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Adding value by meeting the needs of industry

To offer their students value, online programme providers must ensure quality while meeting the needs the industry, says Amity University Online’s Aindril De.
Interview by Tim Dhoul.

‘Any academic institution today that intends to add value to its learners, needs to meet the requirements of industry,’ says Aindril De, Academic Director at India’s Amity University Online.

Challenged by the fourth industrial revolution, today’s industries demand that providers of online business education rethink their value proposition and, according to De, provide ‘a distinctive experience that combines the best from the physical and digital worlds.’

Yet, when it comes to the application of digital technology to online education, standards of quality will always be a differentiator for industry recognition. Plus, De says that Amity’s ability to offer online programmes on its own learning platform gives it a responsibility to the student community it aims to serve. ‘For this mode of education delivery, we need to remain focused to ensure quality and derive acceptance from the industry,’ he says.  

De hopes that more institutions in India will soon have the opportunity to offer online programmes that are approved by India’s University Grants Commission (UGC), as Amity’s are. In his opinion, this would help break down the barriers that stand in the way of many students’ desire to access quality post-graduate management education, on a timetable and in a format that suits their capabilities and needs. Read the full interview with Amity University Online’s Academic Director below to learn more.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing providers of online business education, both in India and the rest of the world?

The digital era creates a fresh universe of business possibilities, while also generating stress and difficulties of very distinct kinds. The fourth industrial revolution’s challenge is aggressive for all.

Business Schools have to rethink their value proposition massively. Schools need to consider how to give their students something which allows them to learn, and access, the finest skills around the globe, while also providing a distinctive experience that combines the best from the physical and digital worlds.

Providers of online business education, as well as regulators, need to adapt towards the needs of the new era’s learners quickly and enable the universities to ensure that they are able to cater to these needs without compromising and deviating from the expected standards of quality.  

How has the demand and the reputation of online education changed over the past five years and how do you expect it to change in the next five years, in your opinion?

A significant change is that there is more demand for skill-based courses, with the best possible use of technology. With improved resources and reduced teacher workloads, classrooms can shift to co-learning spaces, where students can arrive, learn, and engage at their own pace in a collaborative environment. However, this shift is not significantly visible in the formal education space.

The 2018 online education guidelines from India’s University Grants Commission (UGC) will empower the Universities to offer approved online degrees and certificates, which should ensure increased industry acceptance.

What do you think makes your portfolio of programmes stand out from other online programmes?

An articulation of what makes our School’s programmes distinctive are the several international accreditations they hold, of which the latest comes from India’s UGC. Amity is currently the only university in the country which has been approved by UGC to offer programmes and degrees in the online mode. We are also the country’s first university to have our own in-house platform approved for offering online programmes in India.

Amity’s programmes are specifically designed to give a flexible learning environment to the students ensuring ‘anytime-anywhere’ education for students. We also focus on two-way communications, or ‘dialogue teaching’, which becomes exciting for the facilitator as well as for the students involved.

How are programme curricula developed and refined at your School to ensure that they remain in touch with the changing needs of both students and employers?

Any academic institution today that intends to add value to its learners, needs to meet the requirements of industry. At Amity, any curriculum development, review, or upgrade, takes place in alignment with the needs and the feedback received from industry, mapping offerings to the skills they require.

A regular review of curricula and content is also performed, to ensure that what is provided is both current, and global, in nature. In addition, the university organises regular events to ensure that students are constantly exposed to industry trends.

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

One of the larger institution goals of Amity University is to reach learners who do not currently have access to quality outcome-based education.

The recent UGC approval to offer programmes and degrees online, and on our own platform, has not only given us an opportunity towards fulfilling this goal, it has also invested in us the responsibility towards our student community. For this mode of education delivery, we need to remain focused to ensure quality and derive acceptance from the industry. 

 

How is the School working to boost the employment prospects of its graduates? (E.g. through the use of internship schemes, exchanges, or other industry initiatives)

We ensure student participation in career enhancement activities through exchange programmes, virtual job fairs, volunteering and work-based learning. Mock interviews are also conducted to prepare the students for job interviews.

In addition, we have launched the Amity Future Academy through which students can get career counselling and attend programmes in areas such as soft skills and language proficiency. The university believes in the philosophy of lifelong learning.

Please outline the importance of corporate social responsibility to your Business School’s strategy.

Amity is committed to nation building beyond education and this is reflected in the efforts and initiatives of the Amity Humanity Foundation. Established in 1995, the mission of Amity Humanity Foundation is to support and initiate social welfare activities and create possibilities for equitable social development.

The main areas in which the Amity Humanity Foundation works includes the Amitahsa initiative, which provides free education, uniforms, books, meals, and healthcare to underprivileged girls, and the Swayam Siddha community development programme, which works towards female empowerment through employment generation activities and the formation of self-help groups in rural areas.  

What are your hopes for the School in the next five years?

The guidelines of offering degrees through online education have just been formalised in India. In absence of these guidelines, education institutions in India didn’t have a framework for offering online education and hence the acceptance from industry was very limited.

In the next five years, we would like to see more progressiveness and flexibility from the regulators to ensure that online education can truly be delivered in a 100% online mode. We would also like to see other progressive institutions in India being given the opportunity to offer online programmes. This would ensure the disappearance of current limitations of boundaries and distance associated with the acquisition of quality education.

In next five years, we should also be able to build future skills for our students, keep pace with the changing nature of jobs and those that simply doesn’t exist today, as well as to inculcate the habit of being lifelong learners among our students.

Aindril De is Academic Director at Amity University Online. He has worked in both India and in countries that include the US, Singapore, Thailand and Bangladesh in industry and academia with organisations such as Microsoft, Oracle and Wipro. His work has included implementation of ICT-enabled and integrated education systems in higher education, with particular expertise in building proactive support ecosystems to initiate interventions and minimise dropouts in open and distance education.

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Bridging the gap between intent and impact

Startups should be looking to solve genuine problems in society, say brothers and Co-Founders of The Startupreneur, Aakarsh Naidu and Adhikar Naidu.

The organisation works with entrepreneurs and incubators with the goal, as Aakarsh explains, of ‘training them and helping bridge the gap between intent and impact’.

The Naidu brothers both pursued master’s degrees abroad, at the London School of Economics (LSE), but always with the intention of taking their experience and skills back to India. ‘We wanted a global exposure and to come back to India and create an impact,’ Aakarsh says.

This impact includes trying to raise awareness of the organisation’s work among new audiences, through a hip-hop music video available on YouTube. ‘It was about reaching out to new demographics in a new format and a new language,’ Aakarsh explains. Read the full interview below to learn more.

Why did you both choose to study in the UK, and why management at LSE?

Aakarsh Naidu

Aakarsh Naidu: Our father has been an entrepreneur for more than 30 years, establishing and running some of the biggest companies in India’s green energy sector, so both of us have always had an interest in pursuing business studies.

Having studied business management at undergraduate level, I wanted to specialise in human resource management at a premier institution that offered global exposure, and LSE’s MSc in Human Resources Management was a top-ranked programme. My brother, Adhikar, pursued LSE’s Master’s in Management and Digital Innovation. He was a finance graduate and was working in the investments division of Goldman Sachs, before he discovered his interest in emerging technologies.

LSE’s Department of Management was the perfect platform for both of us to explore and specialise in our areas of interest. The exposure and the global network for a student at LSE is also one of a kind.

Adhikar Naidu: I used to visit my elder brother, Aakarsh, in London, during his time at LSE. I was always enamoured by the legacy of this great institution and the diversity it brings. My brother used to have friends from different parts of the world, who would ask me if I would join the School one day. I used to say, ‘I will one day’ – without realising that I would actually do it!

What were the highlights of the programmes you studied?

Aakarsh: The top highlights for us were getting a unique global exposure and a cultural immersion with access to some of the most talented brains in the world alongside friendships that can span across continents and memories which will last a lifetime.

For me, the HR management programme I took was interdisciplinary in the sense that it gave me the opportunity to study subjects on management, economics and international relations at the same time. I particularly enjoyed the course on ‘Negotiation Analysis’, which was experiential and gave me the opportunity to work with peers across the globe, helping me understand the business and cultural nuances.

Adhikar Naidu

Adhikar: I had the opportunity to study concepts in emerging technologies like AI, augmented reality (AR) and VR, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain to name a few. I also received a distinction for my thesis on the VRIO (value, rarity, imitability and organisation) framework for startups in business incubators. The programme and experience as a whole helped cultivate the spark to create an impact through entrepreneurship.

Was returning to India after completing your studies always the plan? Please explain your answer.

Aakarsh: Our reason for studying in the UK was very clear right from the start. We wanted a global exposure and to come back to India and create an impact. We wanted to create an impact in our own country while also being global citizens.

True to this goal, I’ve worked with some top startup incubators and educational institutions, such as, IIM Bangalore and the Indian School of Business. Meanwhile, Adhikar has worked with organisations like Goldman Sachs and the angel investor network, Keiretsu Forum.

Having specialised in our respective fields, we are now pooling our strengths and understanding through our own venture, The Startupreneur, through which we are building a platform to nurture entrepreneurship and innovation not only in India, but also across the world.

You’ve talked about the ‘triple bottom line’ in previous interviews. What does this term mean to you and how does this align with your organisation’s ambitions?

Aakarsh: ‘People’, ‘planet’ and ‘profit’ – these were the magical words that we learnt at LSE while studying the concept of the triple bottom line (TBL). For centuries, the term ‘bottom line’ has been synonymous with money, profit and other monetary markers such as return on investment, shareholder value and cash flow. The TBL approach adds a new meaning to this word by using the combined power of people, planet and profit to measure the health and quality of a business’ impact.

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little ‘extra’ that can make you stand out as an entrepreneur among the crowd. It can take the form of social impact, issues you take up, or an organisation’s ethics and values. The organisational value for us at The Startupreneur is simple: ‘Startups shouldn’t just be about making millions but also helping millions by solving a genuine problem.’ We want to help startups develop sustainable business models that have a social impact.

What would you say is the biggest challenge facing startups and entrepreneurs in India?

Aakarsh: The biggest challenge for startups and entrepreneurs, according to us, is in moving from ‘zero to one’ [the name of Peter Thiel’s 2014 book that stems from Thiel’s teaching on startups at Stanford] and understanding the concept of product/market fit.

This is a mindset problem and requires first-time entrepreneurs to experience the process of starting up before actually starting up. This experience clears a lot of myths around business models, hiring and funding, all of which are necessary for building a successful startup. This is where Startupreneur directly works with entrepreneurs and incubators in training them and helping bridge the gap between intent and impact.

Can you tell us a bit about the startup you are most proud of being able to help get off the ground?

Aakarsh: Singling out one particular startup would be difficult as there have been quite a few startups that have excited us, and we’ve been committed to nurturing and helping them get off the ground.

A few such startups have been an AR/VR startup looking to make curricula and content more accessible to students, a startup which is developing a pollution-control device, and an app which identifies the quickest routes for ambulances to take to hospitals.

We’ve seen Aakarsh’s Startup Song video. What were the reasons behind taking up the mic in support of The Startupreneur’s goals?

Aakarsh: The reasons for coming up with the Startup Song are quite simple; it was about reaching out to new demographics in a new format and a new language (vernacular content). We wanted to create awareness about ‘startupreneurship’ and democratise the concept of ‘starting up’ to different parts of the country.

To our surprise, it achieved what its goal – the average age group of people watching earlier videos from The Startupreneur was about 25-35. However, viewership for the Startup Song was primarily in the age range of 18-25 and was spread more widely across India, thereby reaching new demographics. The best compliment we have received was a startup founder mentioning that her three-year-old was also singing ‘startup, startup, startup’ after listening to the song. That was heartening to hear!

Aakarsh Naidu is an alumnus of the London School of Economics (LSE), Startup Ecosystem Enabler, and is Co-Founder and CEO of The Startupreneur. He has led initiatives at IIM Bangalore’s startup incubator  (NSRCEL) and is a mentor at the Founder Institute, World Resources Institute (WRI), and Catalyst for Women Entrepreneurship (CWE).

Adhikar Naidu is Co-Founder and COO at The Startupreneur. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs in India and the US, and has been a speaker at national and international events, such as Google for Startups and Esprit Entrepreneurs. He holds a master’s degree in management and digital innovation from the London School of Economics (LSE).

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Bringing business education to Niger

Kader Kaneye, Co-President of the African Development University, talks about the challenges and rewards of his work to give Nigeriens a business education. By David Woods-Hale

At 2018’s Association of African Business Schools Conference in Tanzania, AMBA & BGA’s CEO, Andrew Main Wilson, met Kader Kaneye, Co-President of ILIMI African Development University (ADU) in Niger.

Impressed by the mission and values of ADU, in working to provide quality management education in challenging circumstances, Main Wilson made a trip to Niger to visit the School and find out more.

In the 2018 UN Human Development Index (HDI), Niger was ranked 189th out of 189 countries, reinforcing its image as one of the ‘least developed’ countries in the world. Approximately 80% of its population lives in the Sahara or other desert areas, climate change is increasingly causing drought conditions and, at 7.2, the average number of children per mother is the highest in the world, giving rise to the world’s fastest-growing population at a rate of 4% per annum. 

ADU was created more than two years ago – the brainchild of Nigerien businessman, Kaneye – and has set out to give Nigeriens an opportunity for business education, featuring international best-practice standards, irrespective of financial means. 

Supported by visiting faculty from leading US Business Schools and high-profile local entrepreneurs and CEOs, Kaneye and his team dedicate many unpaid hours each week to nurturing the development of an enthusiastic body of students, in a country where only 1% of Nigeriens undertake tertiary education. 

When Main Wilson visited the campus, the construction of a new Business School was still underway and there were no full-time faculty members – yet the School’s significant impact across the local community inspired him to invite Kaneye to address AMBA & BGA’s Global Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2019.

After Kaneye’s keynote speech at the conference, we were able to find out more about the story of ADU and how it had been created in such a difficult environment, with extremely limited resources.

How have you been able to set up a Business School in such difficult circumstances? 

It has been a combination of hard work, good fortune and timing. I came to Niger after graduating from Business School in the US. I came back with a close friend who had played a role in Barack Obama’s political campaign and we brought together stakeholders in Niger (including parents, students, governments, the corporate world and traditional leaders). We told them that they were facing economic, political and societal issues and we thought education could be the solution. 

They all wanted to be part of this and it became a social movement. Everyone came to help in different capacities and something we planned to start in three years was up and running in three months. 

Can you describe your role and the challenges you face as a leader?

I am a Founder of the university and I’m currently its President. I will say that running a university every day, when you come from the private sector, is quite challenging. I’m learning every day. I love the process of learning, but at the same time, learning comes with mistakes and I make them all the time. Sometimes, the impact [of these mistakes] can be felt and it slows our progress. This is one key challenge we face on a personal level. 

As an organisation, we face two key challenges. One is awareness. Niger is not well known by most people, so I have to explain what and where Niger is and how different it is from any conception a person will have about Africa. Raising awareness about the project is a challenge. The second challenge is around funding, but we are making progress. 

Tell us more about the ILIMI African Development University

‘ILIMI’ is a Hausa term, one of the most widely spoken languages in western Africa. It means ‘ethical knowledge’ and it says a lot about what we’re trying to achieve with this university: teaching students knowledge, but knowledge they can use to leverage ethical behaviour and leadership in society. 

The world’s leaders all have something in common: a college education. But we think there is something missing in education and that is the ethical part; the commitment to serve. This is what we embed in the core of our education. 

We currently offer undergraduate, post-graduate and executive education programmes and have 250 people in our community (110 undergraduates, 40 studying at master’s level, 100 studying English and a few more in executive education). 

In a country where the role of a woman is challenging, we’re proud that 70% of our student population is made up of women. Women perform the best in our entrance exam, and as a result, our community is heavily leveraging the role of women in society. 

Do you think Business Schools around the world have lessons to learn from your experiences? 

They can learn from our business model and the innovation in setting up the university. Usually a startup Business School would need significant resources and lots of money for a brick-and-mortar approach, as well as a permanent faculty and PhDs. A lack of resources and scarcity pushed us to innovate – for example, the way we brought stakeholders together to cover the fundamentals [of business] and the way we focus on ethics and 21st-century skills, while teaching students solid knowledge. Flexibility is something we can teach universities around the world. 

What are the next steps for you and your School? 

I have lots of big dreams and projects. We are moving forwards in our sustainability plan and we would like to break even by year five. For that to happen, we’ll need 800-1,000 students and more physical capacity, so we are raising money to finish our second building. 

After that, we’re planning to launch a large campaign to build a world-class campus where we can have residential programmes. In parallel, we’re planning the launch of an engineering school. These are our big projects at the moment. 

Do you feel optimistic about the future of business education in Niger and the African continent? 

I’m extremely optimistic. Business education is here to stay. When you look at the challenges in countries like my own, we need managers in all sectors – and a Business School to prepare these managers. For me, the future of management is within the Business School. 

How important are the connections you can make at the AMBA & BGA Global Conference? 

They’re fundamental. That’s why I came here. It’s critical to build credibility, to reassure the community and our teams who work day and night in the face of the impossible. When the world is looking at us and wants to work with us, it gives a different and special energy to every member of the team. This allows us not just to move mountains but to lift them and throw them out of the way. We’re working together for success with everyone. 

Kader Kaneye is the Co-Founder and Co-President of ILIMI Development University (ADU) in Niger. He is also a certified practising accountant with 12 years of experience in promoting corporate ethics through auditing and consulting for international development organisations, governments, banking, and services in more than 15 countries across francophone Africa. He holds a master’s of public administration (MPA) from Harvard University’s Kennedy School.

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The à la carte future of post-graduate business education

Business education’s future will resemble the music industry, where individual songs can be downloaded à la carte without paying for a pre-determined selection, says Universidad Nebrija’s Dean, Fernando Tomé Bermejo. Interview by Tim Dhoul.

Business education’s future will resemble the music industry, where individual songs can be downloaded à la carte without paying for a pre-determined selection, says Universidad Nebrija’s Dean, Fernando Tomé Bermejo.  

Moves towards students being able to pick and choose what are often termed ‘stackable’ qualifications are a reaction to changing student needs and stand to empower them as consumers. The market demands this kind of change, and, for Tomé, this demand extends to Business Schools’ inclusion of responsible management principles and practices.

‘Consumers want to be identified with the values of the businesses of which they are clients,’ he says arguing in favour of incorporating responsible management into all of a programme’s courses rather than covering the topic and its related areas in standalone courses. ‘This… contributes to understanding the transversal value of these concepts and allows them to permeate the entire institution,’ he reasons.  

Based in Madrid, Spain, Universidad Nebrija offers an MBA programme with specialisations available in entrepreneurship, tourism, law and technology management. Its roster of master’s programmes, meanwhile, encompasses programmes in digital marketing, leadership and HR management. In the full interview with Business Impact below, Tomé also outlines the School’s plans to integrate AI into its programmes and to increase the level of diversity seen among its student and faculty. Read on to learn more.

Please can you tell me a little about typical student intake sizes and proportions of international students at your Business School? 

The student intake increases with each passing year. Nevertheless, we prioritise quality over quantity when selecting our students. In the latest MBA cohort, we have selected a total of 80 students. When it comes to our international students, the vast majority come from Latin America, with China as a close second.

Please outline the importance of responsible management to your Business School’s strategy and why you feel it is a vital topic for business as a whole today.

‘Responsible management’ is a concept that began to be included in post-graduate studies towards the end of the last century and it is now undoubtedly an essential topic when it comes to the educational development of executives.

The fact that a business should be based on ethical and sustainable principles is effectively a matter of personal and corporate responsibility. Nevertheless, it is also something the market demands: consumers want to be identified with the values of the businesses of which they are clients.

It is therefore essential that all our students are well trained in this matter. Although this training used to be given through an all-inclusive, standalone course, I believe that it should now be included in all of the courses. This way, all subjects can be taught according to these principles, which in turn contributes to understanding the transversal value of these concepts and allows them to permeate the entire institution.

Is there anything you’d like to see change among providers of business education, or that they could be doing better?

I would like to see more flexible programmes, more à la carte. If we can now choose exactly what music we want to listen to by downloading each individual song and without being forced to buy a pre-determined selection, as we had to years ago, I believe the future of post-graduate education will follow the same pattern.

We will have to offer a series of subjects or modules and it will be the student who chooses their own formative itinerary; always logically within some requirements and limitations, and with a great advisory service on the part of the School.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing providers of business education in the country headquarters of your School and the surrounding region, in your opinion?

I believe that we face both challenges that are unique to Spain and its neighbouring countries, and others that are common to any School in general.

In the first group, I am convinced that there is still a lot of work to do to achieve internationality in all of its perspectives: internationality of students, teachers and contents. We must ensure our students are versatile and able to build their professional lives anywhere around the world. In this sense, I think it’s important to provide our graduates with tools that allow them to learn and be adaptable in the face of ever-faster technological change.

As for the second group, I believe the challenge for everyone is to form professionals that lead this technological change. In order to do so, they must develop their innovation capabilities.

Lastly, I believe that attracting female talent is still a pending subject for every School. Although it is true that this change will only occur if it also happens in businesses, this does not mean that Schools should not contribute to it. I believe that a larger presence of high-profile women in faculties and highlighting and supporting cases of success of female leadership is essential.

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

The School is devoted to improving the employability of its graduates. However, we must keep in mind that our target students, especially those in the MBA, are already employed. For this reason, the internship and practice-based approach has some very evident limitations and, therefore, this element is more present in those programmes attended by more junior students.

We attempt to improve the employment prospects of our more senior students with two different tools:

  1. Coaching – to boost our candidates’ self-awareness and help them identify areas for improvement
  2. Mentoring – to guide them when making decisions regarding their professional careers

How are programme curricula developed and refined at your School to ensure that they remain in touch with the changing needs of both students and employers?

The method we have been employing for some time to perfect our programmes – and which has given us some very good results – follows a 360° perspective, by means of analysing the feedback we get from the following stakeholders of our School:

  • Former students, by following their professional careers
  • Current students, by monitoring their satisfaction and experience
  • Businesses, which periodically evaluate the contents of our programmes and our graduates’ employment; and which monitor the performance of our employed students
  • Academic experts and members of the marketing department, who look to innovate content and teaching methods, as well as to analyse market tendencies.

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

We are currently very excited by our coaching programme because it is cross-curricular, and we therefore believe it can have a very positive impact on all of our students. It is also focused on improving our students’ employability in a more practical manner.

Elsewhere, the inclusion of AI in our programmes is an exciting challenge for us in the medium term.

What are your hopes for the School in the next five years?

While we are invested in increasing the number of students in our classrooms in the following years, we are more interested in their quality and diversity.

On this last point, we are convinced that the coexistence of different nationalities, genders and generations in the classroom adds great value to peer learning. We also expect to see this diversity reflected among faculty members – having professors with differing perspectives greatly enriches the learning experience. Regarding our programmes, we believe that the integration of AI and of concepts and experiences which train our students in digital transformation should be the fundamental area of our programmes’ development.

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How to foster gender balance and inclusion

Vlerick Business School has developed a method for assessing and improving inclusion within organisations, writes Katleen De Stobbeleir

Reflecting society’s diversity within business has become a topical and pressing issue as leaders come to understand that embracing difference within the workforce, and listening to a range of perspectives, will benefit their organisations. One important element of diversity is gender balance; the UN has named gender equality as one of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved before 2030. There have been many successful efforts to tackle this issue, both in business and wider society, but huge strides are still needed to create a truly equal and inclusive environment.

This mission involves tackling gender imbalances in business and ensuring women can participate fully and have equal opportunities in leadership and decision making, but many businesses struggle to put in place methods and initiatives to achieve this.

 A common way in which companies address this is to look at the number of women in their teams, in management positions, and on their boards. They may invest in the recruitment and promotion of women and set quotas for women in management roles. Governments and trade bodies support this agenda, with the European Union proposing that there should be a 40% quota for women on company boards within all organisations. 

But a focus on the numbers is only half the story. Simply boosting the number of female employees within organisations, so that there is an even split, does not automatically allow businesses to benefit from diversity. And putting too much emphasis on quotas can have the opposite effect to that desired. 

Speaking to employers as part of my consulting projects at Vlerick Business School, I have learned that many companies have diversity initiatives in place, but are still not seeing the practical benefits. So why are organisations still struggling to make diversity ‘work’ for them?

Diversity and inclusion

Focusing on diversity only reaps rewards when organisations also actively foster an open and inclusive environment for their staff. Organisations must create a culture of both diversity and inclusion (D&I), not simply one or the other.

Many organisations are implementing what they believe to be transparent, sophisticated and well thought-out diversity initiatives, and expect there to be a direct correlation between their level of investment in these initiatives and enhanced levels of creativity and productivity within their organisation. This, however, is not the case, and when it comes to maximising D&I, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

To help individual firms measure workforce D&I and to understand what they are doing well, and what needs improvement, I worked with an established research team to create Vlerick’s inclusion scan, which assesses organisations and offers them advice on how to improve. 

How the scan works 

The first element of the scan is a questionnaire for HR and D&I professionals, to assess how they are working to improve gender balance within their processes and procedures. This focuses on seven strategic areas: vision and strategic policy, leadership, HR and personnel policy, internal communication, quality assurance and monitoring, agreements with external stakeholders, and diversity networking. The second part considers employees’ perspectives. This is less about company initiatives and more about how employees feel. Staff are asked how included they feel within their team; whether or not they can express themselves freely and openly; whether they feel themselves to be ‘different’ from their colleagues, and whether they feel that they contribute to a greater purpose in the organisation. 

After collating the answers, my team and I are able to ascertain the organisation’s level of maturity in terms of inclusion. In this way, the scan makes each organisation aware of its current position with regards to inclusivity, and its areas for improvement.

Feedback provided to organisations aims to reflect on their current initiatives and analyse how effectively they are working. It highlights areas in which they are struggling, or policies that are not helping to create an inclusive environment. 

As well as enabling organisations to become more inclusive, the scan sparks a wider discussion around diversity and demonstrates the importance of adopting an inclusive culture not just in business, but also in society as a whole. 

Enhancing inclusion

There are many steps, large and small, that organisations can take to create a more inclusive culture, but to identify these, a tailored approach and customised strategy are required.

For example, all-women networks allow female employees to connect and share opinions on current initiatives and the inclusivity of the working environment. Reverse mentoring, meanwhile, involves women regularly sharing their perspectives on inclusivity with senior management.

Sponsoring is an underused, yet effective, way to help women feel included in the organisation’s practices. This involves senior management coaching younger, more diverse members of staff, and taking a level of responsibility for their career progression. They are charged with creating opportunities for these staff members to develop and progress within the company. 

Inclusivity is about giving everyone in the organisation a voice, and the ability to express their opinions. Meetings are a small-scale example of this, where shy and reserved workers may struggle to speak up, and feel overlooked as a result. Changing your meeting culture to ensure everyone is able to have their say is an important way to ensure all workers feel represented. 

In addition, people often act differently to the way they think, which can be a result of their wish to hold up a particular public image, or  something that is just an unconscious process. By uncovering these forms of bias, a more inclusive culture can be created.

None of the above examples will improve inclusivity in each and every organisation, which is why the scan offers tailored solutions. One solution may work for one workplace but not for another. Therefore, a customised mixture of policies and initiatives is the best way to improve inclusivity. 

The benefits of inclusion for organisations

When diversity is accompanied by inclusivity, it can only benefit businesses. Organisations with a visible environment for D&I better reflect society and are likely to be viewed in a more favourable light, commercially speaking. However, there are a number of internal benefits too.

When leveraged correctly, the various perspectives and skills contributed by a diverse workforce can lead to enhanced creativity and productivity – positively impacting on the organisation’s financial performance as a result. The different ideas articulated by a more diverse range of voices will also allow firms to be as innovative as possible and challenge an industry’s status quo. 

Firms that do not have this diversity of thought can stagnate and miss out on innovation and growth opportunities. Ultimately, they may become stuck in their ways, growing increasingly irrelevant and unrepresentative of customers and wider society. 

Not only does an inclusive culture nurture the most creative, productive and innovative staff possible, it also helps organisations to attract and retain top talent and supports collaboration within teams, enhancing wellbeing by creating an environment in which everyone is heard.

Multilayered approach

Taking a multilayered approach to inclusion is the key to success. To foster an inclusive environment, organisations must have leaders who are committed to the cause, a strong HR policy around inclusivity, and employees who feel included and are able to help their colleagues feel the same way. If these three areas are addressed, an organisation will be well on the way to achieving maximum inclusivity and will begin to reap the benefits of an inclusive culture.

Katleen De Stobbeleir is a Professor of Leadership and Coaching at Vlerick Business School. She is also Head of the Vlerick Women Inclusion Scan Research Project, alongside senior Vlerick researchers, Angie Van Steerthem and Evelien de Ferrerre, and non-profit consultancy, KliQ vzw. 

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How to use education technology in Business Schools – and why

Technology can help Business Schools meet the evolving needs of their students. Alain Goudey outlines NEOMA Business School’s use of virtual reality in the classroom

The adage, ‘tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn’ is often attributed to US inventor and polymath, Benjamin Franklin. My years of experience as Marketing Professor at NEOMA Business School in France, have shown me that this saying holds true. And now, as Chief Digital Officer at the School, I challenge my faculty colleagues with the power of digital tools for a highly needed transformation of the higher education sector. 

My mantra is ‘disrupt before being disrupted’. It’s time for today’s digital culture to spread into Business Schools, worldwide. The mission of the Business School Professor has dramatically evolved in the past two years, due to the huge technological wave which we are now riding. I believe that, as a Professor, I have to prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that have not yet been invented, to solve problems that have not yet been raised. 

Employment: a technological shift

According to a 2008 article by Centron and Davis in The Futurist, everything we knew about technology in 2008 will account for only 1% of what we will know about it by 2050. Research and technology is evolving at an exponential rate and this will have a deep impact on organisations and jobs, reshaping skill requirements. There are a great number of figures to illustrate this trend: 

  • Up to 85% of jobs that will be available in 2030 don’t exist yet, according to a 2017 report from Dell Technologies. 
  • Almost half (47%) of jobs in the US and 35% in the UK are at risk of automation over the next decade or two, according to a 2013 study by economists Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne. 
  • In France, 42% of jobs are under threat of automation, according to the consulting firm Roland Berger (2015).
  • The average projected job loss across OECD countries is 57%, according to a 2016 World Bank Development Report.

I’m convinced that 100% of jobs will be transformed in the coming years and a significant proportion of them will effectively disappear due to automation with wide-ranging impact on local and regional job markets. In parallel, new jobs have been appearing for decades thanks to the evolution of the internet, and mobile and data markets. 

New ways of learning

A vast quantity of information is now widely available online. With more than 4.7bn web pages to choose from, hundreds of new videos uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day, a wide choice of social networks and millions of apps to download, access to information, experts and tools has never been easier. Much of this information is streamed directly to your pocket 24/7 thanks to the mobile phone.

Finding relevant and accurate information is far less simple. Nowadays, the challenge is finding the right information at the right time. Professors have to enhance their students’ skills around the critical analysis of online content, tools and expertise. 

The student demographic is also evolving, with so-called ‘digital natives’ proliferating within Business Schools, but there is a tremendous need for all employees to become lifelong learners.

Game-changers in higher education

In the early 2000s, the very first e-learning platforms appeared in the education sector and, in 2008, the MOOC phenomenon gained momentum, thanks to companies such as edX, Udacity or Coursera. During this period, education technology (edtech) providers, including the Khan Academy, Udemy, Coorpacademy, and LinkedIn Learning, also emerged, leading to a plethora of accessible content direct from experts. 

Knowledge is available in the desired format anytime, anywhere, and on any device: from a two-hour recorded masterclass to a one-minute ‘how-to’ YouTube video. Moreover, e-learning platforms are evolving into adaptive learning platforms so that content can be adapted automatically, thanks to algorithms and data, which can set the pace of the learning to suit the abilities and preferences of the learners. This could be the end of the ‘one-best-way’ approach to higher education. In short, it is impossible for us to continue teaching in the way we have done for decades. 

The needs of businesses have also evolved. The World Economic Forum expects critical thinking, creativity, coordinating with others, emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility to be the key skills that individuals now need to develop for the workplace. Business Schools are therefore strongly advised to explore alternative and disruptive ways of teaching in the classroom.

Using virtual reality case studies 

Since 2016, I have been using immersive virtual reality (VR) to teach merchandising and marketing to thousands of students, thanks to the #ExE Project (experiential education). This is an immersive, VR-based application designed and developed at NEOMA Business School for its specific needs.

VR is a great tool for enhancing the learning experience. For instance, VR can:

  • Make business students experiment with technology and consider what they could do with the technology later as managers.
  • Reinforce the involvement of students by breaking the learning routine. Students are totally engaged during the class, have fun and are active with the learning.
  • Develop a systemic approach, in a non-linear way, to analysing complexity. The experience is much more realistic than a traditional business case with dozens of pages of linear facts and interviews.
  • Avoid group think; students are fully immersed and can live the experience as individuals.
  • Promote interactive and action-based learning by offering access to a wide variety of locations and managerial contexts. The feedback is faster and more efficient.

With this technology, we aim to achieve three key improvements around learning: 

1. Faster learning: the use of VR speeds up the learning process. Students are more engaged and involved in the case studies, and this means that they pick up the marketing concepts linked to the business case more quickly.

2. More memorable learning: students are likely to be positively influenced by this innovative and novel style of teaching. Its effects will therefore last longer and they stand to remember key concepts more clearly.

3. More complete learning: students experience the world in its full complexity and in a ‘natural non-linear’ way: they enhance their critical-thinking skills and creativity, thanks to shorter feedback loops around the experience itself during class.

Neuroscience has shown that incorporating gaming and active student involvement into learning creates powerful shifts. This is precisely what VR technology facilitates. I therefore recommend that other Business Schools invest in this area in the very near future.

Innovation and faculty

Launching the #ExE Project was a wonderful adventure because it gave us the opportunity to understand how people respond to disruptive technology, such as VR. Students were amazed that their Business School was so innovative and discovered this technology as a result of our classes. Staff and faculty members were more sceptical, however, and wished to see the technology in action before being convinced.

At the outset, VR was viewed by many staff and faculty as a gimmick as they lacked a thorough understanding of the value it brings to the classroom. To convince them, we organised demonstrations and seminars in which we explored how to engage a class with VR and what it can provide, both for students and professors.

We brought together a team of five marketing professors to disseminate the findings around our first VR-based case study. During a two-hour meeting, I personally taught them how to use it in their classes; I was also present when they used the technology for the first time, to assist and reassure them. 

In addition, our technical VR team is always on hand to help faculty set up technical elements of a case study. A member is present at every class using this technology, to ensure it goes smoothly and to enable professors to focus on teaching. Two years later, we launched our second VR-based case study; this was designed by my colleague Aurélien Rouquet on the subject of supply chain management, featuring the biggest drive-in hypermarket in France, E.Leclerc. We have a third case study planned for the field of HR, using another large French company. 

Faculty lie at the heart of successful innovation within Business Schools and it is incumbent on Schools to create an environment that supports innovation. At NEOMA, we are lucky to have faculty rules that recognise the value of innovation in teaching. Without such rules, innovation would be unlikely to take root.

It may take time to convince colleagues of the value of a disruptive technology. I have had to explain to peers the value of VR, show people how it works in practice and repeat this time and again, in order to win their trust and backing. Not all disciplines or individual professors will be interested in innovation, and it is unlikely that you will convert everyone to your way of thinking. Demonstrating value creation for learners and professors will support your cause.

It should, however, become clear to all that today’s Business Schools are operating within a period of technological transformation, which is affecting entire sectors and most organisations. Schools need to support students and lifelong learners through this period of drastic change, and to do this successfully they also need to transform themselves. Digital transformation is not an option but a necessity.

To conclude, let me remind you of a quote from management guru, Peter Drucker: ‘The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.’ Don’t be afraid of the turbulence, go forth and transform. 

Alain Goudey is Chief Digital Officer and Professor of Marketing at NEOMA Business School in France. He is also Founding Partner of AtooMedia, a sound design agency, and its subsidiary, Mediavea, a retail marketing provider. 

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Cultivating diversity to open opportunities

Diversity is ‘a strength which opens opportunities’ and that’s why exposure to different backgrounds and ways of thinking is a firm focus for Céline Fauchot, Dean at France’s South Champagne Business School (SCBS), part of the Y SCHOOLS ecosystem

‘In your personal life, or in your professional life, you must be prepared to accept and to cultivate diversity. It is a strength which opens opportunities,’ says Céline Fauchot, Dean at South Champagne Business School (SCBS) in Troyes, France.

Students at SCBS are therefore encouraged to work with those from different backgrounds, Céline Fauchot explains, as well as with those studying at different institutions within the Y SCHOOLS ecosystem to which the School belongs. ‘We do not want to create clones – we cultivate the difference!’ she adds.

Céline Fauchot also talks about the continuing challenge of convincing people that online learning need not be of lesser quality than face-to-face interactions, in this interview with Business Impact Content Editor, Tim Dhoul.

The value of being able to learn and develop for the future through the Y SCHOOLS’ campus in Cameroon is another topic covered by the SCBS Dean. ‘Innovation is a key issue for Africa and we are very excited to be part of the change.’ Read on to learn more.

 

Please can you tell me a little about the programmes available at your School, as well as typical student intake sizes and proportions of international students? 

SCBS offers four programmes among which is: a Programme Grande Ecole (PGE) master’s degree with four different tracks; an MSc in Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship; a BBA with the opportunity to work and/or study in four countries; and the Global Business Management bachelor’s.

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

Our portfolio of programmes can really be considered different because our Business School model is different.

SCBS belongs to the Y SCHOOLS ecosystem, inside of which different schools (including schools in design and tourism, for example) work together and open possibilities to create unique multidisciplinary programmes. The MSc in Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship and Strategic Design Management programmes on offer are good examples. Thanks to Y SCHOOLS, we can develop and strengthen transversality and diversity in our programmes.

Something else which stands out is the possibility students have to integrate an apprenticeship into their master’s degree.

Does your portfolio of programmes encompass international study or international work experience? If these elements are optional rather than requirements of the programme(s), how many of your students take advantage of these options, on average?

International [experience] is an integral part of SCBS. More than 40 different nationalities compose our student number. Almost all students are keen to encompass the international dimension during their study. For instance, a BBA student can spend up to 30 months on internships in four different countries.

Please outline diversity’s importance to your Business School’s strategy and why you feel it is a vital topic for business as a whole today.

Our ambition has always been to consider diversity as a strong component for our development. Whether it’s diversity of skills, culture or ways of thinking; diversity is real life!

In your personal life, or in your professional life, you must be prepared to accept and to cultivate diversity. It is a strength which opens opportunities. That’s why we make French students work regularly with international students. In addition, the students of our management programs work in close cooperation with those enrolled on design  and engineering programmes. Cultivating diversity to cultivate curiosity and open-minded personalities is the Y SCHOOLS concept. We do not want to create clones – we cultivate the difference!

How is the School working to boost the employment prospects of its graduates? (E.g. through the use of internship schemes, exchanges, or other industry initiatives)

A strong focus at SCBS is to ensure that companies are ‘inside’ our Business School and not ‘beside’ it. [There is] no way to imagine our Business School without a strong relationship with the world of Business.

Company and block-release training [a form of vocational education in France, linking study to the world of work] exhibitions are often organised with several specific focuses and ways to catch the attention of both companies and graduates.

Specific attention is also given to soft skills. A unique PPP (Professional and Personal Project) is implemented for each student, for example, to ensure that they get all the tools [they need] to be ready when they enter their professional lives. And six months after graduation, 94% of our graduates have secured a job. 

How are programme curricula developed and refined at your School to ensure that they remain in touch with the changing needs of both students and employers?

The world is changing, technologies are changing, needs are changing… so our daily concern is to ensure that we prepare our students for the reality and for the future needs of enterprises.

With this purpose in mind, we have implemented a process to evaluate the efficiency of our pedagogical approach. We also have a Laboratory of Pedagogical Innovation that proposes new teaching tools regularly, so as to fit the changing characteristics of our students.

Through advisory boards that include companies, our pedagogical teams – supported by professionals – ensure that our curricula are in line with what is anticipated to be the needs for tomorrow.

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

A new, open-minded programme will be launched in January that is designed to support students who still have doubts about their future direction, by integrating management, design and tourism courses. The programme, Stud’Up, recognised by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation Ministry (MESRI), is very exciting as it represents a real answer to the situation of many youngsters who have not found their way or who are disappointed by their current choice.

If we come back to our DNA, entrepreneurship programmes are the most exciting. Being close to the Technopole de l’Aube and having a foot in the local incubator, as well as links to the Design School in the Y SCHOOLS ecosystem enables SCBS to offer different opportunities to our students.

What are your hopes for the School in the next five years – what do you want to see happen?

SCBS has always been recognised in France for its focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. We expect to strengthen these expertises and create new programmes that will be in line with global changes in behaviours, technologies and, above all, ensure that we are meeting the needs of business world.

Through the Y SCHOOLS campus in Yaoundé, Cameroon, we also expect that our engagement on the African continent will enable us to develop new skills in entrepreneurship and innovation. Innovation is a key issue for Africa and we are very excited to be part of the change in some of the region’s countries.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing providers of business education in the country headquarters of your School and the surrounding region, in your opinion?

One ongoing and challenging change in the French education system is the development of online learning. French students and families remain quite reluctant to this evolution and one of our challenges will be to accompany them on the journey towards accepting this evolution of technology by ensuring that the quality of learning will not only be the same as in face-to-face courses but, for some content, it will be upgraded. New technologies will really open new doors.

Céline Fauchot is Dean of SCBS (South Champagne Business School) – part of the Y SCHOOLS ecosystem – in Troyes, France. A French Business School graduate, she has more than 25 years of industry experience and has created and managed marketing teams at international level in the automotive, mechanical and medical industries.

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Brexit is a rally cry for innovation

Now is the time for Business Schools to help their students capitalise on the opportunities that Brexit uncertainty could introduce, argues Victoria Harrison-Mirauer

Wherever you sit on the Brexit spectrum, from ennui to exasperation, there can be no doubt that, for many organisations, the present levels of uncertainty are uncomfortably high.

Uncertainty is nothing new to business – concepts such as ‘VUCA’ (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) have become so much a part of common parlance, and which so infuses Business School curricula, that they can sometimes float past almost unnoticed. 

Brexit has added a new dimension – a ‘perfect storm’ showing that many of the ‘old’ rules are ripe for reassessment. The current political chaos in the UK serves to highlight that many of the organising systems and structures we rely on to make decisions are no longer helpful. As these structures are proving themselves inadequate, now is the time to focus on innovation and the opportunities that Brexit uncertainty could introduce.

Whatever the terms of Brexit and its final details, the UK still operates in a global, networked, connected context, and the country will still be full of skilled, creative and forward-thinking businesspeople who can find opportunities in plenty of sectors. The innovative, competitive and dynamic economic forces that make up the UK’s creative industries, universities, health system, financial and professional services companies are the envy of the world and matter now more than ever. 

Innovation has a central part to play in rewriting the post-Brexit rulebook. Innovators (who are, by nature, optimists) might look at the situation now and hope that new politics, new types of organisation, new global relationships and new commercial opportunities are there to be shaped.

A 21st-century Business School can help its students step up to this opportunity in the following ways:

1. Contextualising the change. This will help ensure future leaders are well equipped to respond to the challenges of unprecedented technology-led innovation, the spectre of climate change and the responsibility of business to the planet, as well as the seismic implications of new-world demographics and emerging economies. This is about helping students see the ‘big picture’, and encouraging them to take some ownership and agency in shaping how it develops. 

When schoolchildren take to the streets to protest about climate change, our time to act on this issue must be surely be running out. What this tells us is that the world is in need of some ideas, and fast. It is the responsibility of Business Schools to ensure their students are ready to drive this change, and to help them graduate both wanting to, and feeling capable of, making a difference.

2. Equipping students with an innovation mindset. Without question, the ‘red threads’ woven through the success narratives of tomorrow’s leaders will be agility, a growth mindset, and resilience as a personal ‘super power’. Business Schools are well placed to encourage and facilitate the development of an innovation mindset, as well as to focus on building creativity and problem-solving skills. Students need to be prepared for new kinds of leadership in new kinds of organisation ecosystems. This environment is one where collaboration, co-creation, partnership and flexibility count. 

3. Developing students’ communication skills. Innovation and uncertainty both demand leaders who are brilliant communicators. Being able to lead for innovation means being able to bring diverse interest groups and stakeholders along with you. Communication is essential for those who want to work at pace in complex circumstances, where strategies are increasingly emerging in ‘real time’, and where priorities are constantly changing and so much is simply unknown. 

If Brexit teaches us anything, it’s the central role communication plays in creating understanding, building consensus and negotiation. It also teaches us what happens when communication breaks down. Tomorrow’s global leaders need to be able to communicate effectively across increasingly international teams and cultures, and to be technology agnostic, moving seamlessly between face-to-face and virtual contexts. Business Schools which use experiential learning effectively can help their students practise these skills in a safe space, as a supportive proving ground.

4. Focusing less on innovation processes and more on cognitive and behavioural approaches. As far as innovation is concerned, ‘where there’s a will, there‘s a way’. As with Brexit, innovation can be a messy and unpredictable business; however, as we all now know too well, being comfortable with ambiguity is easier said than done. Understanding and embracing the cognitive diversity that drives creative problem solving and innovation is an essential piece of the future leader’s toolkit. 

One of Google’s mantras is ‘creativity loves constraint’. The constraints of Brexit are therefore a rally cry for innovators. Educators must avoid fuelling panic and instead work hard to ignite the optimism that, in turn, fuels the kind of opportunism and entrepreneurship that can be the foundation of new markets, new technologies, new jobs, new business and growth.  

In response to some international businesses expressing concern about disruptions to their supply chains as a result of Brexit, UK-based businesses have to be persuasive and optimistic about their ability to meet these challenges. Innovation is a fundamentally optimistic pursuit; it has to be. Innovation is also positive and future-focused. These qualities are all the more important in times of crisis and uncertainty. 

Now is not the time to turn off the innovation tap, but quite the reverse. Investing in the ability to innovate, solve problems creatively and lead in the development and commercialisation of
new technologies is more important than ever as the UK forges new structures, new politics and seeks to lead different geopolitical relationships.

Young people, aspiring business leaders and entrepreneurs are often described by the media as the ‘victims’ of Brexit. This may be troubling – and it may be true – but by creating connected communities, active global alumni networks and using genuinely international content, Business Schools are well-placed to counterbalance that narrative. 

Hult International Business School is a case in point. With five campuses globally and a globe-trotting cohort, its UK base is one cog in a truly international machine. Hult MBAs move across campuses in ways that mirror the international career aspirations of many of its participants. Perhaps this peripatetic option becomes more attractive to students as a result of Brexit who might otherwise have chosen a single-campus, UK-based institution. 

A few years ago, I came across some interesting discussions into a 300-year-old theory that challenges today’s innovators. A team at Cambridge University explored some ideas by English philosopher and statesman, Francis Bacon, and used his approach to think about how organisations innovate today. 

Bacon’s theory was all about ‘unknown unknowns’, different ways of creating hypotheses and therefore ideas and hunches. Born in 1561, he was what history celebrates as an influential ‘thinker’ and someone whose ideas have stood the test of time by being both innovative in context, as well as useful and interesting, posthumously.

Commenting on this research, University of Cambridge Judge Business School Professor of Economics and Organisation. Jochen Runde said: ‘We urge people to imagine possible influences that might lead to business scenarios that are radically different from the one they think is most likely. By being induced to look for information about extreme possibilities, they will be taken away from the familiar places they would normally be looking and thereby put themselves in a position of learning things that are truly new to them. Effectively, the method we are proposing provides a means to counteract the confirmation bias, as well as many other biases that have been identified by behavioural psychologists. And it can be done on either end of the spectrum – extremely good outcomes or extremely bad outcomes.’

The future is certainly unpredictable, but what is interesting is our continued attempts to predict it. The efforts made to ‘future-proof’ loom large in the scenario planning around Brexit, with many businesses across the UK making plans for a ‘no-deal’ scenario. 

To an extent, this scenario-planning conversation is good strategy practice; thinking about the context of your operations, anticipating key influences and trends, working with organisational strategy as an ‘emergent’ rather than fixed entity. 

The organisations best prepared for the future are the ones that spend less time trying to predict it, and more time building the innovative, adaptive, and agile capabilities of their employees at all levels so that they are ready to respond to it and shape it.

Victoria Harrison-Mirauer is a Cambridge University graduate with 19 years of experience across innovation, marketing, digital and brand strategy. She is currently the Discipline Lead for Innovation at Ashridge Hult International Business School and runs a private innovation practice, The Ideas Machine.