Pitt Business e-newsletter Issue 11, September 2008
Katz Forges Partnerships in India
Anne Nemer, assistant dean for executive degree programs in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, traveled to Ranchi, India to speak to nearly 250 people at the Steel Authority of India's Management Training Institute. The Steel Authority of India is that country's largest steel producer and its Management Training Institute is India's oldest corporate university. Nemer, who is working with the Steel Authority of India on various executive education projects, was invited to speak June 25 at the institute's Foundation Day ceremony, a celebration of its 46th anniversary. Nemer spoke about the globalization of business education and how the Katz School, with its history as an innovator in international management programs, is preparing business students to compete and succeed in the shifting, highly competitive global marketplace.
Nemer explained that the traditional business school model of globalization has changed. The former model was built around the concept of a centralized core that transferred its knowledge and innovations to overseas affiliates. But emerging economies like Brazil, India, and Central European nations are now beginning to represent a higher percentage of the world's economic activity. Nemer quoted William D. Green, chairman and chief executive officer of Accenture, who said, "Emerging economies have grasped globalization, packaged it up, and are, everyday, sending new versions of it back to the West." This shift to a decentralized, multipolar global economy has significant implications for business education, Nemer explained, and the Katz School is one of the leaders in providing education within this new global landscape.
Historically, Katz has been considered a leader in global management programs. Katz opened its first international executive MBA (EMBA) program in Prague, Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1990. Ten years later, a second EMBA program was initiated in São Paulo, Brazil. A 2007 Financial Times of London article recognized Katz as one of a handful of business schools with a global executive program and one of the only U.S. schools with programs on three continents. Soon, the Katz School will pull ahead of its competition and open a program on a fourth continent, Asia. "Once the Asia program is in place, we will be one of the few schools in the world that will be prepared to develop true global business leaders," said Nemer.
A faculty task force researched several cities in India, China, and Taiwan for Katz's Asia program and finally decided on Chennai, India as the school's newest international base. India is projected to be the world's third largest economy by the year 2025 and offers great potential for Katz to expand and broaden its global portfolio. Nemer explained that there are currently 83,000 Indian students studying in the United States but only 2,000 American students in India, an imbalance that needs to be addressed by U.S. universities. Katz's strategy for entering the Indian market includes student exchange programs, custom executive programs, a certificate program in international executive leadership, and other activities, including research, undergraduate and graduate courses and travel, and internship and placement opportunities.
Katz's new approach to globalism takes a quantum leap forward to a multipolar business model that focuses on an exchange of knowledge with emerging economies of the world, providing professionals with the knowledge of disparate markets required by global organizations today. Two recent events, Indian automaker Tata Motors' purchase of Ford Motor Company's high-class brands Jaguar and Land Rover and Belgian brewer InBev's merger with Anheuser-Busch, prove that innovation has taken on new significance outside of the United States. By adapting to and embracing these changes in our global economy, Katz will develop a depth of knowledge in other cultures, build a network of international partners, and continue to grow as a leader in global business education.
