An excellent article - why to chose Spanish Bschools?

As Anupama Rao takes a quick lunch break at Infosys in Bangalore she is thinking seriously about her future. Since she graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology five years ago she’s done pretty well, progressing steadily through the innovation department. But now she feels it’s time to make a big change. She’d like to lead more entrepreneurial projects at Infosys, but she’d also be open to starting her own company in the Bangalore area with a couple of Stanford MBA grad friends. Either way, she’s decided to study an MBA.

Soon she’ll be taking the GMAT test in Mumbai so she’s not got long before she has to decide which schools to apply to. She knows the best Indian schools are in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, but Anu has her heart set on studying abroad, in the US or in Europe. She’s checked out the international rankings and put together her own shortlist by country and city. Looking at the top 20 of each ranking, she’s surprised to find that the Spanish schools come up highly rated again and again. In the Financial Times MBA ranking the three countries with the highest presence are the US (9 schools), Spain (3 schools) and the UK (3 Schools). Business Week’s international ranking tells a similar story with Canada (5 schools) followed by Spain (3 Schools). The Spanish schools even have a strong presence in the Wall Street Journal’s new One Year MBA ranking and the Economist’s MBA ranking with two rated in the top ten of each.

So Spain is second only to the US as the country with the most business schools in the top twenty of the international rankings, with IESE and ESADE of Barcelona and IE of Madrid consistently appearing. In fact, it turns out that Barcelona is the eighth city in the world in terms of attracting numbers of MBA students, a leader board topped by Boston worldwide and Paris in Europe.

Read on... http://www.topmba.com/node/1803

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Wall Street Journal: One Year MBA Rankings - ESADE #6

The Wall Street Journal has recently published a report "The Top M.B.A. Programs if You're in a Hurry", and has ranked ESADE on #6 spot behind IE, IMD, Cranfield, Kellogs and Babson, but ahead of many other acclaimed Bschools.

The WSJ has been rating ESADE #1 for its long MBA program in the last two published rankings, and it is credible for ESADE that it has been rated amongst the best for its shorter program also.

However, it would be interesting to see the next rankings, since ESADE has now changed its MBA structure. Now students can enrol in the MBA program and then can later decide which version they want to pursue. This would give them flexibility to design THEIR career based on THEIR needs.

The new rankings judge various Bschools on the basis of skill enhancement, leadership enhancement and alumni impact, and rates each of these attributes as top, middle and bottom. These judgements, in my opinion, might not give a wide range of selection choices to candidates who wish to use the rankings. However, being the first rankings for the shorter version of MBA, I would see a good reflection of the content of the MBAs.

For the complete news report, click here

European MBA

MBA was traditionally born in the States, but it is now studied across the world. European MBA, in particular, has become extremely fascinating owing to benefits that it brings. Some of the bschools in Europe have excellent reputation across the globe, and international MBA aspirants are therefore attracted towards the enriching business studies here.

World class European bschools are mainly in Spain, France and Germany. The MBA degree is becoming a standard of education for all managers in Europe who want to improve their knowledge, gain new experiences and stretch their limits. Moreover, an MBA is recognised and appreciated by most companies as a valid qualification for business centric positions. The importance of MBA can be measured by the boost it gives to a career. Owing to these factors, Europe has witnessed an increase in demand of high quality MBA graduates.

Typically, European MBA programs are shorter than the US MBA programs and run for a year or a year and a half. The size and culture of a Bschool in Europe are different too. Bchools in the US are larger, with an average intake of full-time MBA students of approx 300, compared with around 120 in Europe. Also, most of the European Bschools enrol students who have at least three years of prior work experience. American Bschools on the other hand do not get much bothered by enrolling students with lesser or no work experience, i.e. simply hitting a market of ineligible MBA students. An international MBA without a work experience, according to me, is fatal and doesn't help in understanding business from a cross-functional point of view.

Merits of a European MBA over an American MBA:
1. Students end up learning another important language. Spanish, French and German are three very important business languages. E.g. learn Spanish and you can do business in almost whole of South America; Spanish is also the fourth most spoken language after Mandarin, English and Hindi. Learn French and it gives you an edge in doing business in Africa and Canada.
2. The MBA students body is usually a good international mixture, which makes the curriculum enriching. E.g. IMD & INSEAD enroll around 90% international students. Spanish bschools ESADE, IESE & IE enroll around 85% international students. Towards the end of the course every student has a close acquaintance in say 50 different countries.
3. Europe is an exotic place and every country/ city is deeply cultured, has its own tradition, food, drinks, clothes, festivals, etc. MBA programs give a nice break to the experienced participants to learn about European culture. Students travel across countries for leisure and for business networking. The best part is, travelling is cheap and hassle free. European MBA indeed gives a great lifetime experience in terms of getting acquainted with different cultures along with the business education.

European MBA is different, is out of the league, and hence is steadily gaining popularity.
Think about it!!