Saturday, April 28, 2018

Why we should bulldoze the business school


There are 13,000 business schools on Earth. That’s 13,000 too many. And I should know – I’ve taught in them for 20 years.

By Martin Parker

Visit the average university campus and it is likely that the newest and most ostentatious building will be occupied by the business school.

The business school has the best building because it makes the biggest profits (or, euphemistically, “contribution” or “surplus”) – as you might expect, from a form of knowledge that teaches people how to make profits.

Business schools have a huge influence, yet they are also widely regarded to be intellectually fraudulent places, fostering a culture of short-termism and greed. (There is a whole genre of jokes about what MBA – Master of Business Administration – really stands for: “Mediocre But Arrogant”, “Management by Accident”, “More Bad Advice”, “Master Bullshit Artist” and so on.) Critics of business schools come in many shapes and sizes: employers complain that graduates lack practical skills, conservative voices scorn the arriviste MBA, Europeans moan about Americanisation, radicals wail about the concentration of power in the hands of the running dogs of capital. Since 2008, many commentators have also suggested that business schools were complicit in producing the crash.

Having taught in business schools for 20 years, I have come to believe that the best solution to these problems is to shut down business schools altogether. This is not a typical view among my colleagues. Even so, it is remarkable just how much criticism of business schools over the past decade has come from inside the schools themselves. Many business school professors, particularly in North America, have argued that their institutions have gone horribly astray. B-schools have been corrupted, they say, by deans following the money, teachers giving the punters what they want, researchers pumping out paint-by-numbers papers for journals that no one reads and students expecting a qualification in return for their cash (or, more likely, their parents’ cash). At the end of it all, most business-school graduates won’t become high-level managers anyway, just precarious cubicle drones in anonymous office blocks.

These are not complaints from professors of sociology, state policymakers or even outraged anti-capitalist activists. These are views in books written by insiders, by employees of business schools who themselves feel some sense of disquiet or even disgust at what they are getting up to. Of course, these dissenting views are still those of a minority. Most work within business schools is blithely unconcerned with any expression of doubt, participants being too busy oiling the wheels to worry about where the engine is going. Still, this internal criticism is loud and significant.

The problem is that these insiders’ dissent has become so thoroughly institutionalized within the well-carpeted corridors that it now passes unremarked, just an everyday counterpoint to business as usual. Careers are made by wailing loudly in books and papers about the problems with business schools. The business school has been described by two insiders as “a cancerous machine spewing out sick and irrelevant detritus”. Even titles such as Against Management, Fucking Management and The Greedy Bastard’s Guide to Business appear not to cause any particular difficulties for their authors. I know this because I wrote the first two. Frankly, the idea that I was permitted to get away with this speaks volumes about the extent to which this sort of criticism means anything very much at all. In fact, it is rewarded, because the fact that I publish is more important than what I publish.

Most solutions to the problem of the B-school shy away from radical restructuring, and instead tend to suggest a return to supposedly more traditional business practices, or a form of moral rearmament decorated with terms such as “responsibility” and “ethics”. All of these suggestions leave the basic problem untouched, that the business school only teaches one form of organizing – market managerialism.

That’s why I think that we should call in the bulldozers and demand an entirely new way of thinking about management, business, and markets. If we want those in power to become more responsible, then we must stop teaching students that heroic transformational leaders are the answer to every problem, or that the purpose of learning about taxation laws is to evade taxation, or that creating new desires is the purpose of marketing. In every case, the business school acts as an apologist, selling ideology as if it were science.

Universities have been around for a millennium, but the vast majority of business schools only came into existence in the last century. Despite loud and continual claims that they were a US invention, the first was probably the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, founded in 1819 as a privately funded attempt to produce a grande école for business. A century later, hundreds of business schools had popped up across Europe and the US, and from the 1950s onwards, they began to grow rapidly in other parts of the world.

In 2011, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business estimated that there were then nearly 13,000 business schools in the world. India alone is estimated to have 3,000 private schools of business. Pause for a moment, and consider that figure. Think about the huge numbers of people employed by those institutions, about the armies of graduates marching out with business degrees, about the gigantic sums of money circulating in the name of business education. (In 2013, the top 20 US MBA programmes already charged at least $100,000 (£72,000). At the time of writing, London Business School is advertising a tuition fee of £84,500 for its MBA.) No wonder that the bandwagon keeps rolling.

For the most part, business schools all assume a similar form. The architecture is generic modern – glass, panel, brick. Outside, there’s some expensive signage offering an inoffensive logo, probably in blue, probably with a square on it. The door opens, automatically. Inside, there’s a female receptionist dressed office-smart. Some abstract art hangs on the walls, and perhaps a banner or two with some hopeful assertions: “We mean business.” “Teaching and Research for Impact.” A big screen will hang somewhere over the lobby, running a Bloomberg news ticker and advertising visiting speakers and talks about preparing your CV. Shiny marketing leaflets sit in dispensing racks, with images of a diverse tableau of open-faced students on the cover. On the leaflets, you can find an alphabet of mastery: MBA, MSc Management, MSc Accounting, MSc Management and Accounting, MSc Marketing, MSc International Business, MSc Operations Management.

There will be plush lecture theatres with thick carpet, perhaps named after companies or personal donors. The lectern bears the logo of the business school. In fact, pretty much everything bears the weight of the logo, like someone who worries their possessions might get stolen and so marks them with their name. Unlike some of the shabby buildings in other parts of the university, the business school tries hard to project efficiency and confidence. The business school knows what it is doing and has its well-scrubbed face aimed firmly at the busy future. It cares about what people think of it.

Even if the reality isn’t always as shiny – if the roof leaks a little and the toilet is blocked – that is what the business-school dean would like to think that their school was like, or what they would want their school to be. A clean machine for turning income from students into profits.

What do business schools actually teach? This is a more complicated question than it first appears. Much writing on education has explored the ways in which a “hidden curriculum” supplies lessons to students without doing so explicitly. From the 1970s onwards, researchers explored how social class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and so on were being implicitly taught in the classroom. This might involve segregating students into separate classes – the girls doing domestic science and the boys doing metalwork, say – which, in turn, implies what is natural or appropriate for different groups of people. The hidden curriculum can be taught in other ways too, by the ways in which teaching and assessment are practiced, or through what is or isn’t included in the curriculum. The hidden curriculum tells us what matters and who matters, which places are most important and what topics can be ignored.
In many countries, a lot of work has been done on trying to deal with these issues. Materials on black history, women in science or pop songs as poetry are now fairly routine. That doesn’t mean that the hidden curriculum is no longer a problem, but at least in many of the more enlightened educational systems, it is not now routinely assumed that there is one history, one set of actors, one way of telling the story.

But in the business school, both the explicit and hidden curriculums sing the same song. The things taught and the way that they are taught generally mean that the virtues of capitalist market managerialism are told and sold as if there were no other ways of seeing the world.

If we educate our graduates in the inevitability of tooth-and-claw capitalism, it is hardly surprising that we end up with justifications for massive salary payments to people who take huge risks with other people’s money. If we teach that there is nothing else below the bottom line, then ideas about sustainability, diversity, responsibility and so on become mere decoration. The message that management research and teaching often provides is that capitalism is inevitable, and that the financial and legal techniques for running capitalism are a form of science. This combination of ideology and technocracy is what has made the business school into such an effective, and dangerous, institution.

We can see how this works if we look a bit more closely at the business-school curriculum and how it is taught. Take finance, for instance. This is a field concerned with understanding how people with money invest it. It assumes that there are people with money or capital that can be used as security for money, and hence it also assumes substantial inequalities of income and wealth. The greater the inequalities within any given society, the greater the interest in finance, as well as the market in luxury yachts. Finance academics almost always assume that earning rent on capital (however it was acquired) is a legitimate and perhaps even praiseworthy activity, with skillful investors being lionized for their technical skills and success. The purpose of this form of knowledge is to maximize the rent from wealth, often by developing mathematical or legal mechanisms that can multiply it. Successful financial strategies are those that produce the maximum return in the shortest period, and hence that further exacerbate the social inequalities that made them possible in the first place.

Or consider human resource management. This field applies theories of rational egoism – roughly the idea that people act according to rational calculations about what will maximize their own interest – to the management of human beings in organizations. The name of the field is telling since it implies that human beings are akin to technological or financial resources insofar as they are an element to be used by management in order to produce a successful organization. Despite its use of the word, human resource management is not particularly interested in what it is like to be a human being. Its object of interest are categories – women, ethnic minorities, the underperforming employee – and their relationship to the functioning of the organization. It is also the part of the business school most likely to be dealing with the problem of organized resistance to management strategies, usually in the form of trade unions. And in case it needs saying, human resource management is not on the side of the trade union. That would be partisan. It is a function which, in its most ambitious manifestation, seeks to become “strategic”, to assist senior management in the formulation of their plans to open a factory here, or close a branch office there.

A similar kind of lens could be applied to other modules found in most business schools – accounting, marketing, international business, innovation, logistics – but I’ll conclude with business ethics and corporate social responsibility – pretty much the only areas within the business school that have developed a sustained critique of the consequences of management education and practice. These are domains that pride themselves on being gadflies to the business school, insisting that its dominant forms of education, teaching and research require reform. The complaints that propel writing and teaching in these areas are predictable but important – sustainability, inequality, the production of graduates who are taught that greed is good.

The problem is that business ethics and corporate social responsibility are subjects used as window dressing in the marketing of the business school, and as a fig leaf to cover the conscience of B-school deans – as if talking about ethics and responsibility were the same as doing something about it. They almost never systematically address the simple idea that since current social and economic relations produce the problems that ethics and corporate social responsibility courses treat as subjects to be studied, it is those social and economic relations that need to be changed.

You might well think that each of these areas of research and teaching are innocuous enough in themselves, and collectively they just appear to cover all the different dimensions of business activity – money, people, technology, transport, selling and so on. But it is worth spelling out the shared assumptions of every subject studied at business school.

The first thing that all these areas share is a powerful sense that market managerial forms of social order are desirable. The acceleration of global trade, the use of market mechanisms and managerial techniques, the extension of technologies such as accounting, finance and operations are not routinely questioned. This is a progressive account of the modern world, one that relies on the promise of technology, choice, plenty and wealth. Within the business school, capitalism is assumed to be the end of history, an economic model that has trumped all the others, and is now taught as science, rather than ideology.

The second is the assumption that human behavior – of employees, customers, managers and so on – is best understood as if we are all rational egoists. This provides a set of background assumptions that allow for the development of models of how human beings might be managed in the interests of the business organization. Motivating employees, correcting market failures, designing lean management systems or persuading consumers to spend money are all instances of the same sort of problem. The foregrounded interest here is that of the person who wants control, and the people who are the objects of that interest can then be treated as people who can be manipulated.

The final similarity I want to point to concerns the nature of the knowledge being produced and disseminated by the business school itself. Because it borrows the gown and mortarboard of the university and cloaks its knowledge in the apparatus of science – journals, professors, big words – it is relatively easy to imagine that the knowledge the business school sells and the way that it sells it somehow less vulgar and stupid than it really is.

The easiest summary of all of the above, and one that would inform most people’s understandings of what goes on in the B-school is that they are places that teach people how to get money out of the pockets of ordinary people and keep it for themselves. In some senses, that’s a description of capitalism, but there is also a sense here that business schools actually teach that “greed is good”. As Joel M Podolny, the former dean of Yale School of Management, once opined: “The way business schools today compete leads students to ask, ‘What can I do to make the most money?’ and the manner in which faculty members teach allows students to regard the moral consequences of their actions as mere afterthoughts.”

This picture is, to some extent, backed up by research, although some of this is of dubious quality. There are various surveys of business-school students that suggest that they have an instrumental approach to education; that is to say, they want what marketing and branding tell them that they want. In terms of the classroom, they expect the teaching of uncomplicated and practical concepts and tools that they deem will be helpful to them in their future careers. Philosophy is for the birds.

As someone who has taught in business schools for decades, this sort of finding doesn’t surprise me, though others suggest rather more incendiary findings. One US survey compared MBA students to people who were imprisoned in low-security prisons and found that the latter was more ethical. Another suggested that the likelihood of committing some form of corporate crime increased if the individual concerned had experience of graduate business education or military service. (Both careers presumably involve absolving responsibility to an organization.) Other surveys suggest that students come in believing in employee wellbeing and customer satisfaction and leave thinking that shareholder value is the most important issue and that business-school students are more likely to cheat than students in other subjects.

Whether the causes and effects (or indeed the findings) are as neat as surveys like this might suggest is something that I doubt, but it would be equally daft to suggest that the business school has no effect on its graduates. Having an MBA might not make a student greedy, impatient or unethical, but both the B-school’s explicit and hidden curriculums do teach lessons. Not that these lessons are acknowledged when something goes wrong, because then the business school usually denies all responsibility. That’s a tricky position, though, because, as a 2009 Economist editorial put it, “You cannot claim that your mission is to ‘educate the leaders who make a difference to the world’ and then wash your hands of your alumni when the difference they make is malign”.

After the 2007 crash, there was a game of pass-the-blame-parcel going on, so it’s not surprising that most business-school deans were also trying to blame consumers for borrowing too much, the bankers for behaving so riskily, rotten apples for being so bad and the system for being, well, the system. Who, after all, would want to claim that they merely taught greed?

The sorts of doors to knowledge we find in universities are based on exclusions. A subject is made up by teaching this and not that, about space (geography) and not time (history), about collectives of people (sociology) and not about individuals (psychology), and so on. Of course, there are leakages and these are often where the most interesting thinking happens, but this partitioning of the world is constitutive of any university discipline. We cannot study everything, all the time, which is why there are names of departments over the doors to buildings and corridors.

However, the B-school is an even more extreme case. It is constituted through separating commercial life from the rest of life, but then undergoes a further specialization. The business school assumes capitalism, corporations and managers as the default form of organization, and everything else as history, anomaly, exception, alternative. In terms of curriculum and research, everything else is peripheral.

Most business schools exist as parts of universities, and universities are generally understood as institutions with responsibilities to the societies they serve. Why then do we assume that degree courses in business should only teach one form of organization – capitalism – as if that were the only way in which human life could be arranged?

The sort of world that is being produced by the market managerialism that the business school sells is not a pleasant one. It’s a sort of utopia for the wealthy and powerful, a group that the students are encouraged to imagine themselves joining, but such privilege is bought at a very high cost, resulting in environmental catastrophe, resource wars and forced migration, inequality within and between countries, the encouragement of hyper-consumption as well as persistently anti-democratic practices at work.

Selling the business school works by ignoring these problems, or by mentioning them as challenges and then ignoring them in the practices of teaching and research. If we want to be able to respond to the challenges that face human life on this planet, then we need to research and teach about as many different forms of organizing as we are able to collectively imagine. For us to assume that global capitalism can continue as it is meant to assume a path to destruction. So if we are going to move away from business as usual, then we also need to radically reimagine the business school as usual. And this means more than pious murmurings about corporate social responsibility. It means doing away with what we have, and starting again.

Shut Down the Business School: What’s Wrong with Management Education will be published by Pluto Press in May

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Perfecting Your Harvard MBA Essay

BY: JEREMY SHINEWALD ON APRIL 25, 2018 

They say the early bird gets the worm. Almost one month earlier than last year, Harvard Business School (HBS) has released its application essay prompt. Maybe it was able to do so expeditiously because… it made no changes to the question from last year. HBS Director of Admissions Chad Losee, now entering his third application season, must feel the prompt is effective in eliciting the kind of information the admissions committee finds valuable in evaluating potential students. Our analysis of the prompt and advice on the best way to approach it therefore also remain constant…

“As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?” (no word limit)

Harvard Business School sets up for Class Day on Baker Lawn

Take special note of the word “more” in this straightforward question. With it, the admissions committee is subtly acknowledging that it already has a lot of information about you that it can and will use to get to know you better, including your resume, extracurricular activities, recommendations, short-answer question responses, academic transcripts, and GMAT/GRE score. You should, therefore, think first about what these portions of your application convey about who you are as an individual and candidate, so you can determine which parts of your profile still need presenting or could benefit from more detail. Now, some applicants may fret that this means they absolutely cannot touch on anything mentioned elsewhere in their application, for fear that the admissions committee will become annoyed and reject them.

However, Harvard Business School is not asking only for fresh information—it is asking for more, and specifically, whatever “more” you believe the committee needs to evaluate you thoroughly and fairly. So, even though a bullet on your resume may inform the school of a certain fact, if a profoundly important story lurks behind that fact that you feel effectively expresses a key part of your personality or skill set, you should not feel hesitant to share that story. That said, we are not advocating for you to explore your resume in depth, just trying to convey that “more” here does not mean strictly “thus far unmentioned.”

THREE SMART APPROACHES TO TACKLE YOUR HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ESSAY

Before we discuss a few approaches you might take in framing this essay, we must note that your goal in writing it is sincerity. The admissions committee is not staffed by robots, seeking to detect a certain “type” of applicant. These are human beings who are trying to get to know you and really want to end up liking you! With this essay, you essentially want to forge a meaningful connection with a complete stranger, and if you try to present yourself as something or someone you are not, you will fail.

You, like many other applicants, may worry that your sincere stories will sound clichéd. For example, if you want to write about making a difference, you may wince simply thinking those words: “making a difference.” But the power of your story does not lie in the theme you choose (if you choose to write thematically, that is) but in the manner in which you reveal your actions. If you have truly made a significant difference in the lives of others and can own that angle by offering powerful anecdotes and demonstrating a deep emotional connection to others and profound purpose in your acts, you can write on this topic. Although more than a few candidates will undoubtedly submit clichéd pieces on making a difference, if you can capture your admissions reader’s attention fully and make a strong enough impression, the cliché aspect will disappear, and he or she will be impressed by your actions and character.

So, what approach might you take to this essay? The prompt is so open-ended that we cannot possibly capture all possible options, but here are a few:

1. Thematic approach: You could write about a characteristic or attribute that has woven its way throughout your life or that you have woven into your life. Do some self-exploration and see if you can identify a thread that is common to your greatest achievements, thereby illustrating its importance in bringing you to where you are today. Simply stating that theme is not enough—you need to really guide your reader through the illustrative events in your life to show how and why this theme manifests. In the end, your values are what need to come to the fore in this essay, rather than just a series of discrete episodes. (Note that highlighting your values is necessary with any approach you take to your HBS essay.)

2. Inflection points: Maybe the key events and aspects of your life cannot be neatly captured or categorized within a neat and tidy theme. People are complex, meaning that many are not able to identify a singular “force” that unifies their life experience. If this is you, do not worry—instead, consider discussing a few inflection points that were instrumental in shaping the individual you are today. This does not mean writing a very linear biography or regurgitating your resume in detail. The admissions committee does not need or want such a summary and is instead interested in your ability to reflect on the catalysts in and challenges to your world view and the manifestations thereof. Likewise, you do not need to offer a family history or an overarching explanation of your existence. Simply start with the first significant incident that shaped who you are as an adult, and again, ensure that your essay ultimately reveals your values.

3. Singular anecdote: Although this is rare, you may have had a single standout experience that could serve as a microcosm of who you are and what you stand for. If this experience or moment truly defines you and strikes at the essence of your being, you can discuss it and it alone. You do not need to worry that offering just one anecdote will make your essay seem “skimpy” or present you as one-dimensional, as long as the story has inherent strength and power. You will need to delve into the narrative and let the story tell itself; if you are choosing to write a singular anecdote, the story should be sufficiently compelling on its own, without a lot of explanation.

‘THE HBS ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE IS A STRAIGHT-SHOOTING GROUP’

You may have read through these three options and thought, “What about a fourth option, in which I discuss my goals and why HBS? Certainly they want to know about that!” The HBS admissions committee is a straight-shooting group—if the school wanted candidates to write about their goals and why HBS, or wanted them not to, the prompt would come right out and say so. The reality is that most people should not use this essay to discuss their career ambitions and interest in HBS, because doing so will not reveal that much “more” about them. For example, if you are a consultant who plans to return to consulting after graduation, we cannot imagine a scenario in which addressing your goals and why an HBS MBA is critical would constitute an effective use of this essay. However, if you are a medic at a bush hospital in Uganda and are applying to HBS with the goal of commercializing low-cost technologies to fight infectious diseases, this may well be a fitting topic for your essay, as you seek to connect the dots between your unusual (in a positive sense) career path and your aspirations. In short, for most candidates, we would suggest eschewing a “Why MBA? Why HBS?” approach, but in a few rare cases, it may be appropriate and compelling.

Finally, let us talk about word limits! HBS has not stipulated any particular parameters, but keep in mind that with each word, you are making a claim on someone else’s time—so you better make sure that what you have written is worth that additional time and effort. We expect that most of our clients will use between 850 and 1,000 words, with some using as few as 600 and a small minority using as many as 1,250. We have difficulty imagining a scenario in which an applicant would truly need more than 1,250, but we certainly know of candidates who were accepted with essays that exceeded that high target. In short, take the space you need to tell your story properly and showcase your personality and experience, and then work to reduce your essay to its lowest possible word count, without sacrificing any impact or effectiveness.


HAVE THE LAST WORD: THE POST-INTERVIEW REFLECTION FOR INTERVIEWED CANDIDATES

From the admissions committee: “Following the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection using our online application system. This must be submitted within 24 hours following the completion of the interview. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to the interview process.”

For the fourth consecutive year, HBS ask candidates who are granted an interview to complete one more written task. Within 24 hours of interviewing, you must submit some final words of reflection, addressing the question “How well did we get to know you?” As with the application essay, this post-interview reflection is open-ended; you can structure it however you wish and write about whatever you want to tell the committee. HBS urges interviewed applicants not to approach this reflection as a formal essay but instead “as an email you might write to a colleague or supervisor after a meeting.”

Some candidates may find this additional submission intimidating, but we encourage you to view it as an opportunity to reveal new aspects of your profile to the admissions committee. Because your HBS interviewer will have read your entire application before your meeting, you will likely discuss information from your resume, essays, recommendations, etc., during your interview. This post-interview reflection, then, could provide an opening for you to integrate new and different elements of your profile, thereby adding depth to your candidacy. For example, if you could not find a way to include the story of a key life experience of yours into your essays, but your interviewer touches on a similar story or something connected with this experience in your meeting, you would now have license to share that anecdote.

JOT DOWN YOUR MEANINGFUL IMPRESSIONS OF A CLASS OR PEOPLE YOU MET ON CAMPUS

As soon as your interview is over, jot down all the topics covered and stories you discussed. If you interview on campus, note also any observations about your time there. For example, sitting in on a class might have reminded you of a compelling past experience, or participating in the case method may have provided insight into an approach you could use in some way in the future. Maybe the people you met or a building you saw made a meaningful impression on you. Whatever these elements are, tie them to aspects of your background and profile while adding some new thoughts and information about yourself. This last part is key—simply describing your visit will not teach the admissions committee anything about you, and a flat statement like “I loved the case method” will not make you stand out. Similarly, offering a summary of everything the admissions committee already knows about you will not advance your candidacy and would constitute a lost opportunity to keep the committee learning about who you are.

HBS offers some additional advice on the post-interview reflection that we strongly urge you to take seriously and follow:

- We will be much more generous in our reaction to typos and grammatical errors than we will be with pre-packaged responses. 
- Emails that give any indication that they were produced BEFORE you had the interview will raise a flag for us.
- We do not expect you to solicit or receive any outside assistance with this exercise.
- As for how long this essay should be, HBS again does not offer a word limit. We have seen successful submissions ranging from 400 words to more than 1,000. 
- We recommend aiming for approximately 500, but adjust as appropriate to thoroughly tell the admissions committee what you feel is important, while striving to be succinct.


Tuesday, April 24, 2018

あなたにMBAが必要ない4つの理由

あなたが経営学修士(MBA)の取得を考えている場合、実はその必要はないかもしれない。

上級学位を持っていなくても、起業したり新たな分野に転職したりすることはできるし、学業に戻って2年以上を投資しない分、より早く(学生ローンも少ないまま)キャリアチェンジができる。

私がキャリアコーチをする中で、数人の顧客からMBAを取得した方が良いかどうか相談されたことがある。状況によっては効果があるかもしれないが、キャリアの次の一歩を踏み出す上でどうしてもMBAが必要かと言われると、そうではないことがほとんどだ。MBAに投資する時間と資金を考えると、むしろ少しデメリットにさえなるかもしれない。

入学を決める前に、まずは次の4つのポイントを考えよう。

1. 経験を積む方法は、MBA以外にもある

雇用主がMBA取得者を求める理由は、批判的な思考と複雑な問題解決の能力を持っていることにある。こうしたスキルを集中的に磨けるコースやプログラムに参加してはどうだろう? 問題解決スキルを強化するため、現職でできることはないかについても考えること。

MBAで焦点が当てられるのは、会計学や金融、マーケティングなど、標準的なビジネススキルだ。それに加え、リーダーシップや分析的・批判的思考などの成長も見込める。MBAに求めているものが何であれ、こうしたスキルを開拓する方法はおそらく他にもあるはずだ。クリエーティブに考えて、他の方法を探そう。

2. 応募したい求人にMBAが必須とは限らない

職務内容記述に、MBAを持っていることが「好ましい」ではなく「必須」と書いてあったことはあるだろうか? 求人広告でたとえ自分が持っていないスキルが求められていたとしても、ためらわず応募してほしい。

特定のスキルを持っていれば、書類審査では優位な立場に立てるかもしれないが、それよりも重要なのは面接の出来栄えと企業文化との相性だ。履歴書を更新し、求人に応募する。自分を信じ、MBAを取得し終わった2~3年後ではなく、今から行動しよう。

3. キャリアの目標を見つける方法は他にもある

ネットワーキング(人脈作り)を始め、自分が関心を持っていることは何かを見極める。あなたが心から情熱を燃やすものは何だろう? そのことを既に手がけている人に話を聞き、キャリアチェンジのために何をすべきかについて見識を得よう。今から習得でき、持っていれば変化に一歩近づけるような特定のスキルはあるだろうか?

現職で新たなプロジェクトに参加したり、製品立ち上げチームに加わって各関連分野を観察したりする。マーケティングに転向したいと思っていても、プロジェクト立ち上げでブランド責任者の補佐を担当した結果、考えが変わるかもしれない。

4. 必ずしも投資回収できるとは限らない

上位のMBAコースに入学しない場合は特に、卒業後も期待していたほどの収入は得られないだろう。一方で、世界の一流経営大学院に入学した場合の投資額は膨大だ。

英紙フィナンシャル・タイムズによると、世界の経営大学院トップ100校の現在の学費は、卒業から3年後の税引前給与の8.7か月分に相当する。その他のコストや生活費を加えれば、米国の一流MBAコースに2年間通った場合の費用は総額30万ドル(約3200万円)を超える。これを相殺し、利益が得られるようになるまでにはどれくらいの時間がかかるだろう? 学生ローンの返済がどうなるかなど、考えたくもない問題だ。

たとえ雇用主が授業料を肩代わりしてくれるとしても、それには時間という代償が付いてくる。雇用主へのコミットメントとして、その会社で働かなければならない期間は何年になるだろうか? 5年以上も転職できないのであれば、新たな学位を得る意味などあるだろうか? 時間をあまり浪費せずに済むような他の方法で自己投資を開始しよう。

周囲の人が全員MBAを取っているように感じられても、「皆がしていることだから」という理由で入学を決めないこと。(人生の一般的なアドバイスでもあるが、皆がやっていることが自分にも役立つとは限らない)

自分をよく理解し、特定のキャリア目標を達成する上で重要なものは何かを見極めよう。今すぐ始められることはいろいろあり、多くは無料のものだ。待っている時間などない。

From Forbes Japan  

アメリカ留学を支援、2019年度フルブライト奨学金5/31締切


日米教育委員会(フルブライト・ジャパン)は2018年5月31日まで、日本人を対象としたアメリカ留学・奨学金プログラムである「2019年度フルブライト奨学生」を募集している。


日米教育委員会は日米間の教育・文化・学術交流を推進するため、フルブライト奨学金事業を実施している。学術活動を通じ、相手国との相互理解を深めるため、日本人およびアメリカ人がそれぞれ約40~50名ずつ渡米・来日している。日本におけるフルブライト奨学金は、1952年に開始された。

「2019年度日本人対象フルブライト奨学金プログラム」は、「大学院留学プログラム」「大学院博士論文研究プログラム」「研究員プログラム」「ジャーナリストプログラム」の4種類。2018年5月31日まで、オンライン登録を受け付けている。

応募資格要件や給付内容はプログラムによって異なるため、詳細はWebサイトで確認すること。たとえば、「大学院留学」および「大学院博士論文研究プログラム」の場合は、往復渡航旅費、往復荷物手当、滞在費、住居手当、家族手当、図書費、着後雑費、授業料(上限あり)が給付される予定。

Michigan Ross Just Launched A Big Data MBA Course

Big data courses are coming to the MBA at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. The school has just announced the launch of a data and business analytics concentration in its full-time MBA.

Student and employer demand spurred the move. In an era in which analytics can make or break business, employers are increasingly seeking workers who understand and utilize business analytics.

According to an analysis this month by professional network LinkedIn, data science is the fastest growing job field in the US, and among the best paid ($113,000 median salaries for data scientists).  

“Companies want individuals who can lead their organizations using data and thinking analytically,” said Heather Byrne, director of the Michigan Ross Career Development Office, which will work with the MBA team to ensure students have the right data science skills.

“Our goal is to prepare students to explore career options in which they can apply these skills, and help companies source exceptionally-qualified talent.”

For Michigan Ross, the offering is the latest in a long line of MBA concentrations that include business and sustainability, healthcare management and real estate development. Big data is the first concentration to launch under the leadership of Brad Killaly, associate dean of full-time and global MBA programs at Ross.

He said: “We’ve developed the Data and Business Analytics Concentration to meet the needs of today’s MBA student as well as today’s evolving business world. As students continue to seek careers in data-intensive industries, such as consulting and technology, Michigan Ross will offer the necessary business acumen that students can utilize to give themselves a competitive edge.”

Students on the conentration will be required to take courses from a wide array of options, including big data management, marketing research, advanced big data analysis, data mining, and digital marketing.

The new concentration will be offered in fall 2018. Ross began developing it in 2017 after receiving feedback from students who wanted a more specialised course focused on big data.

Ross’s announcement highlights the rapid growth in demand for and provision of big data programs at the world’s top business schools. According to data from the Graduate Management Admission Council (owner of BusinessBecause), 74% of specialist big data master’s programs in the US reported application rises last year, compared with just 32% of full-time, two-year MBAs.

A raft of top schools have launched programs in response to that demand — MIT Sloan School of Management, Imperial College Business School and Warwick Business School are among them. Other schools that have created optional electives in their MBAs like Ross include the Cornell College of Business and INSEAD.

How Important Are MBAs In The Tech World?

How important are MBAs in the tech world right now (2018)? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Andrea Masini, Associate Dean, HEC Paris MBA, on Quora:

Successful MBA programs need to look ahead and prepare students for the business challenges of tomorrow not only for those of today. Therefore, with the pervasive digitalization of our economy and the increasing importance of technology in our society, I would say that an MBA degree is more valuable than ever. MBA graduates are among the few professionals able speak both the language of business and the language of technology, bridging the gap between these two worlds. This is a badly needed skill nowadays.


To that end, at HEC Paris we put a lot of efforts in strengthening the technology component of our MBA curriculum. A new specialization on digital transformation will be offered starting in September 2018. Our entrepreneurship specialization has a distinctive technology element too. Students choosing this specialization work hand in hand with top scientists and have access to our on-campus eLab, an exclusive laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art interactive technologies designed to stimulate creativity and communication.

The importance of an MBA degree for the tech sector is confirmed by the interest that recruiters from tech companies have in MBA graduates. For instance, about 20 percent of the HEC Paris MBA class secured employment in the sector last year. The range of technology recruiters in the sector included Amazon, Microsoft and Google among the top recruiters, and also some exciting new disruptors including Deliveroo (food delivery, UK), Finleap (Fintech, Germany), Happn (online dating, France) and Zoobashop (e-commerce, Africa).

All these companies are looking for outstanding graduates that are able to combine a solid technology background with the ability to understand and analyze the business implications of technological innovations.

From Quora

The World's 40 Best Under-40 MBA Professors


Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mark Van Doren once mused that “the art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” That’s an art that our 40 top business school professors under the age of 40 share with each other. They draw students into often esoteric subjects, inspire deeper thinking and engaged discussion, assisting in the discovery of new and powerful ideas.

For the sixth time in the last eight years, Poets&Quants searched near and far to uncover this remarkable group of men and women, some of whom have barely reached the age of 35, yet they have made a name for themselves as rising stars in business academia. We asked B-school officials, students and alumni for favorites and then sorted through the nominations to come up with this year's Poets&Quants' list of the world’s top 40 business profs under 40.

This year’s call for nominations brought in close to 800 submissions, crushing last year’s record of 430. Another first: a new record number of nominations for one given professor. Students, alumni, and colleagues of Imperial College Business School’s Ileana Stigliani declared their appreciation for the 38-year-old 135 times over, a new all-time high that beat last year’s 72 nominations for Ivey Business School’s Ning Su. In total, 91 individual professors were proposed this year.

Of the entries we did receive, our assessment to narrow down the top 40 remained centered on research and teaching with an emphasis on high student impact. The final 40 hail from Miami to Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University to the University of Canterbury, London Business School to Nanyang Business School, and many points in between. They are a diverse group, with a record 17 of the 40 at schools outside the U.S., up from just five in the inaugural 40 under 40 list published by Poets&Quants in 2011. Ten of the 40 profs on the 2018 list are women, roughly the same as the 11 women who made the cut seven years ago.

“Institutions believe that great researchers are the best professors. Students believe that those who engage students class after class are the best professors,” Wharton MBA Angela Chang says. We couldn’t agree more and with that, we commenced our search for the best business professors under 40 years old who score high marks in both the key areas of research contributions to their field and impact on students.

One such nominee was Natalya Vinokurova, a Wharton management professor nominated by Chang and nearly two dozen other students, alumni, and Wharton professors. Vinokurova, 38, has made a name for herself in looking at competitive strategy, organizational behavior, and public policy as they relate to decision-making and innovation management. She’s won awards that aptly define her research as “most novel,” and she’s received several honorable mentions and best paper nominations from the strategic management community. Yet her excellence as a researcher is not to be outdone by her teaching performance, which is where she shines brightest. According to some of the nominations, her allegiance to students makes her especially outstanding, the spark that has earned her two “Above and Beyond the Call of Duty” teaching awards — the professional achievement which Vinokurova says she is most proud of.

Each testimony consistently spoke of Vinokurova’s profound dedication and mentorship that helps students identify and prioritize what’s most important to them. One Wharton alumnus placed Vinokurova’s name next to some of Wharton’s biggest heavyweights: “I had some pretty spectacular professors at Wharton (Adam Grant, Cade Massey, David Wessels, and David Bell to name a few) and even amongst these names Natalya was a standout. It’s my view that she, more than any other professor at Wharton, is the perfect confluence of teacher, researcher, and mentor.”  

As always, going above and beyond is a consistent trait among best business professors. Another: a passion for their discipline that’s so extraordinary, students can’t help but be inspired to learn. In no other case is this more attested to than with Imperial’s Ileana Stigliani. In the unprecedented 135 nominations she acquired, students praised her for the way she captivates her classroom with a contagious passion for design thinking, a relatively new and unconventional business school topic.

“She introduced me to the world of design thinking with bountiful amounts of energy and enthusiasm,” one student exclaims. “I feel Dr. Stigliani’s teaching in service design is helping a new generation of business managers embrace the value of innovative design thinking in creating more effective human-friendly business operations,” says another.

Sometimes, it seems, MBA students must be convinced of the value of what they’re learning. Rather than an aggravation, many of this year’s top 40 agree that this healthy skepticism is one of their favorite parts of the job. In fact, most say it’s is what they appreciate most about teaching MBAs.

“They’re not a passive audience,” says Anuj Shah, a 34-year-old professor of behavioral science at Chicago Booth. “They’re willing to have a conversation, and that conversation sometimes highlights some of my own blind spots.”

Thirty-five-year-old Paolo Taticchi from Imperial College Business School says, “I like their critical mindset and their ambition. They are always ready to challenge you!”

Paolo Aversa, 35, of Cass Business School in London, echoes Shah and Taticchi when he’s asked to share the best part about teaching MBAs. “The fact that they are often ambitious and not afraid to challenge my arguments.” To note, when asked what’s the most challenging aspect of teaching MBAs, Aversa gave the exact same answer. “Too much of a good thing,” he says.

When it comes to this innate ambition and students’ willingness to cross-examine an instructor, one Columbia Business School professor used it as an opportunity to counter widely held stereotypes about MBAs. Says Dan Wang, “There are lots of stereotypes about MBA students being Type-A managers who only care about efficiency and shareholder value. This is not true at all. My favorite part of teaching is getting to know each student individually. It is such a privilege to be responsible for creating an environment in which students are not afraid to share their knowledge so that their experiences can be synthesized into useful lessons for each class.”


Saturday, April 21, 2018

What It Takes to Get Accepted at a Top MBA Program

MBA admissions officers at top b-schools say the key trait they look for is leadership potential.

By Ilana Kowarski, April 20, 2018, at 12:15 p.m.        
      
Top MBA programs search for students who collaborate well on group projects and possess strong communication skills. 

When prestigious MBA programs choose students, academic performance is an important factor, but it is not the only factor, according to MBA admissions officers.

Because business schools are professional schools designed to prepare students to thrive in the business world, these schools seek students with the leadership skills necessary to succeed in business. In addition to evaluating a student's test scores and grades, a top MBA program will consider whether the student has a history of making meaningful contributions to the organizations where he or she has worked, admissions officers say.



Top b-schools typically assess whether a student is a willing team player who can collaborate on group projects and if the student has strong communication skills, according to MBA admissions officers.

"This is not a purely academic program; it's not a Ph.D. program," says Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean for admissions at the Yale School of Management. "We are trying to bring in people who are going to have impact after they graduate."

DelMonico adds that test scores are a crucial factor in the MBA admissions process, because these scores facilitate comparisons between applicants. Test scores are "more consistent than some other, more subjective measures" of preparedness for MBA courses, DelMonico says. He says that quantitative test scores are especially significant for MBA applicants with humanities backgrounds, since these applicants need to show MBA admissions officers that they have the math skills required to excel in an MBA program.


[Show these qualities during MBA interviews.]

Demonstrate Self-Awareness

DelMonico says that every MBA applicant has strengths and weaknesses in his or her admissions profile, so the best course of action for any applicant is to acknowledge his or her weaknesses and find some way to compensate for those deficits. "Nobody is above average across the board," he says.

Regardless of whether applicants think their academic statistics are more compelling than the success stories documented in their application or the opposite is true, they should not attempt to hide their weaknesses. Instead, they should show humility and explain how business school would help them grow in their career, DelMonico says.

Applicants shouldn't be afraid to admit that they have a desire for additional professional development, since that yearning for personal growth actually bolsters their case for business school, DelMonico says."We know that anyone who is applying to business school is looking to improve themselves," he says.

In fact, MBA applicants can cite the ways they hope to improve in business school when they are providing a justification for pursuing an MBA, DelMonico says.

Describe Nonacademic Accomplishments

Soojin Kwon, managing director of full-time MBA admissions and program at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, says one especially important aspect of the MBA application is the resume.

Kwon says that the resume is the first part of an MBA application that she reads in order to assess an MBA applicant's candidacy. She adds that MBA applicants who have well-respected employers on their resumes do not automatically impress her, because what she's looking for is evidence that a student has done high-quality work.

"Leadership is not as narrowly defined as an applicant might think," she says.

Experts say that candidates who are younger than the majority of applicants should take comfort in the fact that business schools care less about the number of years spent in the workforce and more about applicants' long-term professional prospects.

Chirag Saraiya, principal at Training the Street, a company that provides finance courses that prepare people to work in the finance industry, and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, says that many years spent in the workforce do not necessarily result in a more compelling MBA application.

Saraiya says an MBA applicant who appears to have reached a standstill in his or her career is less attractive than someone who appears to be progressing.

Emphasize Nontechnical Skills

Alumni of top b-schools say that MBA applicants who hope to get into premier programs should know that soft skills are important in the MBA admissions process.

"Beyond good test scores, top MBA programs are looking for students who demonstrate initiative," said Vijay Koduri, an MBA alumnus of the Ross School of Business and co-founder of HashCut, a technology company, via email. "This can be entrepreneurial – have you started a company and scaled it up? It can be intrapreneurship – did you raise your hand and lead the way for a new product idea or new market in your company? It can also be social impact – are you passionate about a cause, and have you led significant change in your region or around the world to make a difference?"


MBA alumni say that demonstrating problem-solving skills is one way to stand out in a positive way.

Shaifali Aggarwal, an alumna of Harvard Business School and the founder and CEO of the admissions consulting firm Ivy Groupe, says most students selected for admission to top b-schools have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to innovate.

"These students show that they are able to think outside of the box to come up with creative solutions, which is an extremely important quality to possess when solving business problems and leading organizations," she says.

Harvard Business School alumna Paige Arnof-Fenn, the founder and CEO of marketing company Mavens & Moguls, says having perfect or near-perfect grades and test scores isn't a guarantee of acceptance to a selective business school. Arnof-Fenn urges MBA applicants to remember that top-tier institutions have many applicants with stellar qualifications.

Students who dream of getting accepted at multiple top business schools can explore the chart below to get a sense of what the average credentials are at these schools. However, it's important to understand that selective MBA programs admit applicants with a range of credentials, including credentials above and below the averages displayed in this chart.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

「今のMBAは20世紀型」日本型価値観追求するミレニアル向け“ポストMBA”新設

MBA(経営学修士)を取得でき、実践的な経営学を学ぶことを目指すビジネススクールが曲がり角を迎えている。

2000年代以降、日本中でビジネススクールが設立され、文部科学省によると、2017年5月時点で30大学が専門職大学院の経営大学院(技術経営のMOT含む)を運営している。一方で、2017年には南山大学、中京大学が学生募集を停止。世界のMBAに詳しい和光大学経営学部の金雅美教授は、「国内MBAの半分は定員割れだろう」と指摘する。

関連記事:国内MBA半分は定員割れの「限界スクール」。法科大学院に続き淘汰の波

「MBA冬の時代」になりつつあり今、ミレニアル世代向けの新しいビジネススクールが設立されようとしている。大企業の経営者を数多く輩出してきた経営者養成機関であるISL(アイ・エス・エル)が2018年8月に創設する至善館(しぜんかん)だ。

なぜ今新しいビジネススクールなのか、ISLの創設者で、至善館理事長の野田智義氏に聞いた。


今のビジネススクールは20世紀型資本主義の象徴

「今のMBA教育では、真のリーダーは育成できない」

MBAの現状について、至善館理事長の野田氏はそう語る。

野田氏自身、マサチューセッツ工科大学(MIT)でMBA、ハーバード大学で経営学博士号(DBA)を取得し、ロンドン大学ビジネススクールとフランス・インシアード経営大学院で長年MBA教育に携わってきた。

そこで教えられたのは、右肩上がりの経済を前提とした大量生産・大量消費モデルと、それを支えるピラミッド型の組織構造。さらにそのピラミッド型組織を担う、ファイナンス、アカウンティング、オペレーション、ストラテジーなど細分化された専門知識とアメとムチを使った管理方法だったという。

しかし、21世紀に入り、ビジネス環境は大きく変わりつつある。

資本主義というシステムの持続可能性への懸念は広がり、消費者のニーズの多様化による少量生産・少量消費モデルへの移行、ピラミッド型組織から共感と信頼を重視し、部門や組織の壁を超えた個人同士のヨコのつながりに力点を置くネットワーク型の組織へ。

企業は株主のために存在するという株主至上主義が声高に叫ばれてきたが、株主以外のステークホルダーを重視するSDGs(持続可能な開発目標)やESG投資(環境、社会、企業統治を重視している企業への投資)など新しい指標も出始め、企業に対する従来の考え方にも疑問が呈されている。

こうした変化に対し、今のMBA教育は追いつけていないと、野田氏は指摘する。

「今、世界は西洋近代の行き詰まりを感じている。しかし、ビジネススクールは細分化された育成システムに組み込まれており、教育内容を変えることができていない。つまり真のリーダーを育成するために必要な教育ではなく、企業の都合のいいニーズに応えたカリキュラムが提供されている。極端に言うと、アメリカで教育を受けた人間が、それを盲目的に教えるという悪循環になっている。それを超えたものをつくろうとはなかなかならない」
大企業×ベンチャーで挑む「生活者の来店と買い物体験を変える」デジタルプラットフォーム

他方、日本やアジアの国々は本来違う思想を持っているという。西洋では自己と対象を明確に分離し(二元論)、個人の自由を求めるが、東洋では個人を社会の一員として捉え(一元論)、“生かされている”という考え方を持つ。

しかし、「今までの社会はあまりに西洋的価値観、個人に寄っていたのではないか」と野田氏は指摘する。

「ソウル国立大学の著名な学者は『韓国はIMFの管理下に入ったことで、超競争社会になり人間らしさを失った』と。(アジアに限らず)今のミレニアル世代は、競争はある程度必要だけど、それ以上に目指すものがあると思っているし、サステナビリティ(持続可能性)やインクルーシブ(社会的包摂)を重視するなど、価値観が大きく変わってきている」

日本のビジネススクールであれば、堂々と日本やアジアの価値観を追求してもいいのではないか。

「僕らはアメリカとは対極にある。けど、辺境にあるからこそ、イノベーションが起こせると思っている。世界のMBA教育を進化させたい。その取り組みが至善館とZ-Schoolコンソーシアム」
日本橋に拠点、地域とも連携

実際に至善館ではどういう教育を行うのか。

長年MBA教育に携わってきた野田氏。現在のビジネススクールを全否定しているわけではない。

「ビジネススクールが優れているのは仮説を検証する力。定量的、論理的、戦略的な思考力、これらは優れている。しかし、仮説を生み出す力はない。新しく構想するには、クリエイティビティーや洞察力、大局観が必要。この一部は*デザインスクールがつくっている。さらに、過去からの延長線上ではなく、非連続に物事を考え、新規事業を生み出す*イノベーションスクールの手法も取り入れる」

世界で200年以上の歴史を持つ企業は約5500社しか存在しないが、そのうち約3000社は日本。長く続いてきた企業に学ぶために、至善館は日本橋に拠点を置き、地域コミュニティーとも連携する。

募集人員は20代後半〜30代を中心に1学年80人で、日本人と外国人で約半数ずつにする予定。授業は日本橋キャンパスで原則平日夜と週末の週2回、働きながら通うことができる。授業料は2年間で計500万円。国内私立のMBAと比較すると授業料が高いが、途上国やソーシャルセクターの人向けには奨学金を用意し、既に募集人数は8割近くは埋まっているという。

「ISLは『知る人ぞ知る』リーダー養成機関で、2001年の創設以来、1300人以上の卒業生を育て、リクルートや資生堂、三井物産など数多くの企業経営者を輩出し、社会イノベーター公志園という約半年間のプログラムで社会起業家も育ててきた」

現在の応募者は企業からの派遣組が中心だという。

支援者には日本IBMの北城恪太郎名誉相談役ら著名な経済人が名を連ねる。卒業後には至善館の卒業生ネットワークだけではなく、ISLのネットワークにもアクセスできる。
必要なのはリベラルアーツと全人格教育

授業では資本主義とは何を目指すのか、企業や事業は何のためにあるのか、そして自分は何のために生きるのかという価値観を突き詰めて学ぶ。これらを考えるために、リベラルアーツと「全人格教育」を重視する。野田氏は言う。

「リベラルアーツは教養ではなく、本当の意味での未来を構想する力。人間とは何か、歴史を動かしているものは何か。世界の多様性を作り出しているものは何か。それらを本質的に理解できる力がリベラルアーツ。今ブロックチェーンが注目されているが、この技術を本当に理解するために必要なのは哲学や社会学、心理学などのリベラルアーツです」

全人格とは、立場で人格を使い分けないという意味。そのためにはどのような立場でも貫いていく軸のようなものが必要になる。

教える側には、経営学やデザイン開発が専門の講師以外に、哲学者の竹田青嗣早稲田大学教授や東洋思想家の田口佳史氏、臨済宗全生庵の平井西修住職など、専任教員15人・客員教員29人で構成される。学長は元立命館アジア太平洋大学学長のモンテ・カセム氏。

「これからはビジネスとソーシャルも分かれない。自分で新しい未来を作っていくんだという気概を持った若い人たちに集まって欲しい」という。
MBAのパラダイムシフトのための世界的コンソーシアム

野田氏が目指すのは「MBA教育の進化」。従来のMBA教育とは異なる教育ながら、あえて「MBA」を掲げるのは世界のビジネススクールと対話し、世界のMBA教育を変えるためだ。

そのために進めているのが、「Z-Schoolコンソーシアム」。「Z-School」という名前は全人格の「全」、真善美の「善」、マインドフルネスを問うための「禅」を象徴している。

「21世紀のビジネススクールは大きな岐路に立っている。22世紀に向けてどうやって新しいパラダイムを作っていくのか。そうした懸念を持った人たちを集めて議論しながら、ともに発信し、ともに走っていく」

コンソーシアムにはハーバードビジネススクール学長であるNitin Nohria(ニティン・ノーリア)など世界中のビジネススクールに関わる学者も参加するが、中心は至善館に加え、インドのSOILとスペインのIESE。海外のビジネススクールと提携しながら、世界のリーダーが育つ場所にしていきたいとしている。

  室橋祐貴 [Business Insider Japan]

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

日本のビジネススクールは行く価値があるか?

松野 弘(千葉商科大学人間社会学部教授)

<そもそも日本企業はMBA取得者を厚遇しないという問題もあるが、世界標準のビジネスマネジメント能力を学ぼうとしたとき、米国と日本どちらのビジネススクールに行くべきだろうか>

少子高齢化、ICT化、グローバル化といった社会変化の激しい環境の中で、ビジネスパーソンがどのように自分のキャリアを形成していくかということがきわめて重要になってきている。というのは、こうした社会変化に対応して自らのスキルを磨いていかなければ、ビジネスパーソンとして生き残ることができないからだ。

まず、一般的にサラリーマン人生にとって、入社から最初の10年間(22~32歳)は経験の蓄積、つまり、仕事を覚えることが基本だ。次の10年間(32~42歳)は仕事の発展期である。これまでの仕事上の基盤に立った上で、自由に自らの戦略的展開ができ、最も仕事がおもしろい時期である。

ちょうどこの時期に、大手企業であれば、海外研修や海外留学をする機会を与えられることが多い。とりわけ、グローバルな競争が企業の将来に大きな影響を及ぼす現代にあっては、世界標準のビジネスマネジメント能力を身につけることは現代のビジネスパーソンにとって必須事項である。

では、そのためには、最先端の米国の経営大学院(ビジネススクール)に留学しなければならないのか。それとも、最近増えてきている日本のビジネススクールでも十分なのだろうか。

例えば、金融関係(銀行・生命保険・損害保険等)であれば、本人の英語力さえあれば、ハーバード大学、ペンシルベニア大学、コロンビア大学、ノースウェスタン大学、スタンフォード大学等の米国の超一流ビジネススクールに進学することが可能だ。

こうした大学院には、世界の政府機関の若手官僚等が留学していることも多く、そうした人々との交流はもちろんのこと、世界各国の実業家の御曹司等と友人になることも多いようである。

楽天を創業した三木谷浩史氏(一橋大学商学部卒業)は日本興業銀行(現みずほ銀行)から、2014年にローソンの会長からサントリーホールディングス社長に転身した新浪剛史氏(慶應義塾大学経済学部卒業)は三菱商事から、それぞれハーバード大学のビジネススクールに進み、経営学修士(MBA)を取得している。

超一流のビジネススクールで学び、そこで人的ネットワークを広げてきたことが彼らのその後の人生に大きな影響を与えたことは確かである。

ビジネススクールの現状――日本と米国の場合

企業活動のグローバル化に伴って、日本企業においても、海外の大学を卒業した学生を新規に採用したり、外国人を積極的に雇用したりと、年々グローバルに対応できる社員の増加をはかっている。

こうした状況を反映してか、日本企業の社員も国内外のビジネススクールへ自費で入学する人たちが多くなってきているようである。

現在、日本のビジネススクール(MBA、アカウンティング・ファイナンス、MOT〔技術経営〕の学位を取得できる大学院)の数は国立・公立・私立大学等を含めて約100校程度とされているのに対して、米国のビジネススクールは約600~800校程度となっていて、圧倒的に米国のビジネススクールのほうが多いのが実態である(金雅美「日米ビジネススクールの現状と課題」・和光大学総合文化研究年報[東西南北2015])。

この背景には、米国のビジネス界では、企業の経営幹部にビジネススクール出身者が多いこと、そうした人々が成果をもたらしているということから、ビジネススクールに対する社会的評価が高いことが理由として挙げられる。と同時に、米国の有名ビジネススクール出身者には、約1400万~2000万円程度の初年度年収が保証されていることも大きい。

アメリカのビジネスパーソンがなぜ、高い授業料(2年間で750万~850万円前後、他の費用を含めると1000万円以上の負担)を払ってまでビジネススクールへ行くかといえば、ビジネススクール、とりわけ有名なビジネススクール――例えば、ペンルベニア大学ウォートンスクール、スタンフォード大学経営大学院、ハーバード大学経営大学院など――でMBAを取得すれば、就職先の企業から高額な初任給を得られるからだ。

具体的には、
1位 ハーバード大学経営大学院17万7500ドル(1952万円)、
2位 ペンシルベニア大学ウォートンスクール14万6068ドル(1606万円)、
3位 シカゴ大学ブース経営大学院14万5750ドル(1603万円)となっている(日本円は1ドル=110円で換算、出典:ZUUO online編集部、2016年)。

それゆえに、米国では、ビジネススクールの高い授業料を払っても十分にペイする報酬を獲得できるので、ビジネススクールでMBAを取得することは、きわめて教育投資効果が高いのである。

他方、日本の多くの企業ではたとえ国内外の著名なビジネススクールを修了しても、待遇は他の社員と同じで、高い報酬は約束されていないのが現状である。というのも、社員教育は社内研修でという伝統的な日本的経営の手法が日本の企業に根付いているからである。

そのため、こうしたビジネススクールの出身者は、帰国して元の企業に戻っても、数年後には高報酬の外資系ビジネスコンサルティング企業(ボストンコルサルティングやマッキンゼーの日本支社等)や外資系企業の日本支社幹部に転職するのが常である。

というのも、いくら欧米のビジネススク-ルでMBAを取得しても地位も給料も上がらないからだ。こうした事情の背景をみると、問題は日本的経営方式にどっぷり漬かり、年功序列方式で社員を処遇している日本の企業が大半だというところにある。


百花繚乱となった日本のビジネスクールだが

日本の企業は経営者と従業員の運命共同体として見事に戦後復興を遂げ、世界有数の経済大国へと発展してきた。しかし、経済のグローバル化に伴い、グローバルスタンダードのマネジメント・スタイルを採用しないと世界の企業と競争できなくなってきたという深刻なビジネス環境の変化がある。

そこで注目されたのが米国流のビジネス活動を推進していくためのメソッドであり、ビジネススクール等の高等教育機関を通じて、ビジネス戦略等を身につけなければならないという現実的な要請が日本の企業に求められた。

日本のビジネススクールの先駆けは、1978年に慶應義塾大学が「和製MBA」を掲げた大学院経営管理研究科である。

その後、1988年に新潟に財界の要請で設立された国際大学大学院国際経営学研究科、1989年に夜間の社会人向けビジネススクールとして設立された筑波大学大学院ビジネス科学研究科、同様に神戸大学にも1989年、大学院経営学研究科に社会人MBAプログラムが設置された。

さらに、2000年に専門職大学院としての国際企業戦略研究科が一橋大学で最初の入学生を迎え、名古屋商科大学、青山学院大学と、ビジネススクールが次々とつくられることになった。その他にも早稲田大学、明治大学、法政大学、中央大学といったように、まさにビジネススクールの百花繚乱である。

これはすでに述べたように、企業活動のグローバル化の進展に対応した国際的人材の育成という大学側の経営上の思惑でもある。

ただし、欧米のビジネススクールはグローバルな企業戦略を基本としたカリキュラム体系であるが、日本の場合、グローバルなビジネス環境を参考にしながらも日本企業の経営風土を軸とした教育を行っているのが日本型のビジネススクールの特徴である。

多元的なビジネス価値を基盤とした欧米のビジネススクールと、一元的なビジネス価値を教育の基本としている日本のビジネススクール。いずれに学ぶ価値があるだろうか。

過渡期のビジネススクール――高等職業専門学校か、大学院か

英国の有力高等教育評価機関、クアクアレリ・シモンズ(QS)は毎年、世界のビジネススク-ルのランキングを発表しているが、最新の「QS Global MBA Rankings 2018」によれば、1位ハーバード、2位INSEAD、3位HEC パリ、4位スタンフォード、5位ロンドン・ビジネススクールとなっており、アジア勢では、上海(中国)のCEIBSが28位、香港大学が38位、シンガポールの南洋理工大学が42位となっている。

日本のビジネススクールは141-150位に早稲田大学ビジネススクール(大学院経営管理研究科)、151-200位に名古屋商科大学ビジネススクールがやっと登場している。慶應義塾大学ビジネススクール(大学院経営管理研究科)が登場していないのは不可思議だが、本来なら早稲田とはほぼ同等以上にランクインされるはずである。

こうした大学ランキングは、世界でさまざまな機関が毎年異なる基準で発表しているので、これが信頼できるものとは正確にはいえないが、総じて、日本のビジネススクールは欧米の超一流のビジネススクールよりも評価されていないということは確かだ。その大きな要因の1つは、日本のビジネススクールは教育と研究の質が相対的に低いことにある。

例えば、欧米の場合、ビジネススクールというMBA(修士課程)のレベルであっても、正規の専任教員はすべて博士号を保有している。企業経験があるからといって、ビジネススクールの教員として採用しているのは日本のビジネススクールだけだ。これではまるでビジネススキルを身につけさせるための高等職業専門学校のレベルである。

ちなみに、日本のビジネススクールでトップクラスと称されている慶應義塾大学ビジネススクールと早稲田大学ビジネススクールの教員の学位取得を比較してみると、(1)慶應義塾大学の専任教員(27名)がすべて博士学位(海外・国内の大学院)を保有しているのに対して、(2)早稲田大学の場合、専任教員49名のうち博士学位取得者は37名で、博士号取得率は約75%である。

一般の学部に比べると博士号取得率は高いが、この点では慶應義塾大学ビジネススクールのほうに軍配が上がる。

慶應義塾大学の場合、欧米のビジネススクール並みにアテガミックとビジネスの双方の経験を備えているのに対して、早稲田大学の場合は、欧米のコンサルティング企業などの企業経験者を数多く、教員として採用しているのだ(注:早稲田大学ビジネススクールは、①大学院商学研究科ビジネス専攻の専任教員、
②大学院会計研究科の専任教員、
③旧アジア太平洋研究科国際経営学専攻の専任教員、
④大学院ファイナンス研究科の専任教員を集約して、2016年に大学院経営管理研究科として発足しているので、専任教員の数が他大学に比べて非常に多い)。

本来、ビジネススクールで学ぶ目的は企業の経営幹部として、ビジネスマネジメント能力を獲得することである。単なるビジネススキルを学ぶだけであれば、高い授業料を払ってビジネススクールに通う必要はなく、専門学校レベルで十分である。

高度なマネジメントスキルを企業経営に活かしていくためには、経営哲学・経営政策・経営戦略をグローバルに展開できるようなビジネススクールが必要であることは論を俟たない。

日本のビジネススクールは今後も日本的経営型のビジネス環境に追随していくのか、それとも、グローバルなビジネス環境に対応していくのか、明確な教育方針・カリキュラム体系・教授陣の質的向上等の改善策を図っていくことが求められるだろう。

最後に、ビジネススクールでMBAを取得していなくても、ビジネスの世界で成功した人々がいることも付記しておきたい。

マイクロソフトのビル・ゲイツ、アップルのスティーブ・ジョブズ、フェイスブックのマーク・ザッカーバーグという世界有数のベンチャー企業の創業者たちは、いずれも大学中退者だ。ゲイツとザッカーバーグはハーバード大学、ジョブズはリード大学(オレゴン州)の中退である。

ビジネススクールだけが果たして21世紀のグローバルなトップマネジメントを育成する高等教育機関であるかどうかを再考していく必要があるだろう。

[筆者]
松野 弘
博士(人間科学)。千葉商科大学人間社会学部教授、千葉大学予防医学センター客員教授、東京農業大学客員教授等。日本大学文理学部教授、大学院総合社会情報研究科教授を経て、千葉大学大学院人文社会科学研究科教授。千葉大学を定年後、現職。『現代環境思想論』(ミネルヴァ書房)、『サラリーマンのための大学教授の資格』(VNC)、『大学教授の資格』(NTT出版)、『大学生のための知的勉強術』(講談社現代新書)など著作多数。

Saturday, April 14, 2018

高報酬MBA 米から続々 世界トップ20に11校、アジア勢は皆無

企業・市民の活用がカギ 高松市「スマートシティ」テーマにシンポジウム開催[PR]

世界で最も高報酬の経営学修士(MBA)卒業生を輩出しているのは米国の経営大学院だ。報酬比較サイト、エモルメント・ドット・コムがこのほどまとめた調査で分かった。

この調査によると、卒業生の報酬が高い経営大学院トップ20校のうち11校が米国の大学院だった。マサチューセッツ工科大学(MIT)のスローン経営大学院が1位で、ボーナスを含めた年収の中央値は28万6000ドル(約3064万円)だった。ハーバード大学とシカゴ大学の経営大学院が2位と3位。

欧州で最も高報酬のMBAを生み出すのはフランス・フォンテンブローにあるINSEADで報酬の中間値は18万5000ドル、全体では12位。スイスのザンクト・ガレン大学と英国のケンブリッジ大学ジャッジ校が13位と14位に入った。アジアからのトップ20校入りはなかった。

Sankei Biz

アメリカ留学・奨学金プログラム 「2019年度 フルブライト奨学生」募集開始

日米教育委員会(フルブライト・ジャパン)は、日本人を対象としたアメリカ留学の奨学金プログラム「2019年度フルブライト奨学生」の募集を4月1日から開始する。同奨学金は日米間のフルブライト奨学金制度は65年以上の歴史を持つ。

応募方法はオンラインのみ。応募期間は2018年4月1日の12:00から2018年5月31日の24:00。


2019年度フルブライト奨学金プログラム概要

対象となる学術分野は、米国および日本、さらにはグローバル社会に関連した人文・社会科学、あるいは学際的な学問分野であること。自然・応用科学分野に関連する研究計画の場合は、人文・社会科学分野を主眼とした学際的研究で、かつ政策、社会、または倫理に関わるもののみ応募対象になる。

■大学院留学プログラム
学業面および人格面で優れた者に米国大学院での研究の機会を与える。米国の大学院博士課程・修士課程に正規の学生として在籍し、学位取得のための科目履修を行う。

■大学院博士論文研究プログラム
日本の大学に博士論文を提出することを目的として、米国の大学で単位取得を伴わない研究を行う。大学院レベルのゼミを聴講することはできるが、単位取得のための科目履修は出来ない。

■研究員プログラム
大学教員、政府機関あるいは非営利研究機関勤務者を対象とし、米国の大学等で各自テーマに沿って、単位取得を伴わない研究を行う。

■ジャーナリストプログラム
経験5年以上の現役ジャーナリストを対象とし、米国の大学等で各自の研究テーマに沿って、単位取得を伴わない研究を行う。ジャーナリストとしての技術面の研修は不可。

留学プレス編集部

女子大生は海外留学を望むが、大学院への進学には積極的になれない

海外へ留学したいと思っている大学生の割合は女性が男性を上回っている一方で、大学院への進学を望む女子学生の割合は男子学生に比べて低いことが、文部科学省科学技術・学術政策研究所が公表した調査報告「大学学部生の科学技術情報と進路選択に対する意識」で明らかになった。海外に出て自分の世界を広げようとする女子学生の積極性は、大学院への進学には結びついていないようだ。


図 海外留学を希望する学生の割合。女子学生が男子学生を上回っている。(「大学学部生の科学技術情報と進路選択に対する意識」より)

この調査は2016年3月、日本国内の大学学部に在籍する学生(18~30歳)を対象に、インターネットによるアンケートの形式で実施。男性1189人、女性2042人から得た回答を分析した。

その結果、3か月以内の「短期留学」を希望する学生の割合は、理系の男性が13.6%、女性が14.5%、理系以外の男性が13.2%、女性が17.7%で、いずれも女性が男性を上回っていた。3か月を越える「長期留学」でも、理系の男性が7.4%、女性が9.6%、理系以外の男性が13.3%、女性が14.7%で、女性で割合が高い傾向にあった。留学を希望しない学生は、その理由として、「直接海外に行かなくても、インターネットで情報は取れる」「留学は、日本で大学や大学院を出てからでいいと親が言う」「お金が余分にかかる」「留学でなくても、旅行で行けばいいと思う」などと回答した。

大学卒業後に大学院修士課程へ進学する希望の有無を聞いたところ、理系の男性は44.1%が、女性は21.3%が希望していた。理系以外だと男性は13.6%、女性は9.9%だった。いずれも、女子学生は男子学生の割合を下回った。

また、理系女性は大学への進学に際してその進路を決める際に、その他の学生に比べて、「保護者の意見」「就職への有利性」「資格や技術の習得可能性」を重視する傾向にあった。女性が理系に進学する際に障壁となる要因を男女学生に尋ねたところ、「「理系は男性の学部」というイメージ」「(結婚、出産などの)ライフイベントとキャリア形成の両立が難しい」「出産により研究が中断され、それに伴う休職中の支援が不十分」などを挙げた学生が多かった。博士号を取得しても「仕事か出産か?」の選択を迫られるようになることを多くの学生が心配していると、この調査報告では分析している。

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Saturday, April 7, 2018

Top MBA programs beef up cryptocurrency courses to keep up with demand

MBA programs at Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown are adding more blockchain and crypto classes in 2018 to keep up with demand from students.

The move is also being spurred by recruiters, especially in venture capital, which saw an 88 percent increase in blockchain investments in 2017, according to data from Pitchbook.

Some of the top MBA programs in the world are adjusting their curriculum after last year's mania around bitcoin. 

Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business are expanding classes in digital currency and blockchain to keep up with demand from students and their future employers.

Stanford's business school, ranked No. 1 in the world by the Financial Times this year, is adding a new full-time course in May. The class, called "Cryptocurrency," was a grass-roots effort by students.

Stanford added the course, which closed with more than 50 people on the waiting list, according to the university site.

Part of the interest comes from Stanford's funnel into venture capital. Of the 32 percent of MBA graduates who chose to go into finance, 7 percent went to venture capital, according to the university's 2017 employment report. VC was the second-most-popular choice behind private equity at 15 percent. Only 1 percent of graduates went into investment banking.

Venture capital investment in blockchain start-ups increased by 88 percent year over year in 2017, reaching $911 million, according to data from Pitchbook.

Wharton, which is ranked No. 1 by Forbes and No. 3 by U.S. News and World Report, is also adding a class in the fall. "Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Distributed Ledger Technology" will be taught for the first time as of 2018 by professor Kevin Werbach.

Wharton alumni work at crypto and blockchain start-ups Ripple, Bitmain and Coinbase, all of which he guessed would recruit students who eschew careers on Wall Street.

It's not just venture capital and cryptocurrency exchanges looking for a deep knowledge of blockchain.

Wall Street and consulting firms that recruit out of the D.C. schools are also demanding a new skill set. 

Four Excellent Euro MBA Programs

An MBA that is earned abroad can be more affordable for U.S. students, and international experience is increasingly valuable.

Some advantages of a European MBA
  • Last year, 65 percent of MBA programs in the United Kingdom and 67 percent of schools in other European countries reported increasing numbers of applicants from elsewhere, and many of them from the U.S., according to the Graduate Management Admission Council's 2017 Applications Trends Survey.
  • European programs attract the most U.S. students. Many are based in appealing business hubs like London, and several compress the two-year MBA curriculum into 18 months or a year. That, coupled with the dollar's strength compared to European currencies, can greatly reduce the cost of getting an MBA.
  • Tuition costs range roughly from $73,000 to $95,000 for one-year programs in Europe to just over $100,000 for two-year programs, not counting room and board. In contrast, tuition and fees for a number of top-20 U.S. MBA programs in 2017 ranged from roughly $120,000 to $160,000.
  • European degrees can also appeal to hiring managers. The top U.S. companies are international themselves and need people who have the ability to work across borders. 

Reasons for Graduate Study Abroad

  • Europe offers find a range of option. For example, HEC Paris attracts students interested in technology and entrepreneurship. IMD – the Institute for Management Development – fosters tomorrow's CEOs with its focus on leadership development.

Top Schools:

University of Oxford Saïd Business School

  • Brilliant broad curriculum
  • 1 + 1 MBA, a two-year program that awards an additional master's degree from one of 14 other departments, including medicine, history and music.
  • Excellent internships. 
  • 20% of 1 + 1 MBA are Americans. 
  • Wide range of experiences, from consulting projects for large multinational companies like L'Oréal to advising financial-technology startups in Africa. 
  • Tuition for 2018-2019 is about $76,000 at early 2018 exchange rates and the school estimates that room and board would range from about $17,000 to $26,000.
  • Entrepreneurship is one of three broad themes that shape the MBA curriculum at Saïd
  • 320 MBA students a year. Everyone participates in an entrepreneurship module, teaming up to develop ideas for startups.

Also offers Global Rules of the Game, which focuses on laws and norms that govern business transactions, such as anticorruption agreements and trade laws; and Responsible Business, where students focus on ethical decision-making.

Another common experience is Global Opportunities and Threats Oxford, a project that brings together faculty and students from across the university to address a different international issue each year. The 2017-2018 class focused on health care, working in groups to identify business opportunities related to the global aging of the population.


INSEAD

INSEAD calls itself "the business school for the world"

  •  Students can move between its flagship location in Fontainebleau, France, and its Singapore campus. Some participants also do a rotation at the school's Abu Dhabi campus.
  • INSEAD is the only top European MBA program with a language requirement. All classes are taught in English, but students must have a basic working knowledge of two other languages by the time they graduate from the 10-month program.
  • Of the roughly 1,000 students who enter the program in one of two intakes per year, about 8 percent come from the U.S. 
  • The INSEAD curriculum is split into five two-month periods, accommodating core business classes, electives and a capstone project. 
  • The tuition cost for 2017-2018 was nearly $100,000, plus fees and living expenses.
  • INSEAD's international campuses offer the opportunity to gain deep experience working with companies that are either based in those countries or that are trying to establish themselves in a region.
  • Google, for example, called upon INSEAD students in Abu Dhabi to create an open online platform for news organizations in Africa.
  • Participants generally pick their location of study based on their career goals,
  • The INSEAD experience is highly customizable. Students who choose to enter the program in January have the option of completing eight-week summer internships with organizations ranging from the World Bank in Washington, D.C., to private equity firms in Dubai.


London Business School

LBS has exchange agreements with around 30 universities in a dozen countries, including China, Australia, Mexico and the U.S.

  • LBS admits more students from the U.S. than any other country, and in 2017, Americans comprised 16 percent of the total student body of 431. 
  • Students who start the two-year program in August 2018 will pay about $108,000 in total tuition.
  • Students think about business challenges in a global context
  • During the second half of their studies, every student takes part in an immersive Global Business Experience in one of a number of other countries, including South Africa, Israel, China, Peru and Myanmar. The weeklong program includes faculty briefings, panels, workshops, company visits and project work.
  • In the fall of 2017, for example, 80 MBA students worked with small-business owners in South Africa to implement improvements that would boost their profits.
  • LBS's program is somewhat similar to the typical two-year model that has long been popular in the U.S., with core courses like accounting and marketing taught in the first year, followed by electives. The school recognizes that taking time out of the workforce for two years isn't feasible for every student, but programs can be tailored to be completed in 15, 18 or 21 months.
  • All students now have three possible options for their summer term: They can line up at least one paid internship, be one of a handful of top students to get hands-on experience in consulting or take advantage of the Entrepreneurship Summer School to work on a new business idea. 
  • Students who participate in the international exchange program also now have the option to shorten the length of their time overseas so they can fit that into a condensed curriculum.
  • Another distinctive element of the LBS MBA is that students are expected to participate in some of the 75 themed clubs on campus designed to help them prepare for their chosen careers. The choices include finance; retail and luxury goods; and technology and media


University of Navarra IESE Business School

Once a year in Barcelona, MBA students at the University of Navarra IESE Business School band together to stage an international conference called Doing Good Doing Well. The theme of the conference – responsible business practices – mirrors the MBA curriculum at IESE, which is designed to train students to make managerial decisions that positively impact the world.

  • Strong emphasis on social responsibility and service that I find really attractive.
  • Curriculum is mainly taught through case studies that build in a discussion of the ethical implications of strategies and what the impact of a particular decision might be on workers or the environment.
  • About 12 percent of IESE's 710 students come from North America. They spend most of their 19 months in the program studying in Barcelona. 
  • IESE offers 133 electives, giving students multiple options to drill deeply into topics from wealth management and real estate finance to mergers and acquisitions.
  • Students who want to start their own businesses can spend the entire summer term in an entrepreneurship boot camp, developing a business plan for their startup. 
  • IESE also offers an exchange program; Atwell, for example, spent his second-to-last term taking business courses at Yale University.
  • IESE charges roughly $108,000 in tuition and fees for the program. The school advises students to budget about $2,468 per month for room and board off campus.