Development Projects for the Advancement of Business Education
in the Transcaucasus

Project #4

Robinson College of Business (RCB) of Georgia State University (GSU)
in partnership with
Tbilisi State University
Georgian Technical University
Tbilisi State Institute of Economic Relations

Purpose: to advance business education through the establishment of a community of business education development projects in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan supported and nurtured by Robinson College of Business Georgia State University (GSU). The proposed projects will elevate the administrative structure of CSB to Western Standards, support the faculty to receive graduate degrees in business from RCB, support the exceptional MBA/BBA students to complete one semester of their program in Atlanta, expand the degree programs in the area of Health Administration, and establish outreach training programs for businessmen and businesswomen already in the workplace. These related projects will build upon the existing highly successful Caucasus School of Business (CSB) in Tbilisi, a development of GSU funded by the USIA and the Eurasia Foundation. These projects will use extensively the modern distance learning capabilities in Project #1.

Goals

American Dean for the Caucasus School of Business
Implementation of academic and administrative procedures and processes
On site training of future Georgian academic leaders
Mentor future Georgian leaders of the school
Appoint and train administrators

Training of ten Georgian faculty to receive MBA degrees from Georgia State University to put in place a first class business school faculty of native Georgians. The objective is for each faculty member of the Caucasus School of Business to have an MBA from Georgia State University

Master of Science in Health Administration program

To train health management leaders from throughout Georgia in the modern practice of health care administration and financial management, leading them to assume responsible managerial positions in healthcare organizations.

To apply the concepts of business administration to health administration in the context of Georgian practices and culture

To plan for the establishment of graduate and postgraduate courses in a school for healthcare administration and management.

Transcaucasus Business Research Center

To provide a rational basis for analyzing state of business and forecasting business outlook in Georgia

To provide databases for economics and business data that can be used for predictive purposes

To provide data collection and analysis for individual businesses on a for-fee basis

Training of the top BBA and MBA students from Georgia at GSU in Atlanta for one semester

Train a total of thirty students in Atlanta for one semester as a part of their program of study in Tbilisi.

Marketing training program for Georgia and the US businesspersons to provide value and support to the country of Georgia to enable it to develop a Western style business community in the context of the culture of Georgia

Leadership Training Program for businesswomen
To provide training in women's issues and business entrepreneurship and management through a train the trainer program to 200 businesswomen in five regions of Georgia.
To provide internship in women-owned Atlanta businesses to a small selected group of Georgian businesswomen.

Background

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Robinson College of Business has focused its attention on the Transcaucasus. The College has:

Established partnerships with six public and private universities in Azerbaijan and Georgia
Exchanged one American faculty member and two Azeri faculty members under the Fulbright program.
Established BBA and MBA programs, trained the Azeri and Georgian faculty and administrators on location and in Atlanta and developed libraries and computer/communication facilities with funding from USAID and the former USIA.
Trained Azeri, Turkmen, and Russian undergraduate and graduate students with funding from the office of Citizen Exchange (USIA), NAFSA, and Muskie.

In Georgia, the Robinson college of Business helped a consortium of three major public universities establish one school of business. The Caucasus School of Business (CSB) is an independent legal entity founded in 1998 by a consortium of Georgian universities Tbilisi State University (TSU), Georgian Technical University (GTU) and Tbilisi State Institute of Economic Relations (TSIER) in partnership with Georgia State University (USA). Its mission is to assist Georgia's transition from a planned to a free market economy through training of a new generation of business managers and professionals. The Caucasus School of Business (CSB) is located on the premises of GTU and TSU. CSB has inherited the trained faculty and facilities of two earlier European projects -- the Graduate School of Management was founded in 1991 and the Public Administration College of TACIS was founded in 1995. The faculty members were trained in Germany and Northern Ireland to deliver lectures in business subjects.

CSB represents the partnership between GSU and the Georgian universities. The partnership projects are funded by grants from U.S. Government sources - the Eurasia Foundation and the Department of State(USIA). The main objectives of the projects are to design and implement under graduate (BBA) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs that will meet accreditation and worldwide standards. The Caucasus School of Business offers BBA (Management, Marketing, and Finance) and MBA (General MBA, Marketing, Finance/Accounting, Health Administration, Hospitality Administration) degrees. Robinson College of Business (RCB) at Georgia State University (GSU) is assisting CSB through:

Curriculum development.
Faculty development and training to enable Georgian faculty to design, implement, and deliver business courses and business outreach programs;
Conducting seminars and workshops in selected subjects and conducting modules of the business degree programs by American faculty members;
Updating library, computer, and audiovisual facilities and providing textbooks and educational materials in English and Georgian;
Facilitating study by exceptional students of the program at Georgia State University
Facilitating joint research of American and Georgian researchers.

The American Ambassador inaugurated the Caucasus School of Business in October 1998. Subsequently, Dr. Carl Patton the President of Georgia State University visited Tbilisi in May 1999 and met with President Shevardnadze, Ambassador Yalowitz, and government, academic, and business leaders. Dr. Patton reiterated GSU's long-term commitment to projects in Georgia. A new memorandum of understanding was signed to extend GSU's involvement in Georgia.

During the first year of the project thirteen CSB faculty members and two administrators completed semester-long training in Atlanta. American faculty members taught three courses to MBA students and CSB faculty in Tbilisi, the library acquired more textbooks, references and materials. Computer laboratory received new computers and audio-visual equipment, and Internet was installed. Currently about seventy students are attending classes and first group of MBA students will graduate in January, 2001.The planned student population for Fall 2000 is eighty MBA and one hundred thirty BBA students. .

The distance learning facilities described in detail elsewhere in this proposal are key to the success of this cluster of proposals. A distance learning classroom will be established in CSB in Tbilisi. The classroom will be equipped with student computer stations and audio/video facilities. Faculty of CSB and RCB will jointly teach the class. All teaching materials will be installed on a server in Tbilisi. The American faculty will lecture to the class in Tbilisi and hold interactive sessions using distance learning facilities in Atlanta. Five distance learning classrooms will be established at the regional branches of Tbilisi State University and Georgian Technical University. The regional classrooms will be equipped similar to the Tbilisi classroom described above. However, the facilities will support only real-time chat-room without real-time video. All teaching materials will be installed on the regional servers. Classes will be taught jointly by regional instructors and CSB faculty stationed in Tbilisi. Another use of the distance learning classroom will be for CSB students to take on-line courses from RCB and other American colleges. It is more cost effective for CSB to facilitate taking of advanced and special courses through Internet than offering the such courses in-house.

The specific components of this cluster of projects are outlined below:

1. An on-site dean from the Robinson School of Business will enhance the operation of the Caucasus School of Business. The Caucasus School of Business has the potential to become an American landmark in Georgia. The academic programs are in place and many Georgian faculty and administrators have been trained and exposed to modern academic and administrative processes. However, the Georgian partners need assistance in implementation of the recommended academic and administrative methods and procedures. An American Dean can provide the leadership and train future leaders on the job. He/she will ensure that what the administrators learned and accepted about how to run a college of business is actually implement. The Dean will appoint and train full-time administrators to perform routine tasks such as recruitment, admissions, registration, recordkeeping, student advisement, scheduling, public relations, accounting and finance, facility management, library management, and placement. RCB is committed to provide any administrative consulting and training as needed.

2. Creation of a first class Georgian business faculty in Tbilisi at the same level as business faculty in Western countries is a high priority of the partnership arrangement between Georgia State University and the Caucasus School of Business. Faculty members of the Caucasus School of Business who do not have an MBA degree will be required to get an MBA degree to remain on the faculty. Given that faculty members have already received short-term training in Atlanta and Tbilisi as part of the current project, they will only need an average of one year to receive an MBA degree in Atlanta.

3. Healthcare administrators in Georgia trained in the West can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The Georgian healthcare system has been based upon the former Soviet Union model of highly centralized control. This has begun to change slowly since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1992. The Atlanta-Tbilisi Healthcare Partnership worked extensively with the Ministry of Health to begin to change to a Western system of healthcare. This process has occurred slowly, but has had significant milestones, notably the issuance of Decree 400 by President Shevardnadze on December 23, 1994, establishing the State Health Care Fund, ensuring licensure of medical facilities, creating registration and quality control of medications and supplies, and certifying and licensing healthcare providers. The impact of this legislation has been enormous. However, the number of Georgian healthcare administrators with Western training can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The purpose of this project is to increase the number of capable administrators. A curriculum will be designed to apply the theoretical concepts of business administration to healthcare administration. Ten faculty members will be developed to lead this program. They will be trained at GSU in Atlanta. They will be required to spend time in residency in a model U.S. healthcare organization.

4. A Transcaucasus Business Research Center is needed that ill establish databases for economics and business data in Georgia, perform analyses and forecasting, and publish findings. Information on the state and outlook of the economy and business is unavailable in Georgia. Quality information is a required ingredient of strategic business planning. The faculty of CSB are trained in basic topics of business and are now ready to provide the much needed services to Georgian business and industry. Research may target topics related to the population, labor force, consumers, jobs, earnings by industry, exports, imports, investment, legal environment, and tax environment

5. The top MBA students of the Caucasus School of Business will benefit greatly from exposure to the culture of a Western business school, while the students and faculty of the Robinson College of Business will profit from the presence of bright Georgian business students. Bonds have the potential to develop between individuals that will affect significantly the conduct of business between the two countries in the future. Top students at the CSB will be selected based on their GMAT scores, school record and interview. A total of thirty will be brought to Atlanta to spend one semester in the RCB at GSU.

6. Marketing of Georgian goods in the U.S. and U.S. goods in Georgia will benefit both countries. This program will educate and train businessmen and businesswomen from the Republic of Georgia and USA on how to market and sell their goods and services in their respective countries. The program will include short-term training modules and visits to both countries. The participant businesspersons will prepare their companies to take the necessary actions to sell their goods and services in the United States or Georgia markets. Areas to be included will be:
selling in a market driven economy, cultural differences, evaluating market condition
evaluating products to sell, product consistency and quality
setting up export channels, export licensing
finding importers, legal considerations for import
selling style, selling to government, distributors, retailers, and customers
advertising and promotion
customer service.

7. Leadership training for businesswomen of Georgia will benefit the country of Georgia through democratic development of market economy and drafting of gender sensitive legislation. Georgian businesswomen will learn how to run small and large businesses as well as becoming aware of women's issues at home and at the workplace. The program will target training of 200 businesswomen on location in the regions of Georgia. The Caucasus School of Business in partnership with a leading Georgian Women NGO will conduct the train-the-trainer program in Tbilisi and train the businesswomen in the regions. RCB faculty will design the curriculum and train the trainers. Selected businesswomen will serve as interns in women-owned businesses in Atlanta.

Milestones

On site dean
presentation of plan of action for the Dean

Georgian business faculty
presentation of selection criteria for CSB faculty to study in RCB MBA program in Atlanta

Awarding of MBA degree to ten selected faculty members

Establishment of a Health Administration curriculum at Caucasus School of Business
Faculty development
Design and implementation of outreach programs

Transcaucasus Business Research Center
Establishment of Research Center and appointment of Georgian director
Presentation of strategic plan and action plans
Training of center personnel

Top MBA students to Atlanta
Completion of one semester study in Atlanta for each group of students

Marketing
Selection of program participants from USA and Georgia
completion of training program for businesspersons in Tbilisi
completion of training program for businesspersons in Atlanta

Leadership training for businesswomen
Selection of the Georgian project director
Training of the Georgian trainers
Design of the businesswomen training program and preparation of the training manual in Georgian
Training of the businesswomen in the regions
Internship of selected businesswomen in Atlanta

Deliverables

On site dean
Action plan for creation/implementation of administrative structure of CSB
Report on the selection, appointment, and on the job training of administrative personnel
Policies and procedures manuals

Georgian business faculty
Criteria for selection of faculty members
Curriculum for faculty members at Georgia State University

Awarding MBA degree
Development of a curriculum
Plan for faculty development
Implementation of outreach programs

Transcaucasus Business Research Center
Action plan of the Business Research Center
Publication of Business Research Quarterly

Top MBA students
Acceptance of students into the RCB MBA program
Certificates of the academic performance for thirty CSB students

Marketing
Criteria for selection of participant businesspersons from Georgia and US
Action plan for the project
Design of training modules and training manuals
Certificates of training

Business women in Georgia
Training manual for businesswomen in Georgian
Creation of regional training centers
Internet chat-room communication among trainers located in America, Tbilisi, and Georgian regions

Budget

CONTACT

Bijan Fazlollahi PhD <bijan@gsu.edu>

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