Long ago, I wanted to get an MBA so like all information seeking people, I signed up for newsletters, read business week and went to the MBA World Tour.
The World Tour was pretty cool. Lots of schools from around the globe showing off their number one status. Some were number one overall (Harvard didn’t show), while others were number one in Europe (ahem, that’s London Business School) and yet still others were number one in their home city, INSEAD for instance. Okay, Okay, I’m sure they’re number one among the competing villages as well. (I have this odd fear that all Mrs M and my stuff will be sunk in the Atlantic thanks to the earlier line).
Most of the top schools are proud to be near the top of the list. NYU Stern is pleased to be 10th on some lists, 9th on others. I know they strive for a top 5 finish consistently. Hell, even Notre Dame is pleased to have cracked the top 20 and were pushing forward toward 15th, then … you get the idea.
My favorites are those schools who have to really, really cut the data to find a #1 status. Take the Hult International Business School for instance, which claims “We are ranked 1st in The Economist for Post Graduation Salary Increase and ranked 22nd in the US overall.” Wow. That’s, you know, great but is it really worth it to find that one piece of data. Oddly, the ranked 22nd in the US overall is pretty impressive. It’s a shame that they lead with such a BS data piece rather than being happy with 22nd.
The whole thing reminds me of my time back at Hearing Concern. All charities seem to want to be #1 in something too. We’re the largest X,Y, or Z(eee, for those who may mispronounce this). Hearing Concern had the largest, oh hell, amount of old fundraising strategy documents never executed prior to my arrival on file in the entire UK, or some similar notion.
So what’s the take-away from this post? First, be happy with who you are as long as everything is going in the right direction and second, please don’t send me bull-shit spam celebrating a bull-shit statistic after I’ve repeatedly asked to be removed from your email list.
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