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Rankings | - "Two different sets of 'standard' data."

Della Bradshaw, The Financial Times Business Education editor.

Not surprisingly, I am prepared to jump into the rankings debate with both feet.

I think Prof Danos' comments are particularly generous. I am sure some schools do have concerns about breaches of privacy when students, alumni and recruiters are surveyed, but I know of no example at the FT - or any other newspaper or journal - where this has happened.

As to the time it takes to complete the surveys....this is an issue we take seriously at the FT and we only ask schools for information that we actually use in the rankings.

We have always supported the GMAC initiative to work towards a standardised set of data that we can use in our rankings. Our only concern is that the definitions should take into account MBA programmes internationally, not just those run in the US.

Indeed, my biggest worry at the moment is a European initiative to develop a similar set of standardised data - designed to measure European MBA programmes.

The last thing anyone needs is two different sets of "standard" data.

On a final note....for the past five years the FT has audited the data supplied to us by the schools for our MBA rankings, using auditors KPMG. What has become clear to us through this is that the processes in place to collect data in the different business schools vary enormously.

The differences are not related to the size or nationality of the schools, nor to whether they have huge endowments or exist on state hand-outs. Some of the top schools are brilliant at supplying data, others are woeful.

Presumably this relates directly to the time it takes to complete the surveys?

Business Schools Rankings - Some thoughts

Paul Danos, Dean Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Two true statements one can make about business school rankings-they are controversial and they are important. Many educational leaders criticize the rankings because of the cost of participating, the potential for privacy breeches, and the forcing of differences among top MBA programs where hardly any significant differences exist.

It is difficult to deny that applicants are to some extent swayed by the rankings. If the sales of ranking publications is any indicator, the public's appetite for rankings and summary evaluations will not lessen in the future, and therefore I would like to see how we can make them better and more useful.

In their defense, rankings can add value to the market by providing objective evaluations of the major programs in the world. They are read by many people, they are archived for easy reference, and their survey methods are often very good with very high participation rates. In addition, I believe that the publishers of the major rankings want to get things right and are open to improvements in their methodologies.

One negative for participating business schools is that it does consume resources. To answer all the questions consistently across publications and from year to year does require significant effort. I have found that some of the research necessary for rankings is also needed for a school's strategy and operations, i.e., the normal institutional research that many schools should do anyway. In that sense, the marginal cost of participating is not as great as it may initially seem.

Tuck trip to Peru, Chile and Brazil...thoughts

Paul Danos, Dean Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

During a recent trip to Latin American, I moderated a roundtable on the future of management education in Brazil.  When the transcript is done, we will post it on this blog, as we did with our roundtable on the future of management education in Germany. 

I came away with some general impressions and initial contrasts with the situation in Germany.  First, whereas Germany has created many new MBA programs in the last few years, most of which are full-time and often extensions of their first degrees, new programs in Brazil and Latin America in general are part-time and many are long-established. 

I found that the topics covered in both German and Brazilian business schools are converging to a more or less worldwide norm with best practices coming through in text books and cases that are common across many countries.

In Brazil with regard to research emphasis, there seems to be a difference between the traditional, university-based business schools and the newer business schools that do not usually have a university affiliation.  Traditional scholarship in peer reviewed journals seems to be more rewarded in the former than in the latter.  Both types of schools, however, strive for relevant teaching, with the newer schools having much of the teaching done by practicing professionals.

A very interesting question involved the balance between educating students for local and regional opportunities and/or educating them to join world companies.  Many of the most promising students who want international opportunities still go to Europe and North America for the MBA degree and a high percentage work elsewhere for several years. 

In Germany, the deans predicted that the faculty model of the future would emphasize scholarship more, while in Brazil there was no consensus with predictions of both more scholarship and a continuation of part-time faculties. 

In Latin America, the mood is cautiously optimistic for political and economic stability; and Brazil, as always, seems to be poised to play an enormous role in the economy of the region and the world, and, as it has been seen in Asia, business education will follow economic growth. 

On this trip to Peru, Chile, and Brazil, we saw many well-prepared and enthusiastic prospective MBA students who are investigating programs around the world.  I wish them all the best and I know that we will see many of them at Tuck in the future. 

Tags(clickable): mba,  dartmouth, paul danos, tuck, education, business school, management education

Comments on "Benefits of competition amongst Accreditation Systems"

Della Bradshaw, The Financial Times Business Education editor.

I find the comments from Prof Urgel and Jeanette Purcell on the proliferation of accreditation agencies quite intriguing.

Both, I believe are saying that it gives business schools the chance to pick the agency whose criteria best suit their school.

Would they say the same about business school rankings conducted by the media?

One of the biggest complaints I hear about rankings is that there are too many of them!

Will the proliferation of accreditation schemes lead to schools "playing the accreditation game" in the same way as schools are accused these days of "playing the rankings game"?

Comments on "Women in MBAs"

Della Bradshaw, The Financial Times Business Education editor.

I was really interested in Professor Iniguez's comments (18th November) about the lack of women on MBA programmes.

When I was in China recently, the professors and staff at the business schools there seemed quite bemused by this inability of US and European business schools to attract female students. In China roughly half the students are women.

A recent report commissioned by the Association of MBAs showed that in Russia the majority of MBA students are women.

What conclusions (if any) can be drawn from these two examples?

The reports of a decline are greatly exaggerated

Santiago Iñiguez, Dean of Instituto de Empresa.

The "life cycle model" is a popular management tool widely used by consultants.

The model is based on the anthropomorphic analogy that compares a given industry (or product) to a life. According to the model, each industry evolves consecutively through the stages of introduction, growth, maturity and decline, The main advantage of the model is its simplicity and intuitiveness. However, that is also its major weakness. From time to time, I encounter students in class who refer to the "life cycle model" in order to classify the industry under discussion as "mature". I always take these opportunities to talk about the virtues and shortcomings of the model, and also to recall a statement made by the renowned strategist John Stopford: "There are no mature industries; there are only mature companies".

The categorical words of Stopford come to my mind whenever I hear about the maturity of the MBA, a common debate nowadays. Those who make this maturity diagnosis refer to the high number of schools offering MBAs, the drop in numbers of GMAT applicants in the past years and the threat of some other substitute educational offerings. I believe that the MBA programme is not mature but rather, that there may be some mature business schools.

Some of the reasons behind my tenet are the following:

-First, if we look at the broad family of MBA programmes, which includes Executive MBAs, MBAs specialised in sectors or particular disciplines (such as Finance or Marketing), the fact is that the aggregated market has grown in the past decade and the prospects are positive.

- Second, there is still ample room to grow if schools aim at attracting more women to MBA programmes. The average percentage of women in MBAs is still very low (around 25% at top schools: see my previous post) as compared to other degrees.

-Third, there are still big opportunities to internationalise the student body at many business schools. The Bologna Accord, for example, may represent a historic opportunity in Europe in the future, not to mention other regions with faster growing economies.

-Fourth, some of the statistics that we are using may be misleading. Although GMAC reports that the number of participants in the GMAT test has dropped in the past three years, many schools are using alternative instruments to select applicants, including their own tests.

Definitely, the question is not about the life-stage of the product. It is a question of innovating.

Tags(clickable): mba,  consultants, gmat, education, business school, management education

Benefits of competition amongst Accreditation Systems

Jeanette Purcell, Chief Executive of Association of MBA's.

Julio Urgel and Santiago Iniguez rightly point out the benefits of competition amongst the various accreditation systems in business education. Competition allows business schools to choose the system that best meets their needs and is arguably better than the alternative – a single accreditation system which imposes one particular model of quality assurance.

The other advantage of increasing competition in accreditation is that all of the players are forced to examine closely their own positioning and uniqueness in a complex and changing market. The differences between the three international accreditation agencies – AMBA, Equis and the AACSB - are beginning to emerge, as each identifies their particular strengths and sets about improving the relevance and value of their services.

In AMBA’s case, we have clearly distinguished the organisation as a consumer-driven international organisation, independent from business schools and with a focus on programme accreditation - the MBA, the Pre-Experience Masters in General Management (PEMM) and the DBA. AMBA is a membership association for individuals who are students and graduates of accredited MBA programmes. We are governed by our members and their interests and concerns drive all of our activities – including the monitoring of standards and quality in post-graduate business education. So, our role as the advocate for the MBA, and as the professional membership association for MBAs, depends on our internationally recognised programme accreditation scheme.

The launch of a new accreditation system by the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS) is understandable given the growth of programmes in this region. At the same time, all accreditation agencies must be mindful of the burden which their systems place on business schools. I would argue for co-operation and flexibility between the various organisations, wherever it makes sense. National accreditation agencies may feel the need to set minimum standards for their business schools, but I would urge them to recognise the accreditation of programmes by international agencies in the process.

Tags(clickable): mba, amba, PEMM, DBA, education, business school, management education

Del Administrado al Ciudadano-Cliente

Santiago Iñiguez, Dean of Instituto de Empresa Business School.

En un reciente comentario en este blog, Fernando Jiménez escribe sobre la importancia creciente que tiene la formación de gestores públicos y funcionarios con el fin de que proporcionen un mejor servicio público a los ciudadanos. Ciertamente, la función pública se asemeja cada día más a la gestión empresarial, y la responsabilidad de los administradores públicos se comienza a medir en términos del valor añadido que aportan sus servicios al interés general. Ello requiere, posiblemente, una mejor preparación y formación gerencial y técnica.

El ámbito donde las relaciones entre Administración Pública y ciudadanos alcanza mayor intensidad, como indica Jiménez, es el de los gobiernos regionales y locales, porque gran parte de las competencias administrativas en la prestación de servicios públicos están transferidas a estas corporaciones.

Un ejemplo de la aplicación de sistemas de medición empresarial a la administración local se contiene en el reciente estudio ‘Análisis del Desarrollo del Gobierno Electrónico Municipal en España’ desarrollado por la ‘Cátedra Software AG - Alianza Sumaq en e-Government’. En la presentación del estudio, el Profesor José Estévez, titular de la cátedra, explicaba que "en España muchas ciudades están intentando ofrecer servicios por Internet, pero muy pocas lo hacen de forma estratégica". Sin duda, unas palabras que ponen de relieve la necesidad de incorporar el análisis empresarial a la función pública.

Una cuestión terminológica que tiene gran importancia simbólica es la manera de referirse al usuario o cliente de los servicios públicos: normalmente se habla del "administrado" –así por ejemplo lo hace Jiménez en su post- . La expresión me recuerda el término con el que se referían a los clientes las empresas que operaban en régimen de monopolio, cuando hablaban de los "abonados", significando que su posición era débil y carente de derechos. ¿No valdría la pena cambiar el discurso, y empezar a hablar de "ciudadanos-clientes" más que de "administrados"?

Public Managers and MPA Programmes

Santiago Iñiguez, Dean of Instituto de Empresa.

Traditionally, the public sector was considered the ugly duckling of management programmes. The study of public affairs had been usually left to the schools of public policy and very little attention had been given to the analysis of the interaction between governments and business in MBA programmes. If we take, for example, Professor Michael Porter’s “5 Forces Model”, a classical management tool used to analyse the structure of industries, it makes little reference to the role of public administration in shaping the competition within a given business sector. In fact, curricula of MBA programmes pay incidental interest to public matters with the exception of courses on economy.

Tags(clickable): michael porter,  MBA, British Association of Business Schools, MPA, public sector

A remembrance of Peter Drucker

David B. Allen, Department Chair and Professor of Strategic Management, Instituto de Empresa.

As Peter Drucker continued spinning his magic and looking into his crystal ball into his 90’s, it became commonplace to praise Drucker as the father of management and the anti-guru guru who had explained to us just about everything there is to know about management.

This is true, of course. Drucker explained management theory and practice in a way that made sense to managers. He used his broad and diverse learning to provide us with ideas and pictures of how the profession of management could achieve worthy goals: he linked value creation and social responsibility long before these were fashionable. He bridged the academic and professional world, and reminded us again and again that entrepreneurship is the foundation of business. He taught, he inspired, as he gave coherence to the mass of new information and research that emerged after World War II when management suddenly became an academic field of study.

But he did something more. He refused to change his ideas according to the fashion. Oddly, the man promoted innovation and entrepreneurship, did not waver in his ideas. Drucker set out his views in two fundamental books written more than half a century ago: "Concept of the Corporation" first published in 1946, and "The Practice of Management" published in 1954. In the decades that followed, Drucker stayed the same, refining his ideas, challenging us to keep up with the pace of change. And so we changed, and we began to see that Drucker’s greatest contribution, like that of Chester Barnard, was to remind us why management matters. As his work matured, Drucker talked to managers increasingly about leadership in a society of organization. His analogies and examples, his ability to combine erudition with a lively writing style made him the favorite of serious managers who care about the profession of management. It is hard to imagine who will be able to take up his role. Two or three more Peter Druckers would not be a bad idea.