Distinguished scholar and Dean of Said Business School from 1999 and until 2006, Professor Anthony Hopwood need no introduction. We had the pleasure of hosting Professor Hopwood recently when he gave a talk about his views about the MBA and shared some of his experiences from Said. One of his comment I liked in particular, that MBA programmes should be more knowledge based and less about Guru speak. But of course! What is the use of taking time out to do an MBA if all you can do afterwards is regurgitate the views of the people who have, deservedly or not, been labeled Gurus? The MBA must equip you with the knowledge and skills that will allow you to work out your own answers! Otherwise, you will be a very poor asset to your future organisation. Probably as a consequence of his views, Professor Hopwood took the world of business schools to task in the FT on 20 July 2008 with a challenge to focus on IDEAS and not simply on getting as many publications as possible. Professor Hopwood has also commented on the MBA rankings game in his paper in the European Management Review in which he discusses the merits of such rankings. It lends for very interesting reading. Somehow I don’t think Professor Hopwood is a fan of MBA rankings.
Yesterday was in a small way a historic day for the School. We ratified the degree for the first student to graduate from our Modular MBA programme. The happy person, Mark Gardiner currently sits in Kazakhstan and ponders his time with the Edinburgh MBA. Congratulations Mark!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthony Hopwood, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Business School, European Management Review, Guru, guru speak, Inger Seiferheld, Kazakhstan, Mark Gardiner, MBA, MBA rankings, Said business school, University of Edinburgh Business School
