23-24-25 March 2006
Hosted by the EIPM, Archamps, France

EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) is an international membership organization, recognized globally as an accreditation body of quality in management education and has established accreditation services for business schools and business school programmes, corporate universities and technology-enhanced learning programmes. www.efmd.org

The EIPM was the host of the annual EFMD MBA Director’s conference this year at Archamps on the EIPM Campus. This annual event was hosted last year in the Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania. The theme of this three day conference was “Changing the way we do Business”.

The goal of the conference was to address this theme while creating a valuable opportunity to share and network amongst the 80 participants from Business Schools covering 29 countries worldwide.

These were the main issues addressed throughout the 3 day conference.
“ Are we facing a crisis in the MBA Business?" The emphasis of soft skills (Interpersonal Skills), MBA being a career selector, Branding and marketing in business schools, Competency based Business Education and HR challenges in different parts of the world.”

Highlights of some of the speakers’ presentation are summarised below.

For a complete information on the presentations of this conference, please refer to the EFMD website to download: http://www.efmd.org/

On the MBA itself, insights include:

· Reviving the basics.  A New Style of Management? Eric Cornuel, Director of the EFMD

“There is a need to take a more transversal approach to management, which means more human contact. When you talk about training a leader, it should be about a management style with different set of values. A kind of management which is about people and the proper functioning of work through forgiveness. These values are essential if you want to keep & motivate your team. Look into human values by management through forgiveness. Peoples’ self-esteem will be easily destroyed if you don’t forgive their mistakes. On the contrary, forgiveness provides a chance for your team to learn while you as a manager stands to gain more in terms of legitimacy.

What this equates for the MBA programme is to revive the basics such as conceptual & interpersonal skills while keeping the curriculum multi-dimensional. Given the limited time of working managers ,there is a need to reconsider the duration of the full time MBA. And finally, the importance to find more good professors in management as their role is now a lot more complex than 20 years before.”

On Branding:

· “Branding by leading as a market niche.” Bernard Gracia, Director of the EIPM

Convinced that large MBA schools remain the market reference. He adds his regret that the International MBA market is not regulated by an official certifying body. In the light of the lack of official accreditation, the MBA is loosing its value. Therefore only programmes offered by recognised schools as well as those with a market niche offering specialised MBAs, (where there is a demand for their expertise) are able to keep their credibility.

· On Branding

CarringtonCrisp Ltd, UK shared their insight on a survey for the EFMD Business: 30,000 respondents from over 50 Business Schools. They were also the team responsible for the successful re-branding exercise of LSE, London School of Economics.

Survey revealed insights on burning questions such as :

“How do we gain more participants for our programmes, tap new markets, are we being clear about our brand uniqueness, do we understand our audience? Which is the best way to communicate our brand & offer? How do we market the MBA, What do tomorrow’s students want? Match expectations of students to the programme offered. How important is accreditation and ranking?”

As companies become more agile there is an increasing need to outsource, to reorganise, they require flexibility: hence does an MBA education answer to Company’s needs? And are we addressing the needs of companies in our MBA programmes?”

On MBA Recruitment Challenges:

· “Why a Global High Tech Company may or may not hire MBAs?” – Dider Gabin, Group Vice President ST Microelectronics, Organisation & HR Development

Suggestions on how to better position the MBA Courses:

1. Business Schools should offer:

- Business School should offer

- Candidate selection/Criteria assessment, Present fresh perspectives, Co-design shorter format with the Company

- Need for Specialised masters of Business, stop the proliferation and clarify the value offering.

- Need for specialised MBAs in Logistics & Purchasing functions which are usually highly demanded in high-tech Companies

- Focus on Transformation/Transition management to train individuals who possess soft leadership skills.

2. Profile wanted:

- Someone with Market Intelligence

- Due to emergence of new competitors and expanding global market, HR looks for business minded individuals who understand the customers and are quick to predict market trends to catch opportunities.

- An Integrative mindset with complex project management skills.

- Flexible to ensure the stability of manufacturing while versatile in terms of providing solutions to address the changing market trends.

Conclusion:

· The Higher the Technology convergence & more unstable the market forces, the higher the perceived need for MBA professionals.

Dider Gabin, Group Vice President ST Microelectronics

· Higher trend towards Virtual High tech, and disseminated capital, the higher the perceived need for MBA professionals .

Dider Gabin, Group Vice President ST Microelectronics

· Each general MBA should find its own specialisation or segment.

. In the learning process the Blended Learning Approach (pre-learning, learning, post learning) is one way of differentiation from other schools.

· The soft elements (Interpersonal Skills, Leadership etc) must take a greater place in the MBA contents.

· Discussions show that the demand for MBAs is on the rise again, though with greater demand for Executive MBAs.

· On the other hand discussions reveal that the increasing number of uncontrolled, uncertified MBA programmes are on the verge of crisis.

For a complete information on the presentations of this conference, please refer to the EFMD website to download: http://www.efmd.org/.
For more information on the EIPM Executive MBA Programme, please kindly contact Ms Veronique Pernin, vpernin@eipm.org.