The website for the Barcelona Management Institute is being updated. I would be interested in any thoughts on what works and what doesn't. www.barcelonami.org

By the way, your feedback will be part of a discussion based on the article in the most recent Wired http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/wired40_ceo.html

pros and cons welcome

I think the new website looks more professional than the old one. In my opinion the old BMI website looked a bit like it was set up by a degree mill as it did not have enough information about the school and its background.

The new website has more information in this regard. For instance, one of the most important question all prospective MBAs ask themselves will be: Is the school accredited? I did not find any answer to this question on the old website. Now the FAQ deal openly with this:

"The two most reputable European accreditation bodies, EQUIS and AMBA, require institutions/programs to publish a specified amount of research for accreditation, among other criteria. BMI is not a research-oriented institution. Whereas many universities focus on contributing to the body of knowledge that businesses will draw on in the future, BMI?s resources are focused on developing business leaders today. "
http://www.barcelonami.org/about%5Fbmi/faq/

I prefer an honest statement like this. Some other schools don't mention the big accreditation organizations at all but only refer to accreditations of organizations no one has ever heard of. Prospective MBAs who have done some research about MBA programs know that AACSB, AMBA and Equis are the ones they should look out for. So I think if a school is not accredited by these organizations they should say why not.

Some more things:

- The headings on the main page (Applications, Ask Me About BMI, Professors...) should be made clickable.

- The quality of some GIFs is not good. http://www.barcelonami.org/barcelonami/professors/professors%5Fat%5Fbmi/

- As a prospective MBA I am not really interested in "Barcelona News", but in the quality of the school and its courses (still not convinced...)

- Why rocks?

Thank you very much for the feedback jukolo. Additional feedback from yourself and others on the forum is greatly appreciated.

Allow me start from the bottom and work up...(and you may want to find a comfortable chair to sit in as this post is too long).

Good point. The rocks are too "local" a reference. They are / It is Montserrat - the defining geographical symbol for Barcelona (they inspired Antoni Gaudi to build Sagrada Familia) and chosen to communicate strength and aspiration. However, if you live outside of Barcelona they are, in fact, just rocks :-). The photo is being replaced with a series taken from Montjuic (home of the Barcelona Olympic stadium) and should evoke a stronger sense of the city. Please let me know your thoughts. http://www.barcelonami.org/barcelonami/about_bmi/new_photos/ (this is the only way to access the photos now - no direct link on the site)

Still not convinced...BMI is not for everyone, but this is the challenge we are attempting to solve by getting direct feedback on the site in this forum. The previous site communicated about a Phaeton like it was a Golf (Volkswagen, that is) as in, ?There is an interior? rather than ?The interior is napa leather and mahogany? etc. This version still has a long way to go. When students who did their undergrad at Stanford and Professors from the top schools in the world experience the program first hand and are surprised by its strength you know the message was not communicated as clearly as it could have been.

You are right. The Barcelona News section is a different choice. It is included because all students in the program come from outside of Barcelona and want to know what their life beyond the 56.25 hours a week spent in the program will be like. It is a popular page based on analysis (Google Analytics) of the site that I have seen.

Correct. The quality of some the .gifs can be improved. They will be updated this coming week (the week of May 21).

Good usability point. The headings should be clickable. The site is designed to be accessible by the visually impaired (see the font buttons on the top right) but this is a minus for usability and will also be corrected next week.

On the accreditation issue. That statement was on the old version of the site but the navigation could have been better. BMI has decided to move forward with AMBA accreditation - a three year process - because it is nice to have (though far from essential as the MBA is a terminal degree) and AMBA is the best fit for the teaching focus of BMI (as opposed to research). The full criteria for AMBA accreditation is listed here: http://www.mbaworld.com/downloads/accreditation/MBACriteria.pdf

I agree that the old site was deficient. Thanks for the smart, helpful comments jukolo.

Still not convinced...BMI is not for everyone, but this is the challenge we are attempting to solve by getting direct feedback on the site in this forum...

Thanks again for the feedback.

You are right to point out that ?new-ness? has its upsides and downsides and they can be communicated more clearly on the site. We will implement the changes below next week.

Upside of ?new-ness? - It means you must be doing something different. What would be the reason to start a business school that is exactly like existing business schools?

In BMI?s case the difference is in three areas: top professors from top programs (this is the co-operation with other institutions), international focus and integrated, skills based curriculum. It is a new approach to the MBA developed by the Academic Director, Dr. John Branch (University of Michigan, Cambridge University, Oxford University) and the reason that the Financial Times Conferences recently profiled the business school (see their footage here www.barcelonmi.tv )

Downside of ?new-ness? ? Alumni. Though a large minority of the students is entrepreneurial and will not be on the job market the majority will be entering executive roles. Though, of course, alumni statistics should be taken with a pinch of salt as Yale graduates famously confirmed in Darrell Huff?s great book, ?How to Lie with Statistics?. Until then we can look at what some current BMI students have to say about whether the program is a good investment http://www.barcelonami.org/students/ Current students will graduate into a BMI network that includes two other cohorts, Professors (a list that includes consultants to companies on the Fortune 100 and Wired 40 http://www.barcelonami.org/professors/rankings/ ) and friends of the Institute.

Affiliations with other business schools could certainly be made clearer on the site. Thanks for pointing this out. BMI co-operates with the leading global business programs to provide their top Professors www.barcelonami.org/professors . The affiliation is endorsed by all three parties (Professor, BMI and the other business school). Some key differences, in other words, between a course with one of these Professors at a school ranked in the top 30 by Business Week, Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal are class size (Large v. Small) student body (Avg. 65% international v. 100% international) and they way in which the course is integrated into the whole (Elements v. Gestalt).

Students go into companies to complete a specialization though, unlike a two year MBA, there are no internships during the one year MBA at BMI. This, too, will be clarified on the site next week.

Thanks again for your thoughts jukolo. Would anyone else like to share their thoughts on what works and what doesn?t at www.barcelonmi.org ? Pros and cons welcome.

I have not heard about BMI before. I took a look at your homepage and clicked on the top news "BMI selected for Financial Times Conference" to find out more about what this is all about. However, that link does not go anywhere useful. Maybe you should correct that when you are promoting your new website...

Thanks for the feedback Malia. The link is http://barcelonami.org/barcelonami/news/bmi_highlights/?cat_id=1635&ew_0_a_id=1412. Perhaps the link was affected by a recent update. Any other thoughts on the pros and cons of the site?

An Economist article on May 10, 2007 titled "New Graduation Skills" (http://www.barcelonami.org/barcelonami/upload/files/pdf/new_graduation_skills_-_economist_may_10_2007.pdf) reports on many concerns about MBA programs that BMI addresses through its new approach to the MBA (ex. choice of Professors and Curriculum). Another key article referenced by the Economist is Warren Bennis's "How Business Schools Lost Their Way" http://accounting.cba.uic.edu/Articles/MBA/How%20Business%20Schools%20Lost%20Their%20Way.htm .

Thoughts on either article and/or how well this is communicated at the site?

Another key article referenced by the Economist is Warren Bennis's "How Business Schools Lost Their Way" http://accounting.cba.uic.edu/Articles/MBA/How%20Business%20Schools%20Lost%20Their%20Way.htm

I agree. And sorry about the margins. It was the only version of the article I could find online.

Unfortunately, in most top tier business schools the emphasis is 100% on research. . . and usually research which is so focused on minutia that it is not useful to business people. For example, one of my MBA Professors who was from Harvard and Berkeley explained to me over a coffee that all of the most interesting business problems had already been researched. This left him working on issues that were not relevant to MBA students.

This is particularly true at the MBA level. Most professors have not had any real world work experience, never come into contact with the real world, and so on.

This is the problem that they are beginning to address at Yale but they still have many issues to work out including the way that faculty are hired, retained and promoted. It is traditionally a publish or perish system. Changing this culture is very difficult. It is a bit like American Airlines trying to compete as a low cost airline. Too many legacy issues to get it right. This is one of the reasons that BMI started fresh and is attracting the top student focused professors from the top schools.

Your example of the EMBA v. the MBA is right on target. The EMBA student demands - and receives - better business education because she is a more informed consumer. Prospective MBA students on this board are becoming better informed consumers of business education. That is a good thing.

Anyone else bear the headache and read the article?

A list of inspiring professors at top US schools from Business Week. Interesting bios. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/undergraduate/profs/index.html

Would appreciate any thoughts on the new messaging for the Barcelona Management Institute at www.barcelonami.org. Introductory sections of the site are written by fmr. Wall Street Journal reporter and recent Washington University in St. Louis MBA Erik Ahlberg.

I think he communicates the facts about the program in a much clearer way. Thoughts?