“Every company needs to start with values.”

This may not be the classic insight you’d expect from the head of a business school, but this is what new director of the UCT Graduate School of Business Professor Walter Baets believes. It is also a neat summary of what attracted the accomplished Belgian Professor to leave the south of France in favour of a challenging new role in Cape Town, and why the School itself decided that this unconventional academic was the right man for the top job.

“I strongly believe that values and a good organisational culture are the foundations that make a business sustainable. When you put profit at the centre of everything you do instead of values you end up with companies like the Enrons of this world,” he states confidently.

“The UCT GSB is one of the few business schools in the world that actually has a clearly defined set of values, reached through an inclusive process of consultation with all the School’s stakeholders.

“To me that is remarkable, and a key reason why I accepted the Director’s post here.”

Soon upon meeting Baets (who has been at the UCT GSB since July this year) it becomes clear that his words and actions are truly interconnected – his personal and professional passion lies in what he terms “emergent” markets, and over the first month of his tenure the UCT GSB has been abuzz as he’s laid some foundations for an exciting new model of business school.

Indeed, expertise in emergent markets is area in which he believes the UCT GSB can become a world leader within the next five years.

“I want this School to become the leading academic and teaching business school in emergent markets and I believe we are perfectly positioned to drive this objective,” he says.

“Emergent market economies are classified as having high degrees of uncertainty, high degrees of complexity, and social inequality – and these characteristics are not limited to countries like India, Brazil or SA. If you look at most countries today, even America and the United Kingdom, you can see that this framework applies to even so-called ‘developed’ economies, and within each and every organisation as well.

“Emergent market thinking is therefore, to my mind, not a geographical construct as many would like to see it. We are all operating within times of great uncertainty and complexity and we all need to learn to operate successfully within that. This is a new paradigm from which I hope a more responsible type of business will emerge.”

Building this vision, however, will perhaps require a new type of business school too, of which Baets is all too aware.

“We all want a fairer, more sustainable world and for that we need to shift values to the centre of business. To do that business schools also need to change and I want to create a more socially responsible model of school here at the GSB. The foundations for this have already been laid, which is very exciting.”

With Baets one immediately gets the feeling that he doesn’t set goals if he doesn’t believe he can achieve them – tellingly, he recently completed his pilot’s license, a dream he says he has had since his childhood growing up in Antwerp.

His driven, ambitious nature is, of course, a great sign for the UCT business school as it looks to build on its local reputation and international standing. The School is the only one in Africa to consistently feature in the Financial Times Top 100 MBA rankings and it also boasts the all-important EQUIS accreditation – two factors that Baets believes can open doors to the ever-elusive European market.

“Africa is becoming an increasingly important market for Europe as China continues to strengthen its position on the continent, and I believe that with our Financial Times ranking and EQUIS stamp of approval we have a lot to offer not just locally but to the international market as well.

“And what executive, given the opportunity, wouldn’t want to come and spend a couple of weeks at a world class business school in a magical setting like Cape Town?” he says.

However, attracting international clients does not mean Baets wants to copy what top business schools internationally are doing. He says he wants to create a uniquely positioned school that focuses on emergent markets but also aims to be societally and contextually relevant.

“I want to be the School that also takes care of economic development in South Africa,” he says. “We need to use our position to not only develop top leaders and executives, but also to grow the small person in the economy, the entrepreneurs.”

Baets – who plays the flamenco guitar and is a qualified sailor and scuba dive master, no less – has a suitably impressive academic track record as well.

In his previous role as Associate Dean for Innovation and Social Responsibility, and Professor of Complexity, Knowledge and Innovation at Euromed Management Marseille, he was credited with significantly raising the standing of the institution to become one of the best business schools in France.

Qualification-wise, he graduated in Econometrics and Operations Research at the University of Antwerp (Belgium), did postgraduate studies in Business Administration at Warwick Business School (UK), and was awarded a PhD from the University of Warwick in Industrial and Business Studies.

He has also published extensively, with his most recent book (written with wife Erna Oldenboom), Rethinking Growth: Social Intrapreneurship for Sustainable Performance, being published in April this year.

When speaking to Baets it is difficult not to feel excited about the future of the UCT GSB – so infectious is his enthusiasm and ambition for the school. He believes the ingredients for an internationally recognised, but locally relevant business school are already in place at the GSB.

“If we keep our focus on quality and relevance we have a winning formula for future success.”