The topics covered in the various MBA programs not only need to be continuously adapted to current market developments, but also need to focus on future trends. At the moment, key topics include ethics and corporate social responsibility, globalization, entrepreneurship and innovation. Also, business schools will more and more focus on offering MBA programs which cover general management topics but also enable students to specialize in a chosen function or industry at the same time. The WU Executive Academy already offers such a two-tier MBA Program, the Professional MBA with 10 specialization options including Energy Management, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Controlling and Finance, Health Care Management, to name but a few. Each year, more than 200 participants enroll in the program.

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Univ.Prof. Bodo B. Schlegelmilch Ph.D., D.Litt., Dean WU Executive Academy and Institute for International Marketing Management

A big question is how MBA’s can accommodate the needs of the future generations of leaders and managers. Changes are taking place at an accelerated rate and society at large, organizations, individuals and their careers are continuously in transition. Business schools therefore will be pushed to innovate their MBA curriculum and accommodate new generations of learners to comply with the needs of the future.

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Jan Henk van der Werff is Director Corporate Sales and Recruitment at Tias Nimbas Business School and former vice president, Europe at University of Phoenix. He has profound experience in international business education and is engaged in projects in USA, Brasil, Mexico and India.

When there is a lot of uncertainty in the market place and situations arise that have never been faced before, it is essential for managers to use proven frameworks based on fundamentals.  The fundamentals of business remain the same, regardless of new developments in the markets, and we believe that good MBA programs should continue to focus on solid foundations in the fundamentals of data analysis, creative thinking and decision making. At the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, we focus on fundamentals to avoid chasing fleeting fads, thus allowing our graduates to sift through all the noise.  With these skills, executives will be able to capitalize on new technologies and properly evaluate opportunities in new growth areas, wherever they may lie.

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Rachel Waites is Associate Director, Corporate and Student Recruitment at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

Effective managers must be able to encourage entrepreneurship, inspire innovative behavior, and facilitate business execution that delivers results - this requires leadership skills. Hence, the emphasis on leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation in a diverse international context constitutes the essence of a true MBA.  These happen to be the distinctive features of the CBS MBA, but other MBA programs are likely to emphasize a different managerial focus.

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Torben Juul Andersen is Associate Dean of the Full-time MBA program at Copenhagen Business School. He is also Professor at the Centre for Strategic Management and Globalization.

The trend – as also in many other sectors – is progressing to an even higher adaptation of the product to the individual customer needs. For instance, in our full-time MBA program we offer four different international tracks and a series of electives from which every student can choose in accordance with their interests and career objectives. Additionally, part-time Executive MBA programs will continue to gain in importance. Yet these programs also have to provide a distinct, unmistakable profile if they want to succeed in the international market.

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Christian Homburg is President of Mannheim Business School and Professor of Marketing at the University of Mannheim in Germany. Christian Homburg ranks first in the Handelsblatt-Ranking of german-speaking professors for Business Administration.

I think the most powerful emerging trend is the inclusion within MBA curricula of topics related to sustainability and social responsibility.  Copenhagen 15 brought the issue of sustainability to a much heightened state worldwide.  It has become increasingly evident that b-schools must play a big role in tackling sustainability challenges as we move forward.   CEIBS was part of a pre-Cop15 conference hosted by PRME – a UN supported global initiative to promote responsible leadership in management education, research, and thought – that laid out an agenda for greatly strengthening the ways that b-schools address the issue of sustainability.  Given the enormous environmental and social challenges faced by China as it builds a modern economy, CEIBS is playing a leading role in innovating sustainability education.  This year, every MBA student at CEIBS is working on a Responsible Leadership Project that entails research and field work on a sustainability topic.  As far as we know, no other b-school as yet has made this a mandatory MBA requirement.  But schools around the world are innovating in their own ways, and I think we will see many new models and curricula going forward.

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Dr. Lydia J. Price is Professor of Marketing, Associate Dean and Academic Director of the MBA Program at CEIBS.