B-school trends come and go, but one that seems to have legs is the creation of specialized MBA programs, particularly by second-tier schools. The schools find them useful for attracting students and cementing their brand identities at a time when competition among schools for the best students is intense. In recent years, they’ve becoming increasingly common (BusinessWeek.com, 7/19/07) even at high-profile schools. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, and the Wharton School now offer specialized MBAs, majors, or dual degree programs in areas like real estate, sports management, biosciences, electronic commerce, and health care.

But is a specialized program always a good choice for an MBA student?

Not necessarily. While established programs have placement records on par with those of their general MBAs, many newer programs have not yet established the kind of recruiting relationships that guarantee students high-paying jobs at graduation. And graduates always run the risk of getting hamstrung by their specialties later in their careers, when an industry downturn forces them to look outside their specialties for opportunities.
Chart Your Own Path

Some who have gone through the specialized programs say they are best for those with a firm idea of their future goals, and who are keen to chart their own path. “I knew what I wanted to do,” said Carrie Stern Rathod, who received her MBA from Wisconsin’s Brand ‐ Product Management Center in 2005 and now works for Procter & Gamble (PG), which recruits regularly from the program. “There’s a range of people for whom this program is ideal. If you have an entrepreneurial bent but are not sure you’re ready to take the leap yet, the program might be right.” But, she added, “I think it would be tough if you wanted to go into consulting or something like that.”

For students who aren’t comfortable breaking away from the pack or seeking out professional contacts in unconventional ways, a specialized MBA might not be the best choice. This is especially true at less well-known schools, where big companies often don’t recruit. Students in these programs agree that making industry connections can require a lot of initiative from the student. “If you have a very specific company in mind, you might need to be a trailblazer in making relationships with those companies,” says Rathod.

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US President George W Bush on Friday said that American relation with India was closer than ever before. He also said India in the 21st century is the natural partner of the United States of America.

He said that the partnership between India and the United States begins with democracy. The Indian Americans have made tremendous contributions in various fields.

Earlier in the day, the US President ruled out protectionist measures to address domestic concerns on outsourcing and favoured easy access for Indian students to American universities and schools.

“I have taken a position, the US will reject protectionism. We won’t fear competition. We welcome competition,” he said interacting with young entrepreneurs at the Indian School of Business, which has collaboration with Wharton School and Kellog School of Management.

Noting that people lose jobs as a result of globalisation, Bush said, “Losing job is painful. But the fundamental question is how the government reacts.”

He said one way was to resort to protectionist laws and the other was to educate people so that they found jobs in the 21st century.

“Let us make sure that pro-growth economic policies are in place — it means low taxes, less regulations, fewer lawsuits and wise energy policies,” the US President said…

…

Bush said globalisation provides “great opportunities” and asserted that his country would not “pull back” from competition.

Highlighting India’s importance in terms of business, he said the country had a 30 crore middle class market.

“If we make a product they want at a reasonable price, it becomes viable. It will have a market in India,” he said, adding the people of America should maintain their confidence about their future.

Bush, whose audience included several entrepreneurs educated in the US, said the American Universities and colleges should be accessible to Indians.

He said it helps change the perception of the country. “We welcome people to the US so that you can see first hand good side and bad side and you can draw your own conclusions.”

A student delegation comprising 13 students from MES Indian School, Doha, called on chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday.
Naidu told the students that they could opt for Indian School of Business, which is affiliated to Wharton and Carnegie Mellon Universities, instead of US universities. He preferred computers to ameliorate the conditions of the masses as it ensured reforms, transparency, accuracy, clarity and speed in the administration, Naidu told the students.
The chief minister told the students that bio-technology, employment generation, women empowerment was being given impetus by his administration. Attracting private investment, development of human resources were also given greater emphasis, he said.

KOCHI: “Lalu Rath” rolled into the heart of hundreds of students from the management of Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) and mesmerised their recount how he passed the script Turn Around working at a loss for the Indian Railways .

Before the launch of its interaction with students here on Friday, Minister of Railways Lalu Prasad she recalls that representatives of prestigious schools as Harvard, Wharton and visited India for more information on models Management are those of Indian Railways. Clad ‘dhoti-Kurta and making speeches in Hindi, his brief but interesting comments from the teacher and students rejected. The management guru has impressed audiences with his one-liners. The Minister of field and the questions with aplomb deserved the applause of his geistvolle.

Mr. Prasad said: “Log mujhse poochthe grove - Laluji aapne Kya jadoo kiya” (people ask me what Laluji magic, you did?). And I said to them: “jadoo tho abhi baki hai” (there is more to come). Kunal Soni, a student of management, fired the first discharge, when he recalled that Mr. Prasad are not always the railways minister. “Sir, what measures do you recommend for the sustainability of progress and growth of Indian Railways?

The response was swift: “The same question was asked by students of Harvard, MIT, and IIM Ahmedabad. Aage gaadi Yeh chalega, peechein Nahin” (this is the train forward, not backward ), Although ministers may change in future.

Krishnachandran, an MBA student, asked that Mr. Prasad took up the problem of bureaucratic culture of the Indian Railways. The minister said that officers have the right, right, to ensure transparency.

“I did not threaten them, but also encourage them to fill,” he said. See yourself as a great country Lord “(based on the surplus countries with railways) , M. Prasad said that efforts would be undertaken on land use in commerce.

Antony Joshi of the School of Management Studies wanted to know if the privatization of railways, efficiency forth. Mr. Prasad said that privatization would be useful, in categories such as the improvement of containers and the introduction of world-class stations. The minister said that most foreign direct investment has come into the country. But the infrastructure needed to be improved for more investment, he said.

Goldman Sachs executive Scott Mead discovered his secretary, Joyti De-Laurey, had stolen money from his bank account only when he sat down late one night to make a £1m donation to Harvard Business School.

Business schools are in a highly competitive market. To get into the premier league, they have to attract the best students and the top academics. They need to offer state-of-the-art buildings, IT, lecture theatres and libraries. The top international academic stars want high salaries, dedicated research centres and time for their consultancy work. With the cost of a one-year full-time MBA in the UK and Europe running at up to £30,000 including living expenses - and even more in the US for a two-year course - students are looking at the size and number of scholarships on offer.

All this costs money. Business schools get two types of donations. There is current use money, which may be unrestricted, but is often made for a specific purpose, such as a contribution to a building project. Then there are designated endowments, the annual income that is put to a purpose chosen by the donor, such as a professorship.

Despite recent fundraising successes, European business schools can only look with envy at their US counterparts. Harvard Business School leads the way with an endowment of $1.4bn (£0.8bn); Stamford’s endowment is $0.5bn (£0.28bn); Wharton’s is $373m (£212m); the University of Chicago’s is $188m (£107m), and Tuck Business School’s is $149m (£84m).

Harvard Business School has 39,000 living MBA alumni, of whom over three-quarters have made a gift to the school during their lifetime. Mead is one of over 75 alumni to donate $1m (£0.6m) or more to the Campaign for Harvard Business School, which aims to raise $500m (£284m) in three years. The Tuck Business School boasts that six out of 10 of its alumni sign a cheque to the school every year. That is high even by US standards; other top US schools talk of up to four out of 10. In Britain’s top schools, it’s fewer than one in 10.

For 25 years, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has had a partnership with over 175 groups who give $10,000 (£5,700) annually. Over seven years, Wharton raised $445m (£253m), from all sources, for improved facilities, MBA and undergraduate scholarships, faculty endowments and new research centres. More than a third of the money came from alumni.

In the UK, fundraising from companies and alumni is a relatively recent phenomenon. None of the European business schools has endowments on the US scale. The London Business School, one of the more wealthy, has an endowment of $20m (£11.3m) and only 3% of its annual costs come from alumni giving and cash flow from endowment investments. The comparable figure for the top seven US business schools is 20%.

But, as Henrietta Royle, chief operating officer of the Sir John Cass Business School, says: “In the past alumni weren’t asked for money.”

In the last five years, business schools at City University, Imperial College, Leeds, Lancaster, Exeter and Anglia Polytechnic University have all been able to construct new buildings as a result of major donations.

In the US tradition of alumni donation, American Gary Tanaka gave £27m (£15.2m) to Imperial College’s management school. This is the biggest single donation to any European business school. Tanaka, who made his fortune from the venture capitalist company Amerindo, took a PhD in applied mathematics at Imperial College in 1970. Twenty-five million pounds of his money has been spent on a new management school and £2m on IT.

In Chelmsford, one of Anglia Polytechnic University’s most successful alumni, Lord Ashcroft, is the main benefactor of the new £6.45m home of the university’s business school, now named the Ashcroft International Business School.

In Leeds, major contributions from the family of alumnus Maurice Keyworth, as well as from the Yorkshire Bank and the Wolfson Foundation, helped Leeds University Business School complete a £10.7m new building project. The major donor of City University Business School’s new £40m building was the Sir John Cass Foundation, and the “monument principle” came into effect here: they renamed it the Sir John Cass Business School. Lancaster University Management School got £4.5m from the North West Development Agency towards the £9.5m needed to extend and refurbish its existing building.

By offering networking opportunities and continuing professional development, business schools are fostering a culture of alumni giving. The two have a lot in common. After all, the more successful a school becomes, the more marketable are its alumni. As Henrietta Royle points out: “Investing in your business school alma mater means that you are investing in your CV.”

Success tends to breed success. Individuals and companies like to be associated with successful schools. That is why Oxford and Cambridge were able to set up the Saïd Business School and the Judge Institute of Management in the 1990s. Oxford started with a £20m donation from Wafic Saïd and Cambridge with £8m from Sir Paul Judge.

Both now feature prominently in the various MBA league tables and both have been successful in attracting more investment. Dotcom millionaire Jeff Skoll, founder of online auction company eBay, has just given a $7.5m (£4.2m) grant to Saïd to fund the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship.