October 19, 2011
In January 2011, The Economist published an essay called The Global Campus, on the expanding horizons of the world’s great universities, not just in terms of recruiting international students but also their own activities around the world and the careful cultivation of a global alumni base.
Buried in the center of the piece was a fascinating statement of vision:
“All the interesting problems cross boundaries,” says David Ellwood, the Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Some straddle borders. Some straddle disciplines. Some require co-operation between business, government, academia and non-profit groups. “So you have to train people to cross boundaries…Leaders need an incredible curiosity and a capacity to listen”, he says.
We love this vision, simply because it perfectly matches our own. Although very much in our infancy, we plan to operate globally from the beginning. The most important skill that leaders of the future are going to have to master is the ability to transcend boundaries. Putting in place the infrastructure to enable this skill-building is what we have dedicated ourselves to do.
