The Future of the MBA

Long exposure at Allans Beach, Otago peninsula

A recent article from The Financial Times, "The future of European MBAs," debated the role of technology in the delivery of MBA programmes and the future of the degree.  I encourage you to read the article and offer the following excerpts here.

Most professors think the disruption being caused by the availability of cheaper online education will actually raise standards at top-flight schools.

Simon Evenett, academic director of the MBA programme at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, seems to speak for the majority when he says he can see a future dominated by the three Rs – retrenchment, relevance and rigour. He sees the three Rs as a process which will see some MBAs close while the top programmes become even better at what they do.

“A shake-out is coming which will force MBA programmes to focus on what they should be doing,” Prof Evenett says, there will be more concentration on the transformation an MBA is supposed to bring, as well as a response to demand from employers for an ability to work across cultures. “It will put an even greater premium on quality,” he says.

Peter O’Connor, dean of academic programmes at Essec, agrees that online MBAs will remain second tier: “For me, the value of an MBA is the value an employer places on the MBA. They are going to do their homework. Certainly, the feedback we have at this present moment is they don’t value online learning so much.”

Working against online learning is the emergent requirement for greater social competence, that many professors mentioned. "The blunt fact is that the world’s business schools do not prepare people to be fantastic colleagues, they prepare people to be fantastic analysts and that has to change,” says Stephan Chambers, MBA director at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, adding that schools need to train people that you would want to work with.

Prof Chambers says the MBA of the future will have to respond to its future global context. He thinks MBA programmes will be supporting the movement towards greater corporate responsibility while at the same time preparing students to deal with what he calls “unparalleled global risks” including pandemics and food and water shortages.

“What we need are individuals who are capable of stitching all that together,” he says.The important skills of the future, will include decision-making in different cultures and linking science to industry.  “I think the world is desperately short of people who can handle that amount of complexity."

Every element of our Otago MBA is designed to provide personal attention

to you; to educate you as a whole person; to engage you in classroom experiences characterized

by rich dialogue and shared inquiry in pursuit of knowledge concerning the most

 compelling business problems facing global business leaders today.

David

Our Mentored, Professional Consulting Engagement: Scary?

The Catlins, an excellent place to explore south of Dunedin.

One of the great things about NZ is the ease of access. With a population of just 4.4 million people, our Otago MBA team has access to many of the most senior business executives and government officials in the country. For instance, Lauren Rosborough, Senior Economic Adviser at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, will meet with our 2014, MBA 38 students.  Try arranging that in the U.S.

Our BUSI 540 Consulting Project

Back to business, this post explains how our BUSI 540 consulting project works; why it isn't as scary as you may believe; and why this experience is better than placement. 

Okay, stretch your right hand out flat in front of you, at eye level: that's your client.  This client may be Z Energy, Downer, or ANZ Bank, some of the largest corporations in NZ; an adventure/sports related business Mons Royale, Icebreaker, Kathmandu, Siliconcoach or Real Journeys; an NGO like the Cancer Society of NZ or Mines Advisory Group; or a company located in another part of the world: BBC or Otto Group.  All of these companies have been past clients and we endeavor to place you on a stage with a high-profile client, with the chance to gain entry into the right industry, company and/or professional network.

Now, extend your left hand out flat in front of you, about 15 cm (6 in) lower than your right hand: that's you.  A level playing field does not exist between you and your client.  The client can make your head spin with the amount of immediate, context-specific information available. This can feel scary. Even so, clients are often confused, the reason why they need our help.

It's your job to bring the available information back and allow us to help you structure a credible BUSI 540 consulting engagement.  We (you & our team) abstract away from immediate data and irrelevant noise to say: "It's this kind of problem, requiring this kind of solution."  We frame the project within the relevant business discipline (e.g., marketing, finance, economics or sustainability) and design analyses that lead to substantive conclusions and recommendations.  Stated simply: we level the playing field and place you in a position to interact with the client as an equal, with an independent voice and something valuable to say.  

The BUSI 540 professional consulting engagement isn't so scary, 

with us in your back pocket.   

How is this better than placement?  Placement is passive, with you a less-than-active collaborator in managing your own career.  We don't leave you on the sidelines.  We offer you a platform (the 540) to demonstrate your worth to potential employers and earn a position.  Some students secure a position immediately; others parlay the experience to gain entry in the right industry; and still others leverage new contacts to secure a position.  You decide: would you rather be in a position to drive your own career or remain dependent on someone from placement for your career?

I am personally responsible for mentoring students through our BUSI 540, so I

invite you to apply and look forward to working with you.

David

See also: Conceptual Thinking; Placement? You're kidding, right?; and Past Projects

Meet our Students: Krister Häll

Ryf, Krister, Tapan and Ankit

Meet, Krister Häll, our friend from Finland and another member of the 2013, MBA 37 class.  Kris has been a terrific student this year, consistently upbeat, all-in for fun, and a gentleman in the truest sense of the word, with the ability to positively influence those around him.  He and his Live Case partners, for instance, chose to designate a shy/quiet syndicate member as their team leader, someone who lacked confidence and could best benefit from the experience.  He engineered a learning experience and then supported her in producing a successful outcome: their syndicate won the best case award.

Kris came to our programme with almost ten years of experience as an investment and risk analyst in the Finnish banking sector, including managing teams, analyzing risk positions and formulating hedging strategies.  He chose the Otago MBA to broaden his understanding of international business and deepen his grounding in economics and finance.  Kris performed well in our phase one core courses, demonstrating exceptional quantitative and leadership abilities: he was voted Top MBA of the Year by his peers. 

Kris will complete his Otago MBA degree through an international exchange at Duke University, to further specialize his education in finance and decision making, beginning in January.  He hopes to complete his BUSI 540 consulting project with a U.S. financial services company, either conducting research related to product/service development or process improvement.  We at the Otago MBA will continue to support Krister in his effort to pursue his career in either the European or U.S. financial services industry.

If you want to chart a similar path through life,

I invite you to apply.

David

Global MBA: the Asian market

Otago Harbour and Peninsula: from Signal Hill

According to the survey reported by MBA-Channel.com, there was a 14 per cent increase in MBA job opportunities in 2013. While this is a drop from the 15 per cent growth in 2012, it was still a very positive outcome.

Asia is the world’s most dynamic MBA market, with a 20 per cent growth rate that is mostly driven by China and India. Asia was followed by the Middle East (8 per cent), Latin America (6 per cent), and Central Europe (6 per cent). The market was much less active in North America and Europe, with 2 per cent and 1 per cent growth respectively, but growth across Europe is forecast to accelerate in 2014 as well as in Latin America that had a sustainable growth rate of 6 per cent in 2013, after a year of 14 per cent growth in 2012.

The research also showed that a higher percentage of MBA recruiters are recruiting pan-regionally or globally nowadays. Gone are the days, where employers only looked locally.

MBA career demand in 2013

The fastest-growing sectors are consulting (11 per cent), finance (11 per cent), general industry (11 per cent) and technology (11 per cent). The slowest-growing sectors are media/entertainment, travel/hospitality, metals/mining and pharmaceuticals/healthcare.

Compensation

According to the survey the top ten countries in terms of average MBA compensation in 2013 are Australia (US$133,100), Switzerland (US$129,700), Denmark (US$121,400), UK (US$106,100), France (US$100,800), US (US$98,300), Brazil (US$97,200), Germany (US$93,700), Spain (US$92,900) and Canada (US$91,600).

If you're looking to pursue an MBA in an English speaking country on the 

doorstep to Asia, I invite you to apply.

David

Our Classroom: the Power of Introverts

Everyone Contributes Valuable Insights!

In a prior post, I emphasized the importance of active learning and the collaborative discovery of
knowledge through shared inquiry in our classes.   Some of our students may remain reflective by nature; others may initially feel hesitant to speak in class; still others may face the challenge of thinking in one
language (e.g., Chinese) before translating thoughts into English; and differences in
culture may compel others to remain respectfully quiet.

I have included the "Power of Introverts" Ted Talk to embolden our more reflective students
and encourage more vocal students to remain culturally sensitive, respect everyone's
right to participate and strive for an inclusive learning experience.

Thank you,

David

Happy Holiday!

Merry Christmas from the Otago MBA team!

No work today: it's Christmas!  

The Uni's closed for a week and my mates from the Otago MBA team are off to Glasgow Scotland, Sydney Australia, Singapore, or other parts of New Zealand; and our students are home with their families all around the world.  Here it's summer, with temperatures in the mid-teens (about 60 f. for those in the Northern Hemisphere) and scattered showers, a pleasant day to enjoy my family.  I wish you a happy holiday season from our Otago MBA management team.

With kindness,

David

Back to our Business Model: conceptual reasoning

One of my favorite photographs owing to the lighting and
complementary colors: taken south of Dunedin

Time to get back to our business model.  I have explained: (1) we remain a boutique MBA programme (by choice) to deliver best value to our students and concede we remain beneath the radar of Top 100 rankings; (2) we are selective about whom we allow into our programme (less than 1 in 10) and resist compromising our standards for size; (3) our unique value proposition emphasizes accelerating your career in the global economy, both through facilitating a transformation in you as a business professional and using our project work to get you into the right industry, corporation and/or professional network; (4) we eschew placement in favor of rigorously training and supporting our students in pursuit of their career ambitions; and (5) our students practice their thinking skills daily in the classroom on the way to becoming truly powerful individuals who can express themselves with clarity and conviction.

All of the pieces of a business model must fit together to deliver best value.

Now, I'll elaborate on the notion of conceptual reasoning and how we develop this ability.  Our core courses (phase one, on-campus programme) focus either on building quantitative skills or thinking within credible business disciplines: e.g., content areas of economics, marketing or sustainability.  Content courses introduce concepts, but the precise definitions of these concepts vary from one course to the next: e.g., the definition of a market in economics vs. in marketing or performance in finance vs. sustainability.  Indeed, much of business revolves around a small number of concepts: market, customer, product (encompassing service), industry, competitor, competition, strategy, business model, performance, cost (plus cost structure), capital (including human capital), financial & physical assets, production/operations, transaction, organization form, ownership structure and so forth. 

Here's a critical insight: most business problems can be structured by identifying the concepts involved; the relevant business discipline needed to structure your thinking; and the appropriate analyses to support informed decision making.  It sounds simple but the challenge is to abstract away from the immediate details of a business situation (i.e., noise) to think conceptually, an acquired ability.

We emphasize conceptual thinking (or reasoning) as a theme across courses, thereby helping students to refine this ability as they progress through our programme, but I'll emphasize two critical experience that directly bear on challenging your reasoning.  First, our Strategic Planning course taught by our much loved Richard Higham, challenges your "dominant paradigm" or the concepts and definitions used to inform your thinking. Second, our high-level project work (e.g., Live Case & capstone consulting engagement) requires you to define the scope of work in terms of key concepts.  As stated in our BUSI 540 course outline:  

"Any 540 project we conduct focuses on business concepts.  Some concepts delimit the project scope (this product or those competitors), while other concepts are defined by your analyses.  Indeed, an entire 50-page report may focus on defining one concept (e.g., what is the market?).  In this regard, you advance knowledge (make an intellectual contribution) by defining / describing some core business concepts more precisely than anyone has before—and you inform your definition (of the market) with data." 

When you're ready to get started, let us know.

David

Adventure Capital of the World

Sometimes, no explanation is necessary: just watch!

                             Queenstown: Adventure capital of the world - Videos - CBS News
1. ► 4:58► 4:58

   www.cbsnews.com/.../queenstown-adventure-capital-of-the-World, Mar 5, 2013

Let's face it, all work and no play is no fun:

Apply now

David

Meet Our Students: Ryf Quail

Otago MBA 37 Student, Ryf Quail

The stated purpose for his blog, as it pertains to future Otago MBA students, is to introduce you to Dunedin and provide a look inside our programme.  This includes allowing you to meet my friends and colleagues: meet Ryf Quail, one of our 2013, MBA 37 students.

Ryf is an Aussie who grew up throwing rocks at snakes and quickly riding away as the snakes gave chase. He proudly boasts that he can trace his ancestry back to criminals on both his mother's and dad's side.  Ryf arrived in Dunedin last April along with is wife, Nichola, a talented business professional, and three-year-old daughter, Izzie, who wraps dad around her little finger.  Ryf describes himself first as a surfer and then as a seasoned media and marketing professional.

Ryf was easily the most impactful student in this year's class, with the most uninhibited approach to life: he laughed loud and often; perpetually supported the wrong sports teams; fueled Aussie vs. Kiwi rivalries; and rode a wave of adrenaline through our programme.  No one was left unscathed and we'll all remember Ryf as a great friend.

He will complete an international exchange at Grenoble Ecole de Management before undertaking a BUSI 540 project aimed at launching a high tech, Internet business venture (no details).  This is something I know about: Ryf and I argued for three months about the wisdom, and credibility of this venture.  He championed from a base of experience in Internet technologies and client needs, while I challenged from neuroscience and the risk that technological innovation could doom the venture.  He eventually won me over through his sheer stubborn commitment. 

Little doubt exists: Ryf will become a successful (and wealthy) entrepreneur, maybe by launching and selling this venture before moving on to the next.  To Ryf, an Otago MBA forever!

Read about Ryf's experiences in our programme.

We are constantly on the lookout for MBA candidates of the
 caliber of Ryf Quail.  I invite you to apply to our programme if you dream big and
 have the guts to follow those dreams.

David

The Classroom: a focus on thinking

Dunedin is a city of small cafes, cozy restaurants and friends

well-suited for good conversation.

I've been a professional educator for more than twenty-five years and this topic, the classroom experience, is one about which I am passionate. You would think that, over twenty-five years, pedagogies would change and we (as educators) would become more effective in facilitating learning. Yet, too often teachers, a term very loosely defined, continue to lecture at students who passively take notes under the premise that this person is providing right answers (i.e., pearls of wisdom) concerning whatever problem businesses may face: the idea is pure nonsense.

Not at the Otago MBA!

Remember, "right" answers do not exist in MBA-level discussions and everyone

in the classroom should actively engage in the discovery of knowledge.

The Otago MBA management team subscribes to an active learning model in which students participate in the learning process and daily practice their thinking skills, while demonstrating the ability to apply course material (e.g., from marketing, finance, economics) to complex business problems. In other words, we encourage shared inquiry as the path to becoming a self-reliant thinker, someone who can express him or herself with clarity and conviction; who can think conceptually (e.g., identify and define key terms); as well as contribute to the collaborative discovery of a deeper understanding of fundamental questions facing global businesses.

Our students are asked to adhere to essential guidelines for engaging in productive discourse in our small seminar-style classes:

• Resist overly quick judgments
• Avoid arguing from small-N experience (e.g., we did it this way) and opinion
• Support your reasoning using credible references (e.g., course materials)
• Relate comments to the ongoing discussion
• Strive for dialogue rather than a monologue
• Seek to include all others in the conversation
• Do not direct all discussions through the lecturer
• Consider questions as a good way to enter the conversation
• Avoid dominating with comments that are too lengthy or of little interest to others
• Use courtesy and civility in all communications
• Feel encouraged to continue lively debates outside the classroom

I will have much more to say about the importance of building powerful thinking

 skills in future posts: we consider this as fundamental to the transformation our students

 experience in our programme.

As always, I invite you to apply now.

David

Placement? You're kidding, right?

Central Otago

We do not “place” students, a perversion of any graduate programme

designed to train global business leaders.

We do not place our students and offer no excuses or apologies.  If the Otago MBA management team and our lecturers do our jobs well and prepare our students to compete effectively at the highest levels of business, then why do they need to be placed?  We're talking about MBA graduates, presumably some of the most talented business people on the planet!  Why shouldn't we afford them the opportunity to demonstrate their readiness and earn a position with an employer well-aligned with his or her career ambitions. Placement?  It's passive.

A recent Poets and Quants article describes the solution for improving MBA student

satisfaction as, "...increasing students' personal accountability throughout

the career management process."

Enough of the rant: we believe we have a better solution: our BUSI 540 professional consulting experience. The 540 is the highlight of the Otago MBA programme, an opportunity for our students to perform on a big stage, with a potentially high-profile client and demonstrate the ability to tackle a complex business challenge using knowledge and skills acquired in our core courses.  It is framed as a professional and mentored consulting engagement aligned with the student’s career ambition, to help him or her gain access to the right industry, right company and right professional network.  

Sounds scary right?   It's not.  Our students continually make us (the Otago MBA programme) look good through their accomplishments with major corporate and nonprofit partners.   

We are extremely proud of our students and their ability

to shine when given the spotlight.

             Note: In a later post, I'll explain the well-honed process we use to help our students 
             complete the 540 with minimal wasted effort, interact with the client as an equal and 
             express an independent voice in interactions.

             The evidence suggests we outperform many professional consulting houses.  Why?  
             Our students are good; they have us in their back pocket; and we adhere to credible
             academic frames to structure problems and design analyses to deliver solutions.  If we
             do our job well, the client responds, "That's so simple."

David

An Introduction

David Baucus, Academic Leader, Otago MBA 

A little about me. We go by first names at the Otago MBA, so I'm David to all involved in our programme. My title is Academic Leader and my responsibilities include maintaining the academic integrity of our programme and mentoring students through our Live Case and BUSI 540 consulting experiences. I mostly hang out with students and disrupt productivity in our MBA offices, a job for which I am well suited.  

My family, wife Melissa of 36 years and our two sons, arrived in Dunedin from the United States almost one year ago. I remember the feeling of moving to New Zealand as a little like dropping off the edge of world: we knew nothing of the city or an Otago. What is an Otago? The decision to come here took at least a month, but we finally decided the adventure was worth the risk: besides, decisions based on fear are usually bad choices.  So, we left Louisville, Kentucky--home of the Kentucky Derby, bourbon and Fried Chicken--and landed 8,600 miles away in Dunedin. I can report that the transition has not been without challenges, but we made the right decision.  

I know something about the design of educational programmes and project-based learning from introducing the concept of mentored learning experiences at Utah State University in the mid 90s and after experimenting with an Accelerated Business Launch programme at the University of Cincinnati in 2003. I also draw on almost thirty years of experience in strategy design (i.e., business models) and ten years in systems neuroscience. My background has been invaluable in articulating the business model underlying our Otago MBA programme: we offer a very thoughtfully designed learning experience tailored to the individual.

Consider the following: we (all people) acquire knowledge about the world in multiple ways. For instance, we gain familiarity and intuition through experience (e.g., a consulting engagement) and rely on experiences to define who we are as people (e.g., business professionals). We cannot gain this kind of knowledge otherwise. Experience, however, does not generalize well (e.g., across contexts/companies, time or cultures) and leads to faulty thinking, such as reasoning from opinion. To paraphrase the philosopher Goethe,"He who can only reason from the experience of one lifetime lives from hand to mouth, a subsistence existence."  

I'm also a photographer

Comprehension comes from reaching beyond experience to think conceptually. Stay with me here. We grasp the meaning of events in our lives by processing experiences into words; understanding comes in Aha! moments when you can explain what happened in words. But we're still talking about the experience of one lifetime. Conceptional reasoning and knowledge come from reaching beyond experience to ground your thinking in additive bodies of knowledge (i.e., science).  That's when you become truly powerful and the reason you would choose to attend the Otago MBA programme.

In other words, we combine practical learning experience (i.e., real projects) to build intuition and help define you as a business professional, with shared inquiry (i.e., the means to conceptual reasoning) into the most compelling challenges facing global business leaders today, while grounding your thinking in science (i.e., credible academic frames in business). It doesn't get better than this.

I encourage you to apply to our Otago MBA programme and look forward to working with you.

Cheers,

David

Getting to know Dunedin, NZ

New Zealanders love their coffee including Starbucks 

Life in Dunedin feels a little like living in a terrarium.  Huge deciduous, evergreen and palm trees, mix with rhododendron hells, flax and ferns.  Giant redwoods grow just a few kilometers from the centre of town in Ross Creek. The downtown area of Dunedin lies at the end of a Otago haba  (a.k.a. harbour) and is relatively flat before rising rapidly to more than 2,300 ft.  I've read that the city lies at the centre of an ancient volcano crater, which explains the circle of hills and peninsula.  The weather varies greatly, with cool cloudy days mixed with sunny summer days with temperatures in the 20s c./70s f.  Dunedin is not nearly as cold or as close to Antarctica as you might think and we get almost no snow
in the winter: just a dusting.  It's pleasant to leave the windows open
on most summer evenings because there are no mosquitos.

Dunedin maintains a vibrant downtown by limiting retail development
in the local neighborhoods, but a variety of small shops, restaurants, bakeries and coffee houses exist close-by, no matter the neighborhood in which you choose to call home.  Some of the shops look like something straight out of the 1950s and the city maintains a small-town feel, even though it is the major metropolis in the Otago-Southland region and draws tourists from around the world.  A Scottish influence prevails and the sounds of bagpipes drift across the eclectic crowds in the Octagon on most weekends. 

Kiwis can come across as unfriendly when you pass them on the streets: many not returning a greeting.  On the other hand, those you meet and with whom you share interests (at the university) can become wonderful friends.  Your ear needs to tune to the speech patterns of the Kiwis, Scots and Brits, so you may only catch about three-quarters of conversations.  I'll leave it to you to learn the meaning of terms such as joiner, sparky, gib stopper, serviette and nibbles.  You will also need to watch out for crazy Kiwi drivers who have the right of way over pedestrians.  Cultural differences exist and you will face real challenges understanding cultural sensitivities, but that's what an international experience is all about.  All in all, life ain't bad living in Dunedin, especially if you're looking for adventure.

Street Cafe on the Octagon, Dunedin, NZ

If you're thinking about pursing an MBA, while gaining an international experience in an (almost) English-speaking country, register your interest now! 

Unique Value Proposition

Logan Park, the home of Otago Cricket, is situated two
blocks from the Otago MBA programme.

Well, our core programme has ended and the students have moved on to phase two.  Time exists to focus on our new student candidates and to offer a feel for life in Dunedin.  I'll share photographs of the local area with each post to reduce the psychological distance of moving to the bottom of the world, but you can access more photos on Flickr.  

Our students enjoy a high quality of life while here in Dunedin and it isn't surprising that about 20 percent choose to stay in New Zealand.  Nonetheless, our value proposition remains focused on advancing your career in the global economy.  

This value proposition carries two meanings: (1) a noticeable transformation occurs in our students as they meet the challenge we place before them and at about month six they interact with us, the MBA management team and lecturers, with confidence and as equals; moreover (2) we use the phase two, BUSI 540 professional consulting engagement as a platform for our students to gain access to the right industry, right corporation (or nongovernmental organization - NGO) and right professional network.  I'll have much more to say about our Live Cases and BUSI 540 in future posts, but you can learn more about this experience and our students' accomplishments here.

Incidentally, it is the transformation of our students from students to peers/equals

 that underlies the lasting friendship we share thereafter.

Why does the Otago MBA remain a boutique programme?

Sidewalk Cafe on the Octagon in August (like February in the northern
hemisphere) with high temperatures consistently exceeding 10c/50f

We frequently receive two questions from MBA student candidates: (1) why is the Otago MBA programme relatively small; and (2) why isn't our programme ranked in the "Top 100" in the world?  The simple answer is, "by choice."  

I have explained the value we deliver to our students (defined as attention to the individual and whole person, with an emphasis on his or her thinking abilities and character) and our selection of high-quality student candidates (less than one in ten is accepted). Here's an important insight into strategy design: all of the elements of any enterprise's business model must fit together to deliver best value to its customers. You cannot produce a Ferrari on an assembly line and can't sell gourmet cuisine in a fast food business model.

We choose to remain a boutique programme (N = 30 to 40 full and part-time students) and fly beneath the radar of ranking organizations (Financial Times and Economist) to deliver best value to our students. Now consider, the top one-hundred MBA programmes in the world possess the resources and talents to deliver high value to their students: you still need to define this "value" for yourself. Perhaps one percent of MBA candidates attend these schools. The other 99 percent of MBA candidates face the choice of attending a "me too" programme that (less effectively) mimics the strategies of Top 100 schools or look for something different.

What will happen to these "me too" programmes?

The Otago MBA management team made the decision long ago to design a fully-integrated programme to deliver value at the individual level and not compete head-to-head with large scale "name" programmes. We continue to articulate our business model and refine its implementation year by year to create an integrated experience aimed at developing the individual into a career-ready business professional.

We choose to operate as a boutique programme and we're the right choice for MBA

 candidates who want to differentiate themselves from the masses.

If you're concerned about getting lost in the crowds,

I welcome you to apply now.

David

How do we select MBA candidates?

Sandfly Beach - Otago Peninsula

The Otago MBA is situated in one of the most beautiful places in the world, an adventure wonderland with surfing minutes away and enough beaches to accommodate varying wind conditions. We are lucky in this regard, but we're also uncompromising about the quality of education we offer.

My profile for this blog describes our MBA programme as adhering to a coherent business model designed to deliver distinctive value to our students, defined as attention to the individual and whole person, with an emphasis on his or her thinking abilities and character.  Other programmes follow a different business model that emphasizes scale (N of students) and brand recognition, but compromises on one-to-one mentored experiences that nurture the person and contribute to a cohesive MBA class.  We begin with the careful selection of candidates into our programme: here's what you need to know.

No precise profile or perfect student exists and we cannot fully articulate that which informs our selection of one individual over another.  We know the right person, when we see him or her.  We're looking for well-grounded candidates; with a solid base of experience; who demonstrate maturity and character; are self-motivated and self-directed; with (at least somewhat) clearly articulated career ambitions; who come from diverse backgrounds and cultures; and who demonstrate the ability to think conceptually.

The ability to think conceptually figures prominently into our selection decisions.  Consider this: experience contributes to intuition and has value, but the person who thinks solely from experience relies on either small-N data (i.e., one or a few data points/experiences that do not widely generalize) or opinion.  Without the ability to think conceptually, the student will (1) contribute little to our classroom experiences; (2) struggle to think within a credible business/academic frame; and (3) not easily be able to abstract away from the noisy immediate details of a business situation to discern the structure of a complex problem.  "It's this kind of problem and requires this kind of solution."

No Kids Allowed

Important point: GMAT scores inversely correlate with age, so kids younger than
 twenty post the highest marks.  We require students to submit GMAT scores, but we are far more interested in the maturity and character of the person!  

I invite you to register your interest now 

David

See also, Selection: part two

Beginning at the End

Our Otago MBA management team, students and guests gathered at the Customs House, a restaurant on the harbour, last night to celebrate the end of a  momentous day.  Our students presented their Live Cases (i.e., in-class client engagements) earlier in the day, marking the end of a sixteen-week consulting project and completion of the nine-month, on-campus component of our programme. Many will leave us in the days to follow, some for an international exchange, while others will take up their capstone 540 mentored consulting engagements.  Future endeavors aside, this was an evening for celebration.

We forged friendships through triumph and trial in our time together; laughed and drank together; and shared lasting jokes at one another's expense.  All in good fun among friends: the word carried so much meaning on this evening. Mere acquaintances months ago, we (the management team) knew our students as  individuals; we knew their families and we knew their career ambitions.  Our conversations turned to next steps in their career paths (e.g., a possible stint at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand); the need to remain coachable, a most treasured lecturer; and the palpable camaraderie among this MBA class.  They have chosen to graduate together at this same time next year, as an opportunity to renew their friendships.  We felt proud of these friends for how much they had grown in confidence, professionalism and character.  It was both a wonderful and melancholy evening with the realization in mind that our time together was ending.  "No worries," we said, "you'll always be part of our Otago MBA family," but it was difficult to see them go.

I dedicate this first post to the MBA 37 class: you left a lasting mark on us!