Losing their faculties? The MBA industry may be facing a shakeout
After seven years working in Silicon Valley, Amy Bonsall decided to move to Europe to study for an MBA degree. Now a participant on the one-year programme at IMD in Switzerland, she believes her investment in both time and money will help her break out of the US market and get a more internationally focused job.
ADVERTISEMENT
But while a growing number of young American managers are looking outside the US to study, at home many are thinking twice about the investment of 20 months and $100,000 required to get an MBA from a good US business school. Over the past two years, the number of applicants for places on MBA courses has fallen sharply.
Demographics are partly to blame. The number of Americans in their early to mid-20s prime years for MBA applicants has fallen from 24m to 19m since the end of the 1990s. But critics point to a deeper malaise: MBA courses that do not meet the needs of employers; faculty more interested in obscure research than real business; and other forms of business education offered at a fraction of the cost.
“Business schools are institutionalising their own irrelevance,” write Warren Bennis and Jim O'Toole, professors at the University of California's Marshall School of Business, in the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review.
They are not alone in calling for change. Longstanding critics of US management education, such as Henry Mintzberg of McGill University in Montreal and Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford's Graduate School of Business, have been joined in recent months by establishment figures such as Dipak Jain, dean of Northwestern University's Kellogg business school, Laura Tyson, dean of London Business School and Jeffrey Garten, dean of Yale.
The rise of business schools has been one of the educational success stories of the past 50 years, with growth in the number of accredited US MBA degrees growing especially strongly over the past 15 years (see chart). In 1990 the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the US accreditation body, gave its stamp of approval to 259 US schools. Today the figure is more than 500, including 74 business schools outside the US. Until the 1950s, white collar workers were typecast as accountants, marketeers or engineers and expected to stay with an employer for their entire career. Gradually there emerged a breed of professional managers capable of applying their business skills to any company in any industry. An MBA became the unofficial membership card of this new managerial class.
In 1955, about 3,000 MBAs were awarded in the US. By the late 1990s, the annual total had reached 100,000.
Influenced by the US model, European countries developed their own business schools. These days, the UK and even Germany, until recently a black hole for management education, each boast more than 100 MBA programmes.
Against this background of growth, critics such as Profs Mintzberg and Pfeffer, who argued that MBA students were being taught the wrong skills, could be dismissed as curmudgeons.
The first sign of more widespread discontent came in 2001, a year in which students graduating from even top business schools found it difficult to get jobs. Then came the collapse of companies such as Enron, where the senior ranks were filled with MBA-trained executives. Had US business schools neglected to instil ethics and leadership in their students?
To their credit, schools responded swiftly. To help students find jobs, they revamped their career departments. Business ethics and leadership were added to curriculums. Harvard Business School alma mater of Jeffrey Skilling, Enron's former chief executive now requires all MBA students to take a course on “leadership, governance and accountability” alongside traditional classes in finance, strategy and marketing.
To many critics, however, these changes amount to wallpapering over the cracks. Profs Bennis and O'Toole believe business schools are locked in a fruitless quest for academic respectability (see right). The results? Research papers that are neither read nor understood by practising managers and MBA curriculums that place not nearly enough emphasis on the real work of managing.
Employers also express lingering doubts about the skills of MBA recruits. Most are happy with the analytical ability of their newly hired MBAs. But many point to a lack of communication, interpersonal and motivational skills of the kind required to manage teams.
“I would love it if I had more people coming out of business school with a solid foundation in these areas,” says Chris Richard, director of manager leadership development at Intel, the semiconductor company. Tim Conlon, chief learning officer at Xerox, the copier company, adds: “We need people with the breadth of experience to deal with the increasing velocity of change. An MBA can be part of but not necessarily core to leadership success.” These employers continue to hire MBAs. But they are looking as well to law schools, medical schools and PhD programmes for recruits.
McKinsey, the management consulting firm, will hire 600 MBAs this year, making it one of the biggest business school recruiters. As a proportion of its annual intake, however, MBAs are declining. “We are casting a wider net,” says Michael Partington, global director of recruiting. “We are looking for the same level of intellectual ability but combined more and more with ‘softer' skills.”
This hardly amounts to a vote of no confidence in the management education system. But it underlines that postgraduate qualifications in an applied discipline such as engineering, law or medicine can be every bit as useful to employers as an MBA.
For example, McKinsey has been hiring medical doctors to staff its fast-growing healthcare practice. It is easier to teach business and consulting skills to a doctor than it is to teach medicine to an MBA. In-depth knowledge of a particular industry or technology is often more valuable than a generalist's grasp of finance or marketing, say recruiters. This concept of ‘domain expertise' comes up frequently.
SAS Institute, the largest privately owned software company, does not hire MBAs at all. Says Jeff Chambers, vice-president of human resources: “Typically, we hire people with advanced degrees in computer science or statistics. If we do have MBAs they are here because they came with domain expertise in an industry that interests us.”
Again, business schools have responded to these concerns. The last few years have seen a sharp increase in the number offering joint MBAs withuniversity departments such as medicine or law. Specialist MBA programmes in everything from financial engineering to supply chain management are equally a response to demand for recruits with more in-depth skills.
“There will always be a niche for schools that produce generalists,” says Margaret Ashida, director of university talent programmes at IBM. “But we can never get enough people who combine technical skills with business skills.”
The snag is that most companies looking for talented generalists fish in the same small pond: the top 10-20 business schools, a list including such institutions as Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and Chicago. Although McKinsey is starting to visit more campuses in search of the brightest MBAs, it will still concentrate on no more than 30 schools worldwide.
An MBA from a prestigious school has retained its cachet and its market value. A survey conducted by the Financial Times found that 2001 graduates from the top 10 US business schools earned on average $144,492 three years after graduation. They saw their salaries increase by 138 per cent between 1999 and 2004, despite the economic downturn.
For second-tier business schools, however, the outlook is less certain. For US schools that are ranked between 50 and 100 in the FT table the average salary dipped just below $90,000. Clearly the added value of degrees from third- and fourth-tier schools will be lower still, supporting academic studies that have cast doubt on the long-term value of many MBA qualifications to their holder.
In a study published in 2002, Prof Pfeffer and Christina Fong, then one of his PhD students, found no evidence that obtaining an MBA was correlated with career success. They concluded that the proliferation of courses had robbed the qualification of its value as a mark of special achievement.
The plight of lower-ranked business schools is exacerbated by increasing competition for students. The development of business schools in Europe and, to a lesser extent, Asia means that US schools can no longer count on a steady flow of overseas students.
Indeed, an increasing proportion of young Americans are choosing to travel to Europe for their management studies in search of international experience. At London Business School, for example, there are more US students on the programme these days than any other single nationality, including British students.
For Ms Bonsall the selling point of IMD was the 38 different nationalities represented in a class of just 86 students and the applied nature of the programme. “I feel it has enhanced my business education. It doesn't feel like going back to university.”
Five years ago North American business schools were swamped with applications from China. Today the figures have plummeted, partly because of the perceived difficulty of obtaining visas and partly because MBA programmes are increasingly available at home.
Chinese business schools report substantial growth in the market for part-time and “executive” MBA programmes, which can be taken without leaving the country or quitting a good job. This is partly due to Chinese government moves to build a home-grown industry by issuing minimum quotas to schools. In 2004 the government mandated China's top 10 business schools each to graduate at least 300 executive MBAs a year and the next 20 business schools each to graduate at least 100 a year 5,000 EMBA graduates a year in total.
Americans looking for business education without leaving the US have a wide variety of choices. Distance learning programmes such as those run by the University of Phoenix Online, a stock market-listed company, offer a low-cost way of learning basic business skills that did not exist until recently.
Big employers, too, have got into the business education market by forming “corporate universities” that provide a mix of product-specific knowledge and marketing or finance skills. These in-house management training programmes sometimes provide business schools with valuable income. Thus, SAS Institute has just launched a leadership development programme for its top managers in partnership with the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler business school. But this is not always the case.
Abbott Labs, the Chicago-based pharmaceuticals company, occasionally enrols managers in part-time MBA programmes. But a much larger proportion of the management training budget is spent on a programme developed by the company itself.
“Miles [White, chief executive] wants Abbott executives teaching Abbott executives how to be Abbott executives,” says Tom Wascoe, senior vice-president of human resources.
It is against this background that many business schools are wondering where to turn. Some are meeting the challenge with innovation developing specialist MBA programmes and partnerships with employers, for example. Others are investing heavily in faculty and facilities in the hope of joining the generalist elite.
But it does not take a Harvard MBA to see that not all will succeed. In the long run, falling demand combined with increased competition has one possible outcome: fewer business schools. As Edward Snyder, dean of the University of Chicago graduate school of business, told the Financial Times earlier this year: “It's got the feel of a shakeout.”
MBA的衰落？(上)
在硅谷工作了7年后，艾米?邦斯尔(Amy Bonsall)决定搬到欧洲攻读工商管理硕士(MBA)学位。现在，她正参加瑞士洛桑国际管理发展学院(IMD)为期一年的课程。她认为，她投入的时间和金钱将帮助她冲出美国市场，得到一份更具备全球视角的工作。
但是，一方面，越来越多年轻的美国经理人考虑到美国以外学习，而另一方面，在美国国内，获得一所优秀商学院的MBA学位需要投入20个月时间和10万美元，许多人都在对此进行三思。过去两年间，申请攻读MBA课程的人数已大幅下降。
这部分要归咎于人口状况。自上世纪90年代末以来，在MBA申请者中，20岁出头到25岁左右的美国人已从2400万降至1900万。但批评人士还指出一个更深层的痼疾：MBA课程不符合雇主的需要；教员们对晦涩难懂的研究比对实际商业运作更感兴趣。加上其它形式的商业教育，花费也只有MBA课程的一个零头。
“商学院正在使自己不合时宜，”加州大学马歇尔商学院教授沃伦?贝内斯(Warren Bennis)和吉姆?奥图尔(Jim O’Toole)在最近一期《哈佛商业评论》(Harvard Business Review)中写道。
呼吁商学院改革的还不止是他们。长期以来，蒙特利尔麦吉尔大学(McGill University)的亨利?明茨伯格(Henry Mintzberg)、斯坦福商学院(Stanford’s Graduate School of Business)的杰弗里?普费弗(Jeffrey Pfeffer)等人就一直在批评美国的管理学教育。近几个月，一些权威人士也加入了批评者的行列，其中包括西北大学(Northwestern University)凯洛格商学院(Kellogg Business School)院长迪帕克?詹恩(Dipak Jain)、伦敦商学院(London Business School)院长劳拉?泰森(Laura Tyson)和耶鲁大学商学院院长杰弗里?加滕(Jeffrey Garten)。
商学院的兴起是过去50年来教育领域的成功故事之一，获得美国认证的MBA学位在过去15年中增长尤其强劲。1990年，美国教育认证机构美国商学院协会 (AACSB)向259所美国大学颁发了认可证。今天，这一数字已超过500所，其中还有74所商学院是在美国之外。在上世纪50年代之前，白领工作者千篇一律都是会计师、营销员或工程师，而且他们整个职业生涯都会为一家雇主工作。后来渐渐出现了一类职业经理人，他们能把经商技能应用到任何行业的任何一家公司中。于是，MBA学位成了这个新型管理阶层的非正式会员资格证。
美国在1955年授予了约3000个MBA学位。到上世纪90年代末，每年共有10万人获得这个学位。
在这一美国模式的影响下，欧洲国家也发展了自己的商学院。现在，英国、甚至德国，也分别宣称已拥有超过100种MBA课程。而直到不久之前，德国还是管理教育的黑洞。
在这种发展背景下，虽然明茨伯格教授和普费弗教授等批评人士认为，商学院将错误的技能教给了MBA学生，但人们仍会把他们当作坏脾气的老顽固而不加理会。
2001年出现了第一个迹象，显示出人们对商学院较普遍的不满情绪。那一年，即使是顶级商学院的毕业生也发现很难找到工作。接着就是安然公司(Enron)的崩溃，而该公司高层都是些受过MBA培训的经理人。是美国商学院忽略了向学生们灌输道德观念和领导才能吗？
商学院迅速作出反应，这一点他们是做对了。为了帮助学生找到工作，它们改革了职业咨询部门。课程内容增加了商业道德和领导才能。哈佛商学院是安然前首席执行官杰弗瑞?斯基林(Jeffrey Skilling)的母校，该校现在规定所有MBA学生除了学习融资、策略和营销等传统课程外，还要修读一门有关“领导才能、治理和责任”的课程，
但在许多批评人士看来，这些改变只是一些“掩饰不足”的表面功夫。贝内斯教授和奥图尔教授认为，商学院热衷于追求学术声望，结果只会是徒劳无益，研究论文没人去读，从业经理人也读不懂，而且MBA课程对实际管理工作的重视根本不够。
雇主们也对新MBA毕业生的技能存有疑虑。大部分雇主对新招聘MBA毕业生的分析能力感到满意，但很多雇主指出，他们却缺乏沟通、人际交往和激励员工的技巧，而这些都是管理团队的必备技能。
“我很希望能招聘到更多在这些方面有扎实根基的商学院毕业生，”半导体公司英特尔(Intel)的经理人领导才能发展总监克里斯?理查德(Chris Richard)说。复印机公司施乐(Xerox)的首席学习官蒂姆?考伦(Tim Conlon)补充说：“我们需要具有广泛经验的人士来应对越来越快的变革。MBA可以成为领导才能成功的一部分，但不一定是这种成功的核心因素。”现在这些雇主仍在招聘MBA，但它们也在考虑招聘法学院和医学院的毕业生以及博士生。
管理咨询公司麦肯锡(McKinsey)今年将招聘600名MBA毕业生，成为最大的商学院学生招募者之一。但在每年的新招聘人员中，MBA所占比例正在下降。“我们正撒出一张更大的网，”公司全球招聘总监迈克尔?帕廷顿(Michael Partington)说，“我们寻求具有和MBA毕业生同等智力水平、但同时拥有更多‘软’技巧的人。”
这并不等于对管理教育体制投了不信任票。但它却突出表明，对雇主来说，工程、法律或医学等应用学科的研究生学历跟MBA一样有用。
例如，麦肯锡一直在招聘医师来从事其迅速增长的保健业务。相对于向MBA毕业生传授医学知识来说，向医生传授商业和咨询技能要容易些。招聘人员表示，比起一般性掌握金融或营销知识的通才来说，深入了解某一特定行业或技术的人往往会更有价值。“领域专长”这一概念已经常出现。
SAS研究所（SAS Institute）是最大的私人持股软件公司，但该公司根本不招聘MBA。人力资源副总裁杰夫?钱伯斯(Jeff Chambers)表示：“一般情况下，我们雇佣持有电脑科学或统计学高级学位的人。如果我们确实招聘了MBA，那是因为他们具备我们感兴趣的某一行业的领域专长。”
对于这些问题，商学院又一次做出了反应。在过去几年里，提供与大学其他系科合办的联合MBA课程的商学院数量急剧上升，这些系科包括了医学系或法律系。同样，为响应对具备更深度技能人员的招聘需求，商学院还提供许多特殊的MBA课程，从财务工程到供应链管理，应有尽有。
“造就通才的商学院总会有个利基市场，”国际商业机器公司(IBM)大学人才计划总监玛格丽特?阿什达(Margaret Ashida)说，“但我们永远无法得到足够的既有专业技术又有商业技能的人。”
问题在于，大多数寻找通才的公司犹如在同一口小池塘里钓鱼：其中包括10至20所顶尖商学院。这个名单包括哈佛、斯坦福、沃顿和芝加哥大学商学院。虽然麦肯锡已开始拜访更多商学院以搜寻最聪明的MBA毕业生，但它仍会集中在全球不超过30所学院中寻找。
从著名商学院毕业的MBA学生保持了那些学校的威望和市场价值。《金融时报》所做的一项调查发现，美国10大商学院2001届毕业生在毕业3年后平均收入达14.492万美元。在1999至2004年期间，尽管经济下滑，他们的工资仍上涨了138%。
但对二线商学院来说，前景就不太明朗了。在《金融时报》商学院排行榜中排名50至100位的美国商学院，其MBA毕业生的平均工资已跌破9万美元。显然，三线和四线商学院MBA学位的附加值还要低，从而支持了一些学术研究的结论。这些研究对MBA学历为其持有者带来的长期价值产生怀疑。
在2002年发表的一项研究中，普费弗教授和他当时指导的一名博士生克里斯蒂娜?方(Christina Fong)发现，没有证据表明，拥有MBA学位与职业成功之间存在关联。他们得出的结论是，由于MBA课程泛滥，已导致MBA学历丧失了作为特殊成就标志的价值。
对于一些排名较低的商学院来说，日益激烈的生源竞争加剧了它们的困境。商学院已在欧洲（甚至亚洲）发展起来，这意味着美国的商学院再也不能指望有稳定的海外生源不断流入了。
事实上，为了寻求国际经验，越来越多的美国年轻人正选择到欧洲去学习管理学。例如在伦敦商学院，前来学习管理学的美国学生比其它任何国家（包括英国）的学生都要多。
对邦斯尔女士来说，瑞士洛桑国际管理发展学院的卖点是，虽然一届学生仅有86人，但他们来自38个不同的国家，而且课程十分实用。“我觉得它增进了我的商业教育。感觉上不像是回到了大学。”
5年前，北美各商学院对中国源源不断的入学申请应接不暇。而今，中国学生的申请数字一落千丈，部分原因是，人们感到获得签证很困难；还有部分原因是，中国国内提供的MBA课程也越来越多。
中国各商学院的数字显示，在职MBA与“高管人员”MBA(EMBA)课程市场有显著增长，修读这些MBA课程无须出国或辞去一份好工作。其部分原因是由于中国政府采取行动，通过对商学院下达最低配额来建立一个土生土长的产业。2004年，政府授权中国排名前十位的商学院分别每年至少培养出300名EMBA毕业生，而排名接后的20家商学院则分别每年至少培养出100名EMBA毕业生，也就是说这些商学院每年共有5000名EMBA毕业生。
如果美国人希望不离开美国也能获得商业教育，他们会有很多选择。远程教育课程可提供一种学习基本商业技能的低成本方式，例如由上市公司凤凰城在线大学(University of Phoenix Online)提供的课程。这种新的教学方式只是最近才出现。
大型雇主也通过建立“企业大学”而加入了商业教育市场，这些企业大学提供各种产品方面的专门知识以及营销、融资方面的技巧等培训。这些内部管理培训课程往往可为商学院带来可观的收入。因此，SAS 研究所刚与美国北卡罗莱纳大学(University of North Carolina)凯南-弗拉格勒(Kenan-Flagler)商学院合作推出了一个领导才能发展课程。不过也有其它的情况。
总部在芝加哥的制药公司雅培(Abbott Labs)偶尔会让管理人员就读在职MBA课程。但是在管理培训的预算中，更大的比例是花在公司自行设计的课程上。
“迈尔斯（首席执行官迈尔斯?怀特，Miles White)希望由雅培的高管来教导雅培本身的高管如何成为雅培高管，”公司人力资源高级副总裁汤姆?瓦斯科(Tom Wascoe)说。
正是在这种背景下，许多商学院都在考虑何去何从。一些商学院正以创新手段迎接挑战，例如开发专业性的MBA课程以及与雇主建立合作关系。也有一些商学院正在师资与设施上大力投资，以期成为通才式的精英院校。
但是人们无需哈佛MBA学位也可以看出，并非所有这些尝试都会成功。长期来看，需求下降以及竞争加剧可能会产生这样一个结果：商学院数量减少。正如芝加哥大学商学院院长爱德华?斯奈德(Edward Snyder)今年早些时候对《金融时报》说：“已经有一种优胜劣汰的感觉了。”
