here - Rotterdam School of Management

RSM CORPORATE COLLABORATION
Combining strengths:
Dean George Yip of RSM and
Godefroy Motte of Eastman
Chemicals.
14 RSM OUTLOOK SUMMER 2009
Gentleman’s Handshake: DSM and
Eastman Chemicals
While there are many ways for a company to
partner with RSM, the School has formalised
certain ‘corporate partnerships’ with its close
business relationships. Royal DSM BV was the
first official Corporate Partnership of this type.
Feike Sijbesma, CEO DSM, member of the RSM
Advisory Board, and RSM Alumnus (’84) saw the
advantages of signing a declaration of intent with
his alma mater; recruitment and scholarships,
marketing and branding, executive training and
The General Management programme,
which leads to an MSc in Business Administration,
offers international students with a bachelor degree
in a non-business subject the opportunity to
combine their chosen discipline with Master-level
management knowledge and skills. This broadens
their career prospects, as well as their approach
within their field. For full information on this two-
knowledge sharing, and research were some of
the mutual ‘intentions’ of DSM and RSM back
in 2006. Evolution on these fronts has led to the
sponsoring of Professor Dr. Harry Barkema’s
Innovation Management Chair last year; and
further, Sijbesma’s place on the Board of Directors
in the open source ‘ecology’ of the Innovation
Co-Creation Lab (ICCL), in which Barkema is
both a member of the Management Team and
a key researcher. The ICCL draws on expert
advice from both business and academic sources
(including partner institutions Stanford
University and London School of Economics).
“For DSM, innovation is of the utmost importance.
By sponsoring this Innovation Management
Chair and the Innovation-Co-Creation Lab, we
aim to accelerate our own innovation efforts as
well as to raise the level of knowledge and
expertise in the field of Innovation Management,”
Sijbesma has said.
The most recent corporate partnership was
marked last March with a gentleman’s handshake
between Dean George Yip and Godefroy Motte,
President, EMEA Region of Eastman Chemical
and active member of the RSM Advisory Board.
The premise is that Eastman and RSM will
“develop a close partnership with the joint aim
of creating and acquiring new talents and
enhanced knowledge within the fields of research
and education. Both parties wish to benefit from
each other’s strengths in order to reduce the
distance between the academic world and the
business world.”
Reducing this distance is high on the agenda
of RSM leadership. Quite simply, it makes sense
– it benefits all stakeholders, internal and external,
from bachelor students to senior executives.
year programme, which begins each September,
see www.rsm.nl/home/master.
More information on the Erasmus Real Estate Centre
and Professor Dirk Brounen see: www.erim.eur.nl/
realestate
More information on the Innovation Co-Creation Lab,
Professor Harry Barkema and partner organisations:
www.icclab.com