Last Friday brought the depressing news that nearly one in four Spaniards are now unemployed. Jobless rates among younger people are nearly 50%. Analysts talk of a “lost generation” but, as one famous Chinese proverb suggests, in adversity there is opportunity. Educated young talent in the European Union aren’t trapped in their home economies and [...]

Every now and th­en, events reveal the harsh realities of global affairs, in so doing, making a mockery of the rhetoric used by both the powerful and the powerless. Last week’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, DC, put paid to any notion that leading emerging markets can [...]

The “Greg Smith Affair” has received plenty of attention in last week’s press, as it should. Not many employees on the way out get to write New York Times articles about their former employers, and fewer take up the opportunity. Mr. Smith has said some damning things about the attitudes and behaviour of his colleagues [...]

Over six days last week all of our 32 full-time St. Gallen MBAs were put through a tough 70 minute oral exam, in front of a jury including a professor from a peer MBA programme, two private sector employers, and myself. What follows are my initial reactions to this innovation in the St. Gallen MBA [...]

Last weekend saw the conclusion of the latest World Economic Forum in Davos. For an event that doesn’t produce a communiqué–let along anything as grand as a treaty or even a lesser governmental accord–a surprising amount of ink is spilt divining the twist and turns of this alpine gabfest. It says much about the contemporary [...]

This morning the Financial Times published their worldwide ranking of full time MBA programmes for 2012, based on submissions from the 2008 graduating class. I am happy to report our MBA programme was ranked in the top 100 for the first time. Our worldwide ranking–at 93–implies our full time MBA programme is ranked 23rd within [...]

The Germans have made some pretty draconian proposals if the Greeks are going to get more cash. The proposals are reported on the front page of Friday’s (27th Jan) FT.  Surely any analysis of the reported German proposals needs, at a minimum, to take account of the following five matters: 1. It is important not [...]

One of the most remarkable featu­r­es of economic policy debates in 2011 was the reso­rt to arguments based on mo­r­ality, with the not-so-subtle im­plication that some behaviour is clearly good or bad irrespective of its conseque­n­c­e­s. With falling economic gro­wth threatening to disrupt government and private sector plans in 2012 leading to greater talk of [...]

Today’s Financial Times Business Education pages contains a cheap attack on MBA programmes written by Bettina von Stamm. Those who read newspaper columns will recognise all of the hallmarks of a scurrilous attack: appeals to authority and scripture (Mintzberg) rather than logic; many complaints but no concrete examples of bad practice; one-sided interpretations of statistics; [...]

Major economic crises don’t just claim the reputations of the odd banker, finance minister, or two. Part of the ensuing blame game also discredits certain widely held mantras that guide policymaking. The mad dash over the past week to “save the euro” looks like steps will be taken that will inadvertently claim two more such [...]