Менеджеры и менеджмент (Executives and Management). Коломейцева Е.М - 43 стр.

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3. Do you know many people who have an MBA, or who are studying or plan to study for one? Are you one of
them? What are the reasons for doing so?
What do employers say?
Getting an MBA is one thing. Getting employers to take it seriously is another. MBAs have not traditionally com-
manded the same respect in the UK as in the US, but an increasing number of UK employers are now taking them very
seriously indeed.
None more so than top management consulting firm McKinsey. Of its 260 London consultants, around half have
MBAs. The company actively recruits 30 – 40 people a year from major business schools, such as INSEAD in France,
Harvard and Stanford in the US, and London Business School and Manchester in the UK. It spends around £1 million a
year sponsoring its 25 – 30 graduate recruits to complete full-time MBAs at the same institutions.
'Essentially we see an MBA as a short cut to business experience', says Julian Sea-ward, head of recruitment for
McKinsey's London Office. 'It enriches people with a lot of management theory, and perhaps a bit of jargon thrown in.'
However, the company still prefers MBAs gained abroad. With a longer established reputation in the US, business
schools there still have the edge in attracting candidates, while INSEAD has positioned itself as an international school
with a cosmopolitan faculty and student body.
'The networking and experience of other cultures is very useful as a lot of our clients are global', says Seaward.
Nevertheless, McKinsey is actively raising its profile over here with a recently-launched scheme offering external can-
didates sponsor-ship through a United Kingdom MBA with a guaranteed job afterwards.
With a £50,000 Harvard MBA, McKinsey knows how attractive its staff are to other employers. Those who wish
to leave within two years have to repay their sponsorship, but Seaward believes the staff development strategy has a
good return rate. 'We look for people to develop a long-term career with us, not just an analyst job for a couple of years,
and reward high achievers with good salaries and opportunities.'
Equally convinced of the value of MBAs is direct marketing company Ogilvy One Worldwide, which recently es-
tablished an MBA bursary for staff members. Chairman Nigel Howlett believes the MBA's formal education in analyti-
cal skills and constructing solutions provides a very useful training, producing people who have a good overview of
business issues rather than a concern for details.
The company is currently undertaking an evaluation of the best UK schools in which to invest their bursary. With
the recent big increase in the number of institutions offering MBAs, Howlett is concerned that not all MBAs are equal.
'There are clear differences in terms of quality.'
But not every company favours MBAs. In the early 1990s, Shell actually abandoned its own MBA course at
Henley when it realised it was not producing graduates who fitted the jobs for which they were destined.
'We're slightly ambivalent towards MBAs,' says Andy Gibb, Shell's head of global recruitment. 'A lot of Shell's
work is technical, while MBAs from leading schools are pitched at a more strategic level. It can be frustrating and un-
necessary to be trained for strategic thinking, when the job you're moving into is not really suited to that. We would
rather focus them on technical leadership.'
Companies like chartered accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers take a more middle-of-the-road approach. While it
does not actively target MBAs or recruit them directly from business schools, a growing proportion of its senior con-
sultants have got them, and it is increasingly on the lookout for MBA graduates.
'Our business is changing from audit and tax management more into consultancy roles,' says UK recruitment part-
ner Keith Bell. 'MBAs do bring a breadth of vision to the business problem rather than a narrow viewpoint, and that can
be an advantage.
But the issue is the longer term. If you sponsor someone to do an MBA, will you get them back again?'
From The Independent
T a s k 7.
A. Understanding main points
Read the previous text about different attitudes towards MBA graduates and answer these questions.
1. What is the attitude of UK employers to MBAs? Are they very positive, negative or in between?
2. Several top business schools are mentioned in the text – which ones are they? Do you agree with his list?
Would you add others?
3. According to the article, do most MBA students pay for themselves?
4. In which country are MBAs very highly regarded by employers, according to the article?
B. Understanding details
1. Four companies are mentioned in the article. Rank them in order in terms of their atti-tude to MBAs, starting
with the one most in favour.
2. Some disadvantages about MBAs are mentioned by people quoted in the article. What are they?
3. Businesses are generally grouped into two broad categories – manufacturing and production on one side, and
services on the other side. Into which categories do the four companies mentioned in the article fit? What does this tell
you about the type of companies which generally favor MBAs? Is this the case in your country too?
Unit Six

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