October 20 2014

FT BusinessEducation

ExecutiveMBARanking 2014

www.ft.com/emba

Interview:Jack Welch‘Neutron Jack’, General Electriclegend, on launching an EMBA

October 2014

03

openings

4 fromtheeditorChinese anti-corruption measures raisequestions for business education6 introductionThe EMBA is no longer just a corporatedegree – entrepreneurs are signing up10 dean’scolumnSir Andrew Likierman of LondonBusiness School on successful leaders12 onmanagementSimon Caulkin asks if listed companiesare becoming an endangered species

eMBA rAnkings

22 analysisWhat the rankings tell us24 rankingsThe top 100 EMBA programmes

inside

33 meet thedeanWharton’s new leader Geoffrey Garretton his plans for the school. Plus video36 profileSwaady Martin-Leke says business canhelp quash stereotypes about Africa41 careersShould you stay with your employerafter your EMBA or move on?

endings

47 booksCorporate ethics under the spotlight49 technologyThe Android wars are raging as rivalschallenge Google’s dominance53 communitiesAre EMBAs worth the fee? Readerstake to social media to have their say54 hopes&fears

An American is learning some valuablelessons from his classmates in Singapore

contriButorsKATE BEVAN is a freelance

technology journalistDELLA BRADShAW is the FT’s

business education editorSIMON CAULKIN is a

management writerWAI KWEN ChAN is editor of

FT NewslinesChARLOTTE CLARKE is the FT’s

business education onlineand social media producer

ANDREW ENGLAND is the FT’sSouth Africa bureau chief

EMMA JACOBS writes forFT Business Life

LUCY KELLAWAY is an FTassociate editor and

management columnistSIR ANDREW LIKIERMAN isdean of London Business School

LAURENT ORTMANS is the FT’sbusiness education statistician

ROChELLE TOPLENSKY is anFT Lex data journalist

DAVE WOODWARD is LinkedIn’sdirector of legal, Asia-Pacific,

and a participant on theUCLA-NUS EMBA

Special reports editorMichael Skapinker

Business education editorDella Bradshaw

Head of editorial contenthugo Greenhalgh

Magazine commissioning editorJerry Andrews

Head of productionLeyla Boulton

Production editorGeorge Kyriakos

Art director Sheila JackPicture editor

Michael CrabtreeSub-editor

Philip ParrishGlobal sales director

Dominic GoodGlobal director of

FT career managementSteve Playford

Head of business education salesSarah Montague

Account managersGemma Taylor,

Ade Fadare-ChardPublishing systemsmanager

Andrea Frias-AndradeAdvertising production

Daniel Lesar

on the coverIllustration by Adrian Johnson

feAtures

14 interviewFamous for his uncompromising style as boss of

General Electric, Jack Welch is bringing the samephilosophy to bear in business education

18 dear lucy...Is doing an executive MBA fair on my family?Should I let my company choose my business

school? And do online courses offer better value?

contents

f t. com /BUS i n e S S - edUcat i on

14

36

Ph

OT

OS:

PA

SC

AL

PE

RIC

h;

JAM

ES

OA

TW

AY

ed

ito

r’s

le

tt

er

04

Della Bradshaw

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

iwas at a conference of SouthAmerican business schools lastmonth where one of the hottopics was how important itis, particularly in developing

economies, for business students tolearn about government policy and thebroader context of business as well asaccounting, marketing and strategy.

How ironic, then, that the Chinesegovernment, at exactly the same time,banned its officials from acceptingscholarships on executive MBAprogrammes – MBAs for workingmanagers. In a move designed to beatcorruption, the government has barred“leading cadres” in the Communistparty, the government and state-owned enterprises from signing up forcostly business training unless theyhave official approval and pay the feesthemselves.

Talking to those who run EMBAprogrammes in China, it is clear thereare some practices that need to bepublicly stamped out. In particular,there is a custom endemic in somebusiness schools to give full scholarshipsto government officials and theneffectively use those officials as amarketing tool to attract students fromthe commercial sector. The concernis that the business people attend theprogramme specifically to make contactwith the officials – contacts they canturn to their advantage in the future.

But the ban raises a multitude ofquestions. For example, isn’t one of themain reasons for studying for an MBAor EMBA to develop a network? Alumniwho responded to our EMBA rankingsquestionnaires this year reported thatnetworking is more important to themthan increasing their earnings or gettingpromotion in their company.

Does not the inclusion ofgovernment, non-governmentalorganisation and charity participantson these programmes improve the

learning experience of those frombusiness? John Quelch, former dean ofChina Europe International BusinessSchool in Shanghai, puts it succinctly:“The general principle of having thegovernment sector and the civil societysector in the room with the corporatesector strikes me as very worthwhile.”

Indeed, many business schools in theUS and Europe try to encourage morepublic sector participants to join theirprogrammes by offering scholarships tothese individuals or organisations – notdissimilar from the customs that theChinese government is frowning upon.

A bigger issue relates to the inclusionof state-owned enterprises in theruling. Should their practice of usingtheir corporate budgets to pay forexecutives to study at business school bebanned? Surely the effect of this couldbe simply to prevent these companiescompeting effectively in the future withcommercially run organisations?

So far there have been more questionsthan answers, but there is one centralissue here that increasingly needs to beaddressed in China: quality. Is one of theconcerns that government officials onEMBA programmes are bypassing entryrequirements? And is another that theydo not have to complete coursework andpass exams to graduate?

Those involved in the EMBAmarketin China say there are concerns thisis often the case. As one dean says, ifgovernment participants are not up toscratch, it reduces the learning experiencefor everyone on the programme.

Whenever I have spoken to Chinesebusiness school deans in the past theyhave emphasised one thing: the thirst forcredentials that is so peculiar to Chineseexecutives. For many Chinese EMBAparticipants it is the credential ratherthan the learning that is important.

If the Chinese government is tryingto address this issue and promotegrowth in academic rigour and high-quality teaching, it can only be a goodthing. After all, this talk about qualityprogrammes is not unique to China. Inthe US, for example, there is an ongoingdebate about the quality of some onlinedegrees, and for-profit universities areunder fire over perceived quality.

Western business schools runningjoint-venture EMBA programmes inChina have cautiously welcomed theedict, particularly where the programmeis taught in English. As a general rule,government officials are likely to studyfor Chinese-language degrees.

Nonetheless, there are concernsthat the government’s move will takethe gloss off the EMBA market in theshort term. Indeed, there are rumoursin Beijing that many officials are alreadyexpunging their EMBA qualificationsfrom their letterheads.

So at least there is one group that willbenefit: the companies that print thebusiness cards.

China’s anti-corruption moveraises questions. isn’t one ofthe main reasons for studyingfor an eMBA to network?

B

For the latest developments in business education follow us @ftbizedPHoTo:ED

roBIN

SoN

ILLUSTrATIo

N:NIC

kLoW

NDES

Photo:ALEX

oRRoW

ILLUStRAtIo

N:NIC

KLoW

NDES

int

ro

du

ct

ion

Steppingstones

Eben Upton is a Cambridgeman through and through.It was no surprise, then,that after he studiedengineering and computer

science at the university, it was to itsJudge Business School that the serialentrepreneur turned when he wantedsome business know-how.

Upton shot to fame in 2012 as theinventor of the Raspberry Pi, theprogrammable credit card-sizedcomputer board designed to inspirechildren to learn computerprogramming. this was a year afterhe graduated from Judge with anexecutive MBA.

Upton is one of a growing numberof entrepreneurs who are turning toEMBAs as a way of helping them buildtheir business. once the degree of thecorporate world, with participantssponsored by their company, the EMBAwas often seen as a stepping stone to theboard. No longer: it is now the domainof the aspiring healthcare professional,government official or military officerwho wants to change career or buildtheir own business.

this diversification has led to a fallin the number of corporate-sponsoredstudents doing an EMBA. the WhartonSchool at the University of Pennsylvania,runs its EMBA programme in

06

to Peggy Bishop Lane, vice-dean ofWharton’s EMBA programme. “In thegood old days it was upwards of 80 percent,” she adds.

this decline in sponsorship is notjust a US trend. At Insead, which hascampuses in France, Abu Dhabi andSingapore, the drop has been just asgreat, according to Marie Courtois,head of career development for Insead’sexecutive degrees. In 2006, just 7 percent of participants on the InseadEMBA paid for themselves; in 2014, thefigure was 70 per cent.

Courtois points to the financial crisisof 2008 as a watershed for these degrees.Not only did financially strugglingcorporations cut back on sponsoringstudents for these very expensivedegrees, but aspiring managers realisedthe need to invest in their ownprofessional qualifications to give

Executive MBAs are expensive but take you to another level. By della Bradshaw

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

Bearing fruit: anEMBAwas a

springboard forRaspberry Pi

inventorEbenUpton

‘in the good old days,upwards of 80 per centof EMBA students weresponsored by their company’Peggy BishoP-Lane, Wharton

Philadelphia and San Francisco; just 34per cent and 22 per cent respectivelyof participants are sponsored bytheir company. Five years ago 50 percent of students on the Philadelphiaprogramme were sponsored, according

>

introduction

themselves an advantage in anincreasingly competitive job market.

Not even the fees, which oftentop $100,000 for many leadingprogrammes, have deterred applicants.Indeed, Prof Bishop Lane believes thatoffers by companies to sponsor theirexecutives are often rejected. the changehas meant that those in charge of EMBAdegrees have rapidly had to changethe services they offer participants. Inparticular, career support and jobsearch opportunities, once the exclusivedomain of the younger full-time MBAstudent, are increasingly an intrinsic partof the EMBA.

Indeed, many EMBA participantsare using the degree to change careers,rather than to just climb the corporateladder. “this is a massive, massive shift,”says Courtois. “We see an informationtechnology director or people with 15years in the telecoms industry who wantto move into consulting.” Executivesare using the EMBA to change their

08

ExEcutivEMBAs

top25executiveMBAs in2014rank School name Weighted

salary $ *

1 Trium:HECParis/LSE/NYU: Stern 307,0032 Kellogg/HongKongUSTBusiness School 403,5603 TsinghuaUniversity/Insead 304,8434 UCLA:Anderson/NatUniversity of Singapore 279,2845 Columbia/LondonBusiness School 252,5396 University of Pennsylvania:Wharton 223,8097 WashingtonUniversity: Olin 269,7758 NanyangBusiness School 221,6729 Insead 186,21110 Ceibs 283,50311 University of Chicago: Booth 221,58412 Iese Business School 218,43413= NorthwesternUniversity: Kellogg 241,09613= IE Business School 198,40215 IMD 246,39516 ESCPEurope 155,08717 Shanghai JiaoTongUniversity: Antai 260,70818 NatUniversity of Singapore Business School 244,91119= DukeUniversity: Fuqua 236,11819= WarwickBusiness School 148,68021 University ofOxford: Saïd 205,94222= GeorgetownUniversity/EsadeBusiness School 217,87022= Kellogg/WHUBeisheim 176,99824 CUHKBusiness School 271,13825= LondonBusiness School 172,02825= Columbia Business School 197,029

*adjusted for purchasing power parity

location, their function and even theirindustry, she adds.

the freedom of self-financing,combined with the implementationof the latest networking and teachingtechnology, has meant the topprogrammes increasingly are attractingstudents from outside their traditionalcatchment area. At NYU Stern,for example, the school’s EMBA ispopulated by participants from Florida,Illinois, texas and even California, saysheather Daly, head of the EMBA.

What is also clear is that choice ofEMBA programmes is growing, witheven the most traditional businessschools offering EMBAs in differentlocations through joint ventures ormultiple campuses; Chicago Booth,for example, now teaches its degree inChicago, hong Kong and London. theolin school at Washington Universityin St Louis, which already teaches anEMBA in China with Fudan University,is launching an EMBA in India, withIndian Institute of technology Bombay.“once the programme has started wehope to create the possibility for anystudent to study in any geography[China, India or the US],” saysMahendra Gupta, dean of olin.

Schools are also introducing newformats. Columbia Business School inNew York, for example, has launched aprogramme taught on Saturdays – idealfor students who eschew corporatesponsorship, says Michael Malone,associate dean of the MBA programme.

For Upton at Raspberry Pi, theincreasingly diversified backgrounds ofhis EMBA cohort at Cambridge did bring

challenges. In particular,the ability to draw onthe expertise of othersin a similar field waslimited. “the friends aremuch more importantthan the businesscontacts,” he says.

But as RaspberryPi is a non-profit

organisation, the EMBA was particularlyimportant to Upton in determining thebest way to develop the licensing modeland finance production. With close to4m Raspberry Pi computers sold to date,it was a model that has borne fruit.

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

70%Proportion of

EMBAstudents atInseadwho fund their

own studies

B

int

ro

du

ct

ion

09

Amajority of executiveMBagraduates polled by theFtbelieve their degreewasworth

themoney, butmanyalso found thatachieving a satisfactorywork-life balanceduring theprogrammewas a realchallenge,writesWai KwenChan.

ofmore than 1,200 respondents fromtheclass of 2011, nearly 55per cent foundbalancingwork, studyandpersonal life“difficult” or “verydifficult”. Just under35per cent said itwas “sometimesmanageable”while only about 11 per centfound itwas “easy” or “veryeasy”.

Poll: striking a balance

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

Unsociable hours:themajority of EMBA

students found itdifficult to balancetheirwork, studiesandpersonal life

onegraduatewarnedprospectivestudents to beprepared to survive onfour hours of sleep anight at times and tomiss their children’s sporting events.

yet thosepolled appear to havefew regrets, as only 21 per centwouldhavepreferred to study for a full-timeMBaand just 16 per centwouldhaveopted for an executive short course.one graduatewouldhavepreferred tosail around theworld instead.

respondentswere asked if theiremployer providednon-financialsupport during their time as aneMBastudent, such as timeoff to focus on theirstudies. about two-thirds describe thatsupport as “excellent” or “very good”.

Formany, therewas light at the endof theeMBa tunnel. about 51 per centmanaged to secure a jobofferwith adifferent employer,while 41 per centgained apromotionwith the employertheyworked for during their studies.

See Communities, page 53, for views onwhether EMBAs areworth the high fees

one graduate respondingto the Ft poll warnedprospective students to beprepared to survive on fourhours of sleep a night at times

Photo:PhotoDIS

C/G

EttYIM

AGES

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, isone. He revolutionised his industry bydeveloping a radically different businessmodel. Most leaders don’t have such aclear track record. Indeed it may be theopposite, with success coming from theopportunities that were wisely turneddown. Better for Hank Greenberg at AIGnot to have hired those hotshot DrexelBurnham Lambert derivative specialistsand for Fred Goodwin of RBS not tohave paid cash for ABN Amro.

Personal lessonsSo what should you do to show thatyou are a successful leader? Makesure there are clear comparisons withothers. Coming first in a race with onecompetitor isn’t all that impressive.Then set out your objectives clearly.It is riskier than keeping quiet aboutthem, but if you do the latter, nobodywill know what you want to do, nevermind whether you have succeeded.Finally, make clear the basis of thekey choices you make. Life is full ofpossibilities. As a leader you will want

to show how you have made thekey choices and why.

Now, going back to thequestions at the beginning,who would you vote for amongthe good and the great ofhistory, politics and business?For me, Nelson Mandela canbe taken for granted; my othervotes go to Winston Churchill(war years only) and, in thebusiness category, HerbKelleher of Southwest Airlines(who transformed a wholeindustry). Now try the question

on your friends.Have fun.

Professor SirAndrewLikierman isdean ofLondonBusinessSchool

taken or lost as well as what has actuallyhappened – witness the depressinglyregular discovery of ex-presidents’offshore bank accounts.

There is also a danger of confusingsuccess with luck. A rising tide lifts allboats and enhances all leaders. It iseasy to make a great property deal in abooming property market, but successfulleadership in property is managingthrough the slump as well as the boom.

TheanswersMeasuring success has to overcome,or at least mitigate, these challenges.Doing so starts with acknowledgingthat successful leaders are defined notby what they do or by the success of theorganisations they lead, but by threekey comparisons.

One is with relevant peers. Jeff Bezosof Amazon and Jack Ma of Alibaba aresuccessful because at the time theystarted there were many companiesaspiring to the dominance these twohave achieved. They have outstrippedtheir peers. But this comparison isnot enough to define success. Manyleaders have set themselves, or beenset, objectives to measure theirsuccess. John Browne’s wasto take BP into the leagueof top oil majors. This wasrealised through a seriesof huge takeovers.

The third keycomparisonis aboutthe handling ofopportunities.This is usuallyidentifiableonly after theleader hasleft, thoughthere areexceptions.

DEAN’S

COLUM

N

10 F T. COM / BU S I N E S S EDUC AT I ON

Are you a successfulleader? How would youknow? Probably evenmore importantly, howwould others know?

These are questions every leader needsto answer. Before becoming dean ofLondon Business School I worked onperformance measurement issues, oneof which was on successful leadership.

What I found was that there wasa lot in the literature about what youneed to do to be a good leader but verylittle about measuring success. So Iused historic figures such as JuliusCaesar, Simón Bolívar and Napoleon.I also used modern politicians such asNelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcherand Vladimir Putin and business leaderssuch as Bill Gates, Carlos Slim andLi Ka-shing.

TheproblemsFaced with these questions about suchpeople, the problems become clear.The first is, success for whom? JuliusCaesar wasn’t a success for the tribeshe conquered, or Margaret Thatcherfor those put out of work throughher policies. Next, what is success? Asuccessful leader is successful in relative,not absolute, terms. That meansmeasuring against stated objectives.Lee Kuan Yew, first prime minister ofSingapore, had clear objectives abouttransforming the country – and did so.Some leaders don’t tell us what theirobjectives are, so it is difficult to knowwhether they have succeeded.

Relative success is also measuredagainst others. This is reasonablystraightforward for companies, as longas there is a similar enough organisation.It is more complex for politicians, but forall leaders it is also a question of whatmight have happened but did not. Noteasy to get the facts here, since leadersare in charge of the information. Toparaphrase Joseph Stalin, “it’s not whovotes that counts, it’s who counts thevotes”. Only after a leader steps downis it clear what opportunities have been

Asuccessful leader issuccessfulinrelative,notabsolute,terms.Thatmeansmeasuringagainststatedobjectives

Follow the leaders,clockwise from top:Li Ka-shing,MargaretThatcher, Napoleon,JackMa, Bill Gates,Carlos SlimandWinstonChurchill

AndrewLikierman

B

PHOTOS:CHARLIE

BIB

BY;GEORGIO

S/D

REAMSTIM

E;PA;DANIE

LACKERAND

CHRIS

GOODNEY/B

LOOMBERG;AFP/G

ETTYIM

AGES

on

ma

na

ge

me

nt

12

Simon Caulkin

Simon Caulkin tweets on management and economic affairs @nikluac

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

Is it a blip? Or somethingpermanent? If the latter, what arethe implications? In the generalpreoccupation with proppingup the financial structure of

capitalism since 2008, few people seemto have noticed the void opening upin the engine compartment where thepublicly quoted company used to be.

In the anglophone world at least, thepublicly quoted company has been thecentral institution of modern capitalism,the marshalling yard for the economy’sresources – investors’ funds from oneside, entrepreneurial animal spirits fromthe other – for 150 years. Yet all aroundthe globe, listed companies are dying off,if not like flies then perhaps more likeother things no longer suited to theirenvironment – dinosaurs, say.

Could this be temporary, with normalservice resumed once business has finallyrecovered after the crash? It seemsunlikely. First, the decline in quotednumbers started around the millennium,well before the financial crisis. Second,although the shrinkage is worldwide, itis greatest – nearly 50 per cent since thehigh point in 1998 – in the economiesmost attuned to the stock market: theUS and the UK. Third, unlike their20th-century predecessors, today’s newcompanies have little appetite for publiccapital. At Google, Facebook or Apple,intangible assets dwarf tangibles, whichmostly consist of offices and computers,rather than capital-intensive productionplants. These companies do not evenneed to own them.

In fact, companies are using the stockmarket less and less to raise capital forproductive ends, instead employing itfor the opposite reason: retiring equitycapital via share buybacks running at astaggering 2-3 per cent of gross domesticproduct, according to City economistAndrew Smithers.

Companies also still use the stockmarket for measuring success, via the

share price – and that may be wherethe trouble begins. “Almost nothingin economics is more important thanthinking through how companiesshould be managed and for what ends,”wrote Martin Wolf in the FT in August.“Unfortunately, we have made a messof this. That mess has a name: it is‘shareholder value maximisation’.”

Operating companies to maximiseshareholder value damages not only(ironically) most shareholders andsociety as a whole, but also companies’own health, believes Lynn Stout,professor of law at Cornell University.Companies do not invest enough, doenough research and development orpay enough attention to customers orworkers – although they pay far too muchto cutting costs and raising prices – tosurvive in the long term in competitionwith rivals that do all those things.They have forgotten their key functionand asset is their ability to innovate.

Underneath wealth and power on thesurface, they are starving themselves ofthe real nutrients of success.

Bright managers know this, saysStout, so those with long-term ambitionsare either taking companies private ornot floating them, or, if they do, they takecare to do so via share structures thatdisenfranchise stockholders from anysemblance of control.

Mergers are also playing a part – thecurrent rage for “inversions” (tax-drivenreverse takeovers) is a classic financial-engineering ploy, while some of the mostenthusiastic champions of maximisingshareholder value, such as Enron andseveral banks, have gone spectacularlybust. A plausible conclusion for thisargument is that the decline in stockmarket numbers reflects a Darwinianprocess of weeding out a corporate life-form that is no longer viable.

If this is right, we are witnessingnot just a blip but the start of a historicshift. This is the view of the University ofMichigan’s Professor Gerald Davis, whoin a 2013 article, “After the Corporation”,described the public corporation, at leastin the US, as a “distinctly 20th centuryphenomenon” that had been rendered“unnecessary for production, unsuitedfor stable employment and the provisionof social welfare services, and incapableof providing a reliable long-term returnon investment”. The consequences arealready visible in declining employmentprospects, rising insecurity andinequality, and endangered retirementand (in the US) health benefits, as well asindirectly in social pressures emanatingfrom the likes of the Occupy movement.

It is too soon to class the publiccompany with the dodo. But unthinkableas it was 25 years ago, with the triumphof western capitalism seeminglycomplete, at the very least its long-term prospects are in serious question.Business schools would appear to have abit of new – and fast – thinking to do.

Few people seem to have noticedthe void in capitalism’s enginecompartment where the publiclyquoted company used to be

B

ILLUSTrATIO

n:AnDrEW

BAKEr

‘It’s mine. I candesign thefaculty. I canselect the dean.I can controlthe product’FormerGeneralElectric chiefJackWelch on theexecutiveMBAhe created in hisown image

By dEllA BrAdshAWphotoGrAphs By pAscAl pErich

Int

er

vIe

w

16 f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

Int

er

vIe

w

idely regardedas one of America’s most influentialbusiness leaders of the past 50 years,Jack Welch, who left General Electricin 2001 after two decades in charge,was never going to slip quietly intoretirement.

The 78-year-old former chemicalengineer who became GE’s larger-than-life chairman and chief executive hasbeen reinventing himself as a teacher,and he is not doing it by halves.

In 2009, he eschewed full-timeretirement at his Florida home to set upthe Jack Welch Management Institute,with a view to rolling out the nextgeneration of Jack Welches. His name isupfront and he is proud of it. “It’s mine.I can design the faculty. I can select thedean. I can control the product.”

Nor does the marketing slogan for hisexecutive MBA pull its punches: “MostMBA programmes study great leaders.Ours is taught by one,” it reads.

Sitting in his central Manhattanapartment, which has some of thebest views of New York that moneycan buy, Welch counters the notionthat becoming a business professor isa reinvention. “I’ve spent 20 years atGE teaching. I taught every month.Then I taught at MIT [Sloan School ofManagement] for five years,” he begins.“I love the process – I’ve been hooked onit for 35 years.”

In truth, Welch, who has lost littleof the penetrating stare of his GE days,displays an enthusiasm for the subjectof education that few business schoolprofessors can muster. But the man

known for his pugnacity holds littletruck with the scale, the focus andthe business model of the traditionalbusiness school.

The traditional MBA, he says, is“a gracious way to change jobs becauseyou made a mistake the first time”. Andbusiness schools are inefficient. “I justsaw overheads everywhere and I sawthe cost of tuition racing ahead as theseoverheads built up.”

Yet he insists that the online JackWelch EMBA is not competing directlywith the elite MBA programmes. “Weare not that system; this is not us versusthem,” he says.

Instead, it is all a matter of scale.Previously, on a campus-basedprogramme, “I was teaching 35 kids ina classroom”, complains Welch. “I was

W

the traditional MBA is‘a gracious way to changejobs because you made amistake the first time’

17

‘If faculty just write “nice job”on the paper, it’s like a daggerthrough your heart. we had some“nice job” faculty. they’re gone’

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

teaching 35 people from 4pm to 5.30pmNow I’m on video with 400 or 500.”

Welch wrote most of the originalEMBA curriculum himself with the helpof wife Suzy, the author and businessjournalist and a former Baker scholar atHarvard Business School. That has sincebeen revised, he is quick to point out.“Now it’s been improved, thank God.”

Central to the pedagogy of the EMBAis Welch’s belief that practice ratherthan theory should be the basis of adegree for working managers. “It’s all theprinciples of business applied,” he says ofhis degree.

“I’ve got my own principles ofmanagement,” he adds. “We have thephilosophy: we teach it on Monday,you practise it on Tuesday, you share iton Friday.”

He has called on former colleaguesand other executives to teach on hisprogramme, including Carlos Britoof Anheuser-Busch InBev, JamesMcNerney of Boeing and Jeff Immelt ofGE, as well as several retired executives“We have a faculty that talk about thestuff they do every day. We’re not takingon research papers.”

The question that really gets underhis skin is whether retired executives arebest placed to teach the latest corporatestructures and management strategies.

“The biggest mistake that peoplemake in strategy is assuming thecompetition sticks to the same strategy.It’s the classic mistake,” he says. “Wetalk about it all the time in class. Thecompetitive environment is dynamic.”His voice rising a little, Welch explainsthat his EMBA teaches a “five-slide”presentation model that begins withdefining the playing field. “In my bones Iknow it works,” he says.

Professors who teach the programmeare not tenured, nor do they havecontracts, but are employed on a day-to-day basis. Welch has a personnel stylethat has mellowed little since his payroll-paring days at GE, where following jobscuts in the 1980s he was dubbed NeutronJack, after the bomb that eliminatespeople without damaging buildings.

When choosing the dean, heinterviewed tenured professors fromsome of the world’s top business schoolsbut proposed a very different regime forthem. “Three out of four of them askedme about tenure policy,” he recalls. “Thatwas the end of the interview. I can getthe people I want – I don’t need peoplewho hang around and want to teach 40hours a semester.”

At GE, Welch was famous forsaying that it was not companies thatguaranteed jobs but their customers,and it is a mantra he still holds dear.Professorial longevity depends on thesatisfaction of students, who are polledthree times during every course. “Wemonitor the heck out of [faculty].” Badreviews mean they are replaced.

Part of the review process is thelevel of engagement between professorsand their students. Welch describes ascenario in which an EMBA studentwould stay up all night to write a paper,kids crying, spouse wanting attention.“You need faculty who will pick up thephone and talk through the challengeswith you,” he says. “If faculty [just] write‘nice job’ on the paper, it’s like a daggerthrough your heart.

“We had some ‘nice job’ faculty.They’re gone.”

Four years into the programme,Welch admits that even he has beensubject to student rejection. He wantedto bring participants together in oneplace at the start of the programme. “Theanswer was a resounding no,” he recalls.

“When you demand they meettogether they don’t like it. They’ve gotlives, they manage businesses, they ownbusinesses. ‘Asynchronous’ is why theyjoin. They should get three degrees fordoing this course. These people arejuggling incredible loads.”

Determined as ever, Welch is notgiving up on his attempts to bring theEMBA participants together. The lackof socialisation is the school’s “Achillesheel”, he says. “You don’t go the bar andtalk about it afterwards.” His next moveis to organise dinners for participants inthe cities in which they work.

Welch brushes aside the questionabout whether his business school, andthe for-profit Strayer University, whichhas a majority stake in it, will makemoney. “I’m not going to get rich. I don’tneed the money.” The views from theapartment’s corner office underline hispoint: Central Park through one windowand Roosevelt Island through the other.

“There is no amount of money thatwill beat [great] student feedback,” hecontinues. “The story we get is like aneedle in the vein.”

View from the top:JackWelch talks toDella Bradshaw inhisManhattan apartment

B

FE

AT

UR

E

Dear Lucy...

I have wanted for years to start anMBA and nowmy children havegrown up I think an executive MBAwould be right for me. However, myhusband is sceptical about the effectthe workload would have on our lives.Is it unfair to go ahead when to do sowould consumemuch of the time wehave so recently regained?No, it is not unfair at all. From thewording of your message it sounds as ifyou have spent many years tending toyour children; now that they are grownup it is your time to suit yourself. Ifthat involves doing an EMBA, then gofor it. It is nice of your husband to fretabout the effect the workload will haveon both of you, but as it is you who willbe slogging away into the small hours,it is you who must make the decision.Assuming you and your husband arein reasonable health, you will probablyboth live till your 90s. There will beplenty of time to go on cruises togetherthen. Just not quite yet.

An EMBAmay be transformativebut is also eye-wateringly expensive.Should I try to persuade my employerto pay some of the costs when I knowdeep down that I will not want towork for the company for more than acouple of years afterwards?Yes, you should certainly try to get yourcompany to foot some of the bill. Ithas deeper pockets than you and hasa vested interest in training you. Theonly thing you must not do is pretendthat you plan to stay for ever, when you

know that you plan to quit at theearliest opportunity. Unless youremployer is utterly foolish, it willknow this already. People withEMBAs are fairly likely to jumpship after graduating. Equally,if your employer values youenough to invest in you,perhaps you should wonderwhether defecting makesgood sense after all.

My company has anarrangement with a localbusiness school, but if I am tocommit to an executive MBA, I wantto do so at a school of my choice.Should I try to force the issue or is itnot worth risking my relationshipswith my employer and seniorcolleagues?If you don’t want to go to the localschool, don’t. If your colleagues andemployer think you are getting aboveyourself in wanting to go somewhere abit grander, that is their problem: youshould not have to shape your ambitionsto fit in with the lesser aspirations ofthe people around you. That said, Ithink you overestimate how interestedthey are likely to be either way. In myexperience colleagues tend not to losemuch sleep over which EMBA theirpeers sign up to. Of course, the biggerquestion is whether your employer willpay for your choice of school, especiallyif it is more far expensive than the localone. If you have to cough up for thecourse yourself, do you still want to go?

18

By Lucy Kellaway

PHOTO:DANIE

LJO

NES

F T. COM / BU S I N E S S EDUC AT I ON

It has become obvious that twocolleagues on my programme – whoare both married to other people –have started an affair. This is affectingthe dynamic of the group and makingsome people feel uncomfortable.Should I raise the matter with them?And what exactly would you say?“Excuse me, but it has not escaped mynotice that you appear to be fornicatingwith X, and this in turn is upsettingsome of our classmates – not myself, ofcourse, as I’m far too broadminded…”?No, of course you can’t say anything.The good news is that you don’t needto: bad things are likely to happen tothis pair if you give it time. If everyoneknows what they are up to, both ofthem will suffer hideous fallout to theirmarriages – and their dalliance will notbe helping their studies one bit either.If I were you I would try to enjoy it asspectator sport. There can be longueurson any course, so such gossip can spicethings up no end.

I am aware the best EMBAs offer thetop professors and opportunities forhigh-level networking, but I struggleto believe the price differentialbetween these programmes andonline courses teaching much of thesame content is really justified. I amtempted to sign up for the latter –should I?It depends on what you want to getout of your EMBA. If your purpose isto learn a few things, I would take theonline route. As you say, the content is

fairly similar and if you apply yourselfyou can pick up a lot. But if what youwant to do is make friends and influencepeople, you should go to the mostexpensive school you can afford. Thefees may be extortionate, but in termsof the doors it can open, and the warmglow it will give you every time youexamine your own CV, it might well beworth it.

I’m studying for an executive MBAthat involves study sessions abroad.Many of my colleagues bring theirpartners along for the trip. I wouldlike mine to come along sometimes,but despite having a successful careershe fears she will feel out of place andinadequate mingling in what is quite ahigh-powered group.If your partner feels that she wouldhate it, she probably would. Minglingwith a lot of high-powered EMBAstudents is not most women’s ideaof fun. Do you feel that your positionwill be lessened by not having awoman on your arm? Surely not. If Iwere you, I would go on my own andkeep my powder dry for when I reallyneeded her to be with me. Then byall means beg her to come along. Butwhen you do so, promise in return togo somewhere with her that helps hercareer – however grim you think theevent is likely to be.

Lucy Kellaway is an FT associate editorandmanagement columnist, and writesthe weekly Dear Lucy advice column

Ifyouwant to learnafewthings, taketheonlineroute.Ifyouwant tomakefriendsandinfluencepeople,go to themostexpensiveschoolyoucanafford

19F T. COM / BU S I N E S S EDUC AT I ON

B

rank

ings

illustratio

n:adria

njo

hnson

EMBA 2014

Analysis, p22

What the 2014surveys reveal

Rankings, p24-29

Full tables of100 schools

Methodology, p28

How the listswere compiled

Theworld’stopprogrammesforworkingmanagersandhowtheycompare

22

Courseduration(months)

36

27%

$114,000

Femalestudents

Partial

None

Financial sponsorshiAge before

32%41%

44%Internationalexperience**

Salary before*

GR

AP

HIC

:R

USSE

LL

BIR

KE

TT,

LA

UR

EN

TO

RT

MA

NS

RA

NK

ING

S

Triumfinds awinningformula

For the first time in six years,a new challenger has toppedthe FT’s ranking of executiveMBA programmes.

The 2014 ranking of100 programmes for working seniorexecutives is headed by Trium, runby HEC Paris, the London School ofEconomics and Stern School of Businessat New York University. The top fiveplaces continue to be dominated byintercontinental EMBAs.

Trium jumped three places toovertake the joint programme taughtby Kellogg School of Management nearChicago and Hong Kong University ofScience and Technology, which had beentop of the ranking for five years. It is thefirst time Trium has headed the rankingand it is only the fourth programme todo so in 14 years.

Trium is ranked first for the workexperience of its alumni before theprogramme, second for aims achievedand third for international courseexperience. The programme is secondfor average salary ($307,003) of alumnithree years after graduation, just behindthe Kellogg/HKUST programme.

Trium’s alumni value studyingalongside senior and internationalclassmates. “It allowed us to exchange[ideas] among ourselves and derive

as much additional knowledge as [wegained] from the course itself,” says one.

The ranking is based on surveys ofschools and alumni who graduated in2011. This edition gives a snapshot ofalumni’s situation compared with whenthey started the programme.

Salary three years after graduationand salary increase are the main criteria,each accounting for 20 per cent of theranking’s weight. Most schools in thetop 25 score well on at least one ofthese criteria. The top 10 schools wouldmostly also rank in the first 10 if salariesand their increases were excluded. Theonly exceptions are Nanyang BusinessSchool and China Europe InternationalBusiness School, both underperformingin the doctoral and research ranks.

The ranking includes schools from

22

A new leader has emerged. By Laurent Ortmans

‘Trium allowed us toexchange [ideas] amongourselves and derive as muchadditional knowledge as [wegained] from the course itself’

F T. COM / BU S I N E S S EDUC AT I ON

Footnotes* Before starting EMBA. PPPadjusted (seemethodology,p28). ** Worked in at leasttwo countries overseasfor more than six monthsbefore EMBA. *** Set upown company duringEMBA or since. **** Threeyears after graduation.Source: surveys of EMBAalumni who graduated in2011 and business schools.

The alumni experience: the class of 2011

6.68.18.29.0

Promotionwithin

yourcompany

Increased

earnings

Networking

Management

development

Fullnsorship

27%

Corporatestrategy

Proportionof teachingoverseas

Entrepreneurship***

31%31%

8.9

15%

Main coursestrengths(out of 10)

Mainmotivations (out of 10)

Finance

9.0General

management

8.8

11% 20%

29%

39%

Chiefexecutive/

boardmember

Director/partner

Seniormanager

Professional

Currentseniority****

$175

,00

0Currentsalary****

26 countries, including 35 in the US, 10in the UK and nine in China. RenminUniversity of China School of Business inBeijing rose furthest, climbing 18 placesto 43rd. Four schools made it into theranking for the first time. These are ledby Cambridge Judge Business Schoolat 36th. France’s Grenoble BusinessSchool is ranked 70th, Turkey’s SabanciUniversity School of Management is at99th, and Brazil’s Coppead is at 100th.

Management and leadership skills arejust one aspect of EMBAs. “It actuallymade an entrepreneur of me,” says onegraduate. Nearly a third (31 per cent)of graduates have set up their owncompany, or are about to, since enrollingon their EMBA four or five years ago.FT data show that 91 per cent of thebusinesses are operating today.

Most entrepreneurs (78 per cent)used savings or relied on friends and

family to raise all or part of their start-upfunds. Angel financing was also a sourcefor a quarter of entrepreneurs.

An EMBA also boosts corporatecareers. “The skills I acquired were keyto my promotion,” said one graduate. Afifth are now chief executives, managingdirectors or board members three yearsafter graduation. Average salaries wereup 52 per cent from $114,000 before theprogramme to $175,000 five years later.

23F T. COM / BU S I N E S S EDUC AT I ON

B

financialtimesexecutivemba2014The top 100 EMBA programmes (continued overleaf)

rankin

gs

24 f t. com / BU S i n e S S - e dUc at i on

EMBA 2014

111 66

2014 2013 2012

three-yearaverage schoolname country Programmename

1 4 3 3 Trium: HEC Paris/LSE/New York University: Stern France/UK/US Trium Global EMBA

2 1 1 1 Kellogg/Hong Kong UST Business School China Kellogg-HKUST EMBA

3 2 4 3 Tsinghua University/Insead China/Singapore/UAE/France Tsinghua-Insead EMBA

4 5 5 5 UCLA: Anderson/National University of Singapore US/Singapore UCLA-NUS EMBA

5 3 2 3 Columbia/London Business School US/UK EMBA-Global Americas and Europe

6 7 8 7 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton US Wharton MBA for Executives

7 6 9 7 Washington University: Olin China Washington - Fudan EMBA

8 13 - - Nanyang Business School Singapore Nanyang EMBA

9 11 6 9 Insead France/Singapore/UAE Insead Global EMBA

10 10 7 9 Ceibs China Ceibs Global EMBA

11 9 10 10 University of Chicago: Booth US/UK/China EMBA

12 12 14 13 Iese Business School Spain GEMBA

13= 24 23 20 Northwestern University: Kellogg US Kellogg EMBA

13= - - - IE Business School Spain Global EMBA

15 19 20 18 IMD Switzerland EMBA

16 25 21 21 ESCP Europe France/UK/Germany/Spain/Italy European EMBA

17 32 - - Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai China EMBA

18 17 26 20 National University of Singapore Business School Singapore NUS Asia-Pacific EMBA

19= 8 16 14 Duke University: Fuqua US Duke MBA - Global Executive

19= 21 24 21 Warwick Business School UK Warwick EMBA

21 23 38 27 University of Oxford: Saïd UK Oxford EMBA

22= 15 19 19 Georgetown University/Esade Business School US/Spain Global EMBA

22= 18 18 19 Kellogg/WHU Beisheim Germany Kellogg-WHU EMBA

24 13 17 18 CUHK Business School China EMBA

25= 20 15 20 London Business School UK/UAE EMBA

25= 30 32 29 Columbia Business School US EMBA

27 43 48 39 Kedge Business School France/China Global MBA

28 22 12 21 Korea University Business School South Korea EMBA

29 28 21 26 Arizona State University: Carey China Carey/SNAI EMBA

30 29 40 33 ESMT – European School of Management and Technology Germany ESMT EMBA

31 39 46 39 Rice University: Jones US Rice MBA for Executives

32 38 35 35 Fudan University School of Management China Fudan EMBA

33 26 27 29 Kellogg/York University: Schulich Canada Kellogg-Schulich EMBA

topforresearch:WhartonWith 240 full-time professors – one of thelargest groups of business academics in theworld – the Wharton school at the University ofPennsylvania has top-ranked researchers acrossall departments. Originally known as a financeschool, Wharton focuses on research that isdata driven, be it in the fields of accounting,operations or marketing.

Ranked number six in the table overall,Wharton is the only top-10 school thatteaches its EMBA on two campuses in theUS – Philadelphia and San Francisco. Theprogramme also stands out from the rest of thecompetition in that it requires all EMBA studentsto complete the same number of contact hoursas the school’s full-time MBA students.

topprogramme:triumFirst taught in 2001, the Trium programme isrun jointly by three very different businessschools. NYU Stern is a specialist in finance,the London School of Economics in politicalscience and economics, and HEC Paris ingeneral management and high-levelexecutive teaching.

The programme is not for the travel-shy.The cohort of 85 students study two modules inemerging markets as well as courses in London,New York and Paris. The average age of studentson the 17-month programme is 40.

Although this is the first time the programmehas taken top spot in the FT EMBA rankings, ithas never been placed outside the top four inthe nine years it has been assessed.

key to the 2014 rankings

Weights for ranking criteria are shownin brackets as a percentage.Salary today US$ (20): averagealumnus salary three years aftergraduation, US$ PPP equivalent (seeMethodology, page 28).†Salary increase (20): average differencein alumnus salary between before theEMBA and now. Half of this figure iscalculated according to the absolutesalary increase, and half according tothe percentage increase relative to thepre-EMBA salary – the figure publishedin the table.†Careers progress (5): calculatedaccording to changes in the level ofseniority and the size of companyalumni work in now, versus before theirEMBA.†Work experience (5): a measureof the pre-EMBA experience ofalumni according to the seniority ofpositions held, number of years in eachposition, company size and any priorinternational work experience.†Aims achieved (5): the extent to whichalumni fulfilled their goals or reasons fordoing an EMBA.†Female faculty (3): percentage offemale faculty. For the three gender-related criteria, schools that have 50:50(male:female) composition receive thehighest possible score.Female students (3): percentage offemale students on the programme.Women on board (1): percentage offemale members of the advisory board.International faculty (5): calculatedaccording to the diversity of faculty bycitizenship and the percentage whose

25f t. com / BU S i n e S S - e dUc at i on

1919

Career progress School diversity Idea generation

Salary

today

(US$

)

Salary

increa

se(%

)

Caree

rprogress

rank

Work

experience

rank

Aim

sac

hieve

drank

Femalefacu

lty(%

)

Femalestuden

ts(%

)

Women

onboard(%

)

International

facu

lty(%

)

International

studen

tsrank

International

board(%

)

International

course

experience

rank

Languag

es

Facu

ltywithdoctorates

(%)

FTdoctoralran

k

FTresearch

rank

Ran

k20

14

307,003 60 39 1 2 27 18 18 91 19 88 3 1 99 10 15 1

403,560 33 12 3 11 22 16 18 77 15 82 30 1 99 3 17 2

304,843 65 4 4 12 26 24 7 48 10 73 10 1 96 4 33 3

279,284 78 7 12 3 29 14 18 72 18 95 4 1 94 45 41 4

252,539 71 8 29 4 18 17 18 71 9 46 12 1 98 18 7 5

223,809 60 17 78 25 21 28 13 36 35 46 80 1 100 1 1 6

269,775 51 49 11 34 20 49 12 90 84 98 40 1 97 82 11 7

221,672 71 62 45 45 33 21 26 66 14 58 12 2 99 65 55 8

186,211 58 59 6 16 15 24 14 90 17 81 8 1 96 19 10 9

283,503 47 5 20 43 11 31 17 70 46 50 20 1 98 93 71 10

221,584 47 50 18 44 16 20 13 77 23 42 28 1 96 9 3 11

218,434 51 56 5 22 18 14 23 58 8 86 6 1 100 78 43 12

241,096 53 35 36 51 22 24 21 41 95 22 64 1 99 11 8 13

198,402 50 70 8 1 35 25 28 56 7 82 7 2 97 71 64 13

246,395 46 46 2 48 14 17 17 94 2 87 18 1 100 93 70 15

155,087 70 2 34 8 36 28 35 67 21 52 2 2 95 73 85 16

260,708 81 73 85 78 29 26 14 3 96 41 77 1 90 5 77 17

244,911 59 89 27 66 34 23 0 56 13 33 15 1 91 70 65 18

236,118 29 86 7 30 16 16 14 46 44 41 1 1 100 17 5 19

148,680 94 3 83 24 35 17 22 77 26 22 58 1 100 23 48 19

205,942 55 13 14 13 17 21 46 59 6 71 35 1 98 35 58 21

217,870 54 61 15 38 30 14 22 66 40 83 4 1 96 74 52 22

176,998 57 47 25 7 21 24 16 76 24 67 28 1 99 15 16 22

271,138 50 88 38 93 21 36 50 53 53 100 36 1 97 77 30 24

172,028 47 21 33 41 24 17 31 86 1 77 24 1 100 27 9 25

197,029 58 23 87 32 14 25 13 61 39 35 80 1 97 22 6 25

171,052 112 11 95 71 23 45 33 40 71 0 33 1 91 60 92 27

229,060 74 32 89 26 8 16 18 9 91 18 31 2 100 41 73 28

194,796 77 66 40 73 25 35 8 96 97 100 86 1 90 50 27 29

150,498 55 1 19 6 27 33 25 82 27 12 24 1 100 93 59 30

218,340 60 64 35 14 27 14 19 29 29 0 77 1 93 92 23 31

228,884 75 94 62 53 31 25 4 7 86 67 86 1 95 24 75 32

157,779 36 58 17 37 24 32 19 83 16 69 16 1 99 13 14 33

footnoteAlthough theheadline ranking figures showchanges in thedata year to year, the patternof clustering among the schools is equallysignificant. Some210points separate Triumatthe top from the school ranked 100th. The first17 business schools, fromTrium to ShanghaiJiaoTongUniversity: Antai, form the first tierof schools. The second tier is headedby theNationalUniversity of Singapore BusinessSchool, about 90points aboveHHLLeipzigGraduate School ofManagement at the bottomof this group. Vlerick Business School heads thethird tier.

Key continued overleaf

TABLES:JO

HN

BRADLEY

PHOTOS:UNDREY,PRESSMASTER,BURIY/D

REAMSTIM

E top for international experience: DukeThe Fuqua school at Duke University wasone of the pioneers of the multi-countryprogramme, launching its Global ExecutiveMBA in 1995. Today, the business schoolmaintains its global edge, with 73 per cent ofthe programme’s course credits earned inmodules outside the US.

Based in Durham, North Carolina, the DukeMBA – Global Executive, ranked 19th in 2014,enrols some 50 executives a year, each with anaverage of 15 years of work experience.

With tuition fees of $166,000, the programmeis one of the most expensive in the FT rankings.However, the fees include books, classmaterials, accommodation and meals at the fiveresidential sessions.

rankin

gs

26 f t. com / BU S i n e S S - e dUc at i on

363636 4343

2014 2013 2012

three-yearaverage schoolname country Programmename

34 34 30 33 New York University: Stern US NYU Stern EMBA

35 40 34 36 University of Michigan: Ross US EMBA

36= 31 35 34 Georgetown University: McDonough US EMBA

36= - - - University of Cambridge: Judge UK Cambridge EMBA

38= 27 24 30 OneMBA Netherlands/US/Brazil/Mexico OneMBA: RSM/UNC/FGV São Paulo/Egade

38= 33 31 34 Imperial College Business School UK EMBA

40 35 32 36 City University: Cass UK/UAE EMBA

41 42 39 41 UCLA: Anderson US EMBA

42 37 35 38 Cornell University: Johnson US Cornell EMBA

43 61 - - Renmin University of China School of Business China EMBA

44 - 51 - University of Maryland: Smith US Smith EMBA

45= 36 29 37 University of Toronto: Rotman Canada Rotman EMBA

45= 47 46 46 Kozminski University Poland EMBA

47 40 45 44 Cornell University: Johnson/Queen's School of Business US/Canada Cornell-Queen's EMBA

48 43 43 45 Western University: Ivey Canada/China Ivey EMBA

49 51 54 51 University of Hong Kong China HKU-Fudan IMBA

50 45 41 45 Essec/Mannheim France/Germany Essec & Mannheim EMBA

51 64 56 57 University of St Gallen Switzerland EMBA HSG

52 63 77 64 Centrum Católica Peru/Colombia Global MBA

53= 57 62 57 University of Pittsburgh: Katz US/Brazil/Czech Republic EMBA Worldwide

53= - 53 - Henley Business School UK Henley EMBA

55 54 - - BI Norwegian Business School/Fudan University School of Management China BI-Fudan MBA

56 70 70 65 Yonsei University School of Business South Korea Corporate MBA

57 49 49 52 Emory University: Goizueta US Weekend EMBA

58 75 63 65 Temple University: Fox US Fox EMBA

59 55 50 55 Antwerp Management School Belgium/Russia EMBA

60 65 58 61 Texas A&M University: Mays US Texas A&M EMBA

61 48 41 50 Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Netherlands EMBA

62 46 51 53 WU (Vienna Uni of Economics and Business)/Uni of Minnesota: Carlson Austria Global EMBA

63 77 79 73 SMU: Cox US SMU Cox EMBA

64 58 - - University of Strathclyde Business School UK Strathclyde EMBA

65= 72 63 67 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign US Illinois EMBA

65= 72 76 71 University of Miami School of Business Administration US Miami EMBA

financialtimesexecutivemba2014The top 100 EMBA programmes (continued overleaf)

Highestnewentrant: JudgeEntering the FT EMBA ranking for the first timeat number 36, the Judge Business School at theUniversity of Cambridge is the highest-ranked offour new programmes in the 2014 ranking.

Launched in 2009, the Cambridge EMBA isone of the newest programmes in the ranking.Yet unlike many new EMBA programmes, itis not taught in multiple overseas locations.Instead, tuition is delivered in Cambridge over 16residential weekends and four week-long blocksover a period of 20 months. The school believesthis better meets the needs of busy executives.

Cambridge also plays up its traditionalcollege system: participants on each weekendresidency will listen to keynote speakers whiledining in one of the university’s historic venues.

Highest riser:renminThe Beijing university business school Renmin,43rd in the ranking, is the highest riser this year,up 18 places from 2013. One of 14 programmestaught in China ranked in 2014, the RenminEMBA was one of the first to be authorised there.

The Renmin degree has a long history ofworking with North American business schools,initially with the State University of New Yorkat Buffalo. Today the programme draws muchfrom Henry Mintzberg’s Masters in PracticingManagement programme, designed by theCanadian management thinker to emphasisethe practical aspects of global management.

All but five of the 214 students are Chinese,but they must speak at least two languagesbefore they graduate.

27f t. com / BU S i n e S S - e dUc at i on

5555 keycontinued

citizenship differs from their country ofemployment – the figure published inthe table.International students (5): thepercentage of current EMBA studentswhose citizenship and country ofresidence differs from the countryin which they study, as well as theirdiversity by citizenship.International board (2): percentage ofthe board whose citizenship differs fromthe country in which the business schoolis situated.International course experience (5):percentage of classroom teaching hoursthat are conducted outside the countryin which the business school is situated.Languages (1): number of languagesrequired upon graduation.Faculty with doctorates (5):percentage of full-time faculty with adoctoral degree.FT doctoral rank (5): calculatedaccording to the number of doctoralgraduates from each businessschool during the past three years.Additional points are awarded ifthese graduates took up facultypositions at one of the top 50 full-timeMBA schools of 2014.FT research rank (10): calculatedaccording to the number of articlespublished by a school’s current full-time faculty members in 45 academicand practitioner journals betweenJanuary 2011 and August 2014. Therank combines the absolute number ofpublications with the number weightedrelative to the faculty’s size.† Includes data for the current year andthe one or two preceding years whereavailable.

Career progress School diversity Idea generation

Salary

today

(US$

)

Salary

increa

se(%

)

Caree

rprogress

rank

Work

experience

rank

Aim

sac

hieve

drank

Femalefacu

lty(%

)

Femalestuden

ts(%

)

Women

onboard(%

)

International

facu

lty(%

)

International

studen

tsrank

International

board(%

)

International

course

experience

rank

Languag

es

Facu

ltywithdoctorates

(%)

FTdoctoralran

k

FTresearch

rank

Ran

k20

14

193,323 36 24 68 82 19 28 15 53 32 17 49 1 100 14 2 34

215,183 42 18 54 36 28 21 23 34 79 8 86 1 87 16 13 35

189,356 58 16 73 29 28 25 16 32 63 16 40 1 100 93 26 36

192,834 54 27 21 59 12 23 17 69 12 33 48 1 96 57 44 36

167,987 54 53 32 27 25 19 21 30 42 28 11 1 97 12 46 38

139,343 59 10 77 35 30 34 38 90 25 50 55 1 100 44 28 38

148,970 60 29 65 42 30 26 47 80 11 53 45 1 96 54 42 40

182,554 42 25 44 18 21 28 19 48 50 12 49 1 100 34 20 41

213,513 42 22 61 70 21 21 17 41 41 35 75 1 91 68 21 42

200,394 58 98 53 9 31 25 13 5 94 23 57 2 88 2 88 43

172,964 38 34 43 28 29 29 17 36 51 9 86 1 98 8 19 44

138,672 25 43 37 50 24 32 41 72 30 53 27 1 98 6 4 45

151,910 84 31 92 56 34 30 18 22 36 64 64 2 88 61 99 45

159,940 53 28 64 55 28 25 19 47 20 44 61 1 93 55 31 47

183,982 46 75 41 86 26 29 15 64 49 33 64 1 99 79 34 48

123,840 99 76 93 87 29 45 9 37 93 27 86 2 97 47 56 49

131,037 45 37 28 20 29 23 15 71 33 62 14 1 99 38 66 50

147,240 47 15 16 5 11 12 50 77 85 50 33 2 100 85 67 51

195,325 45 84 31 77 18 28 31 58 43 69 9 2 80 93 98 52

171,340 37 36 46 33 28 26 10 62 92 22 20 1 92 52 37 53

135,082 60 38 63 10 41 36 36 47 28 36 86 1 84 33 91 53

151,576 85 48 86 99 27 59 12 22 78 62 39 1 79 42 79 55

166,825 61 9 99 72 12 32 50 11 98 50 72 2 100 56 87 56

177,099 45 40 67 61 22 20 21 18 73 3 77 1 92 64 29 57

156,426 48 83 26 90 28 32 22 35 45 51 23 1 87 31 53 58

147,777 51 19 39 19 31 20 20 28 57 90 24 2 85 93 93 59

179,036 42 63 30 15 29 18 24 21 54 0 86 1 80 69 36 60

118,828 44 45 66 68 23 21 30 43 5 30 40 2 100 43 24 61

147,252 30 74 9 40 35 16 29 45 37 91 16 1 90 40 62 62

177,001 41 26 57 49 22 23 11 29 68 3 73 1 92 93 54 63

121,422 70 55 75 89 36 28 35 98 22 47 86 1 80 58 84 64

144,111 42 51 56 46 24 27 21 16 60 2 84 1 94 37 25 65

168,640 44 41 98 91 26 30 12 40 34 0 86 1 96 76 47 65

footnoteAlthough theheadline rankingfigures showchanges in thedatayear toyear, thepatternof clusteringamong the schools is equallysignificant. Some210points separateTriumatthe top fromthe school ranked 100th. Thefirst17 business schools, fromTriumtoShanghaiJiaoTongUniversity:Antai, form thefirst tier ofschools. The second tier isheadedby theNationalUniversityof SingaporeBusiness School, about90points aboveHHLLeipzigGraduate School ofManagement at thebottomof this group.VlerickBusiness Schoolheads the third tier.

PHOTOS:PETER

MACDIA

RM

ID/G

ETTYIM

AGES;NELSON

CHIN

G/B

LOOM

BERG;ELW

YNN/D

REAM

STIM

E

most femalestudents:bi/fudanGiven Norway’s pioneering stance to promotewomen in business, in particular requiring a40 per cent quota of women on corporateboards, it is perhaps no surprise that theBI/Fudan programme has a higher percentageof women on its programme that any otherEMBA ranked by the FT this year.

Fifty-nine per cent of the students on thedegree, taught jointly by the Norwegian businessschool and Fudan, are women.

The BI programme is one of three degreestaught on the Fudan campus in Shanghai.Ranked at seventh in the world, the programmetaught by the Olin school at WashingtonUniversity in conjunction with Fudan is thehighest ranked of the three.

rankin

gs

28 f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

Methodology

financialtimesexecutivemba2014The top 100EMBAprogrammes

2014 2013 2012

three-yearaverage schoolname country Programmename

67 75 70 71 University of Washington: Foster US EMBA

68 79 86 78 Tongji University/ENPC China Shanghai International MBA

69 81 66 72 Boston University School of Management US Boston EMBA

70= 59 66 65 SDA Bocconi Italy EMBA

70= 72 70 71 Rutgers Business School US Rutgers EMBA

70= - - - Grenoble Graduate School of Business France Part-Time MBA

73 59 75 69 Cranfield School of Management UK Cranfield EMBA

74 56 54 61 University of Texas at Austin: McCombs US Texas EMBA

75 51 63 63 Georgia State University: Robinson US EMBA

76 66 73 72 Fordham University Graduate School of Business US Fordham EMBA

77 92 100 90 University of Zurich Switzerland Zurich EMBA

78 - 78 - Koç University Graduate School of Business Turkey EMBA

79 97 80 85 University of Minnesota: Carlson US Carlson EMBA

80 70 60 70 University of Pretoria, Gibs South Africa Modular & Part-Time MBA

81 69 - - HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management Germany Part-Time MBA

82 86 90 86 Vlerick Business School Belgium EMBA

83= 85 83 84 Aalto University Finland/South Korea/Singapore/Poland Aalto EMBA

83= 68 - - National Sun Yat-Sen University Taiwan EMBA

83= 99 - - University of Houston: Bauer US EMBA

86 96 80 87 University of Rochester: Simon US/Switzerland EMBA

87 81 99 89 University of Alberta/University of Calgary: Haskayne Canada Alberta/Haskayne EMBA

88= 98 96 94 Baylor University: Hankamer US Baylor EMBA

88= - 80 - Tulane University: Freeman US EMBA

90 89 - - Michigan State University: Broad US EMBA

91= 84 60 78 EMLyon Business School France EMBA

91= 79 92 87 Copenhagen Business School Denmark CBS EMBA

93 87 96 92 HEC Lausanne Switzerland EMBA

94 81 88 88 University College Dublin: Smurfit Ireland EMBA

95= 99 - - Stockholm School of Economics Sweden SSE MBA

95= - - - University of Utah: Eccles US EMBA

97 93 86 92 Tias Business School Netherlands EMBA

98 - - - Sabanci University School of Management Turkey Sabanci EMBA

99 89 92 93 Queen's School of Business Canada Queen's EMBA

100 - - - Coppead Brazil EMBA

the Financial Times’14th annual ranking ofexecutive MBA degreeslists the world’s top 100programmes for senior

working managers.EMBA programmes must

meet strict criteria in order to beconsidered for the ranking. Theschools must be accredited by eitherthe US’s Association to AdvanceCollegiate Schools of Business or theEuropean Equis accreditation bodies.Their programmes must also haverun for at least four consecutive years.This year, 134 programmes from 32countries took part in the ranking

process, including 17 offered jointly bymore than one school.

Data for the ranking is collectedusing two online surveys – onecompleted by participating schoolsand one by alumni who graduatedfrom their nominated programmesin 2011.

For schools to be ranked, 20 per centof their alumni must respond to thesurvey, with at least 20 fully completedresponses. A total of 4,983 alumnicompleted the survey – 51 per cent ofrespondents.

Alumni responses inform fiveranking criteria: “salary today”, “salaryincrease”, “career progress”, “work

rank business school

1 University of St Gallen2 UCLA:Anderson3 University ofOxford: Saïd4 RiceUniversity: Jones5 HHLLeipzigGSM6 ImperialCollegeBusinessSchool7 Kellogg/WHUBeisheim8 EMLyonBusiness School9 CranfieldSchoolofManagement10 Insead

topforentrepreneurship*

*As ratedby2011 graduates

29f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

Career progress School diversity Idea generation

Salary

today

(US$

)

Salary

increa

se(%

)

Caree

rprogress

rank

Work

experience

rank

Aim

sac

hieve

drank

Femalefacu

lty(%

)

Femalestuden

ts(%

)

Women

onboard(%

)

International

facu

lty(%

)

International

studen

tsrank

International

board(%

)

International

course

experience

rank

Languag

es

Facu

ltywithdoctorates

(%)

FTdoctoralran

k

FTresearch

rank

Ran

k20

14

161,122 36 52 74 85 30 31 21 20 76 8 85 1 91 36 22 67

127,962 83 95 72 96 37 42 17 7 80 58 86 1 87 28 94 68

208,011 28 81 23 97 31 24 10 35 74 63 58 1 81 89 38 69

133,796 52 85 51 98 37 19 33 27 82 67 36 2 89 26 50 70

169,010 49 33 58 88 18 30 17 30 66 0 80 1 80 30 68 70

100,506 72 90 94 67 43 50 53 44 55 53 20 1 80 32 90 70

125,718 42 71 55 65 25 43 19 52 3 27 49 2 92 29 89 73

149,853 41 44 70 92 26 17 11 29 64 3 64 1 85 20 12 74

165,095 42 67 50 81 33 24 16 30 58 21 49 1 80 66 39 75

161,898 52 78 88 95 35 34 24 28 31 15 49 1 83 93 72 76

125,011 24 65 13 21 9 24 17 85 52 50 55 2 100 21 45 77

131,406 51 77 69 83 45 38 18 42 89 82 86 1 94 87 82 78

147,695 32 60 42 69 29 31 29 24 69 8 73 1 82 62 18 79

185,982 56 68 79 76 29 40 75 0 100 0 54 1 71 90 95 80

109,963 63 6 100 52 18 20 10 23 38 15 64 2 100 49 100 81

115,946 56 20 84 58 29 13 17 24 48 100 63 1 90 83 83 82

130,963 46 92 47 75 35 27 43 17 70 86 40 1 94 39 81 83

155,071 53 100 90 23 25 28 21 7 99 0 71 2 97 51 96 83

141,298 48 72 80 60 28 24 18 27 59 5 75 1 85 72 57 83

127,622 43 69 48 47 18 27 11 26 47 13 19 1 81 48 35 86

130,627 45 87 59 64 26 26 20 51 67 8 80 1 87 80 40 87

132,729 58 42 81 62 33 37 14 4 87 6 58 1 79 88 80 88

151,534 34 54 71 80 36 29 11 34 72 27 64 1 87 86 63 88

130,730 44 30 91 84 34 25 29 24 83 0 86 1 88 67 32 90

102,598 29 14 24 17 33 16 0 50 61 83 40 2 95 81 78 91

113,712 34 80 52 54 33 23 27 39 56 9 38 1 92 7 60 91

109,492 18 79 10 31 27 24 27 81 4 55 64 1 100 46 86 93

109,697 46 96 49 63 30 25 20 46 75 41 86 1 100 63 74 94

122,917 42 82 22 57 23 16 7 31 77 0 32 1 96 53 76 95

138,280 41 93 60 74 31 32 13 30 81 6 47 1 82 59 49 95

105,380 44 57 82 39 25 18 17 42 65 0 86 1 90 25 61 97

117,986 39 91 97 94 43 29 21 27 88 100 46 1 100 91 69 98

123,488 33 97 76 79 33 27 19 52 62 50 61 1 95 75 51 99

134,799 49 99 96 100 44 28 30 19 90 40 86 1 100 84 97 100

“Salary increase” is calculated foreach school according to the differencein average alumni salary before theEMBA to three years after graduation– a period of typically four to fiveyears. Half of this figure is calculatedaccording to the absolute increase,and half according to the percentageincrease relative to pre-MBA salaries.

Where available, data collated by theFT for the two previous rankings areused for all alumni-informed criteria.Responses from the 2014 survey carry50 per cent of the total weight, andthose from 2013 and 2012 each accountfor 25 per cent. Excluding salary-relatedcriteria, if only two years of data are

available, the weighting is split 60:40if data are from 2014 and 2013, or70:30 if from 2014 and 2012. For salaryfigures, the weighting is 50:50 for twoyears’ data, to negate any inflation-related distortions.

Information provided by thebusiness schools themselves inform theremaining 10 criteria that collectivelyaccount for 35 per cent of the finalranking. These measure the diversityof teaching staff, board membersand EMBA students, according togender and nationality, as well as theinternational reach of the programme.For gender-related criteria, schools thathave a 50:50 (male:female) compositionreceive the highest possible score.

In addition to the percentage ofschools’ students and faculty that areinternational – the figures published– the composition of these groupsby individual citizenship informs adiversity-measuring score that feedsinto the calculation.

The FT research rank, whichaccounts for 10 per cent of the ranking,is calculated according to the number ofarticles published by schools’ full-timefaculty in 45 internationally recognisedacademic and practitioner journals. Therank combines the absolute numberof publications, between January 2011and August 2014, with the number ofpublications weighted relative to thefaculty’s size.

The FT ranking is a relative ranking.Schools are ranked against each otherby calculating for each criterion theirZ-score. Z-scores represent the numberof standard deviations each school’sdata is away from the mean. Z-scoresallow the ranking to be based on verydifferent criteria (salary, percentages,points) since they are unitless. Thesescores are then weighted as outlined inthe ranking key, and added together fora final score.

After removing the schools that didnot have a sufficient response rate fromthe alumni survey, a first version iscalculated using all remaining schools.The school at the bottom is removedand a second version is calculated. Andso on until we reach the top 100. Thetop 100 schools are ranked accordinglyto produce the 2014 list.

Judith Pizer of Jeff Head Associatesacted as the FT’s database consultant

experience” and “aims achieved”. Theyaccount together for 55 per cent of theranking’s weight. The first two criteriaabout alumni salaries are the mostheavily weighted, each counting for 20per cent.

Salaries of non-profit and publicsector workers, as well as full-timestudents, are removed. Remainingsalaries are converted to US dollarsusing the latest purchasing powerparity (PPP) rates supplied by theInternational Monetary Fund. Thevery highest and lowest salaries aresubsequently removed, and the meanaverage “current salary” is calculated foreach school.

interactiverankings atwww.ft.com/rankings

insid

ePHOTO:JA

MESOATWAY

Queenof luxury:SwaadyMartin-Leke’s businessdefiesexpectations

Continental shift

Meet thedean,p33

Wharton’snew leader

Profile,p36

Brewingupabrand

Post-EMBAcareers,p41

Should I stayor should I go?

SwaadyMartin-LekeonhowAfricanbusinesscanquashstereotypes,p36

insid

e

33

Meet the dean

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

Geoffrey Garrett is thefirst to admit he looks anunusual choice for deanof the Wharton Schoolat the University of

Pennsylvania. But, adds the equanimousAustralian, “it makes more sense themore I think about it”.

Those considering the appointmentmight easily come to the sameconclusion. Although his knowledge ofWharton is limited – he spent just two

years at there in the mid-1990s – he hasteaching experience way beyond thatof the traditional tenured professor.Indeed, his CV reads like a list ofthe world’s top universities: Oxford,Stanford, UCLA, Yale. His most recentrole as dean of the Australian Schoolof Business (now UNSW AustraliaBusiness School) means he has taughton three continents.

Prof Garrett has not onlytransferred between numerous

Wharton’sGeoffreyGarrettwants the schooltobemoregloballyminded.BydellaBradshaw

AninternationalCVWith a PhD from DukeUniversity, Prof Garretttaught politics andmultinational managementat Oxford, Stanford andWharton before moving toYale in 1997. Following astint at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles asdean of the InternationalInstitute, he becameprofessor of internationalrelations at the Universityof Southern California. Hewas appointed dean of theAustralian School ofBusiness in 2013 and deanof Wharton in 2014.

VideOGeoffrey Garrettin conversationwith the FT’sJohn Authers.www.ft.com/bized-video

> PHOTO:PASCALPerIC

H

insid

e

35f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

universities, but in and out ofbusiness, academia and not-for-profitorganisations. This, he argues, is to theadvantage of Wharton, consistentlyranked as one of the world’s top businessschools.

“Could I have been a good dean at theWharton School 10 years ago?” he asks.“I would say no, because I wouldn’t havehad the perspective.”

Sitting in a leather chair in thedean’s office (the décor of which haschanged little since Tom Gerrity heldthe post in the 1990s – Prof Garrettis swift to point out that his packingcases from Australia have yet toarrive), the newly appointed deanskilfully shies away from talking aboutany plans he may have for Wharton.He is still listening to professors andstaff there, he says, and only whenthis exercise is complete will he makedecisions.

Nonetheless, the picture he paints ofWharton in the future points to a schoolwith a much more global mindset andan increased focus on technology-drivenlearning. The background for all of thiswill be the growing role of business insociety, says Prof Garrett, a politicalscientist by training.

While the 1990s was all aboutglobalisation and the 2000s wasthe technology decade, the next 10to 15 years will be dominated by thepervasiveness of business, says ProfGarrett. “If you look at the world todayand into the future, there are threecharacteristics: societal demands aregoing up, the capacity of governmentis at least stagnant, and the way bigproblems will be addressed in the futurewill be private sector-led. Whereveryou look you see an expanding role forbusiness.”

He acknowledges that beingdean of a US business school will bevery different from being dean of anAustralian one. “For 100 years the worldhas come [to the US] and they stay.People come to you. Australia is exactlythe opposite.”

This may make it more difficult toimbue a global perspective in students,but Prof Garrett believes all studentsat Wharton should have some kind ofinternational experience. “The notionthat international experiences canchange your life are personal biographyto me,” says the dean.

“The thing that was important forme when I came to the US to do a PhDwas that I wanted to see the world;it was both the education and theopportunity to live in another country.International experiences are, at aminimum, mind-expanding and, at amaximum, life-changing.”

Wharton already has a secondcampus, but the school chose to investin the US – in San Francisco – ratherthan overseas. The location does bringadvantages, though, according to thedean. Specifically, the Californianlocation says that Wharton is a schoolfor entrepreneurship as well as finance,and it gives a different perspective onthe Pacific rim. “You don’t have to bein Asia to educate Asian students,” addsProf Garrett.

The San Francisco campus isincreasingly being used to teach full-

time as well as executive students –70 of the full-time MBA students nowstudy for a semester in California andthere are plans afoot for undergraduatesto do the same.

However, in March the school willtake a substantial leap forward with theopening of the Penn Wharton ChinaCenter in the central business districtof Beijing, the school’s first bricks andmortar outside the US. The centre willfocus on teaching executive courses,research and career development.

But overall Prof Garrett acknowledgesthat heading a business school is notabout quick fixes. “You can’t be tooimpatient for change,” he says. “It’s avery long game. The long game I see forWharton is a wonderful one. I cherishthe heritage, but I don’t want to bebounded by that.

“A wise person said to me recently[that] if you change 3 per cent a year,over time you will change 50 per cent.”

Prof Garrett is certainly pleasedand gracious about his appointment asWharton dean. “I have no doubt the jobI had in Australia was the best job forme in Australia. This is probably thebest role for me in the world.”

‘it’savery longgame.Thelonggameisee forWhartonisawonderfulone. i cherishtheheritage,but idon’twanttobeboundedbythat’

World view:Geoffrey Garrett

believes all Whartonstudents should

have internationalexperience

PHOTO:PASCAL

PerIC

H

B

Photo:Ja

mesoatway

insid

e Afripolitanambition

it is highly doubtful shaka Zulu,the warrior who establisheda powerful Zulu kingdom in19th-century south africa whileinstilling fear into his enemies,

had ever been likened to a pot of tea.But for swaady martin-Leke it made

perfect sense. “he’s a leader, so he’snurturing in a way, but he’s fiery and he’ssouth african, so it has to be a rooibos;the fire was the pepper,” she says.

thus was born shaka Zulu tea, a richmix of rooibos (a herbal tea indigenousto south africa), chillies, vanilla, saffronand rosebuds. It is one of the 27 blendsand flavours in the Gourmet collectionsof yswara (pronounced “ee-swara”),a south african boutique that hasambitions of introducing luxury africanproducts to the outside world.

the tea, in its many forms andexotic fragrances (shaka Zulu is joinedin yswara’s range by the likes of askiaof songhai, Pharaoh tut and KingLalibela) is merely yswara’s initialoffering, alongside candles of soy waxand essential oils that can be used as amoisturiser once they have melted.

the fledgling business in Parkhurst,one of Johannesburg’s affluent northernsuburbs, is the brainchild of martin-Leke, who forged ahead with the projectin spite of initial scepticism among herfriends and peers. “I did my research, butno one believed in it,” she says, sippinga new blend she is testing at the eleganttownhouse that has been transformedinto a chic store.

yet by september, 19 months afteryswara’s launch, the business had done

better than even martin-Leke envisaged.some 13,000 tins of tea and more than3,000 candles had been sold at outletsin 10 countries, from Nigeria to Norwayand Kenya to sierra Leone, mainly tohotels and other businesses but alsodirectly to retail customers.

after putting up an initial $280,000with nine partners, who included friendsand family, martin-Leke is seeking toraise a further $1m as she preparesto scale up, with a goal of having 30yswara-branded stores within the nextdecade. the plan is also to expandthe product range to include honey,chocolate and other gourmet items thatwould have a distinctly african feel.

at the heart of the project, she says,“is how we keep the value-add in africaand share the refined africa – an africathat’s contemporary, that represents allwe experience today in africa that is notclichés, not stereotyped”.

Indeed, martin-Leke is symbolic of asuccessful, aspirant and entrepreneurialgeneration of africans that haverisen to the fore to counter the jadedcharacterisations of africa as a continentknown only for conflict and poverty.

Initially she was raised in Liberia byher african-american father and hermother, who is part French, part Ivorianand part Guinean. But war forced themto move to senegal when martin-Lekewas three. By the time she was six shehad moved to the Ivory Coast, where hermother – who raised her and her brotherafter their parents separated – workedat the african Development Bank. at 16,the self-described “afripolitan” moved

36

again, this time to finish high schoolin London, before further studies inswitzerland and a job with accenture,the consultancy, in Paris.

about a year later she joined Generalelectric, the Us conglomerate, in theFrench capital, and so began a definingperiod of her life – one that provideda return journey to africa. In 2005,martin-Leke was dispatched from theUs to Nairobi, where she spent twoyears as Ge’s commercial developmentmanager for africa, driving thecompany’s expansion on the continent.

after Kenya, she moved to Paris andthen south africa, where she realisedher ambition for the Us group tomanufacture in africa. that happenedwithin 18 months rather than the fiveyears martin-Leke had expected, whenGe began manufacturing locomotiveswith transnet, south africa’s state-owned rail operator.

at that point, after a decade withGe – “somewhere I have a Ge gene”– martin-Leke decided it was timeto embark on new experiencesand chose to take a sabbatical. It

swaadyMartin-Lekesymbolisesanentrepreneurialgeneration.ByAndrewengland

>

Attheheartof theproject‘ishowwesharetherefinedAfrica–anAfrica that’scontemporary…that isnotclichés,notstereotyped’

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

insid

e

was during this period that she beganher trium Global emBa, which istaught between the London school ofeconomics, NyU stern Business schoolin New york and heC Paris, withexcursions to China and India.

the then 35-year-old found herselfamong the youngest of the students;many of her classmates were in their40s or 50s, some of them “extremelysuccessful entrepreneurs” with“hundreds of millions of dollars”.

martin-Leke describes the emBa as“extremely difficult” as she juggled herstudies with living between Nigeria andsouth africa and helping friends with amobile banking company. But it was also“just amazing”, she says, adding that mostof her mentors for yswara come fromtrium. some of the research she did forher business plan was part of the emBa.

“I wanted two things,” she says. “First,I had already spent quite a bit of time inafrica, so I wanted to extendmy networksout of africa again, and I wanted to learn

something I know already very welland then we’ll take it from there – andsomething that’s made in africa.”

seeking inspiration, martin-Lekelooked round her house for somethingshe loved that was “from africa but notmade in africa”. she came upon somerooibos tea she had bought in Paris andthought: “hello… I live in south africa.”

she plans to open stores in europe,the Us and africa – the continent thatmakes her “heart really vibrate”. “whenI’m here I’m blooming and if you take meout of africa I’m dying internally,” shesays. But the first yswara franchise storeis likely to open as a pilot next year inBaku, azerbaijan – a market “we’re nevergoing to go [to] ourselves”.

“you’re asking me what comes fromGeneral electric… your idea has to makesense globally,” martin-Leke says. “It hasto make sense in africa but has to makesense globally, otherwise 15 years fromnow we would remain a small shop inParkhurst.”

from people who had more experience.hence I wanted an mBa where theaverage age was very high.”

martin-Leke traces her business driveback to her childhood. “I remembersaying I wanted to be a businesswoman,”she says. “I’ve always wanted to changethe world; I think at five I had that sense.”

Being a “factory person”, martin-Leke decided to set up a business thatproduced something. “the question was,what product?” she says. “I thought Ineed to start with something that’s easy,

Fire in the belly:Yswara’s ShakaZulu tea

‘iwantedto learnfrompeoplewhohadmoreexperience.HenceiwantedanMBAwheretheaverageagewasveryhigh’

B

Photos:ZoranMilic

h/r

euters;elit

ePhotograPhy

insid

e

serene nah was ge capital’schief financial officer forgreater china and had brightprospects in the group whereshe had worked for the past

10 years. however, nah, who joined thecompany after an undergraduate degreein business management from nanyangBusiness school in singapore, wanted toaccelerate her career and develop newskills beyond finance.

“i was starting to get involved inmergers and acquisitions and bigstrategic projects. i was very keen to findan [executive MBa] programme thatcould expose me to more, such as thecommercial side and legal side. also, tomeet people who could offer me real-lifeexperiences and contacts in [china].”

six-figure tuition fees, travel costsand time off to attend classes make anexecutive MBa a substantial investment.nah had full employer support for theprogramme.

she chose the Kellogg-hKustprogramme – run jointly by Kelloggschool of Management at northwesternuniversity in illinois and hong Konguniversity of science and technology –because of its strong reputation, activealumni network and chinese focus.

During the programme, nah’srole continued to expand and sheanticipated staying with ge. however,she decided she wanted to worksomewhere different and three monthsafter her 2011 graduation she left tobecome a senior operating executive

41

at silver lake, a private equity house.today, based in hong Kong, sheconsiders her eMBa to be “one of thebest investments” she has made.

Both employers and employees haveshifted their thinking about funding,says Peggy Bishop lane, vice-dean ofthe eMBa at the Wharton school of theuniversity of Pennsylvania. companiesfund fewer candidates because long-term employment is less common, shesays, and conversely some students feel“they can dictate a little bit more whatthey can do once they graduate if theyhaven’t been financially sponsored”.

scott Balloch, a client manager atBt, the uK telecoms group, wasconsidering a full-time MBa in theus when his employer offered to fund

shouldyoustayorgotoanewemployerafteryoureMBA?ByRochelleToplensky

>

Time to go: SereneNahmovedon threemonthsafter completingher EMBA

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

Move up ormove on

insid

e

an eMBa in the uK, so that he couldstudy while working. he chose Warwick’sBusiness school’s eMBa but expected tomove companies when he graduated in2012 as he was under no legal obligationto stay at Bt, nor to repay his fees.But, having been “impressed” by theopportunities at Bt, Balloch remained atthe company and is now head of energyand environment strategy.

corporate funding for eMBas hasdeclined over the past 20 years, saysBishop lane, and there was “a dramaticdive in employer sponsorship after2008, as you would expect, but thattrend has continued”. however, evenemployers that do not fund tuition stillinvest by allowing employees to workflexibly during part-time courses.

after two years as senior marketingdirector at a us healthcare companyeamon Bobowski decided to self-fund aneMBa. Five months into his programmeat georgetown university, WashingtonDc, and in the depths of the recession,

with contributions from her old and newemployers and us government fundingunder the trade adjustment assistanceprogramme.

DeVault-smith has stayed withBosch, which she says has given her thechance to learn and work at higher levels.“While i have had opportunities duringthe programme and after graduation,so far Bosch has beenthe right placefor me,”she says.

he lost his job in a reorganisation.interim project work to pay the billshas evolved into a rewarding careeras an independent consultant. “theskills i am able to exercise in real-worldmonumental projects are going toposition me very well,” he says.

niki DeVault-smith’s plans werealso shaken by the 2008 crisis when heremployer entered chapter 11 bankruptcyweeks before her eMBa was due tostart. however, when the programmebegan in July 2009, DeVault-smithhad secured a place on engineeringgroup robert Bosch’s financeleadership developmentprogramme in the us. shesupplemented her ownmoney

PeggyBishopLane:corporate funding forEMBAshas declinedover the past 20years

somestudents feel ‘theycandictatea littlebitmorewhattheycandooncetheygraduateif theyhaven’tbeensponsored’

>

inside

Checkyourfiguresuse a business case to determinewhether your expected salary upliftwill pay back the cost of an eMBa.Positive return on investment (roi)is important, though not the onlyconsideration. chris Doran, academicdirector of Kellogg-hKust’s eMBa,cautions that some things cannot bemeasured in roi terms – like gettingthe confidence to start your ownbusiness or following your passion.

Choosetherightprogrammeforyouidentify your personal career goals.While rankings and reputation areimportant, they should not be slavishlyfollowed. course structure and classnames may be similar, but programmesvary widely in what they offer. attendthe fairs and open days to identify theprogrammes that meet your objectives.Do you want to start your own business,for example? Do you want to work inchina? use rankings and logic to create

potential jobs in the future, they canbecome lifelong friends.

Putyournewskills toworkrightawaya key advantage of an eMBa over afull-time MBa is the chance to use yournew skills at work, which can cementnew knowledge and impress youremployer. niki DeVault-smith (seep43) applied lessons learned in class topropose an unconventional solution toa problem, impressing her employerand providing a practical example of hernew capabilities.

explore the jobmarketeven if you do not intend to change jobs,consider all your options, because planscan change. to accelerate your careerwith your current employer, Prof Doranrecommends graduates use negotiationskills learned on the course “to create anattractive alternative offer to encouragetheir pre-degree employer to recognisetheir new skills”.

a shortlist that meets your goals andthen listen to your heart to make thefinal choice.

Chooseaprogrammelocated inthemarketwhereyouwant toworklocation will influence the culture,laws, regulations and business practicestaught. While there is general benefitto building cross-cultural knowledge,eMBa learning is practical, so studyingin your target market will arm you withrelevant knowledge. alumni networksand work prospects also tend toconcentrate in the market of the school.Finally, travel time is an importantpractical consideration when jugglingthe course, work and family obligations.

Onceintheprogramme,participateasmuchaspossibleinteract and share with classmates –help and learn from them to build yourknowledge and network. as well asbeing a sounding board and source of

Get themost from your EMBA investment

B

Photo:ir

onJo

hn/D

reaMstiM

e

review

PH

OT

OS:

FP

G/G

ET

TY

IMA

GE

S;

F9P

HO

TO

S/D

RE

AM

ST

IME

Technology,p49

Build yourown Android

Community,p53

Are EMBAsworth the cost?

Hopes&Fears,p54

Easternpremiseworth the cost?

To British readers there are few thingsmore cringe-inducing in businessthan having a cheerleader psychingthem up to do good. Yet this is justwhat Steven Overman does in The

Conscience Economy: How aMass Movement forGood is Great for Business. Being bad in business,he asserts, used to be not just profitable but evena bit admirable. “Bad behaviour – and particularlygetting away with bad behaviour – has long been afertile source of value share,” he writes.

Consumers expect a lot more today. Theyare different to previous generations, he writes.They are optimistic. They are, the author says,“rejecting everyday choices in ways that defytraditional logic… They’re questioning everythingfrom the notion of career consistency to the valueof money itself. They’re hacking everything fromgovernment policy to the genome.”

The signs are everywhere. “The global waveof young entrepreneurship is an indicator notonly of an increase in personal self-belief andempowerment, but a sign of the growing optimismthat there could and will be a better way to work,produce and live.” Locally sourced food is importantto shoppers. We want our investments to do good.

The internet is accelerating the spreadof a global consciousness – the “conscienceculture” that gives the book its title.We have got here, Overman says, notjust because of the internet but dueto a “major conflux” – a comingtogether of various forces thatdrive us towards a tipping point.These include environmentalconcerns, networked warfare (orterrorism), artificial intelligenceand evaporation of privacy.

Many books aimed at businesspeople dramatise the sweeping changes facingconsumers and workplaces. You pay your money tothe author to discover the answers – that is the deal.

The scale of change, then, may be ratcheted upto woo a book-buying audience. In fact, the authorcites a survey by Fortune magazine in 1946 thatfound people wanted business to act with a socialconscience. So too the millennials – the generation

born between the early 1980s and early 2000s –who are often portrayed as wanting to do work ofsocial value but whose commitment to such workhas been questioned by some observers.

Overman is familiar with eye-rolling. TheAmerican had a culture shock adapting to Britishcorporate ways when he came to the UK – hewas made aware that his bombastic cheerleadingstyle was over the top for a British audience. “Myleadership style in the United States was seen atbest as cheerleader-coach-optimist and at worst ashighly focused and perfectionist,” he writes. “Butin the UK, I was perceived to be fake, unrealisticand overbearing.” He was sent for “culturalreconditioning”. However, many of his points aregood: companies can no longer be complacent,and people need to be alert to new ideas andthreats from beyond their own sector.

He rightly calls the death of corporate socialresponsibility as a separate department. Ratherthan being an add-on, it is increasingly seen asintrinsic to all the functions of a business. Yet

Overman goes further and suggests theexpertise on social responsibility should

rest with the marketing department.Billed as a “strategy and innovation

consultant”, Overman was until lastyear vice-president of global brandstrategy and marketing creation atNokia, the mobile phone company.

One assumes it is Nokia he is referringto in the book as the company that

became complacent with its ownsuccess until it was too late. He

is right that social media havealtered the old model ofmarketing and his idea ofcreating a new mission forhis profession, thoughinteresting, is a tad self-serving. In recasting hisprofession, he proveshis theory that businessmust adapt to the neweconomy. Whether it isa conscience economy, Iam still unsure.

How to be goodEmmaJacobssensesamarketingangle toaviewofcorporateethics

books

Do the right thing:consumers expecthigher standardsof behaviourfromcompanies

B

PHOTOS:CHRIS

RATCLIFFE/B

LOOMBERG;DAVID

FIR

N

TE

CH

NO

LO

GY

The phone in your pocketis probably an Androiddevice, and if you live ina western country, it isalmost certainly running

the Google version of Android andthus is bristling with Google’s services:Gmail, YouTube, Docs and more.

The raw figures for Android’s marketshare make it look as though Googledominates the smartphone world: ofthe 301.3m smartphones shipped in thesecond quarter of this year, 84.7 per centwere Android devices, up from 79.6 percent in 2013, according to analysts IDC.But those figures hide a more complexstory about how difficult it is to build anecosystem and bring customers into it.

The next biggest player on the mobileOS scene is Apple, which in Septembermade a bold bid to draw users furtherinto its clutches with the launch of awearable device, the Apple Watch, and,more importantly, its Apple Pay system.

Apple’s iOS has been losing marketshare, according to IDC: in the second

quarter of this year, it accounted for11.7 per cent of mobile device shipments,down from 13 per cent in the samequarter last year. Apple’s early-moveradvantage has been eclipsed by theroaring success of Android.

Google maintains and develops the“official” version of Android, but theoperating system itself is open-source,which means anyone can fiddle with it,change it, add to it and take bits away, asAmazon and Nokia, for example, havedone with their operating systems.

Google leads the Android OpenHandset Alliance, an associationof device-makers such as Sony, LG,Samsung and Lenovo, mobile operatorssuch as T-Mobile and Vodafone as wellas chipmakers Arm, Qualcomm andIntel, and software companies, includingeBay and, of course, Google.

In return for membership of theOHA, members can create devices thatGoogle will license its services to. It isimportant to note that while Androiditself is open-source and free to use,

49

ContenderstargetGoogle’sversionofAndroid.ByKateBevan

Pick andmix: as theAndroid operatingsystem is open-source, anyone canchange it, add to it ortake bits away

F T. COM / BU S I N E S S EDUC AT I ON

Robot wars

Google’s services are not. Members of thealliance also pledge not to “fork” Android– in other words, create their ownversions that exclude Google services.

This is all great for Google, as itmeans its data-collecting apparatus,with its access to your email, searches,location data and so on, is in the handsof millions of people to whom “relevant”adverts can be directed.

There is, however, a big part of theAndroid ecosystem that is nothing to dowith Google. This is most significant inChina, where Google and its services arepersona non grata. But there are alsotrouble spots on the radar outside Chinathat should worry Google.

Google’s biggest concern is Samsung.The search giant’s relations with theSouth Korean smartphone-maker havebeen strained, as Samsung has firedwarning shots that indicate it probablydoesn’t need Google as much as Googleneeds Samsung, which is by far thebiggest vendor of Android OHA devices.

Samsung has been tinkering with analternative operating system, Tizen, andincludes its own mail and other servicesalongside Google’s on its Galaxy Androiddevices. In theory, Samsung could dropGoogle’s version of Android and focuson developing Tizen further or move tothe non-Google version of Android.

That version is the Android OpenSource Project – the one developerswork with when they don’t want to joinforces with Google. AOSP is free and isthe version that Amazon has used in itsFire devices. Nokia used AOSP to createthe well-received Nokia X range beforeMicrosoft assimilated Nokia’s devicesdivision and killed the project.

Amazon and Nokia would do well tolook to China, where local providers havebuilt strong ecosystems on the AOSPversion of Android. In hardware, Xiaomihas 31.6 per cent of the urban Chinesemarket, according to Carolina Milanesi,chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel,the market research company. “Xiaomi isthe model that works,” she says.

What works in China is a package

There is a big part of theAndroid ecosystem that isnothing to do with Google,most significantly in China

RE

VIE

W

of services delivered via the hardware.At the end of last year, Gartner, theresearch company, noted: “Chinese-based internet providers, such asBaidu, Alibaba Group and Tencent,[are] providing local featured apps,services and content through app storesthat they themselves operate. Thisparticipation is preventing Google frombeing a major beneficiary of smartphoneuser growth in the China market.”

If Google has lost out in China, itcould lose out elsewhere. Microsoft iskeen to get its services – Outlook.com,Bing, Office and OneDrive – into morehands, and while its Windows Phone OShas been well received, its market shareof just 2.5 per cent in the second quarterof this year means it has a long way to go.

Intriguingly, Microsoft chiefexecutive Satya Nadella has beenreported as talking to Cyanogen, whichmaintains a popular AOSP fork ofAndroid. While Microsoft is unlikelyto be considering buying Cyanogen,

partnering with it to provide services aspart of the package makes sense.

Here’s a blue-sky suggestion forMr Nadella: sit down with Jeff Bezosat Amazon to develop a good fork ofAndroid. Microsoft has a compellingservices offering but an almost non-existent platform for these services,despite the quality of the Lumia handsets.Amazon has compelling content withits Prime video but seems unable to getconsumers to buy its Fire devices.

For smaller providers, a Microsoft-Amazon-style joint venture wouldbe a great way to become part of anecosystem out of Google’s reach. I suspectconsumers would find that attractive.How about it, Satya and Jeff?

Threatening forces:there are troublespots on the radarforGoogle, not onlyfromwithinChina

AMicrosoft-Amazon-stylejointventurewouldbeagreatwaytobecomepartofanecosystemoutofGoogle’s reach

Apps to keep you in touch

FacebookMessengerall platforms, freewww.facebook.com/mobile/messenger

FacebookMessenger has been around for awhileas a standaloneway to sendmessages to yourfriends on theplatform, but now that Facebookhas disabled the ability to sendmessages fromwithin the app, avoiding it ismoredifficult.Concerns about the permissions the app seeksare overstated, but that does not stop it being adreadful app that addsnothinguseful. Themostinfuriating “feature” is that you can’t turn offnotifications permanently: you canonlydisablethem for anhour, or until 8am. Thatmeans yourdevicewill alert you tomessageswhether youwant to knowabout themornot. Avoid – use themobilewebsite via your browser instead.

AcompliiOS andAndroid, freewww.acompli.comOneof themanyalternative personal

informationmanager (PIM) apps in a crowdedspace. This one filters email into a “focused” and“other” inbox, siftingmail frompeople youdealwithmost to the former. Twogood things in itsfavour: itworkswith Exchange,whichmanythird-partymail/PIMappsdon’t, and thePeopleviewusefully puts yourmost recent contacts atthe top andoffers options to see any calendarevents they are noted in and anydocuments youhave sharedwith themvia email. You can attachdocuments fromDropbox, GoogleDrive andMicrosoft’sOneDrive – again,many third-partyapps don’t support the last of these. Aminorquibble is the lack of linking to Facebook events.

B

PHOTO:DENNIS

DOYLE/B

LOOMBERG

COMMUNITIES

53F T. C O M / B U S I N E S S E D U C AT I O N

Are EMBAsworth the fee?Atopprogrammecancost$180,000.Weaskedreaders ifEMBAsareworththemoney–andhowelse theymightspendit.ByCharlotteClarke

Abhinav Jhunjhunwala By email

I recently completed theUniversity of Chicago BoothEMBA programme in Singapore.In my view, the learning, theexperience and the communityare invaluable. Perhaps moreimportantly, I believe that theEMBA format prepares studentsbetter for the workforce thana traditional residential MBAprogramme. The commitmentto family and the demands ofwork continue side by side witha rigorous academic schedule,[which] makes students aware oftheir true capacity to handle thevarious aspects of their lives.

Havingmet toomanyMBAswhoreallydisappointedme,Iwouldspend itonsomethingelse.@johntrew888

AnEMBAor…$107,828

UCLA:Anderson/NationalUniversityofSingapore

vsAluxurywedding

for 200guests at theMandarinOriental hotel in LasVegas.Before thewedding the brideis treated to a private dressconsultation at Lanvin, a

pair of JimmyChooshoes and adiamondpendant fromHarryWinston. Afterwardsthe bride and groom

canenjoy a seven-nighthoneymoonat thehotel.

$68,649CityUniversity

CassBusinessSchoolvs

AMaseratiThenew four-doorGhibli

has aV6Ferrari engine, reaches60mph in 4.7 seconds andgoes on to a top speedof163mph. It has a lowerprice tag thanMaserati’s

othermodels,which are allpriced above $100,000.

$28, 118StockholmSchoolofEconomics

vsAMarcJacobsdress

Thematerial alone, coveredwith organza flowers, costsnearly $11,000ametre.

$174,000ChicagoBooth

vsAcolonialhouseinNewYorkstate

Thehouse in thehamletofMalden-on-Hudson,

NewYork state –similar in style to theproperty pictured –is in needof some

restoration

Iwould invest it.@vikasagarwal42

Buildaschool.@Buloongo

Wouldyou studybusiness in Europeor elsewhere – andwhy?Tell us@ftbizedor email bized.communities@ft.comwww.ft.com/business-education/community

Stefan Michel, EMBA director, IMD,SwitzerlandBlog comment

If you think an EMBA is mainly alicence to get a higher salary, I thinkyou are not really ready for it. Thelearning journey should help youto become a more re lective leader,a better strategist, and a moremindful person with a high level ofself-awareness. If you accomplishthis, you will realise that the main“gain” of an EMBA programme is notmonetary but personal.

DSzpiro Blog comment

While EMBAs appear to come ata premium compared with thefull-time programmes, keep in mindthat most EMBA tuition fees, unlikefull-time programmes, include itemssuch as all books and learningmaterials, accommodation andmeals during residential sessionsand an international trip. Also keepin mind that EMBA programmesdon’t require students to quit theirjobs, so there is no lost salary toinclude as an opportunity cost(unlike full-time programmes).Taking these other factors intoconsideration… one could makethe case that an EMBA is actuallyless expensive than the matchingfull-time MBA.

PHOTOS:CHARLIE

BIB

BY;AVIA

HUIS

MANPHOTOGRAPHY/D

REAM

STIM

E;

STEPHEN

LOVEKIN

,NEIL

SON

BARNARD/G

ETTYIM

AGES

hopes&fears

54

DaveWoodward

for the latestdevelopments inbusinesseducationfollowus@ftbized

f t. com / BU S i n e S S - edUc at i on

an American lawyer, aSingaporean diplomat, aJapanese engineer and aSri Lankan plant managerwalk into a bar… That

may sound like the start of a bad joke,but it was actually the start of a recentnight out with my study group membersto celebrate completing our executiveMBA’s first two-week classroom session.

The scene illustrates not only thenetworking benefits EMBAs offer butalso the incredible diversity of experience,nationality, culture and perspective theUCLA-NUS programme brings to bear,making my learning experience trulyedifying and multi-dimensional.

I became interested in pursuing anEMBA degree four years ago. I had leftmy job as in-house counsel at Yahooin San Francisco to lead a businessdevelopment team at Zynga, the onlinegaming company. Within the first fewweeks, I realised I was ill prepared totackle common business tasks suchas building financial models. I beganresearching EMBAs, but consideringthe steep learning curve and rigours of

my role, I felt I wouldn’t excel at eitherwork or school, so I pressed pause onpursuing an MBA.

Two years into my stretch at Zynga,LinkedIn approached me to be its firstlawyer in the Asia-Pacific region, basedin Singapore. I had long been interestedin living and working abroad, andLinkedIn was a phenomenal company inhyper-growth mode.

Thoughts of pursuing an EMBA soonresurfaced. Many internal clients soughtnot only legal advice but also my opinionon business decisions. I wanted moreformal business training upon which Icould anchor my opinions.

I looked at a few reputableprogrammes in Singapore but ultimatelydecided on the UCLA-NUS EMBA forseveral reasons. As an American in Asia,I wanted a programme with a globalperspective and an emphasis on thePacific Rim. This EMBA is a case of eastmeets west. I also do not yet know if mycareer will keep me in Asia or returnme to the US, so I sought a programmethat would offer academic credibilitywherever I went.

Another key factor in selecting aprogramme was the scheduling ofclassroom work and time away frommy day job. As a veteran of two otherpart-time graduate degrees, I knowthe stress it places on your worklife, personal life and health. Someprogrammes require classroom timeweekly and others monthly. My EMBA’scadence is two consecutive weeks ofclassroom time a quarter over fivequarters. So far I’m finding it quitemanageable.

Ironically, the characteristic of anEMBA I had not consciously soughtbut am realising is perhaps the mostvaluable is the calibre and diversityof classmates. Our intake of roughly40 students includes chief executives,venture capitalists, a US Navyhelicopter pilot, lawyers, engineers,a physician, software programmers,diplomats, finance professionals,human resources professionals andentrepreneurs. They come from a widerange of industries – from high tech toauto parts – and hail from all over theworld. Their eclectic profile encouragesfertile discussions, with perspectivesvastly different from my own. I know Iwill learn as much about business fromthem as from the professors.

It is early days, but I have noticeda difference in my approach to work.I am viewing my clients’ issues moreholistically, offering legal advice ina more informed business context.And I am finally able to distinguish acashflow statement from an incomestatement.

An EMBA is demanding, expensive,stressful and time consuming. But itis also mind-expanding, rewarding,energising and transformative. It is a bigmountain to climb, but if you take it onestep at a time, before you know it youwill be at the summit enjoying a freshnew perspective on the world. I hope tosee you there.

Iamrealising that themostvaluablecharacteristicofaneMBaisperhapsthecalibreanddiversityofclassmates

B

PhOTO:MUNShIAhMED

DaveWoodwardisontheUCLA-NUS(University ofCalifornia, LosAngeles-NationalUniversity ofSingapore) EMBA.Heis LinkedIn’s directorof legal for theAsia-Pacific region, basedin Singapore. Hehaspreviouslyworked forcompanies such asYahoo, Zynga andNECin SiliconValley. HehasaBA fromUCBerkeley,a JD from theUniversityof SanFrancisco andanLLM fromSantaClaraUniversity.