Yonsei School of Business

 Deans from business schools around the world participated in a roundtable table discussion on “The Role of Business Schools in Start-ups, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship” as part of Yonsei School of Business’ celebration of its 100 years of offering business education in Korea and its marking the completion of its new building.

 Panelists were Soumitra Dutta, dean of Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University; Ingmar Björkman, dean of the Aalto University School of Business; Josep Franch, dean of the ESADE Business School; Mahendra Gupta, dean of the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis; Hirokazu Kono, dean of the Keio University Business School; Kuncoro Ari, dean of Universitas Indonesia; and Lin Zhou, dean of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Antai College of Economics & Management; Michelle Chamberlain, executive director of Claremont McKenna College also participated in the roundtable.

 In the first presentation, Dean Ingmar Björkman of the Aalto University School of Business proposed three objectives to create an ecosystem for cultivating entrepreneurship. First, students should research and learn in the same campus and building. Second, the educational system should be reconstituted so that students of other academic backgrounds can interact with business students as a team. Lastly, a “‘factory”’ should be created in which interactions could occur in areas of interest and thus create a “factory” in diverse areas of technology, health, and media, etc., to aid cooperation of students, faculty, and executives.

 Dean Joseph Franch of ESADE Business School, established in 1958, introduced ESADE as an institution that provides the most innovative and appropriate learning in the era of internationalization despite its relatively short history. For example, an “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” course is compulsory for first-year, full-time MBA students and nonbusiness major students take a pre-program to cultivate an entrepreneurial mind.

 The roundtable discussion continued with YSB Dean Donghoon Kim presiding. Dean Ingmar Björkman of the Aalto University School of Business emphasized that “for universities to be innovative, a bottom-up process should be done voluntarily by a community incorporating students and regional society rather than [through] a top-down process.” Asked about how to respond to the inevitable resistance to change, Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, answered, “It was more convenient to make students cooperate with each other rather than trying to lead change by the representatives of faculties, alumni, and faculty members.”

 “Fostering start-ups is a global movement and the role of business education has become an important issue. Today was an opportunity to review the issue again, and we should cooperate mutually and endeavor to achieve business education that meets the needs of the era,” Dean Donghoon Kim said in concluding the discussion.