case study – GlobalFocus

Beyond the trinity

For the past 50 years business schools have focused on teaching the unholy trinity of strategy, leadership and change. But Philip Glanfield, George Binney and Gerhard Wilke describe a case study that replaced the current orthodoxy with a different way of understanding organisations and those who work in them. It has become increasingly apparent that…

Making learning closer to reality

Caroline D Ditlev-Simonsen describes how to develop a ‘reality-case’ and bring learning a step closer to reality Will studying books by famous chefs make you a great cook? Certainly it will help but to be a successful cook, kitchen experience is necessary. This might also be the case for business and management students. To succeed…

Senior executives on the case

Case studies are hardly unusual in business education but Andreas Biagosch argues that involving senior executives with students on real issues facing their company makes them far more effective Case-based seminars have been well established in economic education for a long time. Most deal with cases concerning known business situations and they argue the issues in the case in…

The case for accreditation

Richard McCracken describes how writing and teaching cases can contribute to business schools achieving accreditation Business school accreditation is fast becoming a hot topic as the long-established criteria used to judge and award this coveted recognition are revisited. Advocates of the case method have long believed that the many unrivalled educational and professional benefits it brings…

The power of dreams

Building a solar-powered car and racing it on a Belgian racetrack in just 90 days seems a strange task for young students. But, say Manuel Acevedo-Jaramillo, Sara Aguilar-Barrientos and Juan Esteban Escalante, it has had a major influence on the pedagogic approach of one of Colombia’s top universities Building a solar-electric vehicle from scratch in…

Telstra Business Leadership Programme – Transforming Culture trough Connections

SILVER WINNER OF THE 2016 EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE AWARDS Australia’s Telstra is in the midst of a massive transformation – put simply, it is “evolving from a telco to a techco,” according to Telstra executive Joe Pollard. Our vision is to make Telstra a world class technology company that empowers people to connect. It is a…

EpiVacPlus: Improving the performance of Immunisation Programmes through On-the-job Training and Technical Support

– SILVER WINNER OF THE 2016 EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE AWARDS – World Health Organisation (WHO) sponsored programmes have succeeded in raising immunisation coverage in developing countries from 5% in the 1970s to more than 80% in the 1990s. But in Africa, immunisation coverage has lagged dramatically behind. Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP), a NGO founded in…

From Invention to Innovation: Atomic Intrapreneuship at Rosatom

– SILVER WINNER OF THE 2016 EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE AWARDS – Once a mere buzzword, innovation has quickly become an integral part of business success. In the high-tech world the race for innovation has stumped many senior executives. Despite substantial investments in R&D, established companies are challenged to develop innovative products and services able to generate new value and revitalise their business. “Technological supremacy…

Addressing Live, Organisational Issues to Ensure Swarovski’s Future Success

– GOLD WINNER OF THE 2016 EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE AWARDS – A collaboration between Swarovski and Ashridge has created a new Leadership Academy focused on expanding leadership capability, developing organisational agility and triggering lasting culture change and has resulted in a set of organisational interventions that address live business issues. The work has delivered deep impact…

Exclusivity at Scale and Speed: a Microsoft-INSEAD Online Innovation

– GOLD WINNER OF THE 2016 EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE AWARDS – Microsoft’s “Mobile First, Cloud First” strategy, adopted in 2013, presented a major professional challenge to its global sales force. As one manager explained, “It’s not just about what we sell. It’s to whom we sell. And that means a radical change in how we sell.”…

Exploring Leadership – BG Group & Cranfield

– GOLD WINNER OF THE 2016 EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE AWARDS – BG Group is an international gas exploration and production company recently acquired by Royal Dutch Shell. It employs about 5,000 people and operates in over 20 countries with total earnings of $2.3billion. Prior to its acquisition, BG Group was a top-15 FTSE company. The requirement With its immediate links to global geopolitical risk…

Cultural Change on a National Scale – the NHS Leadership Academy & Alliance Manchester Business School

– GOLD WINNER OF THE 2016 EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE AWARDS – Trying to change the culture of any large organisation is always a significant challenge. Trying to do so across a £116 billion enterprise that delivers services on a national scale is even more demanding. Attempting to do this across the 9,000 organisations that make up the English National Health Service (NHS)…

EFMD Excellence in Practice Awards 2016

The 2016 set of submissions was again of high quality and showed confirmation of a number of trends we have seen in the past few years: Impact-conscious It is, of course, inherent to the framework of EiP that impact is a concern throughout the cases, as this is a key differentiator for getting selected for…

Planting the Seeds of Change

Lea Stadtler and Gilbert Probst describe how the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange came into being and the lessons it holds. Complex societal challenges transcend the capacities of a single organisation and even those of a single sector. Such challenges call for innovative, collaborative approaches, require modifications in our management education systems and pose new research needs.…

Case by Case

Stephanie Hussels describes how Cranfield uses case study writing as a means of integrating research, teaching, and practice on the MBA course. The Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship at Cran eld School of Management was founded in 2006 and named after Tim Bettany, Cran eld MBA alumnus and serial entrepreneur, who endowed a Chair of Entrepreneurship at…

A French Debut in America

French business school SKEMA is opening campuses around the world, including a unique venture on the American mainland. Pascal Vidal details the how and why. Since its creation in 2009 through the merger of CERAM Business School and Groupe ESC Lille, SKEMA Business School’s challenge has been to create a global, multi-campus, fast-growing school. Working…

Giving Students the Best International Education

John Oldale explains how Canada’s University of Victoria’s business school turned the search for a more international MBA into a new type of graduate programme. In the early years of this century, the The Sardul S Gill Graduate School at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria in Canada was looking for ways to…

Fuelling Business Growth Through Coaching and Mentoring – the Swiss Re Approach

The long-lasting financial crisis challenges the business case for corporate learning. Andrew Rutsch suggests that re-insurance group Swiss Re’s business-focused emphasis on coaching and mentoring may be one way forward. Swiss Re, the Zurich-based global re-insurance firm has achieved an impressive turnaround since the financial crisis, moving from a loss of $663 million in 2008…

Growing talent in growth countries

Novartis and EFMD share research and ‘best practices’ for developing and managing talent in emerging markets. Novartis Corporation and EFMD recently hosted a leadership and talent development workshop in Basel, Switzerland. The event brought together learning leaders from different industries and corporate business schools. Together they shared best practices for leadership and talent development in…

One Giant Step to Collaboration and Innovation?

Business schools are increasingly looking to alliances to increase their strategic reach. Julie Perrin-Halot reports on one French attempt to break down the barriers between management and hard science. In a time of shifting dynamics – economic, societal, geopolitical and more – business schools are finding it necessary to think more innovatively about their current…

Busting boundaries to accelerate business transformation

Andrew Rutsch explains how a recent EFMD CLIP workshop shedded light on Siemens’ transformation from troubled company to role model. Andrew Rutsch explains how Corporate Learning played a key role in this strategic renewal. In 2007, in a booming global economy, Siemens was in troubled waters. The industrial giant was facing a global corruption scandal…

Making the Case for Cases

Is there an irreconcilable separation between faculty who do research and those who concentrate on teaching? Mark Jenkins argues that world-class academics and thought leaders do both making the case for cases. It is a common perception that in many higher education institutions there are faculty mainly engaged in research and those whose main brief…

From Rational Strategies To Emotionally Rich Businesss Journeys: The Gas Natural Fenosa Case

Andrew Rutsch sheds light on the Spanish energy firm’s evolution to international sector leader. The shift from the industrial to the information age is on its way. After two world wars in the last century, people were longing for a calmer life and satisfying basic needs such as TVs, cars or holidays abroad. The economy…

Using “Action Strategy” to Transform a Business School

George Yip reports on his programme of action strategies to transform Rotterdam School of Management. Professors of strategy and organisation behaviour teach that strategic transformation is best done through a formal programme involving many people in the organisation. But in seeking to transform Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands, from a primarily academic…

Error Management: Not just a wing and a prayer

Jan Hagen suggests that the aviation industry’s open approach to identifying and resolving errors could be applied to many other sectors. The financial markets crisis began in 2007 and unfolded with increasing severity. At the time, we were dumbfounded that big-name banks had taken such disproportionately high risks with their structured securities. Many of us…

Warm Memories of the Winter School

The EFMD(ESMU) HUMANE Winter School is designed to develop the leadership potential of senior administrators in business schools and universities. Nadine Burquel looks back at its first 12 years. When the European Centre for Strategic Management of Universities (ESMU) and the Heads of University Management and Administration Network in Europe (HUMANE) launched their Winter School…