Enterprise Faculty Briefing: Covid classes, MBA rebound, alumni networks
Welcome to the Business School Briefing. We offer insights from Andrew Hill and Jonathan Moules as well as the selection of the top stories that are read at business schools. Edited by Wai Kwen Chan and Andrew Jack.
Notice board
Due to the Easter holidays, the next Business School Briefing will be published on Monday, April 12th.
Andrew Hills Management Challenge
World leaders pay tribute to coronavirus victims on the first anniversary of the pandemic. However, with few exceptions such as Norway and Sweden, citizens are still waiting for proper public inquiries into how their governments have handled or mistreated the crisis.
Recommended
As I wrote this week, any self-improving organization should be interested in learning the lessons from failure. The problem is to determine the correct scope for such examinations, which is this week Management challenge – wherever you are – establish three criteria for a successful investigation of the coronavirus approach in your country and send the framework to [email protected].
In further readingTry this polemic from Asheem Singh of the UK think tank RSA. He suggests ways in which we can break away from economic ideas that bind us to the goal of “toxic productivity”. “Tech oligarchs and media plutocrats are borrowing from ideas of yesteryear to create a trope that I call the ‘tech god’,” he writes. “In cultural consciousness, they embody the omnipotence of a deity and the frenzy of the pirate, merging with something new: the friendliness of community, the generosity of ‘free stuff’ and sophisticated tools that speak to each of us.”
Jonathan Moules’ messages from the business school
Will the MBA rebound stall in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic enters year two with persistent disruption in business school classes? Not according to a survey of 2,300 potential students via LinkedIn and YouTube by the admissions consultancy MBA Crystal Ball. It found that only one in ten respondents had a postponement of a year as their main plan for 2021, while just over half were willing to to pay the full fees for a senior institution.
Recommended
A separate study by the business school’s exam administrator, the Graduate Management Admission Council, found that potential students are less concerned about the impact Covid-19 has on their career opportunities. The proportion of respondents who said they were extremely or very concerned fell from 41 percent in July last year to 33 percent in December.
Recommended
The Robert Toigo Foundation, a US-based nonprofit promoting leadership diversity, announced this week its first partnership with a European academic institution, Oxford University’s Saїd Business School. The Toigo MBA program offers up to $ 10,000 in leadership development training and career coaching to support successful candidates in leadership roles. Given recent reports that almost a fifth of companies in the FTSE 100 – the blue-chip London index – do not have ethnic minority board members, so is the UK from time to time.
For further reading This week I recommend the following article from the Harvard Business Review. It relates to negotiation, the subject of my post earlier this month which sparked some lively reader discussion and some calls for more discussion on the subject.
Data line
Global online and campus-based MBA alumni who participated in the FT Rankings surveys were asked to rate their school alumni network. In all categories, on-campus MBA alumni ratings were higher than online graduates, says Sam Stephens. Most of the categories ranked by online MBA graduates scored less than eight on average. The exceptions were the network’s evaluations when contacting other alumni and when participating in events.
Further analyzes of FT’s 2021 online MBA ranking can be found here.
How well do you know the news?
Answer our 10-question quiz.
Top business school reads
The discovery of AstraZeneca vaccine doses in Italy raises EU problems. According to the company, 29 million shots are waiting for quality approval before being distributed to Block and Covax
Recommended
Investors are looking for a source of fire selling that caused stocks to drop into block trading on Friday, hitting several Chinese corporations and US media outlets
The US fears that China is flirting with taking control of Taiwan. Chinese fighter jets are flying through the island’s air defense zone in Beijing’s latest strength
Previous editions
To view previous newsletters, go to: ft.com/bschool.
Register for the FT Business School Briefing.
