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Business schools and graduate business programs have struggled since their inception to ensure that what students learn in their courses will resonate with the skills needed in their careers. To date, there has been limited attention paid to cocurricular experiential learning opportunities to assist with this challenge. In this article, we discuss the process of implementing cocurricular professional development (PD) workshops as part of a college-wide initiative to increase experiential learning opportunities for students. This college-wide initiative challenged two assumptions: first, that the classroom is the best space for valuable learning and second, that faculty are the best equipped to lead decisions on what students should learn. The workshops help students develop both the tangible and intangible skills required to succeed in industry. We faced many challenges in implementing the workshops, including the need to challenge the predominant view that nothing of significant value could be learned in a workshop. We conclude our article by identifying the factors responsible for the ultimate success of the program and offer guidance for colleges looking to change perceptions of value in learning and broaden their experiential learning practices.

PurposeAs a result of the many governance failures in the past decade, new legislation, increased regulation, and best practices have been adopted by boards in an effort to improve corporate governance. Unfortunately, not all of the changes, such as increasing the number of external directors, have favorably impacted the quality of board governance. While having the majority of external directors on a board increases the board's independence from the CEO, these external directors lack inside directors' understanding of the firm's operations, customers and business model. The board members' lack of understanding presents a key challenge to CEOs, as their tenures depend on keeping their boards informed about the firm's business model. If CEOs are to succeed in this new governance climate, they need to find a way to effectively explain the business model to external directors in order to educate them, access their competencies, and ensure their long term support. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the strategy map to communicate the firm's business model to the board.Design/methodology/approachThe paper used the authors' experiences, a review of the literature, and a case study as a basis for making recommendations presented in the article.FindingsOutside directors may struggle to understand the firm's business model. While some may argue this is not the CEO's problem as it is the board's role to govern and management's job to manage, the authors argue it is an important issue for CEOs for two reasons: First, if the board does not understand the impact of changes to a firm's business model then CEOs are not fully leveraging their boards' expertise. Second, if CEOs do not keep the board adequately informed about the business model it hinders, rather than helps CEOs from building open and transparent relationships with their boards. By ensuring that directors receive the right information about the organization's business model and then have the opportunity to have a constructive dialog regarding the quality of the business model, CEOs can build trusting relationships with their boards and thus ensure they succeed over the longer term.Originality/valueRecent governance failures have demonstrated a need for better communication between boards and CEOs. This is one of the first papers to examine the role of the strategy map to communicate the firm's business model to the board.

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This case focuses on fraud investigation in a not-for-profit organization, along with an examination of governance and management control practices. The student assumes the role of an accountant investigating a possible fraud. The student is first presented with sample invoices paid by the organization that are fraught with irregularities and red flags of potential fraud. Drawing on the student's knowledge of control systems and corporate governance, the student's task is to identify suspicions of possible fraudulent transactions, identify key suspects, and develop an investigative plan. The class can also discuss recommendations to improve governance and control mechanisms to avoid future occurrences of fraud. The case is presented in three parts, and closely parallels a fraud investigation as additional information is revealed in each successive part of the case. This is much like peeling the layers of an onion which is a common way to describe the evolution of a fraud investigation. This case is based on a real fraud investigation conducted by one of the authors who was engaged by the province's Ministry of Health. Students who express disbelief about issues portrayed in the case can be reassured that these faithfully represent actual events. R ESUM ELe cas propos e par les auteurs porte sur une enquête pour fraude dans un organisme sans but lucratif, en parall ele avec un audit des pratiques de gouvernance et de contrôle de gestion. L' etudiant joue le rôle d'un comptable faisant enquête sur une possibilit e de fraude. Des echantillons de factures qui ont et e r egl ees par l'organisation et qui pr esentent des irr egularit es et trahissent une fraude potentielle sont d'abord soumis a l' etudiant. La tâche de l' etudiant consiste a formuler des soupc ßons en ce qui a trait a de possibles op erations frauduleuses, a d eterminer qui sont les principaux suspects et a elaborer un plan d'enquête, en s'appuyant sur sa connaissance des syst emes de contrôle et de la gouvernance d'entreprise. La classe peut egalement discuter des recommandations visant l'am elioration de la gouvernance et des m ecanismes de contrôle afin d' eviter que ce genre de situation ne se reproduise. Le cas se pr esente en trois volets et s'apparente de tr es pr es a une enquête sur fraude, des renseignements suppl ementaires etant r ev el es a chaque etape successive. L'exercice est tr es comparable a celui de peler un oignon, ainsi que l' evolution d'une enquête pour fraude est souvent d ecrite. Ce cas repose sur