Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/80527
ruary Financial Times article called "The difference a year makes." Many students in emerging mar- kets prefer part-time or one-year programs because taking prolonged time off from work carries a high opportunity cost. While busi- ness schools in Canada, Europe, and Asia have embraced one-year MBAs, U.S. schools have not, partly because they're constrained by their faculty and alumni donors. But all business schools must take a quantum leap in program design if they want to bring together part-time students from multiple markets. Affordable solutions almost certainly will involve a sig- nificantly greater use of technology. Redesigned course content. By 2020, Chinese financial markets are projected to be larger than America's, yet a Western perspec- tive still dominates our finance courses. In many emerging markets, families control most firms and the largest industrial conglomerates. However, in the West we generally teach management from the perspec- tive of publicly traded firms and large institutional investors focused on maximizing shareholder value. Finally, emerging markets have a much different relationship with gov- ernment than Western economies. It is either more present, as in state-led capitalist markets like China and Singapore, or conspicuously absent, as it is across Africa or in much of rural India. To remain relevant, our pro- grams must imbue in participants a keen awareness of the social, political, and cultural context of business; how that context varies across a more diverse set of major markets; and how to manage resulting challenges. 22 September/October 2012 BizEd Constrained Natural Resources Sustainability used to be the exclu- sive concern of environmentalists. No longer. Rising costs, governmen- tal regulations, and consumer aware- ness of environmental issues are forcing managers to reduce the raw materials, energy, and water they consume in business operations. To prepare managers for this new reality, we can't simply offer a single course on corporate social responsibility while leaving the rest of the curriculum unchanged. Rather, we must weave sustainabil- ity into multiple core courses, from product design and supply chain management to strategy, market- ing, communication, and environ- mental accounting. Plenty of observers are tracking our progress. For instance, author Giselle Weybrecht published The Sustainable MBA: The Manager's Guide to Green Business in 2010, and every other year, the Aspen Insti- tute releases the Beyond Grey Pin- stripes report, which ranks schools by their commitment to social and environmental sustainability. But in addition to teaching sustainability, we must become greener in our operations. Many new landmark business schools are pursuing LEED certification, which rates buildings on their sustainable design features. Other schools are conserving natural resources by switching to all digital documen- tation. For example, IE Business School expects this year's intro- duction of digital documentation to save up to 17 million sheets of paper per year, the equivalent of about 300 trees. Besides paper, lighting, and heat- ing, there is a significant aspect of business schools' environmental footprint we often fail to appreci- ate: travel. When IE conducted an environmental audit of its MBA program, it found that the lion's share of environmental impact stemmed from students' travel to and from campus. The problem is even worse in executive programs. A March 2011 feature on Poets & Quants (poetsandquants.com) is fittingly titled "Clooney Has Nothing On These MBA Warriors." Author Andrea Carter describes a stu- dent who flies from Seoul to San