Column ‘Global B-School Pulse’ by Tim Westerbeck: “MBA India: The Next Global Brand?”

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
August 7, 2016
Leading US-based international education-branding and marketing expert Mr Tim Westerbeck will write an exclusive column ‘Global B-school Pulse’ on B-school and management education trends.

Mr Westerbeck will write this column  only on India’s leading management portal -- MBAUniverse.com. Mr Westerbeck has advised hundreds of leading global corporations and nonprofit organizations, including the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Stanford Law School, the American Medical Association, Yale School of Management and the Graduate Management Admission Council. The first column is on Indian B-schools as potential global brands.

Global B-school Pulse

“MBA India: The Next Global Brand?”

By Tim Westerbeck

Not long ago, a list of the world’s 10 best business schools would have been synonymous with the top American business schools. Today, look at the Financial Times rankings. Institutions from around the world populate the top tier in nearly every program category. Globalization has changed our reality.

Now, the race is on to build global MBA brands—it’s one of the hottest topics at business schools around the world. Sure, most schools have added international topics and experiences to their educational mix, formed partnerships and even opened campuses in far flung locations. But few, if any, have achieved global brand status. This will change, as institutions aggressively compete for a position in the new emerging hierarchy of “global elite” business schools, through new business models, brand strategies and tactics.

Notably absent from the rankings and the pursuit of global brand status has been Indian MBA programs. While no doubt many of its management education institutions are of world-class quality, they have not emerged on the world stage. Market conditions are right for this to change.

The four biggest factors:

  1. India is on the front lines of globalization—keeping pace with China as the most important “laboratory” for global business.
  2. Private sector demand for management education is voracious.
  3. There is strong government support in India for business and technical education—albeit with the potential complicating agenda of creating more universal education, rather than supporting advancement of elite institutions.
  4. India’s top business schools are aggressively pursuing new levels of autonomy—as they seek to free themselves to compete on the world-class stage.

However, Indian business schools will have stiff competition, as the region attracts other top business schools from around the world, seeking to set up shop as they also pursue their quest for global brand status. As an example, according to the Financial Times, Harvard Business School recently announced plans to run executive education programs in India, building on its current market presence through its India research center. 

Other major American and European MBA programs, which for years have actively recruited some of India’s best and brightest students to their home-country programs, or regionally located ventures throughout Asia, will no doubt pursue greater footholds in this critical market. The question will be whether India’s elite management education institutions will take the necessary steps to reinvent their business and marketing models in order to meet the competition in their own back yard and stake their claim in this new global hierarchy.

About the Author:

Tim Westerbeck is an expert on branding and marketing strategy. He has provided marketing and brand strategy advice to hundreds of leading global corporations and nonprofit organizations, including the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Stanford Law School, the American Medical Association, Yale School of Management and the Graduate Management Admission Council.

Prior to joining Lipman Hearne, Tim was for 10 years president of Westerbeck Communications, a national brand marketing consulting firm based in Chicago. The company was acquired by Lipman Hearne in 2002. Lipman Hearne (www.lipmanhearne.com) is a US-based specialist branding & marketing firm exclusively for non-profit organizations. Its clients include Yale School of Management; Princeton University, Princeton; Northwestern University, Evanston; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Ford Foundation; Aspen Institute Washington; Graduate Management Admission Council; American Medical Association; and American Red Cross, Washington.

Tim began his career as a professional journalist, working as a major-market television news reporter for ABC News. He has been quoted in hundreds of major media, including The New York Times, FORTUNE, Crain’s Chicago Business, Bloomberg Business News and The Los Angeles Times. Tim is a regular contributor to Biz Ed magazine, the global publication on management education published by AACSB International.