Michael Mische

This paper is a 10-year synthesis of 3 different rankings of the world's top 5 most innovative companies and the countries of origin, political & economic systems in which they were founded and operate and the speed at which they created shareholder value as measured by market cap growth.

The changes in the consulting industry and client perceptions and demands for service combine for a unique scenario for top business schools. The business school that recognizes these changes and responds with innovative curricula and programs will be in a superior position to provide the talent that the firms will be seeking and, thus, will accelerate in the rankings and increase in brand value. 

But which MBA programs are the “best” at training and preparing students for success in management consulting? To address that question, we analyzed the top 17 MBA programs as ranked by US News & World Report. Using 16 individual criteria, we then quantitatively evaluated and ranked 17 of the top US News 2107 MBA programs.

Formal business education at the collegiate level began in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in 1881. Other institutions, such as Dartmouth (1900) and NYU followed (1900). In 1908, the Harvard Business School was established and soon adopted Dean Langdell’s case method of teaching by adapting the “problem solving method” of teaching business to students. The “problem method” or “situational method” of business teaching incorporated elements of the case learning methods used in Harvard’s law school, as well as “Socratic” teaching methods applied to business.

However, legal education is very different from business school. The professional competencies, reasoning skills, vocabulary and subject matter are all different. As business evolved, it became more specialized, more scientific and increasingly more complex. Hence, business cases and business case teaching and learning methods have evolved into their own specializations that are uniquely separate and distinct from those used in laws school.

CasePro! is a 100-page manual on how to approach case analysis, perform case analysis and package and present case solutions. The book stresses hypotheses driven analysis and provides "roadmaps" for analyzing 15 different scenarios.