Positioning a MBA Program Against the Effects of Ideology, Culture and Economic Growth

Abstract

The challenges of administering an overseas management education project over a sixteen year period are recounted. When the host country is a former communist state and now a full member of the EU, the challenges are ever present from all who may be regarded as stakeholders. Federal Canadian funding enabled the creation of a local infrastructure, installing library systems and a computer labratory while Canadian professors were being flown in and local professors trained to take over from them. The initiation of an MBA program provided discussion over content, teaching and support but a model was agreed based on tried and tested Canadian programs and local needs and this went on to twice achieve Business Week's #1 status for the best MBA Program in Poland. Despite this, its future was threatened later when the EU proposes to expand the number of MBA graduates in Poland by supporting only local programs. As most of the quality MBA programs are still North American, this would have penalised the quality programs at the expense of the local programs. When this was challenged, the EU retracted and offered a [euro]1 million award to translate the program into Polish. It then became the model for the nation to follow.

Key Words:

• Positioning
• MBA program
• management education
• transfer of knowledge
• training the trainer
• self sustaining program
• subsidy