Müsahibə: György Bögel

Dr. György Bögel has PhD from Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Bögel’s research interests include corporate organization, organizational behavior, management and organization of multibusiness companies (SBUs, profit centers, internal market, CHQ's functions, value-creation, synergy etc.) and the influence of information technology on corporate strategy and organization.He is an author of more than 100 books, articles, book chapters and studies on corporate organization, strategy, transfer pricing, organization theory, corporate governance, telecommunication, IT, knowledge management, e-business.

How CEU is positioning itself? We have MIT, Stanford as a technical oriented, Harvard, Yale as humanitarian, Wharton, Kellogg as a business one.

György Bögel: CEU Business School is an American school of business located in Budapest. We have an international faculty representing many countries. Our students are recruited internationally. I have just finished a course on Entrepreneurship and had students from Germany, Georgia, the United States of America, India, France, Kenya, Hungary, Moldova and many other countries. Our philosophy is based on the concept of open society, social responsibility and sustainability; these are the main factors of differentiation. With English as the language of education, with our international faculty and student body, and with cross-national MBA we are rather unique in the region. Our knowledge on transition economies is also very valuable.

In your speech at Baku Presentation you mentioned about Western and Eastern education system. Are there really a big differences?
 
György Bögel: The two educational systems are based on different methodological, social and culturaé traditions. I was educated in Hungary but visited many western schools, mainly British, Irish and American ones. Both systems have advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. But real life is more colorful, it is not enough to speak only about "Western" and "Eastern" systems. When I work in a classroom with students coming from different countries I see and feel the differences in their past experience. For example American students are more open, their communication skills are excellent and they are very problem oriented. Chinese students are very well prepared but many of them are rather silent in the classroom. Russian and Hungarian students are very good in statistics and decision sciences, German students working style are very systematic. When we work together the question is how to utilize these strengths and what can we learn from each other.

It seems Hungary becoming a center of educational tourism in Eastern Europe, Can Azerbaijan claim for this position in its region?
 
György Bögel: Education is a very important sector of the economy in many countries. Many schools compete for students everywhere in the world and I am pleased to see that some universities in our region do it really successfully. I visited Azerbaijan two weeks ago, had meetings with managers, professors and bright young students. By my impressions your country can do and must do a lot for improving its educational system and for attracting foreign students in the future. It requires hard and systematic work, but it is feasible. What you need is a professional strategy and professional implementation. Your geographical position is very favorable for this.
For whom mini MBA program is intended?
 
György Bögel: Our Baku Mini MBA program is designed for talented active and future managers who would like to learn the "state of the art" in business in a modular form. Maybe some of them will join complete MBA programs (we hope it will be that of our school) in the future, but can't afford to do it now. Good understanding of English is an entrance requirement. I would be especially happy to see some entrepreneurs in the group, because small and medium sized ventures are really important for economic development, especially in emerging countries.

Internet is changing all formats of businesses and now it is easy to get to all famous libraries with small payments. Do you think internet is going to reshape the educational business?
 
György Bögel: The internet is reshaping everything: business, government, trade, healthcare etc. I think that in this decade we will see a real e-learning revolution in education. I am a member of the board of the Hungarian Association for Electronic Commerce, so I see directly what is happening in business, and I am sure education must move on the same path. Technical opportunities are great: we have multimedia tools, electronic libraries, open source learning platforms; we have YouTube, Facebook, Skype... If we manage to set up shop in Baku, I will recommend starting to work on an Electronic Mini MBA with local partners

What is the current situation? What Azerbaijani business managers think about it this project? Is there a big interest?
 
György Bögel: When I was in Baku I saw that the interest is high, many people would like to learn, and what is the most important thing: companies really need professional managers to become competitive in the global economy. We discussed our recruitment strategy with our partner the Azerbaijan Marketing Society and work on its implementation now. I hope we can launch the program soon.


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