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46 BizEd MAY | JUNE 2015 FOUNDING A NEW SCHOOL In 2002, ZSEM was established by a group of founders that included econ- omist and academician Đuro Njavro. These colleagues wanted to jump-start the reformation of Croatia's higher education system by providing busi- ness students with the same level of knowledge and competence attained by business students anywhere else in the world. They were convinced that, if Croatia was to become more integrated into the European and global econo- mies, leaders would have to understand state-of-the-art management strategies and practices. Njavro and his colleagues decided to model their own school after the best practices they had learned at leading business schools in the U.S. and Europe, as well as the requirements they would have to meet to achieve AACSB accred- itation. They felt accreditation was essential for two reasons: They wanted to di•erentiate themselves in their educational market, where business ed- ucation was usually inexpensive or free; and they wanted to position themselves as a high-quality, private, tuition-based business school, a claim that would be validated by accreditation. Says Njavro, "We used the accredita- tion standards to build a business school from the ground up in an environment where there were shortages in every direction—of well-educated faculty, con- temporary teaching methods, learning resources, and solid infrastructure." The school opened in 2002 with an entering class of 115 students. By the time the second generation of students graduated in 2007, the school was ready to begin its journey toward accredita- tion, and it assembled a team to manage the project. It was led by the school's managing director, Zoran Barac, and completed with members who reflected a cross section of the school and who had history with the institution, access to information, complementary skills, and passion to see the vision of accred- itation turn to reality. These included Maja Martinović, vice dean for MBA programs; Karmela Aleksić Maslać, director of research; Edda Apfenthaler, deputy secretary for administration; and lecturers Ivija Jelavić, Borna Jalšenjak, and Petra Sušac. According to Barac, "Our accredita- tion plan was basically a gap analysis. What were we actually doing? Did it comply with the standards? If it didn't, we defined detailed steps to change that." Says Martinović, "We worked standard by standard for years." The school made sure to involve stakeholders, communicate constantly, and transparently disseminate infor- mation throughout the accreditation process. The team encouraged open debates to prevent bigger challenges going forward, believing that knowl- edge sharing was important to educate stakeholders about the standards and what they meant to the school. And the team focused on three concrete goals that would move the school toward ac- creditation: assembling the right faculty, changing the mindset about scholarly research, and creating assurance of learning protocols. DEVELOPING FACULTY At the heart of ZSEM's path to accred- itation was faculty development. In a post-communist country with a very small market for academics, it was not easy to find well-prepared faculty with doctorate degrees. Consequently, the school embarked on a long-term strategy to develop its own core facul- ty—a process Njavro expected to take a commitment of at least ten years. Even now that accreditation is achieved, the school continues its faculty develop- ment strategy. Potential young faculty members are recruited very early, from alumni and from students on ZSEM's dean's list. Top graduates are invited to become academic assistants with administrative roles such as preparing study materials for faculty. They move to support roles by assisting during o§ce hours and by facilitating classroom activities and student seminars. Many academic as- sistants also are exposed to teaching and learning when they act as assurance of learning coordinators in their depart- ments. In addition, promising academic assistants are assigned teaching respon - sibilities and o•ered greater opportuni- ties in the hope that some eventually will become full-time academically qualified faculty members. When young faculty demonstrate distinctive academic abilities, the school supports them as they seek PhDs outside of Croatia. Since the school's inception, 32 faculty members have earned their doctorates, and eight are currently pursuing PhDs. Most of the faculty who were supported by the school have remained with ZSEM since earning their doctorates. The school also develops existing faculty members, in particular by giving them international experiences that will help them teach students how to operate in a global business environment. It en- courages young faculty to participate in international exchanges and teach in the International Summer School, which attracts students from partner insti- TEXTBOOK CASE When the Zagreb School of Economics and Management was founded, there were few market-based business and economics text- books written in Croatian. To address this shortage, Đuro Njavro founded the MATE Publishing House primarily to translate American textbooks. Not only were these translations used by students in ZSEM classrooms, they became resources for an entire generation of businesspeople who lat- er joined the Croatian economy. MATE's first translation was Economics by Paul Samu- elson and William Nordhaus. Subsequently, more than 250 titles have been translated into Croatian, Serbian, and Slovenian.