Vol.09 Issue 03 - '15 Archives - GlobalFocus

Impactful Partnerships in Learning & Development. The 2015 Excellence in Practice applications showcase the growing diversity in the Learning & Development landscape. Half of this year’s finalist partnerships, for example, have in-house or alternative providers as a prime solution-driver rather than business schools. About 40% concerned public services and quite a few cases focused on…

It is time for human development specialists to re-examine their function and take a global and historical perspective in thinking about how to deal with human development challenges. By Bob Aubrey There is no doubt that human development is important to companies. Whether baptised as “talent” or “human capital”, the sourcing and development of employees…

Piet Naudé describes how a rethink of African business schools could impact global business education. A business school that happens to be located in Africa has to ask a few tough questions to unpack its “adjective” status. To call a business school “African” can mean quitea number of things. The sometimes hidden assumption underlying discussions…

Business schools – and the businesses they serve – need to discover a “second curve” if they are to survive and prosper. By Charles Handy When I last spoke to the EFMD conference in 1974 my talk reflected my own personal dilemma. I was at the time the Director of the MBA Programme at the…

Kenneth W Freeman and Howard Thomas outline some of the crowdsourced ideas about the future of business schools and other institutions that emerged from the first Business Education Jam. For four days last autumn, researchers, scholars, students, executives and thought leaders engaged in an unprecedented online brainstorming session about the future of management education. The…

Tanya Bondarouk and Ivar Dorst detail their study for the University of Twente in the Netherlands of how business leaderssee the role of business education. Improving the link between business education and the requirements of business practice has received a lot of research attention recently. We believe it is probably now time to discover business…

The need for renewed approaches to business and management research and teaching has been intensively discussed. Dajian Zhu and Anders Aspling analyse the implications of this for management education in China. Business education began as an organised and focused activity in the early 19th century, first in France and then, towards the end of that…

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…

Global migration has introduced us to new communities and new religious practises. Edwina Pio asks how we can best reconcile them. How we handle the challenges of today will determine the future of our fragile planet and our humanity. Immigration is changing the composition and texture of workforces both nationally and globally. The world contains…

Mariet Vriens describes current research into virtual internships and their advantages and pitfalls. In 2009 the Media and Learning Department of the KU Leuven in Belgium began exploring the possibilities of virtual internships. After a decade of building experience in virtual mobility (or ICT-supported international learning experiences), this seemed a logical next step. The topic…

Confucius said that rulers need three resources: weapons, food and trust. The ruler who cannot have all three should give up weapons first, then food but should hold on to trust at all costs. David Watkins explains. Trust has become one of the most pervasive – and perhaps for that reason least noticed – aspects…

Matthew Farmer sheds new insights on how skills-based volunteering overseas can help build tomorrow’s global leaders. “Tell me and I will forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I will learn” Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin’s words have never resonated more truthfully. The growth of experiential learning and frameworks such as 70:20:10 are…

Alice Guilhon describes how two leading French business schools realised their ambitions by merging with each other. Although mergers are common in business, they are far from typical in the higher education environment. This could be partly because of the nature of higher education. Our production processes stretch over several years depending on the product…

In a world full of smart business professionals, says Lee Newman, the quality of behaviour is what distinguishes the most successful. Take two equally intelligent, well-educated professionals with similar years of experience and put them in similar organisations with the same budgets and staff. One consistently moves ideas forward and shepherds projects to success while…

Johan Roos argues that today’s business students must be given a grounding in science disciplines if they are to prosper in a world increasingly driven by science and technology. Science, technology, engineering and maths (the so-called STEM subjects) are the driving force behind the most promising and lucrative businesses of the future. But turning such…

‘Robber Baron’ or ‘Robin Hood’? Dan Pontefract argues that some, if not many, organisations have forgotten what they once stood for. It is time, he says, to review, refocus, recreate and thus redefine their true purpose. The purpose of an organisation (and business itself) has long been discussed. Some leaders— firmly ensconced on the far…