Each week we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print and provide a quick overview of the latest trending topics from top business schools around the world.
Here’s your quick MBA News You Need digest for the week of September 16, 2018.
INSEAD Receives Largest-Ever Individual Donation
INSEAD announced that André and Rosalie Hoffmann recently gifted the business school with the largest individual donation in its history. The gift will establish the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society, which Executive Director Katell Le Goulven explains will “forge leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs who align the interests of their organizations with pressing social and environmental challenges.”
INSEAD Dean Ilian Mihov expressed his appreciation for this historic gift:
“Establishing the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society underpins INSEAD’s vision of business as a force for good. Many of our 21st century challenges cannot be addressed by governments or NGOs alone. Business leaders must rise to the challenge—integrating sustainability, responsibility, and social impact directly into the decisions they make. This is where the Hoffmann Institute holds great potential to accelerate progress towards a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future.”
Mr. Hoffmann is the vice chairman of Switzerland-based Roche Holdings, an innovative pharmaceutical company established by his great grandfather in 1896.
You can read more about the donation to INSEAD here.
Why This Stanford GSB Alum and Zuora CEO Sees Subscription Businesses as the Future
Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) alum and Zuora founder Tien Tzuo, MBA ’98, wants to “change how executives think about their products and organizational structure in the subscription economy,” which has exploded from $57 million in sales in 2011 to $2.6 billion in 2016, according to Insights writer Jenny Luna.
In Tzuo’s new book, Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company’s Future—and What to Do About It, he posits the theory that “ownership is dead; now it’s really about access as the new imperative.”
Tzuo elaborates, “We like the paid subscription-based business model because we think it’s a healthy dynamic between the vendor and the customer.”
He points to Surf Air, “the Netflix of Aviation,” as a hearty example of “building a business by starting with customer wants and needs, attacking pain points with a machete, and growing a loyal subscriber base.”
You can read more about Tzuo’s analysis here.
$2 Million Gift to Wharton to Support Behavior Change for Good Initiative
The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School recently announced the formation of the Leder Behavior Change for Good Initiative, funded by a generous $2 million donation from Sun Capital Partners Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer Marc J. Leder, W’83.
The Behavior Change for Good Initiative (BCFG) has assembled multidisciplinary collaborators from “the social sciences, medicine, computer science, and neuroscience” to develop “an interactive digital platform to improve daily decisions about health, education, and finance with the goal of making change stick in real-world settings.”
“The daily choices we all make about what to eat, what medicines to take, what classes to attend, and whether to set aside some savings have a profound impact on our lives today and into the future,” Leder says. These decisions are based on deep-seated behaviors that are influenced by culture and experience.”
He adds, “Sun Capital has long been focused on the imperative to foster a productive and respectful workplace culture at our companies, so I believe this science-based approach to measuring and driving behavior change offers tremendous promise.”
You can read more about the Leder Behavior Change for Good Term Fund here.
Chicago Booth Research Reveals Value of Thank You Letters
New Psychological Science research from Chicago Booth’s Nicholas Epley and UT-Austin’s Amit Kumar reveals how much we underestimate the tremendous impact that gratitude has on recipients.
Kumar explains the major question he and Professor Epley sought to answer in the study, Undervaluing Gratitude: Expressers Misunderstand the Consequences of Showing Appreciation:
“There’s so much talk in the world—both in academic literature and in the popular press—that expressing gratitude is good for you. But that doesn’t seem to line up with how often people are actually articulating their appreciation in daily life.”
The duo’s findings suggest “thoughts about how competently people can express their gratitude may be a barrier to expressing gratitude more often in everyday life.”
You can read more about Epley and Kumar’s research here.
Best Buy Chairman, HEC Paris Alum Establishes First-Ever Endowed Chair for Purposeful Leadership
This past July, HEC Paris signed a €3.7 million deal with Best Buy Chairman and CEO Hubert Joly, ’81, to finance the Joly Family Endowed Chair in Purposeful Leadership, the school’s “first-ever personally endowed chair, devoted to purposeful leadership.”
Joly explained his vision for the chair:
“I believe that the search for meaning is an essential quest for each individual. I further believe that a company is a human organization where individuals collaborate on a project and that linking the search for meaning of a company’s team members with the purpose of the company is a key priority for the said company and the individuals who work there. I am very happy to support HEC’s professors and their teams as they work to advance research and teaching on the theme of purposeful leadership in business.”
Professor of Strategy and Business Policy Rodolphe Durand was appointed as the first chair holder. “I am deeply honored to be named to this post,” he said in a statement. “It accelerates our work in uniting colleagues from different fields at HEC, going well beyond research into leadership. Research into purposeful leadership also allows us to see how it can bring competitive and environmental advantages to a firm which integrates it into its central strategy.”
You can learn more about the Joly Family Endowed Chair in Purposeful Leadership here.
Georgetown McDonough Class of 2020 Earns Record-Setting GMAT Scores Amid Double-Digit Drop in Application Volume
Georgetown McDonough’s full-Time and evening MBA Class of 2020 ranks as one of the most “academically qualified and professionally experienced” in the school’s history.
At 693, the average GMAT score for the full-time MBA class set a new school record, while the median of 700 “holds steady from previous years.” The average work experience is up 0.23 years from 5.36 to 5.59 years. About 35 percent of students come from the Mid-Atlantic region, compared to 41 percent last year. International students in the full-time MBA Class of 2020 come from 37 countries. While the total applications received (1,459) represent a 16.2 percent drop year over year, McDonough is in good company in this regard, with most U.S. schools, including Harvard Business School, reporting application volume decline.
The average GMAT score for Evening MBA was 655, a 20-point increase over last year. The median score also jumped 20 points to 660 from 640. The percentage of female students in the evening MBA class also rose, from 41 to 43 percent. U.S. minority students make up a larger portion of the evening MBA class as well, increasing from 26 to 28 percent.
“We have an energetic new dean with a focus on innovation and collaboration, we are adding flexibility to the delivery and duration of our MBA, and we continuously achieve high national and international rankings,” Interim Associate Dean for MBA Admissions Shelly Heinrich said in a statement. “It’s no surprise we continue to attract a diverse pool of highly qualified applicants who see the Georgetown MBA as a way to exceed their personal and professional expectations.”
You can learn more about the Georgetown McDonough Class of 2020 here.
