Creative MBA

CREATIVE MBAs PROSPER

CREATIVE MASTERS NOT ALL MBAs END IN A CAREER IN THE CITY. SPECIALISED COURSES ARE NOW TEACHING CREATIVITY AS WELL AS BUSINESS

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FASHION, LUXURY AND HORSES. Not what you might expect to learn about on an MBA course. But a growing number of people are choosing to study more than the business basics. Whether you want to work within the creative media, the luxury goods sector or even run a riding school, there is a business course to match.

With the finance and banking industries, the usual target for MBA students, in turmoil, specialist and creative courses are becoming increasingly popular.

Despite – or perhaps because of – the economic downturn, 2009 was a record year for business school applications, according to the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), the body who monitor MBA applications. There was a 25 percent rise in demand in Europe alone, and the GMAC say that specialist MBAs played a large part in this.

But are the extra skills taught on specialist courses actually valuable in the workplace? Dr John Oliver, who

runs the Professional Doctorate in Creative Industries at Bournemouth University, says yes. “Media is a creative industry, where your ideas are your currency. Naturally, essential management techniques are important, but to learn how to manage creative people and the creative process is something you would not learn on a generic MBA course.”

Some courses are using scientific methods to understand the creative process and fine-tune product development – for example, using psychology to understand why consumers pick one luxury perfume over another. Others are tailoring standard business concepts to the industry in question, such as the MBA in Equine Business Management at the Royal Agricultural College, which focuses on information relevant to small businesses rather than big corporations.

As a result, graduates have a better cross-section of skills than from a cookie-cutter MBA. Antoine Tirard,

MASTER’S PIECES: One of the award-winning designs that helped launch jewellery designer Dave McCaul’s sparkling career

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recruitment director of luxury conglomerate LVMH, told Bloomberg Businessweek: “One of our biggest challenges is to find top international talent that can combine strong financial awareness, good managerial skills and an intuitive understanding of the creative process. It’s a rare mix.”

Of course it helps if you have a broad background already. “Specialist MBAs are principally suited for more experienced people who have already had a career in a specific industry or know what industry they want to focus on,” says Oliver, “while standard MBA courses tend to be filled with people looking to gain general management skills without wanting to focus on any particular career.”

And with more MBA applicants than ever, you need anything that can set you apart. Rachel Killen, from the Warwick Business School, one of the more traditional and prestigious MBA providers, notes that while the economic situation had a direct effect on private MBA sponsorship, it did not seem to deter students from enrolling in courses.

“Although the school did see a very rapid decline in the number of students receiving company sponsorship in 2009, the overall number of applicants for the Executive MBA remained steady,” she says. What this indicates is that, despite a drop in private support, people are still viewing studying for an MBA as a worthwhile investment in their career.

CASE STUDIES

SPECIALIST MBA COURSES MBA International Sport Management Coventry University Business School, +44 (0)24 7688 7688, www.coventry.ac.uk MBA Luxury Brand Marketing Glasgow Caledonian University (London), +44 (0)20 3369 3000, www.gculondon.ac.uk

THE DESIGNER

THE GAP YEARER

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Irish-born David McCaul has always known what career he wanted. But starting his own jewellery design company has demanded years of training.

A recent graduate of London Metropolitan University from a part-time two-year course, 31-year-old McCaul’s education has given him the chance to study in Stuttgart, Florida and Dublin, and to work under master goldsmith Gerald Heinrich and leading London jewellery designer Ben Day. McCaul’s business recently took a large step forward, when he opened his own shop in central London [www.mc-caul.com]. But he is still keen to keep developing his talent. “It wasn’t so much jewellery that interested me at first, but the processes and techniques involved in making it.”

London Metropolitan University, +44 (0)20 7133 4202, www.londonmet.ac.uk

Having spent over a decade working in events management, Natasha Wilson decided that she needed a break from her career.

Opting against going travelling as “everyone else seems to do”, the 36-year-old decided to gain an MBA that focused on an area that she had a genuine interest in, choosing to do Equine Business Management at the Royal Agricultural College.

Now a partner at an events management company, Wilson says that, despite the equinefocus, it was never her sole intention to work with horses.

“My MBA taught me the ins-and-outs of running a small business,” she says. “Learning the techniques of managing a small business via a medium of something I love was great.”

Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, +44 (0)1285 652531, www.royagcol.ac.uk

After a decade of on-the-job training, John Macaulay, 32, enrolled in an MBA to achieve his goal of working for himself.

Despite his position as logistics manager for Allied Bakery – a baked goods supplier to leading British supermarkets – Macaulay “sometimes felt as if I was making things up as I went along.”

Now the director of niche events company Bearhunt, he says that not only did studying at Manchester teach him the building blocks of good business management, but helped him make great contacts.

“Being in a class of over 130 people from all over the world helped me out immensely,” he says, “I even went into business with one of the visiting guest lecturers.”

Manchester Business School, +44 (0)161 306 1320, www.mbs.ac.uk

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MBA Product Design Cardiff School of Management, +44 (0)29 2041 6044, www.uwic.ac.uk/csm MBA Creative Industries Management University for the Creative Arts (Rochester), +44 (0)1634 888702, www.ucreative.ac.uk MBA (Media) Bournemouth University, +44 (0)1202 965371, www.bournemouth.ac.uk