„Working together makes us stronger”! This phrase picked up from the interview with Hanane El Kouari seems to be one of the leitmotifs of the current edition of the Knowledge Bar. The different contributions focus on the Middle East and Africa and describe how different schools in the region have experienced the pandemic. It had a broad impact on many aspects of business school life all over the world. As usual, there is great value in sharing experiences and ways to overcome challenges.
By Griet Houbrechts
Director, Professional Development
EFMD Global
LinkedIn
The different contributions bring up the importance of international networks and partnerships to increase collaboration and share best practices. Well-developed networks and partnerships strengthen the resilience of schools and are vital to weather the crisis. Support from colleagues in partner institutions has proven its incredible value in the last two years.
Another important theme that comes out from the contributions is that robust quality assurance and institutionally-wide understood quality standards support the resilience of business schools. It also underpins the re-thinking of business school models and the reorganisation of resources. Using the SDGs to identify gaps is another way to gain a better understanding of your school’s strengths as well as its weak areas.
Establishing a data-driven culture within the institution supports partnerships, quality management as well as an SDG analysis: It makes sure the business school leadership becomes stronger and more effective at strategic decision making.
Finally, a recurring topic at recent conferences and meetings is the need for re-skilling business school faculty and staff. Adapting to changing student expectations, evolving modes of delivery and integration of challenging new content requires a collaborative and supportive environment for the exchange of solutions. Faculty and staff need to become perpetual learners themselves.
As one of the authors emphasises, there is a lot of hunger to learn the critical skills that will drive solutions for a region that is often indicated as the region of the future. Paraphrasing another quote from Hanane’s interview, this edition’s contributions demonstrate that it is, in fact, not a region of the future but of the present!
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