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Business School Sub-Specialization

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

My previous post provided an overview of the trend toward specialized MBAs. It showed the veritable explosion in horizontal specialties, the pace at which B-schools—especially second-tier and regional schools—are spawning such programs and the pace by which students (over 20% so far) are flocking to them.

While this type of specialization may well help these schools differentiate themselves from those with more generalized programs, how will the specialists differentiate themselves from the rapidly growing number of other specialists?

This post looks at how all type schools, from small, specialized regionals to some of the worlds’ largest and most prestigious schools are taking specialization to new levels and into important new areas.

Growth in Industry Specialized Programs

Although most specialized MBAs are focused on relatively horizontal disciplines, a growing number of schools (led by BEM Bordeaux’s Wine MBA) are building programs to prepare graduates for jobs in industries with large concentrations of companies in their areas. Rutgers (New Jersey), for example, offers an MBA in pharmaceutical management and University of Oklahoma has an energy concentration and Suffolk University (Boston) offers one in healthcare. Suffolk University (Boston) offers one in healthcare and, not surprisingly, Scotland’s Queen Margaret University has an MBA in Golf and Country Club Management.

Not all industry-specific programs are designed for local industries. University of Tennessee–Knoxville, for example, offers an aerospace MBA in which twenty percent of its curriculum is unique to that industry. It also offers an executive MBA (PEMBA) that is targeted exclusively at physicians, addressing issues including government regulation and HIPPA. Southern New Hampshire University, meanwhile, has a program in sports management and Concordia University’s Molson School (at the behest of the Montreal-based International Air Transport Association and the International Civil Aviation Organization, created an International Aviation MBA.

Many such programs leverage or provide joint degrees with other schools within the university. Although joint degree programs (such as the venerable JD/MBA) have been around for decades, schools are increasingly integrating their curricula into truly inter-disciplinary programs. University of Oklahoma’s energy program, for example, was created and is taught in conjunction with the university’s engineering school and results in joint MBA/MS degrees. Boston College, meanwhile, leverages the college’s highly regarded divinity school to offer a joint MBA/MS in church management and pastoral ministry.

Emergence of the Techno-MBA

But, with all this diversity, we have begun to see the emergence of another cross-disciplinary specialization that is beginning to sweep across all types of universities and MBA programs. This is the emergence of so-called techno-MBAs that integrate business and technology training. Although many such programs are outgrowths of information management specializations within an MBA program (how to manage and effectively use IT to deliver business value), a growing number of programs are intended to prepare managers to run technology-based businesses. The effort generally began in the mid-1990s when Queen’s University School of Business (Ontario, Canada) created a program intended to transform career scientists and managers into managers.

Many other B-schools, including those of Boston University, Northeastern, University of Washington, Purdue and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have followed suit, often by integrating work across their business, engineering and science schools. Some tailor these programs to the technology of and unique business needs of specific industries. University of Pittsburgh’s Katz school, Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and MIT’s Sloan school, for example, all offer programs build specifically around bio-tech.

University of Pennsylvania (through a combination of its business and engineering schools) goes even further with its Executive Masters in Technology Management (EMTM) program. It offers specialties in areas including biopharm and biotech, IT and telecommunications, nanotechnology and materials science and energy, sustainability and the environment.

Tier-One Specialization Programs

Those who recall back to my previous post may remember the generalized dictum that it is primarily tier-two and regional business schools that are offerings specialized MBAs. Most of the tier-one schools are redefining their curricula to provide broader, more holistic educations. But, as I mentioned in the previous section, some of these schools (such as Penn and MIT) do offer specialized techno-MBA and joint-degree programs. These schools and programs, however, are not alone. Northwestern’s Kellogg, Berkeley’s Hass and MIT’s Sloan schools now offer specialized MBAs, majors, or dual degree programs in areas like real estate, sports management, biosciences, electronic commerce, and health care.

University of Michigan’s Ross School, although it does not offer any specialized MBAs, works closely with other schools within the university to create specialized electives and dual degree programs that are tailored to the needs and desires of the student. It, for example, currently has 20 such programs that combine MBAs with degrees in disciplines including area studies (China, Russia, Middle East, etc.), engineering (construction, manufacturing, naval and so forth), education, architecture, medicine, music and urban planning.

University of Chicago’s Booth School, meanwhile, is taking its own, very individualized approach to specialization. Although it does not offer specialized degrees per se, the school has leveraged its deep analytical and quantitative capabilities to create world-class reputations in fields including economics and finance. It is now applying similar quantitative methodologies to other fields—especially marketing. Although Booth has long taken a data-driven approach to marketing, it recently reached an agreement with Nielsen, under which Booth will become the academic clearinghouse for the company’s Homescan and ScanTrack databases and gain exclusive academic access to its MonitorPlus database. Its goal is to use this unique access to effectively reinvent marketing and to establish Chicago as the leader in and home of the next generation of data-driven marketing.

So, B-school specialization appears to be here to stay. But what will it mean to schools, to students and to the companies that recruit these budding specialists? That is the focus of my next blog.

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The Trend Toward Specialized MBAs

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

Business schools have traditionally been aligned and have traditionally taught students along functional lines. Departments have been formed and managed, case studies designed, curricula defined and courses taught around relatively discrete disciplines, such as marketing, finance and international business. Students selected concentrations and mixed-and-matched courses from each discipline in accordance with their particular interests. These specializations, however, have traditionally been taught within the context of a broad management framework that was intended to provide students with the type of integrative perspective required to make complex, multi-faceted decisions.

Many mid-tier schools, particularly those with regional, rather than national/global reputations, saw a big limitation in this model. The vast majority of their graduates would not become the type of top corporate executives that would make full use of these integrative frameworks. Most companies were looking to these schools to provide specialists who could immediately contribute demonstrable value to their companies.

Rapidly growing numbers of mid-tier schools, therefore, are working to increase and demonstrate their graduates’ relevance to these employers by restructuring their programs around increasingly focused disciplines. Many offer MBAs that are targeted at preparing graduates for specific jobs or for work in specific industries.

The Birth and Growth of Specialized MBAs

The trend toward specialized MBA programs began in 1990 after the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) changed its accreditation guidelines to encourage schools to develop innovative curricula. The University of Wisconsin at Madison was one of the pioneers in this practice, launching its first specialized program that same year. It has since gone further than virtually any other university in its embrace of such programs. In fact, it eliminated its general MBA program altogether in 2004, opting for a program that consisted of 14 specialized programs including applied corporate finance, market research, real estate and urban economics.

Such specializations provided a convenient way for mid-tier schools to differentiate themselves from, and change the terms of competition with larger, better-known and better-funded schools. Then, as some of the early specialists began to improve graduate placement rates, the trickle of specialization grew into a flood. AACSB figures, for example, show that 298 U.S. business schools now offering specialized MBAs.

These schools often begin by introducing specialized programs in established management sub-disciplines, such as human resources, project management, information technology management, supply chain management and nonprofit management. A growing number of schools have created new specialties in areas that hold the promise of particularly attractive or rewarding careers, as in business analytics, asset and wealth management and brand management. New programs have since begun to emerge around currently hot fields including entrepreneurship, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, global management, innovation, social media and risk management.

Such programs are also proving to be popular among students. AACSB, for example, estimates that more than 20% of all MBA students are now enrolled in such programs and that this enrollment continues to grow at about 4% per year.

A Global Phenomenon

Nor has the trend toward specialized MBAs been confined to the United States. European B-schools, especially in France, were also early adopters of the specialization model. The ESSEC Business School, for example, launched its first specialized MBA program (in international luxury brand management—with sub-specialties in fields including fashion, fragrances, jewelry and cars) in 1995. It now offers a couple such programs, including one in hospitality management. The BEM Bordeaux management school, logically, offers its Wine MBA, built around a curriculum that is intended to prepare managers for careers in different aspects of the wine trade. France’s HEC School of Management, meanwhile, now offers 12 specialized master’s programs in areas including law and international management and entrepreneurship. U.K.-based schools, such as the Cranfield School of Management, offerings specialized degrees in areas including innovation leadership, international human resources management, logistics and supply chain management.

Asian universities have begun to follow suit. MBA India, for example, lists about two dozen schools offerings specialized degrees in fields such as real estate, construction, bank, travel and tourism, pharmaceutical and even rural management. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School, meanwhile, offers master degrees in e-commerce management, investment management and information systems. China, which has so far authorized about 60 universities to offer MBA programs, is following suit. The Beijing Institute of Technology, for example, offers MBAs in manufacturing and government management and Beijing University now offers an Aviation MBA. In fact, according to AACSB, more than 140 schools outside the U.S. now offer such specialized programs.

In other words, worldwide, 438 out of 599 AACSB-accredited graduate business schools already offer at least one specialized program—many offer multiple programs. Other schools are introducing specialized programs or integrated multi-disciplinary programs every semester. But while such programs may well differentiate these schools from those that offer more generalized MBA programs, how can schools differentiate their specialized programs from those offered by others? That is the topic of my next post.

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