What is the Management Education & Research Consortium all about ?
How can three or four people do for Africa what most government aid agencies and NGOs have not succeeded in doing ? Five years ago two or three anarchistic World Bank employees (not an oxymoron, I assure you) brainstormed what could be done about one of the most neglected keys to social and economic progress in Africa and poor countries elsewhere. The answer: create a win-win network.
The problem: nearly everyone who is trying to do good things in Africa will tell you that one of their main problems is finding local managers who know how to get things done. More often than not, school and even university graduates have to be trained again, on-the-job, because what they learn is mostly academic and unconnected to local needs. The old quip about Senegalese schools teaching kids about “our ancestors, the Gauls” during the colonial period is still very relevant. For example, all modern management schools nowadays teach interactive participatory courses based on “play acting”. Students put themselves into the shoes of decision-makers faced with real-life actual problems. This is known as the “case method”. It is very powerful, because it forces participants to become probklem-solvers, not people memorizing in order to pass exams.
The trouble was, until we arrived on the scene, that there were hardly any local African case materials. Where management schools used cases, these had to do with rich country problems encountered by the likes of Enron, Nestle and so forth, hardly useful to a small furniture manufacturer in Accra.
So, we met with some of the world’s leading-edge management schools, and they agreed to form a global network of professors who would team up with their African colleagues. Together, they would help African management schools to produce state-of-the-arts local teaching materials, so that students would be trained to be problem-solvers, not memorize books and lectures to pass exams. Going from total authority over students to interactive discussions was a mental revolution for many African professors. Some refused, but more got fired-up.
Three years into pilot programs in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and other african countries, a large number of good, locally-relevant teaching cases now exist. In Kernya alone there are over seventy, which are available to any school wishing to use them.
I think that the main reason why the network approach is generating so much enthusiasm, and why so many well-known professors from top schools volunteered to team up with African colleagues is because these professors learn at least as much from doing research in Africa than their African colleagues benefit from becoming connected to a world-class pool of knowledge.
February 9th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Guy,
Congrats on launching this. Over the past twenty-some years in the field, I have seen a lot projects and so-called “interventions.” I would say that, in terms of bang for the buck, well-designed graduate scholarship programs rank close to the top.
Now you are taking this idea one step further and trying to bring quality graduate education in a critical field - business- back into the countries themselves. This would allow a lot more students to be reached at a lot lower cost.
Good job - I am impressed that you have brought together a star-studded roster of business schools to help launch this.
February 10th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Dear Guy,
Congratulations and best wishes on the blog. It is great to see your continuing initiatives on business education in those developing countries where they are most needed, and where the results ought to be most rewarding.
Sometimes in developing countries the university, including its business school, is still reluctant to engage with the business enterprise. Just as you are helping the local professors to lead in the cases, rather than lecture, so I hope that you and your colleagues will facilitate getting the business enterprise and the school to benefit from working closer together.
I send you best wishes for the blog and your continuing endeavors.
Jose
February 10th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
The strange thing is, most aid agencies and foundations don’t include African business schools in their programs. This is so even though the dire lack of local management skills is widely recognized. At Davos, Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank president, emphasized above all the importance of education to development. Why are management schools mostly left out ?
February 11th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
In the current “Emerging Markets” century, education has been one of the main differentiators between countries that have succeeded and those that have not while being the greatest tool for the “have not” parts of the population to work themselves out of poverty.
Building of management skills is critical for the next generation of world -class companies. Your initiative is a great one that is much needed and long overdue.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Dear Guy,
Congratulations. Health Professionals in Nigeria are trained without basic education in Health Management. They however graduate to take up management positions at different levels. The result is a monumental failure in the management of health institutions and ministries and consequent collapse of the health industries both in terms of service delivery and management of the persons and resources. Your initiative is therefore very laudable as it will go a long way to redressing the imbalance.
All the best.
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:39 am
Hello All,
Our staff in Management Sciences for Health also congratulate MERC for the initiative in linking improved management and leadership to the health sector. Managers in health, all over Africa (and other Regions), tell us that they are thrown into positions of responsibility and accountability often with no preparation. They call it “magical thinking” where everyone assumes that just because they are doctors or nurses they will automatically be able to manage whole districts or major programs. Recognizing that they folks want to succeed in these roles and linking business schools to schools of public health is part of the solution.
March 4th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Entrepreneurial Management & Support got a real boost in Nigeria with the GBSN support for EDS of the Pan-African University. Beyond the locally relevant case studies, the increased capacity of the center and the bench marking of our products and services with leading enterprise centers in the west, deliberate focus on increasing “knowledge” is a major plus for the GBSN program.
March 12th, 2007 at 8:25 am
The exponential potential of networks ? A couple of weeks ago a group of ten deans of African business schools visited the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Africa-America Institute (AAI) in New York, the last day of a study group to Europe and the United States organized by the Association of African Business Schools (www.aabschools.com ). Among many other activities, the IIE (www.iie.org ) and AAI (www.aaionline.org) have been organizing scholarships and fellowships for many decades; their African alumni count in the thousands. So, four networks got together: the Global Business School Network represented by the Management Education & Research Consortium, the African Association of Business Schools, AAI and IIE. Bringing these differently-networked persons together was to me like watching several chemicals being mixed in a glass - turning into bright colors, bubbling, releasing an effervescent sound! All participants were trading email addresses and websites as fast as they could write them down. Many of these new connections will endure; they will also spawn more connections, which will empower the participants and each of their organizations. The cost of bringing the groups together ? a few plane tickets, sandwiches and soft drinks. Compare this to the tens of billions spent on traditional development assistance. Wow.
March 16th, 2007 at 4:41 am
Guy,
This is a splendid initiative - and I know how much of your time has gone into the background research.
One suggestion: I accept that networking between the relevant academics is fundamentally important, I believe that it should be balanced by similar networking between businessmen themselves, particularly those in the same professional sector. When I was a Vice-President of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Transport, I had a special responsibility for Africa. During my visits at the in-country meetings of local members, all of course in the transport industry, I noted the valuable exchange of views and ideas taking place. I suggest therefore that emphasis should be also be placed on encouraging the formation of trade/professional bodies, including Chambers of Commerce.
March 21st, 2007 at 9:37 am
Thanks, Guy, for the nice words and proactive planning of our get together at IIE. We agree that the networks/contacts traded and best practices shared are already proving to be a valuable asset to all participants. We look forward to many more opportunities for such dialogue and hope to soon receive AABS’ article for the IIE Networker to promote their important initiatives of business management education in Africa.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Hi Guy,
Glad to know you enjoyed your holiday in Kenya and that there is evidence of growth in Kenya!
I note that you were not on a complete holiday from MERC as you noted the opportunities for management training in the NGO sector. This need cuts across all sectors in Africa.
There is definitely a need to fill the gaps in the management and leadership skill in the NGO and other sectors in Africa. Setting up dedicated centres for these sectors will go a long way. With the population of Africa estimated at 933 million and about 500 Business Schools in Africa (perhaps understaffed?), there is clearly a need for more management educators.
This need may be filled in a number of ways:
Atracting and training more management educators
Using management practitioners more frequently to transfer skills
Organising programmes where Management educators from developed countries participate on a part time or even full time basis. (Visits, Sabbaticals and appointments?)
Long distance learning is a cost effective and pragmatic way of filling the management eduaction gaps but for the low internet usage penetration (less than 5%). This is however still an option that can help bridge the gaps.
Business schools could set up centres in partnership with ICT companies who could provide ICT centres in various parts of African countries.
MERC has been at the forefront of making connections between the business schools and organisations in developing and developed economies. This facilitation has produced enduring results.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:25 am
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April 11th, 2008 at 1:34 am
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January 2nd, 2009 at 6:37 am
First of all falicitaion to MERC for opening new Bussiness schol. African countries such as nigeria etc are now days improving in education.
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