To be effective, he maintains, the rebuilding

process must be accompanied by social stability. The entrepreneurial model has been proven
to accomplish both economic recovery and relief from social pressures. Africa offers an excellent case of the potential of the entrepreneurial
model to move Africa from a Continent of Despair to a Continent of Hope. The years ahead
represent an exciting time for scholars and businesses to develop and share their research and
initiatives on the nature and contributions of
entrepreneurship to the economic and social
development of the new frontier of Africa.
References:
The Africa e-Journal (2011) 2011 U.S.-Africa Business Summit Showcases
Huge Opportunities in Africa, The Africa e-Journal, September, p. 1, The
Corporate Council on Africa, Washington, DC
The Economist (2011) The sun shines bright. December 3-9, pp. 82-84
The Economist (2011) Africa rising. December 3-9, pp. 82-84
Schramm, CJ (2010) Expeditionary Economics, Foreign Affairs 89(3), 89-99
World Bank/IFC (2010) Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, Washington, DC (http://www.doingbusiness.org/reports/doingbusiness/doing-business-2011)
World Bank/IFC (2011) Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a more transparent world, Washington, DC (http://www.doingbusiness.org/reports/
global-reports/doing-business-2012)
8th Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit (2011) White House Chief of
Staff William Daley, keynote address, October 7, 2011 (http://www.cvent.
com/events/8th-biennial-u-s-africa-business-summit/directions-8c44ecbbdeec4caaa5436dcc186eb40a.aspx)

Authors details:
Peter Koveos is Professor of Finance and Kiebach Chair in International Business at the Whitman School of Management,
Syracuse University. He is also the director of the Kiebach Center for International Business Studies and Executive Director of
the Africa Business Program. Professor Koveos received his PhD
in 1977 from Penn State University and joined the Syracuse faculty in 1982. In Syracuse, he has served as Chair of the department of finance, associate dean for MBA programs and interim
dean of the School of Management. Dr. Koveos is the editor of
the Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship and co-editor
of the Journal of Economic Asymmetries. He has been elected
to a number of officer positions in professional Associations,
and has actively worked with regional businesses. He is the Director of ExportNY, New Yorks International Business Academy
for Executives, and is a founding member and past president of
the Central New York International Business Alliance.
Pierre Yourougou is Clinical Associate Professor of Finance, managing director of Africa Business Program and associate director of Kiebach Center of International Business
Studies at Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University. He received a Ph.D. in Banking and Finance from
New York Universitys Stern School of Business and an executive training at Harvard University. He has published articles in several referred journals including Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Research, Journal of
Futures Markets, Journal of Economics and Business. Before joining Syracuse University, he worked for the World
Bank and the African Development Bank where he held various senior level positions in the corporate finance, in the
treasury and in the public debt management departments.

Anglohigher

Volume 4, Issue 1, Winter 2012

Redesigning the MBA: Business Schools

reaction to address Mintzbergs critique
By Fragkiskos Filippaios, Senior Lecturer & Director of Postgraduate Programmes
and Accreditations, Kent Business School, University of Kent, UK - www.kent.ac.uk
Since 2004, when Mintzberg criticised the
way business schools provide education for
their MBA students, a lot has been done to
address the main gaps identified in his critique. The main idea behind his criticism was
that MBA programmes do not allow managers to reflect and learn from their own experience but offer a very traditional approach to
teaching with a series of lectures followed by
case studies that most of the time, deal with
obsolete subjects. Nowadays, academics increasingly address his main points, and business schools constantly redesign their MBA
offerings to better attend to crucial challenges in the modern managers agenda. Moreover, allowing participants to engage in experiential learning to develop managerial
and personal skills side-by-side with the important academic ones.
This article summarises the main characteristics of a modern MBA programme by building on publicly available information from a
number of MBA programmes in the UK and
the Association of MBA (AMBA) accreditation criteria. There are currently four pillars
around the development of an MBA programme that is contemporary and allows
participants to develop academic, soft, and
employability skills. These are academic context, personal skills, managerial skills, and
employability. The academic context depicts
an authentic knowledgebase offered by the
programme, and the relevant academic skills
developed through engaging with the literature and research. It should cover all disciplinary perspectives, remain contemporary
by following all the advancements in the
management literature, and provide specialisation using elective modules. Above all,
though, the academic context should provide an integration of disciplines in the decision-making and break down the silos of
academic knowledge. According to Navaro (2008), the curriculum design should depend on multidisciplinary integration with
emphasis on experiential learning, a focus on
the global agenda, and the use of new technologies. Most effective is a multidisciplinary
approach embedded throughout the academic year, starting with an induction demonstrating the necessity of integration in different disciplines. This is best followed by a
number of discipline related modules building toward a capstone project (in the form of
an integrated case study) at the closure of the
academic year.
The second important pillar is the develop-

ISSN 2041-8469 (Online) www.anglohigher.com

ment of managerial skills with an emphasis on leadership attributes and negotiation.

Numerous MBA programmes have incorporated leadership and negotiation workshops in their main curriculum. Gill (2004)
argued leadership development should ensue by giving participants the opportunity
to engage in experiential learning. MBA students should have the opportunity to present their own present and future challenges, find solutions, receive feedback, and gain
coaching towards their development. It is
practice that makes perfect. The third pillar of the modern MBA rests on the development of personal skills. There is a certain degree of overlapping between these and the
managerial skills discussed above but the latter focus more on the interaction between
the individual and others in the workplace,
whilst the former focus more on the individual itself and his or her ability to plan a successful career path. The focus on personal
development planning is important in the
development of personal skills; it is the ability of the individual to develop self-awareness
on strengths and weaknesses in the workplace and thinking about their future training needs or career path. A significant number of business schools use coaching and
specialised psychometric tests to encourage
individual awareness of personal skills. These
are often followed by designing an individual
personal development plan, modified as the
learner progresses.
The fourth pillar of the modern MBA is employability. This element of the MBA has
gained importance over recent years as
many participants consider a career change
during their studies. Therefore, it is important for MBA programmes to develop their
learners in such a way that enhances employability skills or provides them with opportunities and support for securing a job.

AngloHigher The Magazine of Global English Speaking Higher Education

Copyright 2009-12 by Panethnic Limited, All Rights Reserved.

Three main issues arise: networking, use

of new technologies, and entrepreneurship. Networking is the main factor enhancing opportunities for participants to secure
a job. A well-developed active alumni association is crucial toward achieving this goal.
MBA alumni can provide current participants
with new opportunities for employment.
Networking events, guest lectures by alumni, and alumni sponsorships are three main
instruments that business schools use for
this purpose. MBA participants should prepare for a workplace that makes significant
use of new technologies and social networking. Effective use of online social networks is
something many business schools fail to include in their curriculum. It is worth mentioning the most important issue here is the
development of awareness on the individuals part of their social footprint left behind,
and how this might influence opportunities
for securing a job. Recruiters and companies
use social networking to discover information about prospective applicants. Schools
should take this into consideration when
training MBA participants. Finally, the development of entrepreneurial skills and providing support for business start-ups based on
entrepreneurial ideas is something some,
but not all, business schools consider. Some
have established funding schemes to support MBA students in their entrepreneurial
endeavours, whilst a number of universities
allow students to make use of their support
infrastructure in the early stages of business
start-ups. Accrediting bodies, such as AMBA,
provide awards and scholarships to support entrepreneurship and innovation in the
MBA. Much progress is in place since Mintzbergs critique of the MBA. Business schools
and accrediting bodies addressed his criticism to a great extent, and redesigned their
MBA programmes to provide a transformational experience. Focusing on soft skills and
leadership, together with a debate-forumstyle classroom (Lorange, 2010), supporting
personal development and entrepreneurial
attributes, and access to a wide MBA community mean that despite the stagnating market the MBA will be a degree that is still in demand.
References:
Gill, R. (2004) Leadership Development in MBA Programmes, Business Leadership Review, I:II, July 2004, 1-4
Lorange, P. (2010) New Challenges for Value-Creation in the Modern Business School, Business Leadership Review, VII:IV, October 2010, 1-7
Mintzberg, H. (2004) Managers not MBAs; A hard look at the soft practice
of managing and management development, Berrett-Koehler Publishers,
Inc, San Francisco
Navaro, P. (2008) The MBA Core Curricula of Top-Ranked U.S. Business
Schools: A Study in Failure?, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 7, 1, 108-123

Anglohigher

Innovative fiscal policy and economic

development: a social totality view
By Aleksandr Gevorkyan, Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Continuing and
Professional Studies, New York University, USA - www.nyu.edu & www.scps.nyu.edu
History teaches there are lessons to be
learned from the past. Regretfully, by that
standard, economic policy seems a poor
student in the context of recent macroeconomic failures. But it is not the point of this
brief note to add yet another criticism to
the economic disciplines vitae. It is however the point to suggest a more inclusive
approach.
In that regard recent experiences of the
post-socialist economies of Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union (EE and FSU
respectively) are telling and useful in terms
of practical applications, domestically and
elsewhere. Much of the insight in this note
is drawn from the recently published volume entitled: Innovative fiscal policy and
economic development in transition economies (Gevorkyan, 2011).
From the start it is important to recognize the social character of an economic
transformation, regardless of the affected
economic agent. Persons, both natural
and legal (eg corporate), make decisions
affecting the actions of other people. As
such, economic policy assumes that society has an inherently dynamic social character that leads the changes through the
ultimate transformational moment.
Neglect of that same moment, was the
problem of the famed shock therapy
(free market) reforms of early 1990s in the
EE and FSU. Much of the policy approach
was based upon the expectation of a
quick, almost revolutionary, adjustment.
This introduced the term transition, instead of the more fitting term transformation, into the economic parlance. The rest
is well-known and covered in literature.
The transition reforms resulted, despite
isolated successes initially, in wide-scale
social deterioration throughout the fragile
economies.
For many of the post-socialist states the
past two decades has been a learn-asthey-go experience of survival in the modern economy, dealing with a multitude of
mini and large-scale crises. What emerged
from the early 1990s were economic models characterized by rudimentary financial
systems, susceptible to capital market volatility; high unemployment and resulting
chronic outward migration; limited diversification with reliance on either primary
commodity exports or labor migrant remittances and financial transfers of other
sorts.

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Volume 4, Issue 1, Winter 2012

By the early 2000s things started to

change (in relative terms, since much of the
above still permeates the economic structures, though to a lesser degree than in
the 1990s). Characteristic of this stage has
been return of the state, often on par with
the private sector, in the economy and as
an implied social guarantor (e.g. bigger
net exporter countries with revenues accumulating from primary commodity exports). Across the transition map countries
posted high, at times double digit, growth
rates with some macroeconomic stability.
But the longevity of the relative improvements of recent years is subject to uncertainty, as so much hinges on a mix of external factors and internal characteristics.
On the external side, take for instance capital flows. Despite their emerging markets status, EE/FSU economies have been
subject to abrupt foreign currency funds
withdrawals and strong pressures on domestic currencies, e.g. Armenia, Hungary,
Russia, Ukraine -to name a few. These fluctuations translate into immeasurable social costs as the most meaningful external
factor remains the exchange rate and currency competitiveness. The story can easily be expanded to include other emerging countries (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, India,
Mexico, and smaller African and Asian
economies, but not China). There, too, consequences of exchange rate volatility play
an important role and have much longer
history of driving social instability. Aside
from being currency-crisis prone, the unifying feature of this larger group of economies is the limited industrial diversification
and implicit social obligations by the state.

AngloHigher The Magazine of Global English Speaking Higher Education

Copyright 2009-12 by Panethnic Limited, All Rights Reserved.