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Author: floris_liu3

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In 2019 I saw Professor Thomas Debass present on strategic foresight when he presented as a guest speaker for the Business & Society course Privatization, Nationalization & Public Private Partnerships. Immediately following the presentation my classmate and I turned to one another and discussed with enthusiasm how we thought an entire course on strategic foresight would be an instrumental topic for inclusion in the MBA curriculum. Fast-forward to this summer, having taken such a course, I can say the class exceeded my lofty expectations. 

This Business & Society course began with reading assignments on futurism and two online pre-program sessions designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic and course, followed by four full days of lectures and guest speakers, culminating with a written group project and oral presentation. This format requires a sizable time commitment for students to prepare ahead of the daylong classes. While intense, the structure forces you to fully immerse yourself in the content. Professor Debass invited speakers to discuss and present their ideas regarding the future of their respective fields:  aerospace, retail, education, and corporate innovation, to name a few. I was initially worried that taking such an intense course virtually would prove difficult (four days online 9am – 5pm). But I can honestly say the topics, class, and speakers engaged with the class in a way that I hardly noticed we were not in person.

More specifically, the class changed my mindset for identifying signals that could shed light on potential future pathways. My job, like many others, requires anticipation of problems or issues that might lie around the corner and those that might be in the medium-term. Other strategic management models and tools are useful, but the futurist mindset has been instrumental in just the last few weeks since completing the course. Another main takeaway from the course is the ability to interact with the impressive line-up of guest speakers. Each speaker’s command of the subject matter showed the class the direct application of course concepts in action. The very first speaker told a story on the needs for prison reform, but in the context of two peoples’ lives in a way that was both emotional and captivating. The ability for the speaker to convey his message in this way was not only impactful, but also taught us how important the skill is in developing scenarios, pathways, and “pretotypes” of a potential future state.

The summation of the class was the creation of a comprehensive group project. My team employed the tools provided from the readings, lectures, and guest speaker discussions to apply a futurist model to determine what might be “probable, plausible, and possible” futures for education. From there, we assessed and brainstormed potential future pathways for education. More importantly, we zeroed on the signals that could help forecast the future, which solidified the potential scenarios. This process allowed us to provide a proof of concept from our learnings. Overall, this class transformed my mindset to think forward leaning and to directly apply the knowledge and experience gained from the class directly to day-to-day life, both personally and professionally. 

Chris Lembesis is a ‘20 MBA candidate at The George Washington University School of Business. He is a Senior Financial Institution and Policy Analyst II at the Federal Reserve Board. 

To read more Business & Society Series reflections on our blog, click here.

To learn more about the Business & Society Series, click here.

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A brief background:
My name is Ditte-Marie and I had the pleasure of being part of the George Washington School of Business (GWSB) exchange program for the fall 2019 semester.  This graduate exchange counted towards my master’s in Political Communication and Management at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), which I completed in the Spring 2020.Prior to my master’s program, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Communication at The Danish School of Media and Journalism, and since 2018 I have worked as a political assistant of a member of the Danish Parliament. When applying for graduate programs in Denmark, I looked for one that had an established exchange program in Washington, D.C., for I knew what opportunities studying in the U.S. could provide.  I was looking for a program that would widen my horizons, as well as challenge me personally and academically. The exchange program with the GWSB was the perfect fit.

A Semester of Memories
Dozens of memories run through my mind as I think about my exchange semester at GWSB! The location of the school is unbeatable. Everything from going on runs through the U.S. capital on sunny days, to exploring all the beautiful neighborhoods, like Georgetown and Alexandria. It is honestly a chapter in my life that I will forever cherish. 

While the location was important to the experience, the people I met along the way truly made it unforgettable. One memory of mine that stands out is of a Sunday afternoon when I visited a local winery out in Virginia. I met up with a bunch of classmates from my leadership class and we indulged in the beautiful fall weather until sunset, all the while appreciating the beauty of our surroundings in the vineyards. Overall, we were a diverse group. Our nationalities included everything from Danish to Puerto Rican, Brazilian, Chinese and Americans. While we all came from different parts of the world, we all shared the desire and curiosity to learn and explore. We also were united by our interest in studying at GWSB, the leadership course, and desire to meet new people. I do not take that memory or experience for granted. In that moment, I remember thinking that if I previously thought that I had experienced cultural diversity, then I had the full experience this time.

A Semester of New Opportunities
While I am appreciative of the memories I made during my exchange at GWSB, I am also grateful for the opportunities it provided. My exchange semester at GWSB offered me lots of new opportunities; most importantly, the opportunity to explore new courses not available at CBS. The courses that impacted me the most were those with a more practical approach, taught by dedicated professors with actual experience within the professional arena in which they teach. This allowed me to translate a lot of the theoretical perspectives that I had learned at CBS into actual scenarios provided by my GWSB faculty. This experience was very useful for me and actually ended up helping me navigate and find a path in which I wish to pursue a career. Somehow, being able to apply knowledge to reality allowed me to view my professional preferences in a new perspective.

Overall, my classes at GWSB focused highly on reflective skills, which both allowed for and encouraged active self-reflection of my own academic, personal, and business-thinking ability. While at CBS, we study different phenomena theoretically, GWSB allowed me to study myself in order to improve both personally and academically. 

Participate in a semester exchange… you will never regret it!
Whenever I am asked why I would recommend others to participate in the GWSB exchange program, my answer is rather simple: “You will not regret it! The experiences, challenges, and skills will shape and impact you for the rest of your life personally, academically and professionally.  I am thankful for my opportunity to study at GWSB, and you will be too!”’

Ditte-Marie Rye Jenson is a 2020 graduate from the Copenhagen School of Business. During the Fall 2019 semester, Ditte-Marie spent a semester on exchange at the GW School of Business.

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The Business & Society course Strategic Foresight taught by Professor Thomas Debass took place June 17-20. Due to the university shifting to distance learning in response to COVID-19, this course adapted to an online format with the support of Student Administrative Assistant Fatoumata Zahara Savane. Below is Fatoumata’s reflection on her experience.

Welcome to the future!

Foresight is critical in all areas of our lives. Whether you are interested in education, healthcare, energy, food and agriculture, or even space, this course was designed to provide students with a set of new methods, tools and practices that allows them to build robust scenario-driven strategies.

Strategic Foresight truly helped students understand how organizations invent the future, how to create a strategy to take action on a trend, and how to develop recommendations and action plans for the “future of x” for an individual, organization, or even a nation. The involvement of distinguished guest-speakers, each evolving in different sectors as foresight strategists provided students with invaluable insights. Indeed, our class had the chance to virtually engage with a strategist writer, the policy analyst and lead for Strategic Foresight for the Center for Space Policy, a former NASA astronaut, the Vice President of Walmart’s Customer Product (eCommerce) division, the Executive Vice President of the Uncommon Partners Lab at Singularity University, the Global Managing Director at Cambridge Industries Ltd., the Leader of Deloitte Health Innovation and Informatics, and the Chair & Professor at the Department of Emerging Technology in Business & Design of Miami University. 

 

Strategic Foresight students worked in teams to map the future of different industries. The above image features part of the “Future of Healthcare” team’s final project. 

As all summer courses shifted online due to COVID-19, I worked closely with the Global Experiential Education (G&EE) program staff and Professor Debass to ensure students received the best possible educational experience that exceeded their expectations. It was meaningful to see the program’s commitment to providing their students with the necessary support in achieving their academic goals given new constraints. I also received specialized training from GWSB’s talented Instructional Design team to prepare me for managing the video conference technology needed to facilitate online lectures and virtual guest speaker discussions.

It was an honor to work with Thomas Debass, a respected economist who currently serves as Managing Director of the Office of Global Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State. He has a genuine passion for the future and his students truly had the best instructor to provide a unique foresight experience.

Fatoumata Zahara Savane is a ‘20 MA Applied Economics Candidate at The George Washington University Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.

To read more Business & Society Series reflections on our blog, click here.

To learn more about the Business & Society Series, click here.

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This semester was my first time facilitating project-based learning for an online graduate class. The experience was rewarding and challenging in equal measure for both the students and for me. Here are some learnings from along the way:

Make sure the project is “do-able” in the time-frame of the course and that grading is appropriately weighted. This particular project was part of an international strategy course (IBUS 6401). I wanted to start the project late enough in the course so that we would have hit on key strategic issues and done a few case studies already while leaving enough time to complete the project. The project was ultimately weighted at 35% of the total grade which is slightly higher than the group project would have been in this course if it had been a standard research project.

Work with the client ahead of time to set expectations and quantify the scope of the project. Our client, Marriott International, had a somewhat vague idea of what they wanted us to actually do for them. Broadly speaking, we were working with their strategic planning department developing insight into ways for them to meet their five-year growth goal in the Asia Pacific region. Developing parameters with appropriate scope was perhaps the greatest challenge. The project had to be both do-able for students given the timeframe, while actually being useful to the client. In hindsight, something less ambiguous would probably be easier for students.

Come up to speed on the industry. One of our greatest challenges was getting to the point where the class understood the industry well enough to be able to contribute something of value to the client. Marriott has a very sophisticated strategic planning process with great information and depth of knowledge already in place. To provide them with a meaningful level of insight, we had to understand the industry and their position in it (they are a market leader) in great detail.  Luckily, we were able to find a “consultant” within the GWU system who was able to provide us with tremendous support and industry insight. His industry knowledge provided a quality lift to the project.

Push the students beyond case-study mode. Students had a tendency to report on what the client was already doing, devoting too much time and space to information the client already knew and not enough time to developing strategies for what the client should actually do next. In a post-project debrief, the students agreed that this was one of the greatest challenges.

Determine how much to share with the client. Our client was extremely gracious about access and interaction with the class especially given the mid-project COVID-19 crisis severely impacting their industry. With only four student teams of four, client interaction was reasonably easy to facilitate. Our client interaction consisted of a kickoff where they presented background information and explained what they were looking for, a mid-project touch-base session and a live presentation session.  If students had client questions along the way, I screened them and we interacted with the client via email.

Project wrap up. We held client presentations for the client to provide live feedback to the students. I strongly recommend holding a practice-run before the actual client presentations. We ran ours as a kind of “shark tank” with our industry expert and I asking tough questions. This working session helped our final client session to be much more polished and professional. As to the final reports, it became a challenge to decide whether or not to share all reports (each group had a slightly different strategic area to explore) or just the top reports; an expectation that should be set with the client in advance.

In our final debrief session, the students agreed that it was an exciting opportunity and it helped them to better understand a major brand. They also agreed that they learned a lot both about the industry and about what it’s like to be in the consulting business especially given the mid-course COVID-19 pivot. Several agreed that it was more work than they thought it would be but all agreed it was ultimately rewarding. I echo their sentiments. Another project with the same client would most likely go much more smoothly as expectations would be set on both sides and much of the background information gathered for the first project could inform later projects.

Dr. Laura D’Antonio is Teaching Assistant Professor of International Business at The George Washington University School of Business.

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