GBSN and Korn Ferry have partnered to deliver a series of conversations with business leaders who are catalyzing innovation. The task of universities and business schools is after all “to prepare graduates for jobs that do not yet exist.” These jobs of the future are being created right now by leading businesses worldwide. These conversations are designed for a global audience of business students and alumni, as well as the staff and faculty who are helping them navigate careers in a rapidly changing world. 

This conversation about Urban Air Mobility features GBSN CEO Dan LeClair with Esina Alic CEO of Res Novae Group, and Grace Chew from preeminent organizational consultancy, Korn Ferry who discussed the development, current landscape, and how companies are innovating in the Urban Air Mobility Sector. We also considered the hard and soft skillsets business schools need to equip their student with to help them be competitive in the urban air mobility sector.

The task of universities and business schools is after all “to prepare graduates for jobs that do not yet exist.” These jobs of the future are being created right now by leading businesses worldwide.

With this in mind, GBSN and Korn Ferry have partnered to deliver a series of conversations with business leaders who are catalyzing innovation. These include chief strategy and innovation officers and other c-suite executives working where industries and ecosystems are intersecting in spectacular ways to generate the jobs of the future.

These conversations will be designed for a global audience of business students and alumni, as well as the staff and faculty who are helping them navigate careers in a rapidly changing world.

The following conversation moderated by GBSN CEO Dan LeClair with guests Grace Chew and Lisa Harrison is all about The Workforce of the Future.

In this episode we share insights into Collaborations for healthcare leadership during the covid-19 pandemic. As part of the Race2Imagine series sponsored by GBSN member Universidad de los Andes School of Management in Colombia, we partnered with fellow network members Miami Herbert Business School in Florida, to facilitate the exchange of impact stories from different perspectives: those of students, faculty and leaders from different institutions, governments, and civil society professionals to share their experience within their local community that addressed challenges related to healthcare, especially in the context of pandemic responses.

We hear from two former US Secretaries of Health and Human Services as Donna Shalala interviews Alex Azar about his leadership role in Operation Warp Speed, the public–private partnership initiated by the United States government to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

Human beings are like raw diamonds: potential but the inherent beauty and value only emerge with a perfect cut. How well is formal education, as we know it today, doing in cutting human diamonds? Do we sparkle to our full potential? 

In this episode, GBSN CEO Dan LeCLair is in conversation With Dr. Wilfried Vanhonacker about his latest book, “Rough Diamonds”. Based on over 40 years in education around the world, Wilfried shares in the book and in this discussion some of his observations, questions, and reflections on formal education as we know it and have come to accept it. And In doing so, in Rough Diamonds provides a critical look at what formal education has morphed into. It paints according to Wilfried… a worrisome picture.

What would a business school look like if one started with a blank sheet of paper and did not benchmark other business schools?

What would the content be? Who would teach? What would it cost?

In this session, we will look at how business schools got to be where they are because of the Ford and Carnegie reports over half a century ago, the advent in 1987 of the first of the major rankings, and the drivers of accreditation. Join one of GBSN’s new members, Coventry University Business School for this session, as Kai Peters, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Faculty of Business and Law), will makes the case for a major overhaul of the structure and positioning of business schools for the future.

Every March since 1992, the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan deploys student teams all over the world for its Multidisciplinary Action Projects (MAP) course. 2020 was different. How did the school modify MAP for the lockdowns? What did they learn? What comes next?

Join GBSN’s CEO, Dan LeClair and Mike Barger, Executive Director, Office of Strategy and Academic Innovation, for a discussion around project-based learning, summer internships, and how to plan for the upcoming academic term.

In the emerging academic field of Business and Human Rights (BHR), conducting research with real-world impact is the declared objective of many researchers. It is a field in which individual research interests and advocacy for human rights are often closely aligned.

Companies under pressure to manage human rights challenges also welcome research on applied research questions. They hope for scholarly guidance on implementation challenges and results that are readily applicable in corporate practice.

However, setting up research projects that meet the sometimes paradoxical requirements from academia and practice poses many challenges for researchers in this field. 

In this Podcast we will provide examples from our work conducted in the context of the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights. We will present our distinct research process and methodology to discuss with participants how to make further improvements. To close the webinar, we will highlight potential unintended consequences of conducting research with the declared objective of affecting change in company conduct.

Panelists:

Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, Director, Center for Business and Human Rights - Geneva School of Economics and Management, Switzerland.

Serra Cremer Iyi, Consultant, Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights - Geneva School of Economics and Management, United Kingdom.

How are organizations adapting to the disruptive forces transforming globalization, such as economic nationalism, technological transformation, environmental crisis—and, of course, the Covid-19 pandemic?

For nearly two decades at BCG, Dr. Arindam Bhattacharya has worked closely with some of the world’s leading global companies, helping leaders to navigate the complex and rapidly changing environment. In this GBSN cross-border webinar, he talks with GBSN CEO, Dan LeClair, about that experience and his new book, Beyond Great, and offers insights into the future of business education as well as business.

Western Governors University (WGU) is a large online, non-profit, competency-based university based in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The College of Business has a total enrollment of over 41,000 students, 11,000 of which were enrolled in graduate business programs as of December 2020. The majority of its students are non-traditional and/or come from under-served populations. WGU is working to develop innovative products that address access and equitable attainment, creating pathways between talent and opportunity.  

In this webinar, learn about its competency-based approach to online education and its faculty model providing students with personalized support as they progress toward completion of a credential. The speakers will discuss WGU’s strategies to scale while maintaining industry relevance, and provide a preview of the skills-focused direction of its program development and redevelopment efforts. 

Presenters:

Michelle Love, Chair of the MBA Program, Western Governors University. USA.

Ningchun Han, Product Development Owner, College of Business Western Governors University. USA.

Michael Whalen, Skills Architect, College of Business, Western Governors University. USA.

Digital transformation plays a central role in the sustainable development of Africa. Yet the continent does not yet have the tech talent to enable this transformation. How do we develop the skills to support the needed investment? How can business, academia, government, and civil society work together to create an environment that unlocks the full potential of Africa’s aspiring entrepreneurs? Can business schools and universities take the lead in connecting diverse talent needed to accelerate innovation? 

Panelists:

Philip Thigo - Director for Africa, Thunderbird School for Global Management, Arizona State University, USA.

Kizito Okechukwu - Board Vice President and Interim President, Digital Africa, South Africa.

Meriem Zairi - Senior Managing Director MENA, SEAF, Morocco.