At a meeting of the Global Network for Advanced Management on November 24–26, deans and other leaders agreed to add two business schools to the network and made plans for expanding network programs, including Global Network Week and Global Network Courses. The meeting was hosted by IE Business School in Madrid.

The network includes 25 top business schools around the world, with the addition of Berlin’s ESMT, an innovative 11-year-old school founded by a consortium of businesses, and HEC Paris, one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools.

Global Network Week, which gives students at schools in the network the opportunity to travel to another school for a one-week intensive mini-course, will expand to 12 schools, with room for more than 300 students, in March 2014. Global Network Week is growing quickly, having launched in March 2013 with about 200 students traveling among five schools, and grown to seven schools in October. Additional Global Network Weeks are planned for the second half of 2014 and the first half of 2015.

Global Network Courses, in which students across the network attend classes and collaborate on group projects over the internet, are a newer innovation; the first two courses, based at Yale SOM, began in September. Several schools are now planning their own Global Network Courses for 2014.

Global Network Courses are a powerful way to leverage the strength of the network on a daily basis, said David Bach, Yale SOM’s senior associate dean for executive MBA and global programs. While many institutions are launching massive open online courses (MOOCs), he says, Global Network Courses might be thought of as SNOCs—small network online courses. In contrast to MOOCs, Bach said, Global Network Courses allow students to work with “a carefully selected pool of top MBA students from around the world.”

Global Network deans also discussed a strategic partnership with the World Council for Sustainable Development and other new initiatives, including a technology platform to support the joint online case studies being developed by network schools.

These initiatives demonstrate that the Global Network has moved quickly beyond its initial planning phase, Bach said. “What we are seeing is the activation of the Global Network,” he said. The network is having an impact on the education of students at member schools, less than two years after its founding, because of its emphasis on action. “What sets the Global Network apart is rather than being a forum for discussion, we’re focused relentlessly on tangible benefits for our students.”

Michael Barzelay ’82, head of the Department of Management at London School of Economics and Political Science, agreed. “Looking back at the meeting, one has to feel that the GNAM idea—pursuing the advancement of the study of management through its members’ reciprocity, stretching across continents—has definitely passed the proof of concept stage,” he said. “GNAM works because the basic logic is right, the interpersonal relationships are gaining strength, and Yale SOM has provided the leadership and the glue.”

María de Lourdes Dieck Assad, dean of EGADE Business School at Mexico’s Tecnológico de Monterrey, said that the meeting “leaves us with a sense of true accomplishment when we see the level of engagement of all partners.”