Stacy Blackman’s Weekly Roundup of B-School Intelligence

Another business school expands with China campus — France’s CERAM Business School is opening a campus in Suzhou, west of Shanghai. Students will spend 90 hours studying Chinese culture to help them quickly become operational in the country’s working environment. According to a recent Financial Times story on Chinese schools in ascendancy, “made-in-China business education, with China- relevant case studies and China-focused courses as drivers, will change both the content of business education worldwide and the competitive environment for business schools in China.”

More women than ever taking up business school deanships — In the early 1990s, a female business school dean was cause for much media coverage and scrutiny. Today, a greater number of woman have shattered that B-school glass ceiling and are making the role work for their unique career trajectories, BusinessWeek reports.

Harvard lecturer tells entrepreneurs “Take heart” –HBS senior lecturer Bhaskar Chakravorti has an positive outlook for entrepreneurs paralyzed by the state of the economy. In this Q&A on creative entreprenuership, Chakravorti identifies reasons for optimism and shows how you can think differently about bad news. This echoes a recent post on the three laws for increasing performance…hint: it’s all in your attitude.

Marketing strategies in play at Greg Hawkins’ “megachurch” — The current issue of Stanford Business has a fascinating feature on what happened when Hawkins (MBA ‘88), executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, commissioned one of the nation’s foremost marketing experts to survey the church’s members. When the survey showed the surprising result that one out of four congregants was dissatisfied and thinking of leaving the church, Hawkins used the research to better meet the needs of disgruntled parishioners.

UK finds MBAs holding strong, especially abroad — Having an MBA is still a ticket to success, says The Times. Investment banks continue to recruit graduates, albeit more selectively, but what’s unsure right now are the bonuses that constitute a huge chunk of compensation in this industry. The paper also points to a new trend of business school graduates starting their careers abroad. In China, MBAs are in high demand and can expect a salary boost of up to 126%.

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For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.

This week’s GMAT challenge from PrepForTests.com is a data sufficiency question.

Work out which of the statements 1 and 2 are required to answer the question.

A circular archery target contains a circular bull’s eye, shaded grey in the diagram above. If an arrow is equally likely to hit any point on the archery target what is the probability that the point at which it hits the target is within the bulls eye?

1. The archery target has a radius of 75cm
2. The radius of the bull’s eye is one fifth the radius of the archery target

1. Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient
2. Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient
3. BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient
4. EACH statement ALONE is sufficient
5. Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient

Have a go at answering this and then review your answer.

After listening to president/orator-in-chief Barak Obama’s first congressional address earlier in the week, I found this tidbit from the latest Stanford Business magazine really intriguing. Together with Stanford University’s vice president for public affairs David Demarest, senior lecturer of management JD Schramm used the 2008 presidential debates to help GSB students focus on the “power and pitfalls” of their own communication.

In a half-quarter elective called Political Communication, students dissected the candidates’ performances in the three presidential and one vice presidential debates. More than just an entertainment opportunity or current events discussion, “We challenged the students to consider the debates a prism through which they could reflect on their own communication abilities and apply lessons to their own lives,” Schramm writes. In their final papers, students applied what they’d learned to their careers.

So what did participants take away from the debates after scrutinizing governor Sarah Palin’s winks and the references to Joe the Plumber, ad nauseum, from both parties? The professor sums it up rather succinctly: communicating to large, diverse audiences requires discipline, flexibility, honesty and rehearsal to make sure the points you want to make are actually what listeners take away.

One student, bound for private equity, drew comparisons between the debate setting and his future role “presenting to management, limited partners, and colleagues on the appropriate leverage level for a cyclical business.” In both cases, the salient lessons are the same: “Be myself, come prepared, spin a good narrative, and demonstrate flexibility and thoughtfulness.”

Although few students in this political communication class will likely run for public office, they can use the debate lessons to improve their communities and companies by being authentic, prepared, flexible, and compelling, Schramm says, adding that there is one major drawback to using presidential debates as course text. “I now have to wait four years for another opportunity.”

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We are now on Facebook – please join the Stacy Blackman Consulting group, or become a friend of Stacy Blackman. I am posting news about MBA related events, job listings, and of course MBA news.

I am on Twitter too…click to follow me on Twitter! www.twitter.com/stacyblackman

For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.

Check out this week’s professor profile in our Back to B-School blog on BNET.  Jeremy Dann spoke with Kellogg’s Professor Loffler about healthcare reform (a topic I am personally passionate about!).

View Part 1 and Part 2 of his interview.

For those of you contemplating applying to business school this Fall, this type of more in depth information is critical to your application.  When you tell a school why you want to attend, or why you are a good fit, you need to do more than quote their homepage!  So take some time to find out the unique research going on at target schools and leverage that knowledge when you apply.