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RSM CORPORATE COLLABORATION
BUSINESS AND ACADEMIA:
The Mutual Benefits of Collaboration
Business is at the heart – and in the DNA – of RSM. And through collaborative activities
at every level, RSM researchers, alumni and students are impacting business.
Text Lesa Sawahata
12 RSM OUTLOOK SUMMER 2009
Rotterdam School of Management is quite
literally ‘rooted in business’: back in 1966
a group of Dutch multinationals,
recognising the need for excellent management
education, put their guilders together to help
launch the School’s earliest incarnation, the
Interfaculteit Bedrijfskunde(IB)/Graduate School
of Management.
As the School’s identity has evolved over the
past 40 years, so has its relationship with
business. Today, RSM offers business a prime
recruiting ground for young talent, through
employment, internships and short-term
research/consultancy projects; a place to
reinforce corporate identity and branding
through company presentations and workshops;
and the opportunity to sponsor industry-specific
research chairs with well-known faculty experts,
among other possibilities. RSM students, faculty
and management benefit from this hand-inglove
relationship with business in a multiplicity
of ways. Of course scholarships and career
opportunities are foremost on the minds of many
students, but meeting big business in your own
classroom has undeniable impact, bringing the
practices – and not just the theories – of
management to life.
Eggs Taped to the Ceiling:
Hay Group
Human resources and organisational behaviour
multinational Hay Group has been collaborating
with RSM for around five years. While not
specifically focused on recruiting new talent,
many of Hay Group’s activities are more of a ‘soft
sell’, in which the company’s generous giving of
time and energy to students results in an overall
high profile, positive perception. “By giving
lectures to students, we increase our market
awareness for future recruits and potential
clients,” says Jeroen van Duijvenbode, Senior
Consultant Leadership Development and Talent
Management at Hay Group.
Van Duijvenbode, who also sits on the
professional Advisory Board for RSM’s MBA
programmes, had the opportunity to work with
pre-experience students in the General
Management Masters programme recently. The
GM is a programme designed to give those with
non-business bachelor degrees a thorough
grounding in business and management skills