Director's Message Archives
October 2006
Message from the dean:
Recent rankings
Several top publications have recently released their business school rankings. While these are often an imperfect reflection on the quality of MBA programs, we have committed to build a consistent reputation as a top-10 school of management, a perception among our stakeholders and customers that will be influenced by media rankings. Recent results show the school moving in a direction that we would rather not see. We have performed well on some surveys in recent years, but we recently moved from #7 to #13 in 2006 Business Week survey and from #17 to #23 worldwide in The Economist Intelligence Unit (Which MBA?) ranking.
There are some areas where we scored well. In Business Week, we were again one of only seven schools to receive straight A's from recruiters and students, and we also scored third overall in "intellectual capital," which measures faculty research and publishing. Our placement rate at graduation-as reported by students who responded to the survey- was also second only to Stanford (and tied with Wharton). In The Economist, we were 3rd for diversity of recruiters, rated 6th by students for the education experience, and 8th for effectiveness of our alumni network. More on the results and methodology can be found online at: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/ and http://mba.eiu.com/.
We learn as much as we can from every ranking (regardless of our standing) about how the Johnson School was assessed and perceived. We have made real progress in recent years in executing the initiatives in our five-year plan to capitalize on Cornell Connections, to develop our unique Performance Learning approach for taking theory to practice, and to fostering the Intense, Collaborative Community that is an historic trademark of the Johnson School. Yet, we need to do more to make these strategies come alive and to let everyone know about the many improvements we have made.
Accelerating progress on our initiatives and telling our story are the important challenges in front of us. We will be holding small group discussions with students, faculty, and staff about ways in which we can step up progress on our programs as well as better get the word out into the marketplace. As alumni, you have a valuable perspective based on your knowledge and your experience here and in the business world. I welcome your thoughts on these important matters and encourage you to send your ideas to jsdean@cornell.edu.
You also can help in another important way. Several rankings increasingly rely on alumni feedback. In recent surveys (such as the Financial Times and The Economist) we have had very low response rates from alumni, compared with peer schools. This can lead to unrepresentative samples and sample results, particularly on key data such as salary. If you are invited to participate, I encourage you to do so.
We have seen in the past how much we can move this school when we all are energized and pull together. We will do the same this year. Thank you for your engagement on this important topic and your participation in future rankings surveys.
Robert J. Swieringa
Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean
