EFMD Global

🎆 Happy New Year from EFMD Global! 🎆 May 2025 bring exciting opportunities, meaningful connections, and continued success in all your endeavours. 🎊

ᯓ🏃🏻♀️➡️ Business schools have made strides in promoting gender equality, with more women in leadership roles, but deep-rooted patriarchal structures persist. Despite public commitments to equality, schools often uphold meritocracy, gender-blind curricula, and competitive environments that disadvantage women. In the 2024 Global Focus Research Issue, "Women In, and Beyond, Business Schools," Prof Sharon Mavin FRSA FAcSS, Professor of Leadership and Organisation Studies at Newcastle University Business School, and Gina Grandy, Professor at the Haskayne School of Business, argue that having courageous men disrupting patriarchy and progressing gender equality is critical for cultural change in business schools. Matthew Wood #EFMDGlobalFocus #diversity #equity #inclusion #dei

🛣️ Xavier Rolet, former CEO of the London Stock Exchange, joined the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) to embark on a "third chapter" of meaningful impact. Launched in 2008, ALI offers seasoned professionals an immersive year dedicated to tackling societal challenges. Rolet is focusing on regenerative agriculture, while institutions like Stanford University and the University of Notre Dame have introduced similar programmes emphasising purpose and legacy. Discover more in the Financial Times, where Andrew Jack examines the rise of initiatives designed for accomplished professionals navigating their “third chapter” in life. #executiveeducation #businesseducation #professionaldevelopment

🔁 There's a growing need for a shift from merely achieving gender equality (equal rights and opportunities) to ensuring gender equity (fairness and justice). The current gender disparities in European business schools include pay gaps, underrepresentation of women in leadership and decision-making roles, and minimal integration of gender in research. In the 2024 Global Focus Research Issue, "Women In, and Beyond, Business Schools," Michael Page, Professor of Finance and Management at Bentley University, and Hanneke Takkenberg, Professor of Management Education at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, discuss the critical importance of gender equity in education and business schools. Matthew Wood, EQUAL4EUROPE #EFMDGlobalFocus #diversity #equity

🎯 Business schools need to improve communication and engagement to better attract women by focusing on three key areas: promoting the positive social impact of business education, emphasising transferable skills for career advancement, and offering flexible learning options. In the 2024 Global Focus Research Issue, "Women In, and Beyond, Business Schools," Joy Jones, CEO of the Graduate Management Admission Council™ (GMAC™), highlights the persistent gender gap in graduate management education (GME), where women make up about 40% of applicants. Matthew Wood #EFMDGlobalFocus #diversity #equity #inclusion #dei

👩🏻🎓 Women in UK higher education remain underrepresented in academic and managerial roles, particularly within science, engineering, and business schools. Despite constituting the majority of staff, they face biased evaluations that hinder career progression, especially in research and publishing. In the 2024 Global Focus Research Issue, "Women In, and Beyond, Business Schools," Fiona Wilson, Susan Vinnicombe, and Lina Seidlitz explore actionable strategies to tackle these systemic challenges. Matthew Wood #EFMDGlobalFocus #diversity #equity #inclusion #dei

♻️ Business schools are increasingly focusing on responsible research aligned with societal goals, particularly through frameworks like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). AI and large language model (LLM) technology are helping evaluate academic contributions against these goals, and topics like sustainability and economic empowerment dominate SDG-related research. As Andrew Jack explains in The Financial Times, despite limitations, these tools provide benchmarks for business schools to address pressing societal challenges like climate change, poverty, and inequality. #ai #artificialintelligence #sustainability #research #businesschools

⚖️ Gender inequality in male-dominated fields like economics demonstrates the systemic barriers that perpetuate inequities in education, careers, and leadership. At the University of Exeter, efforts include outreach to inspire young women to pursue economics, policies to support female academics, and initiatives like Athena SWAN to promote equity. In the 2024 Global Focus Research Issue, "Women In, and Beyond, Business Schools," Emma Jeanes and Rajani Naidoo explore how the institution fosters inclusivity through mentorship, allyship, and leadership programmes while addressing deep-seated cultural biases. Matthew Wood, University of Exeter Business School #EFMDGlobalFocus #diversity #equity #inclusion #dei #genderequality #businesseducation

🚺 While women's current job status and career progression in business schools and corporate contexts are improving, the pace of improvement is uneven. For example, the relative scarcity of women deans, lower numbers of women professors and associate professors and far fewer women CEOs/corporate board members indicates the gender imbalance in such roles. 💫 In the new 2024 Global Focus Research Issue, "Women In, and Beyond, Business Schools," Gabriela Alvarado Cabrera, Professor of Marketing at IPADE Business School, examines the situation in Latin America (LATAM). Matthew Wood #EFMDGlobalFocus #diversity #equity #inclusion #dei

🏆 Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management has claimed the top spot in Poets&Quants’ 2024-2025 MBA rankings for the first time, overtaking Stanford University Graduate School of Business, which saw a significant drop in the Financial Times rankings. The Top Five features The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Harvard Business School, and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, while The Wharton School and MIT Sloan School of Management are conspicuously absent, reflecting a focus on teaching quality over research output. Only 19 of the Top 100 schools ranked across all lists, underscoring differences in methodology. 📊 Read the full rankings, methodology and analysis by John A. Byrne. #mba #rankings #businessschools #managementeducation