FT Business school: Which MBA ranks best?

Welcome to the FT Business school newsletter, a weekly serving of management wisdom, reading recommendations and business-related challenges. FT subscribers can sign up here to receive the newsletter by email every Monday. If you have any feedback about FT Business school, please email bschool@ft.com .

MBA ranking

Today marks the launch of the Financial Times global MBA ranking of 2017. Insead is number one for the second year in a row. Find out which business schools have made it to the table and read expert commentary from leading writers.

The FT top 10 full-time MBAs in 2017

* The average salary three years after graduation, with adjustment for variations between industry sectors. Data from the Financial Times.

Andrew Hill's challenge

The FT's management editor sets a weekly test of your business, strategy and management skills.

There is only one rule in the Hunger Games, according to the original best-selling books: “Competitors must fight to the death" — the last person standing wins. Last year, the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline warned companies against encouraging "Hunger Games behaviour" among candidates for the role of chief executive. But in reality — as I've written in my latest column — there is almost always some fallout from CEO succession: the hopefuls are distracted during the process and afterwards the disappointed runners-up for the top job often quit.

This week's challenge  is to come up with a novel test for aspiring CEOs. Is there one question that the board should ask the candidates or one project that executives gunning for the top job should be asked to carry out? Send your ideas to bschool@ft.com .

This week, in the light of UK prime minister Theresa May's outline of a new industrial policy, I've been reading  about industrial policies of the past. Free marketeers tend to frown when governments "pick winners" or support "national champions" — and so do I, most of the time — but historian Hugh Pemberton points out that much UK growth was built on the discredited industrial policies of the 1960s. Makes me wonder what would have happened to UK industry if the free marketeers had had their way.

Professor's picks

Every week a business school professor or academic recommends useful FT articles.

Simon Evenett , professor of international trade and economic development, University of St Gallen, selects:

Corporate America employs new tactics to avoid Trump ire  How should the senior management of a US company prepare for social media criticism from President Trump? Is it purely a matter of public relations, as this article implies. Or could more there be more fundamental implications for the design of corporate strategy?

The fights that will shape Brexit outcome  When analysing, planning, or engaging in a negotiation, always keep in mind the following question: What is the basis of the deal? This article lays out the points of contention in Mrs May's stance on Brexit, and implicitly defines the potential trade-offs in this negotiation. Notice one of the biggest areas of disagreement is over what policies — such as trade — are to be negotiated in the first place.

Ask the academics

Got a question for leading business school experts? Send it to bschool@ft.com  and we will publish the best replies in future newsletters.

Jonathan Moules' business school news

The results are out today with the publication of the FT’s annual ranking of the world’s best MBA courses. Headlines are the rise of European schools with Cambridge’s Judge Business School the highest climber at the top of the list, overtaking long-term British rival London Business School, while Spain for the first time has two institutions in the top 10.
Also contained within the data is evidence that graduate salaries are on an upward path after flatlining in the wake of the financial crisis. The fly in the ointment is that tuition fees have been increasing even faster than post-study pay in recent years.

You can listen to the Work and Careers team discuss whether an MBA is still worth it in a special rankings podcast. Take a look at the FT’s Facebook Live page where I got involved with the debate with a couple of guests representing both sides of the argument — tech entrepreneur Jason Goodman and business school admissions adviser Matt Symonds. Viewers posted questions for the three of us during this live debate.

In another Facebook Live session with Helen Barrett, work and careers editor, and Laurent Ortmans, the business education statistician, they discuss how the FT rankings are compiled and which schools have made it to the top of the list.

Test your knowledge

How good is your grasp of the news? Test your reading of last week's top stories with the FirstFT quiz.

Compiled by Wai Kwen Chan