BW Communities

"People Are Recognising Africa As The Future Market"

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[The only business school from Africa to find place on Financial Times' MBA rankings, the Graduate School of Business(GSB) — part of the University Of Cape Town —   has managed to make its presence felt across the globe.  Segran Nair, finance specialist and the Director of Open Academic Programmes at GSB, was recently In India to talk about the school's value-for-money MBA and how the profiles of emerging market business schools are of unique, strategic importance. In an interview with Alokita Datta, Nair discusses GSB's efforts in highlighting the relevance of emerging markets within the MBA curriculum, how the school is differentiating itself from Western b-schools, how the transforming business environment in Africa is influencing education programmes and why there is scope for healthy reciprocity between Indian and South Africa. As a business school in Africa, what has been the primary focus when it comes to designing management courses? Could you talk about the nature and composition of your programmes and what kind of a profile do you look for in a candidate applying to the Graduate School of Business… Graduate School of Business (GSB) is part of the University of Cape Town and has been in existence for the last 50 years (the University was established in the late 1800s). We have a full time MBA programme that runs for about a year (11 months). We then we have a modular format (not a part time programme) which is spread over a 2-year period. It requires students to be physically present in Cape Town 6 times during the 2-year course period for about 2 weeks (except for the beginning where students need to be present for 3 weeks). Overall, it is a 13 week commitment. We have students from all over South Africa, the African continent and other parts of the world as well.  The third format is the executive MBA and is targeted towards individuals who are much older with more than 10 years of senior management experience. The average age therefore, is around 45. The pedagogy we follow is different from the classical MBA. It would be rather arrogant of us to teach individuals who have so much experience. While universities are places of learning, we feel there is a lot that we can learn from senior managers as well. In this case students directly relate the theories (taught in class) to their workplace. They could write a paper on finance, the return on investment on a marketing campaign for instance, by understanding the mechanics of the formula. In comparison, the average age of students in the MBA programme is about 30-31, with 7 years of work experience. However, we will surely consider a 25 year old with a work experience of 2-3 years for admission. It really is dependent on the applicant's maturity and his/her ability to hold their own in the classroom and contribute with the others. But work/industry experience is essential; something that makes our MBA programmes different from Indian business schools. Considering the legacy of Apartheid in South Africa, we have other programmes that recognise an individual's work experience but ultimately culminating in granting them the opportunity to also pursue an MBA degree. Over and above that,  we have a department that customises programmes for corporations as well as in the domain of adult-based learning. The Associate In Management programme is post graduate diploma in business administration. The Graduate Business School is part of the Department of Commerce and we have to pass our academic issues through that department. We are autonomous and since we are a public university we receive (limited) funding from the state.  Most of it is raised from tuition and the endowments we have to support students, though in a limited manner. As a Business school with a long legacy in an emerging market, how do you distinguish yourself from other business schools in Europe and America? Structurally, we follow a one-year MBA programme as opposed to the 2-year programme that most business schools follow. The second differentiation is that since we are a business school in an emerging economy, while the theory that we teach is a hybrid of what comes from developed economies-north America, Europe etc, it also includes significant material from developing economies. The case studies we use also follow a combination of resources from both developed and emerging markets. Our MBA is made up of three different components: one is the compulsory part that the entire class will study, accounting, strategy, HR etc. Once that component is done, students can construct their own MBA  through elective courses. When it comes to elective courses, we have industry practitioners who come and teach these courses to students and thereby bring in their direct, relevant experience as it relates to emerging markets in the classroom. The third distinct aspect, and this has been prescribed by the Council of Higher Education in South Africa, is that students are expected to write a thesis or academic paper which could either be related to marketing a particular product, and the challenges that exist within the emerging market. Our faculty members not only teach but consult to businesses as well ; both in developed and emerging markets and therefore bring in that expertise into the classroom.    Thus, in multiple ways we bring in the relevance of emerging markets into the curriculum but the mere fact that we are a business school physically located in an emerging market brings about the realities of inequality, unemployment, the realities of entrepreneurship and innovation. We are a product of that environment and therefore encompass it in our business education programmes as well. We offer one particular elective which is called doing business in Africa, and the faculty member teaches not just the theory of emerging markets but the course also has an internship component built into it where, up until last year, he took students to neighbouring African countries and corporations to enable students witness the larger realities of such markets beyond the borders of South Africa. Do you also focus specifically on the African market, in terms of developing case studies, white papers that relate to the domestic business environment? The University of Cape Town has classically been a teaching driven educational institution where a great deal of focus was around the dean taking classes as opposed to guiding  post graduate or a PhD students being or encouraging research assistants . The emphasis has slowly moved in terms of also engaging in a lot more research: we've got faculty members who are academically very dynamic but now it's also much more driven by relevant research that they have to have a portfolio on, relating to their courses and bring that into the classroom. With respect to case studies, it is still a relatively new area for us. It is in the last 10 years or so that case studies have begun to evolve. So we have a long way to go in saying that we have a whole lot of relevant case studies which are also being used as study material in North America or Europe. Part of the issue lies in acquiring the kind of resources to support faculty members in writing those case studies and also supporting PhD students. We have a plan in place, we've begun to do what is needed but there is still a lot more work that needs to be done.  Co-creating African case studies can be a mutually beneficial process since business schools from developed economies are taking a lot of interest in creating knowledge bases on emerging economies for their own post graduation, post doctoral research as well… Absolutely, and this is a very important part of the entire learning process as well. One of the criticisms labelled against business schools is that they concentrate only on theoretical teaching which is not relevant to individuals on the ground. A case study is therefore meant to bridge the gap between theory and practice; students are assessing the efficacy of what they are studying depending upon the uniqueness of where they are operation from in a geographical setting. Students can look at a classical new product launch, say the launch of a new detergent in Brazil: these are the factors that went into launching the product and students are allowed into thinking that yes, there are tremendous similarities that could successfully be applied in South Africa. Case Studies also therefore allow students to critically think through the relevance of a product or service, in their own domestic markets. Would you be interested in collaborating with Indian business schools to establish exchange/research databases? Do you have any such partnerships with other universities in the world? At present we have 30 (student) exchange partnerships with schools throughout the world, which includes Indian School of Business (ISB), in India (which is about a decade old). We are very strategic about the exchanges we enter into because, one, we are a very small school: we limit the number of students that come into our MBA programme to about 80-82. We follow GMAT scores (minimum of 550) but application is a holistic process, so if an applicant with a lower score but impressive application (good work experience, undergrad scores) will be considered and may be granted admission as well. The reason we do that is because we are aware of the cultural biases that are built into the GMAT. We also have data that shows how GMAT is not the best indicator of a person's performance. We would be keen to develop more exchanges with schools across India by looking aspects from capacity to relevance, what we can learn from the school-weather it is research, case studies or other areas-- and if there is a comparative advantage in relation to us, we will absolutely tap into that. The Financial Times (Global MBA Top 100) rankings highlight the 'international experience' that GSB provides. Could you talk about the composition of the students and faculty members in GSB, currently, in this context? Apart from South Africa, we have students coming from Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Congo; they tend to comprise the largest section of foreign students in our programmes. We've always had tremendous participation from German students as well as those from the UK . But over the last two years or so we have seen a lot of American students coming into our MBA programme. Given how the economic crisis has played out in the US and the attention in civil society paid to efficient decision making, by executives, a different kind of consciousness has begun to permeate. The US has always been active in pushing the boundary in terms of around thinking but people are becoming more critical of certain modes of thought and are now recognising Africa as the future market. That's the reason behind the interest by Americans, I believe. We have about 16-17 students from foreign nationalities on the programme. It varies up to 30-35 per cent when it comes to the overall component of students. With my trip to India and Russia and travelling a lot more within Africa, we certainly want to increase foreign student participation to 50 per cent or more. A number of our faculty are foreign nationals and they are part and parcel of the permanent faculty members. So we have American, German and fellow African faculty members. We've got a relatively small faculty component as well. For a long time it was 25 and over the last 2 years or so, under the new director we have grown to about 35. Again we're seeing a lot of interest from the US who are willing to come down and teach here. We also have an adjunct faculty base, associated with the school-American and European-who active engage in research in South Africa and collaborate with their peers in GSB. break-page-break How many Indian students are currently enrolled in your programmes, at present? In our modular programme we have about 4 or 5 students who are Indian nationals. What we're finding in South Africa is that a lot of Indian nationals who are working in Indian multinational companies who are looking for post graduate opportunities and therefore coming into the programme. When it comes to the full time MBA the number of students varies from 3-4 last year to about 1-2 this year. I think the reason for that is the lack of the Graduate School of Business' presence in India. We want to engage with students answer questions they might have about the school, the programmes and the country. A lot of people might think: Why should I come to South Africa to study? Again, I think because we come from a mindset where we have a common history of colonisation in this part of the word or in Africa, we tend to have a sense that schools in America and Europe have a higher quality of education and thus tend to gravitate towards them, which I can understand, given our history as people. For us the focus is on integrating what we learn about business within the challenges that we see in society. To what extent is the 'competitively priced' MBA course an incentive for international students? For Indian Students, in particular, cost f education is an important criterion while considering admission to overseas b-schools… If you look at the conversion rate from rupee to rand it is Rs 7 to 1 rand but in that 7:1 ratio, you have to consider the incredible quality of education a student will receive,  well recognised the school is. The cost of the MBA Programme in 2012 is 290,000 rands .  The socio-economic challenges that we face (infrastructure, logistics) are in some ways similar to those that people in India face. South Africa has a very efficient, advanced transport system and perhaps people can learn from us in that respect. On the other hand, the kind of entrepreneurship and innovation that happens in India is phenomenal and we can learn something in that respect. There is tremendous scope for reciprocity between the two countries in terms of learning and engaging with each other; which can be a fruitful symbiotic relationship. To what extent do you focus on entrepreneurship within and outside the classroom/curriculum at GSB? The biggest challenge in South Africa is to create jobs because we've got a high rate of unemployment;  it is structural, historical and there are legacy reasons for that. What this leads to therefore is to make people more entrepreneurial and innovative.  We have a core course in the MBA programme on entrepreneurship and innovation which includes practical aspects to contemporary entrepreneurs, the likes of Richard Branson of the Virgin Group to someone from South Africa that students can relate to.  The stories of these individuals get told, the circumstances that made it happen, to what was the driving force etc. It is a course that goes down well with students. In the second part of the MBA where students can construct their own programmes through electives, we have a course called Planning Your Ventures which allows students to put themselves out there: from articulating the business plan they've thought of to putting it to work in terms of cash flows, putting the numbers together and then presenting it to a panel. That is a practical, hands on approach. In the third stage of writing their thesis, students can examine, for instance, what goes into making the US an incredibly dynamic place for innovation. How much of research and development dollars gets pumped into the economy through taxpayers money? As an emerging market, we have so many other priorities that we can't put in 200-300 billion dollars into the economy to support innovation. The student exchange programmes allow individuals to go to ISB, London Business School or Duke University (The Fuqua School of Business) and take entrepreneurship courses there as well. A lot of (particularly European) management institutes offer dual degree programmes. Is that any area where you would wish to collaborate with (foreign) schools? The regulatory environment in South Africa, prevents us from doing that. All students therefore have to get their credits from the South African school. When they go off on exchange programmes, they get credit for the courses they opt for there but that is not reflected in the final transcript. They get a separate transcript from the other school about which they can speak about when they go for job interviews. We have to wait for the relaxation of certain rules within the South African government (the Ministry of Education) and then things can be different. The business environment in Africa has been changing significantly, especially since a lot of multinational corporations, many from India (FMCG), are expanding into Africa. With new players coming in and the opening up of new markets, what/how are MBA students learning from these developments?   One of the companies where students went for their internship this year was Olam (a supply chain management and agricultural products/food company, company headquartered in Singapore with a strong presence in India ).  They have a presence in South Africa and the sub-Saharan region in countries such as Tanzania. After the students managed to secure internships they actually went to the plants and set ups in Tanzania to interact with senior managers on a particular issue concerning their company. The part and parcel of any multinational coming to India is to try and understand how we do business here, especially in places where there is no infrastructure at all often times; there are certain challenges unique to Africa. One of the other courses we offer is called Emerging Enterprise Consulting. The idea behind this course is to bring students into an informal sector, primarily in Cape Town, as a reflection point of the informal market to assess certain key elements. One is, you have an entrepreneur who is living working in this area and has a product/service to sell. There is a market here because there is demand, there is a community and there are individuals with money and look at the challenges he/she has: they could be product related or supply chain issues or the challenges of protecting that particular asset that he/she might have when as a retailer (s)he is selling that stock. An individual can therefore infer that these challenges are similar to the ones that an MNC might face when bringing their product to an emerging market. In a practical manner  of engaging with the entrepreneur and his community, the students  get a chance to formulate solutions or see the beauty of solutions that come out from individuals who are working in that space. This course brings about a paradigm shift in an individual's thinking about markets and getting a product from one particular place to the table of a consumer.  You've spoken about some of the complex after-effects of Apartheid. Post Apartheid what have been some of the biggest business changes that have taken and how has that impacted business education (in South Africa) per se? Apartheid has been a very complex issue given South Africa's history. For a county like ours where we are the doyens of industry and only people of European descent , examples, for generations to come, had been the success stories of European industrialists and businessmen and it was a very sexist environment as well where it were the men who played the phenomenal roles. Also there were a lot of romantic, almost superhuman like, notions associated with these characters. What was missing in this whole picture before 1994 was the whole system that was set up to make sure that only a certain part of the population was extremely successful. Post 1994 it allowed many individuals who hadn't enjoyed any kind of support to be brought up to the surface and we were basically asking, how is it that you were able to create these rather successful business operations, without networks, state endorsements and procurement contracts that were given? Thus, it brought about a very different narrative: people of colour who were able to run successful businesses. Majority of the people in South Africa are people of colour; these are the individuals that have buying power. Post Apartheid a space for a new kind of dialogue was created.   In South Africa, they use a label -which I dislike -for black Africans calling the 'black diamonds,' the middle class that has emerged through education, but also their purchasing power as a result of their improved economic position. It brought about a new kind of realism for product need and demand by a class of people that had been excluded for a very long time. For many of our core courses, faculty members bring individuals into the classroom; guest speakers who come on a continuous basis. They've brought individuals, who were previously excluded, into the classroom to tell their stories; there is nothing better than hearing the life story of someone from that person, who they can relate to. We also run a course on advanced leadership. MBA, in most cases-unless you're going to Chicago School of Business or Wharton which are highly specialised in quantitative aspects or individuals gearing up for management profiles in McKinsey -is a general management degree programme. Given the fact that the students who enter are programme have an average age of 30, our story is that we help train students to be managers and leaders to function at different roles in an organisation: public, private or entrepreneurial. And for that we believe it is important for students to know what it means to be a leader and know oneself. It is difficult to manage people and help them achieve a common goal. A lot of students don't expect to be taught leadership in an MBA programme (and these are offered at the very onset and integrated with the MBA curriculum) it is an unpacking process.