A typical MBA candidate has several years of full-time, post-undergraduate work experience. The strongest candidates are dedicated, disciplined and focused on their intended career paths; they know what is required of them to achieve success and are clear about the particular area of interest they plan to pursue after obtaining an MBA degree. A good MBA student demonstrates evidence of leadership potential and consistent academic achievement. Other abilities include creativity, dedication, commitment and professionalism.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you possess entrepreneurship and leadership capabilities?
• Are you competent at language and communication skills?
• Do you possess a non-judgmental attitude, humanistic values, decision-making and analytical skills, interpersonal skills, and collaborative focus?
• Do you have a strong personal sense of direction, self-discipline and ethics?
• Are you able to define who you are in terms of what is important to you?
• Are you able to describe what kind of lifestyle you desire and what level of financial security you aspire to?
• Can you define what job satisfaction means to you?

It is also important to identify how your aspirations - within your capabilities - will match up with your priorities, which includes the question whether you are ready to be a student again for two or more years. Many first year students - having been out of school for many years - find it hard to adjust to the routine of being a student again i.e. attending lectures, doing schoolwork and turning in homework. Also, while few people are satisfied with just a career, how else will your education contribute to you leading a fulfilling life?
The most important work accomplished by organizations today is through the combined efforts of groups of people sharing their ideas and expertise. However, to function effectively on such teams, MBA students need to develop their interpersonal skills to bring out the best in each team member, to foster creativity and co-operation, and to channel conflict constructively. Effective team members do better at analytical and critical decision-making; they also discover how their input affects the behaviour of fellow team members, direct access to diverse information is improved, and they can more easily keep track of progress updates and tasks.

This is what all applicants to an MBA program need to ask themselves when they apply to any school to be admitted into their MBA program. Remember that the admissions officers and those professionals, who process your application, are also asking themselves if you will make a good candidate for their MBA program.

As the MBA is a very intense program, not to mention very expensive, schools are looking out for those applicants who come across as having prior knowledge about the program and are also clear about what they want from the program. As an MBA aspirant, you too, should do your best to be perceived as the ideal candidate for an MBA. The following areas are where you need to make your mark and put your best foot forward.

The Application for MBA

Once you have decided on some schools for an MBA program, the next step is to apply to those schools. Your application is the most important aspect, which will determine whether or not you are accepted into an MBA program. People think of the interview as the tough part, but if your application does not make you stand out as a great candidate, then you may never reach as far as the interview. Here’s how you can better your MBA application:

Have a really solid and complete application file. List down all your qualifications and your work experience in a way that complements them. Do NOT leave any part of the application form blank.

The essay that is required with the application should be written sincerely and should be so compelling that the person reviewing your application finds it tough to put your essay down.

Prepare for your GMAT test beforehand so as to have a high GMAT score in your application form.

The letters of recommendation with your application should stand out from the others.

Remember that only as little as 20% of all applications received by MBA schools, are actually considered further for the next stage in the admissions process. So make sure that you do the best possible job with your application so that it goes on top of the ‘in’ pile and does not get relegated to the ‘out’ pile.

Interviews for MBA Programs

If your MBA application is as good as it should be, then you may be short listed for the interviews. This is another critical aspect of the MBA admissions process and here the interviewer can physically determine how good a candidate you are for their MBA degree. Here are some tips to help you get prepared for the interview:

Portray Yourself as Part of a Team: Convey what you wish to get out of the MBA course, but more importantly, tell what you will contribute to it as well. Most MBA graduates consider their classmates and other students to be a big help during the course. So present yourself as a quality student and a valuable team member.

Be Sincere and Truthful: Do not give answers to questions that you think the interview committee wants to hear. They are great at their job and can easily differentiate among students who are being sincere and those who just give the ‘expected’ answers. So be honest about your expectations from the MBA course and why you have decided to pursue the particular program or school.

Prepare Yourself: Make a list of expected questions and then decide how you will answer them. But do not prepare actual questions and answers as then they will seem rehearsed and not spontaneous.

The MBA qualification broadens and enhances knowledge and should be viewed in a sense of building up skills. Although the most popular reasons for undertaking the MBA is to increase salary, other reasons include widening career opportunities, furthering one’s career and/or to extend personal networks.

There are other equally important reasons that any prospective MBA student will state, but by far the most compelling is to create career opportunities for oneself. The challenges imposed by the 21st century have made it an essential component that we upgrade skills and qualifications in order to meet the demands set by companies, customers and the environment we operate within.

This is where the MBA becomes a tool to be utilised in building up existing competencies - the theory learned can be utilised to find plausible solutions to concurrent business issues. At the end of an MBA programme, one emerges with an upper level of functional managerial and business issues as well as new conceptual skills ready to meet the demands that are set by the competitiveness around us.

With an MBA you can:

• 
  
• Advance your career

  Whether you're a doctor, an engineer, or an editor for your local newspaper, a graduate business degree can prepare you to move into a managerial position within your field.

• Change your career

  If your current career path is a less than perfect fit for your aptitudes and interests, business school can give you the opportunity to explore your options, then provide you with the training you need to change careers entirely.

• Set up your own business

  Interested in starting your own business, but not sure that you have the necessary expertise to launch a start-up in a high-growth industry? An MBA can prepare you to do everything from writing a business plan to acquiring venture capital to launching an IPO. Research has shown that the failure rate for small businesses started by an MBA is about 50 percent less than the standard failure rate.

• Develop technical skill and business knowledge

  Can you advance to a managerial position or launch your own business without the benefit of a graduate degree in business? Yes. There is much to be learned from on-the-job training and employers certainly value work experience. However, an MBA programme will put you on the fast-track to career advancement by offering you the chance to develop a wide range of general business knowledge and a broad base of technical skill in a relatively short period of time.

• Become a leader in an emerging field

  Innovative education can lead to an exciting career in a newly emerging field, such as brand management, information technology, e-commerce, or mobile telecommunications.

• Network

  Networking is another key benefit. Business school teaching styles encourage teamwork and, over the course of an MBA programme, you'll develop important relationships that can serve you well throughout your business career. And no matter the school, you can often get plugged into a network of alumni working at a wide range of companies. This is useful for professional contacts.

Although the degree is considered the pathway to a successful career, it still does not guarantee a flood of job offers, but when one considers the positive options, it far outweighs the negative issues. It is a costly course and the time constraints that are associated with the study load are legendary. That’s why, in some circles, it has been termed “Married, but away”.

Approach the studies with an open mindset and let your intentions be to develop yourself to your full capacity. Accept the programme as a challenge, set your personal as well as career objectives and, most importantly, utilise the Masters of Business Administration degree to close gaps that may exist within your skills and qualifications, so that you can facilitate and expedite your management career

The MBA (Master of Business Administration) is an internationally recognised and geographically portable post-graduate, post-experience academic course in a number of subjects that together can be said to constitute the science of management.

It is intended for those who work in business and management who seek career advancement, business ownership, or technical skills and business knowledge.

The challenges imposed by the 21st Century place a high premium on upgrading skills and qualifications in order to meet the demands set by companies, customers and the environment that managers operate in.

Management areas
Functional areas of management comprise Human Resource Management, Operations Management, Marketing Management, Information Management, Financial Management, Strategic Management and Organisational Behaviour. At the end of an MBA programme, the graduate emerges with an upper level knowledge of functional managerial and business issues as well as new conceptual skills ready to meet the demands that are set by the competitive business environment.

However, in addition to developing strong technical skills, today’s managers must be able to influence people, interact with a broad spectrum of colleagues, customers and suppliers; and negotiate with individuals from all walks of life. They must know how their company relates to competitors in both the micro and macro business environments.

Prior experience essential
The MBA programme, which was first launched in the US in the 1950’s as a two-year post-graduate course and exported to Europe in the 1960’s, was initially rejected as irrelevant to the world of business and the schools were viewed as second rate.

Albeit, the MBA qualification grew largely within the framework of their non-vocational universities; the first year was devoted to the core disciplines of the science of management and the second year offered more specialisation through a choice of electives. Specialist MBAs were introduced with modular topics such as international business, finance, the public sector and even football. While the US model enrolled students after taking a first degree, business schools in Europe placed much greater emphasis on practical work experience prior to entering the MBA programme. By comparison, the learning curve of entrants with prior business knowledge and work experience played a significant role in re-writing the criteria for universal MBA enrolment.

Over a period of almost 30 years, from the beginning of the 1960’s to the end of the 1980’s, the MBA was transformed from being the Cinderella of professional qualifications to a coveted tool to be utilised in building existing competencies to find plausible solutions to concurrent business issues. By the late 1970’s, the battle for respectability had been won and the number of universities sprouting business school and MBA courses increased dramatically. Today, increased globalisation and changing lifestyles has meant that thousands of universities worldwide present the MBA qualification, offering more flexible ways of learning, including: distance learning, modular, in-company, and part-time study.

New developments
Driven by competitive factors, new developments over the past 20 years have successfully changed the primary two-year MBA programme to offer entrants shorter programmes (the one-year programme being the norm in some countries); running different programme structures such as modular, consortium, international and joint, as well as programmes accommodating diverse groups of people from different business sectors or different age groups; and internationalisation of curriculum content.

While most established programmes around the world have adopted the MBA title, there are programmes that are similar to what other schools would call an MBA, which also lead to degrees with other titles. Such titles include MBL (Master of Business Leadership), which is a post-graduate degree in the management sciences, and MBS (Master of Business Studies).

Choose your course carefully
While entrants may benefit from the wide choice of programmes, making the right choice of programme is paramount. In choosing a school and an MBA programme, the entrant should bear two main considerations in mind: what he or she wants to gain from the programme in terms of the skills or competence they wish to develop, and what is appropriate for their personal constraints such as budget, time availability, location, etc. Competition is strong for enrolment at the best business schools and employers also place a high premium on the criterion to attract the best graduates.

The MBA programme of the 21st Century is in a state of perpetual change – continually adding value through creativity, knowledge, innovation and learning for the benefit of our future business leaders. It has become one of the most sought after qualifications in today’s corporate world as a prerequisite to most top management positions. Possibly even more important is the fact that an MBA is a dynamic qualification that is qualitatively linked to the continuous change and growth associated with the management of global economic models.

Worldwide, the best business leaders consider an MBA qualification key to the continual success of careers in sectors like manufacturing, business, education, healthcare and other service sectors. A good business programme offers skills not ordinarily mastered in a conventional work environment such as Finance, Statistics, and Managerial Economics. While electives may opt to specialise within specific business components such as International Management, Human Resources, and Finance, the MBA is clearly a process of lifelong learning. Besides equipping managers with executive skills, it is a medium that encourages self-motivated continual learning not just as a means to career progression, but also to make a viable contribution to stimulate growth and development of the global economy.

Yet, at the dawn of the 21st Century, the classic profile of the MBA student is changing. Just a decade ago, MBAs were arming themselves with a qualification that would pave the way to a top managerial position with a multinational corporation. Today, the MBA is also relevant to those opting for a position with a smaller, but progressive company as well as business tycoons wanting to run their own company or join new-economy start-ups. This means that the traditional MBA is entering its most progressive stage of development.

The entrance exam for the IIMs and a clutch of other institutes, to others like the XAT and JMET that follow. It’s make or break time for the creamy layer that has set its eyes on only the best business schools that India has to offer. But why stop at India when you can simultaneously consider options across the world?

India is estimated to have in excess of 1,600 management schools spread out across the country. Of these only a few dozen offer a quality brand with all its incumbent attributes: good curriculum and faculty inputs, infrastructure, international exposure, industry interaction and finally, excellent placements. In the final tally, there’s only space enough at the top for a few thousand students from the lakhs of annual MBA aspirants.

Yet, the changing dynamics of the MBA aspirant pool is opening up new options that students would do well to consider. The experience of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad — the first B-school in the country to demand prior work experience from incoming students for its one-year, full-time MBA course — is a pointer in this direction. “More and more people with experience feel that there is a real opportunity to get a good education with real opportunities for career shifts. points out that the number of students with quality work experience of as much as eight to 10 years (including international exposure) is increasing every year.

Georgetown University is a Catholic and Jesuit student-centered research university. Established in 1789 in the spirit of the new republic, the university was founded on the principle that serious and sustained discourse among people of different faiths, cultures, and beliefs promotes intellectual, ethical and spiritual understanding. Georgetown educates men and women to be reflective life-long learners, to be responsible and active participants in civil life, and to live generously in service to others.

In keeping with the best traditions of Georgetown University, the McDonough School of Business is dedicated to the goals of educating ethically responsible business leaders and producing new knowledge that will improve both the management of organizations and their contributions to life in a global society.

The McDonough School seeks to accomplish these goals by providing its MBA students with an intense culture of business ethics, which it cultivates in several ways: through interdisciplinary academic centers such as the Georgetown Business Ethics Institute and the Center for Business and Public Policy, by requiring every MBA student to complete a course in business ethics, by infusing issues and cases dealing with social responsibility in its second year Global Integrative experience as well as in elective courses across the business disciplines, and by forging close partnerships with other Georgetown University programs, including the Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. The school's chapter of Net Impact won the 2004 Chapter of the Year Award.

School Demographic Information

Contact Details Georgetown University
Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business
206 Old North
3700 O Street, NW
Washington , DC 20057
United States

Website : www.georgetown.edu/

The Business School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has added a number of classes over the last three years to help prepare MBA students for the challenge of operating a business in a sustainable manner. We have also added key faculty (Ann Terlaak who comes to us with a background in Environmental Management and Tom Eggert who splits time between the Business School and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources). In addition, we are developing expertise in environmental risk management, and many faculty are addressing areas related to social and environmental responsibility in accounting, strategy, risk and quality.

The Business School has also brought in a number of prominent speakers to speak to the university community on subjects relating to the social and environmental responsibilities of business. A student group grew out of our Environmental Strategy and Sustainability class that is dedicated to advancing the idea that businesses can and should operate in a sustainable manner and a Net Impact chapter has been created.

The Business School has also expanded its relationship with the Gaylord Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies by cross-listing three new business courses in the Institute's selection of courses. The mix of business and IES students in classes offers a diversity of perspectives and viewpoints that makes for an exciting learning environment.

Faculty from the Business School and other schools on campus participate in an informal faculty environmental roundtable every other Tuesday morning during the school year. Virtually all participants are adjunct faculty in the Institute for Environmental Studies. This roundtable was organized by William Cronon, the Fredrick Jackson Turner Professor of Environmental History. In addition, several business school professors have drawn on the rich tradition of the UW-Madison in environmental knowledge and expertise, and invited non-business professors to make guest presentations in School of Business courses.

Many of our professors make good use of the expertise in the business community by bringing senior managers in to talk to their classes about such things as "The Role of Heart in Running a Business" and "What Systems Thinking Means for Sustainability". In addition, the Business School continues to work with potential funders on expanding our commitment to sustainability by broadening the class options for students.

Wisconsin has a rich history in the area of social responsibility. It was one of three founders of the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Management, the country’s first cooperative equal educational opportunity graduate fellowship program for minorities. It created the first graduate program in the country in a variety of fields, including applied security analysis and arts administration and in recent years has created highly focused MBA program based on career specializations ranging from corporate finance to marketing research.

School Demographic Information

Contact Details Wisconsin-Madison, University of School of Business
975 University Ave
Grainger Hall
Madison , WI 53706
United States

Website : www.wisc.edu

The recent emphasis on sustainable development and corporate social responsibility is nothing new for IESE. Since its founding in 1958, IESE has always treated ethics and social responsibility as essential to the training of future business leaders.

This year IESE is launching “Partners for Change,” as a contribution to EABIS, to develop future business school faculty. IESE believes we must find new ways of shaping the learning experience, which enables future managers to make decisions with awareness of their impact on society and the environment.

IESE has introduced a course on Social Entrepreneurship in its MBA program, which has proved popular. Courses underscoring the importance of these issues include: Competitive Strategy, Global Economics, Emerging Economies, Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development and the BOP, Corporate Strategy, Management in the Health Sector and Family Business.

IESE’s commitment to these issues is reflected by its research centers and publishing activities. IESE has partnered with the Schwab Foundation to create a case-study series examining the challenges facing social entrepreneurs. We are also working with Ashoka, another organization supporting social entrepreneurs. In addition, this year the school is hosting the first International Social Entrepreneurship Conference, in collaboration with NYU and INSEAD. The event has led to further IESE research, with a book on social entrepreneurship to be published by Palgrave.

Since 1990, IESE has organized the annual International Symposium on Business, Ethics and Society. Last year’s theme was “Accounting and Accountability: A Challenge for Corporate Culture.”

Being internationally focused, IESE actively promotes social entrepreneurship across continents. This summer, IESE faculty will be teaching a course on Social Entrepreneurship at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. CEIBS, the Asian Institute of Management, Copenhagen Business School and IESE are also partnering together in an EU-sponsored program. Through conferences, consulting projects, workshops, internships, social enterprise business-plan competitions and Ph.D. funding for research, the Asian/European knowledge-exchange represents another move toward increasing international awareness in the field of social entrepreneurship and sustainable development.

School Demographic Information

Contact Details Navarra, University of IESE Business School
Avda. Pearson, 21
Barcelona 08034
Spain

Website : www.unav.es/english/

School of Business and Economics at the University of Jyväskylä creates and disseminates expertise based on scientific research for management, entrepreneurship and economic decision making needs, maintaining strong links to the surrounding community by actively promoting our latest research results and professional expertise. School of Business and Economics at the University of Jyväskylä has been proactive in integrating both environmental and social management in its curriculum, research and other activities. For example, Jyväskylä has been the first university in the whole of Scandinavia offering a full master’s and doctoral program in corporate environmental management since 1995. Environmental and/or social issues are an important part integrated in the strategic focus areas of the School of Business and Economics. The focus areas of the disciplines include: corporate environmental management; age-management, ethics in leadership and corporate social responsibility in management; ethics in accounting; social responsibility and family business in entrepreneurship; and labor and regional economics.

The approaches for addressing three dimensions of sustainability in the curriculum of the School of Business and Economics have been diverse: 1) As the separate unit leading the way towards sustainable management, there is a specialized master's and doctoral program, corporate environmental management, which is training specialists for environmental management positions; 2) A required course ‘Business, society and the environment’ for all the management students offers basic knowledge about sustainability issues to future business managers; and 3) Environmental and social issues have been integrated into several courses in all the disciplines of the school to ensure that sustainability issues are not just a specialty area of a small expert group.

School Demographic Information

Contact Details Jyvaeskylae, University of School of Business and Economics
P.O. Box 35, University of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä FIN-40014
Finland

Website : www.jyu.fi

The Haskayne School of Business is closely linked to globally-oriented resource-based industries headquartered in western Canada, namely energy, mining, forestry and tourism. These industries were the first to feel the effects of societal changes with respect to demands for sustainable development. Consequently, Haskayne has played a leadership role in integrating management of environmental and social impact issues into the MBA curriculum.

Environmental and social impact management has been integrated into core disciplinary courses of the MBA. Specialized MBA courses covering environmental and social impact are offered regularly as electives. In 2003-2004 we introduced two new courses called "Sustainable Resource Development with Indigenous People" and "Leadership Rediscovered: The Haskayne Wilderness Experience". This latter course is an experiential course focused on leadership for sustainability and was conducted at a field station in the Rocky Mountains.

Since 1994, an MBA specialization has been offered in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development. Beginning in 1996 an MSc in Energy and Environment for Latin America has been offered in Quito, Ecuador. Based on its success, in 2002 an MSc in Energy and Environment for the Caribbean was established in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. That same year, an MBA specialization in Global Energy Management and Sustainable Development (GEMS) was created in Calgary with students drawn from Canada and from our collaborative MBA program in Beijing, China. Also in 2002, an MBA (GEMS) program was established in Tehran, Iran for the energy industry. The Haskayne School also offers "Competitive Strategy and Sustainable Development" sessions in non-degree executive programs.

Two major new research initiatives were undertaken in 2003-2004 in the area of sustainable development innovation (SDI), and in resource extraction, sustainable development and indigenous people.

Haskayne MBA student and alumni conferences regularly feature corporate social responsibility. The Haskayne School of Business has developed many original conceptual and case teaching materials dealing with resource industries and sustainability in an international context. These are used in Master's programs.

Professor Harrie Vredenburg has hosted a popular monthly environmental management/sustainable development public seminar series at Haskayne since 1994, featuring expert speakers from academia, industry, government and NGOs locally, nationally and internationally. This program is well attended by students, industry, government agency and NGO representatives, providing an ideal forum for discussing sustainable development and social impact issues.

School Demographic Information

Contact Details Calgary, University of Haskayne School of Business
Scurfield Hall
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4
Canada

Website : www.ucalgary.ca

“Let us choose to unite the power of markets with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the forces of private entrepreneurship with the needs of the disadvantaged and the requirements of future generations.” – Kofi Annan

The Case|Weatherhead Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit responded to the Secretary General’s call by working with the UN Global Compact to design and lead a summit for 500 CEOs and world leaders. It was the largest corporate citizenship meeting of its kind ever held at the UN. Annan later singled out one of Case|Weatherhead’s strengths in fostering business and society impact saying, “I would like to commend you for your methodology of Appreciative Inquiry and to thank you for introducing it to the United Nations. Without this, it would have been very difficult, perhaps even impossible, to constructively engage so many leaders of business, civil society and government.” The Case team was made up of MBA and PhD students. It was a prime example of our action learning commitment, bringing students from finance and strategy and other disciplines into the frontiers of the CSR field.

The mission of the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit—launched in 2004 with an award of $1.8 million-- is to advance extraordinary business and society innovation, revolutionizing the way the world eradicates poverty, restores the biosphere, and creates global understanding and peace. Dean Myron Roomkin of the Weatherhead School of Management has declared its work as one of four strategic priorities, and, it is a cornerstone of the Case President’s vision—“to be the most powerful learning environment in the world ….so people are prepared and engaged to serve humanity.” Within the management school the Center has been designated by the Dean as a “school within a school”, such as the Woodrow Wilson School, where it will offer a major concentration in sustainability. Fundraising for a $20 million endowment is underway, while core building blocks are already in place: the AI Certificate Program on Business and Society Change (for MBA’s and leaders of change); the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise; the Executive Doctorate in Management; the Masters in Positive Organization Development; the Center for Regional Economics; and the Institute for Information and Sustainable Design. And, in addition to popular electives such as “Leadership and the Global Agenda” every MBA student is today required to take LEAD— Leadership Assessment and Development course—where ethics and social responsibility are developmentally connected to each student’s learning plan for the “ideal self”.

School Demographic Information

Contact Details Case Western Reserve University
Weatherhead School of Management
Peter B. Lewis Building
10900 Euclid Avenue
999
Cleveland , OH 44106
United States

Website : www.case.edu