Middlebury Institute of International Studies

UK: London Business School MBAs win business plan competition

Two London Business School MBA students have won an annual pan-European business plan competition.

As part of a team of four, Jon Smith and Matthijs Hovelynck from London Business School’s MBA class of 2015 walked away with a check for €3,000 (c. US$3.3k) for a business plan aimed at improving child literacy.

The plan centered on the work of LendMeYourLiteracy, an online teaching resource which has already attracted 25,000 users since it was set up in 2013. Its primary aim is to encourage children to write by publishing, sharing and celebrating their writing. From September, the company will rebrand itself as ‘Pobble’ – a Celtic word for ‘people’.  

“We’ve grown from four founders to a team of 15 in 18 months and it’s been an incredible ride for us. Achievements like this give the team validation for their hard work and show that we are on the right track,” said Smith. The startup’s CEO also acknowledged the support, mentorship and guidance that his team has received from London Business School, who they represented at the competition.

It is the second year running that an entry from London Business School has claimed first prize in the ‘European Business Plan of the Year’. The 2015 edition of the business plan competition was staged by Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) in collaboration with the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) – an initiative launched between RSM and the Erasmus School of Economics in 2013 to support the growth and development of new businesses. 

Netherlands: Nyenrode to cut MBA program lectures by up to 30%

Nyenrode Business Universiteit is making changes to the way its full-time MBA program is taught in an effort to better prepare its students for the working realities of today’s business world. The changes will be rolled out gradually over the next three years, starting this fall.

Cutting lecture time by as much as 30% will be central among these changes, as Nyenrode seeks to make more room for action learning opportunities and project work carried out with companies. When they are in the classroom, Nyenrode students can expect a more collaborative state of affairs, with faculty encouraged to become ‘education advisors’ rather than ‘education providers’.

“The restructure of our program reflects what students and employers want to receive from an MBA,” said Christo Nel, MBA program director at Nyenrode.

The changes spell the end for taking a series of modular courses at Nyenrode. Instead, the MBA program will concentrate on the fundamentals, and their real-world applications, with renewed vigor: “Business isn’t run as separate courses but as a set of integrated real-life practices,” explained Nel.

More program resources will be given over to the areas of self-reflection and personal leadership development, with plans to run courses and activities throughout the entire MBA program.

The changes afoot are the result of research carried out into new approaches and program teaching methods found across the world, and follow focus groups held with Nyenrode students and alumni.

France: EMLYON to launch new school in Shanghai

Next year will see the launch of a new business education partnership between Europe and China, after France’s EMLYON Business School announced its plans for a new school formed in conjunction with East China Normal University (ECNU).

Starting in 2016, EMLYON’s plans for the Asia-Europe Business School (AEBS) involve offering an executive MBA as well as specialized master’s programs in management, finance and data analytics, and a program in luxury brands and fashion.

EMLYON hopes that the partnership, which will be based in a building overlooking ECNU’s campus in central Shanghai, will attract some 1,500 students by the year 2020.

 

Belgium: Vlerick appoints new dean

Vlerick Business School has appointed a new dean to succeed its current leader when he retires from the role in August. The school’s choice of Marion Debruyne to succeed Philippe Haspeslagh will also contribute towards narrowing the gap between the proportion of male and female deans in business education.

It is an appointment from within on Vlerick’s part. Debruyne has been a marketing professor at the school for the past decade and has headed the school’s master’s level offerings since 2012. Indeed, Vlerick’s new dean is also an alumna of the school, having taken a marketing management master’s degree there before going on to receive a PhD in applied economics from Ghent University – the institution to which Vlerick Business School is attached as an autonomous school.

“As an alumnus of the school myself, I'm proud to take the Vlerick heritage to the next level, and continue to inspire our students, participants, corporate partners and people with the unique Vlerick spirit,” Debruyne said in a press release.

The marketing professor has also spent a number of years in the US, with visiting fellow and scholar positions at Wharton and Kellogg, respectively, preceding an assistant professorship at Goizueta Business School.

In a statement, Vlerick Business School’s chairman said Debruyne’s “deep understanding” of the school and her international experience made her ideal for the role, adding:

“Marion will bring more focus, stronger external partnerships, faster internationalization and innovation to better transform knowledge into action and action into knowledge for our customers.”

Outgoing dean, Haspeslagh, will be staying on at Vlerick as a strategy professor and is to be granted the title of honorary dean in recognition of his efforts during a six-year stint at the school’s helm.