What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
Diversity, learning better decision-making, collaboration, team spirit, open-mindedness, transition, networking
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
Oxford Saïd Finance Lab
Oxford Saïd Consulting Development Programme
Venture Idea Exploration Workshop (VIEW)
The above three courses we recently added to the MBA programme to underline core teaching of the Oxford MBA on finance, consulting and entrepreneurship.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
Joint lecture by Albus Dumbledore and Gandalf on Responsible Leadership, as both have experience of leading their teams through turbulent times and on perilous journeys, having to do so by keeping their team’s morale and determination intact and everyone focused on their commitment.
Oxford University's Saïd Business School
Saïd Business School at Oxford University blends the best of new and old. We are a young, vibrant and innovative business school deeply embedded in an 800-year-old world-class university. We aim to provide the world’s future business leaders with the skills, knowledge and personal qualities needed to meet the world-scale challenges of the 21st century. Our full-time one-year MBA programme is a challenging and thought-provoking degree delivered through an engaged community of faculty. It comprises an intensive series of stimulating lectures, energetic seminars and small group work, which can take students anywhere in the world.
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University
What is it about Cornell SC Johnson College of Business that students love the most?
The college allows students to explore many new options in business education, enlarge their networks and ultimately develop themselves further.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your Business College in the last year.
The Executive MBA/MS for Healthcare Leadership, offered at Weill Medical College in New York City, is a two-year program in which students will receive a Master of Science degree from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences and an MBA from the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. The program will focus on health care throughout the United States, in particular health care systems that are experiencing vast changes in structure, payment and regulatory requirements. Designed to satisfy the evolving professional needs of the U.S. health care industry, the program will educate leaders of academic medical centers, community hospitals, large group multi-specialty or single-specialty practices, health insurers, health care consultants, pharmaceutical professionals and health care innovators.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of the Business School courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
At Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, we strive to transcend the traditional boundaries of business education and research to transform critical thinking into practical solutions. We’re continuously re-defining business education and pioneering new approaches, and we hope the instruction our students receive prepare them to be pioneering leaders themselves. We also care deeply about a strong moral compass and integrity. The character that comes to mind as an inspirational pioneer and leader with strong values is Captain Jean Luc Pickard from Star Trek, who could teach a new class in the business of the final frontier.
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University Bio
Cornell University has created a reimagined model for business education that reflects the future of business itself: flexible, collaborative, and cross-disciplinary. The Cornell SC Johnson College of Business unites the strengths of three business schools— School of Hotel Administration, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management — so that every student can benefit from the combined power of business at Cornell: more degrees, faculty, resources, and expertise. Whether the focus is creating great customer experiences, solving real-world challenges, or deeply immersing in a particular industry, each of our schools offer something unique and meaningful.
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
Students enjoy immersing themselves in our innovative curriculum, thriving in internships, and solving real-world business challenges.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
Finance & Ethics, Professor Maureen O’Hara
Ethical decision-making is usually taught in business schools by ethics scholars rather than scholars in functional areas like finance or marketing. Material in such courses can lack the richness of the functional or industrial context. The course, Finance & Ethics, was introduced by Professor Maureen O’Hara, based on her new book Something for Nothing: Arbitrage and Ethics on Wall Street. This course examines the cultural, competitive, and historical factors contributing to ethical problems in modern finance, and how these manifest in financial contexts as varied as the subprime mortgage crisis to high frequency trading.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
At Cornell Johnson, we strive to transcend the traditional boundaries of business education and research to transform critical thinking into practical solutions. We’re continuously re-defining business education and pioneering new approaches, and we hope the instruction our students receive prepares them to be pioneering leaders themselves. We also care deeply about a strong moral compass and integrity. The character that comes to mind as an inspirational pioneer and leader with strong values is Captain Jean Luc Pickard from Star Trek. He could teach courses in principled leadership as well as business on the frontier of science and technology.
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
The Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business is a leader in innovative business education. Consistently ranked as one of the top business schools in the world, Johnson offers seven MBA programs, spanning the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Mexico, and China, and in collaboration with Cornell Tech and Weill Medicine in New York, Queens University in Canada, and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Johnson is home to the renowned academic journal Administrative Science Quarterly; its more than 100 faculty members conduct award-winning research, educate more than 1250 MBA and PhD students each year, and work with companies throughout the world to provide executive education courses that are customized to meet their business needs.
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
Diversity is our richness, community is our strength.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
One of our latest new courses is “Creating Value from Emotion” and is focused on the luxury business. It provides students an opportunity to understand the essence of the luxury business and its unique ability to deliver superior profitability. A few key points will be to establish the difference between luxury, fashion and premium and understand that luxury demands a business approach that is completely different from mass market practices and requires its own unique set of rules. The course will also analyze key business drives and their complex interactions, as well as the pivotal role of emotion in the purchase decision.
Students will leave the class understanding that luxury is not a formatted recipe that can be endlessly and successfully replicated but a series of concepts and practices inviting each brand to reinterpret them according to its identity, history and values. A careful examination of the concepts of quality, craftsmanship and creativity will allow to understand their scope as well as their fundamental impact on brand perception and preference. A particular emphasis will be placed on understanding the implications of the emotions that drive luxury purchase pattern in the marketing management of the brand.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
The Little Prince, Choices in Life
The iconic French character “Le Petit Prince,” is a curious, intuitive and open-minded. He bravely decides to explore the world and go beyond his safety net, much like our MBA participants, to discover life’s most important lessons. In his course, he would teach students the importance of learning from everyone you meet, as he did when he travelled to different plants, seeking and discovering the most important aspects of life that give us true fulfilment.
HEC Paris
HEC Paris MBA, a top ranking, 16-month program, provides the ideal environment for students to realize their full potential and become business leaders for the 21st century. Our 16-month program gives students the ideal amount of time to digest new information and build their CV through internships and specialized courses without keeping them out of the workforce for too long. The size of our cohort – limited to 250 students – guarantees a personalized learning experience that prioritizes our students and their goals. Participants, 90 percent international, are immersed in a hands-on, learning-by-doing, entrepreneurial environment.
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
An out-of-the-ordinary, personalized MBA leveraging maximum diversity for entrepreneurial thinkers.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
“Tech Primer for Non-Techies” – Many entrepreneurs lose precious time in finding ideal tech partners and later in learning how to communicate and work effectively with them. In this module, we attempt to fill that gap through the intricacies of using Information Technology for either creating a tech product or optimizing a non-tech product/service using IT. The course is empowering our students to more confidently approach their tech-related ideas and to collaborate more effectively with their tech partners.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
Sherlock Holmes – He is a master of logic and observation who relies on sound data and intuitive reasoning to propose his theories. In A Scandal in Bohemia, Sherlock states that “Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” This is an insightful lesson for our students during Entrepreneurial Mindset, reminding us that one must be open-minded to continuously pivot an idea until it fits a market, instead of the other way around.
IE Madrid MBA Program Description
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
Selective, solid, transformational. Project work, intensity, friendships, self-awareness, hands-on learning.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
One element of our Leadership stream aims to develop the moral compass of our participants. In order to encourage them to explore this topic and truly enter into the spirit of the exercise, we take them for a long weekend in a monastery in Italy. By the end of the course we hope that they will have a deeper understanding not only of their own values but also a deeper respect for those of others.
IMD Business School
The IMD MBA is for dynamic, international professionals who want to make a difference. The program offers real-life, solid education recognized for its direct applicability and impact.
You will not find a more diverse group of MBAs in one classroom anywhere in the world. Participants learn to work with people of different cultural backgrounds and personalities, under enormous time pressure, to achieve results.
We develop each participant’s leadership skills based on technical competence, self-awareness and moral judgment. The integration of classes, live business cases, personal coaching and company projects across the globe allows our MBAs to develop the skills to run any global business responsibly.
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
Imperial College London’s reputation, location, technology and commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
In 2016, we introduced the Banking and FinTech: Strategies and Challenges elective. The module introduces students to the role of intermediaries who operate in credit markets, with a focus on banks, their activities and the risks they face. A core part of the module looks at the activities and challenges of emerging financial technologies which are disrupting traditional banking.
Module Leader, Dr Andrei Kirilenki, says, "The most important trend in finance is fintech. Imperial College Business School is perfectly positioned to play an integral part in the global fintech revolution. The London-based School is part of a top-ranked science and technology institution with a wealth of research talent in computer science, data analysis, mathematics, and finance." Students who take the elective will benefit from top quality research on blockchain and digital payments from the Centre for Global Finance and Technology.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
We’d have Iron Man teach a class on our Design Thinking and Innovative Problem Solving core module. Why? Because he’s an amazing innovator of course. Have you seen those jet powered roller skates? Seriously though, with little tools and a knack for innovation Tony Stark AKA Iron Man designed his flying armour with the capability to utilise other technologies to aid him in his superhuman efforts to destroy the bad guys. Out of his cave also came an Anti-Gravity Device and his artificial intelligence assistant J.A.R.V.I.S.
The Design Thinking and Innovative Problem Solving module takes students through a journey of innovative thinking and finishes with students pitching their design prototypes to a panel of expert judges. Iron Man could teach students a thing or two about the process of experimentation before getting the right idea (not all of his ideas took off), and that even the most notable ideas need constant modification (the Iron Man armour has been updated several times). He saw the world not as it is but what it could be, and that’s something we hope students take away from the programme. After all our strapline is Imperial means Intelligent Business.
Imperial College London
Sitting at the Centre of Imperial College London, a top 10 global university, the intensive Imperial MBA offers you a unique opportunity to network with diverse brilliant minds in science, engineering and medicine as well as business. The Imperial MBA combines innovative thinking and insight with new technology to develop practical solutions to real world issues, benefiting business and improving society. Our MBA suite includes Full-Time, Weekend, Global Online and Executive formats, tailored to your career aspirations.
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
“World-class faculty, global career opportunities and a life-changing experience”
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
INSEAD constantly enhances the content of our programme to strengthen the school’s mission – to develop outstanding business leaders. The Personal Leadership Development Programme (PLDP) is a new element in our MBA curriculum, designed to guide MBA students towards heightened self-awareness through personalised coaching, interpersonal skills and effective communication. It is a reflective journey concurrent with, and embedded within, an MBA student’s 10-month course of study.
We anticipate that students will consider the PLDP a signature experience of the MBA programme. It will help them develop lifelong skills that continue to fuel their talents as they join the alumni community as world-class managers and entrepreneurs.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
The Grand Jedi Master Yoda, one of the oldest and most powerful known Jedi Masters in the Star Wars universe. He puts things into perspective, has great wisdom and is mindful about issues around the universe.
INSEAD Business School
Ranked #1 MBA Programme in the world by the Financial Times in 2016 and 2017, INSEAD’s accelerated 10-month MBA programme develops successful, thoughtful leaders and entrepreneurs who create value for their organisations and their communities.
Drawing the best and brightest individuals, the INSEAD MBA opens doors to outstanding career opportunities that empower your future. With three fully integrated campuses in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and over 90 different nationalities in the classroom, INSEAD is the only business school that offers such a multicultural experience.
The innovative focus in the curriculum enhances the INSEAD MBA experience by providing an extraordinary learning experience, opening doors to exciting career opportunities and building an unrivalled global alumni network.
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
Our Manchester Method - live consultancy projects provides a transformational experience
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
This year the Manchester MBA has been re-designed to allow for variable exit points. The Manchester MBA has traditionally been a 18 month programme, now students can complete it in 12 or 15 months as well as the traditional 18 months.
We structure the Manchester MBA around four practical themes, rather than traditional subject areas. Management in Practice to understand today’s complex uncertain business environment and overcome the challenges of leading and managing in a rapidly changing world. Value Creation in Business to explore how contemporary businesses create value, both from an academic and commercial perspective. Our holistic approach transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, and harnesses real and simulated business scenarios. This emphasizes the interdependencies and interrealtionships between the operational, tactical and strategic functional areas of an organization. Tailoring Your Journey where we allow our students to customize their MBA experience with options ranging from internships, study tours and live client projects. Professional Skills for Business where we focus on the professional and personal competencies leaders require.
This real-world focus ensures we develop reflective leaders who can navigate the most challenging global trends and tensions.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
Luke Skywalker
With over 900 hours of client facing time on the Manchester MBA, where our students work with three real-life clients, giving them the opportunity to prove themselves in high-pressure, high-risk business environments in preparation for a career in international business. What better guidance could Manchester MBA students have than Luke Skywalker who was thrust into a situation where he was thrown in at the deep end as a Jedi Knight having to combine travel across galaxies, whilst learning the ‘ways of the force’ and having to tackle some extremely difficult challenges against the Dark Side.
Therefore Luke Skywalker would be the perfect character to be involved with our International Business Projects. Our students would be travelling across the globe, they would need to be putting everything that they have learnt in the classroom into action with a real-life client who’s expectations would be extremely high.
Manchester Business School
The Manchester Full-time MBA not only gives you a thorough grounding in business theory, it also gives you the opportunity to put it into practice from day one with live consultancy project work and internships with high profile, multinational corporations.
Our unique, hands-on programme offers you 900 hours of client-facing time, enabling you to test the theories from the classroom immediately in real world situations with blue chip organisations. You will gain international experience through project work, the international exchange programme, and the chance to take an elective course or study tour at one of our global centres in Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and São Paolo.
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most
The collaborative environment that pushes them as professionals and individuals.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
Course Title: Digital Transformation
Subject Matter:
Focuses on Big Data, its meaning and application across disciplines. With the internet of things and the ability to measure nearly everything that happens during the course of one’s day, we felt that today’s leaders needed a broad understanding of this field and how to utilize and interpret large data sets in executive decision making. Whether marketing, operations or finance, big data continues to be one of the largest drivers of the decision making process for modern executives.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
John Keating, Dead Poet’s Society (played by Robin Williams)
Course: Personal Leadership Development
Subject Matter: This is a course that is already a major part of RSM’s curriculum. The “class” runs throughout the entire program from the very first week and includes personal coaching sessions, learning how to give and receive feedback and identify one’s emotional intelligence.
If there were to be a fictional character to lecture this course, it would be John Keating, the teacher from Dead Poet’s Society. In the movie, he challenged his students to live their lives on their own terms, which is applicable in an MBA program. While all students might receive the same courses and education, it is what each student does with that education after graduation. I think Keating would be a great person to really push RSM students to look beyond the obvious, to push beyond their boundaries – and ultimately find a way to make their mark in the world.
Rotterdam School of Management
We teach candidates to be a force for positive change in the world. By approaching business with a global perspective and an entrepreneurial spirit, with a focus on collaboration and sustainability. We design every class in our MBA programs with these values in mind.
That’s the Dutch way of doing business. It keeps our faculty and graduates grounded, yet ahead of market shifts and the business landscape.
We’re consistently one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools, but we don’t brag much about it. That’s another Dutch value—humility. We believe the success of our students, faculty, and alumni speaks loud enough.
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
The collaborative ethos-the core value of the Cambridge MBA
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
Our curriculum has four distinct phases, arranged across four terms. It is designed to follow a 'micro to macro' pathway, to transform you professionally and personally. You will complete the MBA ready to make an impact at organizational level, and lead teams on a global scale.
View the detailed learning structure
The Cambridge MBA is...
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
Freedom of choice, framework to face ambiguity, and supportive community.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current class?
Booth’s new course, Scaling Social Innovation Lab, is an experiential learning course co-taught through the Social Enterprise Initiative by professors Christina Hachikian and Robert Gertner. In this class, students confront the challenge of scaling social sector institutions to deliver impact in many communities and serve many beneficiaries. Students work in teams to identify social issues and collaborate with an organization outside of Chicago that has developed a successful program addressing their chosen issue. Then the teams figure out the best strategy for bringing that social innovation back to Chicago, be it creation of a new organization or expansion of an existing organization into the local area. At the end of the class, teams present to a panel of government officials, local experts, and funders who could help make their proposal a reality. This lab course helps address the draw many students today face between balancing a passion to contribute to the social sector with a desire to pursue a career in or outside of the space. We see students at all points on the social impact spectrum, wanting to make a difference in the world around them—whether it’s through responsible practices within their companies, social entrepreneurism, serving on a board, or meaningful volunteerism. This new course is one more way Booth offers students the choice to make their two year experience exactly what they want.
University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Chicago Booth’s MBA is rooted in a discipline-based approach to education that allows our students and alumni to master the core functions on which all businesses and organizations are built—the principles of accounting, economics, statistics, and social sciences. Having that foundation provides a roadmap to be successful in ambiguous territory and lead confidently, even in unfamiliar markets. Our unique brand of flexibility gives students the academic freedom to maximize their two years and create learning opportunities specific to their interests—both in and out of the classroom. Students are also empowered to push past the known into new experiences and challenges, backed by a hugely supportive community of peers, faculty, and alumni.
What is it about your MBA program that students love the most?
A new way to think about today’s global challenges.
Tell us about one new course that has recently been added to your curriculum in the last year. How do you see this influencing the current cohort?
Rotman’s most popular one-of-a-kind MBA course is “Catastrophic Failure in Organizations”, taught by Rotman professor András Tilcsik, who was recently named to Poet & Quant’s Top 40 Under 40 for his ability to make events compelling while peeling away the deeper lessons behind them. Most business schools are designed for “business as usual”. This course teaches Rotman students how to react when disruptive events shatter all expectations – a valuable skill in a world where the “new normal” is anything but.
If you could invite a fictional character to lecture in one of your courses, who would it be and what course would he/she teach? Why?
Gordon Gekko’s famous pronouncement that “Greed is good” in the Oliver Stone film “Wall Street” is classic reference among MBA students thinking about a career in investment banking. While Rotman is well known for its strength in finance, if Mr. Gekko were invited to speak in Rotman professor Sarah Kaplan’s “Corporation 360” course, he might be surprised to find his view challenged by Rotman students considering the deeper implications of modern socioeconomic trends and geopolitical impacts in doing business in a globalized world.
University of Toronto, Rotman
The Rotman Full-Time MBA is a two-year program designed for those committed to making a long-term investment in their professional and personal development. Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is Canada’s top-ranked business school, and is ranked in the global top five for its world-class faculty and research. Our unique approach to problem solving, self-development and decision making will transform your leadership potential and enable you to tackle today's business challenges in an increasingly complex world.
