People hate job interviews, and for good reason: they can be a huge waste of time. According to a number of studies, there is no reason to think that an interview leads to better-decision making, a less biased process (starting with problems with the interviewer) or that the sequential “death by interview” method has any […]
Read More Open innovation is the new job interviewIn education, as in all economic life, there is no such a thing as a free lunch. Or is there? The international debate on higher education access and affordability creates a long wish list of what can or should be done, largely depending on a specific country’s development stage. In the wake of the Covid-19 […]
Read More Fintech, Student Debt and a Free LunchCross-border M&A activity is accelerating across a range of workforce and education segments, from education and training to career navigation, job search, workforce alignment, AI matching and productivity. This will not be a shock to many observers, although simply transacting across borders can require quarantine for 14 days or conducting endless due diligence meetings via […]
Read More M&A: Coronavirus and Cross-Border InvestmentThere is a cold logic to globalization—especially when it appears to be dying. Can growth be maintained in the world’s leading economies without expanding internationally? Can education start-ups and new ventures rely solely on their local markets? How long will new markets and new consumers in emerging and frontier markets—the world’s engine for future growth—be […]
Read More GES 20: Putting the X in Globalization?The world after Covid-19 will never be the same. What might it look like for the future of learning and work? It is impossible to assess the precise fallout at this point but a few scenarios would be helpful in structuring potential outcomes. Businesses, employers, investors and universities and their stakeholders would be well advised […]
Read More Human Capital in the Age of PandemicsI was honored to keynote the US-Sino Online Higher Education Forum at Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）which took place on June 1, 2018. My talk was focused on the next phase of collaboration between US and Chinese universities. I have consistently thought that education remains a critical aspect of Sino-US relations and that the ability of […]
Read More Keynote at US-Sino Online Higher Education Conference: Shanghai, 2018US labor productivity is growing at its lowest rate, over an extended period, since 1948. In the face of this multifaceted decline, the Trump Administration’s “New Foundationfor American Greatness” has explicitly targeted GDP growth rates of 3% by 2021 based on a raft of trade, budgetary and investment measures. It has also championed an attempt to “Buy American, […]
Read More Why all foreign students should be given a green cardInvestors and entrepreneurs are usually exuberant about the 1.65 billion strong global student market until they hear the bad news: the majority can’t afford anything beyond basic education. This, of course, doesn’t include the 122 million illiterate youth in the world today or the legions of non-formal and professional learners who may want to improve their skills but have little […]
Read More When Fintech Meets Education: An International Love AffairIn 2016, the United States hosted over 1 million foreign students at an estimated $32.8 billion economic impact and over 400,000 jobs, a level that could easily exceed $45 billion by 2025. Under the outgoing Obama Administration, international student enrollments grew five-fold from 200,460 international students in 2009 and left the US as the top destination […]
Read More Will Trump’s “America First” Policies Disrupt International Education?Russia is not an education superpower. What if it were? This may not be an idle question as the country seeks to bolster its international position–no less under a Trump Administration–and to counteract the perception of either being a state-sponsored hacker or geopolitical bully. Domestically, Russia’s persistent de-population trend over the past quarter century coincides with a global shift […]
Read More Russia’s Untapped Potential: Beyond Hacking