The Future of Business Schools

Since the mid-1990s, the demand for business education has surged worldwide to the obvious benefit of business schools. This favorable environment provides a great opportunity for business schools, particularly those located in high-growth economies. But it also raises a number of challenging issues, particularly for those located in mature countries, where demand for business schools' offerings may slow down. In this paper, the author reviews the challenges and examines the opportunities, arguing that in rapidly developing markets, the traditional business school model will most likely survive, assuming that it can be scaled up successfully to meet strong but standard demand for management education. In mature countries, it will have to evolve to satisfy a more complex environment with specific demands from both students and their employers. The implication is clear: in mature markets, top business schools will either transform themselves to meet those demands or cede some of the terrain to alternative providers of business education.