Our choice as 2013 Dean of the Year is an easy one to make: Nitin Nohria of Harvard Business School continues to set the pace among leaders of the world’s top MBA programs and thus deserves this distinction.
First, there are hard numbers on his “report card” that make this case. Dean Nohria led Harvard to the highest overall rankings for all business schools, including #1 by Poets and Quants, #1 by FT.com, #2 by BusinessWeek.com and #3 by Forbes. Second, the MBA applicant universe has voted Dean Nohria’s brand and offerings as most compelling with a top enrollment yield of 89.3%. And thirdly, the corporate marketplace confirms the value of earning an MBA on Dean Nohria’s watch by paying HBS grads average starting compensation of $142,000 — highest among all b-schools.
However, it’s the scope, scale and consistency of his strategic impact that distinguish Dean Nohria most. The five imperatives that he set in 2011 continue to provide focus and metrics for progress: Innovation, Intellectual Ambition, Internationalization, Inclusion and Integration.
The pragmatic Field Immersion Experiences in Leadership Development (FIELD) course and the evolving elective curriculum have become convincing reasons for pursing a 2-year HBS MBA rather than the increasingly popular 1-year option at other schools. And the HBS value proposition for alumni is more attractive than ever with the recent completion of Tata Hall for executive education.
Dean Nohria’s faculty reign as recognized thought leaders in management, according to Thinkers50, a biennial ranking published last month. HBS led all institutions with 9 of the top 50 spots, including #1 Clay Chistensen.
The W50 summit commemorated the 50th anniversary of female admits to the two-year MBA Program with a promise to accelerate the advancement of women as leaders in business and society. A record 41 percent of the HBS MBA Class of 2015 is female. The Dean — who considers himself a feminist — concluded his remarks to the audience with the words, “We need you.”
And during the past year, we learned about a new online education initiative now in development under Dean Nohria. Unafraid to venture beyond the iconic case-method honed in HBS classrooms in past decades, Dean Nohria’s administration is working on an initiative, called HBX, that will deliver business education through online products.
So, by all measures, quantitative and qualitative, The MBA Exchange selects for Dean Nitin Nohria as our B-School Dean of the Year.
With a consulting team that includes a former associate director of MBA admissions plus 9 proud MBA grads from HBS, we’re huge fans of the program. If you’re a future applicant who thinks Dean Nohria’s HBS may be the MBA program for you, then let us provide a free evaluation that confirms whether you’re a competitive candidate for them!
