CEEMAN’s 17th Annual Conference “Local Responses to Global Crisis” was held on 24-26 September 2009 in Riga, Latvia, hosted by RISEBA. The event gathered 130 participants from 30 countries to discuss how to best respond locally to the challenges and opportunities of the global crisis.
The general theme was elaborated in several inter-related aspects. Corporate views on global threats and opportunities were presented and discussed in order to identify key leadership challenges and their implications for business education and leadership development. Finally, the conference tried to answer the question on how business schools are dealing with the global crisis. One of the key questions addressed by the conference was the extent to which the impact of the global crisis and the various responses are and could be universal and whether and to what extent the responses should be local and adapted to specific needs and capabilities.
Andris Vilks, Chief Economist at SEB Bank and advisor to the Prime Minister of Latvia, talked about the huge impact of the global crisis on Latvia and other countries from the Baltic region as well as about their respective public policy responses.
The CEO Panel provided a deeper insight into business realities of five companies of different size operating in different economic sectors in four countries that were hit by the global crisis in different ways. The speakers covered a number of different business issues and managerial and leadership challenges in their companies, which range from the retail, kiosk and convenience store sector, food and beverage, dry-cleaning and industrial laundry, and global project management business, to the global software sector whose business model is based on the success of numerous partners worldwide.
Jim Ellert presented reflections from the Deans and Directors Meeting on Business Schools Reponses to Global Crisis - how business schools respond by adapting their educational programs to the changing needs and priorities of their customers, and also how they react as businesses in their own right, by responding to their own institutional needs. He also conveyed the importance of the principles of responsible management education, which was discussed in the context of a broader social responsibility of business education and the leadership development industry.
The conference keynote speaker, Nancy Adler, one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership and organizational development and intercultural management, provided a highly inspirational input on the challenges and opportunities related to management education responses to the global crisis. She suggested asking ourselves how we got into this mess in spite of having an international community of scholars, leading scientists, business leaders, and government people, and emphasized the role of education in help people reposition themselves and see the world anew. She added that it is not surprising that a lot of the leading art and management conversations are coming out of this part of the world [emerging economies]. This is because it is precisely here that business schools leaders see what is going right in the world and what is not.
The conference parallel workshops explored in more detail how businesses are dealing with the global crisis and what are the educational and institutional challenges and opportunities in various segments of business schools’ educational portfolio (undergraduate programs, MBA programs, executive programs , and corporate programs.
Derek Abell talked about the commonalities and local responses from governments, businesses, and business schools. He said that companies respond to the crisis at three different levels and emphasized his belief that the global crisis stems from a breakdown in leadership.
An integral part of the program was the speech of Dr Ichak Adizes at the gala dinner. Describing the global crisis as another example of disintegration, he pleaded for more integration, both horizontally and vertically. In Dr Adizes’ view, CEEMAN does not need to copy Western management education approaches and practices. Instead, schools need to teach future leadership to listen to the workers and to each other, to manage more by pride in teamwork and less by worshiping numbers. Integration is the secret of a healthy organization, and that is how we will turn a crisis into an opportunity and succeed in the future and leave behind those that are fighting among themselves to catch the cold.
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