Yale SOM Ups Ante On Global Strategy

GREATER INVOLVEMENT EXPECTED AMONG SOM STUDENTS IN GLOBAL NETWORK WEEKS

The new requirement also opens the door to greater involvement by SOM candidates in so-called Global Network Weeks which give MBA students the opportunity to pursue intensive study at another school, in a focused mini-course that leverages the perspectives, programs, and faculty expertise of a network school. Alongside their counterparts from elsewhere in the network, students attend classes, tour local businesses, and meet with experts focused on current business problems.

Starting March 3rd, for example, there are a half dozen different network weeks, ranging from IE Business School’s mini-course entitled “Europe at a Crossroads” to Hitotsubashi University’s Graduate School of International Strategy is doing “Innovation: Japan Style.” Starting March 17th, there are another six sessions, ranging from “Global Strategies for Emerging Economies” at EGADE Business School in Monterrey, Mexico, to “Sustainability in Latin America” at INCAE Business School in Costa Rica.

Yet another mini-course, “Doing Business in China,” will link together two Chinese universities: Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai and Renmin University in Beijing. Students will explore corporate finance and governance strategies, intellectual property rights, and how social media has impacted how businesses market their products in China. Students will also learn how corporations with a global reach, such as luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz and PC company Lenovo, have expanded their operations into China.

The Global Network Week program first launched in March 2013 with about 200 students traveling among five schools, and expanded to seven schools in October. This March, more than 470 students have signed up for the program at 12 member schools.

Jain said that a faculty committee will oversee the composition of the new global requirement menu, which “will evolve as our close involvement with Yale and the Global Network provide still more opportunities for international study.”

CHANGES SHOULD FURTHER ENHANCE YALE IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES’ RANKING

The latest change can only help to reinforce SOM’s objective to be the most global of the U.S. schools and to further enhance its standing for the next Financial Times’ poll. As reported earlier, many of the earlier changes by Snyder had a positive impact on the 20% of the methodology tied directly to the FT’s international metrics: International students now compose 40% of the enrollment (up from 37%), while international members on the school’s advisory board now represent 38% of the total (up from 28% in 2013 and only 12% in 2012)–the latter a result of a Global Diversity Advisory Council established by Snyder.

Meantime, the international mobility rank accorded Yale’s graduates by the FT is also significantly better, giving the school a rank of 58, up from 73 a year earlier. Says Snyder: “The number of Yale MBA students who took internships outside the United States in countries where they were not citizens rose to 21, from 17; in total, 37 students took internships outside the United States.” That, in turn, boosted SOM’s mobility rank by 15 spots.

The school’s latest rank for “international course work”–calculated according to whether the most recent graduating MBA class completed exchanges, research projects, study tours and company internships in countries other than where the school is based– moved up an impressive eight places to 40 from 48 in 2013 and 52 in 2012. Snyder attributes those gains to the introduction of the global immersion weeks.

DON’T MISS: HOW YALE CLIMBED INTO THE TOP TEN or CAN ‘TED’ SNYDER WORK HIS MAGIC ON YALE’S SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT