GIBS positions itself as a leading global business school that champions African excellence, as GIBS Dean Professor Morris Mthombeni maintains. “As Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana said, ‘We face neither East nor West; we face forward.’”
Mthombeni said the school was “mindful of the difficult past we come from as a continent and of the constraints that we currently face. But in looking forward, we must chart a path that is distinctive, meaningful, and that talks to an African-driven agenda for growth.”
Partnerships with universities, businesses, and governments are key to achieving this, especially with those who “have an interest in the continent and in an Africa that is more confident in taking its place on the world stage,” he added.
An African business school
GIBS’ internationalisation strategy is aimed at achieving global recognition through its international academic and corporate partnerships, links to a well-connected community of educators and thought leaders, and world-class academic, corporate, social, and digital education.
GIBS embeds immersive cross-cultural and international elements into its education offerings, elevating the quality of education and knowledge creation in Africa.
“Through our partnerships, we aim to reframe the narrative that Africa is not about consumption but about contribution of knowledge,” GIBS director of international engagement Dr Sizakele Marutlulle said. As GIBS is a global player based on the African continent, it seeks partners who view Africa as a key contributor, she added.
The decolonisation imperative is central to the school’s approach and the global engagement approach enables the equal-partner exchange of ideas, knowledge, and skills between GIBS and partners across the globe.
GIBS is fully committed to changing the perception of Africa, which is rarely seen as a leading source of innovative inquiry and knowledge creation. An African business school within the wider global context means that GIBS is well placed to address pressing problems that are relatively close to home.
Marutlulle said that GIBS considers internationalisation as part of a process of decolonisation, where “the values and knowledge born in Africa are refined in dialogue and debate with the rest of the world. This places a particular obligation on GIBS, in terms of asserting our own knowledge as well as learning from elsewhere in an open and respectful way.”
“As Africans, we have been told by others how we ought to be and what we should prioritise,” Mthombeni said. “We need to be more realistic about our limitations, but also more confident about our capabilities and our resourcefulness, which we have in abundance.”
The continent must also recognise its assets, such as natural resources for a new world driven by digital technology, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, as well as the resources of youth and a youthful population. Both are in great demand and will continue to be in the future.
Professor Lyal White, GIBS faculty member and academic director of the Centre for Leadership & Dialogue, said GIBS is “an international business school with a strong African flavour and strong African priorities and commitments”.
GIBS is a member of the Association of African Business Schools and has long-standing relationship with the likes of Strathmore Business School in Kenya and Lagos Business School in Nigeria, which help to build a strong Africa agenda.
“One of our roles as a well-established and highly ranked institution on the continent is to partner with others to raise the quality of African business thought leadership,” White added.
Global engagement through partnerships
GIBS has forged partnerships with international business schools and universities, research institutions and other academic entities as part of an inward and outward internationalisation drive.
These partnerships have taken different forms, from student exchanges and visiting faculty to multi-purpose partnerships covering research, teaching, faculty engagement, and business development.
“There is an opportunity for us, as a business school on the continent, to enter into transdisciplinary research initiatives which get us closer to solving real-life problems in a way that is useful to the world,” Mthombeni explained.
One of the school’s ultimate goals is around elevating its research credibility. “We’re interested in research that matters. And, typically, research that matters is not very discipline-specific but rather multidisciplinary,” he explained.
GIBS is hoping to expand its research efforts to encompass transdisciplinary fields of business. “Such research is important to academics and students, and to the businesses and the communities we serve.”
Achieving this requires “deep collaboration within the business school communities globally and on the continent, as well as deep collaboration across the university sector and with business,” he explained, and “not only in the traditional, very narrow academic spaces.”
GIBS measures research and knowledge creation in terms of rigour and relevance - the ability to be accessible to different communities. It is also measured in terms of resonance, which means research is not only accessible, but is being used for planning purposes by industries and organisations, as well as for execution purposes.
This requires collaboration with alumni, who are increasingly global, and with multinational corporations to solve complex problems. The creation of rigorous and relevant research also demands collaboration with international scholars on a much deeper level about problems that are “relevant to our context but are also of interest to the world and make a contribution to the world,” Mthombeni added.
“Social impact is easier with collaboration, whether it’s climate or digitalisation or leadership. Much more is achieved when there’s cross-border learnings,” Marutlulle said.
Partner selection is based on strategy alignment, shared values as well as agreement with the school’s ambitions. “They of course need to fulfil the basics of being highly regarded, accredited, like-minded, and like-spirited,” she continued. The exchange of knowledge and best practice enable the cementing of a global mindset in the communities GIBS serve, and lessons learnt enable “leap-frogging” so that innovation is accelerated.
The GIBS Global Engagement team recently reviewed all existing partnerships and assigned each one to a specific tier based on their alignment with GIBS’s strategic pillars.
Internationalisation is contextual
GIBS hopes to encourage contextual understanding and the development of a deep awareness of where South Africa and Africa fit into the global system, White explained, as well as an appreciation of global challenges and dynamics. “We are mindful of the example that we set, and have to assert our own knowledge and learning in an open and respectful way.”
Developing contextual intelligence means reaching out to prominent business schools in their respective regions to understand the territory better. “Partnerships contribute to contextual understanding for business schools, and this allows for the development of local understanding and intelligence.”
Partnerships also have the potential to promote interest among delegates in developing markets and in Africa, and potentially result in investment in new business in the region.
“We aim to develop an appreciation for an environment of business that is unlike anywhere else in the world,” White explained. “Africa is not just another developing market. It’s an African developing market, and an African business environment.”
Ultimately, GIBS aspires to be an African ambassador globally, drawing on international best practices and resources to bring about and accelerate intersectional and positive change on the continent, while also promoting Africa and its unique insights, expertise and business opportunities to the world.
GIBS’s international partnership network now includes, among others:
The University of Antwerp (Belgium), IÉSEG School of Management (France), Newcastle University (UK), Nottingham Business School (NBS) (UK), University of Wollongong (Australia), Insper (Brazil), Thammassat (Thailand) and Wharton School (USA).
One of GIBS’s most notable partnerships is with Harvard Business School, where the two business schools jointly run the HBS-GIBS Senior Executive Program in Africa, first launched in 2016.
In Africa, GIBS has memoranda of understanding with LBS (Nigeria), Strathmore Business School (Kenya), KNUST (Ghana), Higher Institute of Management and Technology (Morocco) and Groupe ISCAE (Morocco).
These agreements allow GIBS academics to consult in Africa, to research the African context, and to design courses and learning materials based on Africa, with innovation and responsible management and business practices being common themes.
Six dimensions of GIBS’ international strategy
- Faculty and staff
- Thought leadership
- Curriculum
- Students and alumni
- Institutional partnerships
- Profile and reputation.
Critical success factors underpinning GIBS’ internationalisation strategy - The incorporation of internationally relevant content and teaching methods into the school’s range of offerings.
- Intentional curriculum design and execution that is responsive to both the needs of learners and social advancement.
- The expansion of the school’s international student, faculty, and alumni groups.
- The external promotion and internal adoption of a global mindset that is geared towards responsible decision-making and ethical business practices.
Global rankings
An important measure of GIBS’ status internationally is how it fares in international business school rankings:
- Historically, GIBS has consistently been in the top 50 global executive education providers in the UK’s Financial Times rankings. In 2024, the School achieved a historic high of 26th position in the open programme rankings.
- In 2019, GIBS debuted in the top 50 of the QS World University global executive MBA rankings. In 2023, GIBS was ranked 65th, in the top 30% of business schools globally.
- In 2024, GIBS was ranked 18th in CEO Magazine’s global MBA rankings, from among 284 MBA programmes in 24 countries.
- GIBS is one of a limited number of business schools in Africa that is triple-crown accredited, with EQUIS, AMBA and AACSB accreditation.