From No Snow to Chartreuse! : Mark Silberbauer, a student from the University of Cape Town talks about studying in Grenoble.

Why did Mark select GEM for his exchange? He lists several reasons.  He says he was looking for a life experience out of his comfort zone, one that would incorporate a foreign language and culture.  He adds, “my decision was completely based on having a new, cool experience that was not an English one.” 

Professors (and other experts) getting it wrong : The Reinhart and Rogoff spreadsheet error

So, two of the most prominent and respected professors of finance in the world got it wrong! There are several interesting aspects to the Reinhart and Rogoff spreadsheet error saga and many commentators have jumped in to criticise their work now that we know they omitted out five countries. Perhaps the one thing that has not been said is that they had the good grace, open mindedness  and humility to send their data to a graduate student that they had never met and wasn’t even a student at either of their universities. Professors do get it wrong, as do all human beings, but good ones are open to analysis and criticisms from others.

 

“It All Works Out In The End”- An Australian’s account of studying in Grenoble

Samuel Armstrong, an Australian from the University of Sydney, is currently studying in the Master’s of Global Management program in GEM.  He is certainly enjoying the city, the ski stations, all while maintaining his workout routine, learning about the value of group projects, and really gaining a lot from his French exchange. 

BOOK REVIEW: “The Art of the Sale” by Philip Delves Broughton (2013)

Philip Delves Broughton made quite a name for himself by writing a book, which was highly critical of Harvard Business School and the MBA system in general.  During his time at HBS, he was surprised that sales was not part of the curriculum.  He expected it to be very present in MBA programs and yet found that, in general, they looked down upon such mercantile procedures. 

Business school performance culture. Are we targeting the right things?

Those of us working in higher education at the moment must recognise that some of the targets to which are business schools work are leading to dysfunctional outcomes, for example staff being taken away from front line teaching and student support duties so that they can write articles for obscure academic journals.

AACSB Annual ICAM Conference 2013: Emerging Markets and Business School Strategies

One of the last sessions at the AACSB ICAM 2013 was a panel discussion moderated by David A. Wilson, President of GMAC on the role of emerging markets and their strategic impact on business schools. The panelists were Edward A. Snyder, Dean and William S. Beinecke Professor, Economics and Management, School of Management, Yale University, Richard K. Lyons, Dean, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and Kathleen A. Getz, Dean, School of Business, Loyola University Chicago.

AACSB Annual Meeting (ICAM 2013): The European Affinity Group and the challenges of accreditation for European schools

At the AACSB Annual ICAM Conference 2013, the European Affinity Group organized a session on the special challenges for European business schools in obtaining accreditation. This began with Rachael Weiss, Head of Student Experience and Accreditation at the University of Sheffield, entitled “QAA and UK challenges with Assurance of Learning” This was then followed by a discussion between different regions of Europe with some proposals on how continue with the work that has already been done.

AACSB Annual Meeting (ICAM 2013): Building Your School’s Brand Through Executive Education (Elaine Eisenman, Kai Peters)

At the AACSB ICAM 2013 Conference, Elaine Eisenman, Dean of Babson College, and Kai Peters, Chief Executive of Ashridge Business School, set out some of the main issues in executive education today. Peters described the period as being one of the “most Schumpeterian times for executive education” and business schools in general. The presentation entitled “The Ideal, the Real, and the Deal” first dealt with some of the key misconceptions concerning education. 

 

AACSB Annual Meeting (ICAM 2013): Learning, Leading, and Teaching in the 21st Century (Tony Wagner, Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard)

At the AACSB ICAM 2013 Conference, Tony Wagner, Innovation Education Fellow at Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, talked about the learning gaps that are affecting students across the world, and gave some strategies for how to prepare them for the new global knowledge society. 

AACSB Annual Meeting (ICAM 2013): Lead by Choice: Lessons for the B-School (Sheena Iyengar, Columbia Business School)

“I am always looking for cool pictures.” said Sheena Iyengar at the end of her excellent presentation on how to “Lead by Choice”. The quote was all the more remarkable in that the director of the Global Leadership Matrix (GLeaM) at Columbia Business School is totally blind. The objective of the talk was to highlight “what effective leaders need to know about choice” and how you can choose your way to success. Indeed, there is so much information available that it has become imperative today to know how to choose.