MBA specializations are available in areas as wide and
varied as the career ambitions of the students they target. Depending on the
business school, you might also see specializations referred to as
concentrations or as tracks that can be taken, through elective course
offerings, within the confines of a traditional MBA program.
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With these nuances in mind, TopMBA.com recently took an
in-depth look at six of the most popular MBA specializations out there,
together with examples of how a top business school teaches that particular
topic of specialization.
Here now are five MBA specializations that are most commonly
associated with preparing its graduates to work, or advance, in a specific
industry. The list features concentrations in finance, healthcare, luxury
management, nonprofit management and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is
included on this list because, although startups formed by MBA graduates may
fall into any number of industries, making a decision to start and run a
business (and therefore to live the life of a full-time entrepreneur) is akin
to deciding on a career in a particular industry. Once again, examples of how a
leading business school approaches the topic are outlined. Read on to learn
more…
1. Finance
A finance MBA specialization is designed to help you advance
your finance career or to transition into a finance role. London Business
School offers a concentration built around a corporate finance core and a
selection of 20 different electives. While the corporate finance core looks at
the management of company finances and the frameworks used to make financial
decisions, the electives available include courses on mergers, private equity
and one entitled: ‘Distressed Investing’. The idea behind the electives is that
students can customize their finance courses to a specific area of focus. An
internship within the finance industry after the first year of the MBA program
and a faculty-supervised consulting project are among the program’s applied
learning, or experiential, opportunities.
2. Entrepreneurship
An entrepreneurship MBA specialization helps students start
businesses and act upon their ideas. At IE Business School, entrepreneurship is
not offered as a specialization but is “integrated from front to end in the
International MBA Program”, in the words of program director, Steven Thompson.
Critical entrepreneurial concepts and theories are introduced as part of the
program’s core curriculum, with subsequent access to the school’s startup and
venture lab initiatives offering students the chance to work on their own
business ideas. IE also offers approximately 12 entrepreneurship-themed
electives, with the aim of providing students with a roadmap for launching
their own companies.
3. Healthcare
A healthcare MBA is designed for students who want to work
in various areas of the healthcare industry, including: Healthcare delivery;
insurance and health benefits; pharmaceuticals; medical devices and other
healthcare technology. The healthcare management concentration at the
University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, for example, builds on
research and course offerings not only from Ross, but also from the wider
university.
In order to accommodate the diversity of student interests
around the field of healthcare, the concentration has no mandatory courses.
Instead, students are simply required to fulfill a set amount of credits
through their choice of healthcare-related courses, at least a quarter of which
must be obtained from courses offered outside of Michigan Ross (for example,
those available at the university’s public health and public policy schools).
Students can also receive credit for a healthcare-related Multidisciplinary
Action Project.
Action-based learning is an emphasis in this healthcare
management concentration as, indeed, is now so often the case with MBA programs
available at leading business schools. At Ross, one healthcare elective sees
students embark on a collaborative project with healthcare organizations in
less-developed countries. Another focuses on a week in Washington DC during
which students meet with health policy experts working both inside and outside
of government.
4. Luxury management
A luxury management MBA specialization is tailored for those
who wish to take on senior roles with luxury brands and companies. Specialized
luxury management MBA programs and concentrations have emerged because of the
specific skillset sought by employers in this industry.
In addition to elective courses in the subject area, MBA
students at HEC Paris can take certificates that are sponsored by the luxury
groups Kering and LVMH. The school has now been offering MBA electives in the
area of luxury management for six years and emphasizes its location in the
French capital as an ideal environment for studying the luxury business. One
case in point is HEC Paris’ ability to call on partnerships with the
aforementioned luxury groups as well as companies such as Porsche and Gucci (a subsidiary
of Kering).
Read more about the study of luxury brand management at
MBA-level in New York and Milan
5. Nonprofit management
“’Confluence’ is the new byword of the social impact sector.
Whereas commerce and charity were once viewed as separate streams of endeavor,
now the streams are flowing together - creating a stronger current and new
channels of activity and opportunity,” states David Stolow, faculty director of
the MBA specialization in public and nonprofit management at Boston University’s
Questrom School of Business.
The Questrom School’s Public and Nonprofit (PNP) MBA program
aims to address the juncture at which business and management fundamentals can
be used to create social value. It does this by exploring issues relating both
to private enterprise and nonprofits, as well as governmental organizations.
The curriculum covers the entire usual Education Loan for MBA terrain,
but with an ultimate goal of finding solutions to social problems as well as
organizational success. The program also considers the ways in which for-profit
corporations can create social value and, indeed, about half of its graduates
are said to progress to post-MBA jobs at blue chip companies, such as Nike and
IBM.
More specifically, students in Questrom’s specialization
study the same core courses as their ‘traditional’ MBA classmates, before
taking electives that are focused on social value, for example, ‘Marketing
Social Change’, ‘Leading the Mission-Driven Organization’, and ‘Social
Entrepreneurship’. There are also opportunities for students to test their
skills in the industry through, for example, consultancy projects and
participation in relevant conferences and case competitions.
Source: https://educationloansinindia.wordpress.com/2016/07/07/5-industry-specific-mba-specializations/
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