The revolution shaking up business education 01-05

The revolution shaking up business education

Big data will rapidly revolutionise the business school curriculum; students and schools will need to adapt quickly to stay ahead, says Julia Tyler

There is increasing demand for MBA and Masters graduates with analytical skills 

It is estimated there are more than 2.5 quintillion data bytes of “big data” moving among us every day. Every time we use Facebook, Twitter, Google, the Web, YouTube, a tablet device, a mobile phone, GPS, email, or any digital social media platform to communicate, make purchases, or conduct business, we are maneuvering the virtual tsunami of data bytes washing across the globe.

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Big data, or the massive amount of large data sets created by the technology that surrounds us, reveal relationships between people, decisions and behaviours, and can enable analysts to make predictions that shape smart products and processes.

It is now driving discussion about the future of business, and impacting corporate strategies at both SMEs and the world’s biggest brands and organisations.

With so much information flowing around us and influencing the future of business, it comes as little surprise that there is increasing demand in both private industry and public policy arenas for MBA and Masters graduates with the analytical and decision-making skills needed to process and act on these multiple 

This has real implications for not only the type of courses that business schools are offering – but also for the skills that students (and future job candidates) will need to possess in order to compete in an increasingly tough employment market.

Big data will rapidly revolutionise the business school curriculum; students and schools will need to adapt quickly to stay ahead. Indeed, there is a real sense amongst business school leaders that the answer to the question of precisely how to integrate big data into curricula remains far from clear.

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In the years to come, increasing numbers of businesses will need to work with and manage big data – to understand their customers, optimise their organisational design, and improve sales.

The view from the business community and corporate recruiters is clear: a focus on big data will enable tomorrow's leaders to make smart decisions, not only to drive corporate growth, but also solve problems in areas as diverse as public policy, medicine, agriculture and engineering.

Accordingly, the hiring market has sent a clear message to business schools: programmes need to integrate a curriculum that develops students’ ability and skills to use data to solve complex problems in order to provide employers with the talent required to compete in a data-driven world.

The 2012 GMAC Corporate Recruiters survey showed that the skill set required of candidates has changed significantly in recent years. According to our poll, 79 per cent of recruiters need candidates to be able to integrate data from multiple sources to make sound judgments; and 71 per cent need candidates to be equipped with the skills to organise data to solve interrelated problems. Students, take note.

 MBA students ask 'what does the future hold?'

Business schools have responded to the rapidly changing business environment by including more academic course offerings focused on data analytics and business intelligence, to ensure their graduating students can help meet the looming talent gap.

Meanwhile, we have also developed a focused section of the GMAT exam – Integrated Reasoning – to test students’ analytical skills. This new addition to the GMAT emerged in response to a survey of management faculty worldwide who identified these skills as important for incoming management students.

The big data revolution is an opportunity for the education world. 

Business schools able to adapt and evolve their offering to the requirements of corporate recruiters and students, and provide new services, products and courses, will be well placed to boost their graduate employment rates. This will of course have implications for business schools own in-house expertise. Meanwhile, students will need to adapt their mind set and outlook to compete in an evolving job market, where analytics and technical insight are prized.

Either way, the possibilities for educators and students are palpable – and those that invest time and energy into the big data revolution will be best placed to reap the rewards.

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Financial Times Global Business Rankings 2013 02-01

	Rank '13	3 yr. rank	School name	Country	Weighted sal. ($)	Salary inc. (%)
	1	2	Harvard Business School	US	187,223	121
	2	2	Stanford Graduate School of Business	US	194,645	115
	3	2	University of Pennsylvania: Wharton	US	180,772	121
	4	3	London Business School	UK	160,988	124
	5	6	Columbia Business School	US	174,347	123
	6	5	Insead	France / Singapore	153,992	96
	7	8	Iese Business School	Spain	146,049	141
	8	8	Hong Kong UST Business School	China	132,685	153
	9	8	MIT: Sloan	US	160,414	117
	10	11	University of Chicago: Booth	US	162,363	108
	11	9	IE Business School	Spain	157,054	117
	12	17	University of California at Berkeley: Haas	US	151,952	98
	13	17	Northwestern University: Kellogg	US	161,269	99
	14	16	Yale School of Management	US	159,370	118
	15	19	Ceibs	China	131,362	157
	16	18	Dartmouth College: Tuck	US	156,765	117
	16	23	University of Cambridge: Judge	UK	145,169	98
	18	18	Duke University: Fuqua	US	145,147	108
	19	15	IMD	Switzerland	147,380	65
	19	17	New York University: Stern	US	144,586	106
	21	19	HEC Paris	France	123,571	109
	22	25	Esade Business School	Spain	126,699	118
	23	29	UCLA: Anderson	US	147,125	115
	24	24	University of Oxford: Saïd	UK	136,609	95
	24	26	Cornell University: Johnson	US	147,799	112
	26	16	Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad	India	171,188	110
	27	-	CUHK Business School	China	103,423	153
	28	38	Warwick Business School	UK	120,111	89
	29	30	Manchester Business School	UK	114,769	111
	30	28	University of Michigan: Ross	US	140,195	97
	31	-	University of Hong Kong	China	114,119	114
	32	33	Nanyang Business School	Singapore	102,683	132
	33	33	Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University	Netherlands	105,546	103
	34	22	Indian School of Business	India	123,470	152
	35	38	University of Virginia: Darden	US	142,657	110
	36	27	National University of Singapore Business School	Singapore	94,340	152
	37	42	Rice University: Jones	US	122,832	134
	38	36	Cranfield School of Management	UK	127,911	88
	39	36	SDA Bocconi	Italy	112,673	111
	40	37	City University: Cass	UK	117,195	85
	40	40	Georgetown University: McDonough	US	130,676	105
	42	42	Imperial College Business School	UK	107,032	84
	43	40	Carnegie Mellon: Tepper	US	131,294	100
	44	49	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	US	115,493	113
	45	54	University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler	US	123,004	98
	46	45	University of Toronto: Rotman	Canada	97,652	91
	46	49	University of Texas at Austin: McCombs	US	128,711	91
	48	41	Australian School of Business (AGSM)	Australia	118,050	81
	49	42	Emory University: Goizueta	US	124,918	104
	50	49	University of Maryland: Smith	US	112,552	92
	51	-	Sungkyunkwan University SKK GSB	South Korea	106,864	86
	52	53	York University: Schulich	Canada	93,207	99
	53	55	Vanderbilt University: Owen	US	119,178	98
	54	-	Washington University: Olin	US	109,119	97
	54	58	Indiana University: Kelley	US	112,932	111
	54	63	University of California at Irvine: Merage	US	107,582	96
	57	61	Hult International Business School	US / UK / UAE / China	112,520	89
	57	73	University of British Columbia: Sauder	Canada	90,833	76
	59	53	University of Rochester: Simon	US	114,312	117
	59	77	Georgia Institute of Technology: Scheller	US	111,683	104
	61	-	The Lisbon MBA	Portugal	132,606	84
	62	-	Michigan State University: Broad	US	107,453	110
	62	54	Melbourne Business School	Australia	106,887	64
	64	-	Tilburg University, TiasNimbas	Netherlands	93,859	90
	64	76	University College Dublin: Smurfit	Ireland	110,099	69
	66	-	Coppead	Brazil	96,621	141
	66	-	Peking University: Guanghua	China	77,044	163
	68	67	Purdue University: Krannert	US	104,362	105
	69	-	Mannheim Business School	Germany	98,262	80
	69	55	Texas A & M University: Mays	US	110,765	108
	71	61	Lancaster University Management School	UK	96,080	81
	72	-	University of Bath School of Management	UK	99,916	61
	72	70	Ohio State University: Fisher	US	103,064	105
	74	63	University of Cape Town GSB	South Africa	137,361	79
	74	76	University of Iowa: Tippie	US	105,063	124
	76	65	McGill University: Desautels	Canada	90,440	89
	77	62	Pennsylvania State University: Smeal	US	111,359	106
	78	64	University of Western Ontario: Ivey	Canada	103,112	83
	78	79	University of Washington: Foster	US	108,899	85
	80	88	Babson College: Olin	US	116,212	98
	81	-	Tulane University: Freeman	US	109,334	126
	82	-	University of St Gallen	Switzerland	100,814	69
	82	69	University of Southern California: Marshall	US	120,251	88
	84	-	George Washington University	US	100,600	101
	84	70	Vlerick Business School	Belgium	94,829	77
	86	-	Korea University Business School	South Korea	124,419	76
	87	-	Arizona State University: Carey	US	99,796	99
	87	-	University of Strathclyde Business School	UK	108,601	77
	89	-	Fudan University School of Management	China	80,154	155
	90	81	Incae Business School	Costa Rica	86,060	132
	91	76	Wisconsin School of Business	US	109,878	100
	92	-	EMLyon Business School	France	94,394	63
	93	79	Boston College: Carroll	US	111,051	85
	94	-	Case Western Reserve University: Weatherhead	US	99,343	103
	95	-	University of California, San Diego: Rady	US	98,556	80
	95	80	Boston University School of Management	US	108,474	96
	97	-	College of William and Mary: Mason	US	102,842	120
	98	95	SMU: Cox	US	107,264	95
	99	91	University of South Carolina: Moore	US	91,878	95
	100	-	University of Alberta	Canada	86,666	85
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Table notesAlthough the headline ranking figures show the changes in the survey year to year, the pattern of clustering among the schools is also significant. A total of 204 points separate the top school from the school at number 100 in the ranking. The top 10 schools, from Harvard Business School to University of Chicago: Booth, form the leading group of world-class business schools, separated by 82 points. The second group is topped by IE Business School, which scored 65 points more than Imperial College Business School, leader of the third group. The fourth group, which includes schools ranked from 74th to 100th, is headed by University of Cape Town GSB.