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Graduate Business Schools up the Ante

After years of law schools and medical schools directing their attention and resources to attracting women applicants, business schools are now seeing the reaped rewards from these same efforts of enticing more women into MBA programs.  Historically, women enrollees have been considerably lower than their male counterparts.  That’s changing, though.  More business schools are bringing out the heavy artillery in their efforts, says A. Harrison Barnes, career coach and founder of EmploymentCrossing.com.  Private parties, all expense paid trips and other incentives  - such as cooking classes, of all things, are successfully wooing more women.

Some of the best business schools in the country are already reporting impressive growth from women applicants; sometimes up to 2 percent.  This means more women are going to be entering their business careers higher up the corporate ladder than in previous years.  The overall image is changing too, says the EmploymentCrossing.com founder.  “Women aren’t as likely to be intimidated when faced with a tepid response in a classroom comprised of mostly men”.

A University of Michigan at Ann Arbor study revealed the main reasons the numbers have always been low have to do with a lack of female role models, a lack of encouragement by their employers and the belief business jobs would mean they would have to make more compromises in terms of marriage and family. Women have been becoming brilliant physicians and attorneys for decades, now the gap is closing in business, as well.  A. Harrison Barnes says there’s one more reason women have sometimes steered clear of MBA programs that’s rather surprising: the quantitative capabilities are sometimes off-putting for women.  Still, the report found that more than eighty percent of women business school grads agreed the MBA contributed significantly to their careers and that the challenges were well worth the anxiety and efforts.

One school, the University of Indiana’s Kelley School of Business, offered cooking classes as part of its enticement methods.  Enrollment immediately increased by eight percentage points.  This is indicative of women who want it all – and believe they can achieve it.  From the results of this study, they’re right.  From the boardroom to the kitchen to the school plays, today’s contemporary woman is realizing there’s a balance to be had – and they’re defining it to fit their needs.

Women have long since known they can incredible medical and legal careers and now, they know an MBA is within reach – and they don’t have to make the sacrifices those before them might have faced. The Stern School of Business, located in New York, has traditionally had the highest proportion of female students and it’s now reporting ratios of forty percent and growing.  With more careers opening up, as evidenced by the trends on EmploymentCrossing.com, it’s clear there’s a new trend and for many, not a moment too soon.

More Top Graduate Business Schools Articles

International Business Major – The Study Of Business And Administration

International business major is one of the fastest growing areas in the studies of business and administration. As the twenty first century business arena becomes more global, so does the business colleges graduates. The business ground for business professionals no longer stand on local, regional or national nature but is already of global nature and requires an understanding and sensitivity to the different cultures and business environments that these professionals will face.

An international business major allows students to develop a rather personalized course on the study of international business and the core basics that comes along with it. Students are also able to focus on a particular region of the world. Regions such as East Asia, Latin America, and Europe giving emphasis on the history, geography, political science that relate to these particular regions as well as the global community.

This major also requires a competency in foreign language spoken in the regions of emphasis. Some business major students may also have interesting study opportunities abroad for a summer, a semester or even a year. This major of study presents very challenging and exciting field offering students great career opportunities once out in the international business world.

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Students will have the chance to take foundational courses in functional areas of business which includes marketing, economics, management, informational systems, finance, accounting, decision sciences, and operations. Also included in this major are specialized courses in international business such as international management, international trade, international finance, and international marketing.

Language training is also a part of this major, training the student in the language of their choice that pertains to the area of specialization they have chosen, courses from history, political science, and geography.

A lot of businesses do not have the knowledge of developing international contacts or even how to strategically approach the international market, therefore turning to professionals with these kinds of skills and training, to be able to increase their competitiveness in the global arena.

Prospect employers would include existing businesses doing business with international customers, businesses planning to engage in developing international customers and contacts, as well as different firms connected in servicing internationally-oriented businesses such as export management companies, port service firms, and shipping/maritime companies.

International Business major graduates are highly deemed generalists in international business. Skills acquired from their studies such as language training, focused studies on geographic, political, and historical issues in that area of the world, becomes an extremely important asset when developing international business operations and initiatives, thus making these professional graduates a very attractive package.

The international business world is a fast paced world full of challenges and any business professional should be ready to take on that challenge.

Olin Business School students learn entrepreneurship by working abroad

Entrepreneurship is a global phenomenon and to prove it 11 Olin Business School students traveled to Hungary in May to work with start-up companies in Budapest.

The trip is an integral part of Clifford Holekamp’s course, “Danube Venture Consulting Program” which was offered for the second time this year. Holekamp is a senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Olin and initiated the consulting project with a private equity firm in Hungary.

Class members are undergraduate and graduate business school students who work in teams with start-up ventures on specific projects. “The clients include a reality T.V. production company, an off-road GPS software provider, and a Hungarian social networking website,” says Holekamp. “While the projects and clients are all quite different, there are some interesting overlaps related to interactive and mobile media strategies.”

Ryan Spies, MBA ’11, worked on the GPS product team in Hungary, “I really benefited from learning how cultural attitudes affect the business in developing countries. Just 20 years ago this country was exposed to market capitalism. What an extreme change from the socialist economy they had been under for the previous 30-plus years!”

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Spies says he welcomed the opportunity to experience a country through the eyes of business professionals who live and work there. “One factor I found particularly surprising, but it makes absolute sense, is that there is virtually no inherited wealth in Hungary. It’s as if the entire country started off at 0 in 1990. This has profound implications when you’re talking about a private equity business. You’re just not going to see the massive amounts of money that you see in the States or Western Europe.”

Ben Erdel, MBA’11, consulted with a start-up social networking website. “The most interesting take-away to me was the geographic and cultural limitation many foreign businesses face,” Erdel says. “Hungary is roughly the size of Missouri with a language entirely different from any other. In the United States, businesses can easily focus on global markets, but I realized that many foreign companies are much more limited in their scalability.”

While the experience of Hungary and working with a reality T.V. production company was new for Nicole Lindenbaum, MBA ’11, she found that basic business principles are similar wherever you are. “You still go about solving a problem the same way, using tools and methods that are applicable in the U.S., the process is the same. So while it’s certainly essential to be aware of and sensitive to cultural differences in a project like this, the business training I’ve received at Olin has well prepared me for any situation.”

The students will continue to work with the companies via the internet now they are back in the U.S. and will complete their project reports later in the summer.

Holekamp says, “The students represented Washington University admirably. I was very impressed with their focus and enthusiasm for their projects.”

For Alex Neuman who is working on a double major in engineering and entrepreneurship, the trip was more than a project or course capstone, “It confirmed my suspicion that I would like international work to be a large part of my career going forward.”

Like many of his fellow students, Neuman says his experience working with start-ups in Hungary proved that the language of business is truly global.

“It reaffirmed my belief that “the world is flat” when it comes to global business,” says Neuman, “and that barriers to business continue to be broken down as we progress into the digital age.”