This is a survey of management opinion and for the latest issue, over 1100 managers participating in Ashridge programmes in 2012 replied, 71% of respondents are based in the UK, 29% around the globe.

Specifically on learning and development, findings include:

• The most effective learning and development approaches are customised courses run by external providers (96%), qualification programmes (90%), external coaching (88%) and in-company courses run by in-company trainers (86%)
• Less effective approaches to learning and development are mobile and online learning (48% and 66% respectively)
• The power of coaching is again evident.  Managers indicate to spend more time coaching their own staff and nearly 8 in 10 say they would personally benefit from having a coach too.

Other key findings are:

• 81% believe their immediate manager is effective, and 75% say their top leaders are effective
• 48% of managers say their organisation is not doing enough to develop the next generation of leaders
• 36% of managers say that it is harder for women to succeed in their organisation compared to make colleagues
• 63% of managers say their organisation has maintained employee engagement and motivation levels
• 64% of managers frequently take work home
• 77% of managers say they increasingly are required to manage cross-functional and virtual teams, however, organisational support for doing so is now lower than in 2004.
• When asked what would make change more effective in their organisation, managers emphasise the softer ‘people’ issues such as good leadership, planning, staff involvement and empowerment.

Additionally, several company interviews with senior executives were conducted in Spring 2013 on the themes of change, employee engagement and motivation and organisational trust.  

The first Ashridge Management Index was done in the 1990s and from comparing findings; the authors describe four key trends  in this report: austerity and a turbulent economy, technology transformation, globalisation and the rise of responsible business.

The 80-page report : The Ashridge Management Index 2012-2013

It is our pleasure to invite you and your school to submit cases to the 2013 EFMD Case Writing Competition.

 The 2012 edition of the competition was the most successful so far with a record number of 211 submissions and winners from -

INSEAD, IMD, University of Geneva, Copenhagen Business School, E.M. Lyon, Rotterdam School of Management, CEIBS, Northeastern University, IESE Business School, Richard Ivey School of Business

(You can access the 2012 winning cases by visiting the ecch website) .

This year we are glad to announce a new category “Bringing Technology to the Market”, sponsored by ESMT. Also, there is no longer any distinction between European and Special categories, meaning that cases submitted under the former European categories can now address situations from any country in the world.

In addition to the 15 regular categories, generously sponsored by the schools and organisations listed below, we will once again have the “Best of the Best” category, to which all the winning cases from the different categories will be eligible. The 2012 winners were:

Inclusive Business Models – Sponsored by IMD
Planting the Seeds of Change: The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange

Written by:
•    Lea Stadtler, University of Geneva, CH
•    Gilbert Probst, University of Geneva, CH

We warmly thank the sponsors for their continued support.

 All of the winning cases receive €2000, wide visibility across the EFMD network and publication by ecch.

 The “Best of the Best” winners are featured in the EFMD’s Global Focus Magazine, receive visibility across the EFMD and ecch networks and are awarded with an engraved plate during the EFMD Annual Conference Awards Ceremony.



The deadline for the submission of cases is 16th September 2013. 

For more information and for submitting your case, visit the 2013 EFMD case Writing Competition page.


Sponsorship Opportunities! If your school or organisation would be interested in sponsoring either the Corporate and Social Responsibility category or the Public Sector Innovations category, please contact Inês Proença (ines.proenca@efmd.org).

• Sponsorship Opportunity: Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship: Sponsored by E.M. Lyon, FR
• Finance and Banking: Sponsored by Toulouse Business School – Groupe ESC Toulouse, FR
• Supply Chain Management: Sponsored by BEM Bordeaux - ISLI Global Supply Chain Management, FR
• Latin American Business Cases: Sponsored by Universidad Externado de Colombia, CO
• MENA Business Cases: Sponsored by HEC Paris in Qatar, QA
• Family Business: Sponsored by The Family Business Network International, CH and International Family Enterprise Research Academy, CY
• Emerging Chinese Global Competitors: Sponsored by Renmin University of China School of Business, CN
• Euro-Mediterranean Managerial Practices and Issues: Sponsored by Euromed Management, FR
• Sponsorship Opportunity: Public Sector Innovations
• African Business Cases: Sponsored by China Europe International Business School, (CEIBS), CN
• Indian Management Issues and Opportunities: Sponsored by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, UK
• Responsible Leadership: Sponsored by University of San Diego – School of Business Administration, US
• Inclusive Business Models: Sponsored by IMD, CH
• Bringing Technology to the Market: Sponsored by ESMT, DE

Please do not hesitate to pass this email onto any of your colleagues who might be interested in participating. We look forward to receiving your submissions and wish you good luck! If you have any questions please contact Inês Proença (ines.proenca@efmd.org).

With the aim of encouraging the writing of case materials, EFMD has been organising its annual Case Writing Competition for many years and the 2012 winner in the category “Inclusive Business Models” , sponsored by IMD, is:
Planting the seeds of change: The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange
This case was written by Lea Stadtler and  Gilbert Probst both from University of Geneva, Switzerland. It illustrates the challenging and inspiring journey of Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin and her team to realize her dream of establishing a transparent and efficient commodity exchange in Ethiopia. The case describes the integrative approach that provided market institutions to grade quality and set standard, to warehouse and issue warehouse receipts, relay market information to all the relevant actors, coordinate trading, as well as to ensure reliable payment, delivery, and contract enforcement.

The authors also explore the tricky balancing act between the private and public interests in this public-private partnership.

In general, the competition had a winning case in all 14 categories as well as several highly commended cases.  The "Best of the Best" category has been evaluated by ecch and the overall winner of the competition is the above mentioned case.

In the category “Inclusive Business Models” there was also a highly commended case:
Schneider Electric in rural India  written by Jasjit Singh and Christiane Bode, both at INSEAD, Singapore. This case describes the evolution of Schneider Electric’s efforts to serve the base of the pyramid (BOP) market in rural India. Starting out as part of a stand‐alone corporate social responsibility programme to serve villages with no electricity, these have been integrated over time with a rural business initiative that aims to profit from the long‐term opportunity these markets present.The authors also discuss strategic innovation in the context of a multinational company’s emerging market strategy, or framed more specifically as an attempt to “do well by doing good” in a low‐income rural BOP setting, such as in India.

The full list of winners for all categories is on the EFMD website, as well as details for the  EFMD Case Writing Competition in general.

Following the recent integration of ESMU into EFMD we are pleased to share an invitation to attend the Heads of University Management & Administrative Network in Europe (HUMANE) 2013 Annual Conference that will be hosted by the Università per Stranieri di Perugia, Italy on the 14-15 June 2013. This historic setting will be a beautiful backdrop to a very dynamic conference on the theme of -

International Students: Challenge and Change!

With speakers from DAAD, the University of Amsterdam, i-Graduate, the University of Nottingham and our hosts, this subject will be explored form different angles. We are proud to announce the leading presentations from:

• Internationalisation in Higher Education: Rationales, Drivers, Stakeholders
  Nina Lemmens, Director for Internationalisation and Communication, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (DE)
  
  
• How to Attract and Retain International Students
  Nannette Ripmeester, Director of Client Services Europe, i-Graduate Europe (NL)
  
  
• Social media strategies for Universities: engaging students on the web
  Donatella Padua, Adjunct Professor of Sociology, University for Foreigners of Perugia (IT)
  
  
• Branding the intellectual hub in Europe
  Yasha Lange, Head of Corporate Communication and Spokesman of the Executive Board, University of Amsterdam (NL)
  
  
• Three memos for this millennium
  Roberto Fedi, Professor of Italian Literature and Dean, University for Foreigners of Perugia (IT)
  
  
• The case of Nottingham (tbc)
  Paul Greatrix, Registrar, University of Nottingham (UK)

HUMANE Chairman, Bert Verveld, writes:

In the last ten to twenty years we have seen en enormous increase in international mobility of students. In the next ten to twenty years we can expect that universities will further develop themselves as international work and study environments.
 
Good education and committed teachers, an international atmosphere, good support and guidance, affordable housing, teaching language, reputation of the university, these are all issues that matter when international students decide where to study.
 
A university is by definition a international institution. Offering international students a good experience in terms of study and social life, and making that clear to the outside world, take very good conditions and measures inside university.
 
In this annual conference of HUMANE we will discuss  the way in which universities can develop an international approach. We will ask the question what international students expect from universities. We will be shown examples of how successful marketing strategies of universities in several countries are (United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands) and  the question whether universities can successfully start international branch universities will be dealt with.
 
Very experienced speakers will shed light on these issues and will also show the possible challenges and pitfalls for institutions. Situations differ from university to university and from country to country. But as students are getting more international, they expect circumstances inside universities that reflect their needs and wishes. The central topic of this seminar is how we as universities can deliver these circumstances.

Conference Fee
 
The Seminar Fee is € 495. This includes lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday and the social programme on Saturday afternoon. Accompanying people and HUMANE Friends are charged at € 160, this includes lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday and the social programme on Saturday afternoon.  

Further information concerning the conference programme, registration and logistics can be found via www.humane.eu

If you require further information or have any questions please contact Tim Evans, Network Administrator via secretariat@humane.eu

Management Tools 2013 explains the most important concepts and tactics used in business today, based on Bain & Company research. 1.208 global executives were interviewed for this 14th survey, results of which were released last week.

Interesting findings related to management development include:

• The most urgent priority indicated by all the global executives in the survey was the need to increase the pace of revenue growth and to find additional ways to make that growth profitable.
• A majority of those surveyed were confident in the capabilities they have in place to help them grow: for example, in their ability to adapt to change, to innovate and to use social media to improve customer relationships.
• Business leaders also indicated a number of organisational challenges to revenue growth. Half of the respondents believed current information technology systems constrain profitable growth. And 6 out of every 10 respondents said that the complexity creeping into their organization raises costs and hinders growth.
• Companies of all sizes need to rely on new and future employees to help them grow. 69 percent of respondents said their youngest employees are pressuring them to change their culture and processes, and this concern is highest in Asia, being 79%.
• Business leaders are prioritising investments in employee engagement, this armed with evidence proving the link between motivated employees and customer loyalty.
• More companies see investments in environmental sustainability as supportive of future growth, six in 10 companies said they will invest in sustainability initiatives even if it raises their costs.
• The five tools used most often were Strategic Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Employee Engagement Surveys, Benchmarking and Balanced Scorecards.  
• The 25 tools covered in this survey are :Balanced scorecard, Benchmarking, Big data analytics, Business Process reengineering, Change management programmes, Complexity reduction, Core competencies, Customer relationship management, Customer segmentation, Decision rights tools, Downsizing, Employee engagement surveys, Mergers and acquisitions, Mission and vision statements, Open innovation, Outsourcing, Price optimisation models, Satisfaction and loyalty management, Scenario and contingency planning, Social media programmes, Strategic alliances, Strategic planning, Supply chain management, Total quality management and Zero-based budgeting.
• Variations between established and emerging markets are now more pronounced than ever, reflecting differences in business objectives and economic realities.
• In Asia-Pacific, executives rely more on Customer Relationship Management than on any other tool.  Executives in Latin America favour Business Process Reengineering. In North America the most widely used tool was Employee Engagement Surveys, whilst in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Balanced Scorecards topped the list.
• Authors Rigby and Bilodeau of this report underline that not every tool is right for every situation, for instance, Big Data Analytics was below average in usage but above average in satisfaction.
• Executives in different regions are planning for the future with a variety of strategic tools. In North America and EMEA, Open Innovation and Satisfaction and Loyalty Management rank among the top tools they expect to increase usage of. In Asia-Pacific and Latin America, Zero- Based Budgeting showed the greatest expected increase in usage and in Latin America executives  will be increasingly turning to Outsourcing and Downsizing.

The 14-page report is available from the Bain & Company website.

EFMD has recently signed a strategic partnership with CVTRUST. The aim of CVTRUST is to increase trust where it is becoming ever more valuable: in academic and education credentials. Smart Diploma™ (patent pending) is a highly secure, easy to use solution to grant thousands of academic credentials in just a few clicks: diplomas, certificates, attestation letters, transcripts, badges, etc.

The purpose is to make life easier for academic institutions and education bodies as well as their graduates and alumni by creating a digital academic passport to store and showcase credentials. Graduates from universities, business schools and training centers can now collect certified credentials in this centralized space, for life. Indeed, in a world where continuous education is becoming the norm, Smart Diploma™ is the digital passport allowing people to control and show off all their credentials for any job opportunity.

Discover what the Financial Times is saying about Smart Diploma.

The innovation of Smart Diploma™ lies in:

• centralized production process of digital certified credentials (patent pending)
• data privacy protection technology used through a unique high-level encryption/decryption process
• innovative centralized and secure personal portfolio for graduates to collect, manage and share their certified credentials
• credentials fully connected with social platforms
• web connected credentials as a lifetime bond between academic institutions and their alumni, allowing alumni associations to keep in touch with their members, get up-to-date information and find lost alumni.

Dive into Smart Diploma™ Brand Film 2013

EFMD has partnered with CVTRUST to offer an exclusive deal to the first 50 EFMD members to subscribe to the service. They will benefit from a free of charge use of Smart Diploma™ for all their Alumni community and a 30% discount for all graduates as from 2013. Note that the pricing of this service is tailored to all types of institutions, with a decreasing price according to the number of annual graduates.

SMART DIPLOMA Presentation

Download the presentation

 “Smart Diploma™ is a very simple and clever solution to resolve one major issue: to certify electronically our branding via our diplomas. We have been looking for this kind of a solution for a long time and we believe that Smart Diploma™ is the product for the future.”
Stephanie Villemagne, Director, MBA Programme Management, INSEAD (France/Singapore)

“The environment for job search and for academic achievements is becoming more complex and more stressful for everybody. And because it's becoming more competitive too, people want to see something that they can trust. The added value of Smart Diploma™ for IMD is to make our alumni more satisfied by offering an additional service; and for our corporate partners it is a way to recruit efficiently through a transparent and a trustful solution.”
Jim Pulcrano, Executive Director, IMD (Switzerland)

Find more testimonials

If your institution would like to learn more, please contact

• Fabien Astic, VP Sales, fabien.astic@cvtrust.com  or
• David Goldenberg, CEO, david.goldenberg@cvtrust.com   

If you have any other questions regarding how EMFD is supporting this initiative, please contact

• Matthew Wood, Communications Director, matthew.wood@efmd.org

With the aim of encouraging the writing of case materials, EFMD has been organising its annual Case Writing Competition for many years and the 2012 winner in the category “Supply Chain Management” , sponsored by BEM, is:

Danfoss - Global Manufacturing Footprint

This case was written by Torben Pedersen and Jacob Pyndt at Copenhagen Business School. The case examines the supply chain, managerial, and organizational challenges facing a large European industrial company competing in a mature industry with strong price pressure. In the specific context of internationalisation, there are three main issues which top management was concerned about: namely, Danfoss's manufacturing network; its continued global growth; and its highly engineering-based culture.

The central issue of the case is the extreme dispersion of the company’s international activities and the lack of coordination and configuration of these activities.  The authors furthermore explore in detail:

• The fact that Danfoss has followed a strategy of one product, one plant, his created a situation with a lot of very specialised product lines and very few common features between them.
• On the other hand, the internationalisation strategy has been quite successful for Danfoss in both Eastern Europe and China. In China, the company had experienced success and wanted to secure long-term growth in the market. In the United States, however, the company was experiencing difficulties despite heavy investments in its manufacturing capacity in Mexico.
• The third issue is the very engineering-based culture of the company.

The annual EFMD Case Writing Competition is organised in partnership with ecch and this year saw a record number of 211 high quality entries.  In the category “Supply Chain Management” another case was highly commended: Al-Kadi Commerce & Industry, a case written by Angel Diaz and Fabrizio Salvador, IE Business School. This case presents  operational and supply chain management issues of a large truck and trailer parts company in Saudi Arabia. Although the company is enjoying accelerated revenue and profit figures, it is questioning the performance and relevance of the existing model of high service-levels, wide catalogue and all-in-stock merchandise.

The authors focus on the following challenges:
•    The cyclical nature of the heavy transportation market
•    The increasing number of replacement part suppliers and brands available
•    A strong wave of counterfeit imported products offered in the market
•    A large segment of the customer base which is not fully aware of product differences logistics-area advancements.

The full list of winners for all categories is on the EFMD website, as well as details for the  EFMD Case Writing Competition in general.

In a fast changing world executive development has to be a key contributor to competitiveness. Traditional education programmes are not adequate anymore in a time where relevance and impact is key. Impactful development partnerships are built on the cooperation of various internal and external players that bring with them their respective expertise.

This is a big challenge for both providers and companies, as there is no longer a clear-cut provider-customer relationship but a co-creation, co-design and/or co-deployment partnership. This becomes even more challenging in situations where budget pressures require achieving more with less.

What are the new emerging models of partnerships, who are the players and what changes are required to make it work?

Come and join us at the 2013 Executive Development Conference hosted by the Stockholm School of Economics IFL Executive Education on 9-11 October (Stockholm, Sweden) to explore “The New Frontiers of Executive Development”.

Join participants from Saïd Business School, Oxford University, Mannaz, ICN Business School, University of St. Gallen and from the University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business who have already registered and other professionals in the Executive Development sector, from business schools, executive development centres, consultants and network providers as well as clients (companies).

‘For the first time in 2012, it was decided to open the EFMD Executive Development conference to both business schools and companies. We decided to invite 3 large corporate client representatives, who were eager to accept our invitation. It was a challenge, as we knew they would be in contact with all the other business schools at the conference. However, I strongly believed that it was worth the risk. The result was a big success, as the companies felt very grateful for the experience, we managed to be together outside our daily professional environment, and have the opportunity to get to know each other much better and reinforce a personal connection. As a consequence our relationship has become much stronger. In short, it was a great experience that I strongly recommend and we will surely repeat in future editions.’

Luís Cardoso, Director, CATÓLICA-LISBON School of Business & Economics

Confirmed speakers include:

• Kjell A. Nordström, Unconventional Swedish economist and dynamic “funky” business thinker, will set the scene during Plenary I - What is Today’s Global Picture?
  
  
• Justin Jenk, CEO of the Stockholm School of Economics IFL Executive Education Centre will chair the conference and guide participants through the 2 days and lead the Plenary session II on - Consequences for the Executive Development Eco-System.

Six outstanding learning and development partnerships selected from the 2013 EFMD Excellence in Practice Awards (EiP) will also provide live inputs and contribute to the debate.

Join this unique dialogue where key participants of a new emerging ecosystem come together and provide perspectives from different angles: Corporations, Business Schools, Executive Development Centres and consultancies.

Click here for the complete programme.

REGISTER ONLINE now as places are limited. 

We look forward to seeing you this fall in Stockholm for what we are sure will be a highly stimulating and exciting EFMD Executive Development Conference. if you have any question or require further information please contact Delphine Hauspy.

MOOCs are on the Move: A Snapshot of the Rapid Growth of MOOCs

A White Paper by Dr Lindsay Ryan - January 2013

What are MOOCs
MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses and they are rapidly changing the game for higher education, executive education and employee development generally. MOOCs offer free online courses covering a growing range of topics delivered by qualified lecturers from some of the most well-known universities in the world. In this age of lifelong learning, MOOCs are a means of providing learning and development to virtually everyone, anytime, anywhere in the world with internet access.

This paper presents a snapshot of current developments in MOOCs, noting that MOOCs have really only gathered momentum in the past year and are constantly developing and evolving almost on a weekly basis.

Background
The original concept for a MOOC came from academic research in the early 1960s with the idea that people could be linked by a series of computers to listen, discuss and learn about a particular topic. Now, continuous development in technology has become the enabler for virtually everybody in the world to have access to a broad and diverse range of education and learning topics.

MOOCs provide free online courses that enable people with an interest in a selected topic to study and learn through interaction with others also interested in the same topic. Other participants could be from the same organisation, city or region, learning together with people from other organisations, cities, regions and countries from around the world. MOOCs are the internet equivalent of distance education and there could be 1,000 or 100,000 participants in a single course.

MOOCs create the opportunity for vast numbers of people across the world to access learning through quality courses, content and lecturers that most would never have access to. For many people, further and higher education can seem overwhelming or beyond them. MOOCs open a world of opportunity for people in remote areas and developing countries as well as people with aspirations to achieve more with their lives. MOOCs are changing the traditional nature of education mainly being for the affluent and elite to being free and accessible to virtually everybody.

The growth of MOOCs is phenomenal. During the three months from mid-October to mid-January, including the quiet period for learning and development over Christmas-New Year, one major player, Coursera, continued to grow at the rate of 6,900 new participants (Courserians) PER DAY. Anything that grows at such a rate cannot be ignored and Coursera is just one of an increasing number of MOOC providers bringing together a diverse and expanding range of open online courses.

MOOCs started as a form of collaborative online learning with people interacting and learning from each other and being exposed to different perspectives, views and ideas. Over the past year, MOOCs have started to move to the mainstream and increasingly resembling more traditional courses, especially as a significant number of MOOCs are shorter versions of many traditional courses, and often delivered by highly qualified professors and academics whose research and academic expertise underpins the course on a MOOC.

Some of the MOOCs, such as EdX, continually research their courses to better understand how participants learn and explore ways of using the technology to transform and further enhance the learning and online experience for the participants.

Major MOOCs
Coursera (www.coursera.org), established by two Stanford University professors, is currently the biggest MOOC platform providing 212 different courses in such areas as: economics and business, computer sciences, biology, social sciences, music and film, medicine, health, food and nutrition, physical and earth sciences. Coursera has a consortium of 33 of the most well-known and highly regarded universities in the world delivering free online courses including Harvard, Stanford, Pennsylvania, Washington, London, Edinburgh, Toronto and Melbourne.

Udacity (www.udacity.com) has a focus on computer science courses and provides a range of topics from beginner courses to intermediate and advanced courses.

EdX (www.edx.org), owned by the prestigious academic institutions Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, draws content from a selection of their highly regarded courses.

Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) is a MOOC platform for young learners from kindergarten to Year 12 with courses centred on mathematics and science: biology, chemistry and physics, as well as some elements of economics and history.

FutureLearn (www.futurelearn.com) is the newest significant player reflecting how MOOCs are constantly changing. FutureLearn comprises a consortium of 12 major UK universities including The Open University, which has considerable experience in distance and online education, Birmingham, Warwick, Cardiff, Leeds, Bristol and St Andrews. Their web site is live but the courses and content are still being developed.

In addition, many high profile and elite universities are now offering their standard courses as open courses where people can watch the lectures online and access course slides and materials. To achieve the formal qualification people need to apply and enrol with the respective universities, pay the program fees and satisfactorily complete the assessment requirements associated with each course.

Participating in a MOOC
Participants complete a simple online registration for a course that interests them. They might want to learn more about a particular topic or it could be an introduction to consider a future study option or a possible formal university program or career direction. Each course on a MOOC is open for people over the age of 18 and, with parental approval, young learners over the age of 13. Coursera also asks participants to agree to an honour code that all the homework, quizzes and exams is their own work and that they won’t cheat or do anything that could dishonestly improve their results or dishonestly affect another person’s results.

When registering for a MOOC, participants are advised they are registering for a course and not enrolling with any of the universities delivering the courses. The courses are free and most materials and notes can be down-loaded from the course site. Occasionally other resources are recommended, such as additional books and reference materials for particular courses which can be purchased, but they are rarely prescribed as part of a course. A growing number of MOOCs offer a certificate signed by the lecturer once participants satisfactorily complete the course and there may be a fee for the certificate.

Until recently MOOCs have not provided participants with credit for further or higher education programs. However this is an area many universities are now considering, especially as one university in the US, Antioch University in Los Angeles, has started providing credit for selected MOOCs into specified college courses. Many overseas participants, especially in India, are seeking credit for their studies through MOOCs. While most MOOCs incorporate regular self-tests, projects and compulsory exams, universities are still exploring how participants can demonstrate mastery of a topic in order to be able to grant credit for the MOOC study. The American Council on Education is currently investigating a means of accrediting selected MOOCs for credit towards higher education courses.

How MOOCs Work
MOOCs allow a single teacher/lecturer to teach thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of participants in a single course delivery. With this size class, there is little participant contact with the lecturers, although some have scheduled times when they join online forums with participants to discuss various aspects of a course or provide further explanation on a topic.

MOOCs are often four to six weeks duration and the course format involves participants watching a series of short videos prepared by the lecturer detailing a particular topic theme for each of the specified weeks of the course. The format uses asynchronous learning so that participants can view the video at times that best suit them as well as their time zone. During each topic there are usually online tests that allow participants to respond and check their understanding of the concept or information presented.

In some courses participants are required to write an essay or more detailed response instead of an online multiple choice exam. In these cases, some MOOCs arrange for participants to forward their papers to five other participants for peer assessment and marking. This approach allows each participant to receive feedback and critique from five other participants. A lecturer may moderate an assessment where the spread of grades is diverse or a particular participant has a reputation for marking harshly.

The key to MOOC success is interaction among participants. Participants have interactive online tests during a course and then they will often post comments in online forums. Some MOOC lecturers try to organise face-to-face study groups in various physical locations or separate online forums for participants to promote learning and understanding through the sharing of ideas, perspectives and experiences with other participants.

MOOCs are based on Connectivism principles where learning and knowledge is created through connecting different people with a diversity of opinions. Technology is the enabler for MOOCs and with the growing use of smart phones and mobile computing, participants can maintain on-going connection with their MOOC class and interaction with other participants when they are at work, home, travelling and at any time of the day.

The Significance of MOOCs

• MOOCs are accessible to virtually everybody who has access to the internet and the courses are free. This means there is no direct cost for a participant to explore a potential new area of interest or learning;
• Learning occurs at times and locations that best suit the participant;
• Participants interact with other people with a shared interest and are exposed to a diverse range of perspectives and ideas that can stimulate reflection and further interest in a topic;
• Being part of a global class, participants can gain insight into attitudes, ideas, and trends among different populations and countries on a particular topic;
• The continuing growth in the number of MOOCs will lead to significant choice and options for free online courses. This will allow learning and development to be tailored to the needs and/or interests of each participant;
• MOOCs open a world of learning possibilities and promote lifelong learning for all those who are interested, able and motivated to participate;
• Although some critics of MOOCs claim there is a low completion rate for courses, this has more positives than negatives. It means that people are interested in the concept of MOOCs and willing to investigate online learning, which most people would not have experienced previously. It also means that people have the opportunity to explore a topic without being committed to it and incurring significant costs as happens with many undergraduate programs.
• Those people participating in a MOOC who do not complete a course are not precluding somebody else who wanted to participate but did not meet the selection criteria or cut-off levels.

Implications of MOOCs
Participants:

• The opportunity to learn something new or completely different from their normal discipline;
• The opportunity to appraise higher education or a specific topic without the need to apply and enrol with an educational institution and incur course fees;
• The opportunity to learn through interacting with other participants from diverse backgrounds, experiences and countries;
• Everybody has an equal opportunity to interact online compared to on-campus lectures which some participants find intimidating speaking or asking questions in large groups;
• MOOCs could be used as an introduction to certain topics that lead to further study and possibly advanced standing in further education programs, subject to assessment of mastery at a prescribed level. This could reduce the duration and costs associated with completing a formal qualification.

Higher Education Providers:

• Some higher education providers may see MOOCs as a threat, particular those who regard lectures and course materials as their intellectual property and only accessible to fee paying students;
• Other higher education providers will see MOOCs as the opportunity to showcase some of their courses and use the MOOCs as a means of attracting new participants to undertake studies;
• Need to develop a system for assessing student mastery of certain MOOCs and provide credit or advanced standing for participants applying for higher education programs. Participants completing a number of MOOCs and able to demonstrate mastery of the topic also demonstrate commitment to study and are likely to complete formal qualifications;
• Should promote the environment and resources of their university, student experience and value of the qualification for participants who progress from a MOOC to enrolling in a formal university program.

Industry:

• Employers could utilise MOOCs as part of the learning and development of employees. Those employees that show real interest, commitment and motivation for certain areas of studying could then be supported by their employer to enrol in further studies in areas relating to their employment and career development;
• Some organisations and industries could use a series of MOOCs, selecting the most appropriate courses from a number of MOOC aggregators, as a pre-qualification for people applying to work in a particular industry, in addition to or instead of a university degree.

Employee Development Potential
MOOCs provide employers with the opportunity to develop an integrated organisation development plan and tailor a learning and development plan for each employee. Such a plan might comprise:

• One or a series of MOOCs on topics relevant to each employee’s development needs;
• Work-based projects that enable employees to learn and immediately apply their learning, which promotes greater understanding of concepts and better retention of the learning;
• A mentor for each employee to discuss their work-based projects, workplace issues and career development options;
• TED videos (Ideas Worth Spreading) to stimulate ideas, thinking and discussion within an organisation and/or workgroup;
• YouTube-Education videos with specific topics and speakers used for employees to watch and then discuss or lead discussions with work colleagues.

The above integrated approach to employee learning and skills development could apply to all employees, from frontline, through supervisor and middle management, up to senior managers and executives.

Final Comment
MOOCs have been described in some circles as the biggest development in education for 200 years. It would appear that MOOCs are a win-win for participants, higher education providers and industry.

However, the unanswered question is: if MOOCs are free how do they pay for themselves? At this stage the universities involved in launching MOOCs seem to be following the approach adopted by one of the most successful companies of the digital age: Google. As identified by Jeff Jarvis, Google banks users, not money. When Google rolls-out a new product they worry about whether they will have users. If they have users, the money will follow (Jarvis, Jeff, (2009) What Would Google Do?, HarperCollins, New York).

About the Author
Dr Lindsay Ryan is Director of Corporate Education Advisers.
Lindsay is a thought leader, adviser and mentor to organisations assisting with organisational development and employee learning that enables organisations to develop their capability and capacity. Utilising leading-edge research, Lindsay assists organisations adopt a strategic approach to their corporate education to ensure employee training and development aligns with their goals and strategic direction. Based in Adelaide, Australia, Lindsay’s work is highly regarded internationally and he is also Visiting Fellow in Corporate Education with Birmingham City Business School in the United Kingdom.

CONTACT DETAILS:
(61) 0418 809 170
Lindsay@corpedadvisers.com.au

The mba.com Prospective Students Survey provides a spotlight on the next generation of graduate students— their needs, motivations, behaviours, programme choices and intended career outcomes.

These  2013 GMAC reports include data from more than 15,000 individuals who registered on mba.com  and three specific GMAC reports are available:

Program demand report
Recruitment planning report
School appeal report

Interesting findings from the above include:

• The MBA student marketplace is dominated by the older generation of Gen X’rs while the non-MBA business master’s marketplace is populated by the younger cohort of Gen Y’rs.
• The top three school selection criteria for prospective students are: quality and reputation of the business school, financial considerations as tuition or fees and specific programme aspects such as faculty.
• Other school selection factors are unique to specific MBA programme types.  The survey results indicate as top for:
  • Full-time 2 year MBA: access to alumni network and job placement
  • Full time one year MBA: quality career services and scholarships
  • Part-time MBA: convenient class schedules and proximity to work
  • Executive MBA: published ranking and accreditation
  • Online MBA: convenient class schedules and course type offered
• The selection criteria most considered for a Master in (International) Management are : loans for foreign students, international exchange programmes and housing or other expenses.
• Overall, the interest in MBA programmes declined the most among the youngest and oldest groups of prospective students, but remained stable in the group of 24 to 30 year olds.
• Programme demand varies by demographic characteristics, with age and gender as prime influencers.
• On the whole, the desire to study internationally is on the rise.  Among residents in the Asia-Pacific region, 87% expressed a preference for studying abroad whilst only 4% of US residents wanted to study abroad.
• Survey findings show wide differences in preferred study destinations by world regions, globally the USA remains the most preferred study destination.   The top five study destinations of international prospective students are United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada and Singapore.  
• The vast majority (85%) of prospective students planning to pursue a graduate management degree have definite employment goals in mind.  The three major employment outcomes are:  planning  to change job functions (41%), considering changing industries (33%) and hoping to work internationally (27%)
• Globally, school websites and friends/family had the greatest impact in the decision-making process of prospective students.

The GMAC Research Library contains several other interesting reports such as  the 2013 Alumni Perspectives Report as well as  interactive tools for benchmarking.

Institutional internationalisation is diverse and multi-layered, with potentially competing or contradicting rationales.  The results of the EUA membership consultation 2013 with responses from 175 HE institutions in 38 countries show an interesting snapshot.

The main findings include that about one-third of the responding institutions indicate to have an international student population above 10% of total students enrolled. The predominant characteristic here seems to be large differences between institutions within the same country, rather than between countries. Moreover, 99% of the institutions that replied to the survey either have an internationalisation strategy in place (56%), intend to develop one (13%), or have considered internationalisation in other strategies (30%).   The top institutional priorities mentioned for internationalisation are:
•    Attracting students from abroad at all levels (30%)
•    Internationalisation of learning and teaching (19%)
•    Providing students with opportunities to have a learning experience abroad (12%)
•    Developing strategic research partnerships with other institutions (10%)

Survey respondents testify that internationalisation strategies have a significant impact on:

• Developing partnerships with new regions and countries (73%)
• Sending more students abroad (72%)
• Growing the international student population (68%)
• Offering international opportunities to staff (67%)
• Offering more courses in English (67%)
• Developing double and joint degrees (61%)

EU strategy for internationalisation
91% of respondents felt that there would be an added value to an EU strategy for internationalisation, particularly in promoting internationalisation to university leadership, national bodies and to the wider university community. Regarding the expected impact that the EU strategy would have at the institutional level, most frequently mentioned were

• funding opportunities for exchange and collaboration
• support to the institution’s internationalisation strategy development
• enhancement of specific EU support measures for internationalisation

The “open answers” from the respondents clearly indicate two aspects that can be improved at institutional level to stimulate and support internationalisation: language skills of students and staff and increased funding.

Link to the 24-page report.

The four areas most commonly cited in best practices were: building client relationships, regularly publishing faculty research, conducting focused marketing events with top speakers and investing in direct selling resources. This report is on the UNICON members research project that was  targeted on three areas: marketing for open enrolment programmes, for custom programmes and brand awareness marketing.   From the 47 schools involved – out of which half are  EFMD members, several interesting findings emerge:

• 89% of schools changed their marketing strategy in the last year to include more digital marketing.
• Around half of the schools have efforts in marketing and sales combined into one operating unit (for efficiency) the other half have a separate marketing and sales unit (for dedicated focus).  
• Web-sites are the most effective marketing channel.  26% of schools make major website changes more than once a year,  22% do it once a year and 55% of the schools make major website changes less than once a year.
• The majority of schools spend 5% or less of revenue of their marketing efforts.
• For customised business, 57% of respondents use a push strategy of personal selling to prospects and clients.
• For open programmes, 85% of respondents use a combination of a push (personal selling activity) and a pull (advertising, sales promotion and publicity) to attract potential clients.    
• Marketing spend is not consistently allocated to the most effective channels: respondents cited websites as their most effective marketing channels, but the largest share of marketing expenditures is allocated to traditional methods.
• Almost 3 of out 4 schools spend 90% or more of their marketing budget to promote programmes domestically (in country), one third of schools spent 15% of their marketing budget to promote programmes internationally (outside country).

This 30 pages report is downloadable from the UNICON website.  The various research activities were conducted in the second half of 2012.

EFMD would like to warmly invite you to attend the EPAS XXL Accreditation Seminar. The event will take place at the EFMD premises in Brussels from Thursday 6 June 2013 to Friday 7 June 2013.

The EPAS XXL seminar will take place 2 days before the start of the EFMD 2013 Annual Conference which will bring together business schools and companies from all over the globe to answer the question: “Does Management Education Create Impact?”. If you are planning on attending the seminar you might also want to say on for the conference or vice-versa.

This first EPAS XXL seminar is a new format that has been designed to provide in-depth guidance on how to successfully complete the different steps of the EPAS accreditation process.. Participants will gain detailed insights on how to compile a Data Sheet and Self-Assessment Report, how to organize an effective Peer Review Visit and how to manage the post-accreditation phase including the write-up of progress reports.

The objective of the seminar is to move distinctly beyond the EPAS documents and to let participants gain first-hand insights into the Do’s and Don’ts of managing an EPAS accreditation project.
 
The seminar is targeted at institutions already awarded eligibility or accreditation, as well as institutions currently preparing their application for eligibility. It is relevant for Accreditation Officers (EPAS Project Leaders), Deans and Associate Deans in charge of accreditations.

Participants should already possess a good working knowledge of the EPAS system, which requires at the very minimum the careful study of the EPAS documents (Standards & Criteria, Process Manual, Process Manual Annexes) before arriving in Brussels.

This seminar is not for school representatives who are looking for an introductory overview of the EPAS system it is a seminar specifically designed to give an in-depth look at the EPAS accreditation process.

Due to the interactive format of the seminar there are only limited spaces available and schools are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible.

For all other practical information please visit our event webpage. If you have any question please contact us via epas@efmd.org or call the EFMD office on + 32 2 629 08 10.

We hope to see you in Brussels.

The EPAS Team

Ernst & Young in collaboration with experts from the Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS) at the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO have issued new research on Africa’s economic growth.
 
This research report analyses the main factors driving Africa’s success such as government initiatives to reduce inflation, budget deficits and debt levels.  Interestingly, Africa’s population will be 20% of the world population in 2050 with a median age of 20 and moreover a genuine middle class is emerging.   Another powerful indicator is that the economic presence of the BRICs is expected to be 50% of African trade by 2030 and it is no secret that Africa has great reserves of natural resources.  Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia and Republic of Congo are in the global top 20 of oil, gold or copper producers.

The authors conclude that economic transformation is the key to sustaining growth and for developments from short-term growth to long term economic transformation, their recommendations include:
•    Strengthening industrial capabilities
•    Capitalising on agricultural potential
•    Developing a diversified export-led growth strategy

As enablers of such economic transformation (and whilst learning from examples in South Korea or Brazil or China) this report identifies amongst others infrastructure development and SME financing.
Also investing in human in capital is a key factor and the 2013 EFMD Africa Conference will therefore focus on “Entrepreneurship and Management Education in Africa”.  This event takes place  13-15 November 2013 and is hosted by Groupe IAM - Institut Africain de Management.

More specifically, economic growth on the African continent and demand for local managers backs the need for raising the level of African Business Schools, which are gradually reaching international standards.  More diplomas are being awarded. There is an opening on the international level. Closer ties are being made with companies.   Moreover, western Business Schools are showing an increased interested in Africa, some have opened up campuses. There is an enormous demand for management education.  Good management education is key to economic growth and social wealth. A variety of corporate and academic speakers from the four corners of the globe will provide input and lead discussions around African Management Education.

Also deeper regional integration and foreign direct investment are cited in the report as key enablers for economic transformation.  The Ernst&Young risk radar in the report presents a snapshot of the potential issues that could impact organisations doing business in Africa.  One of the strategies to mitigate potential risks is to invest in workforce development and training.   Finding the right workers is indeed a key challenge and the development of new markets is strongly intertwined with workforces with the necessary skills.

The EAIR Forum 2013 Rotterdam Forum Programme Committee and the EAIR Executive Board is delighted to hereby inform all colleagues and friends of EAIR and everyone that is interested in EAIR, that the official registration for the 35th Annual EAIR Forum “The Impact of Higher Education: Addressing the Challenges of the 21st Century” is open.

The 2013 EAIR Rotterdam Forum will take place from Wednesday 28 August till Saturday 31 August 2013 at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Please note: The early bird registration deadline is closing on 1 July 2013 so make sure your Forum registration is done in time! For the 2013 EAIR Rotterdam Forum registration form, please go to: EAIR Registration.

For more information regarding the Forum registration, please go to the Conference website. Information about the preliminary timetable, hotels, travel, academic events, social events, tracks and keynote speakers can be found on the 2013 EAIR Rotterdam Forum website.

The Erasmus University is centrally located near the river in one of the most vibrant cities of the Netherlands. Being the main port of Europe, Rotterdam is a multicultural experience with outstanding museums and restaurants and well known for its modern architecture. The Erasmus University itself has a world wide reputation in the areas of economics, business administration and health, strengthened by law, social sciences, history and arts, and philosophy. Students from all over the world follow Dutch and English language bachelor’s programmes as the basis for leading international master’s specialisations at the interface of economics, health and society.

Please visit http://www.eair.nl/forum/rotterdam regularly for the updated news about the 2013 EAIR Rotterdam Forum.

The Henry Mintzberg, IMPM & EFMD Special Workshop will take place on 16th May in Brussels on the theme: "Developing Practicing Managers and their Organisations".

The workshop will be led by led by Henry Mintzberg, Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies, McGill University, Desautels Faculty of Management, CA together with his two colleagues Dr. Leslie K. Breitner, Cycle Director, IMHL and IMPM Programmes and Dora Koop, Director, McGill University Executive Institute.

Do not miss this unique opportunity to discuss new ways to engage in management education and development with academics, training professionals and staff of corporate academies. Join colleagues and peers from business schools including INSEAD, IESE, Rotterdam School of Management, Vlerick Business School, ESCP Europe and Oxford Said Business School as well as corporate representatives from L'Oréal, GDF Suez University, SAFRAN, Eli Lilly and Company, Rabobank and Novo Nordisk.

The workshop will tap into the years of learning from the International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM.org), founded in 1996, and a family of spin-off programs that have been designed to build on that experience. Picking up where Henry Mintzberg left off in his book Managers not MBAs,, the IMPM has made significant progress in rethinking education and development for people well into their managerial careers.  The pedagogy is built around the belief that managers will invest by building on their own experiences and involves a number of pedagogical innovations such as; managerial mindsets, morning reflections, managerial exchanges, friendly consulting (on managers’ challenges), competency sharing, IMpact teams, and novel seating arrangements.

Participants in this workshop will not only hear about these new ideas but also live them in the design.  To open, they will be asked to share their concerns for management education and development, and to close, they will reflect on the consequences of the day’s learning for their own programmes.

If you have any questions please contact Virginie HEREDIA-ROSA virginie.heredia-rosa@efmd.org

For the last thirty years, EFMD has been organising its yearly case writing competition with the aim of encouraging the writing of case materials  and the 2012 winner in the category Corporate Social Responsibility, sponsored by IE Business School, is:

Novo Nordisk: Managing Sustainability at Home and Abroad

The case was written by Jette Steen Knudsen from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and Dana Brown from EM Lyon Business School in France. This case was written to help students develop skills in analyzing the potential strategic purposes of sustainability when applied to a global business context. The case focuses both on internal organization issues in a multinational organization, as well as on how to develop a sustainability strategy in a highly competitive business context in China.  Authors Steen Knudsen and Brown also tackle general issues in terms of how to organise initiatives across a large global company and how to stand out from competitors. Students can work on the development of an integrated strategy for Novo Nordisk, discussing the political and social issues that must be addressed in any market entry to China.

More in practice, this case study deals with the opportunities and challenges faced by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk with regard to its sustainability approach in China as of 2012. Novo Nordisk is well known for striving to integrate its business activities in a financially, environmentally, and socially responsible way. Novo Nordisk has been active in China for more than 50 years; however, since the Chinese economy has expanded tremendously, this increase in wealth and a more sedentary Western lifestyle have led to growing problems with obesity. As a result, China’s insulin market is booming.

The authors of this case elaborate on how Novo Nordisk faces new challenges concerning how best to organize its triple bottom line programme in a way that ensures a comprehensive approach throughout the organization, yet allows Novo Nordisk China to adopt initiatives that fit the Chinese business context.

The annual EFMD Case Writing Competition is organised in partnership with ecch. This year saw a record number of 211 high quality entries. Also the winning cases from the previous years in the CSR category are available from ecch.  Actually, it is two cases developed by INSEAD faculty members,  for 2011 the case is about Walmart’s launch of Love, Earth - a one billion dollar line of sustainable jewellery - told from the perspective of an NGO activist.  The 2010 winner in the Corporate Social Responsibility category was  a case on Agility: a global logistics company and local humanitarian partner based in Kuwait.
 
The list of winners for all categories is on the EFMD website, as well as details for the  EFMD Case Writing Competition in general.

The winning case from the "Best of the Best" category has now being evaluated by ecch and EFMD is delighted to announce that -

Inclusive Business Models: Planting the Seeds of Change: The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, Lea Stadtler and Gilbert Probst, University of Geneva, CH 

has been selected as the 2012 "Best of the Best Case Award". Many congratulations to Lea Stadtler and Gilbert Probst from the University of Geneva.

"Our case illustrates the challenging and inspiring journey of establishing an efficient commodity exchange in Ethiopia by means of an inclusive public-private partnership. Given the technological challenges in the country and the deep mistrust of many of the stakeholders involved, this was no easy task. Once the seeds of change had been planted, however, the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) experienced a period of strong growth, which, in turn, led to new challenges.

We are really honored to receive the "Best of the Best" category of the internationally well-known EFMD Case Writing Competition. It is also a great timing since it conincides with the creation of our Geneva PPP Center: a university center to serve as a hub and catalyst for PPP-related research projects. Our thanks go to all case stakeholders involved, especially Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, and the reviewers who nominated the case."


Choosing the “Best of the Best” award is always so difficult due to the outstanding nature of all the case involved so we would like to once again congratulate all of the Category Winners.

 2012 Category Winners

• Corporate Social Responsibility: Novo Nordisk: Managing Sustainability at Home and Abroad, written by Jette Steen Knudsen, Copenhagen Business School, DK and Dana Brown, EMLYON Business School, FR
  
  
• Entrepreneurship: ENVIU: Starting World Changing Companies, written by Luca Berchicci and Giovanna Domingues Sanches, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, NL
  
  
• Family Business: Bavaria and the Swinkels Family: Brewing a Sticky Brand, written by Benoit Leleux and Jan Van der Kaaij, IMD, CH
  
  
• Finance and Banking: Irish Schools: Sovereign Risk in Social Infrastructure PPP, written by Pierre Hillion and Jean Wee, INSEAD
  
  
• Emerging Chinese Global Competitors: Hard Choices: Best Buy and Five Star in China_Cases A , B and the Industry Note, written by Terence Tsai, Zhu Jianhua and Xu Leiping, CEIBS (China Europe International Business School), CN
  
  
• Supply Chain Management: Danfoss - Global Manufacturing Footprint, written by Torben Pedersen and Jacob Pyndt, Copenhagen Business School, DK
  
  
• Euro-Mediterranean Managerial Practices and Issues: Launch of Durra: Women in Islamic Banking, written by Alexandra Roth and David T.A. Wesley, Northeastern University, US
  
  
• African Business Cases: Nuru Energy (A): Financing a Social Enterprise - Nuru Energy (B): From Breakdowns to Breakthroughs, Filipe Santos and Anne-Marie Carrick, INSEAD
  
  
• Public Sector Innovations: Restoring the British Museum, written by Anand Narasimhan and Jean-Louis Barsoux, IMD, CH
  
  
• Responsible Leadership: VOLTIUM, Inc, written by Eloy del Potro, Juan Carlos Vasquez Dodero, Jose Ramon Pin Arboledas and Guido Stein, IESE Business School, ES
  
  
• Inclusive Business Models: Planting the Seeds of Change: The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, Lea Stadtler and Gilbert Probst, University of Geneva, CH  
  
  
• MENA Business Cases: Chabros International Group: A World of Wood, written by Paul W. Beamish and Bassam Farah, Richard Ivey School of Business, CA
  
  
• Latin American Business Cases: Veja: Sneakers With a Conscience, written by Oana Branzei and Kim Poldner, Richard Ivey School of Business, CA
  
  
• Indian Management Issues and Opportunities: Bayer CropScience in India (A): Against Child Labor, written by Charles Dhanaraj, Indiana University Kelley School of Business, US, Oana Branzei and Satyajeet Subramanian, Richard Ivey School of Business, CA

We would like to thank all of our sponsors of their continued support of the Case Writing Competition. Abstracts for the cases are available on the EFMD website and all of the cases are available on the ecch website.

The 2013 competition will open twoards the end of May. If you would like further information please contact Inês PROENÇA ines.proenca@efmd.org

Brazilian respondents (79%) are the most positive about the positive influence of companies on society, followed by 73% in India, 60% in the USA, 59% in China and 56% in Turkey.

This survey was requested by the European Commission, Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry.  Over 32.000 citizens responded and it was carried out in October-November 2012. The report Flash Eurobarometer 363 was published in April 2013.

In comparison, 52% of European citizens believe that companies have a positive influence on society, while 41% believe companies have a negative influence. Within the EU, respondents in Denmark (85%) and Finland (83%) are much more positive than the European average and especially compared to the 36% in Italy and in Slovenia.

The main positive effects of companies on society – as considered by citizens in the 34 countries in this survey – are: creating jobs, contributing to economic growth and providing training to their employees.  The Europeans consider corruption (41%), reducing staff (39%) and environmental pollution (also 39%) as the main negative effects of companies on society.  Corruption is much more widely mentioned in India (71%) and China (65%) compared to the EU.

Moreover, European respondents are much more likely to say that small and medium sized companies (71%), rather than large companies (48%), make efforts to behave in socially responsible ways.

On the other hand, just over one third of Europeans (36%) say they feel informed about what companies do with regard to socially responsible behaviour whereas  79% say they are interested to know this.  Here, respondents in India (69%), the USA (63%) and Brazil (57%) are more likely to feel informed about what companies do to behave in a socially responsible way than those in the EU (36%).

Respondents in India (70%), the USA (59%) and Brazil (45%) are most likely to think that citizens themselves should take the lead in influencing companies' actions. Also Europeans think that citizens themselves should take the lead role in influencing the actions of companies through their decisions about what they buy (49%), followed by company management (40%) and public authorities (36%).

Flash Eurobarometer reports - this one is number 363 and also has factsheets in the national languages.

The greatest opportunities for learning organisations to make an impact on the business are – according to the 612 respondents to this survey: building an agile organisation (45.2%), increasing revenue (37.8%), increasing market share (36.6%), improving channel effectiveness (34.0%) and increasing speed to market (33.1%).

This research report “Transforming learning into a strategic business enabler” is based on the survey done by Saba and Human Capital Media to assess the state of the learning industry. The survey consisted to 57 questions and received 612 responses.

Other interesting findings include:

• The background of the Chief Learning Officer or Learning Executive is for 41.2% from learning and development, 28.7% have a human resources background and 21.6% of CLOs or Learning Executives come from line business.
• For the “learning” reporting structure, 52.6% report to the Chief Human Resources Officer and in second place come 29.6% that report to the CEO.
• The top five internal departments as key customers for the learning function are: leadership (75.5%), line business units (72.1%), customer services (60.4%), sales (57.5%) and compliance (47.9%)
• When asking the learning function which of the internal customers are the most challenging to serve, three groups stand out: sales, line business units and leadership.
• The L&D function delivers training primarily to internal employees, however, the more globally distributed companies are more likely to deliver training outside their employee base.
• The most commonly used approaches to increase learning alignment are post-event student evaluation, formal learning requirements planning and annual mapping processes of learning and business strategies.
• Learning organisations perceived as strategic enablers were much more likely to help business achieve the business impacts asked about.

The full 33-page report is available here.

2013 EFMD Higher Education Research Conference

We have great pleasure in inviting you to register for the 2013 EFMD Higher Education Research Conference that will be hosted by the Université Paris Dauphine in Paris on the 23 - 24 May, 2013.
The theme for the conference will be - read more

Purpose, Performance and Impact of Higher Education Institutions and Business Schools

The conference will bring together researchers with a focus on higher education and a specific interest in business schools to discuss their original work. The papers selected to be presented will focus on the following themes:

• Impact of HEIs and business schools (economic, political, social, cultural)
• Mergers and strategic alliances of HEIs and business schools
• Measurement and determinants of performance of HEIs and business schools

We are also proud to announce that three prestigious scholars from the field will present keynote speeches at the conference:

• Jordi Canals, Dean of IESE Business School is one of the leading thinkers worldwide on the future of business schools and the future of the management profession. Keynote speech: The Impact of Business Schools on Society.
  
  
• Ellen Hazelkorn, Director of Research and Enterprise, and Dean of the Graduate Research School, Dublin Institute of Technology, also leads the Higher Education Policy Research Unit. Ellen is a consultant to the OECD Programme on Institutional Management of Higher Education, a member of the Board of the Higher Education Authority and is also associated with the International Association of Universities. Keynote speech: Globalisation and Competitiveness: Challenges to the Purpose, Performance and Impact of Higher Education.
  
  
• Ken Starkey, Professor of Management and Organisational Learning at Nottingham University Business School, an author of numerous articles on management education and a regular commentator and consultant on leadership issues. Keynote speech: Institutionalising the Business School/Deconstructing the Business School.

For further information and to register, please visit www.efmd.org/herc2013

We are looking forward to meeting you in Paris.

• Andrew Pettigrew, Professor of Strategy and Organisation, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Ulrich Hommel, Director, EFMD Research and Surveys Unit, Professor of Finance, EBS Business School, Germany

With the aim of encouraging the writing of case materials, EFMD has been organising its annual Case Writing Competition for many years and the 2012 winner in the category “African Business Cases”, sponsored by CEIBS, is:

Nuru Energy: Financing a Social Enterprise
These two cases were written by Filipe Santos and Anne-Marie Carrick, at INSEAD. The cases examine a social venture with the ambitious goal of providing affordable and effective lighting solutions to 800 million poor people without access to the electricity grid in sub‐Saharan Africa initially, and later in India.  The central theme is to assess the merits and drawbacks of the different funding alternatives.

The case describes the challenges of growing a social enterprise in Africa with a dual role – making a profit and a social impact. The authors explore in detail the evolution of Nuru in the sense of:

• initial motivation for the venture
• definition of the organisation’s vision and mission
• bottom‐up design strategy
• development of a sustainable business model
• financing from different market‐based and donor‐based alternatives

The annual EFMD Case Writing Competition is organised in partnership with ecch and this year saw a record number of 211 high quality entries.  In the category “African Business Cases” two other cases were highly commended:

The Beauty of Sorbet, written by Margaret Sutherland and Verity Hawarden, Gordon Institute of Business Science, South Africa.  This case chronicles the origins and growth of Sorbet, a chain of beauty salons targeting upper income women in South African metropolitan areas. The authors explain how the beauty salon experience was redefined and focus primarily on brand positioning, brand personality, employee branding, aligning the business model, as well as the brand promise and brand extensions.

The Black Rhino, written by Sierra Cook, Trisha Bailey, and Edward Freeman, at Darden School of Business, USA. This case presents John Hume.  Both as a businessman and a rhino  advocate, he was contemplating an innovative idea that might help stop the decline of the black rhino: the creation of a market for legalized black rhino hunting. The authors focus on the elements of Creative Capitalism and Stakeholder Theory and highlight the many sides to this issue such as the polarising and contradictory nature of hunting; the 'unfair' illegalisation of the rhino horn trade and generally the question of humanity’s priority over either the environment or other animals.

The full list of winners for all categories is on the EFMD website, as well as details for the EFMD Case Writing Competition in general.

Both emerging and developed economies are focusing on innovation and competing globally for talent, resources and market shares.  In parallel, business models have been redefined and the workplace has been redesigned. This global research project (a partnership between INSEAD and the World Economic Forum) is based on the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), however, the pace of adoption of technologies has been fast and recent and the editors underline the challenge of isolating the impact of ICTs.

Among the expressions of transformation is the development of new skills that are important in knowledge-based, information-rich societies that are crucial for employment.  The report underlines that mobile telecoms continue to offer unprecedented opportunities for inclusive growth, however, very little progress has been made this year towards reducing the digital divide.

The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) covers four sub-indexes namely the environment, usage and impact sub-indexes.  The fourth ‘Readiness sub-index’ is on its turn divided in three pillars: infrastructure and digital content, affordability and skills.  The skills pillar gauges the ability of a society to make effective use of ICTs thanks to basic educational skills captured by quality of the educational system, level of adult literacy and rate of secondary education enrolment.  Specifically on skills the highest rated countries are: Finland, Singapore, Belgium, Switzerland, Qatar, Canada, Taiwan, Iceland and Sweden.

The data used for this research are the most recent available figures from various international agencies and national authorities and listed in detail.  In terms of overall results the report highlights that two groups of economies dominate:

• The Northern European countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark (in rank order) continue to feature in the top 10
• The Asian tigers: Singapore, Taiwan (China), the Republic of Korea and Hong Kong SAR boast outstanding business and innovation environments.

Other findings include that:

• Digitally connecting the hemisphere remains a key challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Sub-Saharan Africa has continued to make significant efforts to build its ICT infrastructure
• The Middle East and North Africa region boasts one of the most diverse performances in the world
• Europe’s fixed and mobile telecom networks need a massive upgrade.

The report also covers studies of national experiences of leveraging ICTs, namely Colombia’s digital agenda, the metamorphosis to a knowledge-based society in Rwanda and e-government in Latin America. Additionally, there are comprehensive profiles for each of the 144 economies covered in this years’ report (which is in its 12th edition) as well as data tables for each of the 54 variables composing the Networked Readiness Index. Such variables include for instance accessibility of digital content,  tertiary education enrolment rate, quality of management tools, capacity for innovation and extent of staff training.

This 385 pages report “The Global Information Technology Report 2013” was released early April 2013 and is available here.  It is the result of a collaboration between INSEAD and the World Economic Forum.

This new research reveals that although a small but growing number of women in Saudi Arabia are actively challenging the status quo, further regulatory, educational and socio-cultural changes are urgently needed to promote women’s entrepreneurship. The study was carried by the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI), in collaboration with Ashridge Business School and builds on the 37 aspiring and established Saudi women entrepreneurs engaged in a series of workshops and in-depth interviews.

The research suggests Saudi women entrepreneurs often lack essential competencies and capabilities for successful entrepreneurship, including:

• Self-confidence: Saudi women entrepreneurs can present themselves as confident and strong, but often suffer from an underlying lack of self-belief
• Risk-taking: Female entrepreneurs show courage in following their chosen career path,  but are frequently averse to assuming tangible risks
• Autonomy: A lack of self-reliance, self-sufficiency and personal initiative, often resulting from social restrictions imposed upon women
• Self esteem:  The women interviewed experienced powerful emotional reactions to the gender-specific challenges they face.

Saudi women entrepreneurs also face obstacles in regulations such as restricted access to government services, restricted licensing options,  the requirement for a ‘mudeer’ (male manager) for  public-facing business and the more general lack of support services such as transport and childcare.

The 12-page summary report and podcasts  “Giving voice to women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia” include a number of recommendations such as:

• Review and reform women’s education to increase their economic participation, especially to ensure greater focus on fostering entrepreneurship competencies, skills and qualities
• Create opportunities for women entrepreneurs to support each other
• Address gender-specific challenges in the regulatory environment
• Improve women-targeted entrepreneurship initiatives and funding sources
• Establish a central information and advisory service, and provide training support
• Invest in support services and infrastructure
• Promote awareness of the positive economic role and contribution of Saudi businesswomen

Additionally, the 2013 EFMD Conference in the MENA Region has a dedicated session to the challenges facing entrepreneurship in the region and the role of women entrepreneurs.  Contributors are Azza Al Quabaisi, Self-represented Emirati Artist in Abu Dhabi and Nadia Wassef, Co-founder of Diwan Bookstores. This event will take place from April 14 to 16, 2013, hosted by Abu Dhabi University.

Restoring The British Museum  

This case is written by Anand Narasimhan and Jean-Louis Barsoux, at IMD, Switzerland. The cases focused on the British Museum, a cultural institution that was once in danger of becoming an embarrassing monument to British imperialism which is now viewed with pride. The case provides detailed insights into how the new director MacGregor presided over a startling transformation in the image and fortunes of the British Museum – with net income quadrupling in nine years and visitor numbers reaching record highs (over 6 million).

The authors describe the overriding challenge to change an entrenched yet fragmented culture and to reaffirm why the institution mattered, both for internal and external stakeholders.  More in particular:
•    MacGregor defined a purpose that resonated with all stakeholders, both inside and outside
•    He delivered a consistent message about the distinctiveness of the BM
•    He also carved out a novel role for himself as a kind of “cultural diplomat”

A key lesson here is that incoming executives often have more latitude for recasting the job than they think, and they should beware of getting stuck in their predecessor’s framing of the job.

The annual EFMD Case Writing Competition is organised in partnership with ecch and this year saw a record number of 211 high quality entries. Also the winning cases from the previous years in the “Public Sector Innovations” category  are available from ecch and include for 2011:

AquaSure: Project Finance - Victorian Desalination Plant. This case was written by Pierre Hillion and Jean Wee, at INSEAD.

The Aquasure consortium won the concession to finance, build, maintain and operate the A$5.72 billion Victorian Desalination plant under a public-private partnership initiative. Financing took place during the period of the global financial crisis and there was a subsequent political backlash. The authors describe in detail the structure of project finance; how risk is allocated and mitigated within the structure; the pros and cons of public-private partnerships; the discount rate as a measure of the transfer of risk and last but not least political risks in public-private partnerships.

The full list of winners for all categories is on the EFMD website, as well as details for the  EFMD Case Writing Competition in general.

With the aim of encouraging the writing of case materials, EFMD has been organising its annual Case Writing Competition for many years and the 2012 winner in the category “Indian Management Issues and Opportunities”, sponsored by Emerald, is:

Bayer CropScience in India: Against Child Labor
This case was written by Charles Dhanaraj, Indiana University Kelley School of Business and Oana Branzei as well as Satyajeet Subramanian, at the Richard Ivey School of Business, USA. The case examines how Bayer CropScience addressed the issue of child labour in its cotton seed supply chain in rural India.  The authors explore in detail Bayer's decision whether, when and how to launch a self-run programme that would take direct responsibility for tracking and eradicating child labour in rural India. More in particular, this case allows to understand

• the role of value-based leadership and value-driven strategy in grappling with a significant social issue
• the embeddedness of business and social issues in emerging market contexts
• the features of crisis management in multinationals when facing intensifying pressures from local and global stakeholders.

The annual EFMD Case Writing Competition is organised in partnership with ecch and this year saw a record number of 211 high quality entries.  In the category “Indian Management Issues and Opportunities” two other cases were highly commended:

Tata Power: Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, written by Trupti Amit Karkhanis, Indian Education Society's Management College and Research Centre (IES-MCRC) and Atanu Adhikari, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, both in India. This case describes the strategic dilemma involved in making a decision on the method of operation on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The authors explain how for decades CSR activities had been undertaken as a voluntary initiative by the employees of Tata Power Company, without a separate CSR department.
More recently with large scale expansions, the need to have CSR as a separate entity was felt. The authors elaborate in-depth on the dilemma whether or not  to create a separate CSR department and explore:

• various possibilities that lead to corporate sustainability through CSR activities
• assessment of cost and benefits of CSR
• business opportunities through CSR activities
• win-win strategies that will encompass multiple stakeholders

Prayas by Sanofi-Aventis in India: written by Harit Palan and Anand Kumar Jaiswal, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in India and Jagdip Singh and    Garima Sharma, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, USA. Making healthcare accessible to the bottom of the pyramid is the focus of this case and it presents the evolution of the Prayas model from its inception to its current state as well as the company’s business strategies around it. The authors focus particularly on how Sanofi-Aventis integrated its social and profit objectives.

The full list of winners for all categories is on the EFMD website, as well as details for the EFMD Case Writing Competition in general.

Specialist publishers and partners of EFMD, Greenleaf Publishing and GSE Research have launched a new online collection of books and journals in sustainability, CSR, corporate governance, ethics, environmental policy and management, and related fields.  

Containing almost 400 volumes, the Sustainable Organization Library (SOL) gives instant access to an international collection, for use in study, research and executive education.  The books and journals in SOL have never previously been available as a collection, and many have never been available at all digitally.

The Sustainable Organization Library also includes subscriptions to Greenleaf’s Journal of Corporate Citizenship, and Business Peace and Sustainable Development journals, and draws on material from a number of international publishing partners. More information is available at www.greenleaf-publishing.com/sol

Greenleaf Director John Peters said: “There has never been a more pressing need to bring sustainability into business practice and management education. This can’t be seen as ‘nice to do’ any more – it’s must do.”

“Sustainability is one of the key issues for the 21st century – this is an exceptional collection that will be of great value to business schools, companies and NGO's all over the world,” said Prof. Eric Cornuel, CEO & Director General, EFMD.

SOL is available to buy outright, or on an annual subscription, and is hosted on the well-established IngentaConnect platform. SOL operates under the simple and straightforward SERU (Shared e-Resource Understanding) licence created by NISO, the US National Standards Institute, with no digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. This makes SOL available to all members of an organization.

In the SOL collection, each chapter or paper– more than 5,000 – is tagged individually, so users can easily find individual items that are relevant to them.

Professor Simon Mercado, Associate Dean at Nottingham Business School commented: “This is a welcome innovation for all of us committed to responsible leadership values and sustainability-related research and education.”

Greenleaf Publishing was launched 21 years ago following the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and now has representation in the USA and India, as well as publishing offices in Leeds and Sheffield, UK. Greenleaf is an independent publisher, which works in partnership with many international organizations including EFMD and PRME, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education.

To review our book titles, or if you are interested in writing for Greenleaf, go to our site www.greenleaf-publishing.com.

Free trials of the SOL collection are available to all EFMD members. To request a free trial, please forward this to your institution’s librarian. For more information, email sales@greenleaf-publishing.com or john.peters@greenleaf-publishing.com. Or contact Greenleaf Publishing, Aizlewood’s Mill, Nursery Street, Sheffield S3 8GG, UK; telephone +44 114 282 3475.

Management Capacity as the Key to Europe’s Future?

EFMD offers an open invitation to a High Level Workshop on April 23 at EFMD in Brussels.
Europe has enormous wealth in terms of intellectual, scientific, cultural and human resources. Yet, it is in danger of becoming a secondary region, as we seem to be incapable of bringing our strength to bear.

ESMU was created in 1986 as an international think tank and a non-profit association to promote the strategic management of European universities. ESMU runs a number of international projects in the field of higher education, cooperation between Higher Education Institutions, companies and public administrations. It organises management development and leadership trainings targeted at senior university managers. ESMU also conducts surveys in order to advise the European Commission on its development policy.

ESMU is a very well respected network with an excellent reputation among universities all over Europe. It has built close links with a senior pool of experts in the field of HEI management.

The ESMU portfolio of projects and its activities will then be integrated into the EFMD Projects Unit that will take over the role of ESMU in the various EU-funded projects.
 
The ESMU trainings programmes, such as the winter school in partnership with HUMANE for senior university managers and the capacity building activities targeted at Central European Universities, will be managed by EFMD going forward.
 
The incorporation of the ESMU activities will allow EFMD to reinforce the contacts with the EU and complement EFMD’s role as a EU advocate for management education.

This is an exciting new strategic development for EFMD that comes at the right moment, with the launch of the new EU Framework Programmes in 2014 opening a whole range of new global opportunities to continue to promote the strategic management of universities.

From 20 April 2013 – for more information please contact: projects@efmd.org or 02/629.08.10. If you would like more information on EFMD please contact Helke Carvalho, Deputy Director General, helke.carvalho@efmd.org or Christophe Terrasse, Director of Projects christophe.terrasse@efmd.org

EFMD would like to warmly congratulate the: School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University and the School of Economics and Management, Tongji University who have just been awarded EQUIS accreditation. This takes the number of accredited schools to 142 across 39 countries.

Professor Stephen Cheung, Dean of the School of Business at HKBU said, "EQUIS accreditation marks the School’s entrance into the elite circle of business education and we are very proud to join the EQUIS community of business schools throughout the world,dedicated to high-quality business education, research and consultancy services. This international recognition attests to our commitment to strengthen and integrate business ethics, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility into our pedagogical and research agenda. The School of Business is now among the very few of the world's business schools to be triple-accredited," The newly-acquired EQUIS accreditation further affirms the School's reputation and determination in providing high-quality business education in an ever-changing global economy.

"EQUIS accreditation is a very effective catalyzer for the globalisation of business schools. The accreditation of Tongji SEM is a great milestone on its expedition to becoming a world class business school for building a sustainable society," said Prof. Jiazhen Huo, Dean, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University.

Prof. Michael Osbaldeston, the EFMD Director of Quality Service added, "We are delighted to welcome the HKBU and Tongji SEM into the EQUIS community. Accreditation from EFMD is one of the best and most complete ways to certify the actual quality of a business school as accreditation involves an extensive self-assessment by the school, the visit of an international review team who spend several days interviewing many different people in the School, and finally a very experienced jury evaluating the assessment and findings of the review team to determine whether the School should be granted accreditation. There are currently no substitutes for such an in-depth assessment of quality and HKBU and Tongji SEM should be commended for their commitment to excellence."

EQUIS is not primarily focused on the MBA or any other specific programme as its scope covers all of programmes offered by an institution from the first degree up to the Ph.D. Institutions that are accredited by EQUIS must demonstrate not only high general quality in all dimensions of their activities, but also a high degree of internationalisation. With companies recruiting worldwide, with students choosing to get their education outside their home countries, and with schools building alliances across borders and continents, there is a rapidly growing need for them to be able to identify those institutions in other countries that deliver high quality education in international management. EQUIS also believes that business schools should be as closely connected to the real world of business as schools of medicine are to working hospitals. There must be a balance between high academic quality and the professional relevance provided by close interaction with the corporate world. EQUIS attaches particular importance to the development of managerial and entrepreneurial skills and fosters a students sense of global responsibility.

More information on EQUIS is available at www.efmd.org/equis

The Executive Training Programme (ETP) provides European Companies with the knowledge and skills necessary to overcome business, language and cultural barriers in Japan and Korea, in order to take advantage of the many trade and investment opportunities available with these two countries.

The current cohort of participants have already started their immersions in Japan and Korea following a well-received inception module at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. The EU ambassadors and delegations, along with Waseda University in Tokyo and Yonsei University in Seoul, have welcomed the participants who are now enjoying intensive language training. The ETP training providers have been chosen for their international recognition and experience. Together with them, the EU ensures that ETP participants are given the very latest information, know-how and skills they need to succeed in Japan and Korea.
 
The European Commission is now seeking new candidates for the ETP 2013/2014 cycle. In order to provide interested candidates and stakeholders with more details on the EU-funded Executive Training Programme (ETP), the ETP team organised a series of webinars. You may view the slides from the webinar here.  You may download the recording and listen to the full webinar here.

The ETP is designed to help you and your company succeed by improving your knowledge of the Japanese or Korean language, cultures and business practices while leveraging EU networks. This infographic summarizes the benefits of participating in the ETP. You can download it here,
www.euetp.eu/sites/default/files/content/infographic/infographic-etp.pdf

The next training cycle of the ETP begins in November 2013. The enrolment is open, apply now via the ETP website: www.euetp.eu

• The skills I learned through the ETP undoubtedly helped me guide my company towards success in Japan. The programme gave me the tools to do it
  Richard Thornley, President Rolls-Royce Japan Co. Ltd., Japan
• There are a few things in life which you can put your finger on and say ”this really changed my life.” ETP is one of them
  Vanessa Åsell Tsuruga, Sports Marketing Executive, ASICS Skandinavia Sweden

EFMD will be organising a Quality Services Information Session in Santiago de Chile, hosted by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Escuela de Administración. The session will be given by Professor Michael Osbaldeston, Director of Quality Services, EFMD.

The EFMD Open House - Quality Services Information Session will take place on Thursday, 25 April 2013.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn more about EFMD and its activities around the world.

The session is designed for institutions that have little or no knowledge of the EFMD global network and its quality services porfolio. The information session will provide a basic introduction to  EQUIS (EFMD Quality Improvement System), EPAS (EFMD Programme Accreditation System) and EDAF (EFMD Deans Across Frontiers development system) and the underlying concepts of accreditation, mentoring and quality improvement. Special emphasis will be put on two of EFMD’s systems: EPAS and EDAF. The information session will be relevant for Business School Deans or their delegates with responsibility for quality assurance and/or accreditations. This is highly recommended for any School that wants to learn more about  EFMD membership, accreditation and development.

After the information session, participants will have ample time for questions and also have the opportunity to discuss individually the services which EFMD offers. If you wish to schedule a face-to-face meeting with Professor Osbaldeston in the afternoon of the 25 April please contact magdalena.wanot@efmd.org. This is highly recommended for any School that is considering applying for EFMD accreditation or development systems and the extra knowledge acquired during the session will be helpful in this process.

Do not miss the opportunity to explore EFMD and its accreditation and mentoring systems. The programme of the session, practical information and online registration form is available here. Find out more about the EDAF, EPAS & EQUIS.

The 2013 edition of the EQUIS documents for the first time broadly recognizes the role of business schools as ‘globally responsible citizens’ and as advocates of ethical and sustainable behavior in business and society. ‘Ethics, Responsibility & Sustainability (E∙R∙S)’ has been added as a transversal feature to the EQUIS system implying that these aspects are now covered throughout the EQUIS Standards & Criteria (S&C) – with a dedicated chapter (replacing the chapter on ‘Contributions to the Community’) as well as sections in most other chapters. E∙R∙S is therefore positioned in the same way as ‘Internationalization’ and ‘Corporate Connections’ (see Figure).

Figure: The EQUIS Criteria Framework















The approach adopted by EFMD reflects the belief that E∙R∙S is relevant for every aspect of business school management and operations. The starting point for business schools should be to reflect on the role of E∙R∙S in mission, vision and strategy (EQUIS S&C, chapter 1). The adopted strategy should be backed up with clearly defined objectives, specific milestones and adequate resource support. It is further assumed that the strategy is broadly communicated to the various stakeholder groups.

Business schools should integrate E∙R∙S into their educational offerings, which include degree programmes (EQUIS S&C, chapter 2) and non-degree executive education (EQUIS S&C, chapter 6). Reporting should differentiate between offerings dedicated to E∙R∙S and coverage in other programmes. In the case of degree programmes, detailed information should be provided on how E∙R∙S is integrated in programme design, delivery and assessment. It is certainly expected that applicant schools have moved beyond the still widely used approach of simply tagging on an E∙R∙S module to the curriculum with no obvious connection to the programme core. In addition, E∙R∙S should be linked to all facets of student management, which includes recruitment, admissions, scholarships and awards, diversity management, personal development as well as support provided for (extra-) curricular student engagement (EQUIS S&C, chapter 3).

The new standard will challenge business schools to reflect on how E∙R∙S can be mapped into faculty management (EQUIS S&C, chapter 4) and how faculty can be encouraged to integrate E∙R∙S into research & development (EQUIS S&C, chapter 5). Applicants should also present evidence that they are actively contributing to the ethical, responsible and sustainable development of businesses and business practices (EQUIS S&C, chapter 10). Explicit policies should be in place to ensure that E∙R∙S is firmly embedded in the School’s infrastructure management, operations, and administration (EQUIS S&C, chapter 7).

A transversal chapter dedicated to E∙R∙S (EQUIS S&C, chapter 9) represents the anchor of the new standard. It gives Schools the opportunity to summarize their E∙R∙S-related achievements and to report on their contributions to the ethical, responsible and sustainable development of local as well as global communities.

The revised EQUIS documents are operational as of now. Schools in process must ensure that they comply with all E∙R∙S-related changes, which also includes an additional section in the EQUIS data sheet and revised information requirements for the Self-Assessment Report and the Base Room.

Given the holistic nature of the EQUIS framework and the emphasis placed on diversity, business schools will have considerable degrees of freedom in complying with the E∙R∙S standard. The introduction of E∙R∙S should therefore not be misinterpreted as a fundamental questioning of management education as practiced by most business schools today.

In recent years, many EFMD member institutions have adjusted their educational offerings, their research foci and in some cases even their strategic development trajectories to address issues such as global warming, unethical behavior of high-profile managers and business practices perceived to be socially irresponsible. These achievements have largely escaped public attention. With the revised EQUIS framework, business schools are given a more explicit opportunity to document their multi-faceted contributions to E∙R∙S and to achieve recognition for embracing their wider role in society.

If you have any questions or require further details on EQUIS please contact us via equis@efmd.org

The Quality Services Department at EFMD has provided accreditation services over the past 15 years. These services have the aim of improving management education in Higher Education institutions by establishing internationally agreed standards and assessing institutions against them. Institutions deemed to meet the standards are accredited and thus gain international recognition. EFMD accreditation is recognised worldwide by potential students, employers, other clients, and the media (often being a pre-requisite for entry to rankings). It is the process of striving to meet these standards that leads to quality improvement. The accreditation process is well established and consists of self-reflection and peer review followed by recommendations for improvement and, where appropriate, accreditation.

Beginning in 1997, the EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) was designed to assess the quality of a business school holistically and to grant accreditation to those that met its exacting standards. These standards cover the school’s governance and strategy, its resources, its faculty and their intellectual activity, its degree programmes and students, executive education and the school’s international focus on the business world. It should be noted that the EQUIS approach is rooted in respect for diversity and EQUIS therefore does not believe in “one best model” for a business school.

In recognition of the fact there are many excellent programmes offered in schools that may not yet be able to achieve EQUIS accreditation, in 2005 EFMD launched the EFMD Programme Accreditation System (EPAS). This is designed to assess in depth the design, delivery and graduate output of any business and/or management degree programme. Such programmes would normally be offered by a business school but EPAS also recognises that many other types of organisations offer business related programmes such as degrees in health or engineering management.

Because of the fact that EQUIS and EPAS between them can only touch maybe 500 schools which is a very small, and top end, proportion of the business schools community, EFMD launched EFMD Deans across Frontiers (EDAF) in 2011. This is a service designed to assist the management of business schools at any stage of their evolution to develop their institution further. By peer review, EDAF evaluates where the institution is currently positioned with respect to its key strategic objectives and it makes recommendations for improvements. EDAF then provides a 3-year mentoring process to assist the institution’s management to achieve its goals, which may include eventual accreditation.

The Quality Services Portfolio
The three systems (EQUIS, EPAS and EDAF) are now designed as a portfolio. Each of them is a free-standing quality improvement process dealing with different aspects of an institution. However they are also linked as a potential pathway between systems. For example an institution entering EDAF may either use it as part of its development trajectory or to aim in due course for EPAS accreditation for one or more of its programmes, or perhaps to achieve EQUIS. On request EDAF can provide a gap analysis on the key areas requiring improvement in order to achieve an accreditation.

An institution entering EPAS may just be seeking programme accreditation or it may use it to develop its range of programmes before aiming for EQUIS and it too can receive advice on its readiness for EQUIS as part of the EPAS process (EQUIS gap analysis). Alternatively an EPAS school could instead use the EDAF process to assist it to evaluate its gap to EQUIS accreditation and to receive guidance through mentoring to achieve its goal. In principle an EQUIS school might even wish to have one of its programmes, eg its doctoral programme, reviewed in depth by EPAS. However, this would require a change in the policy agreed by the EFMD membership some time ago that EQUIS schools should not be permitted to undergo EPAS.

Finally EQUIS and EPAS member schools (as part of their own social responsibility) are particularly welcome to sponsor EDAF schools in terms of supplying advisors and mentors and/or funding some of the EDAF costs. With this structure, EFMD and Quality Services offer a coherent portfolio of improvement and development services which are open to the full quality spectrum of business schools or institutions. For further information go to www.efmd.org

Chris Greensted is a Senior Advisor at EFMD. This post is taken from a recent Global Focus article "Peak Performance". The new Quality Services Portfolio Brochure is available here.

EFMD would like to warmly congratulate the following schools who have recently been awarded EPAS Accreditation -

• Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin University, Australia
  Master of Business Administration
  Bachelor of Commerce    
       
  
• HEC Management School, University of Liege, Belgium  
  Master in Business Engineering 

The Master in Business Engineering is the third programme at HEC-ULg to receive EPAS, following the successful accreditation of the Master in Management Sciences and Doctoral Programme in 2011.

"Accrediting our Master in Business Engineering was key for its international recognition. This third EPAS accredited programme at HEC-ULg, at the crossroad between quantitative analysis, technology and management, perfectly demonstrates that EFMD embraces diversity in education and academic innovation". Dr. Thomas Froehlicher, Director General & Dean Full Professor, Accenture Chair in Sustainable Strategy

“We are very proud of the EPAS accreditation that has recently been awarded to Deakin University’s Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Commerce.   Both programs have a reputation for delivering business education in a cutting-edge experiential and blended learning environment.  For the Faculty of Business and Law, the EPAS process encourages a rigorous strategic focus on our flagship programs and allows us to benchmark these programs internationally to ensure best practice.   EPAS also ensures that our pursuit of continuous improvement is embedded in an externally validated cycle of reviews.  We look forward to partnering with EFMD as we continue to drive an agenda of excellence in all the Faculty’s activities.”  Professor Gael McDonald, Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin University, Australia

The EPAS process considers a wide range of programme aspects including:

1.    The market positioning of the programme nationally and internationally
2.    The strategic position of the programme within its institution
3.    The design process including assessment of stakeholder requirements – particularly students and employers
4.    The programme objectives and intended learning outcomes
5.    The curriculum content and delivery system
6.    The extent to which the programme has an international focus and a balance between academic and managerial dimensions
7.    The depth and rigour of the assessment processes (relative to the degree level of the programme)
8.    The quality of the student body and of the programme’s graduates
9.    The institution’s resources allocated to support the programme
10.    The appropriateness of the faculty that deliver the programme
11.    The quality of the alumni and their career progression

EPAS has established itself as EFMD's Programme Accreditation system, next to the well-known EQUIS system, EFMD’s institutional accreditation service.  The feedback from the market has been tremendously positive, which is clearly reflected by the EPAS numbers after only 6 years of regular operation. Currently we have 76 accredited programmes from 58 institutions in 25 countries.  26% of the total are (E)MBAs, 28% are Masters, 29% are Bachelors, 3% are Doctoral Programmes and 14% are non-Bologna country-specific programmes. For more information on EPAS visit www.efmd.org/epas

It seems that not a day passes without an article about the uncertain future for higher education.  However, much of this is opinion and crystal ball gazing.  To provide clear direction for any school thinking about the future, CarringtonCrisp, the education market research specialists, working with EFMD, are planning a special new group market research study, titled 'See the Future'. 

Taking part will cost only €800.

The study will provide an overview on the future of management education from the student and business perspective – the role it should play in society, its position in higher education, the value to the potential student, the support it can provide for business and data on key trends in the marketplace. We will question four key audiences: prospective students, current students, alumni and corporates and ask these groups about five key areas:

•     attitudes to business,
•     the value of a business education,
•     sustainability and CSR,
•     internationalisation, and
•     the role of technology.

And provide reports based on audience, geography and business school, as well as a global view of the market place. The aim is to have at least 100 business schools take part and to capture the views of more than 10,000 respondents.  The study will take place in late April/early May with results from mid-late June.

For further details on how to take part please contact CarringtonCrisp by email at info@carringtoncrisp.com or by telephone on +44 207 229 7373 or Matthew Wood matthew.wood@efmd.org +32 2 629 08 10.

We hope that your school will take part in this fascinating study.

The 2013 EFMD Entrepreneurship Conference

...will take place on 4th - 5th March 2013, hosted by EOI Business School, Madrid, Spain. The theme of the conference is "Empowerment of Entrepreneurs for Growth".

Join colleagues and peers from across the globe for a mix on plenary sessions covering – Social Entrepreneurship, Youth Entrepreneurship & When Entrepreneurship Meets Educators and Students to an arrays of parallel sessions with presentations and cases covering many of the key issues facing entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship education and teaching.

• Internationalisation Strategies into BRIC Countries - A Comparison of Danish Family and Non-family Businesses
• Entrepreneurship: from Motivation to Start-Up
• Venture Philanthropy through New Radical Social Enteprises: An examination of Key Success Factors
• Is Entrepreneurship a Determinant of Economic Growth?
• Creating Social Entrepreneurial Opportunity: Preliminary Findings
• Designing a National Innovation System for Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprises
• Mapping the Environment of a Civic Entrepreneur
• Entrepreneurial Resilience: an Approach to the Concept in the Context of Start-up Companies
• Modern Open Platforms for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development - Case Presentation Aalto University, School of Business, Small Business Center
• The Reverse Side of Growth: Exploring Encountered Problems during the Founding Process of University Spin-offs
• Recruiting Partners for Co-Evolution: Leveraging on Sidecar Investments and Escalating Commitment
• The Use of Product Development Networks to Grow the New Venture
• Entry Mode Strategies of Exporting SMEs to Distant Growth Markets
• The Impact of Absorptive Capacity and Business Owner Human and Social Capital on Start-up International Growth
• Toward Internationalisation of SMEs: Capturing the Relevance of Regulative Dimension in Emerging Economies
• Designed and Made in Denmark for a Purpose: Threading Social Innovation in New Meaningful Patterns
• COEUR – Developing Business Creativity and EuroPreneurship in European University Networks
• Modelling an Innovative Approach to Social Entrepreneurship Education
• Entrepreneurship Education and Developing University Students’ Metacompetences
• Entrepreneurship Education and the Triple Helix Theory
• Be Entrepreneurial. Active Learning Approach
• Developing the Student Enterprise Mind Set Through Multi Partner Work-based Learning
• Understanding the Impact of Creative Activities for Learning in Innovation (CAL4INO)
• Business Curricula and the Teaching of Entrepreneurship
• Developing Entrepreneurial Capabilities Through Action Learning in an MBA Program
• Riding the Third Wave of Social Entrepreneurship Education: Assessment of Effectiveness of Projects as a Tool to Learn about Social Entrepreneurship
• Does Business Simulation Gaming Affect Entrepreneurial Intent in Undergraduates?
• A New Technology for Entrepreneurship Education as an Extra-curricula

We hope that you will join us in Madrid for one of the key entrepreneuship events in Europe. If you have any questions please visit the special website for the event or contact Virginie HEREDIA-ROSA virginie.heredia-rosa@efmd.org directly.

Join us for the EFMD Sharing Best Practice CLIP workshop hosted by SwissRe in Munich on 14 (evening) - 15 March 2013!! The workshop will examine the many different areas and ways in which coaching and mentoring techniques can be deployed in support of strategic L&D objectives.

• How does coaching and mentoring fit into a company’s strategic learning processes?
• To what extent can the learning outcomes of coaching and mentoring be considered organisational and not just individual?
• How should the ‘targets’ for development through coaching and mentoring be chosen from a strategic perspective?
• What learning and development objectives should be set for the different target groups?
• How does coaching and mentoring fit into the learning organisation’s toolkit of didactic techniques?
• How should coaching and mentoring be combined with other L&D techniques?
• What is the place of coaching and mentoring in group-oriented leadership programmes?
• How can the effectiveness of these techniques be measured?
• How can the cost be justified?   

Prisca Peyer-Ehrbar, Head of SwissRe Academy, will share her experience with you. Other speakers will include Justus Boeckheler, Vice President, Center for Expertise Development & Change, BASF; Philippe Bonnet, Vice President, Global Head Learning & Education, Essilor International; Andrew Clayton, Head of Group Learning Allianz and Charles Jennings, Former Chief Learning Officer for Reuters and Thomson Reuters, Founding Director of The 70:20:10 Forum.

Join colleagues from Airbus, Alcatel-Lucent, Allianz, Atos, Baloise, BASF, Coca-Cola, Daimler, DuPont de Nemours, EDF, Eli Lilly, Gas Natural Fenosa, GE, ING Insurance, Maersk Line, Rabobank, Siemens, ThyssenKrupp, UBS and UniCredit. For more information and registration please click here.

About the EFMD Sharing Best Practice CLIP Community
Led by representatives of EFMD and EFMD's Chief Learning Officer Community, HR and learning & development professionals meet twice a year to work in depth on the key challenges modern corporate learning functions are facing. The CLIP accredited companies share their experience with complementary inputs supported by other CLOs and/or Business Schools. These events are designed for senior corporate HR and learning & development practitioners from EFMD company members network and selected guests. As an interactive forum, this community of practitioners is unique in corporate learning and development in Europe.

For more information, please contact Shanshan GE  Shanshan.ge@efmd.org

The 2013 EFMD Conference for International, External & Corporate Relations, Marketing, PR, Communication and Alumni professionals

will be hosted by the Hong Kong Baptist University in Hong Kong, on the 14-15 March 2013. Registration is now open.

Join colleagues and peers from over 20 different countries to network, share ideas and make new connections. Schools already registered include: HEC Paris, Monash, QUT, RSM, MIP-Politecnico di Milano, Asian Institute of Management, University of Edinburgh Business School, Leeds University Business School, Nyenrode Business Universiteit, EADA, Toulouse Business School, Tsinghua University, Lingnan (University) College, Nottingham Trent University, Audencia Nantes School of Management, EDHEC, Hanyang University, Aston Business School, ESCP Europe, HKUST Business School, KAIST and more.

The organizing committee has chosen to investigate, discuss and explore the theme of: Bridging the “Gap” – Awareness and Collaboration between Europe and Asia and has put together an exceptional programme with high-class speakers including:

• Hong Kong as a Regional Education Hub
  Cherry Tse Ling Kit-Ching, Permanent Secretary for Education, Education Bureau, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, HK, CN 
  
  
• Trends
  Chris Tsang, Executive Director for MBA/MSc Programs, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, School of Business and Management, HK, CN
  Speaker to be announced from, KPMG Hong Kong, HK, CN
  
  
• Student Mobility
  Wei Shen, Associate Dean for China and Professor of International Affairs, ESSCA School of Management, FR
  Jane Delbene, Director of Marketing, EMEA, GMAC - Graduate Management Admission Council®, UK
  
  
• Cultural Understanding of International Collaboration
  Steven DeKrey, President, AIM - Asian Institute of Management, MY
  Karmen Yeung, Partner, China Tax, KPMG Hong Kong, HK, CN
  
  
• Community Relations and Engagement
  Carol Ma, Assistant Director, Office of Service-Learning and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, CN

And much more…

You can view the complete conference programme online and see what is of interest for you. Moreover, some of you will be regular participants of the APAIE Conference (Asia-Pacific Association for International Education) and will be happy to learn that their 2013 conference will take place just before ours, also in Hong Kong. Hopefully this will allow you to attend both international events and make wise use of your time and trip to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is a fantastic venue and also home to EFMD’s Asia office, which was opened last year. Having a presence in Asia has lead to a significant increase in membership from the region so we really are hoping that this event will bring many opportunities to learn, share and form new alliances and partnerships.

I would like to invite you to join the EFMD External Relations group on LinkedIn which will help you build your own network and contacts across the EFMD network. If you have not yet joined please request to join the EFMD - External Relations group. You can also follow @EFMDnews on Twitter for news and updates from EFMD and the international network.

We hope that you will be able to join us in Hong Kong for what promises to be an exiting event! If you have any questions or require further information please contact Delphine HAUSPY delphine.hauspy@efmd.org

 

Most deans of leading business schools would agree that being a top-performing faculty member is synonymous with being a top researcher. The production of widely cited A-level articles has become the core ingredient for a successful academic career, leading to peer recognition, tenure and ever-larger pecuniary rewards in the form of higher base salaries and bonuses.

At the same time, though, many practitioners would argue that the way academics are conducting research is the very essence of what is wrong with business schools today. They claim that research methodologies and outcomes are too often detached from the realities of managing enterprises and that researchers lack the motivation as well as all too often the ability to credibly surpass Andrew Pettigrew’s double hurdle of generating academically meaningful as well as practically relevant knowledge.

What is particularly worrying about this long-standing debate is the apparent unresponsiveness of the business school community, which continues to operate in the “we know best” mode. Business schools are facing environmental dynamics that will eventually make change inevitable. PhD programmes are not producing enough graduates to fulfil the hiring needs of a rapidly growing sector. Market entry by non-research for-profit providers will produce additional challenges to a system where business schools are using a large part of their resources to support a seemingly zero-return activity. There are effectively two pieces to the puzzle.

Researchers argue that they are, above all, writers seeking recognition from their peers. In contrast, communication experts claim that business schools need to improve on their customer orientation. They should produce research that meets the real needs of their stakeholders in terms of content and packaging.

Building a bridge between these two positions is not impossible. Business schools are currently operating based on model where researchers are drifting like particles in institutional space, where they have complete freedom to interact with other particles within or across institutional boundaries and where they eventually release output that is measured by a centuries-old metric.

But why not define academic research as a starting point of an innovation chain? It would allow researchers to focus on what they know best, the production of peer-reviewed articles. It would also, however, introduce the research outcomes into a refinement process that leads to spin-off outputs such as case studies, podcasts,  business simulations, policy position papers, open source e-learning content and interactive communication with corporate partners.

Embedding researchers into vertical innovation chains might also foster mutual learning with practitioners, which will affect the direction of research \and thereby address the main criticism of the corporate world.

In sum, business schools should reflect on how to organise their research activities better in order to justify the significant resource commitments. Laissez faire, with some moderation using a system of external, peer-based controls, has so far not enabled them to pass the double hurdle test. Existing research capabilities could possibly be made better us of by reversing the atomisation of research production and by creating support structures for top researchers.

Proceeding on this line must and should not infringe on the academic freedom of the individual researcher as since this would probably lead to harmful feedback effects in terms of research quality and productivity. However, business schools should attempt to break open their research silos and let the wider community that surrounds them participate in the benefits of their knowledge-generation activities.

Ulrich Hommel, Director of Research & Surveys at EFMD

The Global Business School Network is once again challenging business and entrepreneurship students and recent graduates to show how they are using their business skills to make a difference in the developing world. The MBA+ Challenge Video Contest is now it its third year and has been opened up to ALL students, undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs in addition to traditional MBAs.

The MBA+ Challenge Video Contest asks students to produce a short (3 minutes or less) video showing how they are using their business education to make a difference in the developing world through:

• New business ventures
• Student projects
• Volunteer work
• Impactful Careers

Any student who is currently in school or who has graduated in the past 5 years is eligible to enter.  The submission period for videos is March 1st – 31st with online voting from April 1 – 14th to  determine the top 5 videos.

The first prize is an all expenses paid trip for one team member to the GBSN Annual Conference and 10th Anniversary Celebration in Tunisia June 10 – 12, 2013.  They’ll also be featured on GBSN’s website, have the opportunity to blog for nextbillion.net and get visibility for their work around the globe. The top 5 finalists as determined by online voting will each have the opportunity for an online mentoring session with a world leader in business or development. The distinguished list of mentors will be released soon, so stay tuned.

A panel of judges will then determine the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place videos from the 5 finalists.

Click here to watch the winning video from 2012 from Tuck School of Business students called "The $300 House Project"

Full details on how you can take part can be found via - www.gbsnonline.org/mbachallenge

Leading the MBA: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

EFMD with the support of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), has great pleasure in inviting you and your business school to attend the 2013 EFMD MBA Conference that will be hosted by IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland from the 17-19 of March.

The conference will explore the role of the Programme Director under the theme “Leading the MBA: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly” and will include a tailor made case "The MBA Director’s Dilemma” that will address some of the key challenges encountered by Programme Directors.

The conference will be Chaired by Giulio Toscani, Director of the MBA Programme at EADA, Spain. The event brings together the global community of MBA directors (full-time, part-time, distance learning or executive) to share and exchange ideas whilst providing practical tools and examples that are applicable in day-to-day life. It also offers a great networking opportunity to collaborate internationally and build your own network of MBA contacts around the world. If you are involved in leading an MBA programme this is a key annual event that you must attend so please register now to join peers from: IMD, esmt, EADA, LBS, Bocconi, BI, Lancaster and more.

In addition, we have scheduled the following sessions:

• Developing Partnerships & Portfolio Expansion Strategies
  Julia Marsh, Director MiM, LBS, UK
  
  
• Creating Positive Group Dynamics
  John Sadowsky, Professor of Leadership and Marketing, Grenoble Ecole de Management, FR
  
  
• Trends in Graduate Management Education                                                                                                    
  Deborah Somers, Director, EMEA, GMAC ®, UK
  
  
• Media: Developing Key Messages about You and Your Programme
  Teresa Martini, Consultant, Ex-International Producer at CNN, UK
  
  
• Learning how to Learn
  Sonja Zaar, Director MBA programmes and International Projects at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics, NL
  
  
• Corporate Panel
  Are employers actually aware of the programme details when hiring your MBAs? Can they really tell the difference between a specialised Masters Programme and an MBA? What in-house training do they provide and how relevant are business schools to them?
  
  
• Innovation in Blended Learning …and much more to come! 

More information about this event is available via the EFMD website.

We very much look forward to seeing you in Lausanne next spring - if you have any questions or require any further information please contact Diana Grote - diana.grote@efmd.org

The International Teachers Programme© (ITP) supported by EFMD, is an intensive faculty development programme dedicated to helping business educators develop suitable skills and capabilities to be successful in their careers.

The ITP has served over 1,500 high-caliber faculty and educators from many countries since it started more than 50 years ago. During this period, the programme has rotated between ISBM schools.

•     CEIBS - China Europe International Business School, CN           
•     HEC School of Management, FR
•     IAE AIX Graduate School of Management, FR
•     IMD, CH
•     INSEAD Business School, FR
•     Kellogg School of Management, US
•     London Business School, UK
•     Manchester Business School, UK
•     New York University, Stern School of Business, US
•     SDA Bocconi School of Management, IT
•     Stockholm School of Economics, SE

I owe my professional progress to ITP. As a young teacher in Assam, India, I attended the program in 1982 and it changed my life. The curriculum transformed everything I thought I knew about
management education. ITP introduced me to new pedagogical tools and strategies, and it helped me see deeper connections between my teaching and research. Through the program, I also gained greater confidence in the classroom. ITP challenged and inspired me to explore my potential, even as I learned how to help others discover their potential. This is a wonderful program for anyone who aspires to create and share knowledge with impact.
Dipak C. Jain, Dean, INSEAD

IN 2013 AND 2014, ITP WILL BE HOSTED BY HEC PARIS!

HEC Paris is honored to host the ITP – International Teachers Programme© in 2013 and 2014. Recognized as the premier business school in Europe and one of the top worldwide by the
Financial Times, HEC Paris has been a leader in business education for well over a century.

What’s new in ITP ?

In these up-coming ITP editions, participants will learn how to create and to apply effective learning situations for the successful transmission of knowledge, skills and attitudes to learners with a variety of different knowledge levels, expectations and mindsets. They will also be involved in a personalized development program of support for them and for their teaching performance.

The key objectives of the ITP is the development of the teacher’s creative capabilities, so to enable him/her to manage a complex set of variables:

•     teaching tools and techniques;
•     contents and knowledge related to their specific field of teaching and research;
•     self-esteem and management of interpersonal relationships;
•     audiences and contexts of teaching.

The ITP is designed to provide you with the most advanced teaching tools and with accurate knowledge and comprehension of the teaching skills that are typical of high performance business educators. Full enrolment details and programme information can be found here.

If you have any questions or require further details please contact ltp@hec.fr

The Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Case Development at the Indian School of Business (ISB), in partnership with Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario is delighted to announces the launch of the ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition 2013. This event is supported by EFMD and the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS).
Launched in 2010, this is the fourth year of hosting the competition and second in its global avatar. Through this competition we aspire to reach out to a wide network of Indian and Global Business Schools with the objective of facilitating the building of a repository of a high-quality, internationally benchmarked cases about Indian businesses. The submitted cases are suitable for use in MBA classrooms across the globe as they showcase the unique issues and challenges faced by organizations and business leaders in India.

A panel of internationally acclaimed subject experts judge each case in a double-blind review process and give written feedback on each case. The top cases from this competition are marketed to a global audience of business schools through Ivey and distributed through Ivey and Harvard Publishing (Harvard University, USA)—the two largest sources of business cases in the world. The deadline for submission of intent to participate is February 20th 2013 and more submission details, categories, criteria and deadlines can be found on the Case Competition website. Previous winning cases can be found here.

For more information on the ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition 2013, please visit - http://events.isb.edu/casecompetition/.

If you have any questions please contact -  Arun Khan, +91 40 2318 7299 or ctlc@isb.edu

2013 EFMD MENA Conference - Empowering the Next Generation of Leaders

We are delighted to invite you to the 2013 EFMD Conference in the MENA Region hosted by the Abu Dhabi University and sponsored by GMAC® in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the 14-16 April 2013.

2013 EFMD Conference in the MENA Region.
Business Schools in the MENA Region - Empowering the Next Generation of Leaders

The EFMD MENA conference is one of the most important management education events in the region and brings together business schools, companies, NGOs and the private sector to share and exchange ideas and best practice examples. More specifically it addresses ongoing trends in management education inside and outside of the MENA Region and promotes an active debate between regional actors and participants from other regions of the world.

Topics such as business education for employment, family business and succession planning, the role of business schools in preparing entrepreneurs for the region, research, managing country risk perception, executive education, alumni engagement and the role of international campuses will be discussed, with the contribution of leading academics and business representatives from the MENA Region, North America and Europe.

As well as the conference there will be an EFMD Quality Services Seminar that will provide information on EQUIS & EPAS accreditation and the EFMD Deans Across Frontiers development system (EDAF). The seminar will take place on Sunday 14 April just before the conference starts and requires a separate registration (which can be done through the same link as the conference, by choosing the option "I will attend the EQUIS, EPAS and EDAF Seminar on Sunday 14 April").

If you and your school are interested in participating in the conference and seminars, please register by visiting the conference webpage: www.efmd.org/mena. If you have any additional questions you can contact Inês Proença (ines.proenca@efmd.org).

Finally, do not hesitate to pass on this invitation to your colleagues who might be interested in attending.

It is my pleasure to give you some information about our Extraordinary General Assembly that took place at EFMD on November 22nd, 2012.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to all the members who attended this assembly. I know that their time is precious and their agendas are very busy. Having them in Brussels demonstrated their commitment to EFMD. I would also like to thank all of the members who sent their proxies, to have their voice heard and to shape the future of our organisation. The Extraordinary General Assembly allowed us to present the evolution of EFMD over the last 10 years and to share with you our vision for the future and our strategy for EFMD development.

During the last 10 years, EFMD has seen uninterrupted growth, as well as unprecedented change in its membership. We have evolved from a predominantly European organisation into a truly  international one, as more and more institutions from all regions of the world are joining us and supporting our goals and values.

As you have been informed, EFMD Global Network, a non-for-profit organisation, has been created in Geneva. Its role is to accompany and facilitate the global development of EFMD. Becoming a member of EFMD Global Network is solely possible for EFMD members and you are all invited to join this new organisation.
 
This new structure, EFMD Global Network, will be responsible for the management of international offices in Asia (Hong-Kong) and the Americas (Miami), in order to offer our non-European members closer proximity and better targeted services. EFMD Brussels will maintain its historical stronghold, playing a key role in the heart of the network.

We see this evolution as a great opportunity to ensure a better visibility of the EFMD brand and activities worldwide. All EFMD members will have the possibility to join EFMD Global Network in Geneva. The 2013 membership fee for EFMD Global Network will be 1500 €.

We have taken careful steps to ensure that this dual membership will bear no financial consequences for our members. This is why we proposed a decrease in the EFMD membership fees for the members of EFMD Global Network, enabling them to be members of both institutions at no extra cost.

This was the object of the resolution that was voted on at the Extraordinary General Assembly and I am very pleased to say that this proposition was met by an overwhelming approval from the members.

Out of 547 voting members, 287 participated in the voting exercise, a number that far exceeded the 182 votes needed for quorum. It is a pleasure to announce that the outcome is 286 (99.65%) votes in favour of the resolution.

We remain at your entire disposal for any further information. Mayen Enodien (mayen.enodien@efmd.org) will be happy to answer any of your questions on these membership issues. 

We would like to thank all our members once more for their continuous support. We feel confident that this new step in our development will bring you a stronger network, better fitted to face the international challenges whilst providing you with more valuable services in the future.

Eric Cornuel, Director General & CEO, EFMD


Click here to view the photos from the Extraordinary General Assembly

On behalf of everyone at EFMD, we would like to thank you for your support in 2012 and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Before the holidays we would like to update you on the key EFMD events planned for the first half of 2013. You may want to register now while your calendar is not too full or perhaps share the events with colleagues who might be interested in attending.

January
The first major event of the year will be the EFMD 2013 Deans & Directors General Conference which will be hosted by Koç University School of Business in Istanbul, Turkey on the 31st January to the 1st of February. To coincide with the Deans meeting, the first module of the EFMD/ABS 2013 International Deans' Programme (IDP) will also take place at Koç starting on the 29th of January.

February
On the 12-13 of February, EFMD will be holding EPAS and EQUIS accreditation seminars at the EFMD office in Brussels. The EQUIS seminar is on the 12th with the EPAS seminar taking place on the 13th. 

March
March is a busy month with 3 major events. The first is the 2013 EFMD Entrepreneurship Conference, hosted by EOI Business School in Madrid, Spain on the 3-4 of March and will focus on Empowering Entrepreneurs for Growth.

EFMD's External Relations Conference (for International, External and Corporate Relations, PR, Marketing, Communication and Alumni Professionals) will for the very first time be held in Asia and will be hosted by the Hong Kong Baptist University, School of Business in Hong Kong. The conference runs from the 14-15 of March and has as its theme Bridging the “Gap” – Awareness and Collaboration between Europe and Asia.

On the 15th of March, Swiss Re will be hosting a Sharing Best Practice CLIP Workshop in Munich on the theme of Coaching and Mentoring as Motors of Strategic Change. This workshop is by invitation only and is dedicated to corporate learning and corporate HR practitioners from companies.

The final event in March is the 2013 EFMD MBA Conference which will be hosted by IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland on the 17-19 with the theme Leading the MBA - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

April
The EFMD Conference in the MENA Region will be hosted by Abu Dhabi University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on the 14-16 of April with the theme Business Schools in the MENA Region - Empowering the Next Generation of Leaders.

April also see the launched of the EFMD & EURAM Research Leadership Programme - Cycle 4 - module 1/3 on the 24-26 in Brussels at the EFMD office. The theme for this 3 modular programme is The Long View - Strategy.

May
Purpose, Performance and Impact of Higher Education Institutions will be the theme of the 2nd Annual EFMD Higher Education Research Conference hosted by Université Paris Dauphine on the 23 - 24 May in Paris, France.

June
The 2013 EFMD Annual Conference will take place in Brussels from the 9-11 of June and the final event before the summer is the EFMD Doctoral Programmes Conference from the 19-21 of June to be hosted by the University of Ljubijana, Ljubijana, Slovenia.

More information on all of the events is available on the EFMD website.

EFMD in partnership with the Association of Business Schools (ABS) is launching its 6th edition of the International Deans' Programme (IDP). The programme enables a group of up to 20 international deans to visit business schools in three different countries and gain an international overview of strategy, marketing and benchmarking with debate about issue such as governance, fundings model, reputation/branding, faculty development, the challenges and opportunities facing management education and particularly the role of being a dean. The programme also enables you to discuss, share and develop your own network with other participants and deans from the visiting schools.

The three compulsory module for the 2013 International Deans' programme are:

→ Turkey: 29-30 January: Koç University School of Business, Istanbul (immediately prior to EFMD’s Deans and Directors General Conference)

→ Singapore: 26-28 March: Nanyang Business School; NUS Business School; Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University

→ Germany: 17-18 September: University of Mannheim Business School; EBS University for Business and Law, Wiesbaden

Each module begins with dinner from 7:30pm the day before the session starts and finishes at 4pm.

Benefits

• Gain unique insights into the multiple roles of deans of business and management schools in a cohort of around 20 participants.
• Visit a diverse range of business and management schools, take time out to network with your counterparts, re-energise and reflect on strategies for your own school, and create new strategic alliances.
• Engage in debates about real time issues in complex settings under the Chatham house rule, e.g. strategy, governance, reputation, positioning, branding, different educational and business models, structures, team building, priorities, faculty recruitment and development, student employability, alumni, quality, priorities, regulatory environment, performance management and incentives, university, government and corporate links, globalisation, technology, fund raising, research and innovation in pedagogy, executive education, work load models, social challenges, rankings, accreditations, operations, buildings, the future of business and management education.

Format
Round table debates, learning sets, interactive activities co-designed with the participants and host institutions with optional psychometric questionnaires and 360 degree feedback.

Alumni
80 participants to date from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Korea, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, USA.

Fees
Early bird rate by 21 December 2012: €4250 members, €4750 non members.
Normal fee: €4500 members, €5000 non members.

Do not miss this unique opportunity to explore the challenges and opportunities of being a dean, learn from the experience of other institutions and network while exchanging ideas with a small and open group of deans. Please note that this programme is aimed at recently appointed directors general/deans of the whole business school only. Places are limited, so I would urge you to register as soon as possible through the online form and do not hesitate to contact us should you have any question.

Contacts
Julie Davies
jdavies@the-abs.org.uk
mobile +44 (0)7884 002470

Virginie Heredia-Rosa
Virginie.heredia-rosa@efmd.org

The 2013 EFMD Deans & Directors General Conference, will be hosted by Koç University School of Business in Turkey on the 31st Jan – 1st Feb. This year EFMD and the organising committee has chosen to investigate, discuss and explore the theme of: Making Things Happen and has put together an exceptional programme with high-class speakers including:

• Developments Over the Past Five Years
  Paul Danos, Dean, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, USA
  Ben Glover, Regional Director, GMAC - Graduate Management Admission Council®, UK
  Monica Sacristán, Dean, Executive Development, ITAM Business School, ITAM - Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, MX
  Kwei Tang, University Chair and Dean, College of Commerce, National Chengchi University, TW
  Howard Thomas, Dean of Lee Kong Chian School of Business and LKCSB Chair of Strategic Management, Singapore Management University, SG
  
  
• Making Things Happen – Future of Business Education
  Dominique Turpin, President, IMD, CH
  Pankaj Ghemawat, Professor of Strategic Management, IESE Business School, ES
  Siwei Cheng, Dean, Management School of University of China Academy of Sciences, CN
  
  
• How to Approach the Digital Generation?
  James W. Dean Jr., Dean, Kenan-Flagler Business School, USA
  Andrew Crisp, Director, CarringtonCrisp Ltd., UK
  Moderated by Santiago Iñiguez, President IE University, Dean IE Business School, ES
  
  
• How to Manage Multiple Campuses?
  Susan Hart, Dean, Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, UK
  Alberto Grando, Dean, SDA Bocconi School of Management, IT
  
  
• Changes and Developments in Undergraduate Education
  Melanie Currie, Head of Undergraduate Programmes, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, UK
  Jon Erik Svendsen, Dean Bachelor, BI Norwegian Business School, NO

• Trends in MSc and MBA
  Kai Peters, Chief Executive, Ashridge, UK
  Julia Marsh, Executive Director, Masters in Management, London Business School, UK
  Moderated by Jane Delbene, Director of Marketing, EMEA, GMAC -  Graduate Management Admission Council®, UK
  
  
• What do Employers Expect in five years?
  Aysegul Aydin, Managing Partner, Heidrick and Stuggles, TK
  Aysegul Ildeniz, Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey, Africa, Intel Corporation

The full programme is here - if you have any questions please contact Delphine HAUSPY delphine.hauspy@efmd.org

As in previous years, this conference will ONLY accept registrations for those with chief executive (top management) responsibility and authority in EFMD member business schools and centres. We will only accept the Dean of the school, the Director General, the President, the Rector or the Managing Director of the school itself.

2012 has been a record year for entries to the EFMD Case Writitng Competition and the EFMD / Emerald Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards. 210 cases were submitted to the Case Writing Awards and 422 papers were submitted to the Doctoral Research Awards.

We would like to warmly thanks all of the sponsors for their support of the Case Awards and thank Emerald for the long-standing partnership in developing the Doctoral Awards. We would also like to thanks all of the people who have submitted cases and papers and wish them well in the judging stages! The winners will be announced in 2013.

EFMD Case Categories

• Corporate Social Responsibility: Sponsored by IE Business School, ES
• Entrepreneurship: Sponsored by E.M. Lyon, FR
• Finance and Banking: Sponsored by Toulouse Business School – Groupe ESC Toulouse, FR
• Supply Chain Management: Sponsored by BEM Bordeaux - ISLI Global Supply Chain Management, FR
• Latin American Business Cases: Sponsored by Universidad Externado de Colombia, CO
• MENA Business Cases: Sponsored by HEC Paris in Qatar, QA
• Family Business: Sponsored by The Family Business Network International, CH and International Family Enterprise Research Academy, CY
• Emerging Chinese Global Competitors: Sponsored by Renmin University of China School of Business, CN
• Euro-Mediterranean Managerial Practices and Issues: Sponsored by Euromed Management, FR
• Public Sector Innovations: Sponsored by Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, CA
• African Business Cases: Sponsored by China Europe International Business School, (CEIBS), CN
• Indian Management Issues and Opportunities: Sponsored by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, UK
• Responsible Leadership: Sponsored by University of San Diego – School of Business Administration, US
• Inclusive Business Models: Sponsored by IMD, CH

EFMD / Emerald Doctorla Reserach Award Categories

• Interdisciplinary accounting research - Category sponsored by Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
• Marketing research - Category sponsored by European Journal of Marketing
• Hospitality management - Category sponsored by International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
• Operations and production management - Category sponsored by International Journal of Operations & Production Management
• Logistics and supply chain management - Category sponsored by International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
• Information science - Category sponsored by Journal of Documentation
• Educational leadership and strategy - Category sponsored by Journal of Educational Administration
• Knowledge management - Category sponsored by Journal of Knowledge Management
• Management and governance - Category sponsored by Management Decision
• Human resource management - Category sponsored by Personnel Review
• Leadership and organization development - Category sponsored by Leadership & Organization Development Journal
• Health Care Management - Category sponsored by Journal of Health Organisation and Management

The Case & Doctoral Awards run annually so please make sure you school, faculty & students take part next year. If you have any questions concerning the EFMD Case Awards please contact - Ines Proença (ines.proenca@efmd.org). If you require any further information on the Doctoral Research Awards please contact Emma Stevenson (EStevenson@emeraldinsight.com).

The information sessions will provide an introduction to EFMD and the international network  as well as providing information on EQUIS (EFMD Quality Improvement System), EPAS (EFMD Programme Accreditation System) and EDAF (EFMD Deans Across Frontiers mentoring system) and the underlying concepts of accreditation, mentoring and quality improvement. The sessions will be relevant for Business School Deans and / or their delegates with responsibility for quality assurance and/or accreditations. This is highly recommended for any School that wants to learn more about EFMD membership, events, seminars, and specifically about accreditation and mentoring.

November

• On the 13th of November, EFMD will hold a Quality Services Information Session on EQUIS, EPAS & DAF, hosted by  CFVG - Centre Franco-Vietnamien de Formation à la Gestion in Ho Chi Minh City and on the 14th of November, EFMD will be presenting the Quality Services portfolio during the Colloquium on Quality that CFVG is organising for their 20th anniversary in Hanoi.
  
  
• On November the 29th, EFMD is arranging a Quality Services Information Session in Moscow, hosted by the Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School that will introduce Deans Across Frontiers programme (DAF), EPAS & EQUIS.
  
  
• Finally, following the 2012 CEIBS-EFMD conference on Innovative Business in China and Europe in Beijing on November the 29th and 30th, there will be seminars on the Deans Across Frontiers programme (DAF), EPAS & EQUIS.

More information on all of the events is available on the EFMD website or please email info@efmd.org if you have any question or require further information.

EFMD will be organizing a Quality Services Information Session in Moscow on Thursday 29 November 2012, hosted by Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School. The session is given by Professor Christian Delporte, Associate Director, Quality Services, EFMD.

The session is designed for institutions that want to learn more about EFMD, its accreditations and other quality services and will provide a basic introduction to EQUIS (EFMD Quality Improvement System), EPAS (EFMD Programme Accreditation System) and EDAF (EFMD Deans Across Frontiers mentoring system) systems and the underlying concepts of accreditation, mentoring and quality improvement. Special emphasis will be put on two of EFMD’s systems: EPAS and DAF. The information session will be relevant for Business School Deans or their delegates with responsibility for quality assurance and/or accreditations. This is highly recommended for any School that wants to learn more about EFMD membership, accreditation and mentoring.

After the information session, participants will have ample time for questions and also have the opportunity to discuss individually the services, which EFMD offers. If you wish to schedule a face-to-face meeting with Professor Christian Delporte in the afternoon of the 29th, please contact magdalena.wanot@efmd.org. This is highly recommended for any School that is considering to apply for EFMD accreditation or mentoring systems and the extra knowledge acquired during the session might be helpful in this process.

Do not miss the opportunity to explore EFMD and its accreditation and mentoring systems: EPAS and DAF. The programme of the session, practical information and online registration form is available here. Find out more about the Deans Across Frontiers programme (EDAF), EPAS & EQUIS.

If you have any question or would like further information please contact magdalena.wanot@efmd.org.

EFMD is supporting the AAPBS Annual Meeting - “Innovation Beyond Technology within the Asia-Pacific Region" on the 27-28 of November in Kuala Lumpur hosted by the International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM-IBS).

The theme, ‘Innovation Beyond Technology’, is timely given the increased challenges in the business and management education landscape. Accelerating economic growth in the region, increased demands for quality management education, heightened competition among program providers, depleting federal funding, diversity of consumer profiles are some of the challenges that business schools are forced to face and address. Innovation is a must if business schools want to prosper in this environment.

The meeting provides a platform for AAPBS members and participants to exchange ideas and share best practices about how the business schools in the Asia Pacific region may pursue innovation. Members and participants may expect fruitful discussions on innovative areas in school governance, management, teaching and learning, research and publications, student services and funding models for the cost sustainability of business schools. It is hoped that the meeting will contribute to AAPBS’ continuous efforts towards the advancement of business and management education in the Asia Pacific region, create a solid Asian business and management education model, and establish constructive collaborations among the participants.

"One thing that is certain is that UTM-IBS is looking forward to showering you with Malaysian hospitality", Professor Dr. Mohd Hassan Bin Mohd Osman, Dean, UTM-IBS

Professor Michael Osbadeston, Director of Quality Service at EFMD will be speaking in one of the plenary sessions on "Innovations in Business Schools". The full conference programme and speakers details are available via these links - AAPBS programme & AAPBS speakers.

For details on registration please visit - AAPBS registration. If you have any questions or require further information please contact - aapbs@ibs.utm.my

The 2012 EFMD Excellence in Practice Awards winners include:  BAE Systems, Goldman Sachs, Leeds University Business School, Lonza, Merck, Saïd Business School, Siemens, the Wharton School and the University of St. Gallen.

The winning partnerships will be presenting their experiences via FREE webinars which you, your partners and peers are welcome to join.  Please feel free to pass this invitation on.

2012 Excellence in Practice Award Winners - Webinar Series
 
8 November 2012, at 2:30pm (CET): Merck and The Wharton School
“Merck Global Human Health Executive Development Programme””
Register for the webinar

20 November 2012, at 6:00pm (CET): BAE Systems & Saïd Business School
“Trusted, Innovative, Bold - Building Global Mindsets for a Global Future”
Register for the webinar

22 November 2012, at 10:00 (CET): Lonza & University of St.Gallen
“Business Unit Strategy at Lonza – Linking Executive Education and Strategy Development”
Register for the webinar

6 December 2012, at 10:00am (CET): Siemens & Siemens Learning Campus
"Senior Siemens Production System (SPS) Expert Program”
Register for the webinar

Online registration is required but all the webinars are free, however they do have a restricted number of seats with priority offered to EFMD members.


EFMD Global Focus Special Supplement - 2012 Excellence in Practice Winners
This special supplement is available online and features articles on the winning cases as well as executive summaries of the highly commended cases and observations and trends from all cases submitted. You can view and online copy here or download a copy here (pdf).
 
Join the 2013 Excellence in Practice Awards – Call for Papers now OPEN

Deadline for submission: 15 April 2013
Expression of interest: Florence Grégoire
More info: www.efmd.org/eip

Emerald and EFMD are delighted to announce the results of the 2012 Emerald/ EFMD MENA Management Research Fund Award.

There will be one award of £2,000 (or currency equivalent) for the winning research project, and two awards of £500 each for highly-commended runners up, to fund or part-fund these projects.

Many congratulations to:

• Dr. Birasnav Muthuraj
  School of Management, New York Institute of Technology, Kingdom of Bahrain
  "Transformational Leadership and Organizational Performance under Environmental Uncertainty: The Role of Supply Chain Management Practices"

Highly commended runner up prizes are awarded to:

• Dr Faruk Balli
  Suleyman Sah University, Turkey and Massey University, School of Economics and Finance, New Zealand
• Hatice Ozer Balli
  Suleyman Sah University, Turkey and Massey University, School of Economics and Finance, New Zealand
• Kemal Cebeci
  Marmara University, Turkey
  "Impacts of Exported Turkish Soap Operas and Visa-free Entry on Inbound Tourism to Turkey"
  
  
• Dr. Tim Rogmans
  Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  "Corporate Governance Practices and Corporate Performance in the MENA Region"

The winner will be invited to receive their award at the 2012 EFMD Conference in the MENA Region hosted by the Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut and will receive a complimentary delegate pass. The runners up will also be invited to attend the conference. In addition to the research fund, it is also hoped that the findings of the research can be published in one of Emerald’s many excellent management titles and be shared widely acrosss the EFMD network.

The Emerald/ EFMD MENA Management Research Fund Award will run Annual so more information on the 2013 Awards will be available early next year.

For further information contact:
Emma Stevenson, Emerald Head Office, UK
E-mail: estevenson@emeraldinsight.com
Tel: +44(0) 1274 785198

or Matthew Wood, EFMD
E-mail: matthew.wood@efmd.org
Tel: +32 2 629 08 10

The greatest danger in times of turbulence, is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic – Peter Drucker
 
At the core of the agenda of the 2012 Drucker Forum lie key questions about the future of capitalism: How can the weaknesses of the system be repaired without crushing the innovative energies of free enterprise and competitive markets? And what is the role of managers in this transformation?
 
Nobel Laureate Dan Shechtman will open the conference with his vision of creating a more peaceful world through entrepreneurship. He will be followed by Roger L. Martin, one of the global leaders of the “Thinkers 50,” who will lay out the unintended consequences of an excessive focus on shareholder value and provide clues about improving capitalism. In contrast, Adrian Wooldridge from The Economist will defend the benefits of the maximizing-shareholder-value philosophy.
 
Lynda Gratton from London Business School, along with other leading academics, will delve into the future of management—Management 2.0. Leading executives from global companies will provide their views on the viability of the traditional corporate model and offer lessons from other models such as cooperatives and employee-owned enterprises. Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, will tackle whether business can be a force for good. The full morning of Day 2 will be dedicated to the rise of social business and social entrepreneurship.
 
The younger generation will have a voice at the Forum as well: The winners of the Drucker Challenge Essay Contest will be recognized at the gala dinner and express their views at a dedicated session moderated by Julia Kirby, an editor at large for Harvard Business Review.
 
You can access the full program and register under the following link: http://www.druckerforum.org/2012/the-event/preliminary-program/.
 
The conference will be concluded by a fireworks of short “Vision Talks“ from leading thinkers: Umair Haque, Deepa Prahalad, Rick Wartzman, Roger L. Martin and Tammy Erickson.
 
Join us on November 15 and 16 in Vienna to participate in a global dialogue to shape the future of management and hence the future of society.
 
For further info: contact@druckerforum.org

If you have any questions concerning the Forum please contact - contact@druckersociety.eu

The Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Placing sustainability at the heart of management education, created by the UN Global Compact initiative, Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) was presented at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in June 2012 and is now offered for sale in print for the first time by publishers, GSE Research.

The book features 63 case studies from 47 institutions, representing 25 countries across Asia, Oceania, Latin America, USA and Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The business schools’ experiences are classified into six sections, corresponding to the Six Principles of PRME (Purpose, Values, Method, Research, Partnership, and Dialogue) and offering useful advice on setting up and implementing specific aspects of each. This important compilation will be an inspiration for all forward-thinking Business Schools across the world, especially those who are keen to embrace the PRME principles and put sustainability at the heart of their operations.

“Seeking to inspire the further integration of responsible management education, real world examples are highlighted from around the globe on fostering a sustainability culture, changing curricula, enabling faculty or managing and consolidating. This is a unique publication in that the 63 cases illustrate successful and relevant approaches in their different contexts, moreover the standardised structure around challenges, actions taken and results provides the most effective source of inspiration. A must-read on the transformation of management education and on how our institutions are placing sustainability at the heart of management education.”
Prof. Eric Cornuel, CEO & Director General of EFMD

The guide is now available to purchase in print, priced at £29.95 (excluding shipping). To purchase your copy of the Inspirational Guide, please visit the GSE online shop: http://www.gsepublishing.com

For more information on PRME visit - http://www.unprme.org/index.php

SHARE YOUR VIEWS ON COMPANIES’ NEEDS FOR THE STAFF TRAINING
The aim of this on-line consultation is to gather the EU companies’ opinion on their specific needs and requirements with regards to specialised long-term training, as well their expectations and willingness to send key staff members on the training programmes. Please fill out the online questionnaire which should take you no more than 5 to 10 minutes.

The survey has been developed in relation to the EU-funded Executive Training Programme in Japan and Korea which aims to support EU companies and their executives to develop their business plan and build knowledge of Japanese / Korean business practices, culture and language in order to succeed in the Japanese and Korean markets. The results of the survey will allow the European Commission to further improve the programme with EU companies’ expectations in a continuously changing environment.

What is the Executive Training Programme?

Since 1979, the European Commission’s Executive Training Programme (ETP) has helped over 800 European companies and 1000 European executives to succeed in the Japanese and South Korean markets by providing intensive language and business training for their executives.

Following the successful selection of candidates for the 2012 cycle of Executive Training Programme (ETP) which will start this November, applications are now open for the 2013 cycle of this prestigious business support and executive training programme.

The ETP enables EU companies and their executives to develop their business plan and build knowledge of Japanese / Korean business practices, culture and language, as well as their networks in order to succeed in these Asian markets. The selected participants, who will be granted a scholarship, will follow an intensive business and language training at the internationally recognised universities in Japan / Korea, including an internship in a local company.

EU executives can apply by submitting an online application via http://www.euetp.eu.

Why participate in the Executive Training Programme?

• On average, participant companies’ related turnover increases two fold within ten years of completing ETP
• More than 65% of ETP alumni proceed to become top executives within their companies
• Executives from 15 of the top 20 European companies have taken part in ETP
• The training is given by prestigious and internationally recognised universities and leads to real business opportunities

Financial support
- Funding for the entire training course in Japan or Korea
- A scholarship of 2,200€ per month for Japan or 2,000€ per month for Korea

Further information
The deadline for applications for the next ETP cycle 2013-2014 is 31st May 2013. Enroll now on www.euetp.eu

EFMD is delighted to be a supporting partner of the 2012 International Business School Shanghai Conference (October 18 & 19), which has been held every two years by Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and has become the largest top-level forum for business schools in the Asia-Pacific area. Gobally it is the biggest international conference after the Annual Conference of the AACSB and EFMD. For management education in China, the International Business School Shanghai Conference provides a key platform for international communication and cooperation. The IBSSC has already become an extremely valuable forum for the business school and Antai, with the help of its partners including EFMD, is devoting itself to developing the IBSSC into one of the most influential management forum in the international management education circle.

Although western economies are struggling and the Eurozone faces a continuing crisis, one field of business is flourishing: business education. And as in many other areas, demand from emerging markets is driving this growth.

As we are in the second decade of the 21st century, the balance of global economic power is shifting toward the developing and emerging regions of the world. The BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—along with the rapidly growing economies of Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia, and others, are now driving global growth. China is predicted to become the largest economy in the world by 2040, if not sooner. India's economy will soon eclipse that of Japan's. Brazil is a global leader in commodities, but also a major contributor in more advanced industries. South Africa is becoming a more attractive location for trade and investment.

So in the context of such economic growth, business education in those emerging markets is an industry with great potential that will continue attracting more and more attention from all over the world. For this reason “Business Education in Emerging Markets” will be the theme for the Fourth IBSS Conference.

Leading business schools from around the globe will take part in the conference with confirmed speakers including:

• Prof. Sally Blount, Dean of Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA
• Prof. Pascal Morand, Dean of ESCP Europe Business School, France
• Prof. Arnoud DE MEYER, President, Singapore Management University, Singapore
• Prof. Ajit Rangnekar, Dean of Indian School of Business, India
• Prof. John A. Quelch, Vice President and Dean, China Europe International Business School, P. R. China
• Prof. Geoffery Garret, Dean, University of Sydney Business School, Australia
• Prof. David Saunders, Dean, Queen's School of Business, Queen's University, Canada
• Prof. Emerson de Almeida, Dean, of Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC), Brazil
• Prof. Nick Binedell, Dean, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
• Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak, Dean, School of Management, Warsaw University, Poland
• Prof. Robert D. Reid, Executive Vice President and Chief Accreditation Officer, AACSB International
• Prof. Eric Cornuel, Director General & CEO, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD)
• Prof. Sharon Bamford, Chief Executive, Association of MBAs (AMBA)

Who should attend?
Deans, Directors and Rectors from leading business schools in the world; leaders from international business school organizations; and CEOs from leading international enterprises.

Please join us in Shanghai in October for this unique event. Registration details are here.

If you require any further information of have any questions please se contact us by:
Email: ICEO@sjtu.edu.cn
Tel: +86-21-5230 2509; +86-21-5230 2510
Fax: +86-21-52302511
Website: http://www.acem.sjtu.edu.cn/Intl_BSchool4_Con/index.html

EFMD is organizing its 3rd annual Africa Conference entitled "Sustainable Business Education Appropriate for Africa", which is scheduled to take place in Nairobi, Kenya from 11-12th October 2012 co-hosted by the University of Nairobi School of Business and Strathmore Business School. The conference will be preceded by a joint introductory seminar on EPAS and Deans Across Frontiers (DAF) on 10th October. It will be followed on 13-15th October by the "Meeting of the Minds" conference in the Masai Mara organized by University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Topics covered in this year's Africa Conference will include: The Role of Business Schools in Africa, Partnerships, Management Development Powering Development, Income Streams, Which Governance for a More Sustainable Business Schools, and many more. Speakers will come from top African Business Schools & leading schools from across the EFMD global network, African companies and NGO's.

Join us in Nairobi and take advantage of this unique opportunity to network with peers from across the globe as well as the speakers. Please refer to the EFMD website for further information and registration details.

We hope to see you in Nairobi.

EFMD & Emerald Group Publishing Limited seek to celebrate excellence in research by sponsoring the 2012 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards.

Award-winning entries will receive a cash prize of €1,500 (or currency equivalent), a certificate, a winners' logo to attach to correspondence and the prospect of an offer of publication in the sponsoring journal - either as a full paper or an executive summary - at the discretion of the Editor(s). In addition, a number of Highly Commended Awards will be bestowed. This year there are 12 categories:

Interdisciplinary accounting research
Category sponsored by Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

Marketing research
Category sponsored by European Journal of Marketing

Hospitality management
Category sponsored by International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Operations and production management
Category sponsored by International Journal of Operations & Production Management

Logistics and supply chain management
Category sponsored by International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

Information science
Category sponsored by Journal of Documentation

Educational leadership and strategy
Category sponsored by Journal of Educational Administration

Knowledge management
Category sponsored by Journal of Knowledge Management

Management and governance
Category sponsored by Management Decision

Human resource management
Category sponsored by Personnel Review

Leadership and organization development
Category sponsored by Leadership & Organization Development Journal

Health Care Management
Category sponsored by Journal of Health Organisation and Management

If you are unsure of which category to submit to please feel free to contact us, and after consultation with our Editorial team, we can suggest that which is most appropriate.

Eligibility
To be eligible for the Awards, the research must address an issue that is of importance to one of the various subject areas listed above. The Awards are open to those who have completed and satisfied examination requirements for a Doctoral award, or will do so, between 1 October 2009 and 1 October 2012, and have not applied previously for one of these Awards.

Submission requirements
1. Researchers must apply online using the application form at: http://ww2.emeraldinsight.com/awards/odra.htm
2. The following documents will be required electronically:

• Covering letter – as part of this please state whether or not your doctoral research has been published and/or will be published in any form (conference paper, article, peer reviewed journal, etc)
• Executive Summary – paper that summarises the Doctoral research. The Executive Summary should not exceed 1,000 words (reference lists and presentation of data, as either Tables or Figures, do not count towards this total).
• Letter of recommendation/reference from a supervisor/senior faculty member. For short-listed applicants, further contact may be made with the referee.
• Contact details of external examiner(s).

3. Applicants must only submit to one category.

Judging criteria
The entries will be judged by the Editor(s) and at least one Editorial Advisory Board member of the sponsoring journal. Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

1. Significance/implications for theory and practice.
2. Originality and innovation.
3. Appropriateness and application of the methodology.
4. Analysis and presentation of the data.
5. Quality of the literature review.

Short-listed applicants may be required to answer further questions as appropriate from the judging panel. Winners will be required to submit an unpublished paper, sole- or joint-authored, derived from the research, within six months of winning the Award. The Editors reserve the right not to select a winning paper if, in their judgment, none of the entries is considered satisfactory.

Please note that the decision of the judges is final. Due to the large number of submissions, applicants will not receive any feedback.

Key dates
The closing date for applications is 1 October 2012.

Winners will be announced in January 2013.

Contact details
For further information or if you have any queries, please contact:

Emma Stevenson
External Relations Executive
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Howard House
Wagon Lane
Bingley BD16 1WA
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1274 785198
Fax: +44 (0)1274 785200
E-mail: estevenson@emeraldinsight.com

Special issue call for papers from the Journal for Management Development
The Unfulfilled Promise of Responsible Management Education (RME)

Guest Editors:    

• Eric Cornuel, European Foundation for Management Development, Belgium & HEC Paris, France
• Ulrich Hommel, EBS Business School, Germany & European Foundation for Management Development, Belgium

Theme
A. The Context
Business schools have been on the defensive since the beginning of the financial crisis, not least for apparently failing to acknowledge their role in educating responsible managers. This debate has triggered a number of interesting and valuable responses from business schools such as the introduction of degree programmes strongly emphasizing RME-related aspects, the management oath initiative as well as fruitful and still on-going debates on adjusting international accreditation standards. We have further witnessed various organizational efforts to give responsible management education a higher priority in research and teaching such as the PRME initiative (http://www.unprme.org/) or the 50+20 initiative (http://50plus20.org/).
 
Nevertheless, the general view prevails that business schools as a whole are making only very gradual and still minor progress in addressing these issues on an institutional level. It is also argued that the laggardness of immersing themselves in this debate has led business schools to become increasingly detached from the business world, which is addressing these issues with much more fervour. And indeed, it appears that RME activities are still mostly kept in isolated silos in business schools and therefore do not seem to impact the full range of institutional activities. The purpose of this special issue is to address this phenomenon and develop explanations for why responsible management education remains largely an unfulfilled promise to this day.

B. Purpose
The purpose of this special issue is to advance the understanding of the structural barriers and resistances limiting the business schools’ ability and willingness to embrace the principles of responsible management education. The submissions can relate their arguments to any of the common themes in the business school and higher education literature, but are not limited to it. Examples are governance and faculty incentive management, accreditations and rankings, entrepreneurialism and corporate relevance as well as globalization / internationalization of business school activities. It is expected that papers will offer an appropriate appreciation of the RME-specific literature as well. Submissions are particularly encouraged from researchers in other fields such as higher education, economics, political science or philosophy. They are in a position to add valuable outside-in perspectives, which may be enriching the viewpoints put forward by the special issue.

C. Research Questions
This call is seeking contributions on any aspect of the special issue theme. Suggested questions to be explored include (please note that these questions are only intended to serve as examples and are not meant to restrict submissions in any way):

• Is RME another management fad with negligible relevance for practicing managers?
• What role do market-based performance metrics play in preventing business schools from embracing RME more fully (in strategy, research, teaching, etc.)?
• Are ambiguities in defining and measuring RME preventing more widespread adoption?
• To what extent do business school governance and management practices explain why RME still retains its orphan-like status?
• To what extent do discrepancies in the philosophical foundations of management science and economics vs. RME create intellectual resistance to the widespread adoption of RME?
• Why do the diverse cultural traditions and religious values around the globe or differences in economic development not have a more noticeable impact on the adoption and interpretation of RME?

We welcome submissions of high-quality papers on all topics related to the theme of the special issue. Contributions may develop theoretical frameworks, synthesize the existing body of knowledge, present strategic problem-solving applications or offer empirical evidence. Successful submissions will employ accurate methodologies and develop their arguments on the basis of rigorous analysis.

Submissions
To be considered for publication in this special issue, manuscripts must be received by January 31, 2013. Papers submitted will be subject to a minimum double-blind peer review process to ensure that this special issue maintains the excellent reputation and record of the Journal of Management Development. The journal website is located at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/jmd.htm.

Please read through the author guidelines on this site before submitting your paper. Submissions to Journal of Management Development are made using ScholarOne's Manuscript Central http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jmd. Full instructions can be found on the author guidelines site. As a guide, articles should not exceed 5,000 words in length. A title of not more than twelve words should be provided.

Queries should be submitted directly to the special issue co-editor, Ulrich Hommel (ulrich.hommel@efmd.org).

Special Issue Call for Papers: International Journal of Educational Management
Risk Management in Higher Education – Managing Academia in Turbulent Times

Guest Editors:     

• Eric Cornuel, European Foundation for Management Development, Belgium & HEC Paris, France
• Ulrich Hommel, EBS Business School, Germany & European Foundation for Management Development, Belgium

Theme
A. The Context
Higher education institutions are operating in an increasingly dynamic environment. Demographic shifts, rising market transparency and accountability, changing consumption patterns and the emergence of new competition are exposing the higher education sector to levels of risk never encountered before. Deregulation and new funding models are forcing presidents, deans and senior managers to embrace market challenges with the effect of further enhancing performance volatility. As a consequence, what has been said about management in general increasingly applies to higher education management as well: Institutions are managed well if they manage their risk position well. In addition, regulatory oversight bodies are beginning to acknowledge the need to align the intensity of supervision and control with institutional risk-taking.

Despite the high priority assigned to risk management in a practical context, the academic literature has largely ignored this emerging field of research so far. In the light of the impact of recent economic downturns on higher education and the concerns how continued turmoil in financial markets may put a considerable number of institutions into a state of budgetary distress, there is clearly a need to examine this issue more closely from a research perspective. Over the past two decades, risk management has developed into a vibrant field of research, in particular in finance and operations management. In contrast, the higher education literature on risk management is dominated by practice-based publications and still lacks an appropriate academic research foundation. The special issue intends to address this shortcoming.

B. Purpose
The purpose of this special issue is to advance the understanding of the specific nature of risk management in higher education institutions. With this perspective in mind, this Call for Papers seeks to expand knowledge in this area and provide a discussion forum for researchers in higher education as well as business & management. It presents a unique opportunity for researchers to gather and explore previously untapped synergies between these so far largely separate areas of research.
The special issue invites conceptual and empirical papers, presenting cutting edge research on risk management in higher education. Papers may be theoretical or applied but should in all cases have a clear relevance to risk management practices in higher education.

C. Research Questions
This call seeks contributions on any aspect of risk management in higher education. Papers can for example focus on:

• Risk management methodologies and risk management performance
• Financial and operational risks (and the interaction between them)
• Incentive issues, governance and regulation
• Strategic decision-making and risk taking

Suggested questions to be explored include (please note that these questions are only intended to serve as examples and are not meant to restrict submissions in any way):

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of risk management methodologies currently used in the higher education sector?
• What is the relationship between financial performance and competitive positioning of higher education institutions?
• How effective are different governance models in controlling risk-taking behaviour of senior management?
• What is the impact of internationalization on risk-taking behaviour of higher education institutions?
• How are different trends (e.g. demographic change, changing funding models, rising market orientation, managerialism, shift towards blended/online/distance learning) affecting performance volatility and financial health of higher education institutions?
• What is the impact of deregulation and privatization on risk taking in higher education?
• How can established risk management methodologies of the corporate sector (e.g. Cash Flow at Risk) be used to measure and mitigate risk exposures in higher education?
• How is regulatory oversight impacting risk-taking behaviour of higher education institutions?
• What are the need and scope of risk-based regulation of the higher education sector?

We welcome submissions of high-quality papers on all topics related to risk taking, risk management and risk regulation in a higher education context. They may use any type of higher education institution as a focal point (universities or subunits thereof such as business schools, public or private, non-profit or for-profit). Contributions can develop theoretical frameworks, synthesize the existing body of knowledge, present strategic problem-solving applications or offer empirical evidence. Successful submissions will employ accurate methodologies and develop their arguments on the basis of rigorous analysis.
 
D. The Journal
The International Journal of Educational Management provides those interested in the effective management of the educational process with a broad overview of developments and best practice in the field, with particular reference to how new ideas can be applied worldwide. The journal contains material relating to innovation in educational management across the spectrum, the development of educational delivery mechanisms, and the creation of an environment in which the management of resources provides the most efficient outputs achievable on an international basis to allow the sharing of new initiatives. Each article is submitted to a double blind-review process to ensure that academic integrity is maintained

Submissions
To be considered for publication in this special issue, manuscripts must be received by February 15, 2013. Submissions must comply with the author guidelines for this journal:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=ijem

Expressions of interest to submit a paper and other queries should be sent directly to the special issue co-editor, Ulrich Hommel (ulrich.hommel@efmd.org).

Adrian Wooldridge (Management Editor, The Economist), Alexander von Gabain (Chair of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology - EIT  and Santiago Iniguez (President of IE Business School and President of IE University) gave opening statements at the EFMD April Roundtable: Management Skills for Growth. A full report on the roundtable is available here and video highlights are below. Readers are also invited to comment on the EFMD Call To Action “Management Capacity: The Missing Link to set up value creation and innovation in Europe” by mid June 2012.



Three key suggestions concluded from this roundtable are:

• Re-inventing the EU innovation model: The current European innovation strategy design tends to be based on a stable evolutionary model. This approach needs to be changed. The idea of supporting the creation of high-growth companies in Europe is highlighted as an important element. It is also suggested to re-prioritise policy objectives, to avoid trying to achieve everything at the sametime. Too many equivalent priorities lead to no priorities.
  
  
• Developing skills for future leaders: There is a call to develop humanistic managers who are not only expert in management techniques, but also have the capacity to understand and deal with cross-disciplinary and inter-cultural issues.
  
  
• Entrepreneurship: The possibility to exploit knowledge and capital from all entrepreneurs needs to be further addressed. Entrepreneurial mid-sets are required in all types of organisations, small and large, pubic and private.

The Call to Action addresses key issues such as the inclusions of management education in scientific and engineering studies, supporting entrepreneurial mind-sets and values from school-level onwards, and providing community research funding for important fields such as design thinking, open innovation and organisational sociology. This paper is to be used as the essential basis for EFMD EU Affairs’ interactions with the EU policy makers as well as relevant consultation and networking activities in the coming future. You are invited to comment on the EFMD Call to Action, please send your comments and feedback to: jocelyne.wang@efmd.org

Martine Plompen, Associate Director, Research & Surveys Unit, EFMD
Jocelyne Wang, Manager, EU Affairs Unit, EFMD

EFMD would like to warmly congratulate:

• EBS Business School, EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht, Germany
• Faculty of Management, Economics & Social Sciences, University of Cologne, Germany
• IESEG School of Management Lille-Paris France
• Yonsei University School of Business Korea
• School of Management, Zhejiang University China

who have just been awarded EQUIS accreditation. This takes the number of accredited schools to 138 across 38 countries.

Prof. Julio Urgel, the EFMD Director of Quality Service said, "We are delighted to welcome 5 more leading international schools into the EQUIS community. Accreditation from EFMD is one of the best and most complete ways to certify the actual quality of a business school as accreditation involves an extensive self-assessment by the school, the visit of an international review team who spend several days interviewing many different people in the School, and finally a very experienced jury evaluating the assessment and findings of the review team to determine whether the School should be granted accreditation. There are currently no substitutes for such an in-depth assessment of quality and the new schools who have been accredited should be commended for their commitment to excellence."

• "The faculty of the School of Management, Economics and Social Sciences is very proud that the School has been rewarded the prestigious EQUIS accreditation. This accreditation acknowledges the efforts of all members of the school to transform it successfully into a competitive, international business school. And it encourages us to continue striving for excellence in research and education."
  Prof. Dr. Werner Mellis, Dean, School of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne
  
  
• “We are proud and honored to be rewarded with the prestigious Equis accreditation. This is for us an extremely important recognition and a fantastic starting point for further development of new international programs and partnerships, recruitment of international students and faculty and improving the placement of our students on a worldwide level.”
  Dr. Jean-Philippe Ammeux, General Director, IESEG School of Management Lille-Paris
  
  
• "We are extremely proud to have achieved EQUIS accreditation. This prestigious achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of our faculty toward providing our students with a world-class education and honors us with inclusion among the world’s elite institutions. The accreditation process has been a journey, not a destination, because the insights gained in the peer review will continue to guide us as we build on this achievement. In celebrating our reaching this milestone in our history, however, I must also express our deep gratitude for the support and guidanceof the late Jim Herbolich of EFMD. His encouragement during his briefing visit with us and on other occasions played a crucial role in our achieving this accreditation."
  Prof. Dr. Sang Yong Park, Dean of Yonsei University School of Business
  
  
• "We are so very pleased to have been awarded EQUIS accreditation as this means that the school’s achievements in teaching and research quality, and professional relevance have been acknowledged. EQUIS will help our school become more internationally exposed and even more innovative and entrepreneurial. EFMD evaluates excellent business education all over the world and EQUIS has systematically helped business education programmes move from being good to great and helped guide them on a path to continuos improvement. We have benefited enormously from being a part of the EFMD international network as the global membership base has helped us learn a great deal from other members. Because of the work of EFMD and the value gained from going through the EQUIS process, we are much more confident now in our educational strategy of Global Perspective, Innovation Capability, Entrepreneurial Spirit, and Socially Responsibility, which makes the school unique.
  Prof. Dr. Xiaobo Wu, Executive Dean, Zhejiang University School of Management
  
  
• “We are very proud to have received the EQUIS seal. The EQUIS accreditation confirms our reputation of being one of the leading Business Schools in Germany and will in return increase the attractiveness for international students and faculty. The accreditation confirms the excellence of our teaching and research, the international orientation of our programs with its strong focus on personal development, the broad executive education program portfolio and the strong practical focus due to our broad corporate network.”
  Prof. Rolf Tilmes, Dean of EBS Business School

EQUIS is not primarily focused on the MBA or any other specific programme as its scope covers all of programmes offered by an institution from the first degree up to the Ph.D. Institutions that are accredited by EQUIS must demonstrate not only high general quality in all dimensions of their activities, but also a high degree of internationalisation. With companies recruiting worldwide, with students choosing to get their education outside their home countries, and with schools building alliances across borders and continents, there is a rapidly growing need for them to be able to identify those institutions in other countries that deliver high quality education in international management. EQUIS also believes that business schools should be as closely connected to the real world of business as schools of medicine are to working hospitals. There must be a balance between high academic quality and the professional relevance provided by close interaction with the corporate world. EQUIS attaches particular importance to the development of managerial and entrepreneurial skills and fosters a students sense of global responsibility.

More information on EQUIS is available at www.efmd.org/equis

Many members will now be aware that Jim Herbolich passed away in early April. Jim had been seriously ill for some time and died peacefully in his sleep on 8 April 2012.

It is hard to put into words just how much he will be missed both as a colleague and friend.  Jim was a pillar of EFMD, kind to everybody, attentive, and wonderful to work with. His  contribution to the development of EFMD over the past decade has been immense and the organisation feels a little bit like an orphan now.

Jim was involved in the world of education ‒ his life-long passion ‒ for nearly 40 years. He was a scholar of management, both as a teacher and as a researcher and was a faculty member of the Human Resources Management Department of ESADE business school in Barcelona, Spain. He was also a formidable practising manager and administrator himself, with particular skills in man-management and motivation.

Jim was American-born though he spent most his life outside that country and was Director of Network Services at EFMD for 11 years where he held overall charge of Membership, Business School Services, Corporate Services, and Research and Surveys. As such, his old-world charm, politeness and universal friendliness pervaded the whole EFMD organisation, laying the foundations for the relaxed professionalism that it exhibits today. To EFMD staff and to the many members who knew him well, Jim meant friendship, kindness, openness, guidance and advice  ‒ and great company.

For me he was a kindred spirit, a loyal and dear friend who had a profound influence on my life and I will miss him greatly. In fact everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him will miss him greatly but his legacy will live on through the work of EFMD in the future.  I also know that Jim would not want us to be sad, rather he would want us to celebrate his wonderful life and many achievements. At the moment this is very hard on all of us but with time I am sure we will be able to look back with a smile on our faces at a truly remarkable man.

Goodbye my friend – I will never forget you.

Eric Cornuel

Join us for EFMD's Sharing Best Practice CLIP workshop hosted by EDF Corporate University for Management on (20-)21 September 2012 in Paris (Chatou). David Jestaz, Director, EDF Corporate University will share his experience with you and other speakers will include Edith Lemieux, Head of Air Liquide University, Thomas-Olivier Léautier, Professor of Management at the University of Toulouse and Anna Simioni CEO of UniManagement Unicredit Group.

Traditionally in a large number of companies corporate L&D organisations were tasked with the challenge of integrating employees into a single corporate culture. However more and more L&D organisations are challenged to be relevant in the short term and deliver immediate impact. In doing so, the line between traditional learning provision and consulting service is blurring. Beyond the ability to design customized programmes for the business units, there is a growing need for broader upstream services that guarantee alignment of strategic objectives, organizational development and L&D solutions. The central learning entity is called upon to intervene at the problem definition and needs analysis level in support of the business units, even if a subsequent learning & development intervention is not required or even envisaged in a number of cases.

This evolution has created the challenge for central L&D entities to create their own consulting services inside their larger portfolio of activities. At the same time, external vendors, who are reacting to the same trend, are offering both consulting and L&D solutions. In short, corporate universities as well as training firms and Business Schools are beginning to offer consulting services, while consulting firms are starting to build learning capabilities.

This trend deserves more thorough and comprehensive exchange to address a number of issues:

1. Do we fully understand why this phenomenon has emerged and to what extent this broader consulting role is different from the traditional provision of customized programmes?
2. Facing this growing demand, how should the L&D organisation within a company design such an offer (business model, pricing, value chain etc…)?
3. What is the mandate of this L&D consulting practice? How does it fit into the wider landscape of L&D and other internal consulting services?
4. What are the competencies required to staff such a service? Does it create a natural need to partner with other internal structures or with outside vendors in order to fully integrate a structured service offer?
5. What is the legitimacy of this consulting service over time?

This workshop is free of charge for EFMD members and by invitation only. It is dedicated to corporate learning and corporate HR practitioners from companies. For more information, please contact Shanshan GE  Shanshan.ge@efmd.org

The deadline to submit your case to the 2012 EFMD Excellence in Practice Awards is now approaching and we look forward to receiving your cases by 1st May 2012.  The EiP winning cases will be presented and awarded during the EFMD 2012 Executive Education Conference hosted by  Instituto Internacional San Telmo on 3-5 October 2012 (Sevilla, Spain).  Registrations for that conference are already open.

The EFMD Excellence in Practice Award attract case studies showcasing outstanding Learning and Development (L&D) partnerships. Fields might include Leadership, Professional, Talent or Organization Development and the programme described in the case should be deployed by an organisation either together with its in-house L&D unit or with an external L&D provider (Business School, Executive Education Center, etc...). Case-studies must demonstrate Operational Excellence (e.g. sustainable partnership & effective learning environment etc.); Excellent Programme Management (e.g. design, delivery, evaluation, selection methodology of participants etc.); and above all Strong Business Impact (e.g. alignment with corporate strategy, impact for company, incorporation in corporate HR processes etc).

Winners in 2011 included: ArcelorMittal, CCL, Emerging World, ING Bank, INSEAD, Microsoft, Royal Bank of Scotland, Royal Philips Electronics, the world we work in, TMA World and Wharton.

Please make sure that your entry to the Awards is submitted by the 1st of May 2012 via the online registration process. The detailed assignment brief, submission guidelines and online registration process are available here.

Information session webinars have been organised over the last few weeks that provide detailed instructions and tips on how to apply. If you are interested in getting the session recordings, please contact Florence Grégoire - florence.gregoire@efmd.org

If you have any questions or would like to express an interest in taking part please contact Florence Grégoire - florence.gregoire@efmd.org

The Quality Services Office is happy to present the 2012 version of the EQUIS and EPAS Documents. Every year the Quality Services Department revises its documentation to improve the quality of its accreditation services. The revision includes changes to:

-    EQUIS Standards and Criteria
-    EQUIS Process Manual
-    EQUIS Process Manual Annexes
-    EPAS Process Manual
-    EPAS Process Manual Annexes
-    EPAS Standards and Criteria

Some of the key changes are:

•    A new annex on the provision of the distance learning programmes (EPAS)
•    Fundamental changes to the EPAS Doctoral criteria (EPAS)
•    A strengthening of aspects of academic learning (EPAS)
•    Revised Peer Review Visit Schedule Templates (EQUIS and EPAS)
•    Many minor improvements in the accreditation process (EQUIS and EPAS)

A new re-accreditation procedure for EQUIS Schools that received 5 year accreditation three consecutive times is currently being fine tuned. Since it will only be of application for the first time to a few schools in their reviews in 2013, it will be published as a separate document in March 2012. After this pilot testing, it will be incorporated to the EQUIS Process Manual in 2013.

For more detailed information, please consult the relevant lists of changes and the new versions of the documents on our website. Schools are advised to use the most recent version of the documents when preparing for the next step in the accreditation process.

Deans Across Frontiers (DAF) aims to assist Business Schools to develop further through mentoring of the institution’s Senior Management Team. DAF is the third service offered by the EFMD Quality Services Department that complements EQUIS and EPAS and as with the accreditation systems, the school will undergo a Self-Assessment and Peer Review Process. Following the assessment by the Peer Review Team, the School will benefit for a three-year period of mentoring by an experienced former Dean and will progress towards defined development objectives. The EFMD will assure the effectiveness of the process through systematic progress tracking.

EFMD has a mission to promote excellence in business and management education worldwide. This is partly fulfilled by its existing accreditation systems, EQUIS and EPAS, which are aimed at the very top schools. However, EFMD also has a social responsibility to support all levels of schools, whether they be members of EFMD or not. The launch of Deans Across Frontiers is the response to this need. Fees are charged for DAF but applications are invited for full or partial-funding scholarships on a case-by-case needs basis.

The spirit of DAF and especially the relationship between mentor and institution is one of mutual cooperation and learning.  The mentoring and evaluation of a School has to consider the educational, cultural and political environment in which the institution operates and to relate it to a wider international context. It is not the intention of DAF to promote any particular model of Business School, but to give contextualised assistance or advice.

The DAF Committee convened for the first time on 18 October and the system was presented in November at the EFMD Africa Conference in Cape Town and the EFMD MENA conference in Casablanca. The pilot phase has now been officially launched and the DAF office is happy to receive applications. As DAF is still at an early stage of development, individuals and institutions are invited to become involved with DAF as mentor, reviewer, donor or godfather institution.

If you are interested in DAF or have any questions please email Friedemann Schulze-Fielitz friedemann.schulze-fielitz@efmd.org

On 15 November and 16 November, EFMD is organising EPAS and EQUIS Accreditation seminars just after the EFMD conference in the MENA Region in Casablanca (Host: ESCA- Ecole de Management). The seminars will be led by two highly experienced accreditation directors at EFMD.

The seminars are designed for institutions considering applying for EPAS (the EFMD Programme accreditation system) or EQUIS (the European Quality Improvement System – whole school accreditation) or for those already holding active eligibility in either system. The aim of the seminars is to give participants a deeper understanding of the EPAS or EQUIS accreditation systems. This is highly recommended for any School that wants to go through these accreditation exercises and the extra insights gained from the seminars might make all the difference towards achieving successful accreditation.

The seminars will cover the following areas:

•    The interpretation and practical application of the EPAS / EQUIS Standards and Criteria
•    Understanding the process as explained in the EPAS / EQUIS Manuals and Application Datasheets
•    The use of the key stages of the EPAS / EQUIS Accreditation processes for quality improvement
•    The preparation of an effective and informative Self-Assessment Report
•    The optimal timing of the EPAS / EQUIS Accreditation process

Do not miss this wonderful opportunity to find out more about EPAS or EQUIS accreditation and the value it can bring to your school. Registrations are open and places are limited. Sign up for both seminars and profit from a reduced fee.

For more information on the accreditations processes visit - EPAS and EQUIS.

"Avant tout, il faut comprendre que nous ne sommes pas dans une logique de sanction, souligne Eric Cornuel, directeur général de l’EFMD (lire ci-contre), qui délivre le label Equis à 18 institutions en France et 129 dans le monde (dont 30 % hors Europe). Notre objectif est d’être des vecteurs de progrès pour les institutions."

+ More // Les Echos

The Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University has become the only higher learning institution to earn both US and European accreditation. In December, it was accredited with EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System)......... "Regarding the European accreditation, the emphasis of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) is more on practicality as the EFMD consists of both business and academic interests." + More // The Nation