Business Schools Thrive in Changing Climate

By Ross Geraghty, Managing Editor, TopMBA.com and TopMBA Career Guide

The famous American author Mark Twain wrote in 1897 to the New York Journal, that had published his obituary, the famous words, "The report of my death was an exaggeration." He went on to live another 13 years, to the ripe old age of 74. In similar style, recent reports of the death of the MBA, such as Lucy Kellaway's column in The Economist of November 2009, are little short of an embellishment of the truth.

Nobody suggests that the recent economic downturn has had zero impact on business schools. The opposite is true. Deans and academics in top MBA programs worldwide, with a few exceptions, have been leading the clarion call for change. They want to be among the first to rectify the situation, most effectively and with a greater level of accountability.

Dean Paul Danos of Tuck Business School, an active proponent of reform, is maybe the first to put a number to the problem. He estimates that "less than one percent of all MBAs in practice now in the great companies of the world," are responsible for the crisis. He argues that blame is shared by "a relatively small group of people, including MBAs of course, at some financial institutions, politicians and various government regulators ... and reforms are absolutely necessary."

In fact what The Economist rightly called "a fundamental reappraisal," of business school is what program designers, deans and academics have been engaged with since before the crisis began. This is because the contemporary batch of MBAs increasingly demand it. Statistics, such as the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2009, show that MBA candidates are more concerned than ever before with redressing the balance. Becoming good corporate citizens with sustainability and social responsibility at the forefront of business practice is key. Other studies show that the number of MBAs considering working for controversial employers in such as tobacco and defense are down.

Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of QS, the career and education experts, and the QS World MBA Tour, says that this process of improvement has been going for several years, even pre-dating the financial crisis of recent years. "Business schools are constantly striving to find ways of improving their courses, especially in areas such as corporate governance, accountability and social responsibility, as their customers, the MBA students, demand it."
It is this group of talented and socially aware individuals that smart business school leaders are aware of. Sandwiched between this movement and the needs of the corporate world, post-recession, MBA programs are more than aware that change cannot come soon enough.

Zoltán Antal-Mokos, Associate Dean of Degree Programs at ESMT in Berlin talks of the recession creating "much soul-searching inside business schools and a more pervasive pressure from all stakeholders to develop programs reflecting responsible leadership." It has become a business prerogative now, he continues, as it is clear that "those schools whose programs best reflect both concern for society and provide concrete corporate connections will outlast the 'me-too' MBAs."