Training Latin American Students to Be Global Impact Leaders

• Business schools in emerging markets can overcome barriers to accreditation by viewing it as a continuous improvement process rather than just a seal of quality.
• Latin American schools are well-positioned to address local social issues due to their deep understanding of regional challenges and opportunities.
• To provide the most value to stakeholders, business education should focus on developing critical skills for the future, such as leadership, self-awareness, and critical analysis, and not just knowledge acquisition.

Transcript

Isabelle Chaquiriand: [00:15] One of the main challenges business schools in emerging markets have when pursuing the accreditation process is having an adequate return on investment.

[00:24] When I mean investment, it is not only money. It's time, it's changing the process inside the business school. And that means a lot, of it's really demanding.

[00:35] I think that the best way to see the accreditation process is not only to see it as a certification of quality, but it's much more than that. It is like a continuous improvement process. It's a mentoring process.

[00:50] It's how to improve the assurance of learning process. It's how to measure and how to define impact for our business goals. So, once you see the accreditation process as a continuous improvement process, the investment is really worth it.

The best way to see the accreditation process is not only to see it as a certification of quality, but it's much more than that.

[01:08] More and more, our students, especially in Latin American Caribbean, know they are global citizens. They are not part of a country or a region. They know they are part of something much bigger than their context.

[01:26] So, that's when business schools leverage the global network, and being part of, having a global perspective, is something that adds much value to our students.

[01:42] But not only to the students, to the faculty as well, and to the other stakeholders. So, it becomes really important and even mandatory to leverage all those global networks.

[01:54] And I think that's when AACSB can be really helpful actually to be part of a network like this one, to have the chance and the opportunity to meet different deans and different business schools, and to make agreements and partnership with other schools around the world becomes a really important value added to our students and our stakeholders.

It becomes really important and even mandatory to leverage all those global networks.

[02:20] Latin American and Caribbean business schools have a unique opportunity nowadays to influence what has become an important topic for AACSB, which is social impact.

[02:34] In emerging countries, businesses have been really close to social problems and social realities forever. So businesses are really related with social impact since always.

[02:47] So now social impact has become a trend and a really main topic worldwide, especially in the AACSB standards. I think in Latin American countries, our business school has a significant experience in how to manage and how to balance business and social impact, and how to achieve a good synergy between the way we do business and how we impact positively in society.

[03:19] There are a lot of opportunities for AACSB to connect with business schools around the world, so students can be in contact with social realities around the world, especially in emerging markets, and learn how to leverage business and social impact at the same time.

We have to think and see our students not only as business leaders for today's world, but for the next decade.

[03:36] When demonstrating the return of our investment to our students and their families, what business education means, we have to explain to them that nowadays, to become a business leader or to study business is much more than acquiring knowledge.

[03:54] It is a matter of developing skills like critical analysis, leadership, self-awareness, and lifelong learning. It's much more than that.

[04:07] I think that our business goals, especially in the way AACSB supports business schools to work on those skills and the way we do things, is a significant value added.

[04:22] We have to think and see our students not only as business leaders for today's world, but for the next decade. And that means to develop skills, not only to deliver knowledge.