Orator magazine

Orator is the house magazine of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. It is a tool through which we keep you informed of the school's strategy, research, programmes, opinions and activities.

Each edition of Orator contains a special dossier on relevant topics explored by opinion-makers, researchers, students and managers.
The magazine is published four times a year (September, December, March and June).

For free subscriptions or comments, contact us at orator@vlerick.be

Our latest issue

Orator Magazine n° 30 - December - January - February

05 Dec 2008

Download Full Magazine (pdf, 2.8 MB)

Editorial

Dear reader,

André Thibeault The financial crisis has been hitting the headlines in the past few weeks. With its broad perspective on business, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School is in touch with the banking and business world and looks upon this crisis from a positive rather than a negative point of view. The crisis forces everybody to reconsider traditional business models and translate them into new ones, with more intervention by different stakeholders and greater focus on long-term strategies. If Belgian businesses wish to stay competitive, they have to invest in developing these new business models. Belgium can enjoy a competitive edge in the market through funding of education and research.

Since Vlerick has always been on the innovative side of the business community, we will undoubtedly contribute to this change of models. The new developments taking place at the School in the fields of entrepreneurship, governance, performance management and risk management will certainly help the development of this new generation of business models. Those strategic research domains being multidisciplinary and transversal, Vlerick’s contribution will be the results of many individuals joining forces together.

The financial crisis and the slowdown of the economy confront managers with new challenges. Important topics in times of crisis include risk management and communication. As an academic business school, Vlerick sees it as its social role to arm the managers of today and tomorrow with useful management insights and help them to develop their management skills.

When the economic situation takes a turn for the worse, however, this has an impact on education. Some companies, seeing education as a cost, may be tempted to cut the attendance in open programmes, or sponsoring of part-time MBAs. Companies with a strategic perspective on HR however will want to continue investing in the development of their key people, and in change support programmes, particularly in these challenging times. Whereas for the full-time MBA and the Masters degree programmes, an increased demand is to be foreseen. As some students in this group come directly from university, they might choose to study longer and wait for the job market to improve before embarking on their career, while some others might decide to re-orient their career.

The future of the School in a fast-changing world, but also in times that bring very exciting challenges: that is the main theme in this issue of Orator. I firmly believe that, as an organisation, we are well-positioned to tackle these challenges and changes in society. With our internationalisation strategy, I am sure that we can add value to the business community, now and in the future.

I do hope you enjoy reading this issue of Orator and wish you all inspiring times.

André Thibeault

Professor of finance and risk management

All Articles

Special Dossier

With a new Dean at the helm of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School and the new academic year now well under way, our special dossier turns the spotlight on the School.

What daring dreams has the School fulfilled recently and what new concrete plans are in the pipeline? What place does Vlerick occupy in the international arena as an academic business school and how will it pursue its international strategy? How can the School define and fulfil its social role in the future? What challenges does this bring? And what does all this mean for students, alumni, companies, academic research and the School’s own staff members?