As more and more corporations venture overseas, Jesuit business schools need to set the standard in technology, global experience and ethics, experts said this week at the 14th Annual World Forum hosted by Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
“If we’re not at the top, we’ve missed our guiding principle,” said John P. Meyer, director for the Center for Leadership and Ethics at the Helzberg School of Management of Rockhurst University. “Our ability to teach students business as part of a larger society is our competitive advantage and difference.”
Meyer was part of a panel on ethical behavior held on July 21, the opening day of a three-day forum, “Business and Education in an Era of Globalization: The Jesuit Position,” held at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. More than 150 administrators, faculty members and guests from some 50 Jesuit universities from around the world attended the event, sponsored by the International Association of Jesuit Business Schools and the Colleagues of Jesuit Business Education.
Pep Mària Serrano, S.J., a lecturer for the Department of Social Sciences at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, emphasized the importance of global internships.
“It allows [students]to reflect on social differences and professional responsibility outside of the classroom,” he said.
Earlier that day, Robert Arning, managing partner of the New York and Northeast offices of accounting giant KPMG, stressed professionalism and integrity in terms of global business and its growing relationship with education.
“The world is truly flat,” Arning said. “I recently gave a talk at Peking University (in China) and their students were asking me for tips on breaking through barriers at Wall Street—how to join alternative investments groups. I tell my kids, ‘That’s who your competition is. Not just students at Fordham University, Fairfield University and so on.’ Their competition is global.”
Michael D. King, worldwide leader for IBM’s education industry unit, said Jesuit universities must embrace technology and keep up with its future in education.
“Sixty percent of jobs being created today require skills that only 20 percent of U.S. workers possess,” King said. “There are 3.5 billion users connected to the Internet around the world—that’s tremendous. The future of all this is that we’re going to see more openness in 3D immersive technology, and you have to be able to provide a lifelong learning continuum for your students.”
The goal of the forum was to bring together the Jesuit business school deans and faculty from around the world to explore the effects of globalization on Jesuit business education, several key policy questions, and techniques for pedagogy by:
• Creating tentative plans on positioning Jesuit business schools in an increasingly competitive market.
• Sharing insights gained through papers on the business environment and the future of business education.
• Forming a stronger network of Jesuit business school support through intellectual and social interaction.
