DeansTalk - business management education

How Will You Measure Your Life? - HBR - Prof. Clayton M. Christensen

Harvard Business Review Announces 52nd Annual McKinsey Award Winners

April 19, 2011, Harvard Business Review is pleased to announce that Clayton M. Christensen is the 2010 McKinsey Award winner for his article “How Will You Measure Your Life?” Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and a four-time recipient of the award.

...Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more MBA students come to school thinking that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people...

First female president of the European University Association

New Leader in European Higher Ed, April 28, 2011, Times Higher Education

The first female president of the European University Association has vowed to use her term of office to smash the glass ceiling for women working in higher education.

Maria Helena Nazaré, former rector of the University of Aveiro and the first female rector in Portugal, was elected by a narrow margin at the EUA 2011 conference in Denmark this month...

...Professor Nazaré said there was room for improvement at the EUA, although she emphasized its success in developing from an "almost nonexistent" entity to the lobby group for more than 800 European institutions in just a decade...

Stanford GSB move to Knight Management Center

"Open for Business! Our new home is ready after 10 years of planning and 3 years of construction. Read the details

Please join us on April 29 to celebrate a community-wide launch and Open House of the Stanford GSB's Knight Management Center. We'll have an afternoon full of food and entertainment, special guests, and a few surprises.

We are welcoming alumni, friends, students, faculty, and staff from throughout Stanford, business leaders, and prospective students for this historic milestone."

EU Consultation: Green Paper on a Common Strategic Framework for future EU Research and Innovation Funding

European Commission Research and Innovation

On 9th February 2011, the European Commission presented a Green Paper ( Green Paper EN 70 KB ) which proposes major changes to EU research and innovation funding to make participation easier, increase scientific and economic impact and provide better value for money. The changes, to be introduced in the next EU budget after 2013, would bring together the current Framework Programme for research, the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

The Commission is seeking the views of all interested individuals and organisations on these proposed changes and on the specific questions set out in the Green Paper. The deadline for contributions is Friday 20 May 2011.

Interdisciplinary Management Education - Dr. Rahul Choudaha (DrEducation.com)

Post of March 26, 2011

Some of the interdisciplinary research and curricular approaches include:
Professional Science Masters
Service Science supported by IBM  (IBM Systems Journal)
MD/MBA at Dartmouth
Stanford GSB and Law school for energy policy
Columbia Business School
IE Business School and Brown University

Indian B-schools have to broaden their own mindset by accepting that they are not in the business of offering MBA degrees. Instead they are in the business of developing talent, which innovates, improves and provides solutions to business and societal problems. Thus, one approach to make B-schools relevant is to consider some of the biggest challenges faced by the Indian society and collaborate to offer programmes, which go beyond disciplinary boundaries. Read more.

"There is more to business than analytics" - Dean of Programs, David Bach, IE Business School in the Financial Times

Article of the Financial Times, April 25, 2011.

“Frame a challenging problem, then get out of the way!”

Flights of fancy help replicate real business dilemmas - Financial Times

Article of Rebecca Knight, April 25 2011

Imagine you are an analyst at an international investment bank whose job it is to predict the daily price of a barrel of oil. What happens if members of Opec, the oil cartel, refuse to sell oil to allies of Israel or if extreme weather conditions hit Europe?

These are the “hypothetical events” of the World Oil Prices Game, a management flight simulator developed by IE Business School in Madrid. The simulator, an interactive model that reproduces real-life business conditions, aims to help students forecast supply and demand in the world petroleum market.

“We’ve always tried hard to put reality into the teaching, but it’s hard to do that with just words,” says Gayle Allard, professor of economic environment and country analysis at IE, who created the simulator in collaboration with professional oil traders. “In a case study, you can talk about possible outcomes and discuss them, but with simulators students can see events unfold before their eyes.”...

Techcrunch - 83% Of Startups Plan To Hire This Year (Up From 73% Last Year): Survey

83% Of Startups Plan To Hire This Year (Up From 73% Last Year): Survey, April 22, 2011.

Silicon Valley Bank this morning released Startup Outlook 2011 (PDF), a survey of startup perceptions.

The financial institution surveyed 375 U.S.-based, private, VC-backed software, hardware and cleantech companies, and found that startups are generally optimistic about current business opportunities and that they will continue to hire throughout 2011 to support the expected growth...

+

We’re In The Middle Of A Terrible Blubble!, Michael Arrington, April 24, 2011.

UPDATE April 26, MarketWatch, WSJ: New Internet bubble gathering steam

More female MBAs, but little gains for equal pay

Fortune, April 22, 2011

Women are heading to business school in larger numbers than ever before, and at younger ages to boot. But how much are women gaining from the degree? ...

Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director, McKinsey & Company - podcast of Judge Bschool

19 April, Judge at Cambridge website   (cf. "Global Forces" post, Deanstalk)

Mr. Barton speaks about MBA recruitment towards the end of the podcast.

"successful people have more failures", "persistence is extremely important"

(Dominic Barton, Wikipedia)

Research: "The Long Goodbye: Letting Go of Fannie and Freddie" - Tuck School of Business

Tuck article, April 2011

The federal government wants to get out of the mortgage business. But new research by assistant professor Manuel Adelino suggests such a move would only hurt the housing market.

In the boom before the bust, credit was easy and home values appeared bound for the stratosphere. Many analysts assumed the two were in a symbiotic relationship—that credit availability led to rising real estate prices, which then led to further credit availability. Tuck assistant professor Manuel Adelino, an expert in mortgage-backed securities and mortgage renegotiation, has looked at the data. In a paper soon to be presented, he shows a direct causal link between cheap loans and the rise of the housing market.

Adelino’s research is especially timely as Congress considers how to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest mortgage companies in the nation...

...In fact, the timing of the wind-down is one of the key points of disagreement between Republicans and Democrats. House Republicans recently unveiled a package of eight bills that would dissolve Fannie and Freddie over the next two to five years. The Obama administration envisions the process taking up to a decade.

Unfortunately, Adelino says, there will never be a good time to let housing prices drop. “The best case scenario is a gradual removal of the subsidy to try to make it go smoothly and avoid a shock in the market.”

IE Business School and busuu.com present the 2011 Language Barometer

Madrid, April 2011 (IE), (news on busuu blog) IE Business School and busuu.com, a European online community for learning languages, have conducted the 2011 Language Barometer survey, the world's largest online report on the future of language learning. More than 16,000 people from over 150 different countries took part in the survey which was carried out in March 2011...

Schools must embrace digital revolution - FT

Article of Financial Times, April 18 2011

Tom Blacksell is chief executive of Capgemini Consulting UK

...Business schools that fail to recognise the ubiquity of new technology, or fail to exploit the benefits of online learning, risk lagging behind not only the students they aim to teach but also the recruiters who come to these schools in search of MBAs. They may also find that a lack of familiarity with new technology puts them at a disadvantage when trying to attract corporate clients in the competitive executive education market...

UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School (Dublin) - MBA Rugby World Champions

"World masters: UCD Smurfit take title", The Irish Times, April 18, 2011

THE UCD (University College Dublin) Smurfit School were recently crowned MBA rugby world champions after winning a bruising tournament in America.

The team captained by Robert Downes and coached by Barry Gibney cut a swathe through several American universities and one English one to take the title.

They beat their hosts Duke (22-12), the University of Texas (35-12), UCLA Cal state (22-7) before holding off Wharton (17-14) in a hard fought quarter-final, literally as two Smurfit players required hospital treatment, while the Pennsylvania team also had two players receive a red card.

Tight encounters were to become a feature of the knock-out stages as the Dublin college edged past the London Business School 12-8, claiming victory with a last-minute try.

The final, against Harvard, was another nail biting affair with UCD Smurfit holding out following a series of five-metres scrums to prevail 13-10.

It was definitely a thoroughly merited and hard-earned success following 320 minutes of uncompromising rugby over three days. Seapoint’s Stephen Verso was the only member of the squad who regularly plays AIL rugby...

MBA Students Give Career Services a New Assignment - BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek, April 14

B-school career offices chase a new breed of employer as students look beyond Wall Street...

The Global Business School Gap - U.S. News

U.S. News, April 15, 2011

Globalization is the hot topic in management education these days. In the past two years, elite business schools have initiated a slew of programs and partnerships designed to cultivate leaders who can work in cross-cultural environments with ease...

Colleges Aren’t Keeping Up With Student Demand for Hybrid Programs, Survey Suggests

April 14, 2011, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Students want hybrid programs that blend online and face-to-face experiences. But colleges don’t seem to be providing enough of them to meet the demand.

That’s one message that emerges from the results of a national survey of more than 20,000 current and prospective adult students that were just released by Eduventures, a consulting firm...

Tomorrow´s MBA 2011 study highlights the rise of the entrepreneur

Download Tomorrows MBA 2011 (Exec Summary) 

are MBA students giving up on big business?
In their second study of prospective MBAs, CarringtonCrisp, education marketing and market research specialists, in partnership with ABS and EFMD have found a growing demand for entrepreneurship in the MBA curriculum.  Entrepreneurship is now in the top five most valuable pieces of content according to a study of 476 prospective MBAs in 79 countries.
In the report, Tomorrow’s MBA 2011, CarringtonCrisp found other signs that enterprise is on the rise.  Career progression is still the number one motivation when thinking of studying for an MBA, but students recognising the changing job market are putting skills ahead of salary.
Andrew Crisp, one of the authors of the report, commented, “There’s evidence in the rankings that salary increase post-graduation is becoming less of a distinguishing issue between schools.  Students are reacting to this and the downturn in financial hiring in recent years has forced students to look at other career options.  Whether they want control of their own careers by starting their own business or recognise the need to be able to manage a variety of projects in a large business in order to move up in their careers, entrepreneurship skills are increasingly valuable”.
Eric Cornuel, Director General and CEO of EFMD added, “Entrepreneurship in people and society is vital for future competitiveness. From new venture start-ups to the largest companies, having entrepreneurial skills mixed with the core components of an MBA enhances the value of the qualification for both students and employers.”
Other trends highlighted in this year’s study include:
-       Most valuable course content among prospective MBAs is Strategic Management, Leadership and Managing People and Organisations.
-       Less than 10% of the sample have become more negative about the MBA qualification over the past year.
-       Only in North America do more than 50% of the sample indicate that they want a traditional 2 year MBA programme.  Across the sample, more respondents want blended learning rather than traditional academic terms and office hours.
-       When asked what had the greatest impact on their perception of the MBA, the answer was most likely to be people, either when visiting business schools, meeting MBA alumni or working with MBA graduates.  Information gathering may be dominated by electronic media, but decision making still tends to only take place after a conversation with an alumnus or school staff member.
-       There is a continued focus on embedding ethics and CSR rather than teaching as stand alone components of a MBA
Background information
Data for the study was gathered in November/December 2010.  A total of 476 responses were received from prospective MBA students in 79 countries.  The sample was 74% male, 26% female.  The majority of the sample were post-experience candidates; 40%, have 2-7 years work experience.  29% of candidates have already made applications to business schools and just over 60% want to start their studies in the next 12 months.
The Executive Summary of the report is available on www.efmd.org

iMobileU - MIT´s gift for developing your mobile campus application

http://imobileu.org

MobileU is a community of educational institutions with a shared interest in mobile development. Please join the iMobileU mailing list to share your school's experiences and learn what others are doing. This website serves as a hub for the mailing list as well as the many open source frameworks created and used by iMobileU's members.

MIT Mobile Framework

http://github.com/MIT-Mobile

This is the same code that runs http://m.mit.edu

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 58th Annual Management Conference, May 20, Chicago

www.chicagobooth.edu/mc/2011/

Videos and stories from 2010

www.chicagobooth.edu/mc/2010/coverage/

2009

INSEAD and the World Economic Forum Announce Results of the 10th Annual Global Information Technology Report

April 12, 2011.

Nordic countries again top the rankings for the tenth anniversary edition of the Global Information Technology Report, created and written by INSEAD and the World Economic Forum. Singapore ranks number two, while the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries show significant improvement in technological readiness. INSEAD Professor Soumitra Dutta discusses the report's findings with Knowledge Editor-in-Chief Shellie Karabell. (Access the report click here (PDF, 435 pages); press release click here)

NASSCOM - Global Immigration Trends, Challenges & Opportunities 2011

NASSCOM, with Fragomen as Knowledge Partner is pleased to announce “Global Immigration - Trends, Opportunities & Challenges - 2011”, an immigration workshop on employer responsibility, new global legislative developments and strategies for compliance at a time of ever increasing restrictions on the worldwide deployment of international personnel.

We had an interesting year where corporations were coming out of the recession and increased deployment globally in line with renewed client demand. In the last one year, we have seen more protectionist measures as well as new challenges. We have seen visa costs increasing and minimum eligibility requirements more stringent across the globe. Mobility and Immigration professionals have been working in tandem with government agencies and industry bodies to be able to address these new demands and be in compliance with the legal requirements.

This conference will enable attendees to obtain and understand a comprehensive overview of the current Immigration trends, challenges and best practices covering multiple international destinations for multi-national corporations. We have confirmations from embassies as well as government immigration authorities from major geographies to speak at the event. 

The program with details can be downloaded by clicking here. We look forward to meeting you at this seminar.

 

U.S. Business Schools Get More Competition From Abroad - WSJ

Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2011

U.S. graduate business schools are losing their iron grip on the thriving market for international M.B.A. students.

At the 25 U.S. graduate-business programs that award the largest numbers of degrees to international students, applications for the 2011 fall semester declined 4%, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Council of Graduate Schools, based in Washington, D.C.

Although international applications to all American business schools rose by 4%, that figure paled in comparison to the 12% growth in international bids to U.S. programs offering degrees in engineering and physical and earth sciences, the survey said...

The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value, Professor Micheal E. Porter - HBR + interview

Full article here

Jan/Feb 2011.

By

Michael E. Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard University. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and a six-time McKinsey Award winner.

Mark R. Kramer cofounded FSG, a global social impact consulting firm, with Professor Porter and is its managing director. He is also a senior fellow of the CSR initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

---

The Idea in Brief

The concept of shared value—which focuses on the connections between societal and economic progress—has the power to unleash the next wave of global growth.

An increasing number of companies known for their hard-nosed approach to business—such as Google, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Unilever, and Wal-Mart—have begun to embark on important shared value initiatives. But our understanding of the potential of shared value is just beginning.

There are three key ways that companies can create shared value opportunities:

•    By reconceiving products and markets

•    By redefining productivity in the value chain

•    By enabling local cluster development

Every firm should look at decisions and opportunities through the lens of shared value. This will lead to new approaches that generate greater innovation and growth for companies—and also greater benefits for society.

Becker and Posner - College Education.

What Is a College Degree Really Worth? - Posner, 03/14/2011

Are Too Many Young People Going to College? - Becker, 03/14/2011

Princeton professor Alan Ryan, wonders why women still appear to be losing out in academia

"Beyond the buffers", Times Higher Education, April 7, 2011.

...an apparent hesitation on the part of very clever, energetic and high-spirited women when it comes to "leadership"...

...Nonetheless, there is something faintly disturbing about the fact that women do better than men academically, all the way to the very top, at which point men outperform women...

Nooyi, CEO PepsiCo, Calls for More Women in Top Management - WSJ + interview

WSJ, April 8 

Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo Inc., criticized fellow corporate leaders for failing to try hard enough to increase the ranks of women in upper management.

...Among the proposals backed by Ms. Nooyi: the creation of a private panel of big-business chiefs. This CEO commission would publish results of corporate efforts to expand the number of senior executive women – including "company scorecards and metrics" – and consider setting public targets for women's advancement...

+

Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of Pepsico VIP Distinguished Speaker Series September 16, 2010 with Dean Tom Gilligan at McCombs business school (Texas).

Asian M.B.A. Programs on the Rise

Article of US News, April 8, 2011.

It's official: Management education in Asia is booming. With four schools firmly ensconced in the Financial Times top 20 global M.B.A. rankings—China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Hong Kong UST Business School, the Indian School of Business, and the Indian Institute of Management—those who pursue an M.B.A. in Asia are banking on the idea that studying in the region will open doors faster, and wider, than ever before. 

Flexibility and cost are just two factors swaying applicants to look at programs in the Far East. Most are much shorter than the traditional two-year program in the United States and are significantly less expensive than the top American programs...

A passport to the top of the business world - The Independent

Article of 7 April 2011

...However recent work done by INSEAD researchers has indicated that the long-term performance of CEOs who have MBAs outranks that of their colleagues who lack such a training, while other analysts point out that, with MBAs burgeoning from the 1980s onwards, many more of tomorrow’s CEOs will have MBAs compared to the company leaders in post today...

Dean of Programs, David Bach, IE Business School - "What's Google's Best Strategy for Fighting Microsoft in the EU?"

HBR Blogs,The Conversation, April 5, 2011 (David Bach faculty page)

Rather than delving into many ironies of Microsoft accusing Google of similar anti-competitive practices to the ones that resulted in billions of dollars in fines against the Redmond company over the past decade, let's consider what Microsoft's move means and how Google might respond.

By filing a complaint with the European Commission last Thursday, Microsoft has taken its battle with Google into the 'nonmarket' domain — the social, political, and regulatory space where the rules governing market competition are set and enforced. Better than any other technology company, Microsoft knows — painfully well — that the nonmarket domain forms part of the competitive playing field. It also knows that firms can shape this part of the business environment through deliberate strategies...

Book - Beyond the Familiar: Long-Term Growth Through Customer Focus And Innovation

No need for acts of management bravado, FT, March 30 2011

about

Beyond the Familiar Long-Term Growth Through Customer Focus And Innovation
By professors Patrick Barwise (LBS) and Seán Meehan (IMD)
Wiley, £17.99

Game-Based Learning: Hype Vs. Reality - Huffington Post

Huffington Post, 04/ 3/11

In a recent speech to a group of students at TechBoston in Dorchestor, Massachusetts. President Obama had this to say about video games:

I'm calling for investments in educational technology that will help create ... educational software that is as compelling as the best video game. I want you guys to be stuck on a video game that's teaching you something other (than) just blowing something up.

When I started my career in video games in the early 1990s, the idea of a sitting President saying anything positive about video games was pretty much unthinkable...

"New Technologies for Measuring Emotions" (Future of e-learning?)

Professor, Co-founder, Chief Scientist, Chairman, MIT Media Lab and Affectiva, Inc.

Conference at web2.0 expo: "New Technologies for Measuring Emotions"

Conference at web2.0 expo: "How To Use New Emotion Measuring Technologies"

To thrive in the business world today, you must rapidly create newer and better products and experiences—more engaging, more what people want or like. But how do know how people feel? You can already track their clicks, but how do you know that you’re connecting with them emotionally?

(one of the speakers at web2.0 expo)

The author of nearly two hundred scientific articles and chapters in multidimensional signal modeling, computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and affective computing, Picard is an international leader in envisioning and inventing innovative technology. She holds multiple patents, having designed and developed a variety of new sensors, algorithms, and systems for sensing, recognizing, and responding respectfully to human affective information, with applications in autism communication, human and machine learning, health behavior change, marketing, advertising, customer service, and human-computer interaction.

Harvard M.B.A. Students Stroll the Catwalk for Charity

Article of Dealbook, April 4, NYT, 2011.

...The fashion show was expected to raise more than $5,000 for Dress for Success, a charity that provides work clothing and career training for low-income women...

An MBA helps keep business in the family - Della Bradshaw of the Financial Times

Article of The Financial Times, April 4 2011

MBA degrees may be dominated by men, but this has been no real problem for Jeanne Bianco, an executive MBA student at Cambridge’s Judge business school.

As managing director in the UK of National Tube Stockholders, a steel tube specialist based in the North Yorkshire market town of Thirsk, and the second generation of her family to run the company which was set up by her father and uncle in the 1970s, she is used to operating in a man’s world.

Multimedia cases by Jack & Suzy Welch.

http://everybodysbusiness.msn.com

M.B.A. Programs Focus on Project Management

U.S. News, March 30, 2011

Employers clamor for students with project management skills

An M.B.A. no doubt bolsters any résumé and allows many students to walk through professional doors that would have otherwise been shut. But once an M.B.A. graduate has stepped over that threshold, their skills will be put to the test. And while many M.B.A. students may be well versed in the nuances of finance, accounting, and analysis, employers have recently indicated that they need a more diverse set of skills from many of these high priced employees.

Increasingly, employers in various fields are seeking workers who have a proficiency in project management. Skills like time management, the ability to implement strategic change, and cost management, among other...

HRH The Prince of Wales visits IE Business School today and meets entrepreneurs

George Buckley, CEO of 3M, on Innovation - Tea with The Economist

March 26th, 2011

Facing economic challenges in the West, the chief executive of 3M looks to emerging markets for new opportunities and more scientists.