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Publications such as The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek have diversified their ranking systems. They now produce separate rankings devoted to NICHE PROGRAMS such as entrepreneurship, technology, and, most recently, executive education. business school with its iMBA program, an online education pro- gram launched in 1999. That program already has gained the school international recognition and a No. 1 ranking as the top distance-MBA program in Asia Week's May 2000 issue. Now, the school is completing the transformation, teaching all of its cours- es with the "e" in mind. E-accounting, e-economics, e-logistics, e-human resources management, and e-marketing are now offered, as well as courses in information technology and data mining. Students will earn BBA, MBA, and Ph.D. degrees in e- commerce and information systems. "Hong Kong is moving toward a knowledge-based economy, Trade Organization, Hong Kong must overhaul its education system to provide more manpower to the Chinese mainland," says Ho. "Intensified competition, brought about by global- ization and accelerated through electronic commerce, demands that our education system become more responsive to the New Economy." City University started on the path toward becoming an e- "To prepare Hong Kong for China's accession to the World in which new business activities are becoming increasingly e-driv- en," says Ho. "This move is seen as an opportunity to leapfrog the performance of other local and regional institutions." City University's radical approach to specialization may not be change its magic number in the rankings but may also help the school to sidestep them altogether. "You can develop a real foothold with these types of niche programs," says Policano of UW–Madison. "This is a strategy that more and more business schools will follow." As business schools continue to explore specialties to make Specialization, in fact, is not only a way for a school to their own, the field already is witnessing a change in the way rankings operate. For example, publications such as The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek have diversified their ranking sys- tems. They now produce separate rankings devoted to niche pro- grams such as entrepreneurship, technology, and, most recently, executive education. This trend can only benefit the schools sub- ject to these annual evaluations. After all, the more such diversi- fication takes hold, the more top spots will be available, and the more chances there will be for a school to earn a top ranking in the niche of its choice. right for all programs, but such niche development may define the next wave of competitive activity between business schools. Although the management education field has not yet entered an age in which business schools are completely unrestrained by regional boundaries, such a market may soon be coming. Schools adopting a "do-it-first" strategy are betting that their efforts will keep them competitive, now and in the future. Rank and Reputation Schools once were wary of specializing, especially since it did lit- tle to move them up in the ever-present rankings. However, with each passing year, many institutions are finding it more and more difficult to win the rankings race. Suddenly, exploring a niche or innovative approach to education is capturing students' atten- tion, rankings or not. "In a sense, rankings have discouraged innovation, because there was very little reward to institutions at the top for doing something outside the realm of rankable characteristics," says Hesel of Arts and Sciences Group. "However, rankings are encouraging innovation for other institutions. Schools that are lower in the pecking order are not going to be able improve their positions by merely boosting promotion, unless they were doing no promotion at all before. Most likely, they will do so through differentiating themselves from the schools at the top." Corporate Collaboration Schools need only look as far as the business community they serve to anticipate a need before others have the chance to address it. Says Policano, "We always ask ourselves, 'What does the business community need? Do we have some competitive advantage in filling that need? Do we have the faculty resources to make it successful?'" To this end, he meets with corporate heads on a regular basis to learn whether or not they are having a difficult time finding graduates with a specific skill set, or if they are branch- ing out into new areas that may require attention from busi- ness schools. Companies often come to the school with ideas for specializations. If they are deemed promising, the next step usually is to ask the company to help get the program off the ground. "Once we discover an idea, we enlist the company's help," says Policano. "For example, right now we're looking at brand management and product innovation, and we'll be talking to companies such as Kimberly Clark and Proctor & Gamble." With the help of the companies that will most benefit from cer- tain niche programs, Policano believes business schools will be capable of producing extremely valuable graduates, custom- made for the next wave of business practices. To a large extent, corporations are looking to business schools like UW–Madison, City University, and AGSM to be incubators, not only of the workers they need now, but of the workers they'll need four, five, and even ten years from now. Schools that make niche development a priority today may well ensure themselves a more prominent place on the educational map and could be the first destination for tomorrow's corporate recruiters. s z BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 47