact, in most business schools, the area of
international business still struggles for full
recognition as a discipline or department.
Why have business schools remained so timid
and slow in their approach towards globalisation?
Why are they so reluctant to follow the lead of the
companies that recruit many of their participants
and provide them with the bulk of executives for
financially rewarding training programmes? Why,
in the words of Arnoud de Meyer of Singapore
Management University, have they remained
business schools rather than become schools
for business?
There are many (good) reasons for remaining local,
at least in the short-tem.
First, almost all business schools are geographically
anchored and have started in a given environment
with the help of local or national stakeholders. They
often depend on government funding or local
sponsorship, have a majority of local/national
students, staff and faculty and as a consequence
the support and backing of local or national
alumni. Their constitution may bind them to their
location and disallow ventures abroad. They are
not born free.
Why have business schools remained so
timid and slow in their approach towards
globalisation? So reluctant to follow the
lead of the companies that recruit many
of their participants and provide them
with the bulk of executives for financially
rewarding training programmes?
Second, education is a regulated activity in many
countries and running seminars abroad or setting up
a subsidiary campus – let alone issuing degrees and
diplomas abroad – requires permission. This is not
always easy to obtain.
Third, as many companies and more recently
academic institutions have discovered, going abroad
requires funds, is costly and is risky. It normally takes
years to see the first signs of tangible positive results.
And it requires people capable of challenging
themselves, of bridging and appreciating national
differences and having a vision.
Fourth, does every student of business have to have
a global mind-set? What is the percentage of
graduates who will ever deal with cross-border
issues, let alone be on assignment abroad? The
answer is that the percentage is small, very small.
100
The difference
between business
schools when
compared to
multinational
corporations (MNCs)
with operations in
many – often more
than 100 – countries,
could not be more
staggering
29
30
But it is a misleading question. How does a domestic
company analyse and react to the potential entry
of a foreign competitor? How many protected
industries were cosy cartels before market
liberalisation changed the informal domestic
rules into international standards? Think telecom,
think energy or infrastructure, retail or insurance.
And how does one judge one’s own performance
without knowledge of international benchmarks.
This comparative perspective is required from
today’s leaders. Sitting in a group capsule and
thinking “us versus them” is not sufficient in today’s
integrated world.
After all that has been said, what would be the right
level of globalisation of business schools? This is
obviously a question that depends very much on
the background of the individual school.
Deeply anchored, long-established and
famous schools with a large domestic market
and a strong international image will probably
stay “local” with a flavour of “global”. This applies
to most leading US schools.
European schools are younger and not as well
funded but operate in a naturally more international
environment, reflecting the cross-cultural nature
of the EU.
Schools from the emerging markets are…emerging,
growing fast, building up knowledge, reaching
out in every respect. Not yet steeped in their
own history, they should be able to develop new
strategies of their own.
Interestingly, business schools do not like to be
considered professional firms and consequently
a comparison with consultants, auditing and law
firms, market research companies and the like,
is almost impermissible.
Of course, these firms are not academic institutions
and do not award academic degrees or do
academic research. But they are creating,
assimilating and distributing knowledge along
a similar value chain as business schools.
Not too long ago they were delivering local
knowledge to local customers. After massive
consolidation, the industry leaders now operate as
multi-domestic firms in almost all business centres
of the world, catering both to local clients and large
multinational customers. Balancing the local/global
dimensions and providing excellence in their service
has made them important parts of business
communities across the world.
How does one judge one’s own
performance without knowledge
of international benchmarks.
This comparative perspective is
required from today’s leaders
There is no reason why business schools could not
develop in a similar way.
Globalisation of business schools has started
but pales in comparison with the developments
in industry in general and professional firms in
particular. It is very much “unfinished business”.
Because of the expected resistance in longestablished schools, a radical new model of a
mega-school without single roots has to come from
an outsider who is born free from all the constraints
under which traditional academic institutions
work. This model could consist of globally
dispersed activities connected through disruptive
communication technologies and held together by
a diverse network of dedicated professors located
across the world.
Generating global insights and adjusting them
to local conditions will live alongside crossfertilisation between various parts of the world
and an un-dogmatic view of best practice.
This could be a truly global business school of
the future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hellmut Schütte is Dean of CEIBS (China Europe International Business
School) in Shanghai, China. He is Professor Emeritus of International
Management at INSEAD in France and the former Dean of INSEAD’s
Asia campus, in Singapore. China is the tenth country in which he has
lived and worked.
International Deans’
Programme 2014
“The best part of my IDP cohort has been meeting
a global subset of leaders of business schools from
all around the world, having the opportunity to
compare the priorities and agendas of leaders of business
schools. This is a valuable experience that – even in
our e-connected world – is not yet possible without
this very personal exchange of views and insights.”
Professor Per Holten-Andersen,
President, Copenhagen Business School,
Denmark
>
Gain unique insights into the
multiple roles of deans of business
and management schools in a
cohort of around 20 participants
from around the globe
>
Visit a diverse range of business and
management schools, take time out
to network with your counterparts,
re-energise and reflect on strategies
for your own school, and create new
strategic alliances
>
Engage in debates about issues
under the Chatham House rule
Hong Kong: 1-3 April ‘14
Hong Kong Baptist University, The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University & The Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology
Denmark & Sweden: 3-4 June ‘14
Copenhagen Business School
& Lund University School of Economics
and Management, Lund University
UK: 18-19 September ‘14
Saïd Business School
& Imperial College Business School
@Londonabs
@EFMDnews
www.efmd.org
www.associationofbusinessschools.org
31
32
Jørgen Thorsell and Justin Bridge explore new perspectives
on achieving immediate impact from executive development
Executive Development: A cry for immediate impact by by Jørgen Thorsell and Justin Bridge
Simply teaching theory as a one-way
approach has been viewed by learning
and development practitioners as
the least effective way of preparing
executives for success
E
xecutive development is no longer simply
about offering learning that leads to new
insights and changed behaviour. Today it
is about creating immediate impact in support
of change. The challenge is how executive
development can keep up with the demands for
successful leadership in times of rapid change.
The challenges of teaching business theory
Well-documented theory should be the basis of
effective executive learning whatever the choice
of method. When best practices are studied
carefully and academically “processed”, theory is
what all business development should be solidly
grounded in.
Executive development has come a long way
over the past few decades. The toolbox has
grown to include a rich assortment of different
approaches. But how effective are those tools
when it comes to preparing executives to meet
the demands for radical changes? Are these tools
right for what we need today? And how well are
they meeting the needs for achieving immediate
impact on job performance?
This article argues that tools are a hierarchy
of effectiveness in terms of their potential for
delivering immediate impact. This hierarchy is
determined by how effective a tool or method
is in offering learning that is truly relevant to the
actual challenges an executive is facing at that
moment. The higher the relevance, the more
likely the method is to deliver immediate and
sustained impact on job performance.
'20s
Harvard Business
School pioneered
the case method in
the 1920s to address
the deficits of theorycentred teaching
Figure 1 shows such a hierarchy, which is discussed
in detail in the rest of the article.
Figure 1:
The Impact Matrix
High
High
IN-ROLE
LEARNING
ACTION LEARNING
PROJECTS
SIMULATIONS
Learning flexibility
Impact on job performance
REAL LIFE /REAL
TIME LEARNING
experiental
learning
CASE STUDY
TEACHING
THEORY
Low
Low
Low
Relevance to actual job challenges
33
High
The challenge is how to make theory useful
precisely when it is needed in real life. Business
schools have long taught theory in MBA
classrooms and, generally speaking, “teaching
theory” has been the preferred methodology
for preparing students for a successful executive
career. Even so, following graduation most
students have felt a big gap between theoretical
knowledge and becoming a successful executive.
Simply teaching theory as a one-way approach
has been viewed by learning and development
practitioners as the least effective way of preparing
executives for success. That way of learning has
consistently been rated lowest in attractiveness
when we have studied successful executive
development in recent years (Mannaz: Innovation
in leadership development 2007, Mannaz: Global
leadership development 2011, Mannaz: Preparing
Chinese leaders for the global business world 2013).
Of all face-to-face learning methods, teaching
theory has the lowest relevance to the reality of an
executive’s life and thus the lowest impact on job
performance. Today there are learning methods that
are much more effective at securing the transfer of
theory into new effective practice than raw lecturing.
The case method
Harvard Business School pioneered the case method
in the 1920s to address the deficits of theory-centred
teaching. The case method involves debating
interesting successful, or even less successful,
business cases to extract learning in a challenging
dialogue between the professor and the student.
34
The method was well received due to its much
higher appeal than one-way lecturing and its
emphasis on diagnosing for decision making.
Thanks to the higher degree of relevance to the
real business world and its engaging interactivity
the case method has enjoyed long-lived success.
Although the case method was and still is more
appealing to students than raw “teaching of theory”,
it is challenged by the fact that in real life no single
case will repeat itself. It hones analytical skills and
may well influence shifts in executives’ business
mindsets but it lacks immediate applicability.
Advanced corporate universities have made up
for that deficit by using tailored cases that address
relevant real-life business situations in order to
achieve a higher level of relevance and applicability.
In other words, in most instances the relevance
of case studies is still too distant from students’
own situations and thus does not really cater
for most of the real-life situations executives will
be experiencing in their own jobs. Thus the case
method has relatively low immediate impact on
everyday executive performance.
Business simulations
“Learning by doing” is the foundation of business
simulations, which became popular quite early
in executive learning. Now computer-based
simulations in particular offer a dynamic and intense
learning experience. Simulations tend to excel in
areas where facts and numbers play a significant role
such as manufacturing and finance. Many students
have learned much from the competitive landscape
of simulations ranging from the basics of accounting
to the more complex worlds of business
development and change.
Simulations tend to favour “doers” in a competitive
environment. They typically offer less space for
reflection and theory sharing. As such, simulations
are ideal for acquiring skills rather than being truly
effective at creating learning that is relevant to an
individual executive’s actual challenges.
As a simulation usually has little relevance to
executives’ on-the-job challenges, the likelihood
of immediate application and thus immediate
impact is small.
Many students have learned much
from the competitive landscape of
simulations ranging from the basics
of accounting to the more complex
worlds of business development
and change
Executive Development: A cry for immediate impact by by Jørgen Thorsell and Justin Bridge
35
I hear and I forget. I see and I
remember. I do and I understand.”
CONFUCIUS
CHINESE PHILOSOPHER
Action learning
The Chinese philosopher Confucius says: “I hear and
I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand”.
In corporate life the inefficiency of “teaching
theory” left room for new and more “doing” –
orientated learning methods. Action learning is a
significant example. Actual corporate projects are
most often used for action learning and thus create
a high degree of meaning for those involved.
However, action learning is often difficult
to separate from everyday business projects.
Thus, the “learning” in action learning frequently
does not receive proper attention and the
method becomes quite inefficient from a
learning perspective despite all the “action”.
Lack of room for reflections and theory is still
the Achilles heel of this approach to executive
learning. In addition, chosen projects tend not
to be of real relevance to the learner and lack
true wholehearted sponsorship. That has fostered
frustrations in using action learning.
Action learning can only be highly effective as an
executive learning approach when it is truly relevant
to the learner’s situation and when it is fully backed
by a committed sponsor. It is important for the
effectiveness of action learning that highly qualified
facilitators who can master sharing relevant theory
and extracting meaningful learning supervise the
actions. Only then does action learning get close to
delivering immediate impact.
Experiential learning
While action learning places its focus on action, with
only limited room for reflection, experiential learning
is grounded in learning through reflection upon
doing. Where action learning favours skills training,
experiential learning is best when emotions and
feelings are most important for the learning.
In executive development, experiential learning
is often based on experiments, for example role
playing and group exercises where learners interact
with the deliberate intention of living through a near
real-life situation. Reflections and feedback from
fellow peers and facilitators anchor the learning.
Experiential learning may still be at arm’s length to
the executive’s own real world, however. Thus it is
seen to lack full relevance for the learner’s everyday
job challenges. From our studies of best practices in
executive development, it appears that experiential
learning has gained increased popularity over
recent years.
This is likely to be caused by its particular emphasis
on developing leadership skills, which become
important in times of change. That calls for
methods that are particularly strong in fostering
behavioural change.
Although being at arm’s length from the learner’s
own job situation, experiential learning demonstrates
greater relevance for the learner than other methods
described so far.
Facilitators using this method often hear how
a session has been considered life changing.
Experiential learning is quite powerful when it
comes to affecting one’s insight into oneself and
impacting others’ behaviour. That makes it among
the potentially stronger methods for achieving
immediate impact.
Real-life real-time learning
Where experiential learning does not necessarily
address the actual job challenges that keep the
learner awake at night, real-life real-time learning
offers learning centred around exactly the issues
most pertinent to the learner here and now.
Rather than offering “role plays” this method applies
what might be called “real plays”. That means it is the
learner’s own real-time job situation that is central to
the learning process.
It is a method that requires good control of
the facilitation process and places significant
demands on the facilitator. The processes are
typically systemic in nature, which means that
the total ecosystem of the executive is the actual
base for the learning. In other words, the process
takes all aspects, personal as well as professional,
into the process.
36
The challenge of real-life real-time learning is its
reliance on highly skilled facilitators who must
master the unforeseeable context and be able to
share appropriate theory when needed. In
contrast to standardised skills training, where
programmes are carefully detailed to guide the
trainer minute by minute, facilitators in real-life
real-time learning processes have little guidance
except for the overall development process since
content relies on the specific situations.
According to our studies of best leadership
development practices, the real-life real-time
learning method has become extremely popular
lately due to its strength of being highly relevant
for each individual learner. The method has proved
to be powerful in creating immediate impact when
both the executive and the executive’s team
engage in the development processes.
In-role learning
From our practice of leadership development
and studies of best practices, we have noticed
a significant new trend towards in-role learning,
which brings learning into the workplace.
We see, for example, executive coaching getting
much attention globally. Like real-time learning,
executive coaching excels by being learner centric,
real-life real-time based and thus focused strictly
on relevant current issues. However, coaching is
mostly focused on the individual executive and
does not bring direct reports or the boss effectively
into the learning process. This makes coaching
something of a black-box learning experience, at
least for the stakeholders around the coachee.
What we also see more of is a willingness to trigger
deliberate learning on the job, which often involves
key people around the executive. Intact team
learning is an effective way of including various
stakeholders in the on-the-job learning, which
is often practised as various sorts of facilitated
group coaching.
If the in-role learning is not facilitated, we have
Fast change requires fast learning and
executives nowadays operate in a
hectic environment with an overload
of new challenges
experienced difficulty in motivating the executives
and creating space for learning in a hectic job
situation. Executives can feel great frustration at
not having been able to meet on-the-job learning
assignments and in these cases in-role learning
loses its effectiveness.
In short, in-role learning is still in the early stages
of development but it leaves us with hopes for an
effective approach that is relevant to all stakeholders
and is powerful in bringing immediate results.
A cry for immediate impact
Fast change requires fast learning and executives
nowadays operate in a hectic environment with
an overload of new challenges. This demanding
and complex reality calls for learning at a different
pace and with much higher and immediate
relevance to each executive. That has placed
executive development in a situation that is more
challenging than ever. Most of the classic tools, as
we have seen above, do not meet those needs and
new ways such as real-time learning and in-role
learning are still in their infancy.
Our conclusion is that this cry for immediate impact
and instant relevance seems to turn executive
learning upside down.
In the past executive education was professor
centred; today it is executive centred. In the past
it was theory focused; today it is job-challenge
orientated. In the past it was classroom teaching;
today it is much more about facilitated, workplacebased learning. In the past learning was about theory
learned by heart; today, executive learning is
about instant relevance to the executive’s own
current challenges.
In the past executives were developed in isolation
away from their team; today, the entire ecosystem
of the executives is involved and has become an
important part of a shared approach to leadership
development. In the past the mindset was long-term
career orientated; today, executive development
is an important search for how to satisfy the need
for immediate impact with instant relevance to
increasing performance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jorgen Thorsell is CEO,
Mannaz.
Justin Bridge is Managing
Director of Mannaz Asia.
1st EFMD Global Network
Americas
Annual
Conference
The Role of Business Schools in the Americas
The EFMD Global Network Americas Annual
Conference has been designed for all those
interested in management education and
development. It brings together EFMD Global
Network members, companies, educational
institutions and other associations that have
an interest in the Americas.
27–29 April 2014
Escola De Administração De Empresas
De São Paulo Da Fundação Getulio Vargas
More information:
[email protected] / www.efmdglobal.org
37
38
Scientific research, and particularly management research, is
in dire straits, accused of lack of relevance and impact and an
unhealthy preoccupation with theoretical and methodological
rigor. Marco Busi suggests some solutions
Research
that
matters
Thoughts on reinventing
scientific (management)
research
Research that matters: thoughts on reinventing scientific (management) research by Marco Busi
T
he original, noble purpose of universities was
to conduct research that would contribute
to advancing societal understanding and
well-being. And being a scholar automatically
implied doing research that matters, that influences
the way people live, behave and work.
39
A nasty virus is now
threatening science’s
fundamental role in
explaining life’s events
and bringing about the
innovation we need
to progress further
But a nasty virus is now threatening science’s
fundamental role in explaining life’s events
and bringing about the innovation we need to
progress further, in business as well as society.
The enabling conditions
Stakeholders inside and outside the scientific
community have identified and understand well
the enabling conditions that facilitate the spread
of this virus: competitiveness of science, rewards
and career progression systems based on bogus
measures of quality, and the “publish or perish”
mentality to mention but a few.
In fact, the very policies of a vast part of the
academic and scientific publishing worlds – absurdly
– feed the virus. As Ben Schiller neatly summed
up in a 2011 Financial Times article: “[…] promotion
is based on articles few managers read; and […]
accreditation bodies and rankings providers count
journal entries, and citations, to assess worthiness”.
The symptoms
The symptoms of the virus are also clear to all:
lack of relevance and lack of impact.
A prominent voice on this topic, the Journal of
Management Inquiry, supports the argument that
“a growing preoccupation with theoretical and
methodological rigor [may] underpin the increasing
generation of theory and research that is irrelevant
to managers“.
This is a view firmly held by practitioners as well.
Schiller’s FT article quotes Dan LeClair, senior
vice-president at AACSB, stating that: “[…] major
donors are asking tough questions like ‘you have all
these faculty members who you are very proud of,
but can you tell me how this research has made a
difference?’”
One of the most illustrious management thinkers
of all times, Peter Drucker himself, was both a
great defender of the importance of scholarly
management research and a bemused observer
of its remoteness from the very environment it
is supposed to study and develop.
“Sure, we want and need research. But consider
the modern medical school…The emphasis in
medical school is not on…publication but on the
ability to treat patients and make a difference in
their lives.” he said.
As many readers will be well aware, though, that
may be easier said (mostly by those outside the
realm of academe) than done (mostly by those
inside).
The cure to this virus is, in fact, not yet at all clear.
The good news is that it is now a top priority for
many scholars and practitioners from different
disciplines, who are coming up with several ideas
and proposals.
In an article published by Global Focus back in
2008, Oxford’s Professor Andrew Pettigrew put
forward a number of hypotheses about how this
situation could be improved.
As Chair of the EFMD R&D Steering Committee and
a then EFMD vice-president, Professor Pettigrew
suggested that we should look at scientific rigor
and practical impact as two sides of the same coin;
we should build a quality network of relationships
and work through “knowledge brokers”; we should
focus on pursuing the right themes at the right
time; and we should create environments for the
co-production of research.
40
RESEARCH THAT MATTERS
INSIGHT
GENERATOR
INSIGHT
INCUBATOR
(e.g. research
practitioner)
(e.g. university
company)
INSIGHT
DISTRIBUTOR
(e.g. journal
publisher, editor)
ABOVE: The “Research That Matters” model
London Business School’s Professor
Costas Markides has a different, perhaps
more drastic suggestion, saying that “the
first step to generate more innovation in
academic research is to change our purpose or
paradigm, which says that our goal is to publish
or perish. It is not! Our goal is to generate ideas
that help change the world, that create value. And
if you don’t develop a new paradigm or use new
mind-sets you are never going to have progress
in academia”.
After studying how exemplary scholars in the
management field as well as the hard sciences
stay true to the “noble purpose”, in Doing Research
That Matters, Shaping the Future of Management, I
present my own hypotheses about how we could
follow Professor Markides’ suggestion to develop a
new mind-set. Here, I would like to present three:
First, I propose that we must use a system thinking
approach to understanding what we need to have
in place in order to do research that matters; I then,
second, propose an “individual thinking” approach
to doing what needs to get done; and, third,
I propose that we need a revolutionary move
“from incrementalism to impressionism”.
Use system thinking to understand
System thinking postulates that the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts. Similarly, the main
hypothesis behind the “research that matters
model” is that doing research that matters requires
the convergence of the vision and values of three
separate elements of the system of scholarly
research: the “Insight Generator” – the person doing
the research; the “Insight Incubator” – the university
(or company) hosting the researcher; and the
“Insight Distributor” – the entity distributing the
researcher’s work.
Our collective objective, therefore, should be to
ensure such convergence, where researchers,
universities/companies and publishers/accreditation
bodies all share the same view of research that
matters and the same desire to generate insight
that will change the way we view and act on
certain problems.
Use individual thinking to start
However, acting collectively is difficult: who
should start embracing this new mind-set? Clearly,
this is really a chicken and egg problem. My second
hypothesis is that we should not be asking ourselves
that question but instead adopt an “individual
thinking” mentality and focus on what we can
do as individuals to improve the situation.
Regardless of whether we are researchers,
university leaders or publishers/reviewers/auditors
if we are honest in our attempt to shape the
future of management we must embrace our
ethical responsibility and moral duty to work
both introspectively – to learn how we can do
better- and extrospectively – to do what we can
to positively influence the other two elements.
Isaac Newton humbly noted how he was able to
see further because he stood on the shoulders of
giants. Similarly, to understand what we can do as
individuals we may look for inspiration and guidance
from those who did it before us.
Our goal is
to generate
ideas that
help change
the world,
that create
value
Profesor
Costas Markides
London
Business School
Research that matters: thoughts on reinventing scientific (management) research by Marco Busi
Because
innovation
is both
conceptual
and
perceptual,
would-be
innovators
must also go
out and look,
ask and listen
Peter Drucker
41
I refer to people committed to the goal of
doing research that matters as “Futureers”, from
future and engineers. These are the people who
commit their lifetime to engineering the future,
be that through advancing medicine, technology,
management or whatever other field. They
are neither the “pure academic” nor the “pure
practitioner” type. They are just innovators.
As such, Drucker’s advice seems perfect: “Because
innovation is both conceptual and perceptual,
would-be innovators must also go out and look,
ask and listen. Successful innovators use both the
right and left sides of their brains. They work out
analytically what the innovation has to be to
satisfy an opportunity. Then they go out and look
at potential users to study their expectations, their
values, their needs”.
Studying the Futureers’ behaviour and approach
to research may help us understand what the
“right mind-set” looks like and what we can do
to develop it and apply it. Doing so certainly
enabled me to identify certain traits common
to the “ideal” Insight Generator, the “ideal” Insight
Incubator and the “ideal” Insight Distributor.
Join the revolution
My third hypothesis is that we need to start a real
revolution in order to reinvent science, especially
management science.
We need a few brave individuals with the courage
to move from today’s prevalent incrementalism
to a completely new way of teaching and doing
management research. A very good way to start
this revolution is to adopt MacDonald and Kam’s
Tinker Bell solution, which aptly suggests we
should laugh at, rather than admire, research –
and, more importantly, scholars – deemed “good”
by traditional measures of quality and impact.
But I believe we need more than that. We must
first admit that the virus has spread much deeper
into the system than we want to admit. And then
we must start changing management research
the same radical way that the Impressionists
changed painting and music in the late 19th and
early 20th century.
Where the Impressionists embraced the principles of
freedom of technique, we must embrace freedom
of methodology; where the Impressionists changed
the way people measured aesthetic beauty, we
must change the way we measure research quality;
where the Impressionists embraced a personal,
rather than an “academic”, interpretation of the
subject, we must have the courage to propose ideas
that are anti-dogmatic; where the Impressionists
sought the truthful reproduction of nature, we must
seek to observe first-hand the phenomena we
are studying.
Despite the ridicule and humiliation that the
Impressionists endured, their perseverance led them,
against all odds, to accomplish a revolution in the
history of art, providing a technical starting point for
future generations of artists. If my parallel holds then
we as management researchers and innovators
can expect to suffer much ridicule and face many
hurdles but, if we persevere, we can also expect
an everlasting legacy.
I fully agree with The Economist that “science still
commands enormous…respect”. But that is not
enough to turn a blind eye on problems that are
clear to all of us. We should all work hard to cure
the system of the virus.
Did I find a cure? No, I did not. But fostering the
debate will undoubtedly lead to it.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr Marco Busi is CEO of Carisma RCT Ltd, a UK-based management
research company and consultancy, editor-in-chief of Strategic
Outsourcing, an international journal, and the author of Doing Research
That Matters: Shaping the Future of Management, Emerald Group
Publishing, 2013.
42
Globalisation and technological developments
are changing the business of business schools
and presenting new opportunities to innovate
says Kai Peters
Business
schools face
the future
Business schools face the future by Kai Peters
43
A
plethora of challenges are impacting globally
on the management education market,
including the continuing evolution of online
possibilities, the emergence of new providers,
the role of for-profits, changes to public funding,
a turbulent economy and cost pressures in the
Business school leaders are being forced to reflect
on the long-term sustainability of their current
business models and focus on refreshing future
models. Some of the strategic options that are
emerging include part-time and online education,
altering the teaching/research focus, and developing
the type and portfolio of services.
Business
school leaders
are being
forced to
reflect on the
long-term
sustainability
of their current
business
models and
focus on
refreshing
future models
30%
Unicon, a consortium
of schools involved in
executive education,
reported that on
average, revenues
generated by
executive education
shrank by 30% in 2009
compared to 2008
Throughout Europe a range of business models
already exist, largely because of a rich diversity
of economic and educational cultures. However,
economic uncertainty is testing almost all business
school models as is evident through a range
of mergers, of sales of schools to private equity
providers and the disappearance in a variety
of schools of what was once considered core
– the MBA.
Even when it is well established, executive
education is even more unpredictable. Revenues
can alter significantly within a matter of months
when the economy lurches. Unicon, a consortium
of schools involved in executive education, reported
that on average, revenues generated by executive
education shrank by 30% in 2009 compared
to 2008. Revenues are only returning now to
pre-recession levels.
Questions around the sustainability of current
business school business models are already
being raised, in particular the viability of researchintensive institutions, faculty costs and teaching
loads, and the need to either raise tuition fees or
increase scale by filling classes with larger numbers
of students (EFMD Global Focus, Vol 5, 02, 2011).
However, business school deans can diversify and
embrace innovation within their own businesses
through collaborations with organisations with
complementary approaches to achieve a more
sustainable business model in changing times.
44
Whereas some of the online providers
have delivered at the value end of the
spectrum, many are now powering
the online MBAs and other degree
programmes of traditional providers
Virtualisation
Business schools are in the business of recruiting,
teaching, testing, awarding degrees and conducting
research. But some providers are now clearly
questioning how many of these resources need
to be “owned” by the school.
For-profits
Across the business school landscape, for-profits
are either establishing themselves as alternative
providers or are forming alliances with existing
business schools. The levels of marketing spend by
for-profits are eye-watering compared to traditional
providers. It is not uncommon to hear of marketing
budgets that are one-third of turnover, call centres
employing hundreds of people and networks that
involve up to a thousand agents.
At the online end of private provision, an interesting
white label business is emerging. Whereas some of
the online providers have delivered at the value end
of the spectrum, many are now powering the online
MBAs and other degree programmes of traditional
providers.
Another variant is visible at Pearson, which is home
to businesses including the Financial Times.
Pearson purchased Embanet, which specialised
in the white labelling of online provision at the end
of 2012. At the other end of the spectrum, Pearson
entered the world of face-to-face provision in the
UK to provide undergraduate business degrees
alongside business schools.
One of the more controversial is Thunderbird’s
alliance with Laureate Education, which is
propelling Thunderbird into the undergraduate
education market and seeking to set up additional
campuses around the world. In many ways,
this alliance highlights a whole range of issues
– independence without resources versus
dependence but with resources, charitable
structures versus profit motives, high quality
but with limited reach versus significant reach
but fears over the potential reduction in quality.
As with the white label provision of on-line
programmes, schools are seeking marketing
arrangements with the likes of Study Group and
similar companies to recruit students for their
programmes. Other schools are working with
validating partners when they do not have their own
degree-awarding partners. Other schools still work
on the basis of a fully virtual faculty model that takes
advantage of the relative freedom and of the lenient
contracts that many faculty members have at their
own institutions.
Examples here range from smaller MBA
programmes that employ flying faculty through
to larger competitors such as Duke Corporate
Education and Hult International Business School.
This trend is certain to continue.
Knowledge companies
Business schools and knowledge-based
management consultancies such as PwC, McKinsey
and Deloitte increasingly overlap. Just as consulting
firms are venturing into the executive education
arena, some business schools are delivering services
traditionally offered by large consultancies – such
as organisational change management consulting,
development of coaching skills and strategy
development.
Both consultancies and business schools are
knowledge creating organisations that develop and
apply intellectual capital to give value to clients and
provide them with solutions.
There are already many examples of knowledge
companies and higher-education institutions
collaborating on programmes such as professional
degrees, short courses and research reports. Whilst
some business schools will continue to adhere to a
more traditional model of management education,
change is afoot. There are likely to be more
partnerships and intersections with consultancies.
45
Both consultancies and business
schools are knowledge creating
organisations that develop and
apply intellectual capital to give
value to clients and provide
them with solutions
Financial challenges
Although not all business schools are facing financial
challenges, fault lines are visible. Traditional sources
of income are less stable. Most public business
schools around the world receive some form
of direct and/or indirect government support to
complement income from tuition, while private
business schools rely chiefly on revenues from
programme fees.
But government funding will not continue to
expand educational budgets for ever. Examples to
the contrary are already evident in many countries
– with, for example, the UK now announcing limits
on Student Loan Company largesse.
At the same time, student tuition fees cannot go
on rising forever. Many MBA programme fees are
likely to have reached levels that are not sustainable
and raise a real question of value and fairness.
Income from executive education can be
substantial, but is not in the reach of all schools.
Although some traditional models of business
education will no doubt continue, significant
changes are taking place and more hybrids are
emerging as business schools seek to maintain
their long-term competitive position by widening
their outreach.
46
ASHRIDGE
EXPANDING INTO
ADJACENT MARKETS
Through partnerships with other education
providers Ashridge Business School is extending
its portfolio of programmes and providing a
wider range of services in the education market.
Ashridge and Pearson College, part of the
multinational publishing and education company
Pearson Group, have formed a new partnership.
Pearson College, established in 2012, is the first
FTSE 100 company to deliver degrees in the UK.
The initial suite of joint undergraduate business
degrees, the first step in the partnership, will run in
2014. The programmes will be delivered by Pearson
College, validated by Ashridge, and jointly designed
along with a network of other industry partners. It
also means that for the first time Ashridge will bring
its expertise and experience of the corporate world
to undergraduate students.
The business degree will include regular lectures
and seminars in London, work experience both
within Pearson and other companies, residential
stays on the Ashridge campus and an executive
education module specially designed for final-year
honours students.
Currently, Ashridge is chiefly known for its offerings
in executive education, open programmes and its
graduate degree programmes. Such new innovative
partnerships have clear benefits. Undergraduate
degrees offer business schools a predictable income
over several years via course fee payments, in
contrast to executive programmes, where the
income is largely unpredictable from year to year.
The partnership with Pearson
College means that for the first time
Ashridge will bring its expertise and
experience of the corporate world
to undergraduate students
Although 70% of Ashridge’s annual income
currently comes from executive programmes, in
the future the aim is to earn 50% of revenues from
longer programmes that can be taught at scale.
Ashridge has also partnered with Lorange Institute
of Business in Zurich, Switzerland. Students who
complete Lorange’s Executive Masters in Business
Administration (EMBA) and Executive Master of
Science in Management (MSc) will receive a dual
degree, with certificates from both organisations.
This is enabling Lorange to award degree
qualifications that are recognised throughout
the European Union and internationally.
Ashridge secured degree-awarding powers in 2008,
and the recently formed Academic Accreditation
service provides a route for select organisations
without their own UK degree-awarding powers to
offer Ashridge-accredited degree-level qualifications
in business and management.
Accreditation and degree validation is a wellestablished but occasionally controversial model
of educational collaboration. For what it is worth,
there are more students studying for UK degrees
outside of the UK than in the UK. At Ashridge,
we are not seeking to pursue the existing model
of accreditation. We are seeking to establish
partnerships where we can work on a multiactivity model including research, executive
education, and faculty and student visits and
exchanges with partners.
70%
70% of Ashridge’s
annual income
currently comes
from executive
programmes...
50%
...in the future the
aim is to earn 50% of
revenues from longer
programmes that can
be taught at scale
47
The development of partnerships with non-UK
institutions is part of Ashridge’s long-term vision to
widen its international impact in new and existing
markets, and supports its strategy to increase the
number of degrees awarded.
Such collaborations are widening Ashridge’s global
footprint and creating new opportunities to increase
brand awareness. There are wide-ranging changes,
with education and publishing collaborating and
colliding and lines of jurisdiction blurred.
New partnerships, for example with Pearson, which
is pushing into digital learning, education services
and emerging markets, improve the marketing
capacity of business schools and help develop
economies of scale over time.
Ashridge is home to Virtual Ashridge, an online
learning platform that provides content including
text, videos, webinars and audio books and supports
the learning of over a million managers globally.
Ashridge also runs an eMiM degree programme
(Masters in Management), which can be delivered
virtually, but is proving to be a brilliant bedrock
for customised blended qualifications within
large organisations.
The value chain is in flux because of new challenges
and opportunities. Ashridge is developing
organisations and managers across the world
through partnerships validation services,
qualifications, accreditation services, online
education, development programmes, consultancy
and research. Partnerships, such as those with
Pearson, offer new opportunities to harness the
marketing clout of corporations, build brand
awareness by reaching audiences across the
globe, and refresh how Ashridge creates, delivers
and captures value for a more sustainable future.
The development of partnerships with
non-UK institutions is part of Ashridge’s
long-term vision to widen its international
impact in new and existing markets
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kai Peters is Chief Executive of Ashridge,
a business school in Berkhamsted, UK.
48
Johan Roos explains how Jönköping
International Business School in Sweden
is being reformed and reinvigorated
Y
ou are probably not very familiar with
Jönköping International Business School
(JIBS) or its Swedish name Internationella
Handelshögskolan but our goal is that within five
years you will be.
Having become its Dean two years ago, I have been
working with my management team and faculty
to put us on the path to having a global footprint far
beyond our small size and remote setting in central
Sweden. What we are doing at JIBS makes an
interesting case for any business school leader
who seeks to transform his or her organisation.
Happy 20th anniversary
JIBS is among the world’s youngest business schools
yet has achieved quite a lot in its 20-year history.
Founded in 1994, the pioneering faculty made good
use of the freedom that came with having been set
up as a limited company owned by a foundation.
Today JIBS has become one of the most international
business schools in Scandinavia, attracting some 45%
of its 1,800 students and 35% of its 140 faculty and
PhD candidates from outside Sweden.
Our research groups in family business and regional
economics are world renowned. Our undergraduate
business education is among the top-rated
programmes in Sweden. With as many PhD
candidates as faculty members, JIBS has become
a noted research centre, a fact mirrored in its
culture of generous allocation of research time.
45%
JIBS attracts 45% of
its 1,800 students and
35% of its 140 faculty
and PhD candidates
from outside Sweden
PHOTO © daniel ekman
Capitalising on an entrepreneurial and international
spirit, JIBS quickly established a strong research
reputation, attracted PhD candidates from
around the world and developed networks in
entrepreneurship, family business and regional
economics.
Making the good even better by Johan Roos
EN
na
er
IP
ac
tio
ENEUR
EPR
SH
TR
e a rt
l at h
Respon
sibl
e
in
na
tio
MISSION
The school’s regional stakeholders were increasingly
asking for more engagement and more contributions
at home.
EW
SH
IP
REN
OWN
neurial in mi
Meanwhile, the allocation of research time to faculty
did not always result in corresponding outputs.
Increased competition for external research grants
stressed our economic model. Furthermore,
our teaching relied heavily on PhD candidates,
which is not compatible with the requirements
of international accreditation.
nd
To develop a more sustainable model that would
better correspond to new external and internal
realities, my colleagues and I have over the last
two years begun to reform JIBS along its basic
business dimensions. These transformations have
already started to help renew the pioneering and
entrepreneurial spirit of the school and are worth
understanding.
PHOTO © patrik svedberg
Ent
repre
ER
20
Founded in 1994
JIBS is among the
world’s youngest
business schools
yet has achieved
quite a lot in its
20-year history
72
AL
No resting on laurels
When I took office, JIBS had just come through
several turbulent years. The school’s financial
resources were strained since it had worked up a
large debt to its owner, the Jönköping University
Foundation (JUF). The business model that made
JIBS what it was had reached its limits.
JIBS faced significant challenges. From a
strategic perspective, JIBS’ pioneering focus on
internationalisation and entrepreneurship that had
formerly set it apart no longer did so and this was
not accounted for in the school’s strategic planning.
t
In
n
Our research group in family
business was recently ranked first
in Europe and third in the world.
Our undergraduate business
education is among the top-rated
programmes in Sweden
49
JIBS' strategy includes
a commitment to be
among the leading
international business
schools in the world,
as such the business
plan for 2012 included
72 priorities
Developing a focused and do-able strategy
JIBS’ initial 1994 strategy was to deliver
“internationally competitive management education.”
Over time, this straightforward mission evolved to
include statements about excellence in research and
education and a special focus on entrepreneurship
and business renewal. The strategy expanded in
2010 to include a commitment to be among the
leading international business schools in the world.
The business plan for 2012 included 72 priorities.
In becoming Dean, I saw a scattered pattern of
objectives not clearly connected to an overall
strategic direction.
One of my first actions was to ask each member
of the management team to refine the elaborate
business plan into a much shorter action plan.
We had to settle on only a few priorities for each
department and function. We placed the short-list
of actions on the intranet and each leader was
responsible for updating his or her progress. This
made our goals more visible to all colleagues and
the leaders more accountable for their actions.
From this first step, it was vital to develop a focused
and do-able strategy. We needed a few clear,
strategy-driven priorities that aligned with
stakeholder expectations. I put in place an open
process to review the strategy, inviting all colleagues
to discuss it.
A transparent organisation led by a small team
The next step was to modernise our structure. The
school had five very different departments, two of
which mirrored distinct academic disciplines, while
business administration was split between the
other three.
By the end of my first year, the JIBS board of
directors gave us a green light to implement a
renewed strategy, which we summarised both
in a document and in a one-page “strategy map".
To acknowledge and honour the fact that the new
strategy was grounded in the successful past of JIBS,
we labelled it “Back to the Future.”
Each department had developed its own
management processes and approaches to
reward teaching, research and external services,
and each was a “black-box” in terms of its financial
management.
• Strengthen our education
• Improve our research
• Increase our “footprint” in the broader society
Each priority is manifested by a handful of three-year
action points that, in turn, are translated into annual
action plans with associated performance measures
and clear responsibilities among leaders.
All of the above rests on three guiding principles
we developed that reflect JIBS’ culture, spirit and
commitment to its stakeholders: “International at
Heart, Entrepreneurial in Mind, and Responsible
in Action.” These guiding principles are what
attract students and differentiate JIBS from its
peers, as reflected in our marketing materials
and student recruitment activities.
The first two principles were already brand
statements for JIBS, especially “international” but
in the new strategy we upgraded it from being just
a focus area to an underlying value in everything
we do. The third principle was an important new
message that I wanted all faculty members to adopt
and take to heart.
A few months earlier the founder of the UN
Principles of Responsible Management Education,
Manuel Escudero, talked about PRME during a
staff meeting. A few months later in early 2013
we became PRME signatories.
Our task was to rethink what kind of organisation
would best deliver the agreed strategy without being
constrained by our existing structure and ways of
working.
To test our new ideas, I consulted faculty throughout
the process, particularly a small group of three highly
regarded senior professors, all “founders” of JIBS.
We also outlined our three-year strategic priorities,
which after the first annual update are:
In early 2013, two external experts – a leader of a
Norwegian business school and a leader of a Danish
higher education think tank – began working with the
Associate Deans of Education and Research and me.
In addition, I met several times with each
department. We shared a rough version of our
proposal during a major full staff meeting, and
adjusted it afterwards.
In May 2013, the board agreed to our proposal
for a more collegiate and effective organisation,
to be developed through such actions as:
• Dissolve all departments since they neither
reflected our focus areas nor helped deliver
on the strategic priorities
• Strengthen the education dimension, clustering the
20 study programmes into six programme groups,
each led by a devoted faculty member working
with a handful of colleagues
JIBS’ mission is now simply “To advance the theory
and practice of business, with a special emphasis on
Entrepreneurship, Renewal and Ownership.” These
focus areas are intentionally broadly defined and are
prominent in internal conversations and external
communication. For example, in salary talks each
faculty member indicates how their research,
grounded in their academic discipline, strengthens
these focus areas as well as the direction of their
research in this landscape.
Consequently, departments had evolved very
different cultures. For example, faculty in one
department kept track of “overtime” in teaching,
which was unheard of in another.
PHOTO © Jönkoping International Business School
• Ensure that research centres focus on research
and strengthen their link with the three focus areas
of our mission
• Increase connections with external stakeholders
by establishing external advisory boards to each
programme group and research centre
• Streamline all management processes, such as
budgeting, financial control, and ways of rewarding
teaching time and external funding
• Strengthen the role of the Associate Deans of
Research and Education by assigning them budget
responsibility for research and education
50
Making the good even better by Johan Roos
The management team in place when I took office
included 12 people. Today the new leadership
team includes just five members with distinct
responsibilities for education, research, faculty
and operations – all new colleagues recruited
from within. The new organisation was in place
by July 1, 2013. Previous members of the JIBS
leadership remain faculty colleagues.
Giving culture a friendly nudge
JIBS has two EPAS accredited programmes,
but aspires to join the small group of business
schools accredited by both EQUIS and AACSB
(we are not eligible for AMBA since we do not
offer MBA programmes).
Those accreditations come
with requirements that impose
significant changes on us, like
we have to increase qualified
faculty time available for
teaching. Over the last two
years we have taken several
initiatives to cultivate a
stronger teaching culture
and sent signals that it is both
important and necessary.
Despite a strong research
reputation, current financial realities mean we
have to increase research productivity as well as
external funding. To this
end, we have staged intensive workshops for grant
application writing, engaged more with national
research councils, and brought in prominent
role-model scholars to inspire colleagues.
We are also expanding our visibility, starting
nationally. When I joined JIBS, few faculty colleagues
were cited in the traditional press. Almost none
wrote their own blogs or participated in Twitter
and other social media.
5
The management
team initially included
12 people – today
the new leadership
team includes just five
members with distinct
responsibilities for
education, research,
faculty and operations
Now, with one of the three strategic priorities being
to “increase the footprint” of JIBS in the broader
society, I sent frequent signals that I wanted many
more JIBS faculty to become sought-after experts
and advisors to private and public organisations and
the government and to have a presence in social
and traditional media.
In 2013 we launched a project to attract, train
and promote faculty members in the social and
traditional media, which quickly garnered kudos
in social media and in the Swedish national press,
radio and TV. The possibility for faculty members
to create and fuel the public debate is now also
one of the questions I ask during development
talks with professors.
51
The possibility for faculty members to
create and fuel the public debate is now
also one of the questions I ask during
development talks with professors
So far, so good
Although much work remains for us to make
the good business school JIBS even better, I have
learned a few things on the journey so far, including:
• There is a thin line between vision and illusion.
Nice words and grandiose statements about
the future may prevent change and even give
some people the excuse to opt out of what
needs to be done. At JIBS we have intentionally
abandoned “vision” for a more concrete and
action-oriented mission.
• Nobody is perfect. No matter how great an
organisation is there will always be unresolved
issues to deal with, especially when you come in
as a new leader. At JIBS we have pulled our head
out of the sand and constructively dealt with issues
swept under the rug for more than a decade. We
faced the problems, talked openly and avoided
blame games.
• Keep in touch with the culture. The change
management literature is full of advice but I think
the best one is never let go of the culture. Easier
said than done, it requires leaders to immerse
themselves in the organisation in many different
ways: publicly standing up; walking around;
participating in coffee break chats; engaging
“founders” and outside key stakeholders. Another
way we kept in touch with the deep structures in
JIBS was to recruit the new leaders reporting to
me from the inside.
Conclusion
In my years of experience at six business schools
in five countries, I have witnessed first-hand how
academic institutions do not change readily or
easily, though they do adapt to the environment
one way or another. The question is: do they adapt
fast enough?
In the case of JIBS, I posit that the answer is yes.
Over the last two years, we have reformed the basic
business dimensions of JIBS – strategy, organisation,
leadership and ways of execution. And we have
begun the much longer journey to cultivate a
culture that better serves our stakeholders locally,
nationally and globally.
Stay tuned… you will be hearing more about JIBS
in coming years.
52
education
With business and management
e Davies and
Juli
,
coming under increasing scrutiny
iness schools
bus
that
Toni Hilton suggest some ways
excellence
al
vidu
can be structured to achieve indi
Building better business schools by Julie Davies and Toni Hilton
T
he contemporary purpose of a
business school is to develop and
enhance the individual’s and the
collective’s abilities to innovate. That
means not merely creating, inventing,
and imagining but also commercialising
products and services and contributing
to new theoretical knowledge.
More specifically, to achieve positive
impact the role of business schools is to
create and disseminate knowledge that
can be applied to enhance the practice
of professional managers, whatever
their organisations’ purpose, scope, size
or location. It is imperative that business
schools foster an understanding of the
human behaviours that both facilitate
and impede the achievement of
organisational and social goals.
At the same time, these need to
support pressing concerns such as
environmental and demographic
changes, health, hunger, inequalities,
ageing, poverty, geopolitical and
technological shifts, and so on.
In this respect, business schools are key
integrating actors and anchors within
the academic world, the economy, and
society more broadly.
Integration implies proactive engagement
with collaborators and the designing of
business schools that are institutionally
and socially embedded while retaining
a degree of self-determination.
53
Business schools are clearly in the reputation
business, with a strong focus on brand, journal
citations, league tables, and the professional
careers of staff and students. How can they
make their mark?
Now that is a tall order. It is, therefore,
unlikely that any one business school
can be all things to all people. A large
part of our argument revolves around
the need for specialisation. It is by
standing apart from the crowd, rather
than through delivering to the “common
denominator”, that we can achieve
meaningful impact.
Business schools are clearly in the
reputation business, with a strong focus
on brand, journal citations, league tables,
and the professional careers of staff and
students. How can they make their mark?
Despite those who bemoan the
unfulfilled promise of the project to
professionalise management and the
suggestion by Howard Thomas, Dean
of Lee Kong Chian School of Business,
Singapore Management University,
and others that business schools may
have reached a “tripping point”, there
is no denying that we have done well
to professionalise ourselves.
This has been achieved through
accreditation agencies and national
business school bodies. In the context
of criticisms about business schools’
isolationism in iconic buildings,
disciplinary silos, decoupling from
wicked interdisciplinary problems in
society and being distinguished as
“cash cows”, we argue for integration
and further differentiation.
How do we innovate from within,
encouraging experimentation, creativity
and risk taking while assuring compliance
with quality standards? How do
we practise the critical thinking and
responsibility that we profess? How
do we communicate new forms
of legitimacy based on academic
entrepreneurship when many faculty
members are so focused on journal
publications and deans on the tyranny
of rankings?
With diverse stakeholders, how do
we build a shared sense of purpose
and nudge scholars, administrative
staff, collaborators, and co-creators
(including our students) to a shared
sense of purpose while differentiating
ourselves from our competitors?
Clarity of purpose and positioning
are imperative when seeking to build
a distinctive reputation as a leading
business school. There are risks attached
to being different but these should
be outweighed by the advantages
of becoming known as the place to
study or the business school to work
with among a given target audience.
54
Deans are frequently reluctant to risk
current revenue streams, particularly if it
means negotiating a period of investment
in cultural and behavioural changes with
the vice-chancellor
It takes courage to commit to standing out from
the crowd, prioritising a particular direction and
thereby rejecting others that might seem attractive
or represent today’s portfolio. Deans are frequently
reluctant to risk current revenue streams, particularly
if it means negotiating a period of investment in
cultural and behavioural changes with the
vice-chancellor.
Identifying the different forms, purposes, sizes and
locations of organisations provides an opportunity
to segment in order to specialise. The nature of
the relationship that a business school wishes to
have with practice and practitioners represents an
important strategic decision.
Business schools can differentiate themselves by
selecting which types of organisation they wish
to specialise in understanding and supporting. It
would surely be possible to build a remarkable
business school that prioritises regional or national
needs. It would be a very different place to study
or work at than a business school that seeks to
build its reputation among global businesses.
The programme portfolio provides another
opportunity to differentiate, particularly around
postgraduate provision, given the proliferation of
specialist masters programmes. Business schools
can tailor these programmes to support particular
industry sectors and/or organisational purposes.
Establishing a critical mass of faculty with the
required specialist research, consultancy, and
teaching expertise to ensure high-quality support
can build reputation among a target market with
strong intellectual foundations.
A key challenge for business schools is that they
do not possess all the resources and capabilities
necessary to create and disseminate knowledge
that can be applied to enhance management
practice. Hence they need to draw on the resources
of other parties.
They also need to manage, and probably
lead, collaborative activities beyond the
provision of qualification-based education.
The employability agenda looms large.
Internships and industry placements need to be
built into our programmes along with other activities
such as international study opportunities and
provision for life-long learning. Having a clear,
differentiated position will assist in the identification
of appropriate industry and international higher
education partners to work with.
Knowledge creation is a socially constructed
process within communities. Academics and
practitioners differ in the type of knowledge that
they deal with and exchange with business and
management students.
The business curriculum provides explicit
knowledge: that which has already been codified
and documented and has become generally
accepted theory. This provides a firm basis for
students entering the workplace.
However, to hit the ground running students really
need to understand how theory works in practice,
to be exposed to experiential and inquiry-based
learning. Students gain access to this tacit
knowledge through observing, imitating, adapting
and sharing experiences and sense making with
practising managers. This is then the real value of
academic and industry collaborations from which
all parties benefit in both the short- and long-term.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT)
BENTLEY UNIVERSITY; REGENT’S UNIVERSITY, LONDON;
LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL
Building better business schools by Julie Davies and Toni Hilton
The 2013 innovation report from the Association of
Business Schools (ABS) in the UK recommended that
business schools adopt distinctly defined roles. For
example, some may focus on the local economy,
others on international outreach, specific industry
sectors, commercialising university-generated
technology, innovating in pedagogy or consulting,
or on a research-led multidisciplinary model. We are
acutely aware of dense clusters of business schools
in some parts of the world and we have been
impressed by just how clearly such business schools
have distinguished themselves from each other.
3
Around Baker Street
underground station
in London, a cluster
of three highly
distinctive business
schools co-exists
–London Business
School, Regent’s
University, London,
and Westminster
Business School
In Boston, a higher education Mecca, in some
places you can throw a rock from one school
and it hits another. Yet the business schools are very
clearly differentiated from each other.
For example, Babson College is well known for
business and entrepreneurship; Bentley University
is an EQUIS-accredited business university with a
focus on the arts and sciences; Harvard Business
School has lead the way with its case method
model; MIT Sloan collaborates closely with
engineering and science; Boston University School
of Management offers many MBA dual degrees;
and Northeastern University’s D'Amore-McKim
School of Business has a strong cooperative
education programme of work experience.
The English Midlands also has a high density of
business schools at Aston, Birmingham, Birmingham
City, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham Trent,
Nottingham, and Warwick Universities.
Even in Sherlock Holmes’ territory, around Baker
Street underground station in London, a cluster of
three highly distinctive business schools co-exists.
London Business School delivers masters level,
PhD and executive development programmes
for the post-experience market with a first-class
reputation. It is solidly positioned as a provider
of excellence at the forefront of global business
research with “world-class thought leadership
faculty and research.” In the same park land, the
Business and Management Faculty at Regent’s
University, London, focuses on full-time
undergraduate and pre-experience postgraduate
programmes. Westminster Business School across
the road is a full-service business school with a
well-established reputation among professional
55
bodies and the government economic service. It
has developed a reputation for corporate education
and research-based consultancy, particularly within
the public sector. Contrasting with the other two
business schools, Westminster Business School
students tend to be local with the vast majority
domiciled within the Greater London area.
Westminster Business School is also committed to a
widening access agenda and offers a comprehensive
range of bursaries to capable students from lower
income families.
Mergers such as those at Aalto, Manchester
Business School, Skema, and Paris Dauphine’s
strategic alliance within PSL Research University
Paris have allowed for critical mass and new
sources of competitive advantage.
Being different requires the courage of conviction
and a degree of risk taking and learning from failure.
To use a favourite Peter Lorange phrase, “strategy
means choice” – about what type of business school
you want to be, your identity, what you are definitely
not going to do. Do you want, for instance, to
be more “business” than “school” or vice versa in
balancing your portfolio and expectations about
your short- and long-term objectives?
Some business schools focus on international
expansion without much regard for their local
community. But demographics and social and
geopolitical changes demand an appreciation of
local needs. Where a business school is located
still matters. In conclusion, while Russian President
Vladimir Putin argued in The New York Times
against exceptionalism on the grounds that it
creates superior behaviours, we suggest that
everyone can be excellent on their own terms.
We spend so much time assessing students,
now we can reassess ourselves on how we
make significant positive impact.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Julie Davies is Deputy Chief Executive of the Association of Business Schools
in London: [email protected]
Professor Toni Hilton is Dean of the Faculty of Business and Management,
Regent's University, London: [email protected]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ferlie, E, McGivern, G and De Moraes, A (2010) “Developing a public interest
school of management”, British Journal of Management, 21(S1): 60–70.
Khurana, R (2007) From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social
Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Putin, VV (2013) “A plea for caution from Russia. What Putin has to
say to Americans about Syria”, The New York Times, 11 September.
Thomas, H, Lorange, P and Sheth, J (2013) The Business School in the
Twenty-First Century: Emergent Challenges and New Business Models.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
56
Mary Gentile explains how a new pedagogical
model is helping to integrate values into the
business education curriculum
The
Holy
Grail
Educating for values-driven leadership across
the curriculum and giving voice to values
The Holy Grail: Educating for values-driven leadership across the curriculum and giving voice to values by Mary Gentile
F
or those business educators
working in the field of
values-driven leadership
development, finding a way
to integrate attention to
values and ethics across the curriculum
has long been the“Holy Grail”.
Stand-alone, dedicated ethics and
corporate responsibility courses can
be valuable. They can act as signals of
commitment and significance as well
as curriculum-development engines for
materials and approaches that could
then migrate across the core. But the
concern has always been that these
critical issues may be marginalised at
best or actively contradicted in other
courses at worst.
For these reasons, a new and innovative
pedagogy for values-driven business
called “Giving Voice To Values” (GVV)
was created a number of years ago.
This was driven by research on how
behaviour change really happens
and by an examination of the actual
experiences of managers who had
effectively enacted their values.
It was also based on respect for the
challenges that faculty face when trying
to integrate this sort of topic into the
traditional business disciplines such as
accounting, operations management
and so on.
Objections to the integration of values
and ethics across the curriculum
In almost three decades of work at
some of the world’s leading business
schools, I have yet to encounter a
faculty member who did not hope
his or her students would become
responsible and ethical business
professionals.
And yet, these same educators often
voiced deeply held resistance to the
explicit integration of values and ethics
into their teaching. For example, they
would point out that they were not
trained as philosophers but rather
as experts in finance, accounting,
marketing or general management.
They would argue that the last thing
they wanted to do was to force their
own values/ethics onto their students,
both because they believed this would
be inappropriate and/or because such
“preaching” would be ineffective anyway.
Additionally, their intellectual integrity
led them to the conclusion that in
many instances the “right thing” to
do was actually not so clear. And,
finally, their syllabi were already packed
with the concepts, analytics and tools
of their own discipline and they felt an
obligation to make sure they turned
out students who were knowledgeable
and skilled in those areas.
57
They argued that inserted discussions of
ethics often took up valuable class time
with no clear deliverable or “take-aways”
for the students. After encountering
these same objections over and over,
it was clear that they were not only
deeply held but that there was a great
deal of merit in them as well.
So what is giving voice to values and
how does it respond to these objections?
Giving Voice To Values
(GVV) was driven by research
on how behaviour change
really happens and by an
examination of the actual
experiences of managers
who had effectively enacted
their values
58
GVV was developed both as a response to research
findings that suggested that “rehearsal” – literal
practice – was an effective way to influence
behaviours as well as an answer, hopefully, to
the faculty resistance outlined above.
That is, instead of framing the conversation
about ethics as an intellectual debate, suited
only for the classroom – one that too often,
albeit unintentionally, devolved into a schooling
for sophistry – GVV frames it as one of action
and implementation.
Instead of asking first, foremost and only “what is
the right thing to do?” in a particular situation, GVV
starts from the premise that in many (not all)
situations, we know what we believe is right but we
do not believe it is possible or feasible to get it done.
So GVV asks some new questions: “Once we know
what is right, how do we get it done? What do we
say? To whom? In what sequence? What will the
push-back be and how will we respond to that?
What data do we need? How might we re-frame
the problem?” And so on.
Core principles of GVV include not only the asking
of this “new question” – we call it the “GVV Thought
Experiment” – but also:
• A focus on how (rather than whether) a manager
can raise values-based issues in an effective
manner—what he or she needs to do to be heard
and how to correct an existing course of action
when necessary
• Positive examples of times when people have
found ways to voice and thereby implement
their values in the workplace
• The importance of self-assessment and a focus
on individual strengths when looking for a way
to align one’s individual sense of purpose and
that of the organisation
• Opportunities to construct and practise responses
to frequently heard reasons and rationalisations
for not acting on one’s values
• Practice in providing peer feedback and coaching
By shifting the focus in this way, GVV also begins
to address faculty concerns. The GVV exercises and
case studies end with a protagonist who knows
what he or she believes is right so the conversation
is not one of philosophical debate but rather
of implementation. The tools, concepts and
arguments that students apply and develop are
based not on John Rawls or Aristotle but rather
upon the vocabulary, frameworks and analytical
tools of the discipline in which the GVV scenario
is being discussed.
The time spent on these discussions and exercises
yields action plans and scripts and involves literal
practice with the tools the faculty are trying to
Instead of asking first, foremost
and only “what is the right
thing to do?” in a particular
situation, GVV starts from
the premise that in many
situations, we know what
we believe is right but we
do not believe it is possible
or feasible to get it done
The Holy Grail: Educating for values-driven leadership across the curriculum and giving voice to values by Mary Gentile
convey. And faculty members are no longer in the
role of preaching but rather of guiding a discussion
of feasible approaches and applications of the core
principles of their respective disciplines.
So how does this look in the classroom?
This GVV pedagogy and curriculum has spread
rapidly, with pilots in well over 500 sites and is
growing around the world. It is being increasingly
adapted and adopted in businesses as well as
business schools.
A new book, Educating for Values-Driven
Leadership: Giving Voice To Values Across the
Curriculum has just been published as part of
the United Nations Global Compact Principles for
Responsible Management Education Collection.
500
The GVV pedagogy
and curriculum has
spread rapidly, with
pilots in well over 500
sites and is growing
around the world
The book sets out to illustrate how the GVV
pedagogy can and is being used both across the
core business courses and also across cultures.
Following an initial introduction to the Giving
Voice To Values approach, each of the subsequent
12 chapters is written by a faculty member who
has piloted GVV in his or her own teaching and
discipline and who describes the approach taken
and learning objectives targeted; materials used;
student responses; benefits and challenges; as
well as possible new opportunities. Disciplines
represented in this book include: Economics,
Accounting, Human Resource Management, Public
Sector Management, Leadership, Negotiations,
Ethics, Social Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and
Management; and the contexts discussed include
undergraduate, graduate and executive business
education programmes in the US (including the US
Air Force Academy), as well as India and Australia.
59
The book’s power lies in the fact that the faculty
represented are trained in disciplines other than
ethics. In his chapter, “Giving Voice To Values in the
Economics Classroom”, Daniel Arce, an economist,
explains: “….GVV does not require stepping outside
of the normal functioning of the classroom for
an “ethics break” unrelated to the course material.
Indeed, it purposefully does not require that
non-ethics faculty educate students in the
constructs of normative decision making. although
it acknowledges and is complementary to the
foundation provided in dedicated ethics courses."
And as Subhasis Ray, a marketing professor at
Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar,
India, writes in his chapter: “Beyond the concept
itself and its cases, GVV’s achievement is to bring
ethics out of the Business Ethics curriculum."
And as many of the authors explain, they find
the action-orientation of GVV (as opposed to
a predominantly philosophical and theoretical
approach to ethics) to be a good fit with business
education. Accounting professors Steven Mintz and
Roselyn Morris comment: “Typically accounting
professors rely on the use of traditional moral
theories to provide the basis for values judgments.
The problem is the discussion of what to do stops
there and not with the critical issue of how to do
it…We use the GVV approach to provide the bridge
between ethical intent and ethical action."
MIT professor Leigh Hafrey explains: “I adopted ….
Giving Voice To Values (GVV) in the classroom for
the same reason that many others have: I needed
something that would allow both me and my
students in various graduate business programmes
to ground the metaphysics of our ethical debates
in action."
These comments are heartening but the true
value-add in this collection is its demonstration by
the diverse array of authors that the Giving Voice
To Values pedagogy and curriculum does, in fact,
offer a new pathway towards the “Holy Grail” of
business education – the integration of values-driven
leadership development across the core curriculum.
Typically accounting
professors rely on the use of
traditional moral theories to
provide the basis for values
judgments. The problem is
the discussion of what to do
stops there and not with the
critical issue of how to do it…
FURTHER INFORMATION
Giving Voice To Values was developed by Mary C Gentile with The Aspen
Institute as incubator and along with Yale School of Management, founding
partner. It is currently based and supported at Babson College, Wellesley,
Massachusetts, US. The Student curriculum is available for free download
at www.GivingVoiceToValues.org. There is a faculty-only website
with teaching notes and cases available to faculty upon request from
[email protected]. The books, as well as other videos, related articles,
interviews and media reviews are available at www.MaryGentile.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Mary C Gentile is Director, Giving Voice to Values, and Senior Research
Scholar, Babson College. She is also Editor of Educating for Values-Driven
Leadership: Giving Voice To Values Across the Curriculum. Business Expert
Press, New York City, 2013.
60
A new book warns of troubled times ahead for
business schools unless they embrace disruptive
change says Rachel Edgington
Graduate management education in
Graduate management education in disruptive times by Rachel Edgington
61
I
n the late 1990s, Andy Grove, cofounder of chipmaker Intel, described
a strategic inflection point as "an event
that changes the way we think and act as
a result of action taken by a company, or
through actions taken by another entity,
that has a direct impact on the company.”
Eastman Kodak Company encountered
just such a strategic inflection point
in 2012. Kodak had dominated the
photographic film industry for 121
years and was one of the most
powerful companies in the world. But
in 2012, after two decades of financial
struggles and increasing competition,
Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The world of photography had
shifted rapidly into a new era of digital
technology and Kodak failed to anticipate
its explosive growth, even though it had
invented the core technology used in
digital cameras. Kodak had the capability
to compete in the digital market but
found itself becoming irrelevant as it
failed to change course during a strategic
inflection point in the industry.
Business schools around the globe are
today facing a similar strategic inflection
point as management education is
besieged by rapid change driven by
multiple market forces—increased
competition, technological advances,
customers, suppliers, and regulation.
121
Kodak had dominated
the photographic
film industry for 121
years and was one
of the most powerful
companies in the
world. But in 2012,
after two decades
of financial struggles
and increasing
competition, Kodak
filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy
A new book, Disrupt or Be Disrupted:
A Blueprint for Change in Management
Education, examines these disruptive
forces that are challenging the very
core of management education. The
book provides an historical perspective,
analyses today’s world of management
education and provides a scholarly
framework for change.
Disrupt or Be Disrupted:
A Blueprint for Change
in Management Education
from GMAC
At the beginning of the book, J C
Spender and Rakesh Khurana examine
a previous period of transformation
for management education; one that
started in 1959 and ended up shaping
the development of the modern
business school we know today.
They argue that only by understanding
how schools arrived at the status quo can
they reposition themselves for the future.
In 1959, the Ford Foundation and the
Carnegie Corporation sponsored highly
influential reports on the then state of US
business education (written respectively
by economists Robert Aaron Gordon and
James Edwin Howell and Frank Pierson
and others).
The reports’ conclusions were clear—if
American business schools were to fulfil
their mission as professional schools, they
needed to recruit and develop a more
discipline-oriented faculty, properly
trained in social science theory, research
and formal modelling.
The “prescription” of curricula grounded
in engineering and systems analysis—
where mathematics, formal modelling
and statistics were central—was rapidly
disseminated throughout the business
school community and became the new
blueprint for business schools in the
US and globally. By 1964, the quantity
of business school research and the
number of newly founded journals in
which it was published began to rise
rapidly—a trend which has both persisted
and accelerated. Research and refereed
journal publication quickly became
the emerging profession's measure
of academic quality and capability.
62
Lyman W Porter and Lawrence McKibbin, authors of
a 1988 follow-up report, warned that many business
school faculty were “distancing themselves from the
problems that managers faced… instead they
focused on advancing their disciplines…”
Although the original reports certainly intended to
promote greater emphasis on the disciplines, they
were not intended to persuade business schools
against preparing managers to deal with practical
problems. Yet that was what was happening.
Erich Dierdorff, co-editor of Disrupt, and three
of the book’s co-authors build a case for the
value of management education at the individual,
organisational and broader societal levels. But, they
argue, current business school models are failing
to fulfil these value propositions. Spender and
Khurana conclude that if the vicious cycle revealed
in the Porter-McKibbin report is to be broken and
our industry is to move in new directions, then we
need to rethink, once again, the process of faculty
selection, preparation, and development.
The authors of Disrupt or Be Disrupted: A Blueprint
for Change in Management Education certainly
believe we are at a strategic inflection point that
will determine the future value and relevance of
management education. Which market forces
will change management education at such a
magnitude that they transform the very essence
of how business schools operate?
• If someone asks you who your competitor is,
do you have an immediate answer, or are you
unsure? Would everyone in your school agree
with you? Is your key competitor about to change?
If you are not crystal clear about who your key
competitor is or if there is disagreement, it is a
strong signal that change is occurring.
oes a company that really mattered in the past
•D
seem less important today?
No one doubts that when media rankings of
graduate business schools were first published, they
signalled a high-magnitude change in how schools
operated. Rankings quickly became a high-stakes
game and fundamentally changed how schools
allocated resources, rewarded faculty and selected
their applicants. There were anecdotal reports that
administrative and admission directors were fired
if the school slipped in its rankings.
33%
According to a
GMAC survey in 2012,
only 33% of graduate
business school
applicants used media
rankings as a source
of information...
28%
...but percentages
range from a low
of 28% in the US...
46%
...to a high to 46%
in India based on
citizenship
What is truly interesting is that the “customer” has
quietly stopped paying attention. According to a
survey of mba.com registrants conducted by the
Graduate Management Admission Council in 2012,
only 33% of graduate business school applicants
used media rankings as a source of information.
(Percentages range from a low of 28% in the US
to a high to 46% in India based on citizenship).
This generation of applicants has access to a wider
array of information sources such as forums, virtual
information sessions, social media and a growing
array of school resources than did applicants in the
early 2000s, and they actively use them.
Michael Hay’s chapter in Disrupt guides the reader
through this transition from the old to the new
(which could take years, maybe decades). Hay
articulates the need for schools to break away from
outdated models and challenge the assumptions
underlying their current programmes.
He cites four key forces that make such
repositioning vital for future success:
• evolving needs of industries, business stakeholders
and the changing nature of business careers
• competition from new international business
schools
• increasing competition among schools and
changing user demand driving new business
models and innovations in educational
programmes
• increased competition for the best faculty
and students, which creates pressures on
school funding
Media rankings signalled a high-magnitude change
in how schools operated. Rankings quickly became
a high-stakes game and fundamentally changed
how schools allocated resources, rewarded faculty
and selected their applicants
Graduate management education in disruptive times by Rachel Edgington
63
Deans, because of the essential role
they play in implementing major
changes affecting the school’s
future, must be absolutely focused
on overcoming obstacles to change,
no matter what the source
Hay says that schools need to answer strategic
questions about what their school will look like in
the future. Deans, faculty and other stakeholders
need to ensure they have a clear plan to move
the school to the target position and are ready to
engage the stakeholders whose support they most
need for successful execution.
Deans, because of the essential role they play in
implementing major changes affecting the school’s
future, must be absolutely focused on overcoming
obstacles to change, no matter what the source.
Hay lays out the strategic questions schools need
to ask themselves to clarify their future positioning
and provides examples and methods to developing
aligned, internally consistent answers. He further sets
forth a framework for clarifying the school’s future
positioning, stresses the importance of mapping
how a school will move to its target positioning,
and offers recommendations for securing the
stakeholder engagement required for effective
execution.
Dierdorff and his colleagues offer four key
imperatives that lie at the core of how schools
will need to conceptualise the future of graduate
management education if they want to ensure
its value:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• better define and differentiate among the variety
of degree programmes offered
Rachel Edgington is the Market Research Director at the Graduate
Management Admission Council® (GMAC®). She worked with
editors Brooks Holtom of Georgetown University and Erich Dierdorff of
DePaul University to produce the GMAC book, Disrupt or Be Disrupted:
A Blueprint for Change in Management Education (Jossey-Bass/Wiley),
on which this article is based.
• recognise and expand current espoused values
FURTHER INFORMATION
• increase the effectiveness of how graduate
business schools provide their training
• fulfil the promise of management as a profession
For more information about the book, author bios, chapter descriptions,
and video interviews with authors please visit GMAC’s Disrupt or Be
Disrupted website gmac.com/disruptbook.
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BIG DATA IS ABOUT TO BECOME BIG BUSINESS, BUT ONLY, SAY SUZY MOAT AND TOBIAS PREIS,
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IF WE CAN TRAIN ENOUGH DATA ANALYSTS AND ALERT MANAGERS TO ITS GROWING IMPORTANCE
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TRAINING
TOMORROW’S
ANALYSTS
Training Tomorrow's Big Data Analysts by Suzy Moat and Tobias Preis
65
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echnology is becoming ever more deeply
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interwoven into the fabric of society. Our
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interactions with the internet and other
In further research, we demonstrated that such
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large systems that support our transport, our
online data could even be exploited to predict
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shopping activities and much more are generating
future decisions in a crucial real-world economic
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an avalanche of data, documenting our behaviour
arena: the stock market. With our collaborator
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at an unprecedented scale.
Professor H Eugene Stanley, we found that
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changes in search volume for search terms on
According to computer giant IBM, the world is
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Google can reveal early warning signs for stock
churning out 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every
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market movement [Preis, Moat, Stanley, Scientific
day. (In US, Canadian and modern British usage
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18
Reports 3, 1684 (2013)].
.)
a
quintillion
is
10
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In US, Canadian and
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modern British usage
Our results showed that more financially related
Analyses by the McKinsey Global Institute underline
a quintillion is 1018,
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search terms such as “debt”, “stocks” and “portfolio”
the
benefits
business
may
reap
from
these
data
and according to
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are better predictors of subsequent stock market
sets by gaining new insights into how their
computer giant
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IBM, the world is
movement than less financially related search
customers are behaving now and how they may
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churning out 2.5
terms such as “culture”, “kitchen” and “home”.
behave in the future. Their projections point to
quintillion bytes
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a need for 190,000 more workers with analytics
of
data
every
day
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Similarly, we showed that changes in the number
expertise and 1.5 million more data-savvy
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of views of financially relevant Wikipedia pages
managers by 2018 in the US alone in order
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may hold clues to future stock market moves
to realise these gains.
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[Moat, Curme, Avakian, Kenett, Stanley, Preis,
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Scientific Reports 3, 1801 (2013)].
Data was once used primarily as a historical
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resource to look back on events. As humans,
Our analysis detected an increase in the number
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however, we constantly use the “historical data”
of views of financially relevant pages before stock
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we have collected through our own experience
Projections point
market drops. From laboratory research, we
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to a need for 190,000
of the world to try to predict the future behaviour
already know that humans are more concerned
more
workers
with
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of others – for example, when others will be most
analytics expertise
about losing €5 than they are about missing an
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likely to use the roads, causing traffic; or whether
and 1.5 million more
opportunity to gain €5. One possible explanation
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a previous business partner can be trusted in the
data-savvy managers
for our large-scale results is that traders may invest
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by 2018 in the US alone
future to deliver on time.
more time and effort searching for information
in order to realise the
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data insight gains
before they are prepared to sell their stocks at
The vast amount of detailed, real-time, large-scale
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a lower price.
data we are now collecting is making it possible to
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automate, improve and extend these predictions
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In this way, data from Google, Wikipedia and
by applying computing power to detect relevant
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similar online resources can reveal insights into
patterns that a human brain alone would not have
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the early stages of collective decision making—
been able to find.
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here, the decision to buy or to sell. Our results
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provide evidence that it is possible to exploit the
Every day, over one billion search requests
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Every day, over
digital traces left behind when internet users search
are
answered
by
Google.
In
a
recent
study,
one billion search
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for information to predict subsequent actions taken
we exploited the global breadth of Google data
requests are
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answered by Google
in the real world.
and uncovered evidence that internet users
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from
countries
with
a
higher
per
capita
gross
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Not just internet data hold these sorts of secrets.
domestic product (GDP) tend to search for more
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In many cases, the data gathered by companies
information about the future [Preis, Moat, Stanley,
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on a day-to-day basis can be exploited to
Bishop, Scientific Reports 2, 350 (2012), Figure 1].
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anticipate future customer behaviour and needs.
Our results suggested that there may be a link
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between online behaviour and economic decision
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making around the globe.
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T
10
18
190k
1bn
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66
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TABLE 1:
Future orientation index 2012
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01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010
10101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101
01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010
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ATED
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BE UPD
MAP TO
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01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010
The world of business needs more “data scientists”
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and analysts to make similar predictions which
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0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
companies and other organisations can act on.
ratio of google searches for '2013' to searches for '2011' during 2012 for 45 countries
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Many businesses are aware of this, and the number
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Analysis of more than 45 billion Google searches performed during 2012.
The colour code depicts the ratio of searches that included "2013" to those
of openings for such positions is growing.
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that included "2011" in a given country during 2012. The country with the
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highest future orientation index in 2012 was Germany
At Warwick Business School we have set up a new
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Based on Preis, Moat, Stanley and Bishop 2012
module to provide the training needed to get
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ahead in this new race for jobs. This new module
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For example, in collaboration with the Metropolitan
will be integrated into a total of eight of our
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Police (the police force in London, UK) we have
masters programmes at Warwick Business School
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analysed large collections of crime data to detect
as we see it as a core part of the future of business
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early warning signs of subsequent crimes before
that upcoming managers and executives need
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they happen. Previous studies by our colleagues
to understand.
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Professor Kate Bowers and Professor Shane
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Successful analysis of such huge data sets requires
Johnson have shown that the occurrence of
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a range of skills. Crucial to success in this area is the
a burglary results in a short-term increase in the
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ability to ask the right questions of the data
probability that another burglary will occur on the
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– something that grows from a fascination with
same street. Such insights can be captured in
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human behaviour and a solid grounding in core
predictive policing systems that aim to deploy
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business training. The answers to such questions
police to areas before an offence occurs –
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can, however, only be unlocked from these rich
and initial evaluations of these systems have
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data sources when researchers are equipped
demonstrated a reduction in levels of crime.
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with a wide toolbox of quantitative skills.
Studies by colleagues in the US have shown that
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Our new module will pass on knowledge of
large-scale data on both long distance travel by
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mining, processing, analysing and visualising large
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air and local commuting can provide similar vital
data sets. It will illustrate the value of predictive
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insights for those in charge of the allocation of
analytic skills using examples ranging from
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medical resources. By integrating such data
elections, riots and outbreaks of disease to
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sources, predictions of human travel behaviour
economic and financial instability as well as
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can be notably improved – leading to improved
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big data business success stories to date.
predictions of the spread of epidemics. Such
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findings have clear consequences for decisions
The age of big data has arrived. The world of
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about where vaccines and other such resources
business and the economy at large stand to
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should be distributed.
gain great profit from these new data sources
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if we ensure that researchers with the right
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combination of skills are trained. Our new module
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aims to provide such training to students. We wait
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in anticipation to see what these skills lead them
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to achieve.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
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Suzy Moat is Assistant Professor of Behavioural Science and
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Tobias Preis is Associate Professor of Behavioural Science and
Finance, both at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK.
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SOL
“Sustainability is one of the key issues for the 21st century,
and this is an exceptional collection that will be of great value
to business schools and companies all over the world”
Professor Eric Cornuel, CEO and Director-General, EFMD
the sustainable
organization
library
An international online collection
of nearly 400 book and journal
volumes in sustainability, social
responsibility, governance and
related areas – now in partnership
with EFMD
To celebrate the inclusion of EFMD research in the Sustainable Organization Library,
we are pleased to offer EFMD member organizations a FREE TRIAL ACCESS and a special
MEMBER DISCOUNT RATE. SOL is available as an outright buy-to-own purchase, or on
annual subscription/rental. Contact [email protected].
•SOL features around 5,500 chapters and papers on sustainability, which
can be searched and downloaded individually.
•SOL can be used to support academic programs of teaching, research and
study. It also contains numerous case studies.
•SOL content can be used in reading lists, course packs and similar.
•SOL is a particularly useful resource for practitioners on executive
education programs.
•SOL can be used as a basis for the formulation and demonstration of
sustainability strategy and mission; and to support practical initiatives
such as waste reduction or energy-saving.
•SOL works on multiple devices, including tablets and smartphones.
To set up a FREE TRIAL, or for a quote at an EFMD Member special discount offer rate,
contact [email protected].
GSE Research Publishing, Leigh House, Varley Street, Leeds LS28 6AN, UK
Tel +44 113 386 9278 Fax +44 113 386 9277
www.gseresearch.com www.greenleaf-publishing.com
Offices in the USA, India and UK.
67
68
Andrew Rutsch chronicles how Spanish bank BBVA
is using its learning centre, Campus BBVA, not only
to facilitate development but also to engage people
with the company brand, values and strategy
– LEARNING REBRANDED AT BBVA
Collaboration that Brings Strategy to Life – Learning Rebranded at BBVA by Andrew Rutsch
I
n an environment that is
increasingly disrupting industries
and even countries, organisations
are struggling to respond.
Not surprisingly, in the learning and
development (L&D) space the impact
of training on job performance is
considered successful in only 15%
or even fewer cases. From a larger
perspective, only one in three corporate
development initiatives is considered
successful (Sirkin, Keenan & Jackson
2005). If you were the chief executive
of your organisation, what would you
do to tackle this challenge?
Against this background, the recent EFMD
CLIP Sharing Best Practice Workshop
hosted by Spanish banking group
BBVA in October 2013 in Madrid,
Spain, showcased an encouraging
example of the power of purposeful
collaboration in the workshop, How
the firm engages internal and external
stakeholders around its brand and
strategy through its Campus BBVA.
56%
BBVA generated 56% of
its revenue in emerging
markets and 44% in
developed economies,
with strong positions
in growth regions such
as Mexico, Turkey, South
America and China
69
11.65
The banking sector is undergoing
fundamental change
Today’s banking business is not the same
as it used to be. It is marked by
BBVA generated an
operating income of
€11,655 million that
allowed it to absorb
loan-loss and real
estate provisions
without having to sell
key assets or change
its business strategy
• greater global competition driven by
the economic recession
• bad practices by a number of banks
causing considerable damage to the
sector’s image
• technologies reinforcing transparency
and influence of media and customers
• socio-demographic changes due to
ageing workforces and generations
with new values
• increasingly stricter government
regulations
Only one in three corporate
development initiatives is
considered successful. If you
were the chief executive of
your organisation, what would
you do to tackle this challenge?
BBVA has fared remarkably well in
this very difficult environment. It has
continued to grow since 2010, creating
net employment in Spain and avoiding
costs to the government. In 2012
it generated 56% of its revenue in
emerging markets and 44% in developed
economies, with strong positions in
growth regions such as Mexico, Turkey,
South America and China. It generated
an operating income of €11,655 million
that allowed it to absorb loan-loss and
real estate provisions without having
to sell key assets or change its business
strategy.
The BBVA strategy and journey
is built on strong pillars
This is the result of a strategy based
around three pillars – principles, people
and innovation – on which the group
has been building its competitive
advantage for a long time.
Its principles of integrity, prudence
and transparency translate into specific
commitments in terms of regulatory
compliance, standards of conduct,
responsible commercial practices
and effective corporate governance.
People are its most important element
because they determine how BBVA
carries out its business. In 2012 and
2013, it carried out specific actions in the
social, scientific and cultural areas, such
as in microfinance, financial literacy and
employment programmes.
Innovation and technology are critical
to competing in the new environment.
They require transforming distribution
models and generating new contents,
products and services.
70
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: BBVA
Leading BBVA requires enacting the future
– together
BBVA’s strategy and journey are driven by its vision
– to work for a better future for people. The
bank believes that its development is linked to
the prosperity of its employees and the people
who live in the societies and countries where it
operates and, therefore, it seeks to contribute to
build a better future for all of them.
The group has evolved its brand positioning
and corporate identity to make life easier for
its customers. Simplicity is the response to this
ambition. BBVA wants to change banking by offering
products that customers understand, through which
they can manage their money efficiently, and know
down to the last detail what they are signing.
This stakeholder-centric view and ambitious
journey requires a focussed approach in engaging
over 113,000 employees across the globe in
bringing the BBVA brand and strategy to life – in
partnership with its customers. It means to create
this way of working through open workspaces,
above-average investments in technology and
tools, communications and so on that facilitate
collaboration and development across functions,
levels and boundaries.
Campus BBVA – a key platform for engagement
and growth
One strategic lever in this process is Campus BBVA,
the group’s knowledge and learning centre opening
up activities to external stakeholders and designed
to strengthen its brand and business in order to be
the global reference in the financial industry.
The targeted segments of Campus BBVA –
employees, clients, potential clients and potential
recruits – translate into a number of offerings:
• A state-of-the-art training and development
offering for its employees
• Exclusive programmes co-branded with other
institutions for key clients
• Knowledge forums on topics in finance,
economics and so on to attract potential
customers
• Joint projects with Employer Branding to attract
potential recruits
Hence, the role of Campus BBVA is not only
to facilitate development but equally to engage
people around the company brand, values and
strategy, to create a sense of pride and rally them
around the purpose of the organisation. Its tagline
– Update yourself – applies to all stakeholders such
as managers, employees, recruits and clients.
BBVA wants to change banking by offering
products that customers understand, through
which they can manage their money efficiently,
and know down to the last detail what they
are signing
113k
Bringing the BBVA
brand and strategy
to life is an ambitious
journey that requires
a focussed approach
to engage over 113,000
employees across
the globe
Collaboration that Brings Strategy to Life – Learning Rebranded at BBVA by Andrew Rutsch
71
One conclusion from the BBVA workshop
was for L&D not to talk about learning since
it is typically linked to training – which is
largely insufficient in an environment that
requires collaboration and development
The way forward – purposeful interaction
that drives outcomes
The BBVA approach points to the increasing
convergence of of L&D, HR, Communications,
Technology and other functions when it comes
to facilitating stakeholder engagement and
business growth.
76%
The BBVA team
satisfaction score was
76% in 2012, up by
3% compared to 2010
25
BBVA is recognised
by the Great Place
to Work organisation
as one of the 25
best multinational
workplaces
Creating collective impact – some first
encouraging results
This collaboration across organisational boundaries,
driven by the firm’s vision, brand and strategy, has
led to some initial impact:
• Awareness of the BBVA brand and its reputation
has stabilised or improved in most countries in
which the bank operates
• The sustainability analysis agency SAM granted
the bank a top score, well above the average
for the financial sector. This agency evaluates
the companies listed on the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index
• “Best Global Bank to Work”, recognising BBVA by
the Great Place to Work organisation as one of
the 25 best multinational workplaces
• “Best European and Spanish Company in
Leadership Development”, according to Fortune
magazine
• The BBVA team satisfaction score – 76% in 2012,
up by 3% compared to 2010 with the most valued
aspects related to the treatment of people, the
sense of pride and above all the potential for
future growth.
One conclusion from the BBVA workshop was
for L&D not to talk about learning anymore since
it is typically linked to training – which is largely
insufficient in an environment that requires
collaboration and development across all functions
and levels.
This suggests rebranding learning into collaboration
that brings strategy to life. Engaging and supporting
internal and external stakeholders around a
purposeful relationship that responds to their
development needs will make the difference.
Corporate functions pursuing initiatives that do
not integrate with others and trying to prove
their business value will fail.
The latest EFMD CLIP Sharing Best Practice
Workshop hosted by BBVA created much insight
and interest into how rebranding learning into
purposeful interaction that drives outcomes is
critical in today’s environment.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Andrew Rutsch is a consultant to Capgemini University and currently
studying an Executive Doctorate in 'Strategic Leadership and
Collaboration in Knowledge-Based Organizations’ at the University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, US. He is co-founder and facilitator of
the EFMD Learning Business Partner Special Interest Group and author
of several publications on enterprise learning and transformation.
72
Mahmood Zaidi and Thomas Norman report on how team teaching
and virtual international student teams have proved vital ingredients
in a successful international EMBA
Transferring western management knowledge to China by Mahmood Zaidi and Thomas Norman
C
hina’s recenat economic
performance has been
extraordinary. It has driven
a considerable increase in demand
for management talent in both foreign
and domestic firms at every level—
from supervisors to CEOs. In this kind
of environment skill shortages can
be a major bottleneck for economic
growth. The Chinese government has
devoted a significant amount of effort
and financial resources to developing
management education, including
forging many partnership with foreign
MBA programmes.
The MBA has its origins in the US
but it is now recognised worldwide
as an effective way to develop an
internationally competitive pool of
managers. The traditional MBA, as well
as Executive MBA programmes designed
for more seasoned leaders, have been
introduced relatively recently in China
but they have matured quite quickly.
One Executive MBA programme of note
takes an innovative approach, which
respects the character of the Chinese
environment and the skills of Chinese
faculty by marrying their best practices
with those of the faculty from a major
American research university. The
schools involved are the University
of Minnesota's Carlson School of
Management and Sun Yat-sen
University's Lingnan (University) College.
The programme is unique by virtue of
two combined features: team teaching
and virtual international student teams.
This was the first EMBA programme
in China taught in English in which all
courses are led by faculty members
representing schools from both countries.
This programme was among the
first batch of joint initiatives approved
by the Chinese Ministry of Education
and the Academic Degree Committee
of the State Council in 1999. The EMBA
programme in China was part of the
American school’s strategy to establish
a constellation of three or four EMBA
programmes in partnership with top
business schools abroad. It built upon
knowledge from the Carlson School's
"partnered EMBA programmes" in Austria
and Poland with, respectively, Vienna
University of Economics and Business
and the Warsaw School of Economics.
73
The mission of the China EMBA
programme was to provide
comprehensive, market-based business
management education to Chinese
managers and entrepreneurs. Students
attended weekend classes twice each
month on the Chinese school’s campus
over a two-year period. The language
of instruction was English. Carlson’s
Executive MBA programme was
used as a basis for quality control
of the programme and the standards
for selecting Chinese faculty, students,
examinations and grading were identical
to the American programme. Finally, the
teaching performance of the American
faculty in the Chinese programme was
part of their annual evaluation.
One of the key features of this EMBA
programme, team teaching, has been
used for a long time in other disciplines
but its use in management education is
relatively recent. Team teaching forces
faculty members to adjust their course
planning and classroom management
as they collaborate to meet learning
objectives.
The faculty of both schools jointly
developed each course with individuals
from Carlson acting as lead. American
faculty were responsible for working
with counterparts in China on the
development of the syllabus, course
design, grading and reporting the
final course grades to the registrar
of University of Minnesota. This type
of team teaching approach was a
new idea in the Chinese classroom.
The use of team teaching was
appropriate for a number of reasons.
First, there is a demand for indigenisation
of management education in China.
Students and employers are demanding
the use of “China-context specific” cases
in Western EMBA programmes. Using
teaching teams composed of a faculty
member from both Carlson and Lingnan
is ideal for this situation as it allows the
programme to adapt its curriculum to the
local cultural and business environment.
74
A survey of the Chinese EMBA programme’s
graduates indicated that students appreciated
the opportunity of working in diverse teams
and learning how to work collaboratively to
solve problems
Second, faculty members of both schools are
enriched by the transfer of knowledge that takes
place both inside and outside the classroom. Team
teaching thus leads to the professional development
of the faculty of both schools.
Lingnan faculty members were able to observe how
management education is delivered in a marketbased economy such as the US. Carlson faculty
benefitted by gaining up-to-date knowledge about
management practices in China.
This “train-the-trainer” approach helps expand
management knowledge in several ways. Faculty
members from both institutions can use their
newly acquired skills in teaching their students,
share new knowledge with their students and
develop global and multicultural perspectives
in teaching and research.
Recent studies report that both faculty and students
regard team teaching as a great success. One
study found significant improvement in student
achievement in team-taught EMBA courses. This
may occur because students are receiving different
teaching approaches and perspectives on topics.
The second important feature of the Chinese
EMBA programme is the use of global, virtual
student teams. The teams were formed in the
second year of the programme and consisted
of a mix of EMBA students from this programme
along with the Carlson's local EMBA class and its
partnered EMBA programmes in Poland and Austria.
Under the guidance of a faculty member from
each business school, each virtual team was
required to develop a business plan for a new
product or service for an overseas market. At the
end of the programme, a two-week international
residency required of all the EMBA students was
hosted at the Carlson School campus.
71%
Graduates felt that their
“overall experience
with the programme
was satisfactory” and a
high number (71%) felt
their programme was a
top EMBA programme
in China
32
The first seven cohorts
of the Chinese EMBA
programme graduated
32 students per year
on average
During the residency, the previously formed
international teams presented their assigned
case, made site visits to American companies,
attended classes, built their own international
networks and participated in university
graduation ceremonies.
The use of virtual teams inculcates three important
skills needed by executives: developing a learning
community; improving collaboration; and knowing
the processes involved in the co-construction of
knowledge.
Learning in virtual teams is continually evolving. A
survey of the Chinese EMBA programme’s graduates
indicated that students appreciated the opportunity
of working in diverse teams and learning how
to work collaboratively to solve problems.
As they learned how to work effectively in their
virtual teams, they bonded across four cultures.
This is a benefit to China, as large employers
value employees with the skills needed to work
in multicultural teams.
The first seven cohorts of the Chinese EMBA
programme graduated 32 students per year on
average. About half of them responded to a
survey on the effectiveness of the programme
and the unique features of team teaching and
virtual team collaboration.
Transferring western management knowledge to China by Mahmood Zaidi and Thomas Norman
75
Demographically, survey respondents were enrolled
with a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent and were
largely from the Pearl River Delta region. They were
divided between senior leaders (president, director,
regional manager) and middle managers. Most of
them worked for state-owned enterprises (SOEs),
multinational companies or were entrepreneurs.
Nearly all of them had 10 or more years of work
experience with an average of 14 years of overall
work experience and six years with their current
employer. Just under one-third were female.
Nearly all graduates felt that their “overall experience
with the programme was satisfactory” and a high
number (71%) felt their programme was a top EMBA
programme in China. A larger majority of these
students expected to add important people to their
network via the EMBA.
The virtual student team project was an important
design element in meeting these expectations and,
after graduation, a majority of students reported
satisfaction with the quality of people added to their
network from their classes. The team teaching
method was praised by more than 80% of the
graduates.
Graduates were also asked to “compare their
expected and perceived returns on their investment
in this EMBA degree”. About half were satisfied or
very satisfied with the “cost-to-benefit ratio” of their
EMBA degree. Less than one-tenth were dissatisfied.
The graduates felt that the most important attributes
of the programme were teaching quality and overall
instructor quality.
Overall, faculty members from the Carlson School
were perceived as having a positive attitude toward
teaching. They also were rated higher on
communication skills and expertise in international
business. Local Chinese professors were considered
superior in their expertise on Chinese business.
Both faculty types scored well on showing respect
to students.
In summary, this EMBA programme has created
a decade of students generally satisfied with their
studies who subsequently advanced in their careers
in terms of promotion and compensation as they
help to build the Chinese economy.
14
Nearly all of survey
respondents had
10 or more years
of work experience
with an average of
14 years of overall
work experience and
six years with their
current employer
This EMBA programme has created
a decade of students generally satisfied
with their studies who subsequently
advanced in their careers in terms of
promotion and compensation as they
help to build the Chinese economy
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr Mahmood A Zaidi is a Distinguished International Emeritus Professor,
Emeritus Professor of Human Resources and Founding Director of
International Programs (Now Carlson Global Institute) Carlson School
of Management, University of Minnesota, US. ( [email protected])
Dr Thomas J Norman is Associate Professor, College of Business
Administration & Public Policy, California State University, Dominguez Hills, US.
FURTHER READING
Cohen, Malcolm S and Zaidi, Mahmood A (2002), Global Skill Shortages,
North Hampton, MA: Edward Edgar Publishing Inc.
Zaidi, Mahmood A and Norman, Thomas A, (2013), “Transferring Western
Management Knowledge to China: Perceptions of Graduates from an
American Executive MBA Program, Frontiers of Business Research in
China, 7(1): 82-105
The graduates noted that the team teaching
philosophy and the use of virtual international
student teams were valuable experiences. Executives
who completed this EMBA degree were satisfied
with their educational experience and found both
the first hand and virtual experiences with instructors
and students from different cultures helped them
to build their professional network globally.
76
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Securing the Future of ManageMent educa
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ManageMent education
Competitive Destruction or Constructive Innovati
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This is the second of two volumes written to
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Written by Alexander Wilson, Howard
Thomas,
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Thomas,
very rich data
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It provides the reader with a sense of the challenges
and edited by the authors and blind
Michelle
Lee
on the horizon, potential
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ly competitive environment.
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It discusses a range of
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I S B N 978-1-78350-913-3
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Trimmed page size: 152x229mm (6x9”) • paperback
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781783 509133
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Drawing on the very rich
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How do you define “quality” for
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