Being a woman in the corporate or business school world isn’t always easy says Anastassia Nefedova, an MBA student at SDA Bocconi in Italy
THE visible misbalance between the number of male and female executives has been a broadly discussed topic for some years. Despite the heated debates and some evidence that companies with a greater number of women in leadership roles outperform more male-dominated ones the percentage of female leaders in Fortune 500 increased a mere 1.1 percentage points in the past five years. Only 14.6% of Fortune 500 executive officer positions were held by women in 2013 according to a Catalyst study, compared with 13.5% in 2009. If we take into account that in the 1980s there were no top-level female executives in the Fortune 100 companies, that appears to be a leap forward. But why are we still so far from equilibrium? And what can we, female MBAs, do to change it?
Julia Palatovska, a student at Cambridge University's Judge Business School, says the days of rational self-interest have gone
WITHIN days of starting the MBA at Judge Business School we were introduced to the controversy of game theory. In our microeconomics course we studied the traditional version of the theory, which states that rational choices are primarily based on self-interest. Then in the management praxis course we practiced game theory as an in-class competition: teams had to respond to others by choosing either to defect or cooperate. The team with the highest score won. Surprisingly, most of the Cambridge MBAs ignored the game theory and cooperated at all times, which resulted in low or even negative scores, but helped teams develop connections and build trust with each other.
Ashley Silver, a student at IMD in Switzerland, says the MBA has changed the way she approaches change
hGIVEN the speed of change in today’s world, the idea of change management is being replaced by a need for constant agility. This is a lesson I have learned across many fronts during my year at IMD. As I reflect on my recent international consulting project, which focused on change management for a large multinational company, and while I get ready for my own drastic life changes, moving from being a student to a job as a consultant, I remind myself of the importance of agility in one’s professional and personal life. I will take a few key lessons from the year concerning change: resistance is normal, transition is painful, and those willing to drive change are the exceptions.
Conor Donahue, a student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, enters a world of constant upheaval
"WHAT is the most important thing you want us to learn here?" my fellow first year MBA student pointedly asked Garth Saloner, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) at the start of the school year. "To know who you are" he replied.
Initially, this seemed an odd response. Yet after two months at the GSB it makes perfect sense. Peer feedback and personal introspection are integrated into the programme. Thus far, the journey towards self-discovery has been both uncomfortable and incredibly rewarding.
Lily Reed, a student on the University of South Carolina’s International MBA programme, says few things lead to as much anticipation as a prolonged stint abroad
MUCH of my MBA journey thus far has been a negotiation between my expectations and their corresponding realities. Expectations about the curriculum, internships, living abroad, the job search—many have been met; others I had to leave behind. Yet the danger of having high expectations is they can obscure the other opportunities developing all around you.
Anastassia Nefedova, an MBA graduate from SDA Bocconi in Italy, says students do not grasp the opportunities to lead that are presented to them
EXACTLY a year ago, I was sitting in an auditorium together with 86 new classmates, listening to the opening speech by our programme director at SDA Bocconi in Milan. After months of anticipation we were finally here, ready to kick off our one-year MBA. Twelve months later, after attending a dinner to welcome the new MBA cohort, I couldn’t help but reflect on the personal development we have all undergone since that memorable day.
Most MBAs concern themselves with worldly problems. Amol Mishra, an MBA at Oxford's Saïd Business School, looked further afield
DURING our induction on to the University of Oxford’s MBA programme, the dean reminded us that we were going to be part of a world class business community, embedded in a world class university. We were here, he explained, to solve world-scale problems. We gave it our best shot, grappling with such things as the demographic dividend, the ageing population, big data, migration and internet privacy. All important Earthly problems, of course. But by the end of the last term, a few of us had the privilege of dealing with issues not entirely belonging to this world. I, and four other Oxford MBAs, were accepted by Satellite Applications Catapult, a space-technology firm, to do our Strategic Consulting Project (SCP).
by B.A.
Ben Abbate, a student at the London School of Economics, writes in praise of academic theory on management programmes
MY COHORT, a cosy group of 27, holds a total of 50 passports. Not a single one of us both lives and works in our home country. There are roughly five working languages in our class discussions—more if you count the slang. If you think you are global, think again. This is the Executive Global Master’s in Management (EGMiM) at the London School of Economics.
by A.S. | LAUSANNE
Ashley Silver, who is nearing the end of her MBA at IMD in Switzerland, looks at unusal parts of her programme that will help her over the finishing line
THE past few months at IMD have included activities with names such as “Orchestrating Winning Performance”, “Discovery Expedition”, and “Navigating the Future”. These titles may seem obscure, but in their own ways each have proved incredibly helpful.
by A.P. | CUHK
As the curtain closes on her MBA, Ariadna Peretz, a student at Chinese University of Hong Kong, has some regrets but is pleased she saw it through
MY GRADUATION date is still a few months off but as of last week I’m done with my MBA. I’ve loved every day but I can’t lie, I was looking forward to the relief of finishing. No more school, no more books, and all that. Still, after my last exam I came home feeling a little queasy. My husband opened a bottle of champagne and that made everything better but that feeling has since come back and more accentuated. I think I have an MBA hangover.
During the application process I had to write several essays explaining how I would use my MBA upon graduation. What I wrote was the truth: it was going to help me break out of the world of corporate communications and create more opportunities for me. Maybe I’d even found and run my own company one day. Throughout the school year people asked me about my post-MBA goals and I would give them a similar storyline. It would change slightly depending on which classes I was being inspired by, but it all felt real and attainable.
Many of my fellow classmates started looking for jobs and internships the moment the first term started. I was enjoying school—both classes and the extracurricular activities—too much to be bothered. By the time the third term arrived most of my cohort kicked their job hunting campaign into overdrive. It was impressive to see them at work, being so resourceful with the people they were meeting. Squeezing each potential lead, contact and rumour to the last drop in the hope of a meaningful and well-paid job or internship. Several even started taking Mandarin class on top of their normal school work so as to be more valuable to potential employers here in Hong Kong. By the time the summer term started a lot of students had found success. Several of them are making their dream of living and working here a reality.
I, on the other hand, didn’t think about my future while I was in the throes of my post-graduate education. And because of that I’ve ended up empty-handed. Not looking for a job while still studying is a huge regret. I now have unstructured days and too much free time to think that maybe I didn’t study hard enough, didn’t network thoroughly or didn’t apply to sufficient job postings while at business school. Maybe I should have done a different concentration. The instability of not knowing what’s to come is grating at all that beautiful self-confidence and ambition I exuded when I was in the midst of my lovely MBA. It kind of sucks.
But one thing is for sure: I don’t regret doing the MBA. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I learned about business of course; the different facets of running a company and how all the components and departments come together into one cohesive (and ideally profit-generating) unit. However, the thing that will make my MBA priceless is that I learned so much about myself. My year at CUHK has made me a better person. From the two-day torture that was the Outward Bound camping trip, to nausea-inducing case study competitions, to the psychometric assessments the career management centre had us undertake before we matriculated, I figured out a lot about myself. Some people may think this is a waste of money but it’s not. I’ve gotten better at working with people, asserting myself and tempering my ego. This should make me a better manager, VP and hopefully CEO as the years go on. Wish me luck!
Advertisement
Advertisement feature
Advertisement
Test your EQ
Take our weekly news quiz to stay on top of the headlines
Want more from The Economist?
Visit The Economist e-store and you’ll find a range of carefully selected products for business and pleasure, Economist books and diaries, and much more
Advertisement
