AABS Connect Conference 2016
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AABS Case Teaching and Writing Workshop
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Special discounts for African Business Schools from The Case Centre
Business schools across Africa are being invited to become member organisations of The Case Centre. Member organisations in developing countries in Africa benefit from discounts on teaching materials and case method workshops. Click here to find out more.
Richard McCracken, The Case Centre’s Director, said: ‘We recognise that pricing can be a barrier to using a broad range of teaching materials. That’s why we offer a range of discounts of up to 80% to business schools in developing countries. This is a key aspect of our mission to advance the case method worldwide.
‘We’re looking forward to welcoming many new members from across the African continent. Not only will they benefit from our range of discounts, but they’ll also be able to call on the support and advice of our wonderful customer service team.’
For more information, contact Lucy Baldwin, The Case Centre’s Customer Services Manager at lucy@thecasecentre.org, or telephone +44 (0)1234 756420.
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AACSB Global Improvement Network (GIN) Pilot—Quality Improvement Initiative
In cooperation with the Global Business School Network (GBSN), AACSB International announces the launch of its GIN Pilot Quality Improvement Initiative.
Through the GIN Pilot, AACSB along with a select group of business schools in Africa commit to two years of working together to achieve best-of-class quality management education.
Click here for further information.
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Helping business education make a change
As the international community gears up to fight poverty and tackle a host of other social challenges under the newly-forged sustainable development goals (SDGs) private sector involvement will be crucial. Some $3.9 trillion investment in development-linked sectors will be needed to ensure progress with the goals, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) figures.
Alongside the mobilisation of private sector finance, requisite management skills need to be deployed to ensure successful project implementation on the ground.
To create awareness about and build the skills required to meet these needs business schools have an important contribution to make. Business schools shape mindsets and can therefore play a crucial role to spearhead private sector participation in bringing development efforts to fruition. To contribute to this process UNCTAD started a project under the banner Business Schools for Impact. The initiative creates a platform to bring together likeminded individuals to discuss and share materials that bring a development approach to business educations.
Click here to read the full article
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What FIFA taught us: A lack of ethics will cost you
This August, FIFA will hold a special meeting with its sponsors to inform them of the progress made in purging the organisation of corruption.
Three months on from the eruption of the scandal, which saw top FIFA officials arrested on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering as part of a US prosecution that also indicted 14 people, the global football organisation is reportedly struggling to sign new sponsors ahead of its 2015 tournament.
Major sponsors, Visa, Coca-Cola and McDonalds have all been unusually vocal in their criticism of the scandal prompting secretary-general Jerome Valcke to admit last month: "The current situation doesn't help to finalise any new agreements."
The situation has highlighted that unethical leadership and reputational damage will impact the bottom line of an organisation, a leading academic has said.
Professor Walter Baets, director of the UCT Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB) and Allan Gray Chair in Values-Based Leadership, says that now more than ever, there is a need for values-driven leadership in organisations in South Africa and the world. “Organisations that think they are focusing solely on the bottom line can learn, in the most painful ways, that this kind of thinking comes at a tremendous cost,” Baets says.
Click here to read the full article
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Dean Nicola Kleyn receives an Emerald Management Review Citations of Excellence Award
Congratulations to Nicola Kleyn and Russell Abratt whose paper “Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate reputations: Reconciliation and integration”, European Journal of Marketing, 2012 has been recognised by Emerald.
On a yearly basis the Emerald Group Publishing awards certificates to highly cited papers relating to the areas of Business Management, Finance, Accounting, Economics and Marketing – subjects in which Emerald itself has proudly published journals for nearly 50 years.
Click here to read the article.
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Thank you to all member schools and partners for supporting the AABS mission in improving business and management education and contributing towards inclusive economic and social development in the continent.
The AABS Secretariat office will close on 15 December 2015 and re-open on 11 January 2016. We wish you all a splendid and safe festive season.
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As we come to the end of 2015 we thank Prof Walter Baets for his service as AABS Chair during the past two years, specifically for his contributions towards making the association more inclusive whilst continuously challenging everyone involved to consider their contribution to, and impact on the African business and management education landscape.
We herewith welcome Dr Edward Mungai as incoming AABS Chair commencing 1 January 2016. We look forward to an interview with him in the next newsletter.
In this issue we interview Claire Beswick of Wits Business School and Prof Olawale Ajai of Lagos Business School on establishing and running a case centre. We hope our colleagues at the University of Lagos, as well as all other schools exploring the development of their own cases find this insightful.
At the end of September 2015 the AABS Agribusiness Project came to an end. AABS thanks all the parties involved in this project which included but were not limited to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the AAC Advisory Board, the AABS Board and especially the AABS AAC Agribusiness Project Director: Dinah Hanson. Thank you all for your contributions and service over the past four years to ensure that this grant and its supported project made and continues to make a real difference in African Business Schools’ capacity to explore and present programmes tailored specifically to Agribusiness.
As always, we highlight Member Schools’ and Partners’ news.
Please contact the AABS Secretariat for the January 2016 Insight contributions - articles, call for papers, events and school news.
Deadline to submit: 22 January 2016.
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Coffee Session: Establishing and Running a Case Centre
An exclusive coffee session interview with Claire Beswick of Wits Business School and Prof Olawale Ajai of Lagos Business School
AABS: How long did it take to set up the case centre at your school? What actual activities went into setting it up?
CB: I am not sure of how things worked exactly in the beginning, as I was not here then. What I know is that for some time WBS had been using case studies in its teaching, believing in the unique benefits that cases provide in management education. However, it was using international cases, because there were no local cases available and it was very difficult for lecturers to make the time to write their own cases that measured up to the standards of the international cases. Nevertheless, the WBS head of school at the time, Prof Mike Ward, knew that while many management lessons are transferable from one context to another, the South African business environment is unique with its own challenges and requirements. Therefore it was important for WBS to have its own cases set in South Africa. The solution was to employ writers who would write cases for faculty members under their direction. In 1999 WBS therefore employed a Harvard-trained case writer, Courtenay Sprague, to set up the case centre and put in place processes that would enable WBS to write quality local cases. She reported to a senior member of the faculty, Prof Neil Duffy, who was responsible for managing the Centre.
Courtenay set up the initial processes. Since then, we have put in place a very defined process for working with faculty members in the writing of cases and we have put in place measures to ensure consistency of style and quality of the finished product. When Neil Duffy retired, I took over as manager of the case centre and since then have reported either to our research director or our academic director. I currently report to the academic director.
Click here to read the full interview
AO: Depends on what you mean either a Centre for continual production of good teaching cases or a repository for cases or both. In the case of Lagos Business School our cases are hosted on the Case Centre site as a means of reducing the administrative tedium of requests for use of cases, etc. However, irrespective of deciding to host a case repository there is need for a continual pipeline of good quality teaching cases to feed a repository in the first place.
We had to recruit a core of research assistants to assist faculty to produce cases seamlessly. They had to be trained and equipped with basic research and case writing skills. Easily from recruitment to the initial deployment to faculty there may be a four to six month period involved.
Should you wish to host a repository you will need to have a portal on your website or create another website for that purpose. If you choose the latter there may be a four month period of web design, validation and launching to work through. During this period, it is important to assemble all the resources required to execute and launch the process. Critical among these is getting programmers and web designers to create and design a front-end user interface and a database which will serve as a repository for cases. This will also mean obtaining a server license and a reliable internet connection. Other activities will include obtaining and processing any necessary regulatory requirements.
You will require backroom facilities ; a case administrator to recruit and communicate with registered users; arrange subscription fees and various other marketing and administrative routines. The entire process could very well require careful preparation and implementation of nine to twelve months.
Click here to read the full interview
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AABS Connect Annual Conference 2016
The AABS Connect: Annual Conference will be hosted by Lagos Business School, Nigeria on 22 - 25 May 2016
The conference aims to connect African Business School practitioners and thought leaders to encourage dialogue in search of competitive approaches to aid African business management and education growth strategy.
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Emerald/AABS Case Study Competition 2015-6
Emerald and AABS are delighted to announce the launch of the 2015-2016 Emerald/AABS Case Study Competition. The aim of the competition is to encourage and promote the development of high-quality teaching case material derived from real life situations in Africa.
With the rise of experiential learning, case studies remain a fundamental teaching tool in every subject area within the business school discipline. Those cases with a local focus are critical to developing business school curriculum in the emerging economies; Emerald and the AABS are devoted to developing high-quality cases focused on the African region.
A cash prize of US$1,500 will be awarded to the most outstanding case.
For information on eligibility and how to enter, click here.
The closing date for submissions is 2 March 2016.
If you would like to view videos on case teaching notes clickhere.
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AABS Agribusiness Monitoring and Evaluation Impact Report
In 2012, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a grant to the Association of African Business Schools to establish an agribusiness consortium (AAC) - comprising African business schools, agribusiness industry and global partners - with the objective of development and delivery of Agribusiness Management training programmes backed by appropriate contextual research. The AAC rolled out multiple editions of a flagship Agribusiness Management Programme (AgMP) in Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania in partnership with GIMPA, Lagos Business School and Sokoine University of Agriculture respectively. A range of agribusiness training programmes were offered targeting levels ranging from farmers and medium-sized entrepreneurs to district- level aggregators to large agribusinesses and financial institutions. To date, the AAC has rolled out 11 programmes across East, West and Southern Africa drawing 212 participants from 18 countries across Africa and beyond.
The Monintoring and Evaluation Impact Report is the core output of the Agribusiness Project.
Click here to read the AABS Agribusiness Monitoring and Evaluation Impact Report.
The Curriculum Manual is freely available to AABS Member Schools that are interested in running Agribusiness Programmes. Due to honouring Intellectual Property attributed by various authors, AABS must be able to monitor distribution. If you/your school is interested in considering the roll out of Agribusiness Programmes, kindly request your copy of the Curriculum Manual from Mamodise atinfo@aabschools.com.
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AUC Venture Lab named "High Impact Incubation Program - Middle East and North Africa" for 2015 by UBI Global
AUC Venture Lab (V-Lab) has been named “High Impact Incubation Program” in the Middle East and North Africa by Sweden-based UBI-Global, which was announced at the recognition awards ceremony of top performing university business incubators in MENA 2015 hosted by UBI Global and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia on October 14, 2015.
“I am glad that, despite its young age, the AUC V-lab was ranked as the top university-based incubators in the MENA region by Sweden based UBI Global. This is an excellent recognition of the transformative impact of the AUC V-Lab but also the various impactful entrepreneurship activities that AUC has launched to promote entrepreneurship in Egypt and the region," said AUC School of Business Dean, Karim Seghir.
Click here to read the full article
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Business Success in Africa Requires Conflict Management Leadership
 (Image: Prof Brian Ganson, Director: Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement, University of Stellenbosch Business School)
Costly confrontations among companies, communities, labour unions, and governments in Africa are growing in number and intensity. This is particularly true for the increasing number of investments in the extractives industries, commercial agriculture and infrastructure projects.
Most notoriously, Lonmin PLC saw its share price drop 30% within a week of the 2012 massacre of workers protesting at its Marikana platinum mine linked to longstanding tensions among the company, rival labour unions, local government, and communities. The subsequent five month industry-wide strike cost Lonmin, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum a combined US $2.25 billion in lost revenues.
Markets increasingly understand and account for these conflict risks: In the valuation of the share price for a gold mine, for example, good relationships with governments and communities may be worth more than twice the value of the gold in the ground itself.
Click here to read the full article
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The future of the MBA: Big Five Trends in African Business Education
The Master of Business Administration (MBA) is currently one of the most popular and prestigious business degrees worldwide. At the recent Association of MBAs 2015 Global Conference for Deans and MBA Directors in Prague, more than 190 delegates from 143 business schools around the world heard how interest in MBA programmes is at a nine-year high in 29 countries.
The MBA is also still highly regarded by corporate employers – with 85% of large enterprises actively recruiting MBA graduates in the USA. But in Africa a different picture is emerging. A study by the Association of African Business Schools (AABS) is showing a growing population of young people with very specific needs for practical and ethical business training in fast growing economies and complex environments. This is changing the way African business schools are doing business. What we teach and how we teach it are up for re-imagination. And by developing new models of education that equip students with the ability and mind-set to lead in these complicated environments, business schools throughout Africa stand at the very cusp of innovative practices in global management education.
Click here to read the full article
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All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
info@aabschools.com
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