Lee Elliot Major
This year has seen a number of academic business schools in Europe developing e-business programmes, signalling that e-commerce has already established itself as a central component of postgraduate business degrees. The new breed of MBA students is just as likely to be taught the latest thinking on e-strategies, e-marketing and e-technology as the more traditional business and project management skills during their courses.
The rise of the dot.com entrepreneur initially appeared to pose a threat to MBAs. Here were businesses apparently defying all the laws of the financial markets, expanding on the back of one big idea, amid limitless hype and investor confidence. Who needed a two-year business degree when you could move immediately into the fast stream and become a paper millionaire overnight?
There have even been concerns that increasing numbers of business students would begin bailing out of MBA courses as the new-economy companies sought out managers. But as yet there is no hard evidence that this has happened either in Europe or North America. Dropout rates reported from United Kingdom schools are low.
Business school leaders in fact argue that MBA programmes are becoming more important for new businesses in short supply of executive talent. The humbling of the dot.com business world has seen many old business values reasserted among Internet companies. The talk now is of merging the old and new economies, with the best long-term strategies based on good ideas but also on sound business planning. And MBAs are now adapting to the new blend of skills being demanded. Last year an MBA student from London Business School won the Association of Business Schools (ABS) Award for the creation of the world’s biggest ski destination website, igly.com.
Johathan Slack, the chief executive of the ABS, says: “There are going to be exceptions to every rule, but most successful entrepreneurs benefit from business training.”