The real story, of course, started back in 1998 with a unique collaboration between the vice-chancellor of University of Pretoria, Johan van Zyl, and the dean of the Wits Business School, Nick Binedell. It was a true meeting of minds and a partnership built on trust, recalls Professor Karl Hofmeyr.
“There is a lovely story, from December 1998, when Nick mentioned to Johan: ‘Things are going fine. We’ve spent R5-6 million. Do you think we need to have a meeting?’ Johan emailed back to say ‘Why, have you messed up?’ Nick said that he hadn’t, to which Johan replied, ‘Have a nice holiday’. It was incredible the trust between these two people. Just broad thinking. Very entrepreneurial, both of them, and very visionary,” says Hofmeyr.
Two decades later and behind-the-scenes anecdotes like this fill a timeline of firsts, of personal insights and deep partnerships. Here are just a handful of highlights:
1998
- Binedell and Van Zyl agree on the blueprint for the new Graduate School of Business Science.
- R30 million in funding is secured from businessman and philanthropist Sir Donald Gordon’s The Donal Gordon Foundation, a quick name change later and the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) is born.
1999
- The first phase of the GIBS campus was built in just nine months. This comprised the quadrangle, four classrooms, the auditorium, Illovo Lodge and the restaurant.
- Binedell gathered around him a professional, tight-knit founding team, the majority of whom joined GIBS towards the end of the year, operating out of rented offices near today’s Melrose Arch.
- Hofmeyr joined Binedell as they went about town selling the MBA and the vision of the school and having ‘cups of tea’ with business leaders. The only CEO they never managed to see was Koos Bekker.
- Knowledge and information services guru Beulah Muller remembers joining the team on 1 December 1999. With businesses closing for the holidays, the campus under construction and the library needing to be up and running by 1 February, she recalls being “stressed out of my skull”. Around 16 December, she remembers, “Nick gave me a cheque for R600,000 and said ‘Go and fill the shelves’. Nick donated some of his books and got Willem Krause, the CEO of Knowledge Resources, to open his bookstore one evening for me to go on a shopping spree. Our aim was, for 1 February, to have three rows of shelves and to have the front of the first row filled with books so when the students entered the door they saw ‘full’ shelves.”
- What couldn’t be fudged was the construction of the campus. “I can remember coming for a site visit in December and the quad was still raw earth and you had to walk on little planks all over,” recalls Muller. “It was still very much a building site in December.”
2000
- GIBS officially opened its doors on 4 January 2000.
- The launch of the school on 14 March was a great occasion with a huge marquee and international guests like Michael Portillo, the British journalist and Conservative politician, whom Binedell had seen on TV and who gave a great speech. “It was a very classy event, which was done with flair,” says Hofmeyr.
- The first GIBS MBA class comprised just 58 students, 56 of whom graduated with two deferring. According to former marketing manager Sue Swart, “I don’t think there has ever been a class like that again. They were incredibly special…we knew each one of them by name.”
- The inaugural PMD class consisted of 55 people, “quite miraculous from a zero base”, according to Swart. The numbers were swelled by a contingent of 25 from De Beers, and a “mixed bag” from the likes of Tupperware and various mining houses. Paul Edey, the current executive headmaster of St John’s College, also signed up.
- The first global Executive Development Programme travelled to London in 2000.
- Among the first companies to come on board as clients included Sasol, Barloworld and De Beers.
2001
- The first studio at GIBS, and the subsequent filming of GIBS Forums, was handled by the Information Services department. According to Muller, “One of my staff members had to learn how to do video editing and how to use video editing equipment and do recordings and sound. Eventually we couldn’t manage the demand anymore and that went over to Sue [Swart] in marketing and eventually Howard [Fox] and the formal GIBS Studio.”
- New York was the destination for the 2001 global elective, but rapidly shifted to Paris and London due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Founding director Chris van Melle Kamp pulled off the shift in just three weeks.
2002
- GIBS began to roll out a comprehensive digital strategy. Swart recalls: “We really were way ahead of the curve in terms of utilising technology.”
2005
- In the 2004 Financial Times ranking, GIBS ranked in the Global Top 50 for executive education. “It gave us international credibility,” recalls Hofmeyr.
- GIBS offered two modular MBA classes to accommodate the significant pool of applicants for the programme.
- GIBS was invited to join the newly established African Association of Business Schools.
2006
- A campus extension got underway, adding the large block which currently houses the administration block, classrooms, the Information Centre and coffee shops. Kholi Ndhlovu, GIBS first duty manager, recalled there was a corrugated iron wall between the small campus and the building site to keep the areas separate: “You couldn’t see what was going on, but the big problem was dust.”
- Throughout the winter, everyone parked at Hyde Park and were bussed to campus. “For almost a year we went up and down. But in winter Nick arranged a tent for us to get hot chocolate or coffee when we arrived on the taxi,” said Muller. “They used taxi operators as a way of giving back to the community. It wasn’t fancy hired busses.”
- GIBS ran the 60 Seconds MBA Challenge for the first time, offering a full scholarship for the 2007 MBA programme.
2007
- The GIBS MBA was awarded international accreditation by the UK-based Association of MBAs (AMBA).
2008
- The new GIBS campus was officially opened on 17 November.
- GIBS walked away with the 2008 Sunday Times Marketing Award. Looking back, Swart highlights innovations such as the short-lived GIBS FM – hosted by Bruce Whitfield – as well as podcasts on iTunes and the GIBS Forums for raising the school’s profile.
- As GIBS rolled out a merchandise store – oddly run out of Information Services – Muller remembers how Binedell wanted a rugby jersey similar to that of the English rugby side Harlequins. “Nobody could produce it to his liking, and did we have fights to get him to forget about it,” she says.
2009
- The full-time entrepreneurship MBA was launched.
- The first GIBS doctoral programme (DBA) degree was awarded.
2011
- GIBS debuted on the Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking as 67th globally and first in Africa.
- Binedell was awarded the PMR.Africa Diamond Arrow Award for Individual in the Business School fraternity in South Africa.
2012
- GIBS launches its quarterly magazine, Acumen, under the editorship of veteran journalist Chris Gibbons. Binedell says at the time: “Acumen aims to assist in the debate, to sharpen the saw, to engage, to provoke and to have dialogue about issues affecting business and society.”
- The DBA received its first AMBA accreditation.
- Plans got underway for a building project to expand the Illovo Lodge, construct a roof deck and new classrooms, and refurbish the original kitchen, among other projects.
2013
- GIBS started the year by hosting the Academy of Management Africa Conference, the first time the Academy held a specialised conference outside North America.
- GIBS MBA graduate Olebogeng Glad Dibetso (2011-2012) won the international MBA Student of the Year Award. At the time, Dibetso described the heavy responsibility he felt as a representative of Africa: “I said to myself, I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing this for the whole continent; this was bigger than me.”
2015
- Binedell stepped down as dean. He spent two months in London to get out of new dean, Professor Nicola Kleyn’s hair. “It’s a tough job,” he admits, “so it’s important for the next person not to feel there is a backseat driver.”
2016
- GIBS climbed 13 places in the Financial Times’ annual Executive MBA Ranking.
- MBA class of 2015-2016 students Elicia Demont, Thomas Kgokolo, Jamal Sahib and Ewald Beukes of Team Brand SA took joint first place in the prestigious 2016 Zurich Enterprise Challenge.
2018
- GIBS launched the Centre for African Management and Markets, a hub to drive research, innovation and thought-leadership across the continent.
- GIBS’s Advanced Professional Business Coaching Programme was approved by the International Coach Federation as an Accredited Coach Training Programme.
- Acumen magazine took gold at the International Tabbie Awards.
2019
- The school mourned the passing of its benefactor on 21 November. The 11 principles which Sir Donald Gordon read out during his speech at the GIBS opening in 2000 still hang in Binedell’s office today.
- The school joined forces with Georgia Tech in the United States to host the two-day Emerging to Converging Technologies Conference: The Future World.
- GIBS 2018-2019 MBA team, The Zamaleks, won the 2019 Zurich Enterprise Challenge.
- The new digital Business and Management Development Programme was launched.
- GIBS launched the full-time PDBA – aimed at fast-tracking young undergraduates into the world of business – as well as a Master of Philosophy in International Business.
- Partnering with the Toyota Wessels Institute for Manufacturing Studies, GIBS launched a Postgraduate Diploma and MBA in Durban, with a focus on manufacturing.
- The Financial Times rated the GIBS MBA as one of the best in sustainability, ethics and social purpose.
- Kleyn announced she would be stepping down as dean. Looking back on a 20-year journey she said: “I feel deeply privileged. As much as my husband and I have raised our own family, I’ve been part of the GIBS family. I’ve never sensed, from my own family or the GIBS family, that I’ve had to trade one off against another. They have both deeply augmented my life and the presence of each has enabled the other.”
2020
- On 24 March, face-to-face teaching was suspended at GIBS for the first time in the business school’s history due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- On 26 March, GIBS went into lockdown.
- On 2 April, GIBS launched online Flash Forums, a daily 2pm online Zoom session with faculty and industry experts.
- In April, GIBS commenced with a fully digitised teaching schedule.
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