There’s an Ethiopian saying that goes, “Coffee and love taste best when hot.” So too do opportunities. As any successful business person knows, seizing a chance at the fortuitous, right moment is the luckiest feeling in the world. It doesn’t come to everyone, but in 2000 it was gifted to our founding Dean, Professor Nick Binedell, then-University of Pretoria (UP) Vice-Chancellor Johan van Zyl, and a small but dynamic team that turned a dream into the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).
I’m proud to say that 25 years on, GIBS is still percolating away. In fact, I would argue that we are only getting into our stride and our best years are still ahead of us.
That’s saying something when you look back on the short but impactful legacy of our young business school. A journey that was affirmed at the start of this year with the granting of a five-year reaccreditation by EQUIS, the European Foundation for Management Development’s (EFMD’s) comprehensive review of the world’s best business and management schools.
GIBS achieved its first EQUIS accreditation in 2021. At the time, this achievement saw us become the 113th school worldwide to gain accreditation from the “big three” business school bodies, the EFMD, the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the latter two rankings having accredited GIBS in 2007 and 2016, respectively. Equally significant was our 2024 accreditation from the Association of African Business Schools (AABS).
None of these accolades would have been possible if GIBS didn’t consistently improve, grow, innovate and produce quality graduates who went out there and changed the world. The list is long and noteworthy, and you will hear from many of these impactful GIBS graduates in this special 25th birthday edition of Acumen.
From start-up to African influencer
From the moment the first GIBS MBA intake of 58 students was exposed to GIBS’s refreshing and exciting brand of general management teaching in 2000, the business school bucked established trends. In 2001, GIBS invited eight journalists to a “GIBS 24-hour experience” to give them a taste of what was going on in the classroom. They also spent a night in the Lodge (which we now call Illovo Hotel) and attended one of our sought-after forums. A year later, our marketing wizards hosted a fun GIBS Business Masterminds quiz.
These promotions kept us front of mind, but behind the laughs we knuckled down. By 2003 GIBS received its first ranking among the Financial Times Top 45 business schools globally. In 2004 – the year in which the GIBS doctoral programme was launched – GIBS became the first African business school to be ranked in the Financial Times’ Executive Education survey. By 2005, GIBS began collaborating with leading global institutions such as Harvard Business School, with whom we signed a MoU to jointly run a Making Markets Work programme for senior-level managers in Africa’s public and private sectors.
By 2007, when GIBS became the official UP business school, our academic credentials and research output accelerated. Fittingly, the first GIBS case study on the fanatical rugby fan base, titled General de la Rey and the Blue Bulls by Michael Goldman, was published by Ivey in 2008. Since 2009, more than 262 200 best-selling GIBS cases have been sold by Ivey to customers from 134 countries around the world.
Doing it our way
Over the past 25 years, GIBS has never been scared to push out the boat and experiment. Some innovations – such as our award-winning Acumen magazine (which launched in 2012) – have stuck, while others – like our GIBS mobile app (2010), online learning portal GIBSDirect (2012) or the GIBS Business TV show (2014) – were adapted or streamlined into new approaches. Others, like the Personal and Applied Learning unit, which has focused on personal coaching and individual development since 2013, continue to go from strength to strength.
In 2019, GIBS became the first organisation in Africa to broadcast via live video on LinkedIn, and in 2023 we proved just how “hip” we are by launching GIBSTok on the popular TikTok platform.
Academically, socially, innovatively and influentially, we are well positioned to make our next 25 years just as impactful. As a PRME Champion School since 2018, we are advancing a strong social and environmental agenda while continuing to evolve and adapt our academic offerings to set the agenda.
In 2023 GIBS was granted a LinkedIn Learning Champion Award – a strong affirmation of our unique approach to learning. In 2024 we announced a new collaborative executive leadership programme with LaLiga Business School in Spain.
Our faculty continues to publish highly regarded journal articles, book chapters, case studies, white papers and reports. For GIBS, these are far more than just a reflected glow of our faculty’s depth and expertise. This output is critical to filling the gulf in Africa-generated academic research.
A 2015 study into the surge in citation activity between 1970 and 2014 points to the years since 2000 as a “golden age” for business and management education research. Over the past 30-odd years, we’ve witnessed game-changing work such as John Elkington’s triple bottom line; Mark Kramer and Michael Porter’s creating shared value, and Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner’s seven cultural dimensions.
Where are the African voices?
Of course, they are there, and since 2000 Africa- and emerging market-focused research has been on the rise. However, as a proportion of global output, we continue to lag behind in terms of numbers and consistency of output, but not in terms of valuable business, management and leadership insights to share.
I’m proud to say that many of the most impactful and relevant insights coming from Africa today emanate from GIBS. Scholars such as Prof. Nat Boso, our research director; Prof. Helena Barnard, our doctoral programme director; and Prof Anastacia Mamabolo, who holds the ABSA chair in entrepreneurship. These are the voices of academic excellence from Africa and GIBS, and they are just getting warmed up!
