欧洲商学院寻找发展亮点

Not many people get to pursue their hobby as a full-time job. But such is the opportunity at east London-based technology company Songkick, a service that gives music fans the ability to track their favourite bands and book tickets for their gigs before they sell out. It is one of a new breed of recruiters hiring MBA students.

没有多少人能有机会把业余爱好作为全职工作。然而位于伦敦东部的科技公司Songkick就提供了这种机会，该公司为音乐迷提供一种服务，使他们能跟踪喜欢的乐队，并且能预订乐队演唱会的门票以防门票售罄。该公司是聘用MBA学员的新一类雇主。

Already two of the 30 staff at the company have London Business School MBAs, says David Anderson, operations director there, and now that Songkick is hiring for a business development supremo, it has turned to LBS again. -“Because we’ve had success from LBS in the past, we have explored that as a possibility.

公司运营总监戴维·安德森(David Anderson)表示，该公司30名员工中已有两人拥有伦敦商学院(London Business School)的MBA学位。如今，该公司打算招聘一名业务发展主管，因此又把目光转向了伦敦商学院。“由于我们过去在伦敦商学院的招聘很成功，所以这次也在这里寻找机会。

Like many MBA recruiters these days, Songkick is hiring for a specific job, not indulging in the mass hiring programmes that characterised recruitment as recently as five or six years ago. “The days of relying on the big recruiters are over, says Fiona Sandford, director of career services at LBS. “We just can’t rely on the A-list recruiters knocking on our door.

和如今许多MBA的招聘方一样，Songkick是针对某个具体的工作岗位招聘，而不是展开大规模招聘项目——五到六年前招聘活动还是以大规模招聘为特点。伦敦商学院就业服务负责人菲奥娜·桑福德(Fiona Sandford)表示：“依赖大规模招聘的时期已经结束，我们不能指望一流招聘企业找上门来。

It is not just in London that this trend applies. At Iese Business School in Barcelona, for example, companies in high tech and telecoms, luxury goods and pharmaceuticals top the list of recruiters for MBA graduates over the past year, replacing the traditional banking and consultancy firms. Indeed the top MBA recruiter at Iese this year was Amazon.

这一潮流并非只出现在伦敦。例如在巴塞罗那的Iese商学院(Iese Business School)，在过去一年招聘MBA毕业生的公司中，高科技、电信、奢侈品以及制药行业的公司取代传统的银行与咨询公司，列于招聘公司的榜首。实际上今年在Iese商学院招聘最多的是亚马逊公司(Amazon)。

And Iese’s neighbour, Esade Business School, reports a further trend – job placement outside Europe, and particularly outside Spain. In 2008, 67 per cent of Esade’s MBA graduates got jobs in Europe. Now that has dropped to 59 per cent.

Iese商学院旁边的Esade商学院(Esade Business School)报告了更进一步的潮流：毕业生在欧洲之外尤其是西班牙之外找到工作。2008年，67%的Esade商学院MBA毕业生在欧洲找到了工作。如今这一比例只有59%。

The figures are starker for the Spanish job market. In 2008, a third of all Esade MBA graduates got a job in Spain on graduation; the latest figures show that is down to 17 per cent, says Pollyanna Nethersole, associate director of admissions for executive education.

西班牙就业市场的数据则更为明显地反映了这一趋势。Esade商学院行政教育录取办公室的副主任波丽安娜·内瑟索尔(Pollyanna Nethersole)表示，2008年三分之一的Esade商学院MBA毕业生在西班牙找到了工作，而最近的数字显示这一比例已下降至17%。

These statistics throw some light on the effects of the prolonged economic problems in Europe and continued economic uncertainty looks set to have a long-term impact on business schools, says Philippe Haspeslagh, dean of Vlerick Business School in Belgium.

比利时弗拉瑞克商学院(Vlerick Business School)院长菲力浦·哈斯普斯劳格(Philippe Haspeslagh)表示，这些统计数字在一定程度上表明，欧洲旷日持久的经济问题以及持续的经济不确定性开始对商学院产生的长期影响有多大。

“What is very clear now is that businesses are not expecting a rapid recovery. So most schools will have felt a softening since the summer, he says.

他说：“目前很明显不能指望商业活动出现迅速复苏。因此夏季以来多数商学院应已感到了一定的疲弱态势。

This applies to executive education courses in particular. Companies are postponing courses, he says, taking longer to make decisions and taking longer to pay. But he believes one positive trend in the market is that for executive MBAs – MBAs for working managers. “People do an EMBA because it’s a good investment in their careers and prospects, Prof Haspeslagh says.

哈斯普斯劳格说，经济形势的影响对行政管理课程尤其明显。他表示公司现在需要更长时间才能做出决定，也需要更长时间才能付款，这导致课程被推迟。然而他相信行政管理教育市场中，有一种课程面临积极趋势，那就是EMBA课程，即为行政管理人员打造的MBA课程。“人们参加EMBA项目是因为，这是对他们职业生涯及职业前景的一项有益投资，哈斯普斯劳格说。

With fees for these programmes often topping $100,000, EMBAs are sometimes seen as the cash cows of business schools. As a result, enrolments often rise in recessionary times, particularly at the more highly ranked schools, which increase their intakes. Both Insead and London Business School have expanded their EMBA programmes over the past four years, which means that schools such as IMD in Switzerland, Cranfield in the UK and IE Business School in Spain have seen numbers decline on their ranked EMBA programmes – IMD enrolled 64 students on its EMBA programme in 2008, for example, but just 38 in 2012.

由于EMBA课程的学费往往超过10万美元，EMBA课程有时会被商学院视作摇钱树。因此，在经济衰退时期EMBA课程的注册人数经常会增加——尤其是排名更高的学校更是如此，它们的入学人数因此增加。过去四年里，欧洲工商管理学院(INSEAD)和伦敦商学院均扩充了其EMBA项目，结果排名较低的瑞士洛桑国际管理发展学院(IMD)、英国克兰菲尔德管理学院(Cranfield School of Management)以及西班牙IE商学院(IE Business School)这类商学院的EMBA项目入学人数减少。以IMD为例，2008年该校EMBA项目注册学生人数为64人，而2012年则只有38人。

One real ray of hope for European business schools, though, is for pre-experience business students, in particular for both enrolments to masters in management programmes and job opportunities for their graduates. While the jobs markets for MBA and masters in finance alumni has remained tough, recruitment at the more junior level is strong. “There is a real shift to the more junior programmes, especially for financial services, says Nethersole. “Because of the recession, people have tighter budgets, they are more risk averse.

不过对欧洲的商学院来说，真正的希望在于为无工作经验的商科学生提供的课程，尤其是管理硕士课程，学生不但注册积极，而且毕业时工作机会也不错。尽管MBA以及金融硕士的就业市场形势依然严峻，对学历相对较低人员的聘用需求却很强劲。内瑟索尔表示：“确实出现了向较低级别课程的倾斜，特别是金融服务领域。由于经济衰退，人们的预算更为紧张，也更规避风险。

Sandford agrees. “The analysts market is the biggest, so if you’re in this market it feels a lot easier. Our masters in management rock the analysts market.

桑福德对此表示同意：“最大的就业市场是分析师市场，因此如果你在这个市场中，那你的日子会好过得多。我们的管理硕士在分析师市场中深受欢迎。

It is not just the worry about getting a job on graduation that has affected business school enrolments. For many, just getting the appropriate visa to study in Europe is problematical. Though the problem is perceived to be particularly acute in the UK, there are issues across Europe, says Prof Haspeslagh. “Every year we have some students who do not get through [the visa process] in time.

影响商学院注册人数的不仅仅有对毕业后能否找到工作的担心。对许多人来说，能否取得在欧洲求学的合法签证也存在未知之数。哈斯普斯劳格说，尽管英国的签证问题被认为特别尖锐，但实际上整个欧洲都有这个问题。他说：“我们每年都有一些学生不能及时完成（签证手续）。

Like other business school deans, Prof Haspeslagh is outspoken on the issue. “In general, European governments are shooting themselves in the foot by not putting the programmes in place to identify and attract talent.

和其他商学院院长一样，哈斯普斯劳格对这个问题也是直言不讳。“总的来说，欧洲各国政府没有采取发现和吸引人才的必要措施，这意味着他们正在搬起石头砸自己的脚。

The visa issue is just one reason why European business schools are looking to take their teaching overseas – going to the students rather than relying on the students coming to them. China and Singapore have led the field, followed by the Middle East, Brazil and the US. Now Africa is the trending place to be.

签证问题是欧洲商学院正寻求将教学移至海外的原因之一——这样它们就可以靠近生源而不是由学生前来就读。在分校的选址方面中国和新加坡首当其冲，随后是中东、巴西和美国。如今非洲也成为分校建设热潮的目的地之一。

The French business school Essec, for example, which announced at the beginning of November that it was building an extensive new campus in Singapore, has recently begun investigating the possibility of a third campus in Mauritius, says Jean-Marie Ardisson, director of Essec corporate education. “We believe some parts of Africa and the Gulf will be important and we want to be part of the trend.

以法国Essec商学院为例，11月初该校宣布正在新加坡建设新的大面积校园，如今Essec商学院企业教育主管让-玛丽·阿尔迪松(Jean-Marie Ardisson)表示，该校最近开始考察在毛里求斯建设第三个分校的可能。“我们相信非洲部分地区以及海湾地区将会很重要，我们希望能成为潮流的一部分。

Essec has begun by setting up consortium programmes for major companies in Mauritius and its African neighbours, as part of the country’s attempts to set up an educational hub in the region to compare with Singapore. “I do believe it makes sense to invest for two to three years and see how it goes, says Prof Ardisson. “We have responded to the proposal of the Mauritian government in a similar way to the way we responded in Singapore a decade ago.

作为开端，Essec商学院已为毛里求斯及其非洲邻国的大公司设立了联合项目，毛里求斯希望借此建设该地区类似新加坡的教育中心。阿尔迪松表示：“我完全相信投资两到三年以观后效的办法是可行的。我们对毛里求斯政府做出的回应，与十年前对新加坡政府做出的回应类似。

Pierre Tapie, dean of Essec, has made no decision on the issue. “The need for business education is growing worldwide. The question is whether our third campus will be in the giants of China or India, or whether it will be in Africa. The demand is there – the growth is in Africa.

Essec院长皮埃尔·塔皮(Pierre Tapie)对这个问题还没作决定。“全世界商业教育的需求都在增长。问题在于我们第三家分校是该建在中国和印度这样的大国，还是应该建在非洲。非洲是肯定有需求的，非洲有实实在在的增长。