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MBAs for all

You don’t have to be in the private sector to grow your career

WORDS | ROSS TIERMAN

ALL AROUND THE WORLD, BUSINESS EXECUTIVES ARE GOING BACK TO SCHOOL. A financial crisis and a prolonged recession destroyed many old certainties about business growth, sectors, and finance, and have left a lot of bosses searching for a new compass.

And to judge by the record applications for places on Masters in Business Administration programmes, many have concluded that they need to completely refresh their education in order to lead successfully in the grey, slow-growth, post-crisis environment labelled the “new normal” by Mohammed El-Erian, the shrewd chief executive of fund management group Pimco.

Units in entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and sustainable decisions and organisations, like those offered within the MBA programme at Nottingham University Business School in the UK, are today regarded as among the most exciting elements of MBA courses. After two years of company failures, what could be more interesting than how to ensure your employer is still around to pay your salary next month, not to mention your pension when you retire?

Upgrading academic qualifications during economic doldrums isn’t a new idea. For redundant high-earners, it’s a platform for a personal re-launch. For those in work, a part-time Executive MBA programme is a way to get some new perspectives on current corporate challenges, but also to signal commitment to the company and a willingness to change.

But this time there are some differences. Jeanne Weckler, marketing manager for Executive MBA programmes at pan-European business school ESCP Europe, says: “We are seeing a lot of people coming into the programmes on our London campus who are from finance and banking in particular, because banking is now so difficult they are looking to strengthen their CV or to get out of finance altogether.”

Another trend demonstrated across the school’s campuses in London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin and Turin is increased enthusiasm among bosses to rely for their future on their own wits, rather than a multinational. “There are also a lot of people who say they have been good corporate employees for many years, but now they want to be an entrepreneur, even though it might not seem like a good time to launch a business,” adds Weckler.

The urge to improve qualifications seems to have hit executives of all ages. Though the average age of ESCP Europe’s 120-strong 2010 MBA intake is unchanged at 35 years, there are increasingly younger participants, and more in their late 40s or 50s. Weckler states: “I think those in their 40s and 50s feel the need to really refurbish their credentials given the economic climate.”

There’s no doubt that executives are turning to academics to help them cope with uncertainty, both in business and at a more personal level. Mike Lucas, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Learning Design at the Open University Business School, also sees demand for more international perspectives and insights into entrepreneurship, while the university’s Creativity, Innovation and Change course is now one of its most popular options.

The Open University Business School, which runs blended and online learning programmes over three years for fees as low as £12,000, is a good trend barometer because with 7,000 MBA students, it accounts for almost a quarter of the UK’s MBA graduate output.

Lucas notes that in addition to a strong core of public sector managers studying MBAs, the school is now also training executives from not-for-profit organisations. And demand from mobile, international managers is so strong the school is preparing to launch a new Global MBA.

As he works on developing the programme to match the changing business and economic environment, he and his colleagues have identified inter-cultural skills and creativity as two of the elements they wish to enhance. “The other touchstone has to be ethical decision-making,” he says.

All three elements reflect not just changes in the business environment, but increasing diversity among course participants. MBA programmes are no longer the preserve of middle-aged male private sector go-getters. Today, 35 per cent of participants on the

Open University MBA are women, and many of both genders work in the public sector, the military or charitable organisations.

Interaction between participants is breaking down old barriers between public administration and the private sector everywhere in a way that many top French bosses, trained at France’s elite École Nationale d’Administration, would find familiar. Schools have responded by diversifying both course content and the range of courses available.

After a slump in the stock-market value of their endowments, many schools, including London Business School and Harvard, are also increasing class sizes.

Chioma Isiadinso, of Expartus, which helps applicants find appropriate courses and win places, is well placed to see how schools are responding to diversifying demand. Many business schools are leveraging their connections with medical schools to offer specialised MBAs or Masters courses, she says.

Harvard’s Health Care Initiative attracts students from the pharmaceutical, biotech, medical equipment and even investment industries, as well as hospital managers. Yale has a part-time Medical MBA programme.

And as everyone struggles to understand the implications of climate change for governments, companies and consumers, the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, has added a Climate Change option, while the London Business School has launched an Executive MBA on carbon finance.

And then there are the soldiers. Private companies have long prized military logistics skills. Now, some schools are luring serving and former officers with scholarship offers, just as ESCP Europe offers scholarships to attract entrepreneurs.

The MBA, once the key to a plush office, is becoming a passport to a wider world. Last year’s Association of MBA’s Student of the Year, ESCP graduate Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke, is director of the Philippine arm of a humanitarian organisation. Runners-up included a scientist and a cultural entrepreneur.

Today, corporate bosses going back to school may find their values being challenged every bit as much as their management skills.