WELCOME
JANE NOTTEN
Editor
The magazine seeks to bring you the best thinking and research from the UCT GSB, which is consistently rated as Africa’s top business school. So why is the UCT GSB top? The school’s director, Professor Walter Baets, likes to say: “The GSB is not the business school for business as usual, but for business that matters.” Accordingly, research and thought leadership at the school strives to be relevant and applicable and focused on the challenges of living and working in emerging markets.
This approach is earning the school recognition and respect from around the world. At the start of 2014 the UCT GSB celebrated its 10th consecutive year in the prestigious Financial Times Top 100 global ranking for full-time MBAs. The only African business school to make it into this ranking, there is no doubt that it has played a key role in positioning the school as a top player globally.
In fact, the GSB has more rankings and accreditations than any other business school in Africa and is one of just three schools in Africa and 66 worldwide to have triple-crown accreditation. This means it has met or exceeded the standards required by the world’s three largest and most influential business school accreditation associations: Association of MBAs (AMBA), the European Foundation for Management Development) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
The school places increasing emphasis on ethical, values-based business and business for good. GSB Director Professor Walter Baets believes that in the wake of the financial crisis and with social and environmental challenges multiplying across the planet – particularly in emerging economies – innovation from business schools has become a necessity, not a luxury. As many of the old social and business structures and ways of thinking are being questioned, exciting possibilities for individuals and organisations are opening up.
In this environment “business as usual” is no longer the way to achieve sustainable success, and managers and leaders need an expanded set of skills that create new models of business. The GSB seems to be an enabler of these new ways of thinking and behaving. It does this by challenging taken-for-granted assumptions and practices, and cultivating in managers and leaders an ability to draw from a full spectrum of disciplines and cultures in order to take on the challenges they encounter – to think, in essence, in full colour.
This publication captures some of this full-colour thinking and seeks to share it with you. Please join the conversation and comment on and share these ideas. If you would like to get in touch direct please email us at businessreview@gsb.uct.ac.za.