利用研究解決實際問題
Using research to solve real world problems
英國《金融時報》 麗貝卡•奈特報導
In India, a country with a population of 1.2bn, fewer than 30 per cent of citizens have a passport, driver's licence or other form of identification.
在印度這樣一個擁有12億人口的國家，只有不到30%的公民擁有護照、駕照或其他類型的身份證件。
It may seem a minor point, except that the absence of these documents makes it difficult to apply for a bank account, obtain a mobile phone or even receive the government subsidies for education and food that individuals are entitled to.
這似乎只是一個小問題，但沒有這些證件，人們就很難開立銀行賬戶、購買手機，甚至無法領到自己有權享有的政府教育及食品補貼。
But according to a new survey led by Arun Sundararajan, an associate professor of information, operations and management sciences at New York University's Stern School of Business and a group of his students, that is changing. A government-sponsored project that began towards the end of 2010 to give every person in India a unique 12-digit ID number is showing signs of success. If enrolment continues according to projections, Prof Sundararajan reckons that about 300m citizens who previously did not have a portable ID will have one by the end of the year.
不過，由紐約大學(New York University)斯特恩商學院(Stern School of Business)信息、運營和管理學副教授阿倫•孫達拉拉詹(Arun Sundararajan)及其學生牽頭進行的一項新調查顯示，上述情況正在發生改變。臨近2010年年底時，印度啟動了一個由政府資助的項目，向每名印度人配發一個其專有的12位身份證號碼。該項目如今正顯示出成功的跡象。孫達拉拉詹估計，如果登記人數繼續按預期增長的話，此前沒有便攜式身份證的約3億印度公民將在今年年底前拿到身份證。
“It's a moon-shot project,” says Prof Sundararajan. “It's having a transformative impact on the lives of hundreds of millions of people.”
孫達拉拉詹表示：“這是一個意義堪比登月的項目。它正對數億民眾的生活產生革命性影響。”
It is also, he hopes, a project that will have a transformative impact on the careers of the dozen MBA students who are working with him on the survey. The survey, which is analysing the impact of India's Unique Identity project, is part of the Stern Consulting Corps programme.
他還希望，該項目也會對與自己合作開展這項調查的12位MBA學生的職業生涯產生革命性影響。這項調查是“斯特恩諮詢團”（Stern Consulting Corps，簡稱SCC）課程的一部分，它對印度“唯一身份”(Unique Identity)項目的影響進行了分析。
SCC, an elective course now in its 10th year, began as a programme that placed students with local non-profits on 10-week project engagements. This year, for the first time, students worked on projects in emerging markets linked to faculty research. This new element provides students with vivid illustrations of how academic research can be used to solve real world problems.
SCC是一門已開設了十年的選修課，最初是讓學生們與當地的非營利組織一起開展為期十週的項目。今年，學生們首次在新興市場開展了與教員研究有關的項目。這一新內容向學生們生動展示瞭如何用學術研究來解決現實世界中的問題。
“What [students] are gaining from this is an understanding of the potential of business to be an agent of social change,” says Prof Sundararajan. “It's one thing to be exposed to examples of this in a textbook, it's another to witness it first hand.”
孫達拉拉詹表示：“（學生們）從中認識到，商學是能夠推動社會變革的。我們當然可以把這一點融入教科書中的案例、來展示給他們看，但更好的做法是，讓他們從親身體驗中認識到這一點。”
As top schools strive to infuse their curricula with more hands-on learning experiences by adding overseas exchange programmes and class consulting projects in far-flung corners of the world, SCC stands out for its emphasis on research.
一流商學院紛紛通過增設海外交流項目和在世界各個角落開展班級諮詢項目，來努力在課程中加入更多的實踐學習經歷，而SCC的特色在於，它很強調研究。
The new focus of the SCC programme reflects the increasing interest from MBA students in using their degrees to work on social policy issues. The programme is popular on campus: more than 100 students participated in the programme this past academic year and applications to the SCC rose 117 per cent this spring compared with last year.
SCC課程的新重點反映出，MBA學生對利用自己所學的知識研究社會政策問題越來越感興趣。該課程在校園裡受到廣泛歡迎：在剛過去的學年裡，有100名多學生選修了該課程，今年春季申請選修SCC的學生人數同比上升了117%。
Academic research is often accused of being ponderous, narrow and detached from the real world. But there is a new wave of research coming out of schools today that concerns how government and business can work together to solve big social problems, according to Professor Peter Henry , Stern's dean.
學術研究往往被指責為沈悶、狹隘和脫離現實世界。但斯特恩商學院院長彼得•亨利(Peter Henry)教授表示，如今商學院開展的新一波研究關注的是政府和企業如何合作解決重大社會問題。
There is also a growing recognition on the part of management faculty that the type of research they conduct about corporations has potentially broad applications for other kinds of organisations.
管理學教師們也越來越認識到，他們對企業進行的那類研究可能廣泛適用於其他類型的組織。
“There is a false dichotomy between research and the real world,” says Prof Henry. “Research can have a real impact.”
“有人錯誤地把研究與現實世界對立起來。”亨利教授表示，“研究是能夠對現實世界產生影響的。”
One group of students, for instance, worked on a business plan for a city that is being developed in Honduras. Because the city is a new concept, the business plan will have a direct effect on policy decisions in the country.
例如，一群學生曾為洪都拉斯正在開發的某座城市設計商業計劃。由於這座城市是一個新構想，這份商業計劃將對洪都拉斯的政策決定產生直接影響。
The students, under the supervision of Professor Paul Romer who heads the Urbanization Project, a research centre at Stern that focuses on urban growth and governance in the developing world, spent the semester devising potential scenarios for the city, such as population growth models and potential financial rules and regulations, as well as working up infrastructure estimates and writing policy briefs. Some of their findings were presented in a meeting Prof Romer had with Octavio Sánchez, chief of staff to the Honduran president.
在保羅•羅默(Paul Romer)教授的指導下，這些學生花了一個學期的時間為這座城市設計人口增長模型和可能的金融法規等潛在情形，並製定基礎設施概算和撰寫政策綱要。羅默教授是斯特恩商學院一個名為“城市化項目”(Urbanization Project)的研究中心的主管，該中心重點研究的是發展中國家的城市發展和治理。在與洪都拉斯總統的幕僚長奧克塔維奧•桑切斯(Octavio Sánchez)的一次會晤中，羅默教授向前者呈交了他們的一些研究結果。
“We're getting students into the world through the lens of research,” says Prof Henry. “We're giving students the chance to say, 'I didn't just take a set of classes. I built something'.”
亨利教授表示：“我們讓學生從研究的角度來了解世界。如此一來，學生們就能夠說，'我不只是上了一些課，我還做了一些事情'。”
Throughout the projects, students work closely with a faculty member and often develop the type of mentoring relationship that has typically been the province of PhD programmes. Teams also work with an outside mentor from a top-tier consulting company.
在整個項目開展期間，學生們都與教師密切合作，雙方往往發展出那種通常只在博士項目中才能見到的指導關係。與項目團隊一起工作的，還有一位來自一流諮詢公司的外部顧問。
Students hone their analytical skills, but are also able to practise their professional responsibilities such as meeting a timeline and soliciting feedback from a client.
學生們磨煉了自己的分析技能，而且還能實踐自己的職業責任，比如遵守時間表和徵求客戶的反饋。
“The learning experience for the students was better than I expected,” says Prof Romer. “What they learnt was not just how to think abstractly about governance and fiscal policy – the kind of things you have to think about when you're creating a new city – but also how will you work in teams, how will you divide tasks, what will you do when one sub-team gets stuck.”
羅默教授表示：“學生們的學習體驗好於我的預期。他們不僅學到瞭如何抽像地思考治理和財政政策——你在開發一個新城市時不得不思考這類事情——而且還學到了如何進行團隊合作、如何分配任務、以及當一個子團隊遇到問題時該怎麼辦。”
The fact that students were working on a project with real world implications “lent more urgency to the group effort”, he says. “People are taking real decisions on [the students' work]. A term paper doesn't really matter. This goes out of the realm of a pretend exercise and makes it real.”
他表示，學生們開展的是一個對現實世界有影響的項目，這一事實“讓整個團隊的努力變得更具迫切性”。 “人們是在（學生們的工作）基礎上做出現實的決定。學期論文實際上倒並不重要。這一努力脫離了模擬練習的範疇，是在真刀真槍地干。”
For students, the risk of working on such an engrossing project is that it can make other business school assignments seem dull or unworthy by comparison.
對學生們來說，參與這種頗具吸引力的項目的風險是，其他商學院項目相比之下會顯得枯燥或沒有價值。
But Benjamin Wise, a student who worked on the Honduras project, says that it forced him to think about how to apply concepts learnt in the classroom.
不過，參與洪都拉斯項目的學生本傑明•懷斯(Benjamin Wise)表示，他因參與該項目而不得不去思考如何運用課堂上學的概念。
“I'd be sitting in my corporate finance class on the edge of my seat because we were learning about a financial model that I couldn't wait to plug in to [one of the models in] my project,” he says.
懷斯表示：“我會在公司財務課上專心聽講，因為當時講的正是財務模型，我迫不及待地想把其中的一個模型運用到我的項目中。”
Prof Sundararajan says that spending a week in India was an eye-opening experience for his students.
孫達拉拉詹表示，在印度的一周讓他的學生開拓了眼界。
“I could see them immersed in the context. They gained a clearer understanding of the breadth of vision and they could see what the problem was.
他說：“我能夠看出他們沉浸在項目的背景中。他們對視野的寬度有了更清晰的理解，他們能夠看出問題所在。”
“This is the kind of immersive experiential learning that alters the worldview of students.”
“這是那種能夠改變學生世界觀的、注重身歷其境體驗的學習。”
譯者/鄒策
Using research to solve real world problems
英國《金融時報》 麗貝卡•奈特報導
In India, a country with a population of 1.2bn, fewer than 30 per cent of citizens have a passport, driver's licence or other form of identification.
在印度這樣一個擁有12億人口的國家，只有不到30%的公民擁有護照、駕照或其他類型的身份證件。
It may seem a minor point, except that the absence of these documents makes it difficult to apply for a bank account, obtain a mobile phone or even receive the government subsidies for education and food that individuals are entitled to.
這似乎只是一個小問題，但沒有這些證件，人們就很難開立銀行賬戶、購買手機，甚至無法領到自己有權享有的政府教育及食品補貼。
But according to a new survey led by Arun Sundararajan, an associate professor of information, operations and management sciences at New York University's Stern School of Business and a group of his students, that is changing. A government-sponsored project that began towards the end of 2010 to give every person in India a unique 12-digit ID number is showing signs of success. If enrolment continues according to projections, Prof Sundararajan reckons that about 300m citizens who previously did not have a portable ID will have one by the end of the year.
不過，由紐約大學(New York University)斯特恩商學院(Stern School of Business)信息、運營和管理學副教授阿倫•孫達拉拉詹(Arun Sundararajan)及其學生牽頭進行的一項新調查顯示，上述情況正在發生改變。臨近2010年年底時，印度啟動了一個由政府資助的項目，向每名印度人配發一個其專有的12位身份證號碼。該項目如今正顯示出成功的跡象。孫達拉拉詹估計，如果登記人數繼續按預期增長的話，此前沒有便攜式身份證的約3億印度公民將在今年年底前拿到身份證。
“It's a moon-shot project,” says Prof Sundararajan. “It's having a transformative impact on the lives of hundreds of millions of people.”
孫達拉拉詹表示：“這是一個意義堪比登月的項目。它正對數億民眾的生活產生革命性影響。”
It is also, he hopes, a project that will have a transformative impact on the careers of the dozen MBA students who are working with him on the survey. The survey, which is analysing the impact of India's Unique Identity project, is part of the Stern Consulting Corps programme.
他還希望，該項目也會對與自己合作開展這項調查的12位MBA學生的職業生涯產生革命性影響。這項調查是“斯特恩諮詢團”（Stern Consulting Corps，簡稱SCC）課程的一部分，它對印度“唯一身份”(Unique Identity)項目的影響進行了分析。
SCC, an elective course now in its 10th year, began as a programme that placed students with local non-profits on 10-week project engagements. This year, for the first time, students worked on projects in emerging markets linked to faculty research. This new element provides students with vivid illustrations of how academic research can be used to solve real world problems.
SCC是一門已開設了十年的選修課，最初是讓學生們與當地的非營利組織一起開展為期十週的項目。今年，學生們首次在新興市場開展了與教員研究有關的項目。這一新內容向學生們生動展示瞭如何用學術研究來解決現實世界中的問題。
“What [students] are gaining from this is an understanding of the potential of business to be an agent of social change,” says Prof Sundararajan. “It's one thing to be exposed to examples of this in a textbook, it's another to witness it first hand.”
孫達拉拉詹表示：“（學生們）從中認識到，商學是能夠推動社會變革的。我們當然可以把這一點融入教科書中的案例、來展示給他們看，但更好的做法是，讓他們從親身體驗中認識到這一點。”
As top schools strive to infuse their curricula with more hands-on learning experiences by adding overseas exchange programmes and class consulting projects in far-flung corners of the world, SCC stands out for its emphasis on research.
一流商學院紛紛通過增設海外交流項目和在世界各個角落開展班級諮詢項目，來努力在課程中加入更多的實踐學習經歷，而SCC的特色在於，它很強調研究。
The new focus of the SCC programme reflects the increasing interest from MBA students in using their degrees to work on social policy issues. The programme is popular on campus: more than 100 students participated in the programme this past academic year and applications to the SCC rose 117 per cent this spring compared with last year.
SCC課程的新重點反映出，MBA學生對利用自己所學的知識研究社會政策問題越來越感興趣。該課程在校園裡受到廣泛歡迎：在剛過去的學年裡，有100名多學生選修了該課程，今年春季申請選修SCC的學生人數同比上升了117%。
Academic research is often accused of being ponderous, narrow and detached from the real world. But there is a new wave of research coming out of schools today that concerns how government and business can work together to solve big social problems, according to Professor Peter Henry , Stern's dean.
學術研究往往被指責為沈悶、狹隘和脫離現實世界。但斯特恩商學院院長彼得•亨利(Peter Henry)教授表示，如今商學院開展的新一波研究關注的是政府和企業如何合作解決重大社會問題。
There is also a growing recognition on the part of management faculty that the type of research they conduct about corporations has potentially broad applications for other kinds of organisations.
管理學教師們也越來越認識到，他們對企業進行的那類研究可能廣泛適用於其他類型的組織。
“There is a false dichotomy between research and the real world,” says Prof Henry. “Research can have a real impact.”
“有人錯誤地把研究與現實世界對立起來。”亨利教授表示，“研究是能夠對現實世界產生影響的。”
One group of students, for instance, worked on a business plan for a city that is being developed in Honduras. Because the city is a new concept, the business plan will have a direct effect on policy decisions in the country.
例如，一群學生曾為洪都拉斯正在開發的某座城市設計商業計劃。由於這座城市是一個新構想，這份商業計劃將對洪都拉斯的政策決定產生直接影響。
The students, under the supervision of Professor Paul Romer who heads the Urbanization Project, a research centre at Stern that focuses on urban growth and governance in the developing world, spent the semester devising potential scenarios for the city, such as population growth models and potential financial rules and regulations, as well as working up infrastructure estimates and writing policy briefs. Some of their findings were presented in a meeting Prof Romer had with Octavio Sánchez, chief of staff to the Honduran president.
在保羅•羅默(Paul Romer)教授的指導下，這些學生花了一個學期的時間為這座城市設計人口增長模型和可能的金融法規等潛在情形，並製定基礎設施概算和撰寫政策綱要。羅默教授是斯特恩商學院一個名為“城市化項目”(Urbanization Project)的研究中心的主管，該中心重點研究的是發展中國家的城市發展和治理。在與洪都拉斯總統的幕僚長奧克塔維奧•桑切斯(Octavio Sánchez)的一次會晤中，羅默教授向前者呈交了他們的一些研究結果。
“We're getting students into the world through the lens of research,” says Prof Henry. “We're giving students the chance to say, 'I didn't just take a set of classes. I built something'.”
亨利教授表示：“我們讓學生從研究的角度來了解世界。如此一來，學生們就能夠說，'我不只是上了一些課，我還做了一些事情'。”
Throughout the projects, students work closely with a faculty member and often develop the type of mentoring relationship that has typically been the province of PhD programmes. Teams also work with an outside mentor from a top-tier consulting company.
在整個項目開展期間，學生們都與教師密切合作，雙方往往發展出那種通常只在博士項目中才能見到的指導關係。與項目團隊一起工作的，還有一位來自一流諮詢公司的外部顧問。
Students hone their analytical skills, but are also able to practise their professional responsibilities such as meeting a timeline and soliciting feedback from a client.
學生們磨煉了自己的分析技能，而且還能實踐自己的職業責任，比如遵守時間表和徵求客戶的反饋。
“The learning experience for the students was better than I expected,” says Prof Romer. “What they learnt was not just how to think abstractly about governance and fiscal policy – the kind of things you have to think about when you're creating a new city – but also how will you work in teams, how will you divide tasks, what will you do when one sub-team gets stuck.”
羅默教授表示：“學生們的學習體驗好於我的預期。他們不僅學到瞭如何抽像地思考治理和財政政策——你在開發一個新城市時不得不思考這類事情——而且還學到了如何進行團隊合作、如何分配任務、以及當一個子團隊遇到問題時該怎麼辦。”
The fact that students were working on a project with real world implications “lent more urgency to the group effort”, he says. “People are taking real decisions on [the students' work]. A term paper doesn't really matter. This goes out of the realm of a pretend exercise and makes it real.”
他表示，學生們開展的是一個對現實世界有影響的項目，這一事實“讓整個團隊的努力變得更具迫切性”。 “人們是在（學生們的工作）基礎上做出現實的決定。學期論文實際上倒並不重要。這一努力脫離了模擬練習的範疇，是在真刀真槍地干。”
For students, the risk of working on such an engrossing project is that it can make other business school assignments seem dull or unworthy by comparison.
對學生們來說，參與這種頗具吸引力的項目的風險是，其他商學院項目相比之下會顯得枯燥或沒有價值。
But Benjamin Wise, a student who worked on the Honduras project, says that it forced him to think about how to apply concepts learnt in the classroom.
不過，參與洪都拉斯項目的學生本傑明•懷斯(Benjamin Wise)表示，他因參與該項目而不得不去思考如何運用課堂上學的概念。
“I'd be sitting in my corporate finance class on the edge of my seat because we were learning about a financial model that I couldn't wait to plug in to [one of the models in] my project,” he says.
懷斯表示：“我會在公司財務課上專心聽講，因為當時講的正是財務模型，我迫不及待地想把其中的一個模型運用到我的項目中。”
Prof Sundararajan says that spending a week in India was an eye-opening experience for his students.
孫達拉拉詹表示，在印度的一周讓他的學生開拓了眼界。
“I could see them immersed in the context. They gained a clearer understanding of the breadth of vision and they could see what the problem was.
他說：“我能夠看出他們沉浸在項目的背景中。他們對視野的寬度有了更清晰的理解，他們能夠看出問題所在。”
“This is the kind of immersive experiential learning that alters the worldview of students.”
“這是那種能夠改變學生世界觀的、注重身歷其境體驗的學習。”
譯者/鄒策
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