Are MBAs nothing more than Barbies and Kens in business look?

Thomas Sattelberger, former Chief Human Resources Officer and a Member of the Management Board of German telecommunications provider Deutsche Telecom, has always been very outspoken about his opinion on MBA graduates. He calls them “Barbies and Kens in business look” and “self-proclaimed high potentials” whose goal it is to solely increase their power and bank account. In a recent interview for the German online portal “Spiegel Online” he said that whoever thought a U.S. American or British MBA degree would give him a career in every German company, had gambled away. He instead would search for talents from different backgrounds and with knowledge of sociology, psychology or history. He said: “Education, reliability and sustainable economic management are more important than shareholder value.” Sattelberger has recently taken on the role of human resources ambassador for the initiative New Quality of Work (INQA) where he will design solutions, recommendations and bills in relation to the work field - a position that will give him more opportunities to realize his ideas about education and management.

Sattelberger is clearly playing the role of the devil’s advocate – something that is precious to have as it instils dialogue and eventually new ways and ideas. MBA Channel has spoken to four German business schools about his views, the Barbie and Ken image, differences in MBA education between the U.S., the UK and Germany and the German competencies they need to teach to make a difference for Europe’s economic powerhouse.

Reading Mr Sattelberger’s opinion - what do you think? Do you agree with his view?

Felix Müller, Director Henley Business School Deutschland, Frankfurt
Mr Sattelberger has always been very provocative in his statements which helped him getting heard and stimulating the debate around MBA education. I appreciate this since the MBA and its benefits are still quite far away from being understood. You will find all types of personalities among MBA graduates and some may show the behaviours described by Mr Sattelberger. For us at Henley Business School, these behaviours are clearly against our beliefs and what we have been teaching our students in the past 66 years: We are strong proponents of responsible management and leadership and we pride ourselves by the fact that Mr Sattelberger’s former company Deutsche Telekom is working with Henley on three professional programmes developing leaders and managers supporting the transformation skills Deutsche Telekom requires. 
US companies – and the US culture in general - are much more capital market driven than European ones and this also shows in the MBA programmes. If we like it or not, publicly listed and globally active companies like Deutsche Telekom have to understand this way of thinking and making business and an American MBA helps you in doing so, following the idea of “know your enemy well!”.

Are MBA graduates Barbies and Kens in business look that are only after power and money?

Heidrun Hoffmann, Senior Program Manager, MBA Program, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany
The WHU answers this question with a clear No. The application process for the MBA programme encompasses an extensive application form, a minimum of one reference and the TOEFL- and GMAT-tests (TOEFL: min. 100; GMAT: mind. 600). Apart from these formal criteria we lead two personal interviews with applicants where we pay attention to personality, social competency and the ability to work in a team. Our method of teaching and learning is based on interaction and group dynamic, Barbies and Kens would be outcasts. That’s something we try to rule out during the application and enrolment process.

Mr Sattelberger is especially critical towards MBA graduates from U.S. American or British MBA programmes. Is there a big difference between MBA graduates from these countries and Germany for example?

Professor Dr Udo Steffens, President of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management 
Each school has, of course, its own spirit or ethos which is reflected in the curricula or its way of teaching. Through site visits, MBA students will experience the distinct local or national management culture of their school’s home country. The US corporate culture is highly shareholder-value driven. In Germany, on the contrary, workers’ participation has led to a consensus-oriented corporate culture. All this is echoed in the MBA programmes and has an impact on MBA graduates. Ger-man companies across all industries recruit from us. Our graduates work in management consulting, IT and the manufacturing industry, banking and finance, for NGOs and development banks. We are extremely proud that we also see more and more entrepreneurs among our students and graduates. Thus, we initiated our own venture capital fund. Here, Frankfurt School Family members can seek advice as well as financial resources to start their own business.

As the American and European markets differ in quite a few aspects - which competencies do you teach especially for the German market for example?

Volker Stößel, Head of Communication, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management
We are teaching a General Management approach added by soft skill and entrepreneurship classes. Our MBA education aims at preparing the students to later on work in different functions for national as well as international companies or to set up their own business. Besides the official curriculum we offer German language courses to our students. Additionally, international students have the opportunity to experience the German corporate culture by taking so called field projects. In such a consultancy project up to four students solve real-life questions posed by companies. During the field projects the MBA students are involved into the culture and processes of the companies.

Link to Thomas Sattelberger’s interview on Spiegel Online

The multi-talented MBA

ONE argument which is often trotted out in favour of a liberal-arts curriculum, at least for undergraduates, is that being exposed to a variety of subjects leaves the mind supple and agile. Knowledge of accounting, say, is all well and good for standard problems, but to embark on fundamental change it is better to think as a biologist or philosopher would. If this is true, then the fifth of American college students majoring in business would seem to have put themselves at a disadvantage.

Your correspondent was reminded of this while browsing the winter issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. In one piece, Leonard Berry of Texas A&M University, Ann Mirabito of Baylor University and Gale Adcock of SAS Institute, a software firm, describe how SAS takes care of its employees’ health-care needs on-site:

The SAS Health Care Center, which started modestly in 1984 and now has a staff of 55, including four physicians and 10 nurse practitioners, does not charge for services and collects no copays. Same-day appointments are common, and care is unhurried; clinicians may spend 30 minutes or more with a patient... As its own health insurer, SAS avoids the cost of paying staff to negotiate claims payments with insurance companies, as most private medical practices have to do. And SAS estimates that each on-site patient visit saves two hours of employee work time because the individual remains on campus, resulting in productivity savings of $3.6 million in 2010. 

Thirty years established, SAS’s approach sounds charming and useful. But it would take an enormous amount of work to implement something similar from scratch. The tasks involved might include: designing the facility; hiring doctors, nurses, and other health staff; establishing relationships with hospitals; buying equipment; and explaining to employees how to take advantage of the new service. One would need a background in health economics, or a willingness to learn a great deal, quickly. (Perhaps it’s worth noting that Ms Adcock did not start out with a business background, but as a nurse.)

The Management Review also features an interview with Dave Stangis, vice president of corporate social responsibility and sustainability at Campbell Soup. Mr Stangis has a broad title, but until reading the interview you might not have guessed that his responsibilities include negotiating the installation of solar panels at three different sites (in two countries), educating shipping partners on environmental certification programmes, and worrying about the health of children in Camden, New Jersey. Unlike Ms Adcock, Mr Stangis does have an MBA, from the University of Michigan.

Most likely neither Ms Adcock nor Mr Stangis, if asked at the start of their career, would have been able to predict their current duties with any accuracy. This might well be something for aspiring MBAs, especially those who still have other educational possibilities open, to keep in mind. A broad-minded approach to education now might well make for a much more interesting job in future.

Source

Too old? Too young? What’s the right age for business school?

Barbara Bierach

Typically, business students enter graduate school with a first degree and about five years of work experience, meaning they are generally in their late 20s –an age where change is still part of the lifestyle. People in their 40s and older on the other hand are rather settled in their careers and work at a level where additional skills don’t necessarily guarantee substantial plus on the payback.

For some people, though, business school is right regardless of age. Philip Delves Broughton, an author who graduated from Harvard Business School in 2006 writes: “Overconfidence can occur at any age, but it seems to be rarer among those who have done more between university and business school than spend a couple of years knocking around with like-minded souls on a management or analyst program. But experience also has its risks, notably overbaked assumptions and habits that can be hard to change.”

A graduate degree can increase career options at any age. For people over 35 it can for example help to move from a small entrepreneurial environment to a larger cor-porate one. Or it can assist to acquire the skills for a new start in a different industry.

Nevertheless, today’s GMAT-takers are younger than the degree seekers of the past. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, 37 per cent of those who took the test were under the age of 25 in 2007. In 2011, this number in-creased to 44 per cent. The percentage of test-takers over the age of 31 in the same timeframe has dropped to 16 per cent.

Some institutions are catering to those who wish to enter graduate programmes sooner. At Harvard Business School for example students can apply for a spot in a so called 2+2 Programme. According to the school’s website, those who are ac-cepted into this track spend two years after college working and then an additional two years taking MBA courses. The Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University Maryland offers an Emerging Leaders MBA. The average age of students enrolled in this 12 months long track is 24, and 6 out of 10 are immediate college graduates.

In many European schools on the other hand, the median age of students entering a full-time programme is considerably higher, at Insead for example it is 28, at IMD it’s 30.

And then there is always the alternative of an Executive MBA where the average age of most candidates is between 30 and 40. A few business schools featured in the QS TopExecutive statistical review have candidates with an average age of 40 plus, including the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the Helsinki School of Economics, which offers its Executive MBA in Finland, South Korea and Singapore. National University of Singapore, HEC Paris, Athabasca University in Canada, Melbourne Business School in Australia and the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine,he Trium Global Executive MBA from NYU Stern, HEC and London Business School also have an average candidate age of 40.

Sources:

BusinessweekU.S. NewsQS TopMBA