WHAT DO EMPLOYERS SAY?

Getting an MBA is one thing. Getting employers to take it seriously is another. MBAs have not
traditionally commanded 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 Seaward, 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 candidates sponsorship 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 OgilvyOne Worldwide,
which recently established an MBA bursary for staff members.
Chairman Nigel Hewlett believes the MBA's formal education in analytical 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,
Hewlett 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 unnecessary 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 consultants 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 partner 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?”