Citi’s Malaga hub, management teaching, MBA’s value

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Good afternoon from London. Find out which schools are best for teaching management, according to MBA alumni. If you are in charge of training, we would like to hear your views on the future of executive education. Also, there is still time to tell us what you think of our newsletter.

Thank you for reading our Business School Briefing — Wai Kwen Chan and Andrew Jack.

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If you or your clients oversee training, please complete our questionnaire on the future of corporate learning at ft.com/closurvey by March 25. Here are the results from last year’s survey showing what skills employers want.

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Andrew Hill’s management challenge

One of the FT’s best-read stories last week, outside our Ukraine coverage, was the news that Citigroup was hiring 30 junior analysts for a new base in the southern Spanish city of Malaga. They will be paid about half the $100,000 starting salary received by the 100 first-year analysts the bank hires annually in New York, Frankfurt or London. On the other hand, the Malaga team will not be expected to work long evening hours or sacrifice weekends.

Cynical readers attacked the plan, but I admire Citi’s imagination in looking to design jobs differently and escape the vicious circle of higher pay and higher risk of burnout. For my management challenge this week, put yourself in the shoes of a Malaga trainee seeking promotion to one of the core financial centres and explain the benefits of your Andalucían apprenticeship. Send your brief pitches to [email protected].

Two weeks ago, I asked you to suggest how incentives could be adjusted to punish failure, or at least avoid rewarding it. Sean Hackett took me to task. If an organisation needs to innovate and punishes failures, he wrote, “very few employees will take the risks associated with failing quickly and cheaply that are required in order to learn what kind of innovation(s) the market wants. To say it another way, if you want innovation, you need to reward good failure (not punish it)”.

In further reading, an intriguing leadership insight from Sifted, by Stephen Heitkamp, Arun Shanmuganathan and Sean West, co-founders of Hence Technologies, a start-up. They lay out why, for now at least, they have decided that none of them should be chief executive. Among other reasons, they write that “not having a CEO . . . helps us reject the cults of personality that plague tech start-ups”.

Top MBA schools for general management teaching

University of Virginia: Darden, US
Dartmouth College: Tuck, US
Harvard Business School, US
Iese Business School, Spain
SDA Bocconi School of Management, Italy
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India
Stanford Graduate School of Business, US
IMD Business School, Switzerland
Northwestern University: Kellogg, US, and Ipade Business School, Mexico

The top schools for management teaching as voted by alumni who responded to a survey for the FT MBA 2022 ranking. © Financial Times data

Data line: Quality of Online MBA interaction

Alumni data from the Online MBA 2022 ranking show that schools are becoming better at encouraging online interaction among their students, write Leo Cremonezi and Sam Stephens.

The percentage of graduates who gave the highest possible score — 10 — for schools’ performance in this area rose from 40 per cent in 2018 to 51 per cent in 2022. Scores for teamwork and professors’ availability have also improved over the past few years. Networking, however, could be better.

Chart showing effectiveness at delivering MBA course online

Further analysis of the FT’s Online MBA 2022 ranking can be found here.

Work and careers round-up

An MBA has barely helped me to progress — what next? Jonathan Black, careers service director at Oxford university, gives his advice.

What makes staff want to leave their jobs? Ask them Don’t wait for an exit interview to talk to employees — the ‘stay’ interview helps retain them in the first place.

PureGym chief: keeping faith in the business model Despite pandemic closures and failed IPOs, Humphrey Cobbold remains confident in the no-frills approach.

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Top FT reads in the past week

Ukraine and Russia explore neutrality plan in peace talks Fifteen-point draft deal would involve Kyiv renouncing Nato ambitions in return for security guarantees.

Biden and Xi fail to bridge differences over Ukraine war US president threatens ‘consequences’ if Beijing helps military as Zelensky calls for ‘meaningful’ talks with Moscow.

Ukraine war news from March 15: Nato calls Brussels summit, refugees fleeing Ukraine hit 3mn mark.