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General – Business Schools

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Moving beyond Covid-19: Collegium Humanum

How has the management education landscape been affected by Covid-19, and how are Business Schools working to move past the pandemic, both in the short and longer term? Insights from Collegium Humanum-Warsaw Management University, Poland

In spite of the shattering human cost and the innumerable challenges presented by Covid-19, the management education sector has made positive moves over the past six months which promise not only to facilitate management education’s recovery from the pandemic, but also to aid its progression in the face of evolving technologies and student demands in the third decade of the 21st century.

Business Impact’s fifth edition in print turned to the BGA network to canvas the collected thoughts of Business Schools based in India, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Poland, and the Netherlands to find out how they expect the pandemic to affect their outlook, strategy and offerings, both now and in the future. Here, we look in more detail at the thoughts of Paweł Czarnecki, Provost at Collegium Humanum-Warsaw Management University in Poland.

The Covid-19 pandemic has, in many cases, led to a greatly increased uptake of online learning technology in business education. Although this has been a short-term necessity, does it present the sector with any opportunities in the longer term?

When it comes to the strategy of educational activities in the area of business here at Collegium Humanum, we never planned online education because our education philosophy rests largely on the values associated with the creation of networking opportunities and personal relationships among students. In the long run, this translates into their further professional success.

The pandemic situation has, however, forced us to move to the online education sector. From research and observations among our students, we have noticed considerable interest in this form of education and an increased commitment to acquiring knowledge. I am therefore convinced that online education will in no time significantly support traditional forms of education. Yet, one must still admit that online education cannot and will never replace direct contact and meetings with people.

Going beyond the pandemic’s immediate impact, have the year’s developments influenced your School’s strategy with regards to the use of online technology?

We do not know what the situation will be in the coming months. I do hope that the pandemic will be only a memory. We have, however, drawn positive conclusions from this difficult experience, and yes, we will support traditional education with online education technologies. We will also expand our virtual university systems.

The global financial crisis of 2008 has been linked to an increase in applications to Business School, as people decided the time was right to reassess their career goals and pursue personal and professional development. Do you think the Covid-19 pandemic could have a similar impact?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have recorded increased recruitment levels for MBA, DBA and LLM studies. Perhaps this was due to the lockdown [restrictions] necessitated by the sanitary regime which left our candidates with more time to spare for education. This trend still continues.

What changes do you anticipate to the number and profile of those applying to programmes at your Business School over the coming three years? Do you envisage greater interest in any individual programme(s) on offer?

We strive to adapt our educational offer to the individual needs of various candidates for business studies. Individual organisation of studies, tutoring as well as mentoring activities are all standard services available to students at our university. We assume that, over the next three years, the number of students on MBA and DBA courses will increase.

What will be the core challenges for the business education sector in recruiting new students (at both undergraduate and postgraduate level) over the coming three years?

The main challenge will be to create an educational offer that will meet the current and potential needs of the labour market. Hence, our study programmes are formed in constant consultation with our social and economic environment as well as its stakeholders. We work to the understanding that our study programmes should educate and equip our graduates with practical preparation for professional roles. The challenge is therefore to provide practical education that is implemented by a truly experienced cohort of practitioners and experts.

Business Schools are often encouraged to play a greater role in their local and regional communities. Has Covid-19 inspired any new events, activities or initiatives with this in mind?

During the pandemic, our university implemented a legal aid project and developed a textbook related to the changes in legal regulations in view of the enforced sanitary regime and other restrictions as well as changes brought upon us by the broader epidemic regulations.

We published this on our social media and on our website. A professor of our university has also been giving daily advice, in Polish and English, on matters related to Covid-19 and the pandemic with the largest television broadcaster in Poland (TVP).

Leaving aside Covid-19, which single new programme, course, or initiative are you most excited about and why?

We have launched a completely online MBA programme, which proved, and is still, very popular.

Do you think Business Schools will need to focus more inwardly (and therefore less ‘globally’) than they have been in their teaching in order to address industry needs post-Covid-19? If so, could this have an impact on your School’s international exchange and partnership options?

As long as there is an epidemic threat and related sanitary regime in place, there will be inevitable restrictions related to the mobility of students and the teaching staff.

In the long run, however, one cannot run successful business education programmes without exchanging experiences or involving external partnerships. Partners not only bring additional educational quality to the study programmes, but they also influence the prestige of the studies.

Do you anticipate Covid-19, and related issues, influencing course offerings within the programmes on offer from your School?

It seems viable that study programmes might have to be integrated with courses that will deal with various competencies that relate specifically to crisis management, especially when it comes to health emergency situations. We will integrate such modules with programmes of all types of studies.

There is already an argument that the economic challenges that Covid-19 will bring represent a huge and much-needed opportunity for Business Schools to reinvent their value proposition for the better. What would you most like to see change in the business education industry?

In the business education industry, it is particularly crucial to educate in the field of practical functioning of businesses according to the latest knowledge and market trends. This requires constant tracking of the market trends and consulting the study programmes with different business practitioners so that to adapt them to the current needs.

Paweł Czarnecki is Provost at Collegium Humanum-Warsaw Management University, Poland. A Professor of Social Sciences, he is also Member of the Marketing Committee at the Polish Olympic Committee, Professor at the Technical University of Košice (Faculty of Aviation) in Slovakia, and Member of the Supervisory Boards in Wroclaw Technology Park and Business Solutions in Warsaw.

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Integrating sustainability into business education: part II

The second part of Business Impact‘s synopsis of a panel event, co-hosted by BGA earlier this year, on how sustainability can be better integrated into the DNA of higher education. By Daniel Kirkland and Ellen Buchan

Following the topics covered in the first part of this account (which you can read here) the panel proceeded to discuss the limits of desirability and possibility, in terms of embedding sustainability effectively across a range of courses and where its focus might lie as a business concern over the next three to four years. 

SDA Bocconi’s Pogutz explained that there are two possible paths that could be taken to embed sustainability in organisations. One is to appoint a technical professional – the chief sustainability officer – and the other is developing leaders with sustainability mindsets through MBA programmes. 

‘The big challenge is that organisational structures are still not metabolising that, so they go back and ask for a very vertical style of competence. So the integration would be mandatory, but not for becoming a sustainability manager. That’s even more complex as a challenge, at least for us in Italy,’ Pogutz said. 

St.Gallen’s Walls added: ‘I would push that concept even further. At Business Schools we have a responsibility and an obligation to teach students not only about sustainability, but also about values-based management in general. 

‘How we’re going to implement that is going to be a different question, but I feel that we’ve done a disservice to our students; we’ve created this kind of MBA person that goes out and focuses on certain things when they go out into the business and, as a result, we’re now facing some global challenges, like climate change, social unrest, and all kinds of biodiversity loss. 

‘Business are not able to cope with these challenges right now. I think we need to take a deep and critical look at ourselves as Business Schools and ask what is it that we should be providing to students. [Sustainability] has to be the oil for everything, it can’t just be one cog. Otherwise we won’t solve the problem.’ 

Understanding ourselves as Business Schools

Zollo responded to this challenge, adding: ‘The entire challenge can be framed in terms of understanding ourselves as Business Schools. We’re having the same type of challenge that we’re asking businesses to face. 

‘They have to rethink their purpose, in terms of creating value for stakeholders and giving up on the idea of privacy to monetise stakeholders and shareholders. We also have to rethink. 

‘First of all, content-wise, there is no logic in adding one more course, or one more module. There is no question about that once we have decided that we want to be part of the solution – to contribute and shift the world towards a sustainable society. 

‘Then the question is [how to go about] redesigning all the programmes, including the MBA, starting from those assumptions – i.e. this is the theory of the firm that we’re going to teach, and every single course, whether it’s finance, marketing, strategy, organisation, is going to be taught on the basis of that theory of the firm, which says “your role as managers is to create that value for stakeholders, period”. There is no choice anymore.’

Taticchi responded by outlining his own belief that it is impossible to teach different modules without integrating sustainability within them.  

‘I think it’s very important to create the right narrative,’ he said. ‘Sustainability should not be a separate module, otherwise it is perceived as something different from “real” business. 

‘Sustainability is about smart business; it’s about exploring opportunities; and it’s about exploring management risks. I think it’s important that students realise this at the beginning of their business education so that when they study strategy or operations they have the right mindset for that.’

The purpose of the MBA

Crane outlined a pressing challenge: the way Business Schools market an MBA is often on salary uplift and the Financial Times ranks programmes based on this criteria, so a rethink into how Business School programmes are marketed and evaluated is needed. 

‘We need to transform the way that we think about the purpose of an MBA programme before that happens,’ he said. ‘That will only happen if the whole ranking changes, if the way we market programmes changes, and if the business model of Business Schools changes.’  

Crane went on to describe a ‘sense of isolation’ in Business Schools, and the difficulty in encouraging business students to go outside a Business School and talk to people in other fields, such as environmental science, sociology, and developmental studies. 

‘They don’t want to know,’ he said. ‘They want to talk about finance, they want to talk about marketing in the safe cocoon of the Business School because they are there to get an increase in their salary. The challenge we have is breaking out of our own silo. 

‘We have a structural problem; we are pulling up the drawbridge not putting it down. You need to create an open institution. As Business Schools have emerged, they aren’t the model that we need in order to tackle the problems that we want to solve.’

The role of accreditation bodies

With that in mind, do accreditation organisations also have a role in pushing for more of a focus on sustainability? 

‘If you want Schools to focus on things such as stakeholder capitalism or the climate emergency, you can ask them to do so, but ultimately you have to require them to do it, to get the kind of change necessary,’ said Crane.  

‘That’s where accreditation comes in,’ he added. BGA and others are starting to push quite strongly at this and it is a requirement to some extent for accreditation that’s getting stronger all the time, but [in terms of transformation], I don’t think we are there yet in the accreditation system.’  

Robert outlined her views that it’s useful for Business Schools to have rules to follow that help them know what to do: ‘Not all Business Schools are accredited but the top ones are. Accreditation has a really huge impact because Business Schools which aren’t accredited follow the ones that are – and the students know this as well. We want to have the accreditation bodies take sustainability into consideration more and more. The accreditation has to take this big chance in order to make a difference.’  

Walls agreed with this sentiment: ‘You need the student body to push and you need the accreditation bodies to pull. I think that something which is even more crucial is how Business Schools stay relevant. Not only relevant to business and the global challenges we face but also relevant to new students coming in and for future students who are now high schoolers and will be entering university questioning why they would they go to a Business School if there is nothing there about sustainability or ethics. 

‘It’s about Business Schools looking at their long-term survival strategy, in the same way that businesses do. The external environment is changing, we can see that. Business Schools need to respond if they want to be there.’

Taticchi was keen to reiterate what the role of an accreditation body is: ‘It’s not just about setting requirements and making sure that Business Schools meet those requirements.

‘It’s also about creating a best practice and helping Schools improve on what they do. There is an advisory board with accreditation bodies which is extremely important. That’s why sustainability should be part of the conversation for accreditation bodies.’  

Iliev closed this part of the debate by adding: ‘Accreditation is a consultancy process. We have created an inventory of the key terms that need to be implemented across all the programmes, including sustainability terms. An accreditation, such as BGA, can provide the template for Schools that don’t have the expertise in sustainability.’ 

The role of Business School rankings

Having discussed the role of accreditation in taking the sustainability agenda forward, the panel moved on to discuss ratings and rankings – which they were challenged to consider in terms of a help or hindrance to Business Schools when recruiting students. 

‘I think that there is a difference between ratings and rankings’ said Robert. ‘We talk a lot about rankings and not so much about ratings,’ she continued. ‘For the rankings, obviously it’s a major thing for Business Schools. Everyone wants to be ranked number one but that is only one place, so they at least want to be well ranked.  That’s what Schools use to make sure that students are going to pick them, and that the activities in the Business School will fit what they need to move up the rankings ladder, which is an incentive. But we feel, as students, it is also good to have another tool which can be used, because once you are ‘ranked’ you either celebrate or you are disappointed. The ratings system has another purpose because you can do something about it.’ She explained that this was why oikos International launched a positive impact rating, which is about evaluating and assessing the positive impact Business Schools have on society and students. 

Robert said: ‘In the positive impact rating we have different dimensions, like educating and engaging as well as governance, culture, programmes, learning methods, student engagement, the institution as a role model, and public engagement. Students are enabled to rate their Schools in terms of positive impact and, from there, the Schools have the data to know what the students think of their institution’s positive impact.

‘The goal is to encourage stakeholder engagement and everyone to work together to bring the Schools to another level, in terms of positive impact. There were no Business Schools in this first edition [of the rating] that reached the top level in terms of learning methods, in terms of institutions as role models, and in terms of engagement. 

‘We believe in Business Schools and we want them to move on and have positive impact. I think it’s important that the rankings take into consideration the positive impact of Business Schools, because in some ways this is where we need to go and in this sector we are trying to move ratings and rankings in that direction.’

Other panellists were keen to discuss rankings and what could be improved in their methodologies to support sustainability.

Crane was pulling no punches. ‘I think rankings like that of the Financial Times have had the most negative, pernicious influence on the greater development of Business Schools as you can imagine, in terms of dealing with this issue,’ he said. ‘It focuses on all the wrong things. I would say that in terms of getting Schools to focus on sustainability, responsible business and positive impact, its finally got a bit of sustainability in it, like 2%. But the whole salary uplift thing overwhelms this so that the overall effect is minimal.’  

But he added that the biggest problem with rankings are how Business Schools respond to them: ‘Schools are very good at managing the rankings,’ he said. ‘The trouble is that rankings are [often] based on students’ responses. The way that Schools react to that is to try and influence the student responses, not influence what they do in their Business School. 

‘So rather than focusing on their educational responsibilities, they will be much better at promoting what they are doing to the student body and they will be much better at connecting with their alumni and telling lots of positive stories and getting them to say lots of positive things about them.

‘For a relatively small School, the idea that you could be the top of a sustainability ranking is like gold dust. Your dean will listen to you if you can say we can get you from number 20, to number one if you do X, Y and Z. You might never get to the top of the Financial Times ranking, but you can become number one in another ranking.’

Imperial’s Zollo agreed, stating: ‘I think it might be the time to really think about perspectives in creating the rankings. So far rankings have taken the perspective of the student: what do they want? 

‘It’s about time that we took the perspective of “what kind of MBA does society need?” and “what kind of MBA elements do we need to forge?”

‘That should be the overarching criteria to create the various metrics on which Business Schools have to compete.’  

St.Gallen’s Walls put forward her fear that Schools might, in fact, dismiss ‘smaller’ rankings because they will be perceived as ‘less important’ in time-pressured and political university environments.  

‘This is why it would be great if the larger rankings bodies focused on sustainability, because not everyone pays attention to specialist rankings,’ Walls said.   

Stakeholder relations

Building on this, Pogutz explained that one point missing in the sustainability agenda is the relationships that Business Schools have with their various stakeholder groups when it comes to prioritising their competencies. 

‘Climate change is urgent,’ Pogutz said, ‘and we may not have time to repeal the effect of it. It will take a lot more time [than the nine to 10 years we have]’ before pointing out that sustainability is multidisciplinary. 

‘How many of us have ever heard of anyone from natural sciences speaking about climate change? If you take all of the social dimensions of it [into consideration], such as human rights – who are the experts in human rights in Business Schools and how can we build pathways in Business Schools in this type of topic? 

‘We have pressure because the agenda is there and we have a long way to go. There is a huge cultural transformation.’  

Inspiring cultural change

As the debate drew to a close, the panellists agreed that while issues around rankings and course design were looming hurdles in developing a sustainability agenda across Business Schools, accreditations and research – such as those offered by BGA – would support Schools in embedding sustainability in business education. 

The biggest challenge identified, however, was implementing a shift in the culture and internal politics of Business Schools and the wider universities of which they are a part – and measuring the impact they are having in terms of this culture shift, and the wider sustainability and climate change emergency. 

The panel agreed that the first step would be collaborating to prioritise this pressing issue and communicate it to students, employers, and external and internal stakeholders before it’s too late. 

Held in partnership between AMBA & BGA and Imperial College Business School, ‘Integrating sustainability into business education’ took place at the London institution’s campus in February 2020. 

The panel for the event consisted of: Andrew Crane, Director of the Centre for Business, Organisations and Society, University of Bath; Clémentine Robert, President, Oikos International; George Iliev, Director of Strategic Projects and Innovation; Accreditation and China Director, AMBA & BGA; Judith Walls, Chair for Sustainability Management, University of St.Gallen; Maurizio Zollo, Head of the Department of Management, Imperial College Business School; Paolo Taticchi, Director of the Weekend MBA and Global Online MBA, Imperial College Business School; Stefano Pogutz, Tenured Faculty of Management, Department of Management and Technology, SDA Bocconi. The panel moderator was Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor, Financial Times.

This article was originally published in Business Impact magazine, issue #4 (June 2020).

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Integrating sustainability into business education: part I

Earlier this year, BGA brought together a panel of Business School leaders to debate how sustainability could be integrated into the DNA of higher education effectively, to prepare business and society to address the challenge. Daniel Kirkland and Ellen Buchan report

Sustainability is one of the key issues facing society today, and garners increasing attention from governments, the media, academics and industry.

In response, BGA partnered with Imperial College Business School earlier this year to host an event focused on integrating sustainability into business education, which included a lively panel discussion among sustainability experts who delved into various aspects of the sustainability agenda, including the economic, the environmental and social perspectives. Business Impact attended the session and picked out some highlights and key takeaways from the debate.

Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor at the Financial Times (FT) kicked off the discussion in his role as moderator: ‘The Financial Times does deep coverage on business and business education, and we do a number of rankings’, he said. ‘But the FT itself has a new agenda which is about balancing profits with people, planet and purpose, so this area of sustainability, corporate responsibility and social impact is something that’s deeply important to us and is part of the reflection that we’re undertaking around the review of our rankings.’

He added: ‘I think a lot of people in this room share an understanding of the importance of sustainability, but of course given the historical culture of business, I wouldn’t say that the driving force behind the demand [for sustainability] has come from employers, or the majority of students, necessarily,’ before asking participants what the level of demand coming from employers and students really is for Schools to take sustainability more seriously and to integrate it into their teaching.  

Demand for sustainability

Paolo Taticchi, Director of the Weekend MBA and Global Online MBA at Imperial College Business School, took forward the conversation around the demand for sustainability: ‘In terms of the percentage of students demonstrating an interest for sustainability, I’ve seen this growing in the past six years,‘ he said.  

‘If you look at the number of electives that we offer in the sustainability space, all of them are doing well. We recently launched a module called ‘the future of cities’ where we look at the future of sustainability. Immediately we see there is demand for that. 

‘We are also seeing a growing number of students becoming interested in activities relating to sustainability, including workshops, conferences, and networking events which are organised by our students around investing in responsible business, diversity, or inclusive business.’

Judith Walls, Chair for Sustainability Management at the University of St.Gallen, added: ‘We have seen a strong student interest [in sustainability] for more than 30 years. If I look at master’s programmes, there is very high interest and demand in sustainability and people self-select into certain courses but I had the experience, recently, at the MBA level where we were offering a course and there wasn’t enough interest in sustainability. We didn’t have enough MBA students signing up and we cancelled the course. We’re now reviewing how we sell sustainability to MBA students. ‘At the university itself we have more than 10 student groups that are dedicated to
social and environmental sustainability,‘ Walls added. ‘So there are a lot of bottom-up initiatives from the students themselves.’

Clémentine Robert, President of oikos International, a student organisation that seeks to strengthen sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship, said that there was a higher demand every year for sustainability from students.

But she moved to address the apparent lack of interest in sustainability from the employer perspective, saying: ‘Basically, sustainability – at its core – is not necessarily there. It’s not what [employers] look for when recruiting a student for an internship or job. They want an ethical mindset and that is central to the recruitment process. Previously employers were not really looking for that in the recruitment process, so I would say that this has evolved. But there is still a lot to do, so we’ll keep working.’

The international business education arena

Maurizio Zollo, Head of Imperial College Business School’s Department of Management and Entrepreneurship has previously held roles at SDA Bocconi in Milan previously, and as a Visiting Professor at MIT in Boston, so he was keen to discuss the different approaches to sustainability between Italy, the UK and the US. 

‘In the European context there is a lot of growth and there is a lot more ease in both promoting and integrating sustainability content in programmes,’ he said. ‘The employer side, is still slowly progressing. 

‘Progress on the other side of the pond – in the US – is mixed. Some Schools seem to be able to find the appropriate way of doing this. It is typically Schools that are small, Yale [School of Management] for instance, that are able to rethink and redefine the whole MBA, starting from simple assumptions [based on] stakeholder organisation. We only have one planet, not two and a half. You know, that type of obvious assumption for those of us that are converted [to championing sustainability].’

Critical mass

Stefano Pogutz, Tenured Faculty of Management at SDA Bocconi said he was seeing ‘critical mass’ in terms of students seeking sustainability courses: ‘I see a lot of movement and attention at the undergraduate and the post-graduate level. The numbers are growing to the point that we are in trouble because now there are too many people and this type of active education cannot extend to 120 people in a class. 

‘The MBA has been a bit more resistant, so at Bocconi we’ve slightly changed the first year of the programme… Let’s see how it will be at the end of this year. I have mixed feelings right now. I think [the MBA programme is] where you have a little more resistance; it’s a common theme.’ Pogutz’s comments were followed by those of Andrew Crane, Director of the Centre for Business, Organisation and Society at the University of Bath who agreed that there had been a definite increase in sustainability on Business School programmes during his career: ‘We’ve got more students interested, we’ve got more faculty interested, and we’ve got more courses on sustainability, which is the good news story,’ he said. ‘The bad news story is it can only go so far. I don’t think there is a level of student interest or demand to really pull it deep into the curriculum. I’ve worked for the past 20 years in at least three of the top Schools for integrating sustainability into the core of the curriculum. If you want the percentage of students that are actually demanding more sustainability content, it is 1%. I get an MBA programme of 100 students. Within that, you’ve got one or two students who are the activists. 

‘And those are the programmes that are already doing pretty well. They’ve already got a core course dealing with sustainability, and an elective on sustainability. The challenge is getting students to think that they need more. They’re saying, “we already did sustainability, what else do I need to know?” 

‘So the challenge is, if we want greater student demand, how do we get students to ask for more than we’re currently giving?’

International examples 

George Iliev, Director of Strategic Projects and Innovation; Accreditation and China Director at AMBA & BGA, explained that, at the time of the event, BGA accredits five Schools globally and that, as part of this recently launched accreditation process, each institution’s sustainability credentials are examined. 

He explained: ‘One [BGA-accredited] School is in China and the programme that integrates sustainability the most in its curriculum is a joint management and engineering undergraduate programme. ‘I’ve never seen employers speaking so positively about the graduates of this programme. Granted, it is probably not the sustainability that is driving this, it’s the mix of engineering, management and electronics at the university.’ Iliev went on to discuss a School in Finland, which has been running a master’s in corporate environmental management since the 1990s, remarking that its students are very successful in finding jobs. 

This article was originally published in Business Impact magazine, issue #4 (June 2020)

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Looking ahead: educating leaders for a fast-changing world

Given management education’s importance to the evolution of Russia’s economy, the MGIMO School of Business and International Proficiency is training a new type of manager, says its Director, Angelika Mirzoeva. Interview by David Woods-Hale

In a landscape that is effectively defined by disruption and change, preparing leaders and managers to not just ‘cope’ with volatility, but to also make an impact, is the overarching challenge shared by Business Schools the world over. 

Business Impact caught up with Angelika Mirzoeva, Director of the​ MGIMO School of Business and​ International Proficiency, to find out how Schools could be doing more than​ just reacting to this environment and​ instead, help to set the scene themselves. Her advice:​ innovate, collaborate and diversify​ wherever you can…

Why is management education important in Russia and what is the value it brings to your community? 

The global community is faced with new challenges, which will define the framework of business education both in Russia and beyond. 

Today’s management education is not simply a process of consuming knowledge. It is a creative process involving both teachers and students. Managers that are able to think outside the box are in demand and, in turn, the demand for business education is becoming more focused and stringent. 

The responsibility for finding the right solutions to modern challenges should lie with leaders who are highly qualified managers those who are able to see what lies ahead, and to transform and improve the present in line with this forward-thinking vision. 

Training these leaders of the future requires a revised system of business education. It becomes lifelong learning, implying complex training in science and humanities, providing students with knowledge, and, most importantly, developing certain beliefs and values in them, and a socially responsible code of conduct in a professional environment. 

Given the importance of management education in forming a new economy in Russia, the MGIMO School of Business and International Proficiency trains managers of a completely new type: those who possess fundamental knowledge, aim to work in an innovative way, and take effective management decisions.

How healthy is the current market for business education in Russia, and the surrounding region, and what are the main challenges? 

Business education in Russia has aroused public interest for almost two decades. The market is not homogeneous and, in different segments, it develops differently. 

I would point out two main challenges for Russian business education. First, business education is often confused with training, short programmes, and masterclasses. It should be noted that business education is a large market and constantly changing. The other challenge is the imbalance between practice and theory in the curricula, and lack of educational innovations.  

The biggest hurdle facing our business programmes is not retaining high-quality staff or recruiting sufficient numbers of students – the problem is innovation in the classroom. Today’s most effective managers are the ones who are able to organise interaction between various groups, find additional resources and attract partners. These are the people we see apply to Business Schools when seeking out new competencies. 

I believe that over the coming two years the MBA/EMBA market will continue to develop steadily in certain segments. Whether the economic growth of the labour market is high or low, demand for MBA programmes will remain. Specialists planning to reach a new level of professional development will have no alternatives.  

What type of people study at your School and what have graduates gone on to do in the local region and beyond? 

The target audience is top and middle managers, business owners, people with successful careers, and ambitious people with leadership potential. An average MBA student at our School is aged 34, has higher education (mostly specialist level) and between eight and 13 years of experience; the bulk of students are Russian citizens. Gender breakdown has not changed significantly over the past three years. In 2019, it was 56% men, 44% women.

We do not target a specific geographic location; instead, the programmes are made with the global market in mind.

The Business School’s students include those studying PhDs, master’s, specialist degrees, and bachelor’s, and more than nine out of 10 enrolled students (91%) successfully complete the MBA programme and achieve their diplomas. Our graduates become members of the MGIMO Trusteeship Council, and some of them even go on to become visiting lecturers at the School.

In terms of jobs, many graduates enjoy greater career opportunities with government agencies, both in Russia and abroad. Established entrepreneurs, meanwhile, might use the knowledge acquired to expand and diversify their businesses, while others use it to begin building their own companies.

What do you think makes your portfolio of programmes stand out from others that are available in Russia and the surrounding region?

Our programmes have an international component. Moreover, we have a number of very popular specialisations, which meet current trends and requirements.  

To make the MBA programme truly international, we seek to help students understand the styles and methods of management used in different cultures and parts of the world, citing examples and studies of diversity. 

Diverse concepts and styles of management are made part of the curriculum by mapping leadership development; holding joint sessions with students from other groups and years; citing international examples in virtually all courses; and organising external modules and internships at international Business Schools.Today’s world needs applied knowledge first and foremost, and our School strives to make the knowledge we provide to be of actual benefit to our students, the economy, and the general public. 

The School’s ties to industry are also a differentiating factor. Russia’s largest companies, such as OJSC Russian Railways and the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, are among our corporate clients. We also have agreements with other leading Russian companies, as well as those overseas, in terms of internship programmes, outreach units, and graduation projects for students of our MBA programmes. 

Can you provide an example of how your School is using forms of new technology to meet the needs of its students?  

The Business School seeks to use innovation to boost its students’ personal growth and learning outcomes. Since 2016, the School has been recording and publishing its distance courses on Coursera. MBA and EMBA students can access these Coursera courses for free, giving them the extra option of distance learning. 

Currently, Coursera contains 13 of the School’s courses and one specialisation. We believe this project has been a success and opens opportunity for outstanding potential to be used, especially in the context of global digitisation. Online learning and technology, it seems, will impact heavily on the executive education space in the coming years, revolutionising the way we approach the development of our personal and professional skills. Business Schools always need to look ahead because they educate leaders and decision makers for a fast-changing world that is being greatly disrupted by the digital era. 

Which single new programme, course, or initiative are you most excited about and why?

The School has developed a new MBA specialisation recently, in strategic marketing and management. 

Elsewhere, we have started combining our use of distance and multimedia learning methods with traditional methods (lectures, seminars, role plays, trainings, and masterclasses) and are working actively on developing blended MBA distance programmes. As for training areas, we continue to expand our programmes in digital economy, entrepreneurship and international business, developing markets, and the fashion industry.

Does your School engage with businesses, government and other public-sector organisations in your region? 

Public and private sector representatives are partners, as well as corporate customers and employers of our graduates. 

In addition to this, we involve employers in discussions relating to the admissions office, the final certification commission, the selection of the final project topics, external modules, and internships. Employers are eager, for example, to set the challenges each student has to address as part of their final project. Employers are also members of the School’s Expert Council, and function as professors – wherein senior managers of companies come to us to deliver lectures and masterclasses. 

We have also worked in partnership with Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture to open a new department focused on global agricultural markets and foreign economic activity in the agricultural sector, and to launch a vocational retraining programme and a global agricultural markets master’s programme. The School’s Odintsovo branch, meanwhile, has opened a base department of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services of Moscow Region to explore urban infrastructure and territorial management.

Further examples of industry collaboration include: launching a new advanced training programme in political management in co-operation with the consulting company, Baikal Communications Group; coordinating the discussion of an idea to set up the Expert Center for procurement activities in the UN system together with UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation); and launching an open course in sports marketing together with our partner, VTB United League, and in conjunction with the School’s sports diplomacy master’s programme.  

How is the School working to boost the employment prospects of its graduates? 

Through a culture of entrepreneurship, open-mindedness, non-conformism, pragmatism, and leadership,  the School has trained managers who are experts in the challenges posed by business. Working with companies to help them in their search for interns, apprentices and future executives, we maintain close ties with the corporate world to co-design teaching and anticipate graduates’ future careers.

In today’s fast-changing and complex world, talent acquisition is key. Businesses need high potential talent that possess a global mindset and are ready to make an impact from day one. Our aim is for MGIMO students and graduates to deliver just that. For this, the School of Business and International Proficiency, in conjunction with MGIMO career centre, hold coaching sessions, networking events, and job fairs. 

The career centre is designed to support international-profile professionals and their employment goals. Among its partners are major Russian and international companies. 

MGIMO University’s traditional job fair takes place twice a year and gathers representatives of Russian and international companies. About 25 employers and more than 1,000 students have taken part in the poster session.

What plans does your School have for the next three years and what developments would you like to see?  

To further its international partnerships, the Business School has defined a number of core strategic goals for the next three years. 

These include: adding to the learning process’ international dimension and creating an international atmosphere at the School; improving integration in international education and research networks through joint research projects involving international professors and experts; creating an    infrastructure and institutional conditions for greater student, professor, and researcher mobility; opening joint MBA programmes with ADA University in Azerbaijan and Cambridge Judge Business School in the UK; and expanding the exportation of educational services (such as external MBA modules for the UK’s Henley Business School). Aside from these objectives, the need to be innovative and creative in EMBA programme delivery has been a compelling finding among our recent experiences. This is a market trend to which we have to adapt, in terms of our teaching ideals and objectives. Indeed, the focus on innovation and creativity in EMBA delivery is important to us and we are keen to differentiate our offerings in an increasingly crowded market. 

Our current focus for developing EMBA programmes is on increased ‘flexibility’ and adapting to the way students learn. In this, it is worth noting that there could be a link between being innovative and creative in EMBA delivery, and adopting and upgrading digital technology. This innovation is underway and continues; specialist EMBA programmes are a growing trend. Of the current specialist EMBA programmes on offer, the most popular are in the fields of finance, innovation and entrepreneurship. 

Anzhelika Mirzoeva is the Director of MGIMO School of Business and International Proficiency in Moscow, Russia. 

This article was originally published in Business Impact magazine, issue #4 (June 2020)

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The opportunities for international expansion in Asia

The opportunities for international expansion in Asia

Map of asia travel expansion destination strategy
Map of asia travel expansion destination strategy
Expanding a business internationally can be challenging, but Asia offers five major markets and many of the world's fastest-growing economies, writes Siddharth Shankar

Expanding a business internationally is a difficult undertaking at any time. But with the current geopolitical tensions and heightened uncertainty, you would be forgiven for thinking this isn’t the time to take a risk on an overseas launch. However, international expansion could prove key to beating gloomy forecasts.

Many of the world’s fastest-growing economies are in Asia. India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Mongolia were all expected to grow by between 7.4% and 6.2% over the course of 2019, for example. This makes Asia an increasingly important, and lucrative, focus for businesses based outside the region. When it comes to international expansion, there may now be more opportunity for firms within Asia than within the European Union. 

Research by HSBC has found that approximately 70% of future world growth will be from emerging economies. And analysis from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development reveals that Asian economies will be larger than the rest of the word combined in 2020. It’s therefore becoming increasingly important that businesses shift their focus to markets that will, in the future, dominate the world stage. 

Five major markets

To successfully expand into Asian markets, it’s critical not to fall into the trap of treating the continent as one homogenous market. The region is made up of five major markets – namely China, the Indian subcontinent, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, countries in the Middle East’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)and East Asia. Lumping all these highly diverse regions and countries into one convenient bracket has been the downfall of many businesses. It’s crucial to understand the cultural, social, political, geographical and economic factors at play in each Asian market individually. 

First, the products that will be successful in each market will be very different. Heavy industrial products, for instance, are in demand in India, Thailand and Cambodia. Huge infrastructure construction is needed within these countries, yet their own heavy industry manufacturing is relatively weak. 

Energy products – relating to traditional fossil fuels and renewable energy equipment – are competitive in ASEAN countries as well as in China. China and India have now realised the increasing need to forge a cleaner and leaner path to development. Luxury goods are particularly in demand in GCC countries and Japan. Meanwhile, in China and India, the appetite for traditional beverages, such as whisky and gin from the UK, has reached a whole new level.

As well as the economic, geographic and societal factors that affect a product’s potential in Asian markets, it’s often more difficult to form an understanding of the cultural factors. This requires in-depth local knowledge. For instance, a company launching a range of hats in China might have unrivalled success selling a red hat but find a green version of the same hat would flop. This is because, within local culture, if a man wears a green hat it might mean his wife is cheating on him – never a good look! A local partner can prove essential in navigating these testing cultural nuances. 

The strategy required to expand into each market is also diverse. Launching a product portfolio in Asia’s two largest markets – China and India – requires taking an altogether different approach in each case. Western products can be launched directly into China, with westernised branding, even as a new brand. Conversely, to maximise the chances of success when expanding into the Indian market, it is often advisable to expand into influential markets with links to India first – for instance, Singapore or the United Arab Emirates. 

This allows the target segment of consumers in India to form an understanding of the brand before it is available in India, thereby piquing demand for it. Indian consumers tend to follow their culture, tradition and values strictly. As a result, overseas companies are often forced to give an ‘Indian touch’ to their products and marketing in order to succeed. 

Regional differences

Even within a country, it’s important to be aware of the vast cultural differences that often exist between one region, or city, and another. 

You would probably be forgiven for thinking that the capital city in each location is the best place to launch a new business. But sadly, it is not that simple. Not all capitals work. To give a European example of what I mean, it’s notoriously difficult to do business in Rome. It might be the heart of Italy’s political and religious institutions, but if you were going to launch a fashion business in Italy, you would almost certainly bypass Rome and head straight for Milan, with all its design and fashion credentials and networks. 

It’s the same in each of the five major markets in Asia. The capital cities may be the perfect place to build political alliances – but that doesn’t mean they are the best place from which to launch a particular product or brand. Often, looking beyond the capital and targeting smaller cities, and even towns, can deliver better results.

You may not have heard of places like Tangshan and Sanya in China – but they are exactly the sort of cities that are worth thinking about. Both cities have local economies that are thriving due to huge local wealth, or large tourist attractions. Both also have effective infrastructure and would deliver excellent results for the launch of brands from certain industries.

Cultural identity

Deciding which city to launch from is not even necessarily about choosing one of the biggest cities. Do your research – think about the cultural identity and interests of your target customer and work out where they are most likely to be based. It’s the only way to find the city with the best fit and consumer base for your product.

Before honing in on a launch city, it is also worth spending time reflecting on the bigger picture. Each of Asia’s five major markets presents exciting growth opportunities. 

India has a population almost equal to that of China but a GDP growth rate that is almost double China’s. Looking to East Asia, Japan is the world’s third-largest economy, while South Korea has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Meanwhile the ASEAN region, which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, has a combined population of 640 million people and an economy worth over $2.8trn USD, with increasingly open internal trade. 

Market focus

So which specific markets within Asia should businesses focus on? Let’s take a more in-depth look at two very different, but highly promising opportunities:

A. The major market: India 

India’s GDP growth forecast for 2019 is 7.3%, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Rising salaries mean the region has a burgeoning middle class, with an increasingly disposable income. According to the Economist, HSBC recently estimated that the size of India’s middle class in India had reached 300 million, a figure it predicts will rise to 550 million by 2025.

The demand for products and brands in India is at an all-time high and this is set to continue for the foreseeable future. Indian consumers have become more value sensitive than price sensitive. If they feel that a particular product offers them more value, they are often willing to buy the product, even if the price is high. 

India is a multi-religion country which has a population of around 1.4 billion people. There are four broad segments to the market:

•  The socialites: socialites belong to the country’s elite. They like to shop for luxury products, travel in high-end cars and buy opulent villas. They are always looking for something different. Socialites are also very brand conscious and would go only for the best-known brands in the market.

•  The conservatives: the conservatives belong to the middle classes and are often a reflection of the true Indian culture. They are traditional in their thought processes, slow in decision making and they seek a lot of information before making any purchase.

•  The female profesionals: the so-called ‘working woman’ segment of society has seen tremendous growth in recent years and, as they have become empowered in the workplace, their impact on consumer trends has boomed.  

•  Youth segments: the younger generation is optimistic and enthusiastic. They believe in having a modern lifestyle, are brand cautious and are often ready to pay for quality.

B. The market to watch: Thailand

Thailand is the second-largest economy in the ASEAN, accounting for 17% of ASEAN GDP. There have been huge changes in Thailand over the past 40 years, transforming it from a low-income country to an upper-income country. After a slowdown between 2015 and 2017, Thailand’s economy looks to be on the up once more, with a growth rate of 4.1% in 2018. 

It is increasingly easy to do business in Thailand, as the infrastructure improves and the government makes positive regulatory reforms. There is a growing middle class and, in the capital of Bangkok, new luxury brand shopping centres are springing up. 

In conclusion, the combination of fast-growing Asian economies and a troubled eurozone means there is a lot of opportunity for firms to expand into Asia. While in-depth research into the complex cultural, social and economic factors of launching a brand into each individual market within Asia is essential to avoid falling into common exporting traps, the potential rewards are high.

Siddharth Shankar is a leading expert in exporting and CEO of Tails Trading, a firm helping UK SMEs to export their goods.

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Reimagining the university: what next for online education?

‘Developing high-quality online education will be a process rather than an event’ says Imperial College Business School’s David LeFevre, but the ‘largest international experiment in online education in our history’ points towards the opportunity in this moment of crisis

This year will be remembered for the introduction of public health measures which transformed the way we worked, shopped and studied, to a degree and at a pace we could scarcely have imagined.

Universities around the world closed the doors of classrooms and labs but continued teaching remotely. It has been by far the largest international experiment in online education in our history, carried out under duress and driven by necessity.

I have been staggered by the achievements of the global sector. Schools and universities across the world have overcome untold technical and logistical obstacles to move teaching and materials online, completing in a few short weeks a number of monumental tasks, each of which would, ordinarily, have been considered implausible. Teachers and students quickly learned the ropes together.  The volume and scale of innovative activity globally has been immense.

Moving beyond emergency measures

Traditional university teaching clearly won’t return for some time. Yet as students consider this new world, questions are being asked about the quality of the online learning experience, particularly when tuition rates remain at the same levels.

Understandably, some students are worried the online experience is not what they had wanted and that their education will be compromised, or at least different. In the UK, universities minister, Michelle Donelan, has even said students can demand refunds, ‘if they feel that the quality isn’t there’. But who defines quality in online education and how do we assess it?

Designing the next chapter of online learning is the challenge for universities. The good news is that we have more relevant experience than might be imagined because the core of high-quality online courses is not technology, but of academic strategy and course design. The delivery medium is new, but the core pedagogical principles remain the same.

Stabilise, enhance, innovate

Despite the lightning quick initial move to remote teaching, developing high-quality online education will be a process rather than an event. At Imperial College Business School, we view this process as comprising three phases: stabilise, enhance, and innovate. The stabilise phase consisted of an immediate response based on technical solutions, such as webinars, which enabled teaching to continue.

For many universities, a new academic year will mark a shift to the ‘enhance’ phase of the process as they look beyond video conferencing to find ways to implement more pedagogically minded approaches to enrich the educational experience. This will involve technical solutions and process-driven activity but also an element of craft, as creative ways to deliver hundreds, if not thousands, of differing course elements in online format, are introduced. The wider elements of the degree experience – ceremonies, clubs and societies, careers support, extra-curricular activities, competitions, pastoral support, and so on – will need equal care and attention.

This will require a flexible, imaginative approach from all concerned, and it will likely involve significant stress and risk for all. Much of the burden will rest on faculty who will be coping with general disruption while at the same time redeveloping their courses and teaching in unfamiliar ways.

Educational technologists will become central to teaching and learning strategy as never before. They will require a greater degree of agility and support from senior leadership if they are to build the underlying IT infrastructure on which success will fundamentally depend. Student representatives will need to give feedback in real time about what works and what does not. Throughout this activity, new expert teams will gradually emerge that are capable of delivering sophisticated and high-quality approaches to online education which reflect the needs of their own communities.

The future of online learning

Too often in the past, online learning has been seen as a threat to the age-old craft of teaching. The fact that this current transition is taking place out of necessity and at a time of high anxiety and job insecurity risks exacerbating this perception.

However, the real risk to higher education internationally now, lies in a failure to respond to the demands of the moment in a manner consistent with the values of our institutions. Just as the whiteboard, slide projector and computer were once novel additions to the classroom, online teaching tools will eventually be taken for granted by student cohorts of true digital natives.

There is opportunity in our moment of crisis. Institutions dedicated to sharing knowledge will discover new ways of reaching individuals and communities. Creativity and possibility will re-emerge. Our modes of learning are changing and, as well as losses and threats, there are definite opportunities to introduce flexibility and enhance quality.

David LeFevre is Director of the EdTech Lab at Imperial College Business School and Founder of higher education platform company, Insendi, part of Study Group.

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International student recruitment: navigating the Covid-19 maelstrom

Feeling tense about international student recruitment? Nik Higgins of edtech company, The Access Platform, outlines the results of a recent survey indicating how professionals have reacted to the maelstrom of uncertainty surrounding the effects of Covid-19, and their concerns for the year ahead

Here’s a statement: ‘The challenges facing student recruitment will have ended by the time Covid-19 is over.’ Here’s another: ‘Student recruitment is changing in response to Covid-19.’

Which statement do you agree with? Maybe both?

I should probably be upfront and admit that I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to words; grammar has a particularly special place in my heart. Both of the statements above offer equally legitimate equivocations on the state, and outlook for, international student recruitment. It just so happens to be the case that the first is written in the ‘future perfect tense’ and the second is formed using the ‘present participle’. The former makes a time-bound prediction about a future state, and the latter explains what is happening right now. Didn’t think you were going to be reading an article about non-finite verb forms? Don’t worry, stick with me.

Peering through the multiplicity of perspectives

The thing that these, equally valid, statements talk to is something that everyone working in international education will have felt, experientially, over the past couple of months: uncertainty. Everyone in the sector is making guesses, predictions and declarations about how international student recruitment is changing, and what it might look like in the future. The vast majority of these statements are well informed, authoritative and rigorous. The problem, for anyone reading them en masse, is stitching them together; peering through the multiplicity of perspectives and reconciling them into a coherent and understandable thread, a trajectory for the coming months and year.

This, like most intellectual challenges, is pre-eminently a linguistic problem. There is a wealth of opinion on the topic, all of it couched contingently in close, but ultimately irreconcilable statements. Just like those above. Is international student recruitment going to be ‘future perfect’, stable and resolved at a given point in the future, or is it destined for the perpetually deferred limbo of the ‘present participle’ – unresolved, ever changing, in flux?

Surveying student recruitment professionals

This kind of ambiguity is troublesome, but it also offers a fitting stage for language’s antithesis: numbers. Cold, hard, numbers.

We decided to try and pop the ever-inflating bubble of uncertainty at The Access Platform by surveying student recruitment professionals. We asked representatives from a double-digit number of universities covering three continents a series of questions about how Covid-19 has affected their recruitment efforts, and how they have embraced digital technologies or ‘virtual recruitment’ as an alternative means of engaging with prospective students.

We translated their responses into a series of insights. Feeling tense? Don’t worry. Thankfully these are percentages, not words. Here are the scores on the doors.

Before and after Covid-19

Before Covid-19, very little was being done in terms of online or virtual recruitment. 46% of our survey respondents said that ‘very little’ of their recruitment was done online, while a further 18% said it was ‘less than half’.

The effect of the pandemic has been huge – 82% of respondents said that their recruitment is now being done ‘entirely online’, while for the remaining 18% it is now an equal split of virtual and traditional methods.

Channels and topics

Among participants, 90% said social media was particularly effective, while 55% also vouched for targeted emails. Almost half (46%) praised the value of having dedicated web pages, while 45% said they were using instant messenger services or chatbots, and 36% cited the use of peer-to-peer solutions (such as The Access Platform).

When it comes to topics of conversation, the questions on most students’ lips – or, technically, at their fingertips – were around the effect of the pandemic on the start of their course. A sizeable 73% of respondents told us students wanted to know if they will be able to start their course on campus, 64% said they wanted details about how courses will be delivered online, and 46% said their prospects wanted to know how an online version of their course would differ from the in-person one they’d applied for. Other popular topics included details about social distancing on campus (36%) and questions about accommodation (27%).

Becoming virtual

Almost three-quarters of our respondents (73%) reported running a virtual open day since the start of the pandemic. They probably didn’t have much choice in the matter but this still indicates the ability of the sector to move quickly and continue to offer opportunities for prospective students to find out about an institution and have conversations with staff and students.

Of those who have run a virtual open day since the Covid-19 pandemic began, two-thirds of respondents said these events had been successful (38% said they were ‘very successful’ while a further 25% said they were ‘somewhat successful’).

Among those who haven’t run a virtual open day, no-one said it was down to a lack of technology. While 33% said they had no desire to run such an event, the remaining 67% are planning to run one – they just haven’t made it happen yet.

Future perfect?

Unsurprisingly, almost everyone (91%) who responded to our survey told us they were concerned about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on their international recruitment efforts.

Of those, 55% said they were worried that continued travel restrictions will cause international students to either change their plans or stay at home. The other 36% said their worry was that international students would look to other countries that are perceived to have handled the pandemic better.

This is really tough for international recruitment teams, as both travel restrictions and political decisions are completely out of their hands. It seems fair to wager that how individual countries go about easing lockdown restrictions and setting out detailed plans for the future of travel will be just as influential as how they’ve handled things so far. The remaining 9% were confident that Covid-19 will not have a long-term effect on their international recruitment efforts. Instead, they are confident that, once this is over, their international recruitment strategies and their key markets for international recruitment will stay the same.

This is the bit of the article where, as author, I am supposed to summarise, unify, and conclude. But I’m not going to do it. I’d just be adding another statement into the maelstrom of extant suppositions. I’ll simply sign off by inviting you to carry on the conversation with me (you can find me on LinkedIn). Among the authors of this article, 100% agree that that is the best course of action.

Nik Higgins is Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder at The Access Platform – a global edtech company based in London, UK. Its peer recruitment technology enables prospective students to chat to current students at their chosen university. It currently works with 100 partner institutions around the world, and has offices in the UK, US, Ukraine, and Australia.

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