Robert Gibson has over 30 years‘ experience of global competence development in business and education. He was responsible for intercultural consultancy and training for the multinational engineering corporation Siemens for 18 years during which time he designed and implemented an award winning global diversity and inclusion program. He has held positions at the University of Munich (LMU) and Ingolstadt School of Management and taught at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin and BBS since 2012.
He is a former Vice-President of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR Europa) and currently on the Advisory Board of SIETAR Deutschland. His publications include Intercultural Business Communication (Oxford University Press), over 70 articles for the magazine Business Spotlight and most recently Bridge the Culture Gaps – a toolkit for effective collaboration in the diverse, global workplace (Nicholas Brealey/Hachette). He is based in Munich and works as a freelance consultant and trainer.
COURSES
This course provides an understanding of the role of culture in management and organizational processes in today’s inter-cultural business world. After an initial theoretical introduction to the concept of culture, the course will analyze its relevance to organizational issues such as: human resources management, cross-cultural communication, team-work, motivation, and negotiation.
The clinics are interactive sessions with the presence of experts business leaders who will share with the students their knowledge and experience on the topic in an informal atmosphere. Through the clinics students will have the opportunity to reflect with business leaders on cutting-edge themes – namely business ethics, digital technologies and AI, diversity and inclusion, and leadership – that characterise the activity of contemporary global organisations. Each clinic, coordinated by an academic professor or a manager will challenge students with the most relevant knowledge and trends on the specific topic of interest.
Creating inclusive organizations is widely accepted to be not only a social imperative but also a key to business success. Companies with diverse employees and an inclusive culture have potential to be more innovative, closer to their customers and more attractive to talent than monocultural ones. A range of dimensions need to be considered including ethnicity, cognitive diversity, gender, age as well as national and professional cultures.
This clinic, coordinated by Robert Gibson, provides a forum for students to reflect on and exchange their experience with each other and invited practitioners on a range of diversity and inclusion issues. It aims to increase awareness of the importance of cultural diversity and the impact of bias as well as fostering understanding of ways of mitigating bias, creating inclusive workplaces and leveraging difference for mutual benefit.
Topic 1: Impact of diversity and inclusion
Topic 2: Dimensions of cultural diversity
Topic 3: Barriers to inclusion
Topic 4: Creating inclusive organizations
Design, Fashion and Luxury GoodsFood and Wine
Supercars, Superbikes and Motorsports
AI and Manufacturing
Green Energy and Sustainable Businesses
