A Robust Market for MBA’s
According to FT, the market for MBA graduates remains “buoyant,” with some of the country’s largest business schools achieving placement rates as high as 89% and 92% in 2010.
It has been 63 years since Canada became the first country outside of the United States to award an MBA degree. Since then, Canadian business schools have earned a reputation for being among the best in the world.
Canada’s continued good standing comes despite competition from not only the U.S. and Europe, but also the developing world. A recent study by INSEAD Business School found that while just 90 people signed up for China’s first MBA program in 1991, that number had shot up to 25,000 by 2008.
The MBA program, too, has evolved in response to fluctuating market conditions. Never has that been more evident than in the wake of the global economic crisis.
A recent report from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario entitled Leadership on Trial: A manifesto for leadership development, suggests that today’s management educators need to not only place an increased emphasis on economic and business history, but also urge students to consider the ethics of business decisions.
“There’s an old adage that says we should never waste a good crisis,” says Carol Stephenson, Dean of the Ivey Business School. “This last worldwide recession certainly qualifies. It has forced us to examine the gap between what we know and feel about good leadership, and what took place in the past few years. What we hope will eventually emerge – and what we are working towards – is a solid set of guideposts for leadership in the 21st century.
MBA Grads Continue to Outperform Their Non-MBA Counterparts
But while the MBA education itself may be changing, studies and anecdotal evidence continue to suggest it remains an invaluable tool for furthering career advancement. It has also been proven to provide benefits for individuals pondering a career change and for those looking to increase their current and future salary.
According to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2010 Corporate Recruiter survey, MBAs are a highly effective means of furthering career advancement.
Based on a survey of 2,367 employers in 57 countries, the study found that 55% of participating organizations planned to hire recent MBA graduates in 2010, a 5% increase over the previous year. MBA graduates were projected to fill an average of eight vacancies per company.
The study also found that the overwhelming majority, 86%, of employers believe that people who hold an MBA degree demonstrate higher knowledge and abilities in management strategy and innovation, as well as strategic and systems skills (85%); general business functions (82%); management decision-making processes (79%); greater capacity for generative thinking (75%); and learning, motivation, and leadership (74%) than other employees at the same employment level.
In addition, almost all employers (99%) report satisfaction with MBA hires, with 17% indicating they were extremely satisfied and 59% reporting that they were very satisfied.
Not surprisingly, MBA graduates can also expect to be well compensated. The study found that MBA graduates are able to command a salary anywhere from 30-50% greater than non-MBA counterparts. And a 2009 ranking of the world’s top 200 CEOs by INSEAD found that CEOs with an MBA ranked, on average, 40 places better than CEOs without an MBA.
Over the following pages, you’ll learn from the leaders of two Canadian business schools about how they are preparing students for the challenges of the 21st century business environment. In addition to standard business training, the schools have adapted to the new climate with the introduction of programs that incorporate ethics and distance learning. Our expectation is that you’ll come away from these pages confident that the future for Canadian business schools remains bright.
