Leadership Connections
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History of the MBA
MBA’s are a hundred years old this year. From that fateful first year at Harvard, where only 33 classmates were enrolled, to the 500,000 estimated to graduate in 2008, the Masters in Business Administration qualification has come a very long way. More...
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MBA’s are a hundred years old this year. From that fateful first year at
Harvard, where only 33 classmates were enrolled, to the 500,000 estimated
to graduate in 2008, the Masters in Business Administration qualification
has come a very long way. MBA’s have always represented the ultimate in
guarantee of wealth and career furtherance.
MBA’s originate from that
great hub of industry, America. Just before the turn of the last century,
and in the wake of the industrial revolution, the first business schools
were set up, the first of which was the Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania, founded in 1881. They offered education and qualification
in the commercial sciences. It was the first ever attempt to teach
business, and more importantly management as a scientific
process. It was so groundbreaking schools like Harvard had to make case
studies of business people to study as there were no text books on the
subject. These case studies persist even now, and form the basis of
Harvard’s teaching methods- modern students discuss two case studies in
depth every day for two years, learning essential skills in analysis and
communication.
From America, the MBA spread
outwards. The first MBA awarded outside of the US was in Canada in 1950,
and then The University of Pretoria followed in 1951. In Europe INSEAD in
France became the first university to award an MBA. Throughout the world
the business school model grew. In the UK the first business school was at
Henley, and the first MBA’s were awarded in 1965, at the
Manchester Business School and
London Business Schools.
Throughout the years of change the
MBA still remains basically the same in its aims- to promote forward
thinking individuals able to cope with the rigours of top level
management. But even in this time of turmoil, the MBA has to adapt. A good
example of this is at the Ashridge School of Business in the UK, where
they are experts in
change management.
One of the main modules in their
MBA
course
is ‘leading change’- what better a course to take to prepare you to
lead your company out of these dark times than one that has withstood
every economic crisis of the last century... and, hopefully this one!
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