The Financial Times has confirmed Imperial College Business School's status as one of the world's top MBA providers.

The newspaper described Imperial as 'at the forefront of MBA teaching for a digital era'.

The FT Global MBA Rankings 2016 positioned Imperial’s MBA as the fourth best in the UK, and 35th worldwide. Imperial was also ranked as the sixth best business school in the world for entrepreneurship. 

The FT used its special business education supplement to showcase several ways in which Imperial’s MBA is at the leading edge, especially for the Business School’s innovative work in remodelling MBAs for the digital era. 

Annabelle Gawer, Associate Professor in Strategy and Innovation at Imperial College Business School (who recently joined the University of Surrey as Professor of Digital Economy), told the FT: “The MBA that used to be taught maybe 15-20 years ago in more traditional schools — a bit of strategy, a bit of finance, a bit of accounting — that was appropriate in a different time. Today, business is not just transactional. It is about engagement. We need to design experiences, not just produce and sell things.” 

Digital business

The FT reported that “Imperial College is at the forefront of MBA teaching for a digital era and teaches data science as a discipline. Its KPMG Centre for Advanced Business Analytics is underpinned by £20m of funding from the advisory firm and its Data Observatory, featuring an enveloping circular wall of monitors, is intended to enable visualisation of data in ways to help encourage new insights.”

Dr Gawer explained that MBA programmes must prepare students to run digital businesses “because today almost every business is digital”. She said: “The fusion of business and technology is at the heart of where the economy is going. I think our MBA participants understand that, corporations understand that and entrepreneurs and investors understand that.

“A large proportion of our students go on to work in start-ups. During their MBA they meet people with whom they will form their team — sometimes from the business school, but sometimes from other parts of the college which are developing the technologies.

“Companies have realised they need people who are very good at technology, good at business and good at working together.”

The full FT feature and MBA rankings can be viewed here.