business schools – GlobalFocus

The Bologna Effect – The Emerging European Masters Market

Gordon Shenton and Patrice Houdayer describe how the Bologna process, along with European-specific accreditation and ranking systems, is revolutionising the European ‘market’ in Masters degrees and giving it global competitiveness.

Does the DNA of business schools need to change?

Arnoud De Meyer argues for a new approach to meet new challenges – transforming business schools into ‘Schools for Business.’ The last ten years have been a golden era for business schools. But I am convinced we have reached a watershed.

Can Business Schools Rescue Business?

Did business schools cause the economic crisis? No, says Gerard van Schaik, but they have a key role in determining what comes next. We are in a global economic mess and we know it is man-made. If we want to get out of the present chaos we will have to manage it ourselves; nature will not do it for us.

Where do we go from here?

We should approach the future, respond to crises of the pandemic, and technological change, in a thoughtful, well-considered and purposeful manner, not an impulsive one. This requires a more strategic and purposeful, resilient approach. The cause and the goal of this resilient effort is to develop a more holistic and balanced model of management education.

Looking back, thinking forward

Without a doubt, business schools have been a success story in higher education over the last 50 years (the period of EFMD’s existence). Even so, they have come under scrutiny, and attack, over their academic legitimacy and value proposition for business and society.

Can they fix it?

Jordi Canals looks at the main drivers of business schools’ success in the 20th century along with some of the major problems and challenges they will have to deal with in the future if they want to remain relevant. Business schools are young institutions.

University challenge

Eric Cornuel, Director General & CEO of EFMD, analyses the complex issues faced by Europe’s higher education sector, particularly business schools. The main goal of any higher education institution should be to deliver (and continually enhance) excellence in teaching and learning and to combine the values of a liberal education with the professional qualifications required in a global economy.

What business schools can learn from team sports

Ahmed Abdel-Meguid, Ulrich Hommel and Benjamin Stévenin reason that, like successful sports teams, faculty should be based on synergic skills Business schools have accepted the challenge of striving for more business relevance and societal impact. In the process, many of them are also rethinking the traditional faculty model that often sees junior research talent eventually…

What is ‘new’ about disruption?

With the Corona crisis hitting higher education institutions, there is a good deal of buzz and discussion about how this will “dramatically and inevitably” change the way universities work and teach. However… this may not be true for everyone, observes Bernhard Bachmann Let’s look at some of the hype. The supposed “disruption” caused by COVID-19…

Examining business school leadership

Views from EFMD’s webinar on business school leadership, by Julie Davies, Ewan Ferlie, Heather McLaughlin and Howard Thomas Business school leaders are ‘squeezed’ by a range of internal metrics. These metrics focus on a micro-managed narrow range of key performance indicators (KPIs) to raise revenues, research, and rankings. This style of financial centralised control has,…

Business Schools’ Green Responsibility: Let’s start at the table!

Santiago Garcia and Flavio Alzueta address the importance, responsibility and impact of agriculture and food production As this year’s Nobel Prize Awarding Committee stated, “Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos”. The awarding of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Program (WFP) of the…

Ambidexterity strengthens quality management during COVID-19

Assessing the results of a survey examining the impact of COVID-19 on quality management and assurance practices in Nordic and Baltic business schools. By Ulrich Hommel, Björn Kjellander and Claire Thouary The underlying objectives of the study were twofold. First, to investigate the business schools’ preferred mix of short-term crisis responses and more permanent adjustments…

Business School Advisory Boards

Sarah Hardcastle asks “Just how much challenge are you, as Dean, prepared to accept?” Advisory Board: “And I would say to the Dean: ‘If I ever tell you how to run the Business School, you can fire me. And if you ever tell me to stop challenging you, you can fire me.” After twenty-seven in-depth…

The acceleration of digitalisation within education as a result of COVID-19

Federico Frattini on the impact of COVID-19 on society and changes within education There is no doubt that the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic will be profound and will have a significant impact on multiple sectors of society, in the Global North and beyond. In particular, the education sector, from schools to universities has been…

Una escuela de negocios interrumpida: una vista desde Singapur

La pandemia COVID-19 cambió rápidamente nuestro mundo. Y aunque la preparación, la respuesta rápida y la vigilancia temprana de las universidades y el gobierno de Singapur fue admirable, Richard Smith mira los desafíos que aún quedan por delante

Un futuro flexible

Peter Lorange dice que la introducción de una mayor flexibilidad y agilidad en la educación ejecutiva y permitir a los expertos, instructores, colaboradores, profesores y estudiantes aprender de forma simultánea, unos de otros, son los ingredientes esenciales en la construcción de un futuro seguro para la educación en gestión

Lo que significa la digitalización para las universidades

Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger explica cómo una de las principales universidades de Europa esta navegando la creciente marea de la digitalización

Listo para cambios disruptivos en la educación

Cómo una destacada escuela de negocios de Hong Kong respondió a las crisis sociales y sanitarias. Por Tam Kar Yan

Aprendizaje real, impacto real

Jean-François Manzoni explora la experiencia de una escuela de negocios internacional con el EFMD Business School Impact System

The complexity of business schools

Kai Peters and Howard Thomas wonder how long business schools can survive the growing complexity of their industry Increasingly, universities and, relatedly, business schools have become more complex and complicated – with multiple activities, multiple locations and multiple audiences. For example, state-wide higher-education systems exist across many US states including California, Texas, Virginia and Illinois…

Ready for disruptive changes in education

How a leading Hong Kong business school responded to both social and health crises. By Tam Kar Yan The COVID-19 pandemic has forced extensive experimentation with online teaching globally. Such experimentation started earlier in Hong Kong than in many other regions due to the social unrest in late 2019. This was followed closely by the…

A business school disrupted: a view from Singapore

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly changed our world. And though the preparation, rapid response, and early vigilance of the universities and the government in Singapore was admirable. Richard Smith looks at the challenges still ahead After noting the early actions in January, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that Singapore was the “Gold Standard” for managing…

Coping with COVID-19

The experience of Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), in India in facing the disruptions caused by COVID-19 by Harivansh Chaturvedi, Ajoy K Dey and Nimisha Singh The sudden and disruptive nature of COVID-19 rendered the famous quote of the Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tsu that: ‘The supreme importance in war is to…

Are business schools doing enough to prepare students, the workforce and potential business leaders for a sustainable future?

What do you mean by a “sustainable future”? A sustainable future is one where the demands on the business leaders of our highly complex and interlinked world will be reconciled with the demands of “new” citizens (among them the Millennials and their successor generations – many of whom might indeed be business leaders in…

What digitalisation means for universities

Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger explains how one of Europe’s leading universities is surfing the rising tide of digitalisation. The process of digitalisation has evolved rapidly. Early on, digitalisation was often limited to converting analogue data to digital media (from vinyl records to CDs, for example). Today, however, the discussion about digital transformation revolves around concepts such as…

Flexible Future

Peter Lorange says that introducing greater flexibility and agility into executive education and allowing experts, instructors, contributors, professors and students to simultaneously and easily learn from each other are essential ingredients in building a secure future for management education. Higher education in business and management has functioned in more or less the same way…

Intentional impact from business schools

Paul Beaulieu explains how, in response to a new wave of social demands, business schools should adopt a more comprehensive and responsible social engagement. This may pave the way for the emergence of a new generation of business schools.

Living with sustainability

Percy Marquina outlines how a leading business school in Peru embraced sustainability. Peru is the fifth-top ranked country in entrepreneurial activity in the world according to the Global Entrepreneurship Report 2019. This level of entrepreneurship is nourished by the strong cultural roots and characteristics of its inhabitants, who are in a constant search for…

What should business schools be for?

September 2019 Howard Thomas and Kenneth Starkey report on a new initiative that looks to business schools to re-orient themselves to a challenging new future. Much has been written about the future of the university, diagnosing management and business education either as a symptom of the decline of higher-education values or as a tonic for…

A new B in B Schools

André Sobczak urges businesses schools to embrace sustainability. In January 2019, Audencia Business School in Nantes, France, hosted a new year’s event of the association of responsible business leaders in Western France. More than 200 CEOS from local SMEs focused on the forthcoming French legal status for “companies with a mission” that is largely…