Spare a thought for prospective — and ambitious — graduates in search of a quality MBA degree.
There are hundreds of top-ranked MBAs to choose from worldwide. Most universities present their offerings of text and practical studies in equilibrium. All of them contain the hidden promise of ensuring high-quality and top-earning jobs.
So, what criteria should one to use as a measurement of a top-quality MBA — in short, what constitutes the mother of all MBAs?
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a not-for-profit education association based in the United States dedicated to creating access to graduate management education worldwide, addressed this issue with some intriguing results in its recent annual survey of graduating MBA students, the Global MBA Graduate Survey.
The survey, conducted among 4 123 students at 96 schools in 110 countries, sought answers to a range of questions, from business school selection criteria to the value of MBA education.
In terms of business school criteria, recognition of the college/university ranked first in importance, followed by the location of the institution and career options available to graduates in the third position.
The quality and reputation of the faculty ranked fourth in importance, with published rankings of graduate management programmes only managing fifth place, followed by specific curriculum offerings.
The view from employers is different. According to MBA employers who responded to the GMAC’s corporate recruiters’ survey 2002/03, a business school’s reputation is built on the quality and standards of its faculty, curriculum and admissions office, and is measured by experience — recruiters’ relationships with the school, the success of alumni and the history of the recruiters’ companies with students from the school.
Intriguingly, while prestige or global recognition of the college or university was the top criterion used in school selection, employers viewed global recognition of the school as only a by-product of a school’s ability to build its reputation.
But one school is mentioned in most discussions about MBAs: Harvard Business School in the US has become synonymous with academic excellence in the pursuit of training captains of industry worldwide.
Even detractors such as Mark H McCormack, author of What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School (followed by What They Still Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School), have inadvertently become part of the institution’s PR with information about the book on related sites.
A related link also quotes a former student of Harvard Business School: ‘My success at Bain & Company [a US consultancy giant assisting Fortune 500 companies to increase their shareholder value and market share] is largely due to my experience at Harvard Business School.”
‘Instead of reading textbooks you read case studies describing real business problems, take on the role of the protagonist and struggle to find the right answer.
‘The opportunity to ‘play entrepreneur’ two to three times a day through the cases, to fail and succeed in the laboratory environment of the classroom, was invaluable training.
‘What also makes the case-study method so magical is that you analyse them with 80 other people who are all from different backgrounds and cultures. I found time and time again that after having spent all night coming up with the ‘right answer’, my section mates presented equally compelling reasons to take dramatically different approaches. These sort of exchanges can’t help but expand your horizons and force you to think in new ways … a critical skill for a consultant.”
The university’s self-generated PR on the website claims a long tradition of weaving ethics and leadership into the very fabric of the community. Harvard has developed more than 500 cases that explicitly address ethical concerns.
As early as the school’s founding in 1908, the issue of how to instruct students in business ethics has been explored by the faculty. Since that time, ethics has been an integral part of the curriculum, sometimes as a separate required course, but always as a key component of classes such as human resource management, corporate finance and others.
South Africa’s business teaching institutions share the emphasis on ethics. (See also the profile of Wits Business School, Page 24.)
The University of Cape Town (UCT) takes it a step further by adding the role of personal development.
Ailsa Stewart-Smith, the director of the Executive MBA at UCT’s Graduate School of Business, says the ability to work with self-awareness is ‘critical to the management process, which now presents constant challenges of diversity, global communication, technology and ethics”.
Stewart-Smith adds: the ‘mother” of all MBAs should ‘provide and support personal growth and change”. This, she says, comes through increased and managed self-awareness.
‘No one particular course should be given sole responsibility for doing this: the design, content and teaching methods should all enable students to consider, reflect and reframe their previous judgements,” she adds.
To which Elspeth Donovan, the MBA director at the school, adds that ‘an MBA that focuses too much on technical expertise can be taught from a textbook and should not be called an MBA.
‘MBA graduates must be able to analyse and synthesise information of varied types, develop the ability to deal with conflict and difference, deal with dilemmas and make informed decisions.”
In short, they need to be able to tolerate change, ambiguity and complexity.
What distinguishes UCT from its peers in South Africa is its Executive MBA — the only programme of its kind in South Africa. It is targeted at senior and executive managers and leaders who want to move their careers and lives on to another level.
The course uses sophisticated educational techniques that are far removed from classic pedagogical methods. Participants are taught to develop their critical thinking and decision-making abilities and their capacity to function in complex organisational and social environments.
UCT also has a unique view on the issue of affordability, dubbing it ‘value-added”. In this way the Executive MBA is designed to pay itself back in real terms over the two-year period of study.
Students are effectively consultants to their sponsoring organisation for the duration of the programme, and undertake a major research and consulting assignment that investigates a real issue of strategic importance within their workplace.
The project is confidential, defined by the sponsor and partially assessed on its real worth to that organisation. It alone can offset the cost of the Executive MBA.
Another mode of teaching that has become widespread is that of distance learning. In 1964 when the Unisa senate sanctioned a master’s degree in business through a distance-learning model, some thought it would be a mere experiment.
Today, says Professor Anton Ferreira, executive director of the Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership, this experiment has become a model followed by many prominent institutions.
‘Our cooperation agreement with the Open University Business School [the largest business school in Europe] is an illustration of our commitment to offer the master’s degree in business administration to many who have previously not been able to complete the prerequisite degrees for access to an MBA,” Ferreira says.
‘We believe that this link with a renowned institution heralds a bold step for South Africa … already 11 000 MBAs have been rewarded. If one also considers their formidable 39 759 alumni who have undergone management training then the School of Business Leadership can only boast a proud partnership with one of the world’s great institutions in education.”
Distance learning does not rule out teamwork. The Henley MBA by distance learning is a case in point — it integrates self-study materials, workshops and a virtual learning environment dubbed ‘e-learning”.
Who should apply for an MBA?
Daniel Bauer, MD of The MBA Exchange in the US, says whether you are an undergraduate contemplating a corporate future, a young executive with a few years of solid experience or a mid-career manager reaching for the elusive ‘brass ring”, career planning is essential.
‘Regardless of your current status, there are gaps between you and ultimate success. This distance from present reality to your preferred future can seem overwhelming at times, but must be analysed before it can be crossed.
‘Determining which gaps are most relevant is a first step. These gaps are described as the gap between you and your peers; your business associates; the CEO’s office; your ‘personal best’; the next 90 000 MBAs and getting accepted by a top MBA programme.”
It is this last ‘gap” that offers some insight into what has been dubbed, ironically, the most difficult aspect of earning a degree: getting accepted to the business school of your choice.
At the perennially top-ranked programmes, for every 10 indivi- duals with the credentials and confidence to apply, only two or three are admitted, says Bauer. Even at schools ranked lower on the top 50 list, acceptance can be limited to less than half of all applicants.
MBA admissions committees typically use four selection measures: academic ability, personal character, management potential and professional goals. Excellence in one, or even all of these is not enough. Schools weight these criteria as they strive to diversify the class. They want balance in age, gender, nationality, academic strength career profile, and so on. And the model can change suddenly. So, awareness of current admissions priorities at a given school can help give you the inside track, Bauer advises.
So, what must one do to win the admissions game? Ideally, preparation should start while you are an undergraduate. Stretch your mind with liberal arts and challenging quantitative courses. Get involved as a leader in student and community activities. Earn your bachelor’s degree and get at least two years of solid business experience. Then, at that point, you’ll know why you want — and need — an MBA degree.