DomoDomo@INSEAD

2007 Rankings are out!

INSEAD creeps up a notch (albeit insignificantly on statistical grounds), to 7th place in the Universe of MBAs.

We all know the value of rankings (important but not essential). We all know their limitations (dubious methodologies, or at least consistency in their methodologies, and some national biases). Still, I have to say the FT Rankings seems to me the "fairest", or most representative of the larger insider opinion.

The most obvious bias pertains to all UK MBAs which have made huge leaps upwards, to the detriment of some established powerhouses (Kellogg's and IESE).

Anyway, what interests us most, I presume, is how INSEAD fared and how it will react.

We received an internal mail right away, "celebrating" the news. To me, not that I care so much about the ranking, as I'm sure of the School value (as evidenced by the pedigree of firms recruiting, and that of my peers), there is something disturbing in cheering up for the Acceptable. OK, the market is fiercely competitive, and being a World Top 10 is an achievement. But INSEAD used to be the undisputed Number 1 in Europe.

The School has an amazing global project, awesome Professors, super Students, a truly excellent programme which is aligned to modern constraints -one year off work is just perfect-, a learning model that is clever and very efficient (how can you get 450 students to learn so fast so much so well, and so much of themselves and one another). Yet these unique strengths fail to materialize. Is it about School communication? Failure to articulate the School's values and vision? Failure to convince?

Alternatively, and more modestly, it could be just the others being better... That still leaves Franck and Antonio, us as present participants and future business leaders, Professors and staff, food for thought to be even better.

And we could all start with current Courses and projects.

The past Macro and IT classes have been much more enjoyable and insightful. At least some models, some intemporal takeaways. The IT project (a wikipedia site on Business issues), after much grumbling from the Students, is taking off, and seems to me very valid and relevant. It's just that to feed the site in 2 weeks, with presumably the less IT capable participants -ie. those who could not exempt- is a bit of a Mission Impossible. Anyway, my respects to these Professors for increasing the level of classes. And my apologies for being impatient in the first couple of classes...

To learn more, and contribute to MBAWiki:

http://mbawiki.org

To know more about 2007 MBA Rankings (FT):

http://rankings.ft.com/rankings/mba/rankings.html

Labels: Rankings

posted by DomoDomo@INSEAD @ 4:48 PM