Report on the 2020 April Deans Cohort virtual gathering (23 Jun 2020)

The GRLI (Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative) convened its fifth Deans & Directors Cohort meeting on 29–30 April 2020 as a virtual gathering, pivoting from an in-person event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report synthesizes two days of conversations involving over 70 senior academic leaders from business schools worldwide who met to discuss management education in a disrupted context.

The cohort explored critical questions across teaching and learning, research, strategic transformation, and business models for higher education. Participants reflected on personal coping strategies, the shift to online learning, curriculum transformation, and institutional relevance during crisis. The second day focused on identifying strategies for transformative change, examining challenges such as digital fatigue and connection loss alongside opportunities for hybrid learning models, institutional partnerships, and reimagined educational approaches.

The report emphasizes that effective crisis leadership requires systems-level thinking and that business schools can serve as catalysts for change. Key themes include maintaining human connection in virtual environments, ensuring educational relevance to societal needs, and leveraging the crisis as an opportunity to fundamentally rethink management education's role in creating globally responsible leaders and addressing pressing societal challenges.