從MBA到MiM

從MBA到MiM
Masters in management: find the right fit
英國《金融時報》 德拉•布拉德肖 報道

When Miriam Tyrangiel graduated with a degree in design from Goldsmiths College in London in 2009, she realised she needed something extra to move into a business career.

2009年，米麗婭姆•泰蘭吉埃爾(Miriam Tyrangiel)畢業於倫敦金史密斯學院(Goldsmiths College)，並獲得設計學學位。那時她意識到，要想從事商業，她還需要學點別的。

“My interest in business developed over quite a few years, especially towards the end of my undergraduate degree,” she explains.

她說：“我對商業的興趣是多年來逐漸培養成的，尤其是臨近本科畢業的時候。”

So, she enrolled in a masters in management course at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

於是，她去攻讀了倫敦政治經濟學院(London School of Economics and Political Science)的管理碩士（Masters in Management，簡稱MiM，不同於管理學碩士Master of Management）項目。

Unlike an MBA, arguably the most widely recognised academic brand in the world, the MiM continues to evolve, with a multitude of different titles and programme lengths, and often no clearly defined target audience. In spite of this, it has already become one of the fastest-growing segments of the business education degree market.

工商管理碩士(MBA)或許是全球最廣為人知的學術品牌。與之不同的是，MiM還處在發展之中，名稱多種多樣，項目歷時長短不一，並且通常沒有非常明確的目標學員。盡管如此，它仍然成為了商學教育學位市場上增長最快的部分之一。

Although applications to MBA programmes in North America and Europe continue to decline as the economy slowly picks up after the financial crisis, the idea of a “pre-experience” masters degree in business has gained traction. Canadian business schools were the first in North America to recognise the value of teaching business to students with degrees as diverse as French, philosophy and physics before they entered the workplace. But even in the US, the backyard of the MBA, there is a growing attraction to this type of degree.

金融危機之後，經濟復蘇緩慢。在此背景下，北美和歐洲的MBA項目申請人數持續減少，但“無需工作經驗的”商學碩士學位的吸引力卻不斷增強。在北美，加拿大的商學院率先認識到，在擁有從法語、哲學到物理學等各科學位的學生進入職場之前向他們傳授商學知識，具有重要的價值。即使在MBA的大本營美國，這類商學學位也越來越具有吸引力。

The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester in New York state, for example, has adopted the concept of pre-experience masters degrees with gusto. “We’re evolving away from the Henry Ford approach of one colour to more diversity,” says Mark Zupan, dean, about his school’s decision to offer more than just an MBA.

例如，紐約州羅徹斯特大學西蒙商學院(Simon Graduate School of business at the University of Rochester)就十分積極地接受了“無需工作經驗”碩士學位的理念。“我們正在放棄亨利•福特(Henry Ford)那種只提供一種顏色產品的做法，轉向多樣化，”西蒙商學院院長馬克•朱潘(Mark Zupan)表示，他所領導的商學院決定不再只提供MBA項目。

Other business schools that have taken a similar stance are Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in North Carolina and Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona.

其他一些商學院也持類似的觀點，比如北卡羅來納州的杜克大學(Duke University)福庫商學院(Fuqua School of Business)和亞利桑那州的雷鳥國際工商管理學院(Thunderbird School of Global Management)。

In Russia, too, the market is opening. “Russia is still in transition,” says Valery Katkalo, dean of the Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University, which launched its English-language MiM in 1999. “But quite a number of top universities are developing MiM programmes.”

俄羅斯也正在開啟這一市場。“俄羅斯仍然處在轉型期，”聖彼得堡大學管理學院(Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University)院長瓦列里•卡季卡洛(Valery Katkalo)說，“但為數不少的頂尖大學都在發展MiM項目。”聖彼得堡大學管理學院1999年啟動了英語MiM項目。

These degrees gained currency during the recession, when those completing undergraduate programmes discovered it was almost impossible to get an appropriate job. But unlike the MBA, applications to MiMs continue to rise. At London Business School, applications are up 22 per cent this year, despite the price tag for the one-year programme of £24,000 ($39,000).

在經濟衰退期間，只讀完本科的人發現自己幾乎不可能找到合適的工作，於是MiM逐漸流行起來。與MBA的情況不同，MiM的申請人數持續增長。在倫敦商學院(London Business School)，盡管一年制MiM項目的學費高達2.4萬英鎊（合3.9萬美元），今年的申請人數仍然增長了22%。

Interest is particularly strong from continental European countries such as Germany, says Julia Marsh, executive director of the programme. “Traditionally, [Germans] have [needed] five years of study. Recruiters won’t recruit them if they don’t have a masters.”

該項目的執行董事朱莉婭•馬什(Julia Marsh)表示，來自歐洲大陸國家——比如德國——的興趣尤其強烈。“傳統而言，（德國人）要求5年學歷。招聘者不會招聘沒有碩士學位的人。”

The choice of programmes can be overwhelming: some require undergraduates with a degree in business, economics or social sciences; others are designed for those with degrees as varied as the arts or pure sciences. Certain courses are one year in length, others two. Some schools even have both.

供選擇的項目可謂令人眼花繚亂：有的項目要求申請者擁有商學、經濟學或社會科學本科學位；有的項目則是為藝術或純科學專業背景的人設計的。有的項目是一年制的，也有的項目是二年制的，有的商學院甚至兩者都提供。

LSE, for example, offers two different one-year degrees, aimed at those with prior knowledge in economics or business, and a two-year degree for those with unrelated degrees. “The two-year degree says we welcome you whoever you are,” says Dina Dommett, associate dean for programmes in the LSE department of management. “Those people who have been a bit more quirky have gone on to get very good jobs.”

例如，倫敦政治經濟學院為已具備經濟學或商學知識的人提供兩種不同的一年制項目，為非相關專業的人提供一種二年制項目。“二年制項目的口號是，不論你是誰，我們都歡迎，”倫敦政治經濟學院管理系負責MiM項目的副主任迪娜•多梅特(Dina Dommett)說。“那些經歷更加豐富多彩的人後來都找到了非常好的工作。”

Miriam Tyrangiel, the former design student who opted for the two-year LSE programme, is a case in point. “Because I had such a different undergraduate degree, I wanted to invest two years [rather than one],” she says.

泰蘭吉埃爾就是一個很好的例證。之前學習設計的她，選擇了倫敦政治經濟學院的二年制項目。她說：“因為我的本科學位與商學相去甚遠，所以我想投入兩年（而不是一年）時間來學習。”

Following a summer internship at Google in Dublin, Tyrangiel, who is Swiss, studied for a term at HEC in Paris. She is now planning to start a graduate trainee scheme for a large consumer goods company.

泰蘭吉埃爾是瑞士人。在谷歌(Google)都柏林分部進行了暑期實習後，她又在巴黎高等商學院(HEC)學習了一段時間。現在，她正打算參加一家大型消費品公司的畢業生見習計劃。

In France, the situation is more complicated still, says Jean Charroin, vice-dean at Audencia in Nantes. There, the traditional two-year grande école masters programmes, for elite French students, are taught alongside one-year masters in science degrees, usually taught in English, and the peculiarly French specialised masters degrees, where entry is limited to students who already have masters degrees from universities or engineering schools.

法國南特商學院(Audencia)副院長讓•沙魯安(Jean Charroin)表示，法國的情況還要復雜一點。在法國，為精英學生設置的傳統二年制高等專業學院(grande école)MiM項目，是與兩種項目一同教授的：一種是通常採用英語教學的一年制理科碩士項目，另一種是獨特的法語專業碩士項目，只招收已經擁有大學或工程學院碩士學位的學生。

Prof Charroin believes the success or failure of the various masters degrees should be left in the hands of the consumer. “The market is always right in the end,” he says.

沙魯安教授認為，不同碩士課程的成敗應該交由學生來評判。他說：“說到底，市場是永遠正確的。”

Elsewhere, particularly in the UK and US, the MiM also has to compete with growing swathes of specialised masters degrees – in financial engineering, business economics or marketing. While the MiM has a broad-brush approach to business, a specialised masters is highly focused.

在其他地方，尤其是在英國和美國，MiM還要與數目越來越多的新興專業碩士項目——比如金融工程學、商業經濟學或營銷學——展開競爭。MiM所授商學知識覆蓋範圍較廣，專業碩士項目所授知識則高度集中。

Some specialised masters and MiM degrees can even be credited towards an MBA. At the Simon school, for example, students with pre-experience masters degrees can return to study for an MBA in just one year. It is an option that is also under discussion at LBS.

有些專業碩士學位和MiM學位甚至可作為向MBA的過渡。比如在西蒙商學院，取得“無需工作經驗”碩士學位的學生，有資格在只工作一年後就回來攻讀MBA。倫敦商學院也在討論這種設置。

However, there are big differences between the content and teaching styles. The MiM teaches more functional and technical skills, rather than “big picture” MBA topics such as strategy and leadership. MiM students have a reputation for being more analytical than MBAs and quicker to grasp some of the issues.

不過，MiM和MBA的教學內容和方法存在很大差異。MiM教授更具操作性和技術性的技能，而不是戰略和領導力等側重“宏大圖景”的MBA課題。相較於MBA學生，MiM學生以更具分析能力和對某些問題領悟更快而著稱。

That said, MiM programmes are increasingly adopting many of the facets of the big-brother degree, such as international travel. At LSE, more than half of those on the one-year programmes study abroad for a term as part of their degree, as do 63 of the 103 students on the two-year programme. At St Petersburg University, every MiM student has to study overseas for a semester.

盡管如此，MiM項目正在越來越多地吸收“老大哥”MBA項目的許多方法，比如國際授課。在倫敦政治經濟學院，一年制MiM項目的學員有一半多在海外學習了一段時間，103名二年制學生中有63名赴海外學習。在聖彼得堡大學，每名MiM學生都必須到海外學習一個學期。

At Skema, the French business school with campuses in China, the US and France, overseas travel on three continents is de rigueur. “The thing is to think regional when you are global. You need to understand the regional and understand the global. Our challenge is to educate students to understand that,” says Alice Guilhon, dean.

法國的商科聯盟國際商學院(Skema)在中國、美國和法國設有校區，跨三大洲的學習已成常規。“目的是在全球化的背景下培養地區性思維。你需要同時具備地區和全球視野。我們的挑戰就在於教導學生明白這一點，”該學院院長艾麗斯•吉永(Alice Guilhon)說。

Coaching and mentoring is also a growing part of MiM programmes. At LBS, for example, both MBA students and alumni coach the MiM students.

輔導和指導式教學也日益成為MiM項目的組成部分。例如，在倫敦商學院，MBA學生和校友都會為MiM學生提供輔導。

For one student, it was coaching that helped develop her business ideas.

對一名學生而言，有助於培養其商業頭腦的正是輔導式教學。

Mei Wan Tan joined LBS with a mechanical engineering degree, specialising in food engineering. She had also completed a cookery course in Paris and started a home baking business. But one of the most influential parts of the course, she says, was getting advice from executives in the industry: the former chief executive of Cadbury and the director of pudding maker Gü.

Mei Wan Tan在進入倫敦商學院以前擁有機械工程學學位，專業是食品工程。她還在巴黎完成了烹飪課程的學習，並且開辦了一家家庭麵包店。她說，這個課程對她影響最大的部分，是獲得了業內高管——吉百利(Cadbury)的前首席執行官以及布丁生產商Gü的董事——的建議。