MSM finalist for the AMBA Innovation Award 2016
Maastricht School of Management has been shortlisted for the MBA Innovation Award 2016 issued by the Association of MBA’s (AMBA).
Their prestigious Innovation Award is according to their website “a celebration of innovation and radical thinking in MBA delivery … and has been developed to recognize and reward brilliant new practices. It promotes the values of taking risks in pursuit of the new.”
MSM is recognized for its innovation and willingness to take “risks in pursuit of the new”. In particular, MSM stands out for having promoted over many years female entrepreneurship across the world, but in particular in difficult contexts where entrepreneurship can act as a vehicle for female social mobility, empowerment and survival.
These include courses on entrepreneurship for women entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North African Region, including an entrepreneurship boot camp in Tunisia, organizing international seminars and workshops on women entrepreneurship, and arguing the case for women entrepreneurship in the parliament in The Hague, among others. Recently MSM also developed a female talent development toolkit for the Ethiopia Education Strategy Centre – the toolkit offers sets of practical instruments and references to be used by professionals, working on strengthening female talent in higher institutions in Ethiopia. In 2012 an MSM alumnus received the STARS Impact Award for the work of his organization on combating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Dawe district of the Afar region.
Most recently, and building on this tradition, MSM professor Dr. Josette Dijkhuizen started the “Krachtbedrijf” (international name: ENPower) initiative. The aim of ENPower is to empower survivors of violence to make a new start in their lives. The group of survivors consists of men and women who suffered domestic violence, human trafficking and being refugees. Prof. Dijkhuizen has worked with MSM to develop entrepreneurship pilot projects for migrants and refugees in the Netherlands. This consists of courses, mentoring, field visits and assistance in starting their own firms.
The main goals for the program are 1) Economic Independence, 2) Empowerment and 3) Elimination of taboos and stigmatization. There have already been four successful pilots with participants either starting their own firm, finding a job, or continuing their education. One of them is a young Syrian ICT consultant who is now starting the MSM Executive MBA with the aid of a generous scholarship created in partnership with ENPower.
There are plans in 2017 to launch the first ENPower Business Centre with working spaces and an incubator, an open place to (net)work and be inspired. The ambition is to open four regional centers in The Netherlands and make a connection with similar projects in other countries.
Related to ENPower Prof. Dijkhuizen has documented through photographs her travels in Lebanon and Jordan as she has worked with women entrepreneurs. This has resulted in a public Photo Exhibition about the plight of these entrepreneurs with the hope of influencing policy both in the target countries as well as in the Netherlands.
For more information on ENPower and the Photographic Exhibition of women entrepreneurs in Lebanon and Jordan, please contact Prof. Dijkhuizen at Dijkhuizen@msm.nl.
Second nomination!
MSM is honored to be nominated for a second time for this award. In 2014 MSM was also one of the finalists for the prestigious award. At that time, MSM was nominated for its innovative steps to promote the establishment and strengthening of business schools and MBA education in low-income countries, fragile states and transition economies.
