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Survey results are based on direct collaboration with 132 business schools in 29 countries and include data for nearly 21,000 business school alumni,
The vast majority of business school alumni consider their graduate management education a good to outstanding value: 91 percent of graduates from 2010–2013, compared with 95 percent of graduates from 2000–2009, and an overwhelming 98 percent of alumni who graduated from the 1950s through the 1990s.
The vast majority of alumni (83 percent) from the classes of 1959 through 2013 report their graduate management degrees were essential for obtaining employment; and 80 percent of graduate business school alumni attribute their career success to their graduate management degree.
More than 4 in 5 alumni across all graduation years strongly agree that they make an impact at their company (86 percent), are engaged with their work (85 percent), have challenging and interesting work (85 percent), have meaningful work (84 percent), and work for a company that values their skills and abilities (81 percent).
MBAs and other business master’s degree-holders work in a variety of industries, with Finance/accounting and Products and services sectors (each with 20 percent) employing the greatest percentages of alumni surveyed. Among self-employed alumni, more than 3 in 10 work in both products and services and consulting.
Soft skills account for 3 of the top 5 skills that business school alumni use every day on the job. Interpersonal skills are the most frequently used skills, followed by knowledge of general business functions, conscientiousness, managing the decision-making process, and the combined skills of learning, motivation, and leadership.
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| Queenstown - Lake Wakatipu |
Preparation for the BUSI 540 project begins the moment the student walks through our front door. The Otago MBA programme is designed as an integrated educational experience from orientation to 540 business project, with core courses introducing students to relevant academic disciplines, business analyses and quantitative methods; and professional development activities affording opportunities to clarify career ambitions, hone professional skills and build a network.
The formal project process begins with a conversation between you and the Academic Leader (me) about your career ambitions: “What do you want to do with your career?” and “Where do you want to go?”
We then work with you to identify a suitable client and project aligned with your career interests and with an appropriate intellectual challenge.
It is your responsibility to find a sponsor (your contact) in a corporate or nonprofit client (oftentimes with our assistance), gain an understanding of the client’s operation, and map a well-defined challenge this organization faces.
Please be aware, the client does not define the project. Clients are oftentimes confused (why they need our help), define the project in terms of a solution, and lack the ability to capture the work in an appropriate academic frame.
You will need to think through the challenge (i.e., a complex business problem), ask a lot of questions and push back on your client to steer the project in an appropriate direction. We (our MBA team and professional educators) assist in this process.
Most of our MBA 37 students have identified a client and are currently drafting a proposal for their project. You should now have a suitable frame for grasping the conversations that will occur under a common title: The 540 Professional Consulting Engagement.
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| Silvia Scherer |
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| Long exposure at Allans Beach, Otago peninsula |
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."
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| Otago Harbour and Peninsula: from Signal Hill |
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| Central Otago |
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| Logan Park, the home of Otago Cricket, is situated two blocks from the Otago MBA programme. |
