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Tag: Business & Society

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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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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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Dr. Kirsten Martin, Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Public Policy, partnered with Global & Experiential Education (G&EE) to develop the Business & Society Series course Corporate Fraud and Corruption to help students better understand the scope of corporate fraud and corruption, identify fraud and corruption in accounting statements, as well as appreciate the significance of trust in organizations and markets. 

The latest iteration of this intensive experiential course took place January 8-11, 2020. Participants spoke with experts working in Washington DC’s many major regulators and law enforcement agencies including the SEC, FBI, DOJ, as well as criminal defense attorneys and whistleblower experts. Students also heard the perspectives of private industry ‘insiders’ such as general counsels and accountants.

Below is 2020 PMBA candidate Maisha Williams’ reflection on her experience taking this unique and important course.

I was surprised by the varying perspectives that each of the speakers brought based on their roles in the investigations. Having the opportunity to hear from prosecutors, FBI investigators, the SEC, a reporter, a defense attorney and an attorney representing whistleblowers was extremely powerful. It was interesting how those on the side of investigating potential fraud cases were less sympathetic to the defendants and more supportive of whistleblowers while those responsible for representing defendants believed that most people involved in fraud cases were good people at their core and just found themselves in bad situations.

Despite the varying perspectives, there were several common themes that were shared among all of the speakers. Each of the speakers mentioned that many defendants rationalized their behavior and would never quite admit their wrongdoing. The speakers also agreed that fraud was generally born out of an environment with weak internal controls and ineffective compliance offices where the company culture accepted small wrongdoing setting a tone for playing outside the rules. 

I was surprised to hear how important both interpersonal skills and trust were in all of the speakers’ jobs in order for them to be effective. I was also surprised by how many people were aware of wrongdoing but did not speak up.

As a CFO, this course was extremely valuable for me in a very practical way. In my role, I am responsible for certifying my organization’s financial statements, establishing the culture and setting a tone at the top. I now have a better understanding of my responsibility as a CFO and have very concrete actions to take to ensure that I set a solid example for how people are supposed to behave and to create a culture that fosters openness and accountability in the event that anyone finds themselves at an impasse to ensure that they are incentivized to do the right thing all the time.

Maisha Williams is a ‘20 PMBA candidate at The George Washington University School of Business. She is Vice President of Finance and Administration & Chief Financial Officer at Marymount Manhattan College in New York.

 

 

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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Reflection by Shreyas Bhatnagar, MBA Candidate ‘20

This summer’s Business & Society Course Privatization, Nationalization and Public-Private Partnerships was one of the hardest classes to get into. I was told by my academic advisor, two semesters in advance, to be on the lookout for this class. With minimal spots available and a unique DC-immersion opportunity for online students around the country, each student has to be the first to register online. The registration process in itself was a competition, similar to the many themes we discussed in class.

I signed up for this class because it applied to my job at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) where I work for a mode of transportation, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The current administration is keen in understanding and applying privatization and private public partnerships (PPPs) within the federal government. At the FRA, we are working on three large privately sponsored environmental impact studies which is the first step to bringing a project to a construction ready status. The projects allow for private technologies, previously not used in the U.S., to use their intellectual property for commercial means. Fortunately, or unfortunately (depends on how you view this), my region has two of the three projects FRA is currently working on including two new technologies, Hyperloop and Super Conducting Magnetic Levitation (SCMAGLEV). Hyperloop is a proposed mode of underground passenger and freight transportation under development by Tesla and SpaceX. The SCMAGLEV project is sponsored by Japan Rail Central, a Japanese railroad company who has political connections all the way up to their Prime Minister. The Prime Minister of Japan has met with both President Trump and President Obama to discuss SCMAGLEV technology and requested their support of their project.

Since I play a leading role in ensuring these private companies and the federal government provide economic opportunities to both the private industry and the public; the Business and the State: Privatization, Nationalization and PPPs class was a perfect fit for both my career and growth within the agency.

The class itself was broken out into two sessions. The first session was an online learning environment where Professor Weiner conducted virtual classes with a lot of background information on privatization, nationalization, PPPs, and the role of government. There was discussion and readings that helped the class understand and paint a picture on the pros and cons of privatization and nationalization. The second session was a four-day marathon of classes which included speakers and live learning. The live learning sessions were particularly immersive because we, as students, had the opportunity to learn about how others use their careers to change the world around us. Traditionally, students are expected to view lectures, attend class, read articles, textbooks, and journals to gain an understanding of a specific topic. The live sessions helped students learn what actually goes on in the real-world.

The opportunity to view presentations in class and visit experts that work in our government during our visit to Capitol Hill was and will be my most memorable moment at The George Washington University.

When I first came to class, my understanding of a PPP was that it was the best option out there for governments. With budgets being slashed and government providing less funding for basic necessities; the idea of a PPP is something all public servants believe is the answer to their fiscal problems. This class opened my eyes when we dug deep into understanding how PPPs actually work. Over the span of multiple discussions with experts in varying fields, there were several themes that were central to all conversations. Important discussions during class highlighted topics of stakeholders, accountability, political decisions, direction or alignment on how to move forward once in partnership, competition, corruption, and most important profitability. The speakers were effective in painting a picture on how PPPs and nationalization works around the world. Without having real time discussions from experts in all fields, it would be hard to learn the intricacies of how agreements are made and best practices to use moving forward. I am glad to have experienced a course where I get to meet people from all backgrounds and have the opportunity to learn and understand different perspectives. The opportunity to view presentations in class and visit experts that work in our government during our visit to Capitol Hill was and will be my most memorable moment at The George Washington University.

I will use the lessons learned from this class and apply them to my current and future projects. In fact, I was recently able to use the knowledge gained from this class to understand how to make an important work decision. The funding for the SCMAGLEV project congressionally requires that the private entity show how, once built, the project will benefit the public. The idea of benefiting the public has a different meaning for me after taking this class. Understanding that a good deal needs to be made at both sides for PPPs to be successful will be my negotiation point. By using key points and takeaways, I now have the confidence to ensure public money will be used to benefit both the private company and most importantly the community.

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