There are all the inspirational leaders? As global choices multiply and those at the top are seen as only
There are all the inspirational leaders? As global choices multiply and those at the top are seen as only too fallible, it is a question increasingly being asked. We struggle to fill top jobs satisfactorily, as people shy away from what they see as a poisoned chalice. Students in their early 20s may understand the methodology but will have little experience of people.The course has done what I wanted; it has updated me and given me a toolkit and a broader, stronger profile. He is looking for work in business development or transformation.There were 63 of us on the course, most in their mid-30s, and some more experienced than others. I wasn’t put out at being shoulder to shoulder with youngsters, and they were certainly bright and open-minded. The less experienced clearly lacked confidence at the start, but there was a lot of classwork to help with that.
The exchange of ideas and experience is one of the biggest learning aids of an MBA, particularly in a class as multicultural mine.The course encourages you to be adaptable I’m much more flexible now than I was 10 years ago. Indeed, some schools specialise in very experienced candidates.At Ashridge, in Hertfordshire, the average age now stands at 35 for the full-time and 37 for the part-time MBA. “We have 300 years of business experience on the student side in the classroom, and it would be foolish not to leverage that,” says Narendra Laljani, director of qualification programmes at Ashridge. The debate seems likely to continue.’I started job-hunting and already have five interviews’At 59, and after a career in the Army and in publishing, Ian Hunter (above), from Sutton Courtney, Berkshire, has just finished a year’s MBA course at Lancaster University Management School.
If every business school works in a niche, they will all be leaders. But that is not the MBA.”This month’s age discrimination legislation is making schools careful about how they advertise for staff, but it has not yet affected their general strategies. Helfer is chairman of the French commission for the Accreditation of Business Schools and has a vested interest in uniformity. The full-time Audencia MBA takes around 30 students a year.”For the best business schools in France, an MBA programme has to be linked with an international standard,” he says “It has to be generalised and it should be post-experience. On average, our MBA students have seven years of professional experience.