Managing Business Schools to Weather Economic Change

16 Pages Posted: 4 Jun 2009 Last revised: 7 Jun 2009

See all articles by Joe D'Cruz

Joe D'Cruz

affiliation not provided to SSRN

David Soberman

University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management; INSEAD

Date Written: June 3, 2009

Abstract

Many business schools are heavily dependent on revenues from executive education: they are feeling the impact of the current economic turmoil. Schools such as Wharton, INSEAD and Kellogg to name a few, have seen registrations for open enrolment programs plummet and their business for in-company programs shrink as clients cancel, postpone, reduce and in some cases bring management training in-house. Certainly, business schools can react to this challenge by reallocating resources to degree-based programmes (like the MBA) for which demand increases in a recession. Nevertheless, a fundamental question for business schools is “How can one make executive education less cyclical and vulnerable to cuts in a downturn?” The following article presents a series of strategies that business schools can adopt to stabilize executive education and make it less vulnerable to the substantial reductions in discretionary spending that occur in a recession.

Keywords: recession, discretionary spending, cyclicality, evaluation, certification, piggybacking, open enrolment programme, in-company training

Suggested Citation

D'Cruz, Joe and Soberman, David, Managing Business Schools to Weather Economic Change (June 3, 2009). INSEAD Working Paper No. 2009/27/MKT, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1413794 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1413794

Joe D'Cruz

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

David Soberman (Contact Author)

University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management

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