INSIDE THIS ISSUEInnovation in a jamBruno Chaintron – why managers find it so hard to be different

EPAS scales upUlrich Hommel on how the accreditation system adds value

Culture clubWhy David Saunders believes Canada can lead the world

In the knowEmerald’s David Lamond on the new knowledge brokers

Virtually realBerry Beattie holds forth on the wonders of Second Life

Learning for tomorrowBryce Taylor explains Co-operative Inquiry

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Lorange sets sailPeter Lorange is to retire as President of IMD next year. Here he talks about his long career in management education

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INSIDE FRONT COVER INSIDE BACK COVERFOLD GUIDESDO NOT PRINT

The Economist provides Europe’s business leaders, current and future, with timely insightthat helps them to succeed in today’s complex global marketplace.

To advertise your courses to an audience of 3.7 million intelligent and affluent readers, please contact Philip Wrigley on +44 (0) 20 7830 7000 or philipwrigley@economist.com.EFMD

International Deans’ Programme (IDP)In association with EFMD and the ABS

A fabulous networking opportunity to collaborate internationally The role of a business school dean has become increasingly pressured and challenging in a highly competitive global environment. This new programme is aimed at recently appointed deans/directors of business schools which are members of ABS and/or EFMD. It enables a group of up to 20 international deans to visit business schools in three countries, gaining a unique overview of strategy, operations, structures and future markets in business and management education.

The three compulsory modules comprise study visits to:

Module 1 – Lausanne 5-6 December 2007. Led by Prof. Peter Lorange at IMDModule 2 – Boston 16-18 April 2008. Hosted by Babson College, Bentley College, Boston University, MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School for its centenaryModule 3 – Lisbon 2-3 June 2008, at Faculdade de Economia de Universidade Nova de Lisboa, led by Prof. Jose Antonio Ferreira Machado.

Costs

14500 for members of EFMD and/or ABS 15000 for non members of EFMD and ABS Excluding accommodation and flights

For expressions of interest, please contact

Virginie Heredia-Rosa, EFMD virginie.heredia-rosa@efmd.org

Julie Davies, ABS jdavies@the-abs.org.uk

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 In focus... page 01

Volume 01_Issue 03 2007

In focus...

Our cover story is a valedictory interview with Peter Lorange, who next year will retire as President of IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, after 15 years.

By any objective measure Prof Lorange has had a phenomenally successful career in management education on both sides of the Atlantic and internationally, though in the latter part of his career, both at IMD and as head of the Norwegian School of Management, it was very much in the European context. He has been a strong, consistent and much-valued supporter of EFMD.

Although some may argue about the universal applicability of the strategy that has made IMD so successful (see, for example, “Using technology to lure executives back to business schools” by Deniz Saral on page 24 of this issue), it cannot be denied that it has worked for IMD at least. Revenue has risen from around €20 million in 1993 when he took over a leader to €68 million in 2006.

In his forthcoming book Thought Leadership Meets Business: How Business Schools Can Become More Successful (already widely circulated in draft) Prof Lorange sets out his analysis of the challenges that currently face business schools and the factors that can help them respond successfully. It is a compelling description and rationale of the strategy he has followed at IMD, an institution that was in some difficulty when he took over.

In the final pages he gives a summary of the secrets of IMD’s success. It seems appropriate that here, in the first words of Global Focus, we provide an edited summary of Prof Lorange’s (possibly?) final words on the subject:

“For a business school to be successful, its strategies need to have a uniqueness about them that creates value and competitive advantage. At IMD, the combination of four pillars makes our strategy highly focused and unique:

1. Real world, Real learning2. The global meeting place3. All learning is lifelong learning4. Minimalist, internal structure and customer focus process

Strategic pillars one and two reinforce each other – the best of the real world, real learning meets the global meeting place; the latest new thoughts from research meet the best of practice and both faculty and participants learn with and from one another. It is a lead and be led value creation process. Pillars three and four depend on the first two – minimalism in particular is derived from the others , it is a precondition to be able to deliver on them. Thus, IMD’s four-pillar strategy is simple enough to be understood by most, to be remembered, to be communicated and, perhaps important of all, to be inspirational!”

Martine Plompen Editor E: martine.plompen@efmd.org

EFMD

Contents

Volume 01_Issue 03 2007

Executive Editor Matthew Wood

Advisory BoardEric Cornuel, Jim Herbolich, Howard Thomas (Dean of Warwick Business School)

EditorMartine Plompen martine.plompen@efmd.org

Consultant EditorGeorge Bickerstaffe bickerstaffe@btinternet.com

Contributing EditorsBruno Chaintron, Ulrich Hommel, Jan Kingsley, David Lamond, Deniz Saral, John Saee, Gordon Shenton, Bryce Taylor

Design & Art DirectionJebens Design www.jebensdesign.co.uk

Photographs & Illustrations©Jebens Design Ltd/EFMD unless otherwise stated

Editorial & AdvertisingMatthew Wood Phone: +32 2 629 0810 matthew.wood@efmd.org

EFMD aisblRue Gachard 88 – Box 3 1050 Brussels, Belgiumwww.efmd.org/globalfocus

©EFMD

01 In focus...

04 Talking shop International Deans’ Programme launched RABE Workshop on Bologna Agreement Advisory Services 2008 agenda

08 Lorange sets sail Peter Lorange retires as President of IMD next

year. He talks to George Bickerstaffe about his long career in management education and some of the secrets behind the success of one of the world’s leading business schools

14 The role of research in business education Research has long been problematic in the world

of business education. Gordon Shenton sets out how the EFMD EQUIS accreditation system now tackles the issue

18 CSR: making trade work for the poor A special issue of Management Decision based on

the International Trade Centre Executive Forum on “Making Trade Work for the Poor” is available free online to EFMD members. David Lamond explains

20 Corporate innovation: how to solve the traffic jam problem

Why do managers claim to act rationally but in fact behave in illogical ways that stifle innovation? Bruno Chaintron has an answer

24 Using technology to lure executives back to business schools

Deniz Saral argues that the introduction or expansion of doctoral programmes for executives and using technology-enhanced e-learning models to reduce their cost is one way business schools can increase the numbers of executive participants

28 Reaching out globally The EFMD Programme Accreditation System

(EPAS) has launched an ambitious “Scale Up” initiative. Ulrich Hommel outlines the benefits

32 Culture club: is Canada leading the way? David Saunders, dean of Queen’s Business School

and EFMD board member, talks about the customisation of management education, multiculturalism and adapting to the iPod generation. Interview by George Bickerstaffe

38 Publishers as knowledge brokers? David Lamond argues that the digital age has

fundamentally changed the dissemination of “scholarly knowledge” and the interaction of the main stakeholders and in particular the role of publisher

42 Time for educators to get a (Second) Life? Jan Kingsley holds a conversation with Berry Beattie,

a lecturer in leadership and organisational behaviour, who is exploring the potential of Second Life…

48 2006 EFMD Case Writing Competition Winners

50 Learning for tomorrow: how Co-operative Inquiry works

Co-operative Inquiry as a technique is closely involved in the EFMD/UN Global Leadership Responsibility Initiative. Bryce Taylor explains what it is and how it can be used

56 Intercultural awareness is the key to international business success

John Saee outlines why managers need to develop interactive skills for dealing with people from different cultures to be able to capitalise on burgeoning international markets

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EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Contents pages 02_03

EPAS’s ambitious “Scale Up” project is launched » page 28

Talking shopNews and events in brief from the business world

EQUIS Accreditation Seminar – AustraliaThe first EQUIS Accreditation Seminar will take place in Sydney on Friday 26th October 2007, hosted by the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. The seminar is targeted at both EQUIS accredited schools that want to get a better understanding of the EQUIS standards and criteria and those considering EQUIS accreditation for the first time. It will be relevant for Deans and Directors, Directors of External Relations and those responsible for accreditation within the school as well as experienced EQUIS Peer Reviewers. A limited number of places are available for this seminar and places will be granted on a first come first served basis.

For more information, please contact: Gladys Evangelista gladys.evangelista@efmd.org or Emma Keating emma.keating@efmd.org or telephone the EFMD Quality Services Office on +32 2 629 0810 to reserve your place.

International Deans’ Programme (IDP) launched IMD, Babson College, Harvard, MIT Sloan School of Management & Universidade Nova de Lisboa will host the newly launched IDP in association with ABS. The role of a business school dean has become increasingly pressured and challenging in a highly competitive global environment. This new programme, beginning in December 2007, is aimed at recently appointed deans/directors of business schools which are members of ABS and/or EFMD. It is a fabulous networking opportunity to collaborate internationally. The IDP enables a group of up to 20 international deans to visit business schools in three countries. You will gain a unique overview of strategy, operations, structures and future markets in business and management education.

The three compulsory modules comprise study visits to:

– Lausanne, 5-6 December 2007, led by Prof Peter Lorange at IMD.

– Boston, 16-18 April 2008, hosted by Babson College, Bentley College, Boston University, MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School for its centenary.

– Lisbon, 2-3 June 2008, at Faculdade de Economia de Universidade Nova de Lisboa, led by Prof Jose Antonio Ferreira Machado.

For more information please contact: Virginie Heredia-Rosa: virginie.heredia-rosa@efmd.org or Julie Davies, ABS: jdavies@the-abs.org.uk

Registration now open for the first EFMD / GMAC® 2007 MBA Deans and Programme Directors Symposium, Hong Kong7/8/9 November 2007 – From Adaptation to Innovation: Learning from Asia, A Symposium on Graduate Management Education.

Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hotel, Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui – East), Hong Kong.

For Deans, Associate Deans, Program Deans, and Program Directors from business schools around the world.

For more information, please contact: Helke Carvalho Hernandes helke.carvalho@efmd.org

Roland Van Dierdonck joins EFMD Quality ServicesProf Roland Van Dierdonck the former dean of the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School has joined the EFMD Quality Services team as an Associate Director. “We are delighted to welcome Roland into the quality services department. His experience and knowledge as a Dean of an EQUIS accredited school and active peer reviewer will be very beneficial as EQUIS continues to set the benchmark for international business school accreditation,” said Julio Urgel, the EQUIS Director.

Advisory Services 2008 – agenda now launchedFollowing the success of the EFMD Advisory Services Seminars in 2007 the programme for 2008 has just been announced. Please see page 36 in this issue of Global Focus for full details or visit

www.efmd.org/advisoryservices

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Talking shop pages 04_05

SOUNDBITES

Responsible leadership and developing the next generation of business leaders is at the forefront of the work of EFMD and the GRLIEric Cornuel, CEO, EFMD

EFMD and the Globally Responsible Leaders Initiative (GRLI) play a leading role in developing the Principles for Responsible Management Education The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) were presented to the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon on Thursday, July 5, 2007 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

The initiative was developed by an international task force of 60 deans, university presidents and official representatives of leading business schools. It was co-convened by the United Nations Global Compact with the active support and guidance of EFMD, the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI), EABIS, AACSB, the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program and Net Impact.

“Responsible leadership and developing the next generation of business leaders is at the forefront of the work of EFMD and the GRLI. We welcome the principles that have been developed in conjunction with the UN Global Compact and our other highly respected partners and trust that they will serve as a starting point for the management education sector, which has tremendous influence and societal responsibility in developing the next generation of business leaders”, said Eric Cornuel, CEO of EFMD.

For more information on the GRLI visit www.globallyresponsibleleaders.net

Top (left to right): Gerhard Van Schaik, EFMD President; Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General; David Saunders, Dean, Queen’s School of Business and EFMD Board MemberRight: Anders Aspling, Secretary General GRLI and Dean of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School

Online EFMD Executive Education Directory launched The brand-new EFMD executive education directory will be launched on 14 October 2007.

The new directory is a free membership service to EFMD corporate and business schools members that includes:

– Profiles of over 100+ executive education providers in Europe

– Over 2000 course descriptions

– Data on participants profile

– Practical data on courses

– Full programme information

Are you trying a locate a master-class to brush up your knowledge on leadership skills?

Would you prefer to participate in a course with fellow senior people having at least 15 years of experience?

Are you looking for a programme on entrepreneurship in Spain?

More information is available via www.efmd.org/eed

or by contacting Patsy Van Autreve patsy.vanautreve@efmd.org

Talking shopNews and events in brief from the business world

The role of top international accreditations in speeding up the processes of business education internationalisation.

The future shape of the global higher education system is a matter of great concern for academics, politicians and people of business. The 46 participating countries of the Bologna Accord have been working hard at putting into practice the basic principles of the Declaration. The aim is to introduce a set of new standards to help universities and business schools develop an international perspective through teaching national students at home and abroad.

The Russian Association of Business Education (RABE) Workshop on Russia’s entry into the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) brought together in Brussels deans and directors of top Russian business schools and experts from top international accrediting organisations – EFMD, AACSB, AMBA and ECBE. The Workshops took place at EFMD Headquarters in Brussels in May 2007.

The venue and date were not chosen at random.

Brussels in early May is lovely – flowerbeds, trees and orchards are in full blossom, the Irises Festival in Grand Place on Saturday attracts tourists from all over the world. But early May is also the eve of the new academic year enrolment to universities and business schools worldwide. It is the time of decision making.

School-leavers are choosing universities and sending out their application forms all over the world. Institutes and universities are busy designing and updating their courses, while presenting partnership programmes for validation and accreditation. This is the time of turmoil and making a choice – the crucial time for both parties to the study process.

International accreditations experts – Prof Steve Watson (AACSB), Peter Calladine (AMBA) Prof Chris Greensted (EFMD) and Prof Bob Jophson (ECBE) were invited to the RABE Workshop to present their associations’ criteria for quality assurance.

Russian experts – RABE President Prof Leonid Evenko, Prof Vladimir Godin, Chairman of the RABE Board, and Prof Sergey Mjasoedov, RABE Vice-President, spoke about the internationalisation of business education in Russia, which match the Bologna Accord trends in Europe. Two top Russian diplomats from the Permanent Mission of Russia

in the European Communities, Nikolay Revenko (Deputy-Head) and Nikolay Ivanov (Chief of the department), gave Workshop participants details of the latest developments in cultural and educational areas of the European Union and presented Russia’s perspectives. They assessed the changes which have been taking place in education as highly important for Russia, since these changes will put the systems of higher education in Europe closer to each other, make them transparent, comparable and mutually complementing. It means that students of the 46 Bologna signatory countries will have more knowledge, skills and competences in common. As a result they will have equal employment opportunities in future.

The Workshop concluded with, Eric Cornuel, Director General and CEO of the EFMD, and Natalia Evtikhieva, Director General of RABE, signing a co-operation agreement between EFMD and RABE, which formally acknowledged what has in fact been in existence for over 10 years – a fruitful, mutually enriching and strategically forward-looking partnership.

RABE Workshop on Bologna Agreement

Top (left to right): Leonid Evenko, Eric Cornuel, Natalia Evtikhieva, Jim HerbolichLeft: Elena Zoubkova

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 pages 06_07

Strategic Change Management in the Public Sector

AN EFMD EUROPEAN CASE BOOK

This casebook collects eleven cases from different public sector organisations based in different European countries. The cases deal with public organisations at local level, involving both medium and big sized organisations.

Every case faces a different area of innovation: from new organisational structuring to new performance evaluation systems, from improved customer relation approaches to innovative public-private partnerships. Every managerial innovation is presented in its design and implementation phases, both evaluating final impacts and ascertaining the explanatory drivers conducive to better performances. Different public sector organisations are considered: local governments, public utilities, health care agencies and mass transports.

The aim is to provide readers with a wide and heterogeneous overview. This gives readers the chance to look at the difficulties of change management processes in different scenarios; on top of it, the readers can evaluate the impact of different strategies to face these difficulties.

The book is aimed at readers who want to better understand strategic change management approaches in public administration, for those who are interested in learning from evidences, for trainers and professors looking for European cases for class discussions, for policy makers searching for new ideas and change approaches.

Purchasing detailsIf you are interested in purchasing this book, please contact:Helke Carvalho Hernandes at EFMD helke.carvalho@efmd.org or visit www.efmd.org/publications

Contains detailed information about the design and implementation phases of managerial innovations

Lorange sets sailPETER LORANGE RETIRES AS PRESIDENT OF IMD NExT YEAR. HERE HE TALKS TO GEOrGE BICkErSTAFFE ABOUT HIS LONG CAREER IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION ANDSOME OF THE SECRETS OF HIS SUCCESS

In late spring 2008 Peter Lorange, right, will retire as President (effectively dean) of the International Institute for Management Development – IMD – in Lausanne, Switzerland a month or so short of completing a three-term 15-year incumbency.

He is remarkably relaxed about it.

“Well I don’t have much choice. The mandatory retirement age is 65,” he says. “I don’t see it as very dramatic.”

He will be replaced by Dr John R Wells, currently Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School.

Though Lorange will probably stay on as a faculty member for a year it is in effect the end of a remarkably long and distinguished career in management education.

Before joining IMD he was president of the Norwegian School of Management for four years and had previously spent a decade at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, including a stint as director of its Joseph H Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies and other departments, following eight years teaching at the Sloan School of Management at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

When Dr Lorange joined IMD on July 1, 1993, where as well as President he has been the Nestlé Professor of Strategy, the school was very different from the international powerhouse it is today.

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Lorange sets sail: Peter Lorange Interview by George Bickerstaffe pages 08_09

To be a dean now you have to be professional enough so that people want you to be effective and to succeed

113Revenue has risen from around SF33 million (720 million) in 1993 to SF113 million (768 million) in 2006

IMD was created in 1990 as a merger between two existing Swiss management development institutes – IMI in Geneva and IMEDE on the current IMD site in Lausanne. Though very similar –IMI was founded by Alcan Aluminium in 1946 and IMEDE in 1957 by Nestlé SA – getting their two cultures to work effectively together had defeated Dr Lorange’s predecessors.

“The situation was messy,” he admits. “People weren’t pulling together.”

It took two years to turn it round and his first move, a rather typical combination of modesty and guile, was to ask every faculty member to write down the three things they would do if they were in his shoes. As well as signalling an inclusive and democratic approach it also, he points out with a laugh, “gave me a great database of ideas”.

Since then Lorange and IMD have never really looked back. Revenue has risen from around SF33 million (€20 million) in 1993 to SF113 million (€68 million) in 2006 and building work has transformed the old IMEDE campus on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Dr Lorange was educated at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business and gained an MA in operations management from

Yale University and a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Harvard. He is a prolific writer, not least on the subject of the governance and management of management education institutions and the role of a business school dean, something he believes has changed considerably during his time in the position.

He says he learned a lot from working with Russell Palmer [dean of Wharton from1983 to1990] during his time at the school. But while Dean Palmer took a top-down viewpoint – deans are not there to win a popularity contest or to say yes to everyone – according to Dr Lorange, that has changed. Now power and influence has to be earned from the bottom up.

“To be a dean now you have to be professional enough so that people want you to be effective and to succeed,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean I can be wishy-washy. They expect me to lead. It’s a very difficult job. The faculty team, the whole school really, must feel that you’re working for them. You have to work very hard.”

He has certainly had no problem with hard work. It’s probably not a well-known fact but as well as an academic career that has included running two leading European business schools, Dr Lorange has since 1988 also –“on the side”, as he puts it – owned and run a successful offshore services shipping company, Ugelstads Rederi, in his native Norway (his family name reflects a French Huguenot background). In January 2007 he says he received “an offer he couldn’t refuse” and sold the company to the Athens-based Aries shipping group for a reported NOK730 million (€92.5 million).

Dr Lorange was not involved in the search for his successor, something he says is “absolutely correct”. It was handled by a six-man search committee (three executives from IMD partner companies and three IMD faculty).

He was not, however, a totally disinterested observer and his latest book, Thought Leadership Meets Business: How Business Schools Can Become More Successful, currently circulated to friends in draft and due to be published later this year or next, is a pretty straightforward account of the reasons for IMD’s success and how to maintain it.

There is a huge responsibility on both business schools and business to interact with each other

It is, he admits, “aimed at my successor. I said to myself that I have quite a lot of knowledge and experience and why shouldn’t I share that with both the search committee and the candidates?”

Dr Lorange’s recipe for business school success is fairly simple: wherever possible business schools should be independent, they should resist function-based and hierarchal faculty organisations and, particularly, the tenure system, and they should base their teaching on relevant research brought quickly into the classroom.

While he agrees that there is no one-size-fits-all model that will make a top business school, he argues that it is hard to think of the classic inflexible European university model as one that will bring success.

“So in that sense,” he says, “I think that, as with IMD and INSEAD, you are better off being independent. You can still be successful as part of a university but only if it allows you as a business school to be speedy and flexible.”

One reason for this, he say, is that in general academics favour a discipline-oriented, axiomatic system when what is needed today is more cross-disciplinary, cross-axiomatic thinking. So tenure and publishing processes that favour a discipline-oriented traditional approach may produce a faculty profile that is not necessarily what a school needs.

“I think that happens more easily in university-based business schools,” he says. “At IMD we don’t have academic departments, we don’t have tenure, and we don’t have hierarchies or titles.”

And, he says, though IMD has a somewhat unusual and complex system for recruiting faculty it has less problems finding faculty than many other schools.

“In a way I’m quite surprised at that,” he says. “I think it may be academics themselves who are most fed up with the traditional system.”

Even so, IMD has some very long-serving professors. Does he think that’s a good thing?

“I think so, so long as people understand that we don’t have tenure. They have to contribute or they will be asked to leave. So I think it’s a good

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Lorange sets sail: Peter Lorange Interview by George Bickerstaffe pages 10_11

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thing that they understand they have to earn their keep every year. I remember when I was at Wharton I had tenure and it really didn’t make any difference whether or not I did any work. I don’t think that’s healthy.”

His latest book and his conversation are both full of the need for what he calls “research-based executive development”, with the emphasis on research that is “relevant”.

Relevant to whom is a question that is simply answered:

“It must be relevant from the point of view of practice,” he says. “If practice has no interest in the research that’s being done, then I don’t think it has any relevance.”

As he also points out, this means there is a huge responsibility on both business schools and business to interact with each other. And he agrees that innovation can, effectively, only come from business and that business schools are always trying to catch up.

In his latest book he argues that:

The long-standing philosophy that good research must have a heavy emphasis on axiomatic, disciplinary thinking, with hypothesis testing and refutation of truth, is increasingly being replaced by a “lead and be led” research philosophy. Academics, through their research, might come up with positions that represent cutting-edge thinking. However, it must be articulated and presented in such a way that it can be understood by leading practitioners…For researchers this means a unique way to develop their research insights further – logical incrementalism, grounded theory building.

In person he puts it more colourfully – “bringing half-baked research ideas into a classroom of experienced global executive – that offers tremendous learning opportunities for everyone”.

Strategy, Dr Lorange is fond of saying, is choice. The choice of his successor, unlike many corporate CEOs, was not in his hands. But the strategy of IMD, idiosyncratic to some but undeniably successful, seems set firm.

Strategy, Dr Lorange is fond of saying, is choice... the strategy of IMD, idiosyncratic to some but undeniably successful, seems set firm

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EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 pages 12_13

European Foundation for Management Development and Graduate Management Admission Council®

2007 MBA Deans and Programme DirectorsSymposium

Dates 7-9 November 2007

Location Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hotel Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui – East), Hong Kong

Theme From Adaptation to Innovation: Learning from Asia – A Symposium on Graduate Management Education

AttendeesDeans, Associate Deans and Program Directors from business schools around the world

» Alternative Strategies for the Internationalisation of Graduate Management Education

» Social Networking and the Global Network of Learning

» Technology Visions

» The Corporate Voice

» Sustainable Leadership

» B-School Partner Models

» The Indian MBA Market

» HR Issues and Leadership Styles in Asia

» The Chinese MBA Market

EFMD

For more information, please contact Helke Carvalho Hernandes: helke.carvalho@efmd.org or visit www.efmd.org

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 The role of research in business education by Gordon Shenton pages 14_15

Research has always been a difficult issue for business studies. The vocational nature of these studies, the lack of clear disciplinary boundaries and the deep-rooted suspicion in some academic circles that the various sub-fields are not “scientifically” based have long been handicaps. It has never been easy to find a consensus on how research should be defined or on what should be considered acceptable research output.

The need to prove that business studies are a serious academic discipline has pushed the profession towards over-investment in research aimed essentially at other academics through publication in refereed academic journals, laying business schools open to criticisms that they are producing mountains of obscure and irrelevant research. This is particularly true in America where the tenure and promotion system is based essentially on academic publication though a similar drift has probably been occurring in Europe.

On the other hand, there is a recognition that research must serve other purposes and other constituencies, that it must, in some more direct way, be useful to students, companies and managers though this carries with it the risk that it may be deemed unworthy of academic consideration. The debate has recently crystallised around the spurious opposition between “rigour” and “relevance”.

This long-standing debate within the management education profession on the role of research in business schools has, therefore, always been a particularly thorny issue for accreditation bodies. In the definition of their expectations, in the formulation of their criteria and in the way in which assessments are carried out in practice they will inevitably influence the behaviour of business schools. They must be seen to stand behind the principle that the quality of a school’s teaching staff is linked to the quality of their intellectual activity. However, they must avoid the pitfall of defining research too narrowly

and thereby sending out the message that only publication in academic journals will be seen as serious research.

Given this state of affairs, it is particularly significant that both EFMD and AACSB International have recently taken strong positions on the role and nature of research in business education in an attempt to clarify the debate for the schools they evaluate. A draft report of the AACSB International “Impact of Research” task force is currently being circulated for comments. If the recommendations put forward by the task force receive sufficient approval, they will presumably be written into the accreditation standards.

Earlier this year, official approval was given to the new EQUIS Standards and Criteria document after almost two years of discussion within the membership. The chapter on research is the result of extensive revision and now stands as a major statement of the EQUIS approach to this activity.

In addition to its primary function as a framework for assessing research in the accreditation process, the chapter is also intended to provide more general guidance to business schools in defining their strategy in this area. It can be seen as an EFMD position paper on research in business education.

Given the dominance of the academic model in America, AACSB has perhaps a more difficult task to convince business academia that there is a need for a broader definition of research and a shift from the measurement of output to the measurement of impact.

However, EQUIS shares the same concern in Europe and the rest of the world, although the context is substantially different. There is greater diversity among university systems across the 40-plus countries of the European continent.

For example, many of Europe’s best-ranked business schools are not formally within the university system and are far more market oriented;

A university business school will probably place greater emphasis on academic research while an independent business school serving a corporate market will most likely seek professional relevance in its research effort

the tenure system is not always so constraining; and language barriers in many cases make it impossible for faculty members to publish in the so-called “top” international journals, which are mostly American.

Nonetheless, European institutions are feeling the same pressure to conform to the academic model and need reassuring that the accreditation bodies do not expect them all to behave like “research-driven” US business schools.

The principle that research should have an impact is firmly written into the EQUIS Standard at the beginning of the chapter on research:

The School should regularly produce original contributions to knowledge that are effectively disseminated. These should demonstrably make an impact on one or more constituencies that are strategically important for the successful development of the School: academic peers, management professionals, students, etc.

Research activity itself is classified into three categories – academic research, practice-oriented research and pedagogic development and innovation –to reflect the fact that intellectual production in business schools covers a wide spectrum of outputs and that there is a need for broader, more flexible definitions.

It is explicitly stated that within each category output will be assessed by its impact on the relevant constituency: the international academic community in the case of academic research, business practitioners for practice-oriented research and educational practitioners in pedagogical development and innovation.

The criteria are constructed around the principle that assessment must take into account a number of variables which, taken together in a given mix, determine any particular school’s research policy.

First, there should be clarity about the purposes of research. At the most basic level, it is an activity that enables faculty members to keep abreast of their discipline, to improve their teaching and to advance in their profession. The qualification of the faculty as a whole depends on as many members as possible having some form of productive intellectual activity. Doctoral research is a means of qualifying aspiring teachers for entry into the profession.

Another fundamental requirement is that research should feed into a school’s teaching programmes. The ability of a school to transform its research activity into renewed programme content is a key success factor in portfolio management at all levels, whether at undergraduate level or in executive education.

Next, research activity contributes to the practice of management by defining new tools and techniques, by helping managers to improve their performance or by broadening their understanding of issues that affect decisions.

Research in a university environment is designed to enrich the collective body of knowledge and understanding within the academic profession. It may be intended to fulfil the observatory function of critically tracking an industry, a market, an enterprise category and so on either independently or in liaison with a government agency or other organisation.

A related purpose is to allow a school to serve as a forum for public debate on issues that are of concern to society at large.

Finally, the intellectual activity of certain faculty members may be geared towards the creation of new instructional methods and materials or towards new course design.

This multiplicity of purpose is mirrored in the diversity of formats for the dissemination of faculty members’ intellectual production aimed at a variety of different audiences:

The pursuit of accreditation should not lead schools to set unrealistic objectives as regards their research profile. Their resource base in terms of faculty and funding may not be sufficient to support their aspirations

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 The role of research in business education by Gordon Shenton pages 16_17

articles in academic journals, articles in practitioner journals, conference presentations, monographs, studies, reports, textbooks for students, books for managers, books for other academics, chapters in books, case studies and instructional software.

A table at the end of the research chapter sets out accordingly a typology of research and development activity, categorising the objectives of the intellectual activity, the audience for whom its relevance must be measured and the dissemination vehicles (articles, books, case studies and so on).

Whereas most accredited schools will have some production in all three areas, the main focus or the particular mix will depend very much on the type of school, the profile of its faculty, the funding available, the markets that it is serving and the strategic choices that have been made.

A university business school will probably place greater emphasis on academic research while an independent business school serving a corporate market will most likely seek professional relevance in its research effort. Whatever the mix, EQUIS will be looking for evidence of productive intellectual activity with measurable outcomes.

The key measures of quality in all three types of research will be the relevance and impact on the different audiences, constituencies or stakeholders that a school is serving, as well as its contribution to teaching quality. However, it should be emphasised that a purely vocational or the exclusively practice-oriented school with a sole emphasis on teaching will not qualify.

The expectation is that all schools that are accredited will be able to demonstrate that they are productive in some areas of the intellectual activity spectrum described above, that there are processes in place for the management and monitoring of the research agenda and that they allocate time and resources to support faculty members.

It is further expected that schools will have an explicit, publicly stated strategy and policy regarding research. At one extreme, this may only be a commitment to the principle that research is an individual concern and that it cannot be managed centrally. But even in such cases, recruitment policy, workload allocation, evaluation and reward processes provide a context in which research can prosper.

In most schools, the research effort itself requires some planned guidance in the form of targeted specialisations, centrally managed research centres, an encouragement to pursue collaborative research and so on. This is particularly true of the many schools around the world that are currently striving to upgrade their research potential, often from a situation in which research was given a low priority.

However, a word of caution is in order: the pursuit of accreditation should not lead schools to set unrealistic objectives as regards their research profile. Their resource base in terms of faculty and funding may not be sufficient to support their aspirations.

It is encouraging that EFMD and AACSB International, from their different perspectives, are seeking a more balanced approach to the assessment of research in business schools. The emphasis on relevance and impact coming from both sides of the Atlantic and the common desire to bring research closer to practice are strong messages for the management education profession.

Many of Europe’s best-ranked business schools are not formally within the university system and are far more market oriented

ABOUT THE AUTHOrGordon Shenton is Associate Director, EFMD Quality Services Department

Corporate Social Responsibility

Making trade work for the poor

Whether the discussions are rooted in philosophical, legal, political or geopolitical origins, companies and communities alike are paying increasing attention to the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

On both sides of the Atlantic, companies are seeking to integrate social and environmental concerns into their business operations, investing more in their people, the environment and their relations with stakeholders.

At the World Economic Forum in January 1999, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, challenged business leaders to join the Global Compact – an international initiative to promote responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalisation in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption and create a more sustainable and inclusive global economy.

One of the more well-known examples on the company side is Nike, which makes sports footwear and clothing. Infamous in the 1990s for the third-world “sweatshops” of its overseas suppliers, Nike is now exercising its corporate social responsibilities. It has developed a global corporate responsibility strategy that includes improving working conditions in its contract factories through “a holistic, integrated business approach to

our supply chain”. Now Nike has been named number 69 in the 2007 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, moving up 31 places from 2006. Yet, despite the efforts of companies such as Nike and others, along with the work of the UN and EU, the plight of the world’s poor is no less stark.

In his preface to the 2006 United Nations World Economic and Social Survey, Mr Annan observed: “Our world is richer than ever before, but it is also marked by enormous inequalities, both within and between countries. The average annual income of someone living in the world’s richest country, Luxembourg, is more than one hundred times larger than that of the average citizen of Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest. Such big differences in living standards should be a matter of great concern

because they reflect serious inequalities in life opportunities. This calls for a robust policy response at both the national and international levels, so that all countries can achieve the Millennium Development Goals and other agreed development objectives.”

As part of its response to this challenge, the International Trade Centre (ITC) held an Executive Forum on “Making Trade Work for the Poor”, in Berlin in September 2006. Emerald Group Publishing, in conjunction with ITC and UNCTAD/WTO, decided to publish a special issue of Management Decision using selected papers from the 2006 Executive Forum,

A SPECIAL ISSUE OF MANAGEMENT DECISION ON THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE ExECUTIVE FORUM ON “MAKING TRADE WORK FOR THE POOR” IS AVAILABLE ONLINE TO EFMD MEMBERS. DaviD LamonD ExPLAINS

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Making trade work for the poor by David Lamond pages 18_19

aLLEviaTinG PovERTY THRoUGH TRaDE

GUEST EDITORS Dr David Lamond and Dr Rocky Dwyer

FOREWORD Eric Cornuel Director General EFMD

MAKING TRADE WORK FOR THE POOR Patricia R Francis Executive Director International Trade Centre

EDITORIAL Corporate social responsibility: making trade work for the poor David Lamond

aRTiCLES

Managing the linkage between export development and poverty reduction: An effective framework Frederick Owen Skae, Brian Barclay

The Great Game evolves for Central Asia and opportunities beckon John Kidd

Is South-South trade the answer to alleviating poverty? Osvaldo R Agatiello

The South African poor white problem in the early twentieth century: Lessons for poverty today Johan Fourie

Company and society: The “Caras do Brasil” (Faces of Brazil) program as leverage for sustainable development Luciano Barin Cruz, Eugenio Avila Pedrozo, Rosangela Bacima, Beatriz Queiroz

Trade from the ground up: A case study of a grass roots NGO using agricultural programs to generate economic viability in developing countries Allison Duke, Charla Long

Transaction costs in group microcredit in India Savita Shankar

Alleviating poverty: how do we know the scope of the problem and when we have solved it? Rocky J Dwyer

The elephant in the room: gender and export-led poverty reduction Astrid Ruiz Thierry

REaD iT

EFMD members have free access to this journal via the following web address: www.efmd.org/journals

ManagementDecisionAlleviating poverty through tradeGuest Editors: Dr David Lamond and Dr Rocky Dwyer

Volume 45 Number 8 2007

ISSN 0025-1747

www.emeraldinsight.com

md cover special issue_advert.qxd 9/7/2007 9:51 AM Page 1

ABOUT THE AUTHOrDr David Lamond, Foundation Dean and Professor, International Business School Kochi, India

Email: daplamond@gmail.com

together with a limited number of papers submitted independently for consideration. This special issue was launched at the recent Academy of Management meeting in Philadelphia and Emerald has agreed with EFMD to provide special electronic access to the issue for EFMD members.

Together, the papers in this special issue constitute a useful starting point for the exploration of the role that corporations can play in sustainable futures for all of us. We hope that we have made some small contribution towards making trade work for the poor.

100The number of times larger the average annual income of someone living in Luxembourg is of that of the average citizen of Sierra Leone

Corporate innovationHow to solve the traffic jam problem

WHY DO MANAGERS CLAIM TO ACT RATIONALLY BUT IN FACT BEHAVE IN ILLOGICAL WAYS THAT STIFLE INNOVATION? BrUNO CHAINTrON HAS AN ANSWER

In a recent article in Global Focus, Richard Straub, the EFMD Director of Development, quoted a survey conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value demonstrating that CEOs see “innovation” as the top requirement for their companies to compete in fast-changing global markets. He advocated that further work should be carried out to integrate innovation into management practices and not simply into products.

Why is real management innovation so difficult to achieve? What would it take for managers to act as entrepreneurs? Despite numerous inroads, academic literature has not yet been able to identify any individual psychological attributes that would help predict entrepreneurial success. Yet intuition says that psychology does matter for innovation. But how? Let’s take a real-life example.

Everyday when I drive downhill from Meudon, the suburb west of Paris where I live, to my office, I have to get through the Carrefour de la Ferme crossroads and every morning it is congested. One day I was waiting at the last traffic light before the crossroads and it wasn’t looking good. Some cars were already blocking the intersection. As the traffic light finally turned green, the car in front of me suddenly accelerated, rushed a few metres and quickly stopped – stuck with all the other vehicles at the centre of the crossroads.

Does this ring a bell? In traffic jams, when the light turns green, why do people rush forward – even though cars are blocking the intersection? Isn’t it obvious that this will only make the problem worse? Why do we always have to put ourselves in even more inextricable situations? Why don’t we learn from the past to discover better solutions? In short, why are our innovation capabilities so limited we haven’t yet solved the traffic jam problem?

A few months later, I was driving a car in California. I was approaching a crossroads where the traffic lights were not functioning. My old French instinct resurfaced. Would the nightmare start again? To my great surprise, the traffic was flowing smoothly. Why?

It took me a few seconds to realise that every driver was a) able to remember his or her arrival order at the crossroads and b) was very careful to only enter the crossroads à son tour.

In other words, the lights weren’t really needed. And two skills had made this miracle possible: a knowledge-acquisition skill (everybody was able to remember his or her arrival order at the crossroads) and a relationship skill (nobody was cheating).

Could this possibly be the beginning of a solution to the traffic jam problem? A few days later I was back in Meudon meditating in my usual morning jam. As I was expecting, the intersection ahead of me was blocked. But surprisingly I was feeling no frustration. The light turned green…and an idea struck me. It sounded crazy but what about quietly waiting a few minutes at the green light – without entering the crossroads, even though it’s my turn – to allow time for the traffic to flow? Wouldn’t this be a much better deal for all the cars blocked in both streets? Imagine how many minutes, perhaps hours, dozens of drivers would gain, just because one car would be ready to spend two minutes at a green light.

The whole world was now looking different. I knew this wasn’t just utopia. There was indeed a theoretical solution to the traffic jam problem: just deciding to wait two minutes at a green light regardless of what all the other cars were doing. So I reformulated my old question.

Why do we repeat the same behaviours that prevent us from adopting

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Corporate innovation by Bruno Chaintron pages 20_21

Why don’t we learn from the past to discover better solutions? In short, why are our innovation capabilities so limited we haven’t yet solved the traffic jam problem?

more efficient innovations? Why do we repeatedly rush when the light turns green? Why don’t we discover the “two minutes at the green light” solution? And why don’t we implement it? The intuition was growing that answering those last two questions would open new perspectives on corporate innovation.

But let’s take a step back. Why does corporate life resemble a traffic jam? Since most managers claim they have a rational approach to decision making, rushing and bumping should never be managerial behaviours. Those managers argue they live by the CAD decision model. In other words, they collect information, analyse it and decide based upon it. Why don’t they always get what they want then? Why do they sometimes lose market share and get fired? Why, like drivers entering a busy crossroads, are they surprised by the consequences of their own actions?

Simply because, far from resembling the CAD model, the decision-making model used by managers is much closer to IJR – ignoring/judging /reacting. Am I exaggerating? Car drivers ignore how to get out of the traffic jam and tension grows. At some point – when the light turns green and emotions are at a peak – they judge that now it’s their turn and they react by rushing into the bottleneck.

Exactly the same thing happens to managers. All managers ignore the deep, systemic causes of complex business situations, as well as the real consequences of the solutions that come to their mind, judge that they have the “best” solution and react with decisions that are limited by their preconceived judgements. Underneath the CAD mountain lies the IJR iceberg (Diagram 1, right).

IJR is consubstantial to our limited rationality. And there’s something good about that. However imperfect our judgements may be, they are useful: they stop the analysis so that immediate action becomes possible. In the short term, IJR makes CAD easier. But what happens in the longer term? I would suggest that IJR sequences make innovation more difficult.

Let’s take a real-life example. A manager comes to his or her CEO with a plan to launch a revolutionary environment-friendly packaging material based on popcorn. The manager is a creative and charming person though with a reputation of being a little bit of a dreamer.

Think of the CEO’s situation. He ignores the business potential of the idea and lacks the time to investigate it. But he still has to judge whether he will allocate a development budget. Isn’t it tempting for him to judge that such a “naive” manager would never be able to come up with a marketable innovation and to react by stopping the project ? See how easily one single IJR sequence can kill an innovation opportunity.

If IJR sequences can ultimately kill innovation, how does the chemistry of ignorance, judgments and reactions interact with innovation opportunities over time? It all depends on the type of IJR sequence we are dealing with. There are at least two reasons why we, as managers, do not reach the results we have been dreaming of. The first reason is our limited rationality: we don’t have the knowledge to do what we should do to get what we want. Let’s call it a Knowledge Gap©, the gap between our actual behaviour and the behaviour that would have better served our stated objectives but which our limited rationality prevents us from adopting.

Knowledge GapsWhy do Knowledge Gaps matter in our daily lives? Think of the crossroads again. The drivers don’t know the “two minutes at the green light solution” but they want to get through as quickly as possible. They behave in a way that makes the jam worse and diminishes their chances of reaching their objectives.

Why do Knowledge Gaps also matter for corporate innovation? Let’s take the example of the Innovation Division of a large service group that decided to build centralised functional directions to reduce costs. The management ignored the fact that the combination of strong central support functions with many transversal innovation projects would create a very complex co-ordination process. They judged that these centralised support functions should be implemented to save costs, and they reacted by implementing a very slow and bureaucratic system. Because the management lacked a number of organisational behaviour skills, they became trapped in a Knowledge Gap that diminished the innovation potential of their organisation.

Knowledge Gaps are a consequence of IJR. We ignore all the possible solutions to our problem as well as the way to determine the best one. But we must still judge at some point that our solution is the best and we react based on this judgment. Since our rationality is “structurally” limited, Knowledge Gaps are unavoidable. Therefore they are present in all organisations, including the best-performing ones. Knowledge Gaps are involuntary and they can be reduced by raising the education level of managers.

Relationship GapsThere is also another reason why we often do not reach the new situation we have been aiming for: power games. Because of them we think we don’t have the freedom to do what we should do to get what we want to get. Let’s call it a Relationship Gap©, the gap between the behaviour finally chosen and the behaviour identified in the first instance that we think would have better served our initial objectives but that some power games prevented us from implementing.

Our day–to-day lives are full of Relationship Gaps. Think of the crossroads

Why does corporate life resemble a traffic jam? Since most managers claim they have a rational approach to decision making, rushing and bumping should never be managerial behaviours

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Corporate innovation by Bruno Chaintron pages 22_23

again. Imagine that you are an educated driver, fully aware of the “two minutes at the green light” solution. Would you implement it? If you stop at the green light, cars behind you may start honking their horns. Do you think that one of those drivers will be so impatient that he will overtake you and take your place in the queue? Should you really wait at the green light if others overtake you? Your idea of other people’s reactions might create a Relationship Gap and prevent you from implementing an innovative solution.

How do Relationship Gaps also hinder corporate innovation? Let’s take the example of managers of large bureaucratic organisations that are given the objective of rejuvenating their businesses but don’t have the resources to do so because they also have to simultaneously clean up the existing mess.

Why is it so difficult for the management of large bureaucratic organisations to discontinue non-performing offerings? Because they may ignore whether key people within and outside the organisation would support the discontinuation, may judge that the political risks of a discontinuation are too high and may react by delaying innovative reforms.

Like Knowledge Gaps, Relationship Gaps also come from IJR. As decision makers we ignore all the people potentially impacted by our actions as well as their likely reactions. We must still judge at some point that “since those people are like that…it is likely that they will…” We then react based on this preconceived judgment. Since human behaviours are largely unpredictable, Relationship Gaps are present everywhere in our organisations, again including the best-performing ones. One way to diminish them is to encourage a trust culture that makes it easier for people to share their objectives.

As evidenced by the traffic jam example, Knowledge Gaps prevent us from imagining innovative solutions and Relationship Gaps prevent us from implementing them. Knowledge Gaps can also lead to the creation of Relationship Gaps. “I don’t know what my colleague was doing in the office of my boss but he is the kind of person that was surely spoiling my life.” The reverse is also true. Relationship Gaps (“Why is this person smiling? I can’t trust her.”) can lead to the creation of Knowledge Gaps (“I decide to keep all the information for myself.”) In this example, a lady will be missing a key piece of information to solve a critical issue and a learning opportunity will be wasted.

Innovation roller coasterIn short, managers ride the innovation process like a roller coaster, through the ups and downs of Knowledge and Relationship Gaps (Diagram 2, left).

Knowledge and Relationship Gaps interfere with corporate innovation processes. Since managers are frequently unaware of them, I call them glass walls. They are based upon the same DNA structure, described here as IJRs. IJRs helps organisations adapt in the short term. But in the long term, the chain reactions of IJR-based Knowledge and Relationship Gaps can trap organisations into vicious circles that prevent them from further innovating.

On a practical level, innovation development programmes can help. These programmes should have a knowledge – and also a relationship – content. Truly helping organisations foster innovation means helping individuals better understand how they ignore, judge and react.

The answer is probably specific to each individual and contingent upon the set of circumstances he or she is facing. It is even possible that this might follow patterns. Each of us would therefore be inclined to ignore, judge and react according to precise and recurrent patterns that we would reproduce in similar relationships. Understanding those should be crucial for developing the innovation potential of companies.

INNOVATION ROLLERCOAST

Judging“My idea is the best... !”

Judging“With these kind of people, I should... !”

IgnoringThe consequence

of the solutionenvisaged

Reacting IgnoringOther people’s

reactions

Reacting

UNCERTAINTYKNOWLEDGE

GAPRELATIONSHIP

GAP

IJR ICEBERG

Analysing information

Collectinginformation

Ignoring

Judging

Deciding

Reacting

Above:Diagram 1 – IJR Iceberg (© G4 2007)Below:Diagram 2 –Knowledge and Relationship Gaps (© G4 2007)

ABOUT THE AUTHORBruno Chaintron is Director of International Development, La Poste International Mail Activities. This article summarises important points developed in his book Coaching pour changer avec plaisir (Eyrolles publishing, 2007).

Email: bruno.chaintron@alumni.insead.edu

Diagram 1

Diagram 2

Business schools have always competed with industry to attract talent to their PhD programmes. In areas such as accounting and finance, industry often won. In traditional areas, such as economics, the reverse was true.

However, since the late 1990s industry has been extremely successful in diverting talent from business schools in all areas. This lack of ability to compete with industry has become so acute recently that a good number of American business schools have had to terminate their PhD programmes. Hence the raison d’être in August 2002 for the landmark report, Management Education at Risk, by AACSB International’s Management Education Task Force (METF), which identified and prioritised the most pressing issues facing management education.

Various reasons have been advanced to explain why there is a shortage of PhD candidates knocking on business school doors: PhD programmes take too long (three to five years); are not flexible (full-time attendance

DENIz SArAL ARGUES THAT THE INTRODUCTION OR ExPANSION OF DOCTORAL PROGRAMMES FOR ExECUTIVES AND USING TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED E-LEARNING MODELS TO REDUCE THEIR COST IS ONE WAY BUSINESS SCHOOLS CAN INCREASE THE NUMBERS OF ExECUTIVE PARTICIPANTS

Using technology to lure executives back to business schools

The attempt to convert traditionally educated professors in Europe (and in America) into business school teachers has largely failed

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 How to lure executives back to business schools by Deniz Saral pages 24_25

is required, which does not permit a candidate to work); are too costly when the opportunity cost to the candidate (working in industry after an MBA degree) is taken into consideration; are too theoretical and thus do not address the current needs of business; and still require that knowledge is transferred from mentor to candidate in a low student-mentor ratio environment, which is a very costly process for universities.

The real culprit is most likely a combination of all these factors. However, the conclusion is uniform. The supply of PhD candidates has been reduced to critically low levels and business schools have to find alternatives to increase inflows into their doctoral programmes.

What alternatives do business schools have?Faced with high global demand from business for well-trained managerial talent, business schools enthusiastically increased the size of their MBA programmes. Numerous traditional universities in Europe

joined in and energetically tried to convert their international economics /trade departments into business schools. Their faculties had already realised how fast the demand for non-business programmes was eroding.

This phenomenon resulted in a proliferation of MBA programmes around the world, most significantly in America and Western Europe. Intense competition followed. Today, even the highest-ranked business schools have to spend heavily to recruit MBA students. They have had to go far afield and expand their offer across continents.

Recently, for example, INSEAD forged a strategic alliance in Saudi Arabia and the London Business School completed a similar deal in the United Arab Emirates.

IMD, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, the other school in the top three in Europe, has so far appeared to resist this temptation. This is largely

due to IMD President (Dean) Peter Lorange’s strategic model [see page 8 for an interview with Lorange], which requires that if a candidate wants to earn an IMD MBA, he or she must spend a year full-time in Lausanne. IMD’s Executive MBA programme has a similar requirement, that is, all candidates must be ready to spend weeks at a time in Lausanne over two years. How many business schools can afford IMD’s strategy?

The attempt to convert traditionally educated professors in Europe (and in America) into business school teachers has largely failed. I know a number of European state universities that failed to attract the minimum required enrolments to their MBA programs in 2006.

If business schools can’t attract new talent in sufficient numbers to their PhD programmes and are also unable to retrain their traditional faculty to become effective teachers in MBA or PhD programmes, what alternatives do they have?

In the rest of this article I will illustrate how two of the alternatives listed by the Doctoral Faculty Commission report can be fused and brought to bear jointly to raise the limited supply of doctoral candidates in business schools. In response to Management Education at Risk AACSB created the Doctoral Faculty Commission (DFC), which came up with a series of recommendations that could alleviate the shortage of business doctorates.

Introduction or expansion of doctoral programs for executivesCan business schools regain the talent they earlier lost to industry and encourage them to undertake doctoral studies? The response is affirmative provided that the doctoral programme is based on applied research, which allows the executive to effectively apply the experience and talent he or she has accumulated over the years; is flexible, that is, the programme can be taken on a part-time basis; is industry relevant so that the doctoral candidate can apply the results of his or her newly acquired research and knowledge readily; and is able to motivate the doctoral graduate to teach in business schools on a part-time basis after the completionof the programme.

Thierry Grange, Director General of Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) in France, once described this phenomenon as a process for “knowledge/talent recycling”. GEM is among a good number of business schools and universities that offer a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) degree programme.

There is a potential shortcoming of this model, however. If the DBA candidates are not provided with an “integrated learning system” (ILS) through which they can stay in constant contact not only with each other but with their mentors and also learn by interacting with the e-learning system imbedded in the ILS, then a DBA programme may lose a good number of its candidates. It is important to keep in focus that the business executive has been trained and motivated to work towards measurable, time-based, continuous and compensated objectives. They will therefore become “high-maintenance students”.

If the DBA programme administrators and mentors are not equipped to respond to the executive’s individual needs and requirements, and this is very costly indeed, then they must invest in an ILS that will respond to the executive’s needs for training in academic research methodology and interactive learning. Intermittently scheduled four- to five-day “anchoring workshops”, which bring all of the DBA candidates and mentors together, will complete the DBA training process.

The supply of PhD candidates has been reduced to critically low levels and business schools have to find alternatives to increase inflows into their doctoral programmes

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 How to lure executives back to business schools by Deniz Saral pages 26_27

Characteristics of an integrated learning system The ILS environment combines the following features:

– Fully interactive web-based courses

– Face-to-face “anchoring workshops” with real-life cases, examples and studies

– Virtual classroom sessions bringing participants together with mentors

– Evaluation tests designed to measure the effectiveness of learning

– Simulations modelled to reflect real-life applications of the knowledge gained

– Project work allowing participants to put theory into practice

– Access to research databases and information to enable the participants to conduct research

– Mentor support for all of the aspects listed above

Designing and successfully operating an ILS requires accumulated know-how and specialised talent. An ILS, therefore, is not a panacea. However, it has been demonstrated to be a highly effective approach, which in the long run costs less than traditional doctorate and EMBA programmes to operate.

Content quality and delivery of an ILS How much time and effort will it take a business school to develop an ILS of its own? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not very encouraging because the design, testing, development, constant maintenance and upgrading of an ILS make it a complex process to manage. Many e-learning products have crashed and burned because their developers based them mostly on technology rather than teaching and learning. Learning how to design an ILS is a long and costly process.

There are nevertheless a handful of organisations that have already mastered ILS. Some are also certified by the EFMD CEL (teChnology Enhanced Learning) accreditation system and make excellent candidates for forming strategic alliances. Responsibilities can then be shared between the parties.

For example, a local/regional university can concentrate on recruiting DBA or EMBA candidates, designing “anchoring workshops” so that candidates need not travel long distances, and training its own faculty to become DBA or EMBA mentors within the ILS. The institution that owns the ILS (with EFMD CEL status) applies it towards the training/learning objectives of DBA or EMBA candidates.

During its Annual Meeting in Brussels in June 2007, EFMD awarded CEL accreditation to Kavrakoglu Management Institute’s (KMI) Executive MBA (EMBA) programme (www.kavrakoglu.com).

Ibrahim Kavrakoglu, KMI’s director, earlier said that it took them several million dollars of investment and nearly ten years to develop and verify their ILS. He was convinced years ago that there would be a very strong place for virtual learning in the 21st century. I am convinced today.

Designing and successfully operating an ILS requires accumulated know-how and specialised talent

ABOUT THE AUTHOrDeniz Saral, PhD, is Chairman and Professor, Business and Management Programs, School of Business and Technology, Webster University, Geneva

Reaching out globally

THE EFMD PROGRAMME ACCREDITATION SYSTEM (EPAS) HAS LAUNCHED AN AMBITIOUS “SCALE UP” INITIATIVE. ULrICH HOMMEL OUTLINES THE BENEFITS

Successfully marketing a national premium academic programme increasingly depends on achieving international recognition by employers, prospective students and peer institutions. Prospective students are particularly interested in programmes

that can act as a door-opener to promising career paths in multinational companies.

They are specifically looking for multicultural learning environments

with well-established international corporate links as well as

substantial alumni networking.

The EFMD Programme Accreditation System (EPAS) serves as a partner to accredit and continuously improve the international reach of EFMD members’ programme offerings. Following two successful pilot

phases in 2006, EFMD Quality Services is currently embarking

on an ambitious “Scale Up” initiative to expand the portfolio of accredited

programmes in order to add brand value to accredited programmes in its key

business school markets.

EPAS accreditation provides value in five distinct areas:

– by ensuring a “quality first” approach

– by increasing brand recognition by key stakeholder groups of accredited programmes,

– by acting as a “proof of concept” for successful internationalisation

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 reach out globally by Ulrich Hommel pages 28_29

– by providing network value for accredited programmes (EPAS accreditation strengthens the partnership between the member institution and EFMD and an increasing number of regular network events - such as the EPAS meeting at the 2007 Annual Conference – foster inter-institutional learning and will hopefully provide the basis for the development of co-operative arrangements between EPAS-accredited programmes.)

– by possibly serving as a substitute for mandatory national accreditation (EFMD Quality Services is initiating talks with accreditation authorities with the objective of obtaining national recognition. Any such effort, however, is conditional on a fit of national accreditation standards with EFMD’s general philosophy of developing a relationship of mutual trust rather than providing a detailed public rating of a programme.)

However, the most immediate benefit of EPAS accreditation is also the one most often overlooked by programme and possibly even business school management.

EPAS is based on a unique value model embedded in its Standards and Criteria that enforces a “quality first” approach at all levels without infringing on an institution’s prerogative to differentiate itself from competitors (and also any implicit market standards). The overall programme assessment is put into the context of the institutional as well as the national and international environments. A programme is evaluated on the basis of its design, delivery and outcomes and, in addition, by appraising the supporting quality assurance processes. The assessment philosophy is designed to add value to a school and not to take an auditing approach.

Academic programmes often involve a lot of pragmatism. Programme officials may focus too much on marketing issues and may apply myopic short-cuts when it comes to the fundamentals of quality management, often driven by the need to respond quickly to market dynamics in the presence of tight budget constraints.

EPAS, however, puts these quality issues at the forefront and thereby enforces principles that ensure the creation of long-term value for the organisation as a whole. It can ultimately create a halo effect for the entire institution and can therefore act as a catalyst for change, enabling a business school to reach a state of “EQUIS readiness” much more quickly than otherwise.

In this context, organisational learning takes place in two stages:

– preparing the self-assessment report during the accreditation phase

– dealing with specific weaknesses identified by the peer review team after having completed the initial accreditation.

EPAS is based on a unique value model embedded in its Standards and Criteria that enforces a ‘quality first’ approach at all levels

Previous experience has shown that inadequate prioritisation of quality management is identified by characteristic shortcomings related to the EPAS value model. Some examples are:

– a disconnect between programme management and faculty, implying that the faculty does not consider itself to be the natural owner of a programme and will therefore fail to devote adequate creative resources to its future development

– irregular internal programme review processes without explicit standards and objectives, implying a potentially dangerous autonomy for the programme directorate

– insufficient integration of the programme content across courses and modules, making it difficult for students to transform learning outcomes into general problem-solving skills

– lack of rigor in programme assessment due to an overemphasis of the “student as customer” perspective, inhibiting the emergence of a culture of performance excellence

Previous experience has also shown that acceptable levels and forms of internationalisation may vary widely depending on the institution’s markets.

For example, a Belgium-based programme with strong corporate links to international consultancy firms and investment banks has to adopt a global approach. By contrast, a programme operated out of Russia with non-financial companies as the key corporate stakeholders would necessarily use different geographical reference points and would also need to cope with the fact that the home country already represents a culturally diverse melting pot.

Similar flexibility is applied when determining the case-specific EPAS standards regarding faculty qualification and academic research. What matters, first of all, is the impact of the faculty’s research activities on programme content. Second, standards applied in the context of research are a function of the type of degree to be awarded. It is hardly conceivable to successfully run a specialised MSc programme without almost all faculty members holding a doctoral degree and being actively involved in research. By contrast, BA programmes may rely more heavily on full-time teachers without an explicit research focus and the faculty composition of an MBA programme will probably be more tilted towards corporate practitioners.

While EPAS is primarily targeted at Bologna-type degree programmes, it is also open to schools still in the process of transitioning into the new system. So far only seasoned stand-alone programmes below the doctoral level have been accredited within EPAS. But joint programmes, new programmes from well-respected institutions as well as doctoral programmes may become eligible within the short to medium term. Quality Services is currently also undertaking various efforts to enlarge EPAS’ exposure in non-business school markets such as public management, healthcare management or financial engineering.

Accredited programmes bear witness to the fact that EPAS has already helped schools to attain top positions in national rankings. Similarly to EQUIS, the reputational potential will only be fully realised once the EPAS portfolio has crossed a critical threshold. The “Scale Up” initiative aims at achieving this objective within the coming 18 months.

ABOUT THE AUTHOrUlrich Hommel is Associate Director, EFMD Quality Services

Further information: Please contact Emma Keating – emma.keating@efmd.org

While EPAS is primarily targeted at Bologna-type degree programmes, it is also open to schools still in the process of transitioning into the new system

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 reach out globally by Ulrich Hommel pages 30_31

Institutions of higher learning tend to devote more attention to the production side of their activity – scientific work and educational programmes – rather than to their own markets. This is understandable as they are concerned with long-term issues that should not be influenced too much by contextual hazards. In the case of business schools in particular, this might have two negative effects that could impair their relevance, if not addressed properly.

First, business schools tend to live in comfortable isolation from the “real world” and miss opportunities to learn from companies and the business world. Second, they tend to protect with jealousy their idiosyncrasies and only undertake marginal cooperation with partner institutions.

I believe that accreditation procedures are a powerful lever to help institutions clarify theirs missions and improve their processes but also to relate more efficiently to their environment and learn from it.

ESSCA has gained a lot from its EPAS accreditation process. Its focused approach has allowed an in-depth analysis of its Grande Ecole programme and has served as a powerful lever for innovation and progress. EPAS has also provided us with an invaluable opportunity to evaluate our programme against international best practices both from the corporate and the academic world. In addition EPAS will be a powerful reference for our graduates on the world job market.

Michel Poté Director general ESSCA Grand Ecole programme

EPAS accreditation is uniquely useful as the only international programme accreditation for management courses other than MBAs. Although we have since gone on to EQUIS accreditation, it is especially useful to provide international recognition for programmes offered by organisations for which institutional business school accreditation is not, or not yet, appropriate.

One of the initial reasons we sought accreditation was for marketing purposes and we did experience a substantial increase in student numbers in the year following accreditation, although some of that increase was also a result of a number of other initiatives. However, it quickly became obvious during the accreditation process that the process itself was likely to be even more valuable than the award. The process of self-evaluation, the in-depth review by the visiting panel and the final report provided a uniquely useful strategic review of the programme, its market position, the contribution it makes to the school and its delivery.

Although we only submitted one programme for evaluation, the impact on the school has been much broader as the quality control and strategic assessment practices inherent in the EPAS process have become more broadly accepted within the faculty.

Prof W Rees, Director, Universiteit van Amsterdam Business SchoolAmsterdam University Business School, Master in International Finance programme

EPAS has been a major incentive to further develop MIRBIS’ international culture. Self-assessment was extremely important for our School’s team as it was an opportunity to benchmark what we are doing against EPAS standards. In the whole EPAS process, we understood that our school’s international culture should be further developed, first and foremost, for the benefit of the students, their knowledge and capabilities for future work. The school’s strategy has since been adjusted to meet requirements in the international business context.

EPAS is a highly efficient way to improve the in-school quality management and assurance system. The EPAS procedures are designed so as to provide for further development of the whole school, not only of the programme under accreditation, from the inside – its inner dynamics, organisation structure, culture and values – by making the processes and internal communications transparent.

EPAS helps with brand-building and improving the market position of MIRBIS, thus increasing the customer value of its BA Economics degree. EPAS accreditation has had a halo-effect on other activities and programmes of MIRBIS. We have been developing in-school academic benchmarking of other programmes against the EPAS standards. It will make the programmes more attractive for both national and international students, lecturers and researchers, as well as future employers of our graduates.

Elena Zoubkova Vice-Rector, Moscow Business School MIRBIS, RussiaMIRBIS, BA Economics programme

EPAS testimonials

DAVID SAUNDERS, DEAN OF QUEEN’S BUSINESS SCHOOL AND EFMD BOARD MEMBER, ON THE CUSTOMISATION OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION, MULTICULTURALISM AND ADAPTING TO THE iPOD GENERATION. INTERVIEW BY GEOrGE BICkErSTAFFE

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Culture club: David Saunders Interview byGeorge Bickerstaffe pages 32_33

The current generation of students learn differently than we did in our day. That’s going to be a huge challenge for many faculty to adapt to

Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, was the earliest degree-granting institution in the united Province of Canada. The “Queen” is Victoria in whose name the Royal Charter was granted in 1841– twenty-six years before Canadian confederation.

The business school on its campus is no newcomer, either. It was first mooted in the early years of the 20th century and was founded in 1937. The university awarded its first commerce degree in 1919.

But it is also one of the most dynamic and innovative schools in the region– its full-time MBA programme is ranked first in the world outside America by Business Week and its Executive MBA and executive education programmes are consistently recognised by the Financial Times rankings.

A lot of this is due to David Saunders (pictured on the following page), dean of Queen’s School of Business since July 2003. He has overseen the development of a new strategic plan for the school, launched two MBA programmes, and strengthened the school’s international network by adding top business school partners in Europe, Asia and South America.

Prior to joining Queen’s, Dean Saunders was dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. Before that he was founder and director of the McGill MBA Japan Programme in Tokyo and associate dean of Masters programmes at the Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal.

He is the only person to sit on the boards of both leading accreditation bodies, EFMD and AACSB International, and is co-author of the world’s three largest-selling negotiation textbooks. Until July 2007, he was chair of the Canadian Federation of Business School Deans.

Queen’s School of Business has put a great deal of emphasis on tailoring and customising your programmes, particularly the MBA programmes, to the individual needs of students. Why is that?

The notion of individual customisation has been around in business for a long time now. The consumer has become more demanding as time has gone on; basically they want more for their money.

I think management education is changing and that at the moment Canada is the harbinger of change. We are bringing the latest breakthrough in business education– the concept of customisation– to the MBA market. We redesigned our full-time programme with this approach and have since rolled it out with our Executive MBA as well.

Basically, we determine a participant’s strengths and weaknesses with the help of a personal assessment tool called the Personal Learning Pathway©, which then enables us to tailor a package of courses and coaching to meet their individual needs. This is a powerful way to help build students’ soft skills.

Another way we deliver customisation is through elective streams, such as consulting and project management, marketing, finance and innovation and entrepreneurship, and niche programmes such as our joint Executive MBA with Cornell, which has an international focus, or our accelerated MBA for business graduates.

As a result of this emphasis, we haven’t really experienced the general dip in MBA and EMBA applications of the last few years. I think that’s because we have created niche products that attract people in different markets, both in Canada and abroad.

That fits in with the idea that functional courses such as finance, marketing and so on are increasingly seen as commodities – the real competitive edge and value added is in the soft skills area?

The core MBA courses like finance and marketing are a critical foundation for any business education. However, there is a huge demand from recruiters for MBA graduates who can work effectively, particularly those who are able to work in teams.

Our programmes are structured to reflect real workplace teams so our students can developtheir team and leadership skills. And as teams have ups and downs, we have a director of team facilitation who guides the students in how to work effectively as part of a team and learn from the challenges they face.

We have also been a leader in incorporating balance into the lives of our participants through our Fit to Lead programme. The idea is that we give them tools such as a fitness coach, nutrition advice and fit breaks throughout the day– and hope that they take this back to their teams and organisations. Better balance creates better leadership, and that also gives our students a competitive edge.

Ten years ago Canadian schools competed with Canadian schools and some still do, but Queen’s competes worldwide

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Culture club: David Saunders Interview byGeorge Bickerstaffe pages 34_35

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Queen’s has made a big effort to internationalise its programmes in recent years. What is the thinking behind that?

International is a deliberate strategy at Queen’s and has been for some time. It’s very important that we are open to a global market. Ten years ago Canadian schools competed with Canadian schools and some still do, but Queen’s competes worldwide.

I believe that if schools are not competitive worldwide they will become irrelevant. The new reality is that we must compete globally to be relevant locally. That’s why I have led Queen’s School of Business in this direction.

I think Canada has some very advantageous characteristics. It’s a blend of America and Europe and can speak to both. I think American business is more aggressive whereas Canadian is more balanced. Maybe that’s a bit of a stereotype but I think it has some truth.

Canada also has that balance historically, with its British and French heritage. We have long been a multicultural society– and that’s a huge strength. We understand and embrace cultures much better than many other parts of the world. Half of our faculty do not come from Canada. That’s also increasingly the case in America but perhaps less so in parts of Europe. Of course the big schools like London Business School, INSEAD and IMD are very international but if you look at some of the other leading schools in Europe their faculty appear to be predominantly nationals.

You have been a dean at two leading business schools. What do you think is a dean’s main role?

Business schools have multiple stakeholders and deans have multiple roles. That said, a dean’s most important role is to have a vision or guide a visioning process. Deans need to clearly understand the school’s mission– and that means to understand deeply what business we are in, what it is that we do.

And that is simultaneously very easy to answer but, if you do it properly, a very challenging thing to do. The mission of the school enables you to say no as well as yes, and I can never decide which is harder.

It’s a great time to be a dean. As dean you have enough authority that you can actually make a difference – budget-wise, alliances, the ability to invest and make real change. I have no desire to go past being a dean, I’ve found my spot. There was a saying at General Electric about the elevators: Get off at the right stop because it’s a long way down and the elevator only stops on the way up.

What do you think will be the biggest future challenges in management education?

I think it will be technology but not in the way we usually think about it. I have no doubt that the current generation of students learn differently than we did in our day. That’s going to be a huge challenge for many faculty to adapt to.

For example, how can you use something like an iPod to augment the other things you do in a classroom? Students now don’t read newspapers the way we did, they listen to newspapers; instead of watching television news they are downloading things to their iPod. They are much more an oral culture than a reading culture. That is a huge change. Maybe we can no longer just give them a huge sheaf of papers and say read this and then we’ll have a discussion.

They are an Internet-based generation with social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. They are a group of people that is used to working together and sharing information. That has a lot of implications for the way we handle things like plagiarism.

So teaching with technology and generational change is becoming a challenge– it’s not the technology itself; it’s the way the technology affects the way people behave.

1841The year Queen Victoria’s royal Charter was granted to Queen’s University, in kingston, Ontario, Canada – twenty-six years before Canadian confederation

Left: David Saunders, Dean of Queen’s Business SchollRight: Queen’s Business School Campus

EFMD Advisory Services assist members in the continuous quality improvement of their programmes, activities and governance. In 2008 seminars / workshops will be organized at the EFMD head office in Brussels, on the themes set out below.

All of the seminars will be interactive and include the intervention of an expert and presentation of a recent case study. As the seminars are limited to a maximum of 30 participants the opportunity to share ideas, best practices and learn from colleagues and speakers is a key component to the seminar design.

For more information on the EFMD Advisory Services visit www.efmd.org/advisoryservices or email Virginie Heredia-Rosa virginie.heredia-rosa@efmd.org

DATE TOPIC

14/15 February CSR

25/26 February How to operate in Asia – in association with ESMU

10/11 March Executive education: Trends and best practice in executive learning

10/11 April How to develop entrepreneurs? Fostering innovation and entrepreneurial attitudes

15/16 May Managing a school within a university – in association with ESMU

July – first half Joint / double degrees

15/16 September Recruiting and retaining excellent faculty in your business school

20/21 October Attracting quality international students in programmes

17/18 November Corporate workshop

8/9 December Emerging technologies

EFMD Advisory Services Seminars Agenda 2008

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 pages 36_37

GARY HAMEL & MARSHALL GOLDSMITHTHE FUTURE OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT INNOVATION QE2 Conference Centre, London - Thursday 7th February 2008

TOM PETERS & KJELL NORDSTRÖMNEW MARKETS, NEW TRENDS AND THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCEQE2 Conference Centre, London - Monday 28th April 2008

four speakers, two conferences, one price

GARY HAMEL marshall goldsmith

tom peterskjell nordström

Register online www.benchmarkforbusiness.comTelephone +44 (0)1224 636200Email team@benchmarkforbusiness.com

world class thinking Live in London

241_EFMD adevrt:Layout 1 18/9/07 15:38 Page 1

DAVID LAMOND ARGUES THAT THE DIGITAL AGE HAS FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED THE DISSEMINATION OF ‘SCHOLARLY KNOWLEDGE’ AND THE INTERACTION OF THE MAIN STAKEHOLDERS AND IN PARTICULAR THE ROLE OF PUBLISHERS

Publishers as knowledge brokers?

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Publishers as knowledge brokers? by David Lamond pages 38_39

As Henry’s comment (left) suggests, exploring ways in which knowledge might be better organised and disseminated is not just a modern concern. In the area of engineering, for example, Hapke (2005) discusses the efforts of Oscar Lasche in the early 20th century to “reproduce what is known with highest efficiency and pedagogical fortune” and “to permanently keep the productive engineer up-to-date about the most actual achievements with the aim to stimulate his research activity”.

Before we became obsessed with publication as a means to tenure, promotion and business school ratings, journals were published to provide a medium for the exchange of ideas, arguments and research findings among a community of scholars and any interested practitioners.

In a recent presentation, Urs (2007) drew attention to two divergent views about scholarly information and its communication. On the one hand, scholarly information can be viewed as a cultural good to be circulated within communities. On the other, it is viewed as a commodity, to be circulated as with any other commercial transaction that does not assume ongoing interdependence. These views, which have probably existed since the first scientific journals were published in 1665, have taken on new significance since the arrival of the Internet revolutionised the production and distribution of scholarly knowledge.

The move from hard-copy journals only to the digital transmission and transformation of scholarly knowledge has thrown these divergent views into sharp relief, as spiralling costs, dwindling budgets and the emergence of a networked digital society generated a series of dysfunctions in the creation and dissemination of knowledge (Urs, 2007).

“The worth and importance of the [Smithsonian] Institution are not to be estimated by what it accumulates within the walls of its building, but by what it sends forth to the world.”Joseph Henry, First Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Board of Regents, 1852

300The number of years scientific journals have been published, more or less regularly, as a medium and means of exchange of ideas, arguments and research findings

Recognising the differing (and, indeed, often disparate) perspectives of the various stakeholders (researchers/authors, scientific societies, publishers, libraries, users/readers, governments/funding bodies and society at large), Urs (2007) has pointed to the need to find some middle ground. In that spirit, this article represents an attempt to revisit the place of publishers in the scholarly communication system, and consider the role that publishers could play as “knowledge brokers”. It is also an attempt to re-establish the pre-eminent purpose of publication as a means of scholarly exchange rather than a means to individual ends.

For more than 300 years, scientific journals have been published, more or less regularly, as a medium and means of exchange of ideas, arguments and research findings. Whether or not they were under the aegis of a scholarly society, journals, with their editors, editorial advisory boards and panels of reviewers, have provided the (usually discipline-based) frameworks for the quality-assurance process that ensures readers find valid and reliable contributions to knowledge within their pages.

This process has been embedded within an essentially linear production model, where authors with something to say submitted their papers to editors who reviewed them and had them revised before sending them to the publishers who produced the finished products and sent them on to the libraries and readers who were the end users.

The quality of journals, and the research results, arguments and theoretical frameworks they presented have been judged by a variety of measures, including citation rates and rejection rates, and an assortment of stakeholders have used these measures to make judgements about, for example, submissions, institutional ranking and research funding.

Today, though, the knowledge creation, transmission and transformation processes have changed fundamentally. While the quality-assurance processes remain in place, hard-copy journals have been overtaken by the Internet as a means of exchange and full-text retrieval data bases have replaced them as the medium of exchange. At the same time, the emergence of Open Access (OA) initiatives such as Wikipedia has meant that the familiar, linear knowledge creation, transmission and transformation process has become more obviously the iterative, organic procedure it has probably always been.

No longer are scholars to be found in the bowels of their favourite libraries trawling through journal titles but in their offices, homes or hotel rooms, “Googling” by keyword to find the most relevant articles for their needs. E-journals are no longer the bête noir of the scholarly world but the medium by which even the scholarly associations

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Publishers as knowledge brokers? by David Lamond pages 40_41

disseminate their publications. Accordingly, all stakeholders need to review their understanding of their place in this seeming melange.

Publishers need to understand that the days of the journal production process have passed and they should now take their “proper” place in the scholarly knowledge promulgation cycle, building relationships with other stakeholders. In this “brave new world”, the publishers are (or at least they can position themselves to be) supporters and facilitators of the knowledge-creation and quality-assurance processes, and disseminators of the resultant “knowledge units” rather than the black-moustachioed scholarly factory owners that they are currently portrayed as.

(Incidentally, I use the term “knowledge unit” here in recognition that journal issues are no longer the unit of concern. Indeed, it is no longer even the article itself but the learning points it contains that are the knowledge units being sought. This refocusing is driven by and facilitated by the keyword searching mechanisms that have been spawned as part of the Internet revolution.)

This position is not embedded in a simple production line but is part of a complex series of interconnected molecular relationships with all the stakeholders with the Internet as the linking mechanism. Knowledge creation now is an obviously iterative process, where transmission times are measured in nanoseconds, authors can assess and respond to each other’s work synchronously and the “finished” product can be presented to readers in minutes rather than months.

Publishers can play a key role as promulgators or brokers of that process, supporting research and the presentation of the results, connecting authors, reviewers and editorial boards and assisting users with access to the resultant knowledge bases.

This representation applies as much to the management discipline as it does to any other area of scholarly endeavour. The opportunity exists for scholars and publishers alike to reassert the importance of publication as a medium for exchange within various interested communities rather than as a commoditised means to other ends. I wonder if that will happen or will it be business as usual?.

No longer are scholars to be found in the bowels of their favourite libraries trawling through journal titles but in their offices, homes or hotel rooms, “Googling” by keyword to find the most relevant articles for their needs

ABOUT THE AUTHOrDavid Lamond is Foundation Dean, International Business School Kochi, India, and Academic Advisor, Emerald Group Publishing.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not reflect a position adopted by either Emerald or IBS Kochi.

rEFErENCESDibner Library (2000) The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology. http://www.sil.si.edu/libraries/Dibner/newacq_2000.htm

Hapke, T. (2005) Hidden roots of mediating information – aspects of the German information movement. Paper presented at “European Modernism and the Information Society: Informing the Present, Understanding the past,” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 6-8 May. http://www.tu-harburg.de/b/hapke/mediation-notices.pdf

Urs, S. (2007) Scholarly communication: The unsettled (unsettling?) landscape. Paper presented at the Emerald Connections seminar, Bangalore, 31st August.

Time for educators to get a (Second) Life?We are sitting in your “office” – some loungers on a tropical beach. How long have you been in Second Life, Berry, and how would you describe the experience?

I first entered Second Life (SL) in late February of 2007. I happened to read about it twice in one day: in a computer magazine and then in the magazine of the Institute of Directors. This made me think that there was something here to be explored so I downloaded the software, entered SL and have been here ever since. It’s been a fascinating journey so far in terms of the psychological and sociological aspects, as well as the creativity which can be seen all around. It’s incredibly absorbing to form part of the creation of a new society, a new way of developing relationships.

How many people are using SL now?

Since 2001, when it was originally launched, SL had grown steadily but relatively slowly, reaching nearly 1.1 million “residents” at the end of October 2006. Then it began to be noticed by the mainstream press and since November 2006 growth has been explosive with approximately one million people a month signing in. As of today, there are approximately nine million people who have logged in to SL. This means that it has now reached a critical mass and it will certainly continue to grow and evolve.

In terms of the steady SL population, we are talking about one million people who use it regularly (five hours or more per week), so this is still a small figure in comparison to other social networking platforms such

JAN kINGSLEy HOLDS A CONVERSATION WITH BERRY BEATTIE, A LECTURER IN LEADERSHIP AND ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR, WHO IS ExPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF SECOND LIFE….

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Education and Second Life by Jan Kingsley pages 42_43

as MySpace, LinkedIn and YouTube. However, there are a number of critical differences between a virtual world such as SL and these other social networking sites.

Such as?

Well, a virtual world by definition is three dimensional, which allows for a far wider range of creativity since people can create 3D objects. But it goes beyond that: it allows for easy multi-person synchronous communication, immediate connectivity to external web sites, and since there are few “rules”, it allows people to explore and innovate easily.

To give an educational example, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has a site devoted to demonstrating various meteorological phenomena in a way that is highly immersive and goes much further than a web-based demonstration can go. Also, there is a real market economy between the residents, with more than $2m (€1.5m) changing hands every day.

There have been many articles describing Second Life and its potential for education and business. How do you see these aspects developing?

Over the next five years, I’m sure that we will see a major shift away from the Web 2.0 platforms towards what I call the Web 3D or Virtual World platforms. This will accelerate hugely when the technology becomes open source, allowing an avatar to move from one virtual world to another seamlessly, just as we can now move from one web site to another.

At another level, people’s expectations will change too. I’m working with a group of senior university managers on the potential uses of SL and we have discovered something quite interesting. There is a group of 13- to 18-year-olds who are more than comfortable with the Web 2.0 technologies and who appear to have little interest in avatar-based virtual worlds. They use a range of different platforms regularly and are happy to jump from one to another.

However, there is a growing group of under-12s who are using virtual world technology such as Club Penguin, and this group will not only be familiar with virtual worlds but will expect to access their information and develop their relationships through Web 3D.

In effect, this means that there is a five to seven year “window” where organisations have an opportunity to develop their Web 3D presence. Just as happened with the Internet, what is now perceived as a “game” will become an essential part of the technological infrastructure and within ten years, any organisation that does not have a Web 3D presence will be losing market share rapidly.

There is a five to seven year ‘window’ where organisations have an opportunity to develop their Web 3D presence. Just as happened with the Internet, what is now perceived as a “game” will become an essential part of the technological infrastructure

Above top:Venice in Second LifeAbove: Berry Beattie: explosive growth

So, whether organisations like it or not, they will be expected to have a virtual world presence. Those that are entering the field now have an opportunity to explore and build with slightly more leisure.

One of the greatest difficulties organisations face is in deciding what kind of presence to have and how to use the technology to maximum benefit. In a couple of years’ time, the costs of development will have increased significantly, the time-frame will be much shorter, and I expect to see many organisations throwing money at the technology in an attempt to catch up. And a lot of this money will be wasted, since not enough time has been devoted to thinking through how best to use it.

How can SL be used for business education?

Ah, there’s an interesting question! There are over 200 educational institutions, mostly American universities, with a presence in SL. The Educators List now has over 3,000 members and all of them are seeking how best to use the technology for educational purposes. What is interesting to me is that the primary educational groups are in health, technology, the arts and social sciences. Apart from INSEAD, I am not aware of any business school with an established presence.

And yet the potential to use SL for business and management education is really major. Here we have a global society with an average age of around 38, a real economy to experiment with, a wealth of real social relationships to establish, a technology that allows a cohort of students from around the world to interact synchronously, and an environment which itself fosters innovation and creativity. In addition, it provides a really cost-effective way to provide tutor-student interaction.

So, the potential is enormous. But how best to use it? Well, one thing I’m sure of: the worst thing to do is to try and recreate a classroom in SL and bring in a specific group of students and give them a lecture.

At the moment, I see two areas where business education could maximise effectiveness: the first area relates to “serious games” or “role play” or “case studies”. At the moment, many courses rely on case studies and ask students to comment on them or role play their way through them. There are also many computer-based simulations out there. But all of these have a degree of falsehood about them – either they are historical, or based on conceptual models or expect the participants to undertake roles and even characteristics that are not “natural”.

Using SL, one could get a group of students to actually develop a business, make products, market and sell them, analyse the issues involved and report back on them based on totally real interactions with the rest of the population.

In terms of leadership, one of the issues that multinationals face is how to develop motivated virtual teams operating across the globe. What better environment could there be than SL for the development of such skills? Indeed, a number of companies are using SL for that purpose already. So SL provides a platform for developing leadership and management skills in a real context.

The second area is the provision of tutorial and mentoring support. The use of avatars for interaction seems to have an effect that is far stronger than mere e-mail or even chat communications. As students’ expectations rise, educational institutions will have to find ways of providing a “mass-customised” service, and virtual world technologies provide a cost-effective way of providing individualised support in a superior way to the current Web 2.0 platforms such as Blackboard or Moodle. These will not disappear, of course. There are groups working on how to meld them into SL right now. But virtual world technology is more effective and attractive for this kind of interaction.

200+The number of educational institutions with a presence in SL, and the Educators List now has over 3,000 members

Above:Second Life Grid

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Education and Second Life by Jan Kingsley pages 44_45

One’s behaviour is judged quickly and quite harshly but as long as you act appropriately, people within SL are extremely helpful and supportive. It has astounded me how much time and effort people are willing to invest in assisting others for no extrinsic reward

Beyond these two areas, there are I am sure, many other potential educational tools and techniques which are yet to be created.

What other uses are there for Second Life?

Primarily, I see SL as being a portal, from which one can then explore all the other IT-based platforms. There are many things that SL is not yet good at, and the other kinds of platform will be around for a long time to come. But SL does provide an interesting and fun way to link into other platforms.

Beyond that, there is the whole area of modelling future scenarios, which I believe would be almost impossible to do with other kinds of technology. For example, many colleges spend fortunes on the design and construction of buildings and yet it seems to me that very little progress has been made in terms of educational space design over the past century. We still see lecture theatres and seminar rooms in most institutions.

Surely there are ways in which we could improve educational spaces? And how can one include the various stakeholders involved in the design of interior spaces? SL provides a way in which potential designs can be trialled and tested, with stakeholder groups invited to comment on and critically assess various options. The designs can be adapted virtually overnight to see what impact they might have on how the building will function once it is built. Not only would this save an enormous amount of time and money, but it would also help people to prepare for the changes to their work and life style, thus minimising resistance to change.

Another area is the ability to link in directly with live feeds from the real world. A conference, a speech, an exhibition, a fashion show, a meeting can either have a direct live link or else be replicated within SL, thus allowing audiences to be far larger than they currently are, and allowing for a high degree of interaction between real people and avatars in SL. This is a major growth area within SL at the moment.

And a third area where I believe virtual worlds out-perform other platforms is the whole issue of relationship-building. In SL, it is easy, quick and cheap to establish relationships. What has been fascinating for me is how quickly one becomes accustomed to making and breaking relationships on the basis of limited interactions. Although one is dealing superficially with an avatar, there is a real person behind it, and especially with the use of voice technology, the relationship-building within SL is absolutely critical.

One’s behaviour is judged quickly and quite harshly but as long as you act appropriately, people within SL are extremely helpful and supportive. It has astounded me how much time and effort people are willing to invest in assisting others for no extrinsic reward. This means that one can meet people very easily and develop very strong ties with them across geographic and functional boundaries. In turn, this can lead to professional and educational opportunities that would otherwise never occur. Serendipity counts for a lot, and unlike blogs and wikis, which tend to be group-specific, one never knows who one might come across within SL.

What are the drawbacks and issues relating to SL?

There are still a number of these. First there are the technological requirements. You have to have a computer that can cope with the graphics. Generally speaking any computer bought within the past 18 months can cope. In fact, I’ve used SL on a three-year-old portable. But there are still many institutions that have older hardware, and naturally, there is an investment cost there. And then there’s the load on the ADSL lines, since it is highly demanding in terms of bandwidth. Interestingly, there’s no real issue relating to firewalls, although many IT people are wary of that. Another aspect is the fact that SL is still liable to crashes and bugs. It has been developed “on-the-fly” at a relatively low cost of approximately $20m (€14.6m). And the fact that there is surging

demand, coupled with ever-increasing expectations tends to mean that the platform is more “delicate” than other Web platforms. So I would not recommend it for any mission-critical task.

A second area that gives cause for concern is the fact that it is an open society with very few restrictions. Gambling has recently been banned but the sex industry is thriving, and many “newbies” get sucked into this almost by default. In fact, it is actually rather problematic finding people with serious interests. A group of us are now working on providing entry to SL for those with serious educational or business intentions so that the experience is smooth and risk-free and provides an immediately friendly and serious environment. This entry portal is now ready and will be operational soon.

What are the costs involved?

At the entry level, anyone can enter and stay in SL absolutely free. I have met a couple of business school people who are exploring SL and this has no cost attached at all. To build a site you need to buy virtual land and develop it. Here the costs can be relatively low, in the region of €100 to €200 with a monthly rental of €30.

At the top end of the scale, a full island (in SL it’s called a “sim”) will cost around €1,500 to buy with €120 per month ongoing charge. The island then needs to be landscaped and developed with buildings and facilities. A customised island build will cost anything between €10,000 to €20,000 initial investment. This is still pretty cheap and I expect the prices to rise steeply within the coming year or so.

What is your personal vision regarding SL?

I am lucky to now have a core group of high-quality contacts with a range of expertise within SL and I am encouraging institutions to explore this world to see how best they can use it to maximise their learning processes. So I act as an agent, providing advice and putting “explorers” in touch with the best developers within SL so as to minimise the costs and maximise the effectiveness of their presence.

It saddens me to see how some institutions are literally throwing their money away without really knowing what it is they want to achieve. As with any good website, there are implications that go beyond the design such as how to present the organisational culture, how best to lead clients and students through the informational search process, how best to leverage the strengths of SL and so on.

Personally, I see virtual worlds as being the next generation technological tool and whether people like it or not (and many are highly resistant to it at the moment), we will all have to become familiar with it if we want to remain abreast of developments.

My own vision? A number of inter-connected virtual worlds, with avatars moving from one to another depending on what the person wants or needs to do. Each world will have its own rules, constraints and benefits, but there will be consistency in terms of the underlying infrastructure and scripting tools.

FUrTHEr INFOrMATIONBerry Beattie can be contacted at: berry.beattie@kingsfield.org

Main: INSEAD SL Virtual Campus Inset: Property for sale in Second Life

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 pages 46_47

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European categoriesCorporate Social ResponsibilitySponsored by Instituto de Empresa

Nestle’s Nescafe Partners’ Blend: The Fair Trade decision By Niraj Dawar and Jordan Mitchell University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business

EntrepreneurshipSponsored by EM Lyon

Boblbee (D): The Urban Backpack, Boblbee (E): Inventing the Urban Nomad By Benoit Leleux, Joachim Schwass and Anna Lindblom (IMD)+Novogel By Thierry Volery and Martina Jakl University of St Gallen

Family BusinessSponsored by Family Business Network

Dascher – More than just a company – A Family LegacyBy Jan Eiben and Ingo Petersen WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management

Finance and BankingSponsored by Toulouse Business School, Groupe ESC Toulouse

Marsh and Mclennan CompaniesBy Ingo Walter Stern School of Business, New York University

MarketingSponsored by ESIC

Sitting Pretty: managing Customer-Driven Innovation at Faurecia Car SeatingBy Francis Bidault and Alessio Castello ESMT

Supply Chain Management Sponsored by ISLI-Institute for Supply Chain Excellence – Bordeaux Business School

SIG Combibloc – Supply Chains InnovationsBy Lutz Kaufmann, Alex Michel, Dominik Boskamp, Holger Materlik, Franziska May, Dominik Steinkuehler WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management

EFMD 2006 Annual Case Writing Competition

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EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 2006 EFMD Case Writing Competition – Winners pages 48_49

Special categoriesBusiness for biodiversityCo-sponsored by EFMD, FFI & EBCD in the framework of the EC

– sponsored project ‘Probioprise’

Optima Environnement S.A.: Turning a wonder tree into an eco-business By Benoit Leleux, Jean-Philippe Deschamps and Atul Pahwa IMD

Emerging Chinese Global Competitors Sponsored by EFMD

Learning about leading in China; (A) Michael Faye goes to China; (B) Antonio Scarsi takes command By Rebecca Chung and William Fischer IMD

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Mannai Corporation (A): on the brink; Mannai Corporation (B): back from the brink By Stewart Hamilton and Sarah Hutton IMD

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EFMD 2008 Case Writing CompetitionDetails for the 2008 Case Competition will be announced early next year. For more information, please contact:

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Learning for tomorrow: how Co-operative Inquiry worksCO-OPERATIVE INQUIRY AS A TECHNIQUE IS CLOSELY INVOLVED IN THE EFMD/UN GLOBAL LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVE. BRYCE TaYLoR ExPLAINS WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT CAN BE USED

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Learning for tomorrow by Bryce Taylor pages 50_51

Co-operative Inquiry (CI) is a simple enough idea to outline but a complex methodology to apply in practice because it relies upon those involved taking full responsibility for all aspects of the process. An initiating facilitator outlines the method and enables the participants to clarify questions and familiarise themselves with the process but at quite an early stage the facilitator falls away and becomes dissolved into the group as a fellow inquirer.

What such an approach immediately confronts those taking part with is the need to bring more of themselves to the encounter; to work with increasing levels of uncertainty and to find ways to overcome any residual resistance or opposition to collaboration.

While collaboration is often spoken of and promoted as a “good thing”, which indeed it is, there are many ways in which collaboration is a another word for simply avoiding conflicts, for shifting responsibility away from the difficult task of challenging what is taking place and so on.

In a CI inquiry there is nowhere and no one to shift responsibility to and so the group have to face the growing realisation that either they make the whole experience come alive by getting “more real” or they will be passing their time in a process that may look collaborative but is a collusive pretence that soon loses its interest and commitment.

The CI process is essentially a sophisticated form of action learning, which tends to give people a comforting idea that they know what they are in for. But it is only a little like action learning sets. CI is more strongly embedded in the processes of the group and in the need for the group to manage the research cycles and the results they gain as well as design the process in which they are taking part.

The CI method is a form of cycling through the four phases of action research: plan-do-report-and-review, with an additional over-arching concern for clearing any process issues. Such process issues may vary from considerations about the validity of the process itself (“Did we formulate a useful enough question to research?”) to the minutiae of interpersonal or even intra-personal responses (“I think we aren’t working effectively any longer and we need to review how we are doing.” Or “I am stuck with a reaction to all this that is disabling me from contributing effectively at this point.”).

INQUIRY RESEARCH CYCLE

Process monitoring and clearing of issues

Plan Do

ReviewReport

Periodic calls for a review of the inquiry process itself stops it from getting “clogged up” with accumulating resentments or unclear decision making that simply skews the process thereafter.

Individuals have the right (and are encouraged to exercise it) to call a pause to the process at any stage if they have a reservation. And they can bring the process to a standstill if they invoke the Devil’s Advocate procedure. (This procedure gives any participant the right to call for a full review of what is taking place because there is a “felt sense” that somewhere there is more going on than meets the eye and it needs to be acknowledged and dealt with or it is likely to hold up the creativity of the overall process.)

As will be obvious from this, the process, to be effective, depends on the emotional maturity (or affective competence) of all those taking part neither indulging themselves in obstructing progress with unnecessary challenges or avoiding raising their concerns when they are felt at an early stage so as to interrupt the process before it gets too far off course.

Those involved in CI are not only responsible for the management of the process, but for knowing where they are in the research cycle and how they are proceeding. As a result, it is not difficult to see how demanding an enterprise it is: like real life, but with more opportunities to reflect both on action and in action.

At some point, a participant will note that the group seems to have finished with the “reflection phase” and needs to decide what to do next. Since not everyone is likely to feel the same mood shift at the same time, this in itself is often a point of discussion and consideration. But when there is a sufficient agreement to move on – tested by frequent votes to indicate where people are and therefore how far there is a real consensus or not and how far there is more work to be done before the group is ready to move on to the next matter.

At the end of the reporting period, there are sometimes requests to express the findings in some shared way by a piece of work in some form or some other representation. Often the reports lead to deepening of the question that people have been pursuing or they see new avenues of exploration open up. There is a period of restlessness and uncertainty while the group members get a feel for their next step and as the group itself gets a sense of the same thing.

And then the cycle gets underway again.

In her short paper on CI (What is Cooperative Inquiry? – a pamphlet and online publication from the South Pacific Centre for Human Inquiry) Barbara Langton expresses the outcomes well.

She writes:

“Co-operative Inquiry involves at least four different kinds of ways of knowing.

– Experiential knowing is through direct face-to-face encounter with a person, place or thing; it is knowing through empathy and resonance, and by the process of imaging, perceptually and in other ways, what is there.

– Presentational knowing emerges from experiential knowing, and provides the first form of expression in terms of imagery through painting, drawing, sculpture, music, song, movement, dance, ritual, story, drama and poetry.

– Propositional knowing “about” something, is knowing through ideas and theories, expressed in informative statements.

– Practical knowing is knowing “how to” do something and is expressed in a skill, knack or competence.

In CI we say that knowing will be more valid if these four ways of knowing are congruent with each other: if our knowing is grounded in our experience,

Individuals have the right (and are encouraged to exercise it) to call a pause to the process at any stage if they have a reservation. And they can bring the process to a standstill if they invoke the Devil’s Advocate procedure

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Learning for tomorrow by Bryce Taylor pages 52_53

expressed through our stories and images, understood through theories that make sense to us and expressed in worthwhile action in our lives.

Most inquiry processes use somewhere between six and ten cycles of research. Too few and there is not enough depth to the learning. People stay on the surface of the questions they are pursuing or don’t see the complexities of the issues they are investigating. Too many and they find it becomes overly rigid and too defining. There is a balance to be struck between keeping going and therefore learning more and learning more and more about less and less. Between six and ten cycles gives people a clear end point for which to aim their contribution.

A series of meetings spread out of over several months means that people develop a continuity of connection, both to their working research and to the inquiry method itself; between the questions they are carrying and the relationships they are forming. A review process to evaluate the whole experience is an important dimension to bring the work to a close.

There is a good deal more to CI than I have been able to outline here but I hope from this brief description the reader can see that it is a form of whole person learning and whole person learning in action that centres upon the inquiry interests of those taking part. It mirrors the need to bring more of oneself to the workplace and to be more innovative with one’s thinking and practice, as well as to develop stronger more collaborative forms of relationship with those one is sharing the journey – wherever it is taking place.

oasis School of Human Relations

The Oasis School of Human Relations is one of the founding partner organisations of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) formed by EFMD with the support of the United Nations Global Compact.

The role of Oasis in the GRLI involves developing further inquiries around the world over the next five years, as well as facilitating the introduction and integration of new global partners.

Oasis has nearly 20 years’ experience in organisations, developing leaders, managers, change agents and facilitators with a sustained focus on leadership.

While partnering the UN/EFMD inquiry, Oasis offered UK leaders the opportunity to become involved in an innovative learning process. The process aimed to evolve new learning in the field of leadership and leader development while at the same time employing the emerging participative research paradigm of Co-operative Inquiry – reflecting a commitment to collaborative learning and leadership.

The invitation resulted in a Co-operative Inquiry with individuals representing organisations from a range of settings and holding roles from CEO to Project Leader. All were involved in organisations interested in exploring core questions of responsible leadership for themselves as well as for their organisation. It enabled those involved in the inquiry to explore leadership and how it lives in the role of leaders, their wider work and in the influence they bring.

ABOUT THE AUTHOrBryce Taylor is a director of The Oasis School of Human Relations, one of the partner organisations of the GRLI. Bryce is author of a number of publications based on the learning developed through the pioneering work of the Oasis School, the latest of which builds on the GRLI call for more whole person learning approaches to leadership development.

Email: bryce@oasishumanrelations.org.uk

www.oasishumanrelations.org.uk

Partnership for Innovation

Highlights from

the EFM

D 2007 A

nnual Conference in B

russels, June 2007

BUSinESS anD aCaDEmia

Left, top and below: Gerard Van Schaik, President EFMD, and Eric Cornuel Director General EFMD

Gerard Van Schaik, President EFMD and Eric Cornuel Director General EFMD welcomed the conference participants and underlined the need for global stability and innovation. They furthermore stressed that originality in human intellect is more important than ever.

PRoDUCinG RELEvanT RESEaRCH

Left middle: Jordi Canals, Dean, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain

Great scholars have changed the way we think, for instance in organisational theory (March, Simon), or in strategy (Porter, Prahalad). In general, I believe it is very important for business practice to be shaped by basic research and basic knowledge. Research serves the important function of creating a framework that allows managers and management practitioners to understand the context and content of specific problems.

ConnECTinG BUSinESS LEaDERS WiTH BUSinESS EDUCaTion

Left, second from bottom: Frank Brown, Dean INSEAD

Frank Brown, Dean INSEAD Europe and Singapore, addressing the EFMD audience whilst underlining his conviction of the need to demystify the academic research environment.

nEW BUSinESS moDELS foR EDUCaTion

Left, bottom: Jeremy Williams, Dean Corporate programmes and Director of Research, U21 Global

There is a rapidly expanding market for executive education courses, but not the “off-the-shelf ” type that have been offered in the past. Increasingly, businesses—particularly those operating in the knowledge economy— are seeking highly customised executive development courses that allow their employees to learn within the context of the workplace.

Management education has never been more important to the corporate sector and it is widely regarded as holding the key to international competitive advantage. The resultant effect is that the dividing line between business education and business itself is becoming blurred.

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Partnership for Innovation : EFMD Annual Conference 2007 pages 54_55

THE aCaDEmiC ConTRiBUTion in CoLLaBoRaTivE innovaTion

Right, top: Chairperson Richard Straub, Senior Advisor to the Chairman IBM EMEA, Director of Development and CLIP, EFMD

Innovation is changing from a top-down process in the traditional labs to a much more open and participative process, where users play an increasingly important role. According to the global CEO survey carried out by IBM, it was demonstrated that ideas for innovation are now coming from many different sources. There is an increasing number of internal and external stakeholders participating in the process. This reflects this new reality but also the opportunity that goes along with it i.e. enhancing the co-operation between academia and business”

10TH annivERSaRY EQUiS CoCKTaiL

Right, second from top: Gerard Van Schaik, Julio Urgel, Eric Cornuel, Frank Brown Right, bottom: Julio Urgel

EQUIS was created in 1997 by a mandate of EFMD’s member business schools including Bocconi, HEC Paris, IESE, IMD, INSEAD, ESADE, London Business School and Rotterdam School of Management. It was inspired by the need to develop an international accreditation system for those business schools, wherever they were in the world, that were trying to make an impact beyond their domestic frontiers.

Celebrating 10 years of EQUIS –100 plus business schools, 31 countries and one goal: raising the level of international business education.

ESTaBLiSHinG “innovaTion manaGEmEnT” aS a foRmaL DiSCiPLinE

Right, middle: Françoise Le Bail, Deputy Director General, European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry

Françoise Le Bail underlined the importance of education and innovation for the Europe of tomorrow. She explained the EU initiatives and related investments and stressed the importance of service innovation. She advised the audience to look into establishing “innovation management” as a formal discipline in which entrepreneurial spirit will have to be the core.

WHY innovaTion iS imPoRTanT!

Right, second from bottom: Martin Curley, Global Director of IT Innovation, INTEL

Innovation is the introduction of something new which creates value for the organisation that adapts it. It is the intelligent recombination of knowledge and solutions. About 20% is invention, about 80% is re-application. Martin Curley clearly made the point that research turns money into knowledge whilst innovation turns knowledge into money. He illustrated his case of innovation through partnership with two impressive case studies from the City of Westminster wireless city in the UK and St. Vincents Hospital in Birmingham Alabama in the US. Finally, Mr Curley indicated how IPR are a huge barrier for cooperation and implementation of innovation.

He identified four keys to future success :1. Open innovation approach2. Participants have value to bring and value

to gain3. Multi-stakeholder approach4. Joint strength of leading practitioner

experience with theory/empirical validation from business school academics.

STRaTEGiC aGiLiTY

Yves Doz, The Timken Chaired Professor of Global Technolog y and Innovation, INSEAD, presenting this unique example of joint research between industry and academia.

Strategic agility is not just the ability to be quick, but also the ability to take strategic turns in a timely fashion. Strategic agility allows maturing firms to be entrepreneurial.

The key enablers of strategic agility are strategic sensitivity, collective commitment and resource fluidity. Drivers for strategic sensitivity are an open strategy process, heightened strategic alertness and high quality internal dialogue. Collective commitment is achieved through cabinet responsibility, top team collaboration and the leadership style and capabilities of the CEO. Three approaches allow for resource fluidity, namely fluid re-allocation and utilisation of capital resources, mobility of people and knowledge sharing and modular structures.

Full details on Strategic Agility can be found in the INSEAD Working Paper :Y. Doz and M. Kosonen, Strategic Agility, INSEAD N 2005/65/ST

Intercultural awareness is the key to international business successJOHN SAEE ExPLAINS WHY MANAGERS NEED TO DEVELOP INTERACTIVE SKILLS FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES TOBE ABLE TO CAPITALISE ON BURGEONING INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

The globalisation of national economies has fuelled the need for intercultural communication. The increase in international trade in products and services now far exceeds any single national economy,including major industrialised countries. Rates of growth in international trade increased from $136 bn (3100 bn) in 1960 to approximately $9 trillion (36.6 trillion) at the beginning of this century (not to mention the world financial markets where an amount of $ 1.7 trillion – 31.2 trillion – is transacted globally each day).

The continued increase in international trade has simultaneously given rise to a situation of growing interdependence of national economies around the world. To compound the matter further, there has also been an increasing degree of migration and tourism around the world coupled with an internationalisation of educational services.

Another related issue has been the presence of cultural diversity in most organisations around the world. For example, most industrial countries (and their organisations) have been undergoing major transformation in terms of cultural diversity, resulting in their populations and workforces becoming highly culturally diverse.

The reality of cultural diversity within corporations coupled with an increasing globalisation of businesses means that managers have to become interculturally competent to capitalise on unlimited opportunities and benefits afforded by cultural diversity within a global economy.

Unfortunately, research has shown that given an absence of intercultural competence too many corporate and government leaders are operating on an old conception of the world around them and of human nature, including the nature of work, the worker and the management process itself.

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Intercultural awareness and international success by John Saee pages 56_57

The main source of misunderstanding among cultures is the differences in values and priorities

Similarly, studies on expatriation indicate that international assignments often incur unnecessarily high costs, poor job performance, individual and family adjustment problems, and difficulties in maintaining productive and satisfying social relationships with people from the host culture. In addition, international joint-ventures and mergers frequently do not achieve the expected performance and cultural differences provide the greatest potential to hinder effective interaction within global teams.

A large body of research confirms that the predominant reason for such failure is not lack of managerial technical competence but the dynamics of intercultural experience. These dynamics include differences in cultural perceptions, in values and practices that influence understanding, in attitudinal satisfaction with living in a foreign culture, in relationship development and in the accomplishment of goals.

Thus, to improve intercultural communication, one has to understand that the nuances of international business – defined as any business conducted across national borders – are different from those of solely domestic business. The fundamental principles of domestic business apply abroad but with added complexities.

Intercultural communication is defined here as “involving interpersonal communication between people from different socio-cultural systems and/or communication between members of different subsystems (for example, ethnic or racial groups) within the same socio-cultural system”.

Confronted with the complexity of human interactions both in a culturally diverse workforce and ever-growing international trade, organisations have tended to focus on language training to remedy communication problems between domestic management staff and immigrant workers as well as international business people. In other words, most managers saw and see language competency as a panacea for ineffective intercultural communication. Within the international scene, a similar view has gained currency, calling for managers and business leaders involved in international trade to develop language competency.

While an organisation’s tendency to focus on language training to remedy communication problems is laudable in itself, it is only a partial solution.

It involves a number of false assumptions:

– the assumption that efficient communication between cultures is solely based on linguistic competence

– the assumption that communication, like typing, is a purely mechanical skill, unrelated to emotional and other interpersonal factors

Speaking a language cannot be considered synonymous with communicating in it. Cultural dimensions to communication go far beyond syntax and vocabulary.

Academic Maurice Bloch, writing about cognitive anthropology in 1991, has investigated the relationship of language to the understanding of culture, and has concluded that much of knowledge is fundamentally non-linguistic; that concepts involve implicit networks of meanings that are formed through the experience of, and practice in, the external world; and that, under certain circumstances, this non-linguistic knowledge can be rendered into language and thus take the form of explicit discourse but changes its character in the process.

In an intercultural communication context, there are many barriers that may emerge, mainly due to the existence of stereotypes and ethnocentrism and leading to prejudice resulting in mistrust and hostility. Other impediments to effective intercultural communication include fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of threatened identity, fear of rejection and/or fear of contradictions to a belief system.

The main source of misunderstanding among cultures is the differences in values and priorities. Some of the most common misconceptions reflect the way in which different cultures understand time, thought patterns and reasoning, personal space, material possessions, language, religion, ethnocentric beliefs as well as the presence of many languages.

There are over 3,000 languages and 10,000 dialects spoken throughout the world and language differences can engender barriers to cross-cultural understanding and international trade.

The box (right) contains a few examples of the difficulties associated with translation of English into a foreign language (and vice versa) intended for commercialising a product. They show that to develop intercultural communication competence, one has to develop an appreciation of the nexus between culture and communication.

Viewed in this context, most anthropologists believe that the terms culture and communication are virtually synonymous. This relationship is the key factor to understanding intercultural communication. Studying intercultural communication without studying culture is analogous to studying physics without looking at matter.

Culture is to a large extent “ideational”: it refers to the standards, beliefs and attitudes in terms of which people act, and to the symbols to which they respond. Academic Geert Hofstede perceives culture from a psychological perspective, defining it “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of one people from another”,

The significance of culture lies in the fact that it provides the knowledge and the techniques that enable humans to survive, both physically and socially, and to control in varying degrees the world around them. More particularly it provides guidance, direction and order in all aspects of our lives.

Studying intercultural communication without studying culture is analogous to studying physics without looking at matter

EFMD Global Focus Volume 01_Issue 03 2007 Intercultural awareness and international success by John Saee pages 58_59

ABOUT THE AUTHOrJohn Saee is Professor of International Business, Corporate Strategy and Management, and Academic Director of the Doctoral Programme at the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology.

Email: jsaee@swin.edu.au

Every person is raised into a particular culture, learning the “right way” of doing things. Problems may arise when a person must adjust to another culture. Each individual must distinguish relevant cross-cultural and intracultural differences and then isolate potential opportunities and problems. At the same time, the possibility of narrowing gaps between cultures resulting from borrowing and interaction must be considered.

Culture also influences how we communicate non-verbally. This is because people express their thoughts and feelings through non-verbal communication.

Non-verbal communications, which include facial expressions, the use of space, posture, gestures, personal appearance, clothing, etiquette and body contact, play a crucial role in understanding people from different cultural backgrounds, hence intercultural communication competence. Managers must analyse and become familiar with the hidden language of foreign cultures. Non-verbal language plays a key role in human communication.

Essentially, there are five key competences needed for anyone to become interculturally competent. They are:

– Cultural awareness: understanding the differences

– Communicative competence: communicating across the differences

– Cognitive competence: acknowledging stereotypes

– Valuing differences

– Gaining synergy from the differences

Other significant strategies in enhancing intercultural competence include:

– Being non-judgemental

– Displaying respect

– Displaying empathy

– Being tolerant of ambiguity

– Showing sensitivity

The globalisation of national economies means the world is becoming increasingly interdependent. There are countless interactions taking place between people of diverse cultures in their daily encounters arising from international trade. In order for companies to attain and maintain a proper stance in this international marketplace and to function effectively in diverse and multiple cultures business leaders must develop intercultural communication as a foundation for their business dealings in the international marketplace.

Thus, intercultural competence fundamentally influences the performance of international companies in several significant ways. Management research considers intercultural competence as an important condition for the success of intercultural business relationships and performance in foreign markets, in the areas of expatriation, customer-supplier relationships, and efficient interaction within multinational companies.

3000The number of languages, with a further 10,000 dialects spoken throughout the world

LoST in TRanSLaTion

An American Food chain named Taco Times Restaurant decided to expand into the Japanese market. It was discovered that “taco” meant “idiot” in Japanese

The Pepsi-Cola slogan “Come alive with Pepsi” when translated into German means “Come out of the grave” and in Taiwan Chinese as “Bring your ancestors back from the dead”

The soft drink Fresca is a slang word for “lesbians” in Mexico

In addition, businesses owned by non-English speaking persons tend to make linguistic blunders especially when they try to convey their advertising messages in English. The following is an illustration of few of those (often unconsciously hilarious) mistakes.

In a Japanese hotel

You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid

In a Bangkok dry cleaners

Drop your trousers here for best results

In a Rhodes tailor shop

Order your summer suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation

In a Czech tourist agency

Take one of our horse driven city tours – we guarantee no miscarriages

In a Budapest zoo

Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty

From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner

Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself

October 2007EVENT

EFMD Executive Education MeetingDATES / VENUE14 – 16 October / Marseille, FranceHOSTEuromed Marseille, Ecole de ManagementTHEMEThe new frontiers of Executive Education

EVENT

LINK Cycle 6 – Module IDATES / VENUE14 – 17 October HOSTEFMD

EVENT

EQUIS Accreditation Seminar DATES / VENUE

26 October 2007 / Sydney, Australia HOST

Macquarie Graduate School of Management

EFMDUpcoming events in 2007/08

November 2007EVENT

2007 MBA Deans and Programme Directors Symposium. Co-Sponsored by EFMD and GMAC®

DATES / VENUE7 – 9 November / Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hotel, Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui – East) Hong Kong THEMEFrom Adaptation to Innovation: Learning from Asia

EVENT

PIPS Programme (Programme for Innovation in Public Services)DATES / VENUE8-9 November / EFMD Offices, Brussels, BelgiumTHEME‘Sponsors’ workshop addressed to PIPS participants’ line managers only

December 2007EVENT

LINK Cycle 6 – Module IIDATES / VENUE2-5 DecemberHOSTEFMD THEMESecond module of three

EVENT

Meeting for Deans and Directors GeneralDATES / VENUE31 January – 1 February / Copenhagen, DenmarkHOSTCopenhagen Business SchoolTHEMEEngagement and Innovation

April 2008EVENT

MBA ConferenceDATES / VENUE3-4 April / Milan, ItalyHOSTSDA Bocconi Business SchoolTHEMEMining the Value Proposition: The Employability of MBA’s?

EVENT

External Relations MeetingDATES / VENUE6-8 April / Tallinn, EstoniaHOSTEstonian Business SchoolTHEMEWe are all international now, so what?

EVENT

International Deans Programme – Module IDATES / VENUE

5-6 December 2007 / Lausanne, SwitzerlandHOST

IMD

EVENT

EFMD Advisory Services seminarDATES / VENUE10 – 11 December / EFMD Offices, Brussels, BelgiumTHEMECurrent state of IT and management education

January 2008EVENT

PIPS Programme – Module 1/3DATES / VENUE13-17 JanuaryHOSTESADE, Barcelona, Spain

For more detailed information, please visit our website www.efmd.org under conferences & learning groups or email info@efmd.org

EFMD

INSIDE FRONT COVER INSIDE BACK COVERFOLD GUIDESDO NOT PRINT

The Economist provides Europe’s business leaders, current and future, with timely insightthat helps them to succeed in today’s complex global marketplace.

To advertise your courses to an audience of 3.7 million intelligent and affluent readers, please contact Philip Wrigley on +44 (0) 20 7830 7000 or philipwrigley@economist.com.EFMD

International Deans’ Programme (IDP)In association with EFMD and the ABS

A fabulous networking opportunity to collaborate internationally The role of a business school dean has become increasingly pressured and challenging in a highly competitive global environment. This new programme is aimed at recently appointed deans/directors of business schools which are members of ABS and/or EFMD. It enables a group of up to 20 international deans to visit business schools in three countries, gaining a unique overview of strategy, operations, structures and future markets in business and management education.

The three compulsory modules comprise study visits to:

Module 1 – Lausanne 5-6 December 2007. Led by Prof. Peter Lorange at IMDModule 2 – Boston 16-18 April 2008. Hosted by Babson College, Bentley College, Boston University, MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School for its centenaryModule 3 – Lisbon 2-3 June 2008, at Faculdade de Economia de Universidade Nova de Lisboa, led by Prof. Jose Antonio Ferreira Machado.

Costs

14500 for members of EFMD and/or ABS 15000 for non members of EFMD and ABS Excluding accommodation and flights

For expressions of interest, please contact

Virginie Heredia-Rosa, EFMD virginie.heredia-rosa@efmd.org

Julie Davies, ABS jdavies@the-abs.org.uk

INSIDE THIS ISSUEInnovation in a jamBruno Chaintron – why managers find it so hard to be different

EPAS scales upUlrich Hommel on how the accreditation system adds value

Culture clubWhy David Saunders believes Canada can lead the world

In the knowEmerald’s David Lamond on the new knowledge brokers

Virtually realBerry Beattie holds forth on the wonders of Second Life

Learning for tomorrowBryce Taylor explains Co-operative Inquiry

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EFMD

www.efmd.org Volume 01_Issue 03 2007

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EFMD

G

lobal Focus Volum

e 01 _Issue 03 2007

Lorange sets sailPeter Lorange is to retire as President of IMD next year. Here he talks about his long career in management education

GlobalGateway

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