Imagine if Timbuktu, long used by some developed nations in their jibes about ‘the most remote part of the world”, became a key economic centre in the next few decades.
Impossible?
Not really, when one considers that Mali (in which Timbuktu is an actual city, in case you were wondering) has seen GDP growth of more than 4% in recent years — well above what most developed countries can muster as they continue to linger in recession.
As in many emergent economies, yes, there is poverty in Mali and there are many other challenges. But as a growing number of African, Asian and South American countries have begun to prove, the times are achanging and growth is spurring even more real change.
Emergent-market economies are the current and future engines of global economic growth: as a recent article in the United Kingdom’s Investor Chronicle said, these markets ‘are now too big to ignore”.
The Chronicle adds that emergent economies ‘account for over 70% of the world’s population” and it is widely accepted that key emergent markets, especially Brazil, Russia, India and China, ‘will continue to grow rapidly”.
Africa should be added to this rising force, as projections are that the continent’s real GDP growth could reach about 7% in 2011 from a forecast of about 5.5% for 2010.
So it is no surprise that business schools globally are shifting their attention to better understand these markets and equip managers to operate effectively in them.
In a recent feature in Business Week, Jonathan Doh, a professor of management and director of the Centre for Global Leadership at the Villanova School of Business in the United States, makes a case for this emergent-market focus in the US.
‘Too many business schools are preparing students for the last century. To ready them for this one, they should focus on China, India and the rest of the developing world.”
He said that although he can, as a professor of international management, help students understand the emergent markets, there is no substitute for being in those markets.
And it is here that emergent-market business schools have the upper hand over their European and US counterparts and are positioning themselves to take advantage of this fact.
There is no substitute for operating in these markets, grappling with their challenges of complexity and inequality and building thought leadership and business practice in ways that are contextually relevant.
Commenting on the latest Financial Times survey of the top 100 MBA programmes, Ajit Rangnekar, dean of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India, said that global institutions from emergent markets, with an inherent cost advantage, will become more attractive destinations for management education, as well as a resource pool for management talent.
‘There will also be a growth in demand for research on emergent markets, accompanied by a spurt in collaborations or partnerships among business schools globally,” he said.
Rolf Cremer, dean of the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, said that 2010 will see the emergence of thought leading schools in emergent markets.
‘The structural and long-term problems now facing business and society are nowhere better understood than in emergent economies. ‘Business schools in these economies will react quickly and creatively with curriculum changes and new content to address the postcrisis challenges.”
Both the China Europe International Business School and the Indian School of Business are among a select group of emergent-market business schools that have achieved recognition in the Financial Times survey.
There are only six business schools from the Brics group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) that have consistently achieved rankings.
Globally, a post-recession business world is calling for a new kind of leader, one who thinks about business in a more sustainable way and understands the importance of all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
In South Africa and other emergent markets, business has been grappling with inherent complexity and the imperative of social custodianship.
This is today the competitive advantage and the world is eager to learn — as is evident in the increasing interest and enrolment numbers from students from the US and Europe at the UCT Graduate School of Business and other emergent-market business schools. Many centuries ago, Timbuktu developed into one of the world’s thriving intellectual and spiritual capitals.
Today there is no reason why Cape Town, Shanghai or Hyderabad cannot do the same.
Professor Walter Baets is director of the UCT Graduate School of Business
Best in Africa
The UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) is the only business school in Africa in the global top 100 (at number 89) — an achievement we have now recorded for the sixth consecutive year, writes Walter Baets.
We performed well in several Financial Times categories.
The school featured in the top third of the rankings in diversity (24th for percentage of women faculty, 21st for the percentage of women students and 17th for percentage of women on the board).
GSB students get exceptional international exposure on their MBA (9th in international experience rank), are globally competitive (25th in international mobility rank), and achieve success in their endeavours after their MBA (28th in career progress rank).
We believe we offer one of the very best value-for-money MBAs in the world (second in value-for-money rank). Interestingly, another emergent market school — COPPEAD Graduate School of Business in Brazil — is first in the category value for money.
Ranking in the international survey is an important accomplishment for emergent-market business schools because very few have the resources to compete with much larger schools in the US and Europe. Equally important is getting international accreditation, which the UCT GSB has.
The progress made by the UCT GSB in terms of international stature was recently rewarded when global business school deans voted it in October last year the ‘Best Business School in Africa”.
The school recognises that as many of the old social and business structures and old ways of thinking are breaking down, we stand at a unique point in human history with exciting possibilities for individuals and organisations.
‘Business as usual” is no longer the way to achieve sustainable success — managers need an expanded skill set that creates new models of business.