Business school: British army’s talent search, banks lure MBAs

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 feedback about FT Business school, please email bschool@ft.com.

How to Lead

Virginie Morgon, the incoming CEO of Eurazeo, features in our fifth edition of our weekly series — for readers who are interested in what makes good leadership. Ms Morgon talks about how she took the French private equity group global.

Grammar rules

Want to learn how to write clearly and correctly? Find out how to avoid some common mistakes in our guide.

Andrew Hill's challenge

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

Retired generals may harrumph, but armies need to be almost as active in the "war for talent" these days as they are in real conflicts. The latest salvo from the British army comes in the form of a series of animated videos, aimed at expanding the pool of candidates beyond the traditional target of young white men. It's a dilemma familiar to all employers, but a particularly acute one for the army, as I've written in my column this week.

An earlier spat saw the UK defence secretary intervene to ensure the old slogan "Be The Best" appeared on these new ads after market researchers deemed it off-putting to some of the recruits they were targeting. My management challenge this week is to come up with a catchy, appropriate alternative to that slogan, first devised a quarter of a century ago — one that will attract a more diverse, modern youthful group of candidates to join the army. As always, please send your ideas to bschool@ft.com.

In my further reading is Alexandra Schwartz's timely and exhaustive guide to the latest in self-help literature in The New Yorker. She is never less than sceptical about the genre, but aware, at the same time, of a yearning that some of the tips peddled will turn out to be true. Some of the nuggets of self-management advice are obviously questionable, she writes, but "others inspire the same niggling whisper of self-doubt as Instagram posts of green juice: Should I be doing that, too?"

Professor's picks

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

Mireia Giné, assistant professor of financial management at Iese Business School, selects:

Investors ride more than one cab with stakes in Uber and rivals There is an important trend in todays’ economy of increased crossholdings — a situation where a publicly-listed company owns shares in another business. If you randomly choose two companies in the SP1500, there is a chance that they share a large shareholder.

One disadvantage of crossholdings is that it enhances concentration and market power of a few players, which could lead to higher prices and lower quantities. On the upside, it may lead to higher levels of investment in R&D and innovation since the benefits are shared among companies in the ownership network.

This article shows that crossholdings happen in the start-up/VC space, but in a narrow but booming market that is highly competitive and uncertain.

UK banks prepare to share customer data in radical shake-up Our own consumer and financial information are important digital assets. Such assets have been up till now in the hands of banks, but in 2018 the European regulation PSD2 will unlock this oligopoly. Hopefully, as the article quotes this will “put the customer in control of their data”. This is quite a radical shift in power.

This specific regulation may allow for new business models to flourish. For example, companies that capture your consumer data and allow you to distribute it as you please. You may receive compensation from different providers for disclosing your data.

Jonathan Moules's business school news

The start of the calendar year is a busy time on business school campuses, not just with returning students, but with potential employers coming to interview candidates for graduate positions and summer internships.

What has changed in recent years has been the range of companies coming to campuses.

The most obvious change has been the arrival of big tech companies, which appear to need MBA brains to help them move from plucky start-ups to global titans despite the dismissive comments made by some tech founders about the value of business school graduates. Amazon is now the biggest employer of MBA graduates at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and ranks among the top five at several other leading institutions.

Investment banks used to be the big employer of talent, alongside consultancies, but in recent years has seen its share of recruits at many top schools decline. I have looked into this for the FT’s business education page. The best way to get a foot in the door of the best companies remains the internship. The challenge for business schools is to maintain this element of courses as students gravitate towards one-year courses.

McKinsey Quarterly

Find out what are the most popular articles in McKinsey Quarterly in 2017 — topics range from what makes exceptional CEOs to what’s missing in leadership development.

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.

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Edited by Wai Kwen Chan — bschool@ft.com