I remember waaaaaaay back in the early 2000′s when the MBA degree was the thing to have. The MBA was supposed to be the ticket to a fantastic job in Finance/Consulting/Management that would be the first step on the road to eternal success in business, lots of money, and a network that most people would kill for. Getting into a top-20 business school was basically like winning one of Willy Wonka‘s golden tickets and being invited to play in his Chocolate Factory, which, in the case of the MBA, was supposed to be the Board rooms of major corporations around the world. That’s why I wanted an MBA so badly and I’m positive that that’s why so many others wanted one so badly too. The profile of the MBA was as high as a kite and it didn’t seem like anything could bring it down…

Then, things went LEFT *insert hard car-braking sound*…and many of the people who had MBAs and were leaders in the business world started doing crooked things and just messing up left and right. Names like Andrew Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski, and Bernie Ebbers are a few names who come immediately to mind. The Enrons, World-Coms, Arthur Andersons, and Tycos of the first half of the last decade made businesspeople look awful. And, when the rah-rah run-up of the economy in the middle of the decade made business look good again, it all got even worse when the meltdown on Wall Street led to multiple banks, most of which were headed by MBAs, having to be bailed out by the government and leading to the worst recession since the Great Depression. Bear Sterns, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, and Countrywide are among the banks that made business leaders look bad all over again. Now, we’re in the second decade of the 21st century and the brand of the MBA isn’t exactly sparkling in many circles.

In response to the reputation hit that the MBA has taken, several business schools are using some interesting marketing tactics to make the degree desirable to prospective applicants. BusinessWeek.com’s Francesca Di Meglio did a great job of digging into some of these new approaches in the article below. Reading about some of the measures that schools are taking to improve their programs has made me really jealous of the kids who have a chance to experience something different than I saw back in the day.

Speaking as an MBA graduate, I can attest to the value of the degree and hope that my generation of future business leaders and the ones that generations that follow it can rebuild the image of the MBA degree and those of us who hold it.

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Title: The MBA Marketing Machine
Author: Francesca Di Meglio
Source: BusinessWeek.com, http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2010/bs20100614_351327.htm

Intro text from the article:

With jobs scarce, competition growing, and the MBA’s reputation in tatters, selling B-school to prospective applicants has never been tougher

A quiet revolution is afoot at U.S. business schools. The way administrators are selling the MBA degree to applicants is completely shifting, as B-schools and the MBA degree itself face unprecedented challenges in the wake of the global economic crisis. “We’re a stodgy group of academics, and at the end of the day we’re slow to change,” says Joseph Fox, associate dean for MBA programs at the Olin Business School (Olin Full-Time MBA Program) at Washington University in St. Louis. But change is indeed in the air: from the tools and techniques used to reach prospective students to the marketing themes and strategies employed to seal the deal.