Real value of MBA will remain even if market falls

The Insead File:The Insead class of 2007 came back to earth with a bump this month, when global financial markets reminded us that there's more to life than tests and grades, writes Niall S. Dunne.

When stock markets tumbled at the end of February, exam-related stress was briefly replaced by career-related panic; MBA students know that graduate recruitment will be postponed if the stock market tumbles.

However, just when some were starting to wonder what value the degree would carry in a recessionary world, the dead cat defied expectations and bounced, restoring students' confidence in next year's job market.

Yet even if the market falls, the real value of the MBA will remain. There's no doubt that the qualification is an important step on the career ladder, but, more importantly, the year-long course is also an incredible learning and personal development experience.

With one semester and five core courses now complete, it's clear that MBA lectures are designed to teach how academic concepts have relevant real world applications.

Take, for example, our microeconomics course, which, rather than focusing on theory, used models to illustrate how prices change over time in different types of markets.

Similarly, our introduction to accounting, instead of concentrating on ledgers and journal entries, focused on the interpretation of financial statements, explaining in detail how markets use such information to value stocks.

Our statistics course - with appropriate timing - taught us how to construct a low-risk investment portfolio, while simultaneously explaining the tools of statistical sampling.

And with the French presidential election now only a month away, it's good to finally understand just how opinion polls are constructed - and how reliable they are.

Academically, the curriculum is clearly designed to develop our all-round managerial skills, but our development isn't limited to textbooks.

Real world perspective is being delivered to the class directly from global business leaders. Recent guest lecturers have included the chairperson of Europe's largest private equity firm, and the chief executive of the world's largest beverage company.

Through lectures focusing on the concept of leadership, the class has also examined various managerial styles, and we have also discovered that, despite our diverse and multinational backgrounds, the vast majority of students share one thing in common - a "type A" personality.

If you're lucky enough to be blessed with a type A personality, you're likely to be a driven, determined and ambitious overachiever.

Of course, the typical type A is also a highly competitive workaholic, prone to stress, and incapable of relaxation.

Imagine, then, sharing a class with 60 such overachievers on a daily basis and you start to appreciate the realities of everyday MBA life.

Yet despite our collective impatience, we're proving to be a remarkably attentive class, no doubt because the subjects being covered are so fascinating.

Someone once said that education is the ability to listen to almost any other opinion without losing your temper, and given the range of opinions that are patiently assessed in our daily classes, then we must be receiving an education.

If there's one thing that the MBA makes abundantly clear, it's that an intelligent group of people can generate an incredibly broad range of answers when faced with the same problem.

It's an important life lesson - never assume that others will reach the same conclusion as you, no matter how seemingly obvious the answer.

Yet for all our different assumptions, and our diverse nationalities, we often share more in common than we initially realise.

Take cricket, for example. Watching Ireland progress in the World Cup along with my Indian classmates illustrates perfectly how we share similar interests, despite our different nationalities.

The majority of the class also shares a sense of confusion when it comes to commerce in France.

Whenever students meet, you can be sure that conversation will eventually turn to France's unique business practices.

Consider the relatively simple process of exchanging a faulty good at a supermarket.

Even for those who speak French, the returns process involves speaking with seven different customer services representatives, and the completion of two different forms.

With such labour intensive systems in place, it's hard to understand why French unemployment is so high.

Our collective confusion also extends to the French political system, which is dominating local media in the run-up to April's election.

The presidential hopefuls' varying responses to the announcement of recent manufacturing layoffs lies behind our confusion.

The socialist candidate declared the decision of a profitable company to relocate a portion of its manufacturing operations to Asia as "unacceptable".

Perhaps the socialists are playing to the galleries, or perhaps they seriously propose to limit profitable companies' freedom to make operational decisions.

Yet learning about the complexities of French politics is only one part of the overall MBA learning experience.

In short, we're slowly beginning to realise that the MBA is all about learning what you didn't even know that you didn't know.

The return on our investment might take longer to realise if markets fall in the year ahead, but the investment is gilt-edged, and given time, it will mature.

Niall.S.Dunne@gmail.com