A Special Interview With GMAC CEO; Dave Wilson
Business education has come a long way since Dave Wilson was teaching MBAs at Harvard Business School in the 1970s. Wilson has been CEO of the Graduate Management Admission Council since 1995 and this makes him privy to the struggles and challenges MBA programs face globally. He has seen the MBA degree come under public and media scrutiny after the global financial crisis and during the dot com boom when ridiculing the MBA became popular. But in spite of some skepticism and setbacks, MBA education is thriving. Historically high numbers of applicants take the GMAT exam. In a two-part blog series with VisionPoint Marketing, Wilson explains why he thinks this is and what current and upcoming trends he sees in business education.
Hearing Wilson's voice on the phone early Monday morning is joyous. He's busy, but has boundless energy. He remembers me from my freelance reporting days, writing features on business education for the Economist and the Financial Times of London. Dave Wilson was always my expert quote — he knows his stuff, he gives lively and memorable quotes and always finds time for an interview.
The GMAC organization is thriving. In 2010, nearly 240,000 GMAT exams were administered. The exam is used by more than 5,000 programs at about 2,000 schools around the world. Seven years ago GMAC had 56 employees and now is at 135 people withfour offices including Hong Kong, London, Delhi and Northern Virginia.
Wilson sees multiple causes for the growth of GMAC and business education:
- The globalization of business education. Non-U.S. citizens accounted for more than half of all GMAT tests taken in the 2010 testing year, with growing numbers taking the GMAT in China and India. GMAC now has more than 550 test centers in 110 countries
- MBA programs have become better at marketing themselves and their graduate’s successes
- MBA programs use technology to their advantage, including social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. In fact, the Henry B. Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa recently asked applicants to answer an admissions question on Twitter. One candidate wrote a haiku — so we see more creative applicants too
- Career services and how MBA graduates conduct their job searches is more strategic, more effective. “We hear less carpet bombing approaches whereby the student sends the same generic application all over,” Wilson says
- The value proposition of the MBA itself has grown. Employers see MBA graduates are mature candidates and team workers who respond well to critiques. The case studies MBAs undergo “are like having a continuous 360° evaluation," he says
In our next blog, Wilson discusses women MBAs, military MBAs, online MBA education and the changing format for the GMAT exam.