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Looking ahead: educating leaders for a fast-changing world

Given management education’s importance to the evolution of Russia’s economy, the MGIMO School of Business and International Proficiency is training a new type of manager, says its Director, Angelika Mirzoeva. Interview by David Woods-Hale

In a landscape that is effectively defined by disruption and change, preparing leaders and managers to not just ‘cope’ with volatility, but to also make an impact, is the overarching challenge shared by Business Schools the world over. 

Business Impact caught up with Angelika Mirzoeva, Director of the​ MGIMO School of Business and​ International Proficiency, to find out how Schools could be doing more than​ just reacting to this environment and​ instead, help to set the scene themselves. Her advice:​ innovate, collaborate and diversify​ wherever you can…

Why is management education important in Russia and what is the value it brings to your community? 

The global community is faced with new challenges, which will define the framework of business education both in Russia and beyond. 

Today’s management education is not simply a process of consuming knowledge. It is a creative process involving both teachers and students. Managers that are able to think outside the box are in demand and, in turn, the demand for business education is becoming more focused and stringent. 

The responsibility for finding the right solutions to modern challenges should lie with leaders who are highly qualified managers those who are able to see what lies ahead, and to transform and improve the present in line with this forward-thinking vision. 

Training these leaders of the future requires a revised system of business education. It becomes lifelong learning, implying complex training in science and humanities, providing students with knowledge, and, most importantly, developing certain beliefs and values in them, and a socially responsible code of conduct in a professional environment. 

Given the importance of management education in forming a new economy in Russia, the MGIMO School of Business and International Proficiency trains managers of a completely new type: those who possess fundamental knowledge, aim to work in an innovative way, and take effective management decisions.

How healthy is the current market for business education in Russia, and the surrounding region, and what are the main challenges? 

Business education in Russia has aroused public interest for almost two decades. The market is not homogeneous and, in different segments, it develops differently. 

I would point out two main challenges for Russian business education. First, business education is often confused with training, short programmes, and masterclasses. It should be noted that business education is a large market and constantly changing. The other challenge is the imbalance between practice and theory in the curricula, and lack of educational innovations.  

The biggest hurdle facing our business programmes is not retaining high-quality staff or recruiting sufficient numbers of students – the problem is innovation in the classroom. Today’s most effective managers are the ones who are able to organise interaction between various groups, find additional resources and attract partners. These are the people we see apply to Business Schools when seeking out new competencies. 

I believe that over the coming two years the MBA/EMBA market will continue to develop steadily in certain segments. Whether the economic growth of the labour market is high or low, demand for MBA programmes will remain. Specialists planning to reach a new level of professional development will have no alternatives.  

What type of people study at your School and what have graduates gone on to do in the local region and beyond? 

The target audience is top and middle managers, business owners, people with successful careers, and ambitious people with leadership potential. An average MBA student at our School is aged 34, has higher education (mostly specialist level) and between eight and 13 years of experience; the bulk of students are Russian citizens. Gender breakdown has not changed significantly over the past three years. In 2019, it was 56% men, 44% women.

We do not target a specific geographic location; instead, the programmes are made with the global market in mind.

The Business School’s students include those studying PhDs, master’s, specialist degrees, and bachelor’s, and more than nine out of 10 enrolled students (91%) successfully complete the MBA programme and achieve their diplomas. Our graduates become members of the MGIMO Trusteeship Council, and some of them even go on to become visiting lecturers at the School.

In terms of jobs, many graduates enjoy greater career opportunities with government agencies, both in Russia and abroad. Established entrepreneurs, meanwhile, might use the knowledge acquired to expand and diversify their businesses, while others use it to begin building their own companies.

What do you think makes your portfolio of programmes stand out from others that are available in Russia and the surrounding region?

Our programmes have an international component. Moreover, we have a number of very popular specialisations, which meet current trends and requirements.  

To make the MBA programme truly international, we seek to help students understand the styles and methods of management used in different cultures and parts of the world, citing examples and studies of diversity. 

Diverse concepts and styles of management are made part of the curriculum by mapping leadership development; holding joint sessions with students from other groups and years; citing international examples in virtually all courses; and organising external modules and internships at international Business Schools.Today’s world needs applied knowledge first and foremost, and our School strives to make the knowledge we provide to be of actual benefit to our students, the economy, and the general public. 

The School’s ties to industry are also a differentiating factor. Russia’s largest companies, such as OJSC Russian Railways and the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, are among our corporate clients. We also have agreements with other leading Russian companies, as well as those overseas, in terms of internship programmes, outreach units, and graduation projects for students of our MBA programmes. 

Can you provide an example of how your School is using forms of new technology to meet the needs of its students?  

The Business School seeks to use innovation to boost its students’ personal growth and learning outcomes. Since 2016, the School has been recording and publishing its distance courses on Coursera. MBA and EMBA students can access these Coursera courses for free, giving them the extra option of distance learning. 

Currently, Coursera contains 13 of the School’s courses and one specialisation. We believe this project has been a success and opens opportunity for outstanding potential to be used, especially in the context of global digitisation. Online learning and technology, it seems, will impact heavily on the executive education space in the coming years, revolutionising the way we approach the development of our personal and professional skills. Business Schools always need to look ahead because they educate leaders and decision makers for a fast-changing world that is being greatly disrupted by the digital era. 

Which single new programme, course, or initiative are you most excited about and why?

The School has developed a new MBA specialisation recently, in strategic marketing and management. 

Elsewhere, we have started combining our use of distance and multimedia learning methods with traditional methods (lectures, seminars, role plays, trainings, and masterclasses) and are working actively on developing blended MBA distance programmes. As for training areas, we continue to expand our programmes in digital economy, entrepreneurship and international business, developing markets, and the fashion industry.

Does your School engage with businesses, government and other public-sector organisations in your region? 

Public and private sector representatives are partners, as well as corporate customers and employers of our graduates. 

In addition to this, we involve employers in discussions relating to the admissions office, the final certification commission, the selection of the final project topics, external modules, and internships. Employers are eager, for example, to set the challenges each student has to address as part of their final project. Employers are also members of the School’s Expert Council, and function as professors – wherein senior managers of companies come to us to deliver lectures and masterclasses. 

We have also worked in partnership with Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture to open a new department focused on global agricultural markets and foreign economic activity in the agricultural sector, and to launch a vocational retraining programme and a global agricultural markets master’s programme. The School’s Odintsovo branch, meanwhile, has opened a base department of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services of Moscow Region to explore urban infrastructure and territorial management.

Further examples of industry collaboration include: launching a new advanced training programme in political management in co-operation with the consulting company, Baikal Communications Group; coordinating the discussion of an idea to set up the Expert Center for procurement activities in the UN system together with UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation); and launching an open course in sports marketing together with our partner, VTB United League, and in conjunction with the School’s sports diplomacy master’s programme.  

How is the School working to boost the employment prospects of its graduates? 

Through a culture of entrepreneurship, open-mindedness, non-conformism, pragmatism, and leadership,  the School has trained managers who are experts in the challenges posed by business. Working with companies to help them in their search for interns, apprentices and future executives, we maintain close ties with the corporate world to co-design teaching and anticipate graduates’ future careers.

In today’s fast-changing and complex world, talent acquisition is key. Businesses need high potential talent that possess a global mindset and are ready to make an impact from day one. Our aim is for MGIMO students and graduates to deliver just that. For this, the School of Business and International Proficiency, in conjunction with MGIMO career centre, hold coaching sessions, networking events, and job fairs. 

The career centre is designed to support international-profile professionals and their employment goals. Among its partners are major Russian and international companies. 

MGIMO University’s traditional job fair takes place twice a year and gathers representatives of Russian and international companies. About 25 employers and more than 1,000 students have taken part in the poster session.

What plans does your School have for the next three years and what developments would you like to see?  

To further its international partnerships, the Business School has defined a number of core strategic goals for the next three years. 

These include: adding to the learning process’ international dimension and creating an international atmosphere at the School; improving integration in international education and research networks through joint research projects involving international professors and experts; creating an    infrastructure and institutional conditions for greater student, professor, and researcher mobility; opening joint MBA programmes with ADA University in Azerbaijan and Cambridge Judge Business School in the UK; and expanding the exportation of educational services (such as external MBA modules for the UK’s Henley Business School). Aside from these objectives, the need to be innovative and creative in EMBA programme delivery has been a compelling finding among our recent experiences. This is a market trend to which we have to adapt, in terms of our teaching ideals and objectives. Indeed, the focus on innovation and creativity in EMBA delivery is important to us and we are keen to differentiate our offerings in an increasingly crowded market. 

Our current focus for developing EMBA programmes is on increased ‘flexibility’ and adapting to the way students learn. In this, it is worth noting that there could be a link between being innovative and creative in EMBA delivery, and adopting and upgrading digital technology. This innovation is underway and continues; specialist EMBA programmes are a growing trend. Of the current specialist EMBA programmes on offer, the most popular are in the fields of finance, innovation and entrepreneurship. 

Anzhelika Mirzoeva is the Director of MGIMO School of Business and International Proficiency in Moscow, Russia. 

This article was originally published in Business Impact magazine, issue #4 (June 2020)

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The opportunities for international expansion in Asia

Expanding a business internationally can be challenging, but Asia offers five major markets and many of the world’s fastest-growing economies, writes Siddharth Shankar

Expanding a business internationally is a difficult undertaking at any time. But with the current geopolitical tensions and heightened uncertainty, you would be forgiven for thinking this isn’t the time to take a risk on an overseas launch. However, international expansion could prove key to beating gloomy forecasts.

Many of the world’s fastest-growing economies are in Asia. India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Mongolia were all expected to grow by between 7.4% and 6.2% over the course of 2019, for example. This makes Asia an increasingly important, and lucrative, focus for businesses based outside the region. When it comes to international expansion, there may now be more opportunity for firms within Asia than within the European Union. 

Research by HSBC has found that approximately 70% of future world growth will be from emerging economies. And analysis from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development reveals that Asian economies will be larger than the rest of the word combined in 2020. It’s therefore becoming increasingly important that businesses shift their focus to markets that will, in the future, dominate the world stage. 

Five major markets

To successfully expand into Asian markets, it’s critical not to fall into the trap of treating the continent as one homogenous market. The region is made up of five major markets – namely China, the Indian subcontinent, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, countries in the Middle East’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)and East Asia. Lumping all these highly diverse regions and countries into one convenient bracket has been the downfall of many businesses. It’s crucial to understand the cultural, social, political, geographical and economic factors at play in each Asian market individually. 

First, the products that will be successful in each market will be very different. Heavy industrial products, for instance, are in demand in India, Thailand and Cambodia. Huge infrastructure construction is needed within these countries, yet their own heavy industry manufacturing is relatively weak. 

Energy products – relating to traditional fossil fuels and renewable energy equipment – are competitive in ASEAN countries as well as in China. China and India have now realised the increasing need to forge a cleaner and leaner path to development. Luxury goods are particularly in demand in GCC countries and Japan. Meanwhile, in China and India, the appetite for traditional beverages, such as whisky and gin from the UK, has reached a whole new level.

As well as the economic, geographic and societal factors that affect a product’s potential in Asian markets, it’s often more difficult to form an understanding of the cultural factors. This requires in-depth local knowledge. For instance, a company launching a range of hats in China might have unrivalled success selling a red hat but find a green version of the same hat would flop. This is because, within local culture, if a man wears a green hat it might mean his wife is cheating on him – never a good look! A local partner can prove essential in navigating these testing cultural nuances. 

The strategy required to expand into each market is also diverse. Launching a product portfolio in Asia’s two largest markets – China and India – requires taking an altogether different approach in each case. Western products can be launched directly into China, with westernised branding, even as a new brand. Conversely, to maximise the chances of success when expanding into the Indian market, it is often advisable to expand into influential markets with links to India first – for instance, Singapore or the United Arab Emirates. 

This allows the target segment of consumers in India to form an understanding of the brand before it is available in India, thereby piquing demand for it. Indian consumers tend to follow their culture, tradition and values strictly. As a result, overseas companies are often forced to give an ‘Indian touch’ to their products and marketing in order to succeed. 

Regional differences

Even within a country, it’s important to be aware of the vast cultural differences that often exist between one region, or city, and another. 

You would probably be forgiven for thinking that the capital city in each location is the best place to launch a new business. But sadly, it is not that simple. Not all capitals work. To give a European example of what I mean, it’s notoriously difficult to do business in Rome. It might be the heart of Italy’s political and religious institutions, but if you were going to launch a fashion business in Italy, you would almost certainly bypass Rome and head straight for Milan, with all its design and fashion credentials and networks. 

It’s the same in each of the five major markets in Asia. The capital cities may be the perfect place to build political alliances – but that doesn’t mean they are the best place from which to launch a particular product or brand. Often, looking beyond the capital and targeting smaller cities, and even towns, can deliver better results.

You may not have heard of places like Tangshan and Sanya in China – but they are exactly the sort of cities that are worth thinking about. Both cities have local economies that are thriving due to huge local wealth, or large tourist attractions. Both also have effective infrastructure and would deliver excellent results for the launch of brands from certain industries.

Cultural identity

Deciding which city to launch from is not even necessarily about choosing one of the biggest cities. Do your research – think about the cultural identity and interests of your target customer and work out where they are most likely to be based. It’s the only way to find the city with the best fit and consumer base for your product.

Before honing in on a launch city, it is also worth spending time reflecting on the bigger picture. Each of Asia’s five major markets presents exciting growth opportunities. 

India has a population almost equal to that of China but a GDP growth rate that is almost double China’s. Looking to East Asia, Japan is the world’s third-largest economy, while South Korea has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Meanwhile the ASEAN region, which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, has a combined population of 640 million people and an economy worth over $2.8trn USD, with increasingly open internal trade. 

Market focus

So which specific markets within Asia should businesses focus on? Let’s take a more in-depth look at two very different, but highly promising opportunities:

A. The major market: India 

India’s GDP growth forecast for 2019 is 7.3%, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Rising salaries mean the region has a burgeoning middle class, with an increasingly disposable income. According to the Economist, HSBC recently estimated that the size of India’s middle class in India had reached 300 million, a figure it predicts will rise to 550 million by 2025.

The demand for products and brands in India is at an all-time high and this is set to continue for the foreseeable future. Indian consumers have become more value sensitive than price sensitive. If they feel that a particular product offers them more value, they are often willing to buy the product, even if the price is high. 

India is a multi-religion country which has a population of around 1.4 billion people. There are four broad segments to the market:

•  The socialites: socialites belong to the country’s elite. They like to shop for luxury products, travel in high-end cars and buy opulent villas. They are always looking for something different. Socialites are also very brand conscious and would go only for the best-known brands in the market.

•  The conservatives: the conservatives belong to the middle classes and are often a reflection of the true Indian culture. They are traditional in their thought processes, slow in decision making and they seek a lot of information before making any purchase.

•  The female profesionals: the so-called ‘working woman’ segment of society has seen tremendous growth in recent years and, as they have become empowered in the workplace, their impact on consumer trends has boomed.  

•  Youth segments: the younger generation is optimistic and enthusiastic. They believe in having a modern lifestyle, are brand cautious and are often ready to pay for quality.

B. The market to watch: Thailand

Thailand is the second-largest economy in the ASEAN, accounting for 17% of ASEAN GDP. There have been huge changes in Thailand over the past 40 years, transforming it from a low-income country to an upper-income country. After a slowdown between 2015 and 2017, Thailand’s economy looks to be on the up once more, with a growth rate of 4.1% in 2018. 

It is increasingly easy to do business in Thailand, as the infrastructure improves and the government makes positive regulatory reforms. There is a growing middle class and, in the capital of Bangkok, new luxury brand shopping centres are springing up. 

In conclusion, the combination of fast-growing Asian economies and a troubled eurozone means there is a lot of opportunity for firms to expand into Asia. While in-depth research into the complex cultural, social and economic factors of launching a brand into each individual market within Asia is essential to avoid falling into common exporting traps, the potential rewards are high.

Siddharth Shankar is a leading expert in exporting and CEO of Tails Trading, a firm helping UK SMEs to export their goods.

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Reimagining the university: what next for online education?

‘Developing high-quality online education will be a process rather than an event’ says Imperial College Business School’s David LeFevre, but the ‘largest international experiment in online education in our history’ points towards the opportunity in this moment of crisis

This year will be remembered for the introduction of public health measures which transformed the way we worked, shopped and studied, to a degree and at a pace we could scarcely have imagined.

Universities around the world closed the doors of classrooms and labs but continued teaching remotely. It has been by far the largest international experiment in online education in our history, carried out under duress and driven by necessity.

I have been staggered by the achievements of the global sector. Schools and universities across the world have overcome untold technical and logistical obstacles to move teaching and materials online, completing in a few short weeks a number of monumental tasks, each of which would, ordinarily, have been considered implausible. Teachers and students quickly learned the ropes together.  The volume and scale of innovative activity globally has been immense.

Moving beyond emergency measures

Traditional university teaching clearly won’t return for some time. Yet as students consider this new world, questions are being asked about the quality of the online learning experience, particularly when tuition rates remain at the same levels.

Understandably, some students are worried the online experience is not what they had wanted and that their education will be compromised, or at least different. In the UK, universities minister, Michelle Donelan, has even said students can demand refunds, ‘if they feel that the quality isn’t there’. But who defines quality in online education and how do we assess it?

Designing the next chapter of online learning is the challenge for universities. The good news is that we have more relevant experience than might be imagined because the core of high-quality online courses is not technology, but of academic strategy and course design. The delivery medium is new, but the core pedagogical principles remain the same.

Stabilise, enhance, innovate

Despite the lightning quick initial move to remote teaching, developing high-quality online education will be a process rather than an event. At Imperial College Business School, we view this process as comprising three phases: stabilise, enhance, and innovate. The stabilise phase consisted of an immediate response based on technical solutions, such as webinars, which enabled teaching to continue.

For many universities, a new academic year will mark a shift to the ‘enhance’ phase of the process as they look beyond video conferencing to find ways to implement more pedagogically minded approaches to enrich the educational experience. This will involve technical solutions and process-driven activity but also an element of craft, as creative ways to deliver hundreds, if not thousands, of differing course elements in online format, are introduced. The wider elements of the degree experience – ceremonies, clubs and societies, careers support, extra-curricular activities, competitions, pastoral support, and so on – will need equal care and attention.

This will require a flexible, imaginative approach from all concerned, and it will likely involve significant stress and risk for all. Much of the burden will rest on faculty who will be coping with general disruption while at the same time redeveloping their courses and teaching in unfamiliar ways.

Educational technologists will become central to teaching and learning strategy as never before. They will require a greater degree of agility and support from senior leadership if they are to build the underlying IT infrastructure on which success will fundamentally depend. Student representatives will need to give feedback in real time about what works and what does not. Throughout this activity, new expert teams will gradually emerge that are capable of delivering sophisticated and high-quality approaches to online education which reflect the needs of their own communities.

The future of online learning

Too often in the past, online learning has been seen as a threat to the age-old craft of teaching. The fact that this current transition is taking place out of necessity and at a time of high anxiety and job insecurity risks exacerbating this perception.

However, the real risk to higher education internationally now, lies in a failure to respond to the demands of the moment in a manner consistent with the values of our institutions. Just as the whiteboard, slide projector and computer were once novel additions to the classroom, online teaching tools will eventually be taken for granted by student cohorts of true digital natives.

There is opportunity in our moment of crisis. Institutions dedicated to sharing knowledge will discover new ways of reaching individuals and communities. Creativity and possibility will re-emerge. Our modes of learning are changing and, as well as losses and threats, there are definite opportunities to introduce flexibility and enhance quality.

David LeFevre is Director of the EdTech Lab at Imperial College Business School and Founder of higher education platform company, Insendi, part of Study Group.

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International student recruitment: navigating the Covid-19 maelstrom

Feeling tense about international student recruitment? Nik Higgins of edtech company, The Access Platform, outlines the results of a recent survey indicating how professionals have reacted to the maelstrom of uncertainty surrounding the effects of Covid-19, and their concerns for the year ahead

Here’s a statement: ‘The challenges facing student recruitment will have ended by the time Covid-19 is over.’ Here’s another: ‘Student recruitment is changing in response to Covid-19.’

Which statement do you agree with? Maybe both?

I should probably be upfront and admit that I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to words; grammar has a particularly special place in my heart. Both of the statements above offer equally legitimate equivocations on the state, and outlook for, international student recruitment. It just so happens to be the case that the first is written in the ‘future perfect tense’ and the second is formed using the ‘present participle’. The former makes a time-bound prediction about a future state, and the latter explains what is happening right now. Didn’t think you were going to be reading an article about non-finite verb forms? Don’t worry, stick with me.

Peering through the multiplicity of perspectives

The thing that these, equally valid, statements talk to is something that everyone working in international education will have felt, experientially, over the past couple of months: uncertainty. Everyone in the sector is making guesses, predictions and declarations about how international student recruitment is changing, and what it might look like in the future. The vast majority of these statements are well informed, authoritative and rigorous. The problem, for anyone reading them en masse, is stitching them together; peering through the multiplicity of perspectives and reconciling them into a coherent and understandable thread, a trajectory for the coming months and year.

This, like most intellectual challenges, is pre-eminently a linguistic problem. There is a wealth of opinion on the topic, all of it couched contingently in close, but ultimately irreconcilable statements. Just like those above. Is international student recruitment going to be ‘future perfect’, stable and resolved at a given point in the future, or is it destined for the perpetually deferred limbo of the ‘present participle’ – unresolved, ever changing, in flux?

Surveying student recruitment professionals

This kind of ambiguity is troublesome, but it also offers a fitting stage for language’s antithesis: numbers. Cold, hard, numbers.

We decided to try and pop the ever-inflating bubble of uncertainty at The Access Platform by surveying student recruitment professionals. We asked representatives from a double-digit number of universities covering three continents a series of questions about how Covid-19 has affected their recruitment efforts, and how they have embraced digital technologies or ‘virtual recruitment’ as an alternative means of engaging with prospective students.

We translated their responses into a series of insights. Feeling tense? Don’t worry. Thankfully these are percentages, not words. Here are the scores on the doors.

Before and after Covid-19

Before Covid-19, very little was being done in terms of online or virtual recruitment. 46% of our survey respondents said that ‘very little’ of their recruitment was done online, while a further 18% said it was ‘less than half’.

The effect of the pandemic has been huge – 82% of respondents said that their recruitment is now being done ‘entirely online’, while for the remaining 18% it is now an equal split of virtual and traditional methods.

Channels and topics

Among participants, 90% said social media was particularly effective, while 55% also vouched for targeted emails. Almost half (46%) praised the value of having dedicated web pages, while 45% said they were using instant messenger services or chatbots, and 36% cited the use of peer-to-peer solutions (such as The Access Platform).

When it comes to topics of conversation, the questions on most students’ lips – or, technically, at their fingertips – were around the effect of the pandemic on the start of their course. A sizeable 73% of respondents told us students wanted to know if they will be able to start their course on campus, 64% said they wanted details about how courses will be delivered online, and 46% said their prospects wanted to know how an online version of their course would differ from the in-person one they’d applied for. Other popular topics included details about social distancing on campus (36%) and questions about accommodation (27%).

Becoming virtual

Almost three-quarters of our respondents (73%) reported running a virtual open day since the start of the pandemic. They probably didn’t have much choice in the matter but this still indicates the ability of the sector to move quickly and continue to offer opportunities for prospective students to find out about an institution and have conversations with staff and students.

Of those who have run a virtual open day since the Covid-19 pandemic began, two-thirds of respondents said these events had been successful (38% said they were ‘very successful’ while a further 25% said they were ‘somewhat successful’).

Among those who haven’t run a virtual open day, no-one said it was down to a lack of technology. While 33% said they had no desire to run such an event, the remaining 67% are planning to run one – they just haven’t made it happen yet.

Future perfect?

Unsurprisingly, almost everyone (91%) who responded to our survey told us they were concerned about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on their international recruitment efforts.

Of those, 55% said they were worried that continued travel restrictions will cause international students to either change their plans or stay at home. The other 36% said their worry was that international students would look to other countries that are perceived to have handled the pandemic better.

This is really tough for international recruitment teams, as both travel restrictions and political decisions are completely out of their hands. It seems fair to wager that how individual countries go about easing lockdown restrictions and setting out detailed plans for the future of travel will be just as influential as how they’ve handled things so far. The remaining 9% were confident that Covid-19 will not have a long-term effect on their international recruitment efforts. Instead, they are confident that, once this is over, their international recruitment strategies and their key markets for international recruitment will stay the same.

This is the bit of the article where, as author, I am supposed to summarise, unify, and conclude. But I’m not going to do it. I’d just be adding another statement into the maelstrom of extant suppositions. I’ll simply sign off by inviting you to carry on the conversation with me (you can find me on LinkedIn). Among the authors of this article, 100% agree that that is the best course of action.

Nik Higgins is Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder at The Access Platform – a global edtech company based in London, UK. Its peer recruitment technology enables prospective students to chat to current students at their chosen university. It currently works with 100 partner institutions around the world, and has offices in the UK, US, Ukraine, and Australia.

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What a post-Covid global economy will look like

From shared trauma to stocking up on gold, a look at the markets’ reaction to the ‘Black Swan’ event that is Covid-19 and what this means for the near future

Markets inevitably fall when events the magnitude of the Covid-19 pandemic occur. We can label this outbreak under the category of ‘unknown unknowns’ and, economically speaking, there is never a ‘good’ unknown unknown, because there is no basis for the market to respond. 

This means that the market cannot make a tight valuation of how it trades, or even where to trade, as the world’s markets are all suffering the same trauma. Oil dropped to historic lows in April as demand fears forced the prices into freefall. Yet gold, the traditional asset of the terrified, is on the up. 

The last great pandemic is out of living memory for all but the planet’s very oldest, having occurred almost exactly 100 years ago, in 1918. Since China announced its lockdown, shock has led to panic across the world. The result is that the markets can only come up with spurious evaluations as they trade because they have no precedent to go on and because no one is certain if they should be buying or selling, or at what price. 

This means that prices are currently fragile. It is this fragility that has translated into the crashing and zooming of prices currently taking place on the world stage. This increased volatility is actually a good thing for traders, but it is a bad thing for investors and is usually a precursor of even more grim things to come, because certainty is an asset and uncertainty is a constraining liability. 

Heading back to normality 

The global markets are all interlinked, and market prices represent the best estimates of what are essentially a group of highly motivated, informed, and intelligent fortune tellers. Once volatility levels start to come down (and they have done) we can start to breathe a little easier. This is a sign that things are starting to point back in the direction of normality. 

But the crash hasn’t been as deep as many had feared. There are essentially two types of market crash: a crash of 25%, and a crash of 40% or higher. The former – which we have seen, is likely to give everyone an uncomfortable ride for the next couple of years. A recession yes, but not a big depression. With a slump of 40% or more, we would have been looking at a bumpy ride for at least half a decade. 

By looking at how the market has reacted now, we can measure how the global economy will pan out over the next year. This is because the market, by nature, looks out over the course of the year ahead. So, what you see in today’s Dow and FTSE is likely to be similar to what you would see if you could peer into the future, in early 2021. 

Predicting the future

The theoretical physicist, Niels Bohr, once quipped: ‘prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.’

But by looking at how the markets reacted to the very worst, most uncertain and shocking unfolding of the pandemic, it is possible to plan accordingly. To know with a fair amount of certainty that, without some other global catastrophe, the direction the global market has already taken is predictive of the trend of the global economy for the coming year. 

The slump levels we have witnessed have not been a total surprise, because they were very high worldwide prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Coupled with the fact that the central banks, including the Bank of England, have been totally nonplussed as to how to mitigate the situation. 

There are still likely to be bumps in the road on the way. Costly mistakes that could make the situation worse. But the good news is that, according to the current statistics, the markets should bounce back quickly from the present disruption Covid-19 is making. The market will move to drive the economy back quickly in order to appease or prevent a bad situation from becoming a chronic one. 

The Covid-19 pandemic can also be described as a ‘Black Swan’ event. A Black Swan is an event that no one could have predicted coming, but in hindsight, always seemed inevitable. In actual fact, the last pandemic was scarcely a decade ago when the H1N1 virus (also known as swine flu) killed tens of thousands across the world. We have also had two far deadlier coronaviruses than Covid-19 pop up in the last 20 years (SARS and MERS, with fatality rates of 10 and 32%, respectively). So emerging viruses, epidemics and even pandemics are more common than we would like to admit. The problem is, we have always been able to look the other way. Until now.

This pandemic – like the next market slump – was inevitable. But hopefully we can learn from Covid-19 how to react, prepare for, and mitigate the next virus outbreaks in the years to come. 

Richard Chamberlain works with Oakmount Partners, a UK-based investment consultancy firm.

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Reaching the right audience: Business School communications part II

How Business Schools can use the high potential of social media platforms effectively, with examples of best practice, from London Business School EMBA graduate, Sarah Seedsman

An executive MBA graduate of London Business School’s prestigious Sloan Masters programme, Sarah Seedsman specialises in market research and marketing for Business Schools.

In the second of a two-part interview (the first part can be found here), the focus shifts in more detail to how Business Schools can use the high potential of social media platforms effectively, with examples of best practice. Seedsman also discusses the importance of ensuring approaches remain aligned with an individual institution’s goals and strategy.   

Can you offer some examples of how Business Schools have taken advantage of social media’s power to great effect?

We are seeing a lot of examples during this pandemic crisis. Social media comes into its own in terms of mobilising a School’s communities and allowing them to communicate. For example, INSEAD has set up a group on Facebook, Project Green Cross, to enable alumni to work with each other to support local communities through fundraising and finding ways of moving medical supplies and equipment.

In tracking how active Schools have been on social media over the last year, Imperial College Business School’s Dean has stood out for being really active, which has helped build a real sense of community. Now, the School is reaching out in the community to fundraise for new research which Imperial College is at the forefront of. They already had an engaged audience with which to do this though.

We are also seeing a lot of useful thought leadership, for example how to lead and manage people though a crisis is now popping up on all the different social media channels, including LinkedIn – of course, sometimes we should really think of LinkedIn as being a professional platform and not a social platform. 

In addition, there are campaigns where Schools have thought about the theme that they want to gather content around with a particular hashtag, for example ‘#whyIlovelbs’. Over a period of a couple of years they then have student and graduates, alumni and faculty post across different topics using photos, videos and comments with that common hashtag. This collated content becomes really good information for prospective students in terms of seeing what the community has said about the Business School.

Some deans have used LinkedIn effectively, which helps raise the brand profile of the School. It’s a very competitive market and deans can help build a community and keep a School’s alumni community around the world engaged. Media Minds tracks 100 deans on LinkedIn and top of the list for activity is Geoffrey Garrett, Dean at the Wharton School. He has almost half a million followers on LinkedIn and posts regularly. To put that in context, the Financial Times – an important publication to Business Schools because of its rankings – only achieved one million subscribers last year. Garrett already has access to an audience of half a million, so it is a very helpful channel for raising the School’s profile.

How can Business Schools spot fads on social media, how can they tell if it’s just a trend or if it’s here to stay?

The first thing we say to Business Schools is that they shouldn’t feel like they have to play with every shiny new toy. The important thing for Business Schools is to be quite considered in what’s going to work for their goals and strategy.

Start with the audience you want to reach and understand the best place to reach them with content they want and can engage with. Sometimes it’s a matter of being quite ruthless and quite focused. Keep an eye on data and analytics to see trends.

Instagram is just coming into its own for Business Schools, for example, and many Schools had been relatively slow in starting to use it. However, Instagram is now getting the highest inquisition of new followers. The platform doesn’t just need to be for photos, the Harvard Business Review’s Instagram account uses long posts and gets lots of engagement. Business Schools can still use this platform to promote their faculty’s thought leadership.

It’s a matter of having one eye on your audience and one eye on what you are trying to achieve and then making some decisions based on common sense.

How can Business Schools ensure that their thought leadership reaches its target audience?

Don’t spray and pray. Don’t put it everywhere and hope that people notice.

I think the key thing is to always use your website as a hub, to have everything there in the first place, so that you can keep linking back to it. In addition, many articles can enjoy a long life if you consider using different extracts from it. You won’t reach your entire audience the first time you put it out there, so share in different ways across your channels.

All social media platforms have an algorithm behind them, which chooses which groups see different things, so try and learn about these algorithms. Think about viral promotion and sharing, think about tagging people who it would be relevant to, or who have a large following. If you tag people, your post will be shown to their followership as well.

You should also never forget that it’s about relevance and impact. If your headline and your first line don’t grab the reader, then you won’t get the attention for your content that you want. So really spend time of polishing that first line and headline.

Are you a lover or a hater of social media in your personal life?

I grew up in an era of black and white television, before the internet and before mobile phones. I would say that I am neither a lover nor a hater but a curious observer. It fascinates me. I look at what’s possible and that fascinates me. I have a great curiosity for it, but I don’t use it as much personally as I am involved in it with work. It’s a great source of information for me but it’s not something that consumes all my waking hours outside work.

Sarah Seedsman is Executive Director for Engagement, Insights and Consulting at Media Minds Global