TBS wins prestigious Best Innovation Strategy Award
published on 10.02.21
TBS scooped the coveted Best Innovation Strategy Award at the world-renowned Excellence Awards of the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and Business Graduates Association (BGA), for ‘Teaching through comedy: injecting humour into educational videos’.
The largest AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards ever
The yearly AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards celebrate innovation and radical thinking in business education and reward game-changing new practices, risk-taking and creativity around AMBA-accredited and BGA member programs. This year’s Excellence Awards were the largest ever, with a record number of entries from business schools from all six continents. The Award Ceremony was held virtually on 29 January 2021 before an audience of leading lights from the international business education community, including Business School leaders, category finalists, judges and international media.
Worldwide recognition for TBS Innovation Strategy
During the ceremony, TBS won the Gold Excellence Award for Best Innovation Strategy for “Teaching through comedy: injecting humour into educational videos”. The award shows worldwide recognition for this high-profile project on using humour in business education at a time of unprecedented worldwide demand for quality e-learning resources and cheerfulness.
Combining different skillsets for innovative teaching
The award-winning project is the result of a unique collaboration between David Stolin, TBS Professor in Finance, and acclaimed comedian Sammy Obeid, a former teacher, graduate of Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and host of 100 Humans on Netflix. Both used their specific skill-sets and joined forces to create humorous videos on difficult business topics to stimulate student engagement and help them improve their results. Supported by the entire TBS community, the project resulted in top-quality online learning content in a range of business subjects, such as finance, international business, marketing, organizational behaviour, statistics.
“Our collaboration on humorous educational videos with brilliant comedian Sammy Obeid is part of a TBS project called “Inspiring Guest” and we hope that its success will inspire other business schools to collaborate with remarkable individuals from outside business academia.“
David STOLIN – TBS Professor in Finance
An online learning platform for students and research
The School has already released more than a dozen humorous educational videos (each with an instructor’s note), both before and during the Covid-19 crisis. The videos can be found on the School’s Open Teaching and Learning Platform. It is continuing its production in parallel with conducting research into the role of humour in business education and outreach to business academia so that others can adopt and build on its experience.
“The “Inspiring Education, Inspiring Life” slogan reflects the school’s mission to give students the best possible business education and the best possible personal and professional support to help them develop their talents and lead the life that inspires them. TBS sharpens skills and sets students up for success by combining innovative teaching, sustainability, individual goals and high-quality programs to help students boost their career in a highly evolving world, where innovation is key. The ‘Inspiring Guest’ project embodies our motto by creating content that not just teaches, but also inspires creativity, free thinking, and further learning. Inspiration comes from being open to different ideas and perspectives, and that’s exactly the premise of ‘Inspiring Guest’.”
Stéphanie LAVIGNE – TBS Dean
About TBS
Founded in 1903, TBS is an international business school that belongs to the select circle of 1% business schools in the world with the triple AACSB, EQUIS & AMBA accreditation. The school offers top-ranked Bachelor’s and Master’s in Management, as well as cutting-edge Master of Science, MBA, PhD and DBA programs on its 4 campuses in Toulouse, Paris, Barcelona and Casablanca. TBS programs go beyond business subjects to provide students with a deeper understanding of the challenges of innovation, international diversity and the need for responsibility in a world where sustainability is key.
A selection of the award-winning videos
For more videos, don’t hesitate to visit our Open Teaching and Learning Resources!