All great business leaders need to have the flexibility and critical mindset to be able to negotiate these complex times. This is one of the main topics covered in PrepAdviser’s recent webinar hosted in collaboration with Alliance Manchester Business School (UK).

Xavier Duran, MBA Program Director at Alliance Manchester Business School, was the guest speaker of the masterclass. Mr. Duran focused on the critical thinking capabilities necessary to succeed as a business leader and MBA graduate. He also synthesized the main aspects that make Manchester MBA programs relevant for the needs of today’s business professionals.

He maintains that there are five crucial skills that every aspiring leader should develop and continuously improve:

  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Creativity
  • Critical thinking
  • Building confidence

The essence of the MBA

“The MBA is a general business and management qualification that gives graduates a holistic overview of how organizations work and how we manage within them,” Mr. Duran explains. The generalist nature of the degree, he believes, has never been more relevant because the business leaders of the future will need to be fully prepared for all the different aspects of organizational management.

At the same time, seeing the big picture in your organization is just as important. At Alliance Manchester Business School, this “helicopter view” is achieved through a Strategy course which brings all business and management topics together.

Still, the MBA experience is much richer than the courses it teaches. In fact, the personal and professional networks that business school participants develop are among the key sources for their career development. These networks stay with graduates for a lifetime, Mr. Duran reiterated.

If you are interested in hearing more about the characteristics of the MBA degree, you can use the link above to watch this masterclass in full.

A new world

International MBA programs have been evolving continuously since the creation of the format in 1908 until the present day. For example, programs offered in Europe, and specifically in the UK, feature increasingly global curricula and attract students from all over the world. This diversity is highly prized by international business schools.

New formats have also been disrupting the MBA experience, bringing new opportunities and innovative study approaches to ambitious learners. According to the MBA program director of Alliance Manchester Business School, blended programs (also known as “hybrid” in the US) entered the market after the 1990s and have provided students with more fresh perspectives.

Get an overview of the latest trends in business education by watching the masterclass recording in full.

Dealing with uncertainty

While Mr. Duran revealed a lot of useful insights related to the MBA experience, perhaps the most important takeaways can be found in his explanation of the three main characteristics of great business leaders. He believes that every successful professional needs to be:

  • Globally available and mobile
  • Socially responsible
  • Versatile and agile

The masterclass pays particular attention to the importance of agility and the way it is demonstrated by business professionals in our complex international environment.

Rupert Liddington, from the MBA Marketing and Recruitment team at Alliance Manchester Business School, also joined in for the Q&A session of this masterclass. He discussed the admission deadlines of the Full-time and Part-time programs in more detail.

You can gain additional insights about the admissions process, including the school’s perspective on GMAT and GRE scores, by watching the full webinar.