Orientations

With fewer jobs to fill and employers reluctant to boost travel budgets for on-campus recruiting, business schools are getting creative about helping students land jobs.

In today’s business world, you need the right combination of street smarts and book knowledge to survive and thrive. Here are three reasons why an MBA is your best bet to achieve this while working.

Now that the most of the second deadline are behind us, many prospective students are wondering whether they should apply in the 3rd round or wait for the first round and apply early next year. Here are some general guidelines to help you approach this decision.

The newest Financial Times ranking doesn’t change much amongst the top positions. On the losing end is CEIBS in Shanghai.

With the business school of Qatar University in Doha and the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok AACSB International announced its first accreditation in Qatar and Thailand. Altogether nine schools get accredited for the first time. This brings up the number of accredited business schools to 579 in 35 countries.

When managers study for an EMBA at 50, it’s not usually to boost their careers. François de Belsunce was caught by the global crisis. As a Senior Country Manager and Member of the Executive Board of the German branch of the French investment bank NATIXIS, he aligns and optimizes internal structures almost daily. “I just fancied doing something completely different,” jokes the bank manager.

Climate change and other pressing environmental and social issues urgently require transformational change. 76% of senior executives say it is important that leaders in their organisations have the knowledge and skills they need to respond, but only 7% believe these knowledge and skills are currently being developed very effectively either internally or by business schools more broadly. Are business schools and HR departments up to the challenge?

Common sense suggests it, political programmes promote it, research has proven it: a healthy gender mix, i.e. more women in corporate decision making positions, improves the financial and organisational performance of companies. But despite the evidence and much rhetoric there has not been a substantial upward movement in numbers: in Europe still only 11% of board members of listed companies are women. A good management education is a qualifying element of a successful career path, in particular an executive MBA programme which allows people to keep working during their studies. But here the picture is similar to the corporate world: rarely more than 25% of class members are women.

Microsoft, Virgin, Google - what do these enormously successful entrepreneurial ventures have in common?  Each started in an economic downturn.  Many successful ventures get their break when times are tough: there is less competition from established players in most industries, less stigma attached to failure, and with high white-collar unemployment there is much talent and experience eager to join entrepreneurial teams.  If you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, now might be the time to do it.

This fall, I am traveling extensively, reaching out to prospective applicants to the Darden School of Business at University of Virginia.  Though my trips entail a lot of public speaking, I am listening too.  The people in my audiences voice concerns about the recession—and international applicants are worried about visa problems that could affect job prospects, and capital market conditions that could affect the ability to get student loans. 

It is not the performance level of MBA students that determines their capability for management roles, it is what they learn from the experience, finds Robert Wood, management professor at Melbourne Business School in Australia.

Harvard MBAs have proposed that all MBA students sign an oath. It pledges, among other things, to “contribute to the well-being of society” and to “create sustainable economic, social and environmental prosperity worldwide.” I don’t believe that this is a good idea, for three reasons. First, some parts of the pledge are inconsistent with fiduciary duties and ethical standards. Second the oath is a misplaced response to the financial crisis. Third, I don’t believe in pledges as an instrument to guide people’s behaviour.

Business schools have become an easy target as the butt of jokes about the causes of the current economic crisis. A recent segment on ‘The Daily Show,’ an American satirical television programme, explored the theme of MBAs being to blame for the crisis and the MBA oath as a possible remedy. Its presenter feigned surprise that not all students were willing to sign up to an oath that said: “I will act with utmost integrity and pursue my work in an ethical manner.” No doubt the view that MBAs would have difficulty in making such a commitment is more widespread and yet it seems such a straightforward commitment to make. So in answer to the question, ‘why an MBA oath?’, one response surely must be: ‘Why not?’ Why should it be so difficult for MBAs to commit to behaving ethically?

“Life is made up of things we are obliged to do and things where we have a free choice. And only those who master what they are obliged to will succeed.” – This is a popular saying that can be extended to many areas of life and also aptly characterizes the situation prevailing in the international MBA market. Only those who meet the globally accepted standards can focus their attention on what they freely choose to – positioning themselves as business schools with their own profile and their own competitive advantages.

MBAs want a new approach to business according to the new research from the Association of MBAs, in partnership with Durham Business School.

According to the Graduate Management Admission Council MBA students are getting younger. Worldwide testing centers for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) reported a 161-percent spike in the under-25 set. Also the number of women is increasing – especially in Asia.