You’re getting your MBA, and you’re looking for a job – but where? Goldman Sachs (GS), J.P. Morgan? Not according to the most recent crop of MBA students. They, like everyone else, want to work for Google, according to a survey from market research firm Universum published on Fortune.com.

Of the 5,769 students surveyed, a startling 23.65% said they wanted to work for the search giant. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company (15.84%) took the second spot and Goldman Sachs (13.68%) was third. One other tech firm eked its way into the top 5 – Apple (AAPL) was fourth with 13.68%.

More : alleyinsider.com

I recently had a conversation with the professor and co-author of the recently published New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-Created Value Through Global Networks. At the end of our interview, he asked me what I thought of the book’s premise – which is that companies must change their business models to source what they need from suppliers around the world and to treat all customers as individuals, not a segment. I told him I kept coming back to a reference he and C.K. Prahalad make in a chapter about the IT impediments to growth, which looked at the root cause of the conflicts between technology managers and their departmental colleagues.

“The problem starts right from the business schools where these senior business executives are groomed,” they write. “Less than 15 per cent of the top business schools in the United States mandate a course in the role of information technology in enabling business processes and fuelling business innovation and efficiency as part of their core MBA curriculum . . . in some cases, the business schools also end up offering courses that are so totally focused on technology that MBA students do not find them relevant.”

I don’t know which schools those might be, but I can’t imagine they would be all that relevant to computer science students, either. As the next round of future IT managers, CIOs and developers graduate this spring, they no doubt have it drilled into them that an understanding of business objectives is key to their career success. What is far less certain is how much MBA grads need to know about technology, and whether their degree program gave them the grounding in it they need.

Let’s start with a few assumptions here: most MBA grads probably have a BlackBerry, smart phone or other mobile computing device. They understand and appreciate the power of information access IT brings them. Over the course of their education they have probably had to connect with each other online, whether through tutorials or in chat rooms. A great deal of the business processes that facilitated their registration and course selection might have happened through the kind of Web-based interface that will greet them when they take on their first job in an enterprise. So far, so good.

What MBA students may not have experienced is the disruptive nature of a technological change to an existing process or the introduction of a new process. This is where being a power user makes little difference. If the underlying platforms aren’t providing what you need, your actual equipment is secondary. This is when you get pulled into meetings with technical staff you’ve avoided previously, and where the nuts and bolts of putting together a piece of software seem like minor steps towards an overall profitability or efficiency goal.

More : blogs.itworldcanada.com

Danish companies would like to have international employees. Consequently Copenhagen Business School (CBS) has entered into collaboration with the temping agency Adecco, which is to provide jobs for the approximately 35 foreigners who are studying for their MBA (Master of Business Administration) at CBS each year, writes ErhvervsBladet.

“The present group will graduate already in August so we are in the process of guiding everyone in groups and individually about their future career in Denmark. The MBA students already have managing experience from abroad and our common aim is to make them stay in Denmark so that Danish companies can profit by them,” says Merethe Morgen who is head of Adecco’s department for HR consultancy.

The students come from companies in a great many different industries in countries such as the USA, China, Brazil and Germany and consequently they do not go after specific companies in Denmark. Adecco will follow the ordinary procedure of placing the candidates’ CV in its CV database for the companies to see.

So far 23 out of 35 MBA students are participating in the career consultancy and according to Merethe Morgen they come to Denmark because they typically have some kind of relations such as family or friends and because the MBA education at CBS has a very fine international reputation.

More : copcap.com

A growing number of business students believe a company’s responsibilities extend beyond the boardroom and into the local community, a new study shows.

In a survey of 1,943 MBA students at 15 business schools across the nation, 26 percent said they felt businesses had broad social responsibilities, up from just 15 percent in a similar survey five year ago, according to the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education, a Colo.-based nonprofit group.

Yet, less than half of the students surveyed said they would speak up against employer practices that clashed with their own business ethics. Instead, most said they would likely seek a new job.

The heightened importance students put on making a positive contribution to society tended to decrease over the course of their MBA program, the study found.

Source : inc.com

English is said to be the universal language of business so there is little incentive for UK managers to learn a foreign tongue. But in emerging economies such as Russia, China and South America, English is not widely spoken and Western managers who can communicate with the locals in these countries will have an edge.

So, should students learn a second language on their MBA programme so they can offer a well-rounded set of management skills?

At Cranfield School of Management, in Bedfordshire, a working knowledge of a second language is compulsory for all MBA students.

Sean Rickard, director of the full-time MBA programme, says: “We made it a requirement because we believe that in an increasingly global world we should encourage our students to communicate in at least one language other than their own.”

More : timesonline.co.uk

Babson first-year MBA students Amma Sefa-Dedeh and Sarah Carroll were on teams that placed second and third in the recent eighth annual Kenan-Flager Marketing Case Challenge at the University of North Carolina hosted by the business school’s Marketing Club.

Seven Babson first-year MBA students competed with first year MBAs from Notre Dame, University of Rochester, University of California/Berkley, Vanderbilt University, University of Maryland, Georgetown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of North Carolina. Participating Babson students, besides Sefa-Dedeh and Carroll, were Eric Burns, Patrizia Damiani, Joseph Hoyt, Antonio Kasabdji Raffensperger, and Emily South.

This year’s sponsor, Kraft Foods, Inc., presented the case asking teams to decide what action should be taken on the Kraft Cheese Nips brand cracker, which had seen declining market share. The teams, each with four students from a different school, had approximately six hours to read, analyze the case, and offer recommendations to the judges.

Every February the Marketing Club at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School organizes the marketing case competition to mimic real business interactions where individuals from diverse work and educational backgrounds must quickly demonstrate leadership and teamwork to solve a “live” marketing case. For eight years, the Kenan-Flagler Marketing Case Challenge has successfully built a bridge between Fortune 500 companies and marketing talent from top MBA programs.

Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE: TFX) announced today that Dr. Stephen K. Klasko, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean, College of Medicine at the University of South Florida (USF) and CEO of the University of South Florida Physicians Group A, entreprise’s Board of Directors.

Jeffrey S. Black, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of telecommunications, Flex, said: “Dr. Klasko is an important complement to our board, as telecommuting, flex, it is considered more leadership in health care. We appreciate his many experiences in practice and administration of medicine, and its proven ability to bid to win strategies for health arena competitiveness. ”

In his current position at USF, Dr. Klasko is responsible for administration, financial, strategic, clinical and educational activities’s College, University of medicine, nursing, public health and physiotherapy. Dr. Klasko place earlier in positions of the Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he has an MD from Hahnemann University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, both Philadelphia. Dr. Klasko also deserves a B.S. in chemistry and biology at Lehigh University.

In addition, George Babich, Jr., William R. Cook and F. Benson Smith was re-elected to the board of directors. Klasko gentlemen, Babich, Cook and Smith is a three-year term expires in 2011.

John J. Sickler, had served as director of the company since 2006 and previously from 1972 to 1992, not a candidate for re-election. Mr. Sickler to retire as vice-president of Flex telecommunications in October 2007 after more than 35 years with the company. The Board of Directors thank Mr. Sickler’s for the many contributions from businesses during his career.

I was fortunate to be invited to teach, of course, a graduate university in Beijing in the spring semester this year. While the students were already said, smart, I gained and the others were less predictable, Director of them, as imperfect and rigid education system in east China.

Most students China spend their entire lives trying to get in the best schools since the Communist Party senior officials are mainly artisans elite students in these schools.

You will receive gejätet by a series of standardized tests in the country as early as grade school. But pressure has only begun there.

It is quite typical High School students at the beginning of their school day at 7:30 am and ends at 11 hours, they often look for a way or a large specialize in which, before giving themselves themselves and often choose College One area in which they think they have the greatest potential for a Top-school, even if this is not what they enjoy. Students can choose, because it accounts, he knows a good shot to receive or Peking University Tsinghua University, that great, but it really has a love for chemistry and maybe even good.

Unfortunately, even after managing for the title of the school, they do not change majors and often end in this field, she has studied, rather than the chance to try to do what they want really done, especially by pressure from parents. So the game system to get a name brand school, the students themselves systematically deny (China) during their highest potential.

For a Top-MBA program, for example, schools, students choose with more results. But candidates who obtained the most test results are often not the same with the best management talent. Note Teachers have more time to study these standardized tests, while investment bankers, who must work at the moment, little time for preparation of the review. Accordingly, suggest that teachers, bankers investment for a slot in the MBA program, but businesses, recruitment of these schools is to discover later that these students do not have the personal qualities must mount head of the direction of the forces of the economy.

I have many occasions, that western companies such as investment banks have been complaining they could not enough qualified people to rent, while many Chinese graduates could not be found jobs created. From September 2007 up to one third of unemployed university graduates Chinese

Reliance Industries Limited and the Stanford Graduate School of Business today announced the creation of confidence DHIRUBHAI INDIA Education Fund aimed at helping Indian students with promising financial requirements for obtaining d ‘ an MBA from Stanford.

Each year, the Stanford Business School, it may be up to five Reliance Dhirubhai scholarships. Reliance Dhirubhai obtain the full Fellows

financial support for two years at Stanford MBA program.

“A global perspective is essential for good management,” said Robert L. Joss, dean of the Stanford Business School. “In preparing the next generation of leaders, Stanford recognizes the importance of India voice in the global marketplace and in our classrooms. This scholarship program allows a generous donation of Reliance Industries Limited, allows Stanford MBA programme to extend the “Outreach” In India the best and brightest MBA candidates. ”

“With India, now truly globalized economy and a rapidly expanding, good management talent developed in India, the two best universities and institutions abroad is essential to the future support of innovation and growth , “Said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, is a member of the Stanford Business School’s Advisory Council. “I am honoured, India help the next generation of leaders of the Stanford Business School, an academic institution of international reputation for innovation, diversity of the student experience and the highest quality of teachers and students from all over the world wide. ”

Joss visit India this week, joined the leaders of Reliance Reliance Industries Corporate offices in Mumbai to ink the agreement.

Reliance Dhirubhai foresight should visit www.gsb.stanford.edu Fellows / MBA confidence for more details on the two phases of application. In the first phase, applicants for scholarships Reliance Dhirubhai application between 15 Fellows And on May 15 in July 2008. The finalists will be selected on the basis of merit, commitment to India’s development and financial needs on the basis of a review of each personal resources.

In the second phase, the finalists are the norm for the implementation of Stanford MBA program in October 2008. Stanford may be up to five Reliance Dhirubhai Fellows of the circle of finalists on the basis of their main criteria for the admission of intellectual vitality, to prove the potential and personal qualities and contributions.

The Reliance Dhirubhai Fellows get a complete financial aid, including education, of course, within the framework of fees, housing, scholarships and travel package - estimated at $ 83000 total value per employee per year. (For more details on the cost of participation, go www.gsb.stanford.edu/finaid/cost/.) Financing is automatically extended for the second year if the student maintains good performance and the community university citizenship Stanford Business School. At the end of the MBA program, Reliance Dhirubhai Fellows are required to return to India for a minimum of

Lack of encouragement and the biological clock prevent many women from taking an MBA.

Numerous studies suggest women are more risk-averse when it comes to making financial investments, opting for bonds rather than equities and taking a prudent approach to personal debt. Could this account for the low number of women on MBA programmes? The jury is out. “There may be greater financial pressures on women,” says Bob Berry of Nottingham University Business School. “If there’s a lower rate of salary progression, then they may find it harder to put together the block of cash needed to fund a year out of work.” He’s not convinced this is the whole story, however, and highlights other obstacles, such as the macho image of the MBA and the burden of childcare.

Barriers

Stephan Chambers, MBA programme director at Saïd Business School in Oxford, also holds this view. “I would be surprised if more women than men are put off by the cost,” he says. “Women in their late twenties tend to be no better or worse off than their male counterparts.” In 2000, a survey by Catalyst, a research firm, was launched to find out why women’s enrolment had plateaued at 25-30 per cent, where it remains today. It found little mention of financial concerns. The barriers identified by women graduates included lack of female role models (56 per cent); incompatibility of careers in business with work/life balance (47 per cent); lack of confidence in maths skills (45 per cent); and a lack of encouragement by employers (42 per cent). Some of these barriers, such as lack of role models, are being addressed by business schools, with many already taking steps to ensure their faculty, case studies and marketing literature better reflect society at large. Other barriers are more intractable: work/life balance and lack of employer encouragement, for example, will require a cultural shift in the workplace.

Biology

The biggest issue is biology. Progammes recruit work-seasoned graduates with an average age range of 27 to 35, exactly the time when women often plan to take timeout to have children. There are, of course, amazing women who do both – one Cass Business School student recently did her corporate finance exams just two weeks after giving birth – but the ticking of the biological clock plays loudly for women, and their employers. “It’s slightly harder for women in their 30s to justify to their employer why they should invest this kind of money [sponsoring an MBA] if they consider you may subsequently also take time off to have children,” says communications director Jane Roberts, who likes the idea of doing an MBA but worries about the cost. “I do think men could be better at putting a case forward for this kind of financial support.” There is certainly plenty of research to back that up: men are better at asking for, and getting, financial support from their employers, be it pay rises, bonuses or business education. Yet there are plenty of women who do MBAs, with or without employer support, taking on significant debt to pursue their ambitions.

Angela Davis, for example, studied an MBA at the Open University, which she funded by running her own business and racking up debt on credit cards. “It was a bit of a hope-and-prayer attitude towards future salary increases,” says Davis. It paid off, with the IT consultant’s salary increasing three-fold on graduation. “I’m now a solutions architect which is quite different from the role I used to do,” she says. “The MBA has opened up that door for me, so all the sacrifices for those five years were worth it.” She admits, however, this decision would have been more difficult if she’d had children.

Strategy consultant Sally Taplin is studying for an EMBA at Cass Business School in London. Her employer picked up half the fees and she financed the rest through savings and a loan. “I see the MBA as an investment in myself and I took a pragmatic view on the costs because I know it will pay off in a fairly short time frame,” she says. “I was surprised how few women are in my class. I don’t think women are more risk averse when it comes to financial decisions because one of the biggest financial decisions you can make is to have a child, and women do that all the time.There are bigger issues, such as when to do this, when to have children and whether you can do both.”

Women, it seems, are sensitive to the financial burden of an MBA but are equally aware of the longerterm rewards. Risk assessment becomes more complex, however, when family circumstances are added to the mix: after all biology, unlike loan repayments, cannot be deferred.