10 Business Schools That Get It

Baldwin Louie — Mon, 16 Apr 2001 15:00:00 -0700

Which schools understand the new economy? We surveyed top full-time MBA programs in the U.S. and Europe, scrutinizing high-tech curricula, student clubs, business-plan competitions, startup activity, ranking among recruiters and student career paths. We also considered a school's high-tech intellectual capital - that is, how well it creates new high-tech knowledge. "Some very good schools like Chicago, Columbia and Kellogg don't get it," says Alan Dennis, the professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University who devised our intellectual capital rating. "While they may be doing well in e-commerce research with a marketing flavor, for example, they have dropped the ball in terms of information technology."

ANDERSON SCHOOL University of California at Los Angeles
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	Its new-economy curriculum could be strengthened, but Anderson cranks out an impressive number of new-economy workers. Twenty-nine percent of its 2000 class joined high-tech companies.
HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS University of California at Berkeley
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	With an array of high-tech classes, an incubator and a high-stakes business-plan competition, Haas knows how to build startups (14 percent of the class of 2000 established one). Timbre Technologies, a winner of the 1999 UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition, was sold in March for $138 million.
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	This global-thinking business school runs Cyberposium, the nation's leading high-tech student conference, which attracts MBA students from around the world. Twelve percent of the class of 2000 started their own companies.
KELLOGG GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	Kellogg students have run the impressive Digital Frontier Conference since 1995. Although its curriculum is strong on e-commerce marketing, it's weaker in IT research. The Chicago-area school ranks high with Industry Standard 100 recruiters like Palm, Intuit and Sapient, but produces a lower number of recruits for new-economy companies than other schools do.
LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	LBS is a truly international business school, with 80 percent of students coming from 50 countries outside the U.K. Its curriculum and students are hip to e-business, but few U.S. businesses seem to know about the school.
MCCOMBS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS University of Texas at Austin
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	Deep in the heart of high-tech Texas, this school's star is on the rise. Forty-two percent of the class of 2001 interned at new-economy companies. And if students can't find a job at Austin companies like Dell, they can start their own through the school's pioneering Moot Corp. business-plan competition.
OWEN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	Professors Donna Hoffman and Tom Novak put Owen on the map when they founded the eLab to study e-commerce back in 1994. The school is still known for its strong e-commerce curriculum and research, and it produces an unusually high number of students interested in the new economy.
SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	Sloan is a powerhouse of high-tech teaching and research. Its close relationship with MIT engineers also makes it a hotbed of high-tech startups (think Akamai). The Sloan $50K Entrepreneurship Competition in May will be one of the hottest tickets in town: Last year, more than 200 students entered.
STANFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	Stanford alums literally built Silicon Valley, but the recent slowdown has put a damper on startup activity. Still, an amazing 14 percent of students in the class of 2000 started their own companies, and 35 percent of the class of 2001 have already interned in the high-tech industry.
WHARTON SCHOOL University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Curriculum1
Entrepreneurship2
Recruiting3
Overview	Wharton has long been known for finance - and now, with 37 classes in its e-commerce track, it's known for e-business. Founded in 1881, Wharton is the oldest business school in the world, and with a new emphasis on entrepreneurial and high-tech activity, it's adapting well to the 21st century.
1 High-tech courses, student clubs, intellectual capital, global presence. 2 Business-plan competitions, incubators, startup activity. 3Students' high-tech career paths, recruitment activity, standing among Industry Standard 100 companies

Sources: Schools listed; Survey of Industry Standard 100 Companies; Information-Technology research ranking from Professor Alan Dennis, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

With reporting from Elizabeth Krieger, Amanda Christensen and Ivan Gale

The Industry Standard - 10 Business Schools That Get It - Comments

10 Business Schools That Get It