Going Global

Paul Danos, Dean Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

In an article by Ilan Alon and Craig McAllaster in the May/June issue of Biz Ed titled, “The Global Footprint,” the authors identified the six things that business schools have to do in terms of their globalization strategy.

One point I think is important to remember (at least this is true for Tuck) is that the career placement activity for graduate business schools has become almost exclusively a global effort. Virtually all of the companies that hire our students are dealing in the global marketplace in one way or another. Companies are often identified with the U.S. or Western Europe, but in essence if you look at where their sales are and where their operations are, they are truly global companies. They are the companies who are leading the charge in terms of globalization in financial services, strategic consulting, distribution, technology, etc. They’re the companies that hire our domestic students and our students from outside the U.S., which is a very significant slice of our total population. They’re hiring our students for assignments all over the world.

When we say that our non-U.S. students do as well in the placement market as do the Americans it’s because these companies are seeing their needs in a global way. They don’t look at an MBA graduate as an American, or as an Indian, or an Asian. They look at each as a person who can fill a valuable role somewhere in their worldwide operations.

At a school like Tuck we are now seeing global career placement because companies themselves have become much more global.

Another important point to consider is that the return on investment for the full-time MBA at a top school is very high and I believe it is much higher for non-US students where the increase pre- and post-MBA is much greater. Additionally, a very important aspect of the full-time program is the opportunity it affords for a complete change in one’s career – with many students going from teacher to marketer, or from engineer to banker. Such reorientations are very common and very valuable for many MBA students.

Tags(clickable): BizEd, AACSB

Comments

[Richard Edelstein, Principal, Global Learning Networks]

Dean Danos' is correct in pointing out the limitations of the analytical model presented by Alon and McAllaster in their Biz Ed article. While I applaud the authors for putting the spotlight on the problems of adding an internationional dimension to business education, I believe they have oversimplified the critical elements and have focused exclusively on internal issues. The real challenges lie in creating an international context for learning that necessarily entails close relationships with schools, companies and alumni outside the U.S. The future lies in building a network of professional and institutional relationships that transcend national boundaries.