Institute for Business in the Global Context (IBGC) is an educational organization founded in 2011, devoted to international business studies, within The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, at Tufts University. IBGC houses the school's Master of International Business (MIB), and the Council on Emerging Market Enterprises (CEME).
History
Prior to foundation
In the late 1970s the Fletcher school started to incorporate some international business and finance courses within a curriculum traditionally centered on international politics.
In 2007 the Fletcher school created the Master of International Business program (MIB) and the think tank Center for Emerging Market Enterprises (CEME), both of which were launched in the fall 2008 along with several new international business centered initiatives at The Fletcher School.
These new initiatives, under the auspices of Dean Stephen W. Bosworth, were part of the Fletcher school's strategy of connecting the study of business with its larger social, cultural and political context.
Fletcher alumnus and co-founder and former executive director of Mercer Oliver Wyman, Charles N. Bralver, was appointed the first Senior Associate Dean for International Business and Finance at the Fletcher School from 2007 to 2010 and was Executive Director of the MIB and CEME during that period.
Establishment
In 2011 Bralver was succeeded by Bhaskar Chakravorti. Chakravorti is a former partner of McKinsey & Company, and held research and teaching positions at MIT and Harvard University.
As the Senior Associate Dean of International Business and Finance, Chakravorti founded the IBGC and incorporated within it the MIB and CEME. The new institute serves as umbrella department to host the school's international business education and research.
He defined the purpose of IBGC as "creating cross-linkages between business and the broader contextual factors that affect business and vice versa", adding that subjects could include "geography, history, cross-border issues, security questions, diplomacy and cultural issues." He argued that Fletcher's unique approach to business lies in that "there is a lot of overlap of business decisions with the public policy arena and issues like international trade, peace and conflict, humanitarian issues, inclusive growth issues. These are not the kind of topics that business schools normally talk about". Inc. magazine noted IBGC's thinking that as more businesses become global in scope, leaders must become experts in geopolitics as well as economics and must be conversant in topics as diverse as the domestic agendas of foreign markets and the ways those countries use natural resources and resolve regional disputes.
In December 2013 CEME's full form name was changed to Council on Emerging Market Enterprises, and transitioned into serving as a nexus of experts. At the same time of the name change, CEME was merged with, and became a subsidiary of, IBGC.
Master of International Business
IBGC houses the Fletcher School's the two-year residential Master of International Business degree program (MIB) which combines an international affairs curriculum with a core of business courses.
IBGC's founding dean noted that the MIB program is different from traditional business schools MBA programs in that the MIB trains its students to not only understand markets and private enterprise, but also to understand the underlying international socio-political forces that impact them: "the political framework, legislative environment, security issues and historical considerations that are specific to each country, as well as the widening gap between rich and poor that plagues many economies". "The biggest problems in the world arise not just from state failures, or just from market failures. They come from a combination of both", so "classes on finance and marketing are crucial but they have little value unless they're framed in the appropriate historical, political or sociological context". Understanding these can also lead to identifying new opportunities. In addition, Dean Chakravorti argues that the program, infused with a liberal-arts education, prepares graduates to understand ambiguity and the constant shifting of the world.
The MIB degree offers courses on emerging market entrepreneurship, impact investing, and inclusive finance ventures, as well as more traditional business courses in finance, operations, strategy and management, etc.