s emerging technology disrupts industries and reshapes the workforce, new graduates are entering an unprecedented job market where the rules are constantly changing and being rewritten.
In many ways, artificial intelligence (AI) has redefined what employers expect from early-career workers. At the George Washington University School of Business, Professor Michael Tadesse is designing his classroom to help students keep pace.
Tadesse, a teaching assistant professor of marketing, keeps a close eye on emerging trends and often invites industry experts to his classes to explore new developments, from AI-powered marketing analysis to technologies that measure consumers’ emotional and visual reactions to ads in real time.
He said his goal is to prepare students for a workforce increasingly defined by evolving AI tools.
“The world has shifted,” Tadesse said. “Where agents are coming in building apps for us. They can do any business analysis; they can do anything. We're just a strategist.”
Tadesse says he designs his classroom with the idea that the value of higher education has changed. It is now necessary, he said, to help students think strategically, challenge assumptions and learn how to apply ideas in real-world contexts.
A GW alumnus, Tadesse earned his M.B.A. from GW Business in 2022.
Prior to that, he attended the University of Maryland, where he earned his undergraduate degree in business administration, management and marketing.
After graduation, he started an olive oil brand called Equnozio in Zaragoza, Spain, and ran a consulting business on the side.
He also worked in corporate sales and marketing, developing intrapreneurial skills in addition to his entrepreneurial abilities, a combination that Tadesse says has shaped his approach to teaching.
In 2018, he began building a startup called Happy Plate, a meal delivery service connecting patients with doctor-approved, chef-prepared meals. A few years into building the startup, Tadesse began exploring M.B.A. programs. He said he was looking for a university with a strong startup ecosystem that would support his entrepreneurial goals.
He found that at GW, where resources like the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, along with mentorship from professors, helped him continue building his company while pursuing his degree.
“GW is very global minded,” Tadesse said. “I was looking for a community, somewhere I belong and that understood me and I chose GW just because of how they made me feel.”
His experience as a student at GW was defined by an environment that encouraged creativity, fostered an entrepreneurial spirit and emphasized exploring new ideas.
“GW allowed me to draw my own canvas,” Tadesse said.
Now on the other side of the classroom as a professor, Tadesse wants to offer that same support and opportunity for his students, while rethinking what business education should look like in a rapidly changing job market.
“I don't want the education to feel like this is information you need to attain for the next four years,” Tadesse said.