How can you measure the value of an MBA in 2022? In his role as Head of MBA Marketing & Recruitment at Alliance Manchester Business School, Chris Healy has unique access to the perspectives of schools, students, and employers. We asked him for his take.
For many years after the first MBA was taught at Harvard Business School in 1908, programs didn’t change all that much. The course content remained the same, the method of teaching remained the same, and students mostly looked the same. It wasn’t until 1959, for example, that Harvard began admitting women into its program.
But, an MBA in 2022 is almost unrecognizable from those nascent MBAs back in the early 20th century. Schools are increasingly targeting a wider range of students and offering a wider range of study topics, with modern MBA candidates able to study everything from blockchain to artificial intelligence. The format of an MBA is also completely different. It’s something that Chris Healy has particularly noticed during his 15 years in the industry.
“The biggest change for me over the past 15 years is the growing acceptance and awareness of different types of MBA programs,” he says. “When I started you had a full-time MBA and executive MBA – two very traditional programs. Now you have seen different programs start to evolve – distance, online, part-time…” (01:18)
This change in format partly stems from a need to appeal to a wider range of candidates. People in different locations, at different stages of their lives, who may not be able to commit to the traditional full-time MBA. There’s the chemical engineer who used an MBA to pivot into business, the MBA student who was made redundant two weeks before his graduation, and the Indian MBA student who pursued an MBA because she needed a change.
This, in turn, is leading to a more diverse, global mix of MBA students. As we’ll learn, diversity is something that business schools are increasingly looking for in their MBA classes.
Although business schools have always produced global leaders, the skills, knowledge, and experience required to be a global business leader are changing every day. MBA students need a wider set of experiences than ever before to truly be able to affect business on a global scale. One way that schools can provide those experiences is through increased diversity.
“Business schools are looking for global professionals,” Chris says. “They’re also increasingly looking for individuals that don’t just come from those traditional MBA backgrounds – accountants, consultants, bankers – now they’re looking for clinicians, lawyers, individuals with more of an engineering or manufacturing background.” (06:18)
The increased emphasis on finding talent from different work and cultural backgrounds has a knock-on effect for anyone dreaming of studying an MBA. As the need for diversity grows, so does the number of scholarships available to students with those diverse backgrounds. Chris says getting an MBA scholarship is an attainable goal if you can understand your value proposition to the school.
“Because business schools are looking to diversify so much, they also have more scholarship opportunities available to students. I’m not going to lie – scholarships are difficult to come by. That being said, they’re still absolutely attainable. To win one, you must think about what your value proposition is. How can you make yourself attractive to a specific business school?” (06:52)
So, you’ve decided you want to do an MBA. You’ve gone through the rankings, you’ve found your perfect school, and you’ve been accepted into your dream program. But what skills will you gain from an MBA that makes it worth the investment?
“What I think the MBA is excellent at doing is it prepares individuals to go into any organization across any industry,” Chris shares. “I think it’s one of the beauties of an MBA over, say, a specialized master’s. With that kind of degree, you’ll be known as a specialist in a specific area, but an MBA allows individuals to work across industries and job functions with a knowledge of the entire business landscape.” (07:39)
Teaching students these business fundamentals is a tenet of any MBA program in the world – and always has been. But beyond that, they tend to differ in terms of content and structure. At Alliance Manchester Business School, Chris says their MBA has one key advantage over other programs.
“Although most full-time MBA programs have some sort of project right at the end, at Alliance Manchester we integrate consultancy projects throughout the program. It’s because we’re looking to give MBA students the practical skills that they can immediately apply to the workplace,” he explains. (08:53)
However, these “hard” business skills are only one side of an MBA. In truth, although most students don’t come into the program expecting it, they tend to leave an MBA with a newly-acquired set of soft skills – skills that are difficult to put value on. Chris cites one of those skills in particular that is consistent across Manchester MBA alumni.
“One of the things I hear time and time again from Manchester MBA students and alumni when they’re asked what the MBA gave them: confidence. By that, I don’t mean giving a presentation in front of 100 people. I mean a non-finance individual sitting with the entire financial department of an organization and articulating their thoughts on the firm’s financial strategy – that type of confidence,” he says. (11:09)
It’s worth asking the question of whether MBAs continue to have the same value today as they did 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years ago. We’ve already had the perspective of a business school, who you would probably expect to say that they’re still valuable.
It could be argued that employers will be the ultimate judge of the value of an MBA. After all, they’re the ones who decide whether to hire MBA graduates or not. So what do they think? Chris points to the actions of one of the world’s biggest companies as proof of an MBA’s continued value to employers.
“In 2022, Amazon is going to hire a record number of MBA students,” he reveals. “They’re doing that because they believe in the schools they work with [and] the individuals they hire, but also the MBA qualification. If it’s relevant for Amazon, then I think it’s relevant for many other organizations around the world.” (05:06)
The MBA is more than 100 years old, and its enduring popularity is a testament to the program’s ability to adapt. Although some business fundamentals are as relevant today as they were in 1908, modern MBAs are almost unrecognizable in terms of content, format, and delivery. Ultimately, as long as MBAs can continue to provide value to the marketplace, they will still be worth it in 2022 and beyond.
