A review of The Aspen Institute Guide to Socially Responsible MBA Programs: 2008-2009.
The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education’s (CBE) is best known for www.caseplace.org (a great source for MBA case studies focused on issues related to social responsibility) and www.beyondgreypinstripes.org (focused on socially responsible MBA programs). CBE has now published The Aspen Institute Guide to Socially Responsible MBA Programs: 2008-2009.
CBE actually ranks MBA programs through www.beyongreypinstripes.org and it is this data that the source for The Aspen Institute Guide. While I will not reprint the entire “Global 100,” as you can see below, the schools that rank well on this list include both unsurprising perennial “Top 20″ schools and some schools that get little if any attention from Businessweek, US News & World Report, EIU, FT, Wall Street, or Forbes:
1 Stanford USA
2 Michigan (Ross) USA
3 York (Schulich) CAN
4 UC Berkeley (Haas) USA
5 Notre Dame (Mendoza) USA
6 Columbia USA
7 Cornell (Johnson) USA
8 Duquesne (Donahue) USA
9 Yale USA
10 IE Business School ESP
11 NYU (Stern) USA
12 UNC (Kenan-Flagler) USA
13 The George Washington University USA
14 ESADE Business School ESP
15 RSM NED
16 Calgary (Haskayne) CAN
17 ITESM (EGADE Monterrey) MEX
18 New Mexico (Anderson) USA
19 *Brandeis (Heller) USA
20 Colorado, Boulder (Leeds)
Seeing alternatives is always valuable because it makes one look at something from a new perspective. For that reason alone, for those interested in applying to MBA programs with strong social responsibility content, “The Global 100″ is worthy of serious consideration. The same is true of The Aspen Institute Guide to Socially Responsible MBA Programs: 2008-2009. The book brings life to the data found at www.beyondgreypinstripes.org. It highlights socially responsibility related core and elective courses, institutes and centers, annual events, other events, student clubs and programs, and, where applicable, faculty pioneers. While The Aspen Institute Guide could not possibly include every potentially relevant aspect of the program, it does quite a good job of providing a solid introduction.
The summaries are very good, but the analysis of each program is rather limited. While the ranking analysis is available on www.beyondgreypinstripes.org, I think the authors needed to make the book stand on its own. Unfortunately at an analytical level it does not. Actually I was surprised to see that the book did not even include “The Global 100″ rankings. I think this is rather unfortunate because readers will have to refer to www.beyondgreypinstripes.org because they will not find “The Global 100″ in The Aspen Institute Guide.
But that is not my chief criticism. Rather I found “The Bottom Line,” The Aspen Institute Guide’s attempt at analysis to be quite useless. Instead of providing some sort of a real analytical narrative about the program, the only analysis is a set of comments that simply represent data:
“We applied a statistical analysis to determine the relative strength of each along a few select criteria…We then make qualitative remarks using the flowing terms to reflect precise statistical scores:
- Truly Extraordinary-given to schools that scored more than one standard deviation above average
- Excellent- given to schools that scored between average and one standard deviation above average
- Good-given to schools that scored between one standard deviation below average and average” (P. 12)
The result is that the comments are so standardized as to be almost useless. Compare “Global 100″ #1 Stanford GSB and #10 IE:
Stanford: “Compared to other business schools in our survey, Stanford University offers a truly extraordinary number of courses featuring relevant content, and does a truly extraordinary job in those courses explicitly addressing how mainstream business improves the world. Stanford University requires 23 core course featuring relevant content.” (p. 144)
IE: “Compared to other business schools in our survey, IE Business School offers a truly extraordinary number of courses featuring relevant content, and does a truly extraordinary job in those courses explicitly addressing how mainstream business improves the world. IE Business School requires 40 core course featuring relevant content.” (p. 144)
It would be better to have the data behind such comments than to have this qualitative version of it. After all any applicant who can’t handle a few numbers is going to have a difficult time getting a decent GMAT score, not to mention surviving business school.
What is also missing is an analytical section that reflected real expertise and not mere statistical conclusions. If the objective of the guide is to be, as its authors hope, a guide that prospective students, the business education community, and recruiters will use (p. 10), it had better provide all three intended audiences with some guidance to and not just a summary of programs.
I should point out that there is also some inconsistency between “The Global 100″ and The Aspen Institute Guide. The most extreme example from my perspective was that HBS, while not part of “The Global 100,” received “Bottom Line” comments that are in no significant way different from Stanford GSB or IE:
“Compared to other business schools in our survey, Harvard University offers a truly extraordinary number of courses featuring relevant content, and does a truly extraordinary job in those courses explicitly addressing how mainstream business improves the world. Harvard University requires 9 core course featuring relevant content.” (p. 79)
If CBE is to be the authority on socially responsible business programs, it needs to create a consistent set of publications so that applicants, schools, recruiters, and even admissions consultants like myself will be looking at CBE as setting the standard for the evaluation and ranking of socially responsible B-schools.
On a more positive note, I wanted to mention that The Aspen Institute Guide includes very useful appendices on MBA concentrations, joint MBA degrees, and a geographical breakdown of the location of the programs that will assist with school selection.
I would recommend the guide to those who are interested in exploring their options for a socially responsible MBA education, but it is only a first step. In addition to it, you must certainly look at CBE’s two great websites (mentioned above) as well as The 2007 Net Impact Student Guide to Graduate Business Programs. I hope that future editions of The Aspen Institute Guide to Socially Responsible MBA Programs will include introductory essays, perhaps by some of the faculty pioneers, as well as a greater analysis of how each MBA program creates a socially responsible business education, and also some qualitative-based comparisons between programs. Given the ever expanding number of MBA applicants who have a social responsibility agenda, I am confident that The Aspen Institute Guide will become a standard resource for many future applicants.
-Adam Markus
http://adammarkus.com/
http://adam-markus.blogspot.com/