Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56805
Even so, multinational companies often fail to make conflict prevention a priority, sending their senior managers to handle projects in unstable regions wholly unprepared for the task, says Ganson. In fact, many managers Ganson interviewed reported that they felt they lacked the leadership and interpersonal skills required for these challenging global assignments. According to one person, corporate managers who handle projects in some regions of the world must be "peace practitioners" who can develop trusting relation- ships with people with diverse backgrounds and values. They must be good listeners and mediators, staying calm in the face of "danger, threat, and emotional and physi- cal stress." These are skills not necessarily taught in the business school classroom, says Ganson. In an upcoming research project, Ganson will call for business to pay more attention to this skill set. He also will discuss ways that multinationals, nonprofits, government agencies, and NGOs can put more effort into forming cross-sector partnerships—also known as national "Infrastructures for Peace" (I4Ps). One exam- ple of an I4P is the Ghana National Architecture for Peace. Ten other countries—which range from Nepal to Uganda—are planning to form I4Ps of their own. Business students who plan to work for multina- tional companies must learn how such large-scale collaborative entities form and operate—and develop much broader skill sets, says Ganson. "We need to put business students into situations where the problem cannot be solved through business thinking alone," he says. He sees a need for students from different disciplines to work together to view investments in a country like Sierra Leone or Liberia from financial, technical, legal, political, strategic, human rights, and social perspectives. That will take a conscious effort from business faculty to create more multi-stakeholder, multidisciplinary case studies and courses. Only then will the business curriculum "model the dynamics that business managers will increasingly con- front in their leadership roles," says Ganson. "We do students a great disservice if the first time they work with a government agency or an NGO is well into their business careers." "Business and Conflict Prevention: Towards a Frame- work for Action" is available at www.usb.ac.za/Media/ News/Business-and-Conflict-Prevention_Ganson.pdf. UPCOMING & ONGOING n THE HUMAN SIDE OF LOGISTICS INSEAD of Fontainebleau, France, has partnered with Kühne Logistics University (KLU) of Hamburg, Germany, to open the INSEAD-KLU Humanitarian Research Cen- tre. The center will promote research and events related to humanitarian logistics, a field focusing on areas such as disaster response, global healthcare supply chains, and fleet management. n THE ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION Joshua Gans, professor of strategic management and Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto's Rot- man School of Management in Ontario, Canada, has received US$976,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Founda- tion for a three-year study of the economic drivers behind scientific contributions and the impact of digitization on knowledge contribution. n EYE ON COMPETITION Harvard Business School has launched the U.S. Competi- tiveness Project, which aims to help U.S. companies com- pete more effectively in the global market. The project will include a digital forum at www.hbs.edu/competitiveness. n SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE Wells Fargo has given a US$250,000 grant to the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Man- agement in Minneapolis to develop the school's Sus- tainability Initiative, which will promote research on consumer behaviors associ- ated with the purchase, use, and disposal of environmen- tally beneficial products and processes. n CAPITAL PARTNERS The Private Capital Markets Project at Pepperdine Uni- versity's Graziadio School of Business and Management has partnered with Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. to develop research on the national economy and private capital access for small and medium-sized businesses, including a national annual economic forecast and a monthly Private Capital Access Index. BizEd March/April 2012 49