Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/373915
29 BizEd September/October 2014 L ike many educators, MB Sarkar views technology as one of the biggest drivers of change in business education today. He has flipped his classroom to spend less time teaching foundational top- ics and more on helping students apply that knowledge, and he's a staunch proponent of using online delivery models to push student learning to the next level. However, he says another shift is having an even more profound effect on busi- ness schools: the changing com- pact between business and society. Today, companies are expected to solve social problems, and they must do so in ways that make financial sense—especially in the world's emerging markets. Yet, says Sarkar, few schools have formal curricula focused on serving the needs of people at the base of the economic pyramid. "How many business schools are looking at the challenges of urban- ization and the rise of megacities? At water, food, and health security issues?" he asks. "Poverty is not just a problem of underdeveloped countries. It's a living, palpable disease that afflicts richer countries, too. If companies want to grow sus- tainably, they must strengthen the lives of those underserved by global commerce. Business schools have to help companies think in differ- ent ways and move toward a more experiential model." This means that schools need to rethink both how they compose their faculty rosters and how faculty per- formance is measured, says Sarkar. He believes that schools should encourage faculty not only to gener- ate scholarly work, but also to delve into solution-focused research and to integrate this expanded mind- set into their classrooms. "When I was a doctoral student, the advice I received was that I shouldn't spend too much time on teaching or con- sulting, that it was far more impor- tant to make sure my A publications went out," says Sarkar. "I don't know if that's applicable anymore. The notion of the unidimensional research professor disconnected from reality is becoming an anachronism. Today, faculty must be excellent on multiple dimensions. The hard currency of the industry is still peer- reviewed publications, but we also need to be excellent teachers and innovators who drive change and engage with organizations in the real world. Faculty have to think hard about how they can create value. Else, their programs might not exist tomorrow." Sarkar embraces his role as teacher, receiving Temple Universi- ty's Great Teacher Award in 2013. He also has taken on one more responsibility: designing and imple- menting the Fox Global Immersion Program in Emerging Markets, a The Innovator Mitrabarun (MB) Sarkar is the H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and academic director of the Global Immersion Program at Temple University's Fox School of Business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Full Immersion In 2013, MB Sarkar and Rebecca Beeman Geffner, director of interna- tional graduate and executive programs, created the Fox Global Immersion Program for all full-time MBA students. In their first year, students spend two weeks in either China or India; in their second, Latin America or Africa. Designed around Sarkar's "Emerging Markets Strategy" course, the immer- sions combine meetings with executives, multinationals, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and policymakers with visits to urban slums, NGOs, and social startups experimenting with frugal innovation and market-based solu- tions to poverty. Students reflect on what they learn through in-country blogs and on-campus presentations. "These immersions get to the heart of how we want to build tomorrow's global leaders and entrepreneurs," says Sarkar. Sarkar and Geffner have established many partnerships for the program, including recent agreements with the University of Chile, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, the University of Ghana in Accra, and Al Akhawayn University in Morocco. "Our partner schools help us design these programs, but we also can help them solve problems that they face," Sarkar says. "These immersions can transform business schools at their very core."