GNAM lists team building as the next big challenge

The Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) concluded its eighth meeting in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Launched in April 2012, GNAM is a young network of 28 global management schools, the deans and directors of which meet twice every year to discuss ongoing global network programmes and strategy.

“The network is an endeavour to leverage the resources of one location, across the network,” said Sushil Vachani, Director, IIM Bangalore. IIMB became the first Indian school to host a meeting for GNAM, which is a network of prestigious institutions like Yale School of Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School and the latest entrant Berkeley-Haas, among others.

 “It offers students a stronger opportunity to build a global perspective,” said Vachani. The focus being globalisation of businesses, Vachani asserts that although “a global perspective” may sound cliché, it can only truly be achieved when students get hands-on experience on working with diverse teams and individuals, and real-time experiences of global markets.”

In this context, Edward A Snyder, Dean, Yale School of Management, noted, “The biggest challenge now, is the gap in team building capabilities among students.”

“What do entrepreneurial networks need? To be able to expand teams across time-zones, geographies, markets and cultures. Now this is what the network achieves by connecting future leaders via virtual classrooms, virtual teams, and exchange programmes,” he said.

On Thursday, GNAM  will release the results of its survey (one of its new initiatives), which throws light on “what our future leaders are thinking about”. The survey includes insights from 4,100 top B-school students across 27 schools in 25 countries.