Ten years later: A global network connects remote B schools on five continents

The last ten years have not been kind to supporters of globalization. With global supply chains severely disrupted, the emergence of nationalist governments in many countries, Brexit and a new round of COVID-19 related lockdowns in China, the forces that have led to a global economy appear more fragile than never. In this environment, a Yale School of Management course created by David Bach titled “The End Of Globalization?” won the Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute.

Yet, as a unique network of global business schools celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, there are many reasons to believe in the value of global integration.

What started ten years ago as an idea at the head of the Dean of the Yale School of Management has grown into a highly successful collaborative network of business schools on five continents in the most remote parts of the world. . In a strategy to make Yale SOM America’s most global business school, former Yale Dean Edward ‘Ted’ Snyder envisioned what would become the Global Network For Advanced Management.

More than 13,000 students participated in a global immersion at a school in the global network

The idea was to recruit business schools from around the world who would work together to create educational programs and global experiences for students at network schools. Initially, Snyder was able to persuade 16 schools to join the network, cleverly leveraging the mobilizing power of Yale University’s brand to corral schools in Brazil, Chile, Ghana and Vietnam to participate in a endeavor to share research, teaching materials, faculty and ultimately graduates. Gradually, the network expanded to 34 business schools, including UC-Berkeley Haas.

Last month, the deans and directors of the global network gathered at the IMD campus in Lausanne, Switzerland, to assess their progress. They came from Cape Town, Ghana, Nigeria, France, Italy, Germany, USA and other remote areas. Many more have virtually joined Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Sweden and South Wales, among others. This was the 21st meeting of business school leaders who have joined the collaborative effort.

And they had reason to rejoice. Ten years after the network was founded, the statistics tell a story of success. More than 13,000 students joined a global network week in which students travel to another campus in the network to take a course, 4,370 enrolled in online courses created by schools in the network, more than 4,500 students participated in global virtual teams and nearly 15,200 students and alumni participated in Global Network surveys. There have also been case competitions as well as faculty-led collaborations on sustainability, urban resilience and entrepreneurship, as well as a dozen cases produced.

“I think it was just a good idea, if not a compelling idea”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that no money has ever changed hands. Cooperation between the schools was based on goodwill and a strong commitment to creating more global opportunities for students and faculty. Compensation never came into the discussion.

“I think it was just a good idea if not a compelling idea,” Snyder explains, in his typical understated manner. “It was really what SOM needed as a business school with little global engagement. And it was asset-driven innovation, with no investment in our capacity.”

Along the way, there have been many critical moments for the network. A key idea was to ask participating schools to put together a week of engaging programming on a topic their faculty were familiar with. Students were then invited to join the weeks they found the most interesting and had the chance to rub shoulders with their peers from other participating schools. “Obviously, for this to work, all participating schools must choose the same week,” recalls David Bach, dean of innovation and programs at IMD. Bach played a pivotal role in building the network at Yale with Snyder when he was assistant dean of Yale’s School of Management. “Yet academic calendars vary widely, so it seemed impossible. But we trusted in the power of network effects, got a critical mass of five schools to agree on a week, and told others “if you want to join us, this is the week”.

“Schools have literally changed their academic calendars to participate in Global Network Weeks”

“The number of participating schools has increased from one edition to the next – five, then seven, then 11, then 13 and so on,” adds Bach. “And the more schools that participate, the more attractive the Global Network Weeks are for everyone. We are now over 20, offering incredible options for students. Schools have literally changed their school calendars to be able to participate. If the deans had tried to agree on a week that worked for everyone, we would still be in discussion. But network effects solved the problem.

Reflecting on the tenth anniversary, Snyder notes that the network has grown from childhood to “early adulthood.”

Not everything was a resounding success. It was difficult to get meaningful research support from faculty across all schools or to get faculty to work together to develop case studies on global issues for the network. But three initiatives have worked and made a significant difference: Small Network Online Courses (SNOC), designed as electives for students around the world; Global Network Weeks, Immersions that allowed students to travel to a campus outside of their country for an in-depth dive into a topic, and Global Virtual Teams that brought students from around the world to work together on projects or cases .

SNOC courses run the gamut from Bay Area Innovation and Entrepreneurship by faculty at Berkeley Haas and Leadership: Perspectives From The Humanities taught by faculty at Oxford Said to Sustainable Finance, Investment & Impact by faculty at ESMT Berlin and Digital Transformation : Using Emerging Tech Developing Business Opportunities from IE Business School in Spain.

And after? ESMT President Jörg Rocholl throws out some ideas

“Students come to our programs with very rich team experiences,” says Snyder. “That said, there is no manual on teamwork. And in the global virtual setting, students have very different experiences. These global virtual team projects brought together faculty and students, providing students with systematic feedback that helped them improve their skills. »

Moving the organization to the next phase was the focus of a discussion led by ESMT President Jörg Rocholl, the network’s new president. Among other things, he suggested initiatives that would connect network alumni to gain broader and closer reach, encourage more joint work on building sustainability programs, and leverage the network on executive education.

Other deans see promise in awarding badges to students when they complete an online networking course or immersion week to put on their LinkedIn profiles. This would allow students to be recognized for their participation and to introduce the network to other potential users. Another member thinks it would be a good idea to open network offers to students of pre-experience masters programs. A dean has proposed opening the network’s online courses to all alumni of network schools so that they can, in effect, have an “MBA for life”. Yet another idea is to hold a faculty retreat where faculty would work on the issue of sustainability, developing jointly written case studies for the network.

“The power of this network lies in our ability to move ideas forward,” says Rocholl.

And that’s exactly the vision Snyder had when he first came up with the idea a decade ago.

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