Amazed, an American MBA applicant told me that he had only recently discovered INSEAD. Until that moment he had never even thought of looking outside of the US for his selection of b-schools. He simply believed that the only worthwhile options for doing a good MBA were American schools. What surprised me is that he had decided to apply to only INSEAD in the end.
How can this be?
Look at the MBA rankings from the Economist, FT, and other research units. Europe and recently also Asia (CEIBS ranks 11th on FT's 2007 listing) have some of the best b-schools with names up there with Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, and Wharton. With star-faculties, and super-international student and alumni communities, I believe that European schools have often a lot more to offer than many absolutely-less-international US schools.
London Business School, right in the Financial heart of Europe; the prestigious IMD in Switzerland; and what about Spain with 3 top b-schools (IE, IESE, and ESADE.) It is quite a while ago that Spain only attracted Latin oriented students. Nowadays Spanish b-schools are on the wish lists of many students from all over the world. I personally love the ESADE case on creativity featuring my favourite Spanish chef 'Ferran Adriá.'
I see many signs of the strong brand recognition of INSEAD in the USA:
- The last time I looked at my class' citizenship map the American (co)nationality was the largest amongst the class' population with 59 students, about 10%.
- INSEAD students get the opportunity to spend 2 months at Wharton, but many decide not to do it even though they may at one time want to spend some time in the USA
- INSEAD alumni find their way around the world, including the USA!
- (in all modesty:) This fairly new INSEAD MBA blog has been viewed by as many Americans as by people from other countries!
Unfortunately not everybody in the Far West is yet aware of what Europe and Asia have to offer. To cut this story short, the message that I want to share with any American MBA applicant who is still deciding where to go to, is: keep in mind that there are many international alternatives to the best US business schools for you to choose from.
...these were my 2 cents on "options"
Back to the ESADE case: chef Ferran's food laboratories are most avantgard-ish and innovative. Unfortunately his restaurant is already fully booked until the end of 2007! Wouldn't it be great to spend a weekend in Barcelona and then end it with a great dinner at El Bulli, right before starting my MBA in Fonty? Check out www.elbulli.com
"Don Ferran, seguro que ahora merecemos una invitacion para una cena en su restaurante en Cala Montjoi, no es verdad? no deje de mandarnos un mensaje"
:-) :-) :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment