Should I take the Master in Management (MM)?

If you have more than six years of experience—with three of the six years in a managerial position—and you are on track to assume leadership positions, or if you want to switch to a different career track, the MM program may be for you. MM's 11-month duration will also allow you to make a quicker return to workforce.

The program focuses on building adaptive, transformational, and inspirational leadership skills. At the same time the MM develops students' strategy formulation and implementation skills. These skills become prerequisites to accelerating the MM graduate through the higher levels of their organizations. The MM features a unique field experience called the "walkabout", where students spend a month towards the end of the MM to develop their leadership capabilities.

Candidates may be sponsored by their companies or may come to AIM on their own. Though the minimum requirement of MM is six years' experience, MM students tend to have nine years' experience.  The average entering age is 33.

Should I take the MBA?

If you want to move into the fast track of corporate promotion, or if you want to start your own entrepreneurial venture, AIM's MBA hones business thinking, analysis, and decision-making. AIM's MBA is a boot camp for management fundamentals and business knowledge. 

The MBA (before 2003, known as the "MBM") targets younger professionals with at least two years' work experience, though on average AIM's MBA candidates have 3.5 years' work experience and are 25 years old. (Note: In India these students are called "laterals". Unlike the IIM's, AIM MBA and MM programs do not accept freshers.)

In the first eight months MBA students learn the core, fundamental functional skills of management such as Economics, Operations, Finance, Marketing, Accounting and Control, Management Communication, Development of Enterprise, and Strategy. AIM also has a comprehensive required course in Asian Business Systems to give the AIM MBA its Asian context.

In months nine through sixteen the MBA students do four major tasks: an action consultancy, MRR (management research report), electives, and exchange programs. In the action consultancy students do a live consultancy exercise with an Asian company. AIM helps students make these contacts. This AC may lead to an MRR, or management research report, typically a corporate strategy of an existing company or feasibility study, or a suite of classroom cases. By their selection of electives students may opt for the "default" general management track, or major in one of three areas: Finance, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. Students can choose a "road" elective which takes them on a journey to various parts of Asia (Entrep Asia: China, Vietnam, Thailand; Islamic Management: Malaysia, Indonesia). Students can also participate in the Robert V. Chandran $100K business plan competition, which rewards the best student plans with $100,000 in angel capital.  Lastly, MBA allows students in the top 40% of the class to go on a semester exchange to prestigious partner MBA programs in the US, Asia, and Europe. The MBA starts on May 19, 2008 (mid-year intake) and September 1, 2008 (regular intake).

Candidates may be sponsored by their companies or may come to AIM on their own. Though the minimum experience requirement is two years, AIM's MBA candidates have an average 3.5 years' work experience upon entry and are 25 years old.

How is AIM's MBA different from other MBA's?

AIM is the only school in Asia that uses participative learning almost exclusively. In recent years, experts like Henry Mintzberg of McGill and Warren Bennis of USC have criticized "classic" MBA design to be too "cookie-cutter" in approach. AIM, on the other hand, fits the ideal of Mintzberg -- hands-on, self learning, dynamic, and flexible.

Moreover, AIM injects Asian context into learning. Students learn not only the core fundamentals of Accounting, Marketing, Finance, etc. but also how to manage businesses in Asia. Students learn various business practices and cultures across many Asian countries.

How are the MBA and MM similar?

For both the MBA and MM, students must be committed to a full-time stay at AIM's Makati campus. Both programs use the case method of teaching, and require students to do group and individual field research projects, write numerous written analysis of cases (WACs), and do an action-oriented Management Research Report (MRR), i.e., a Master's thesis, as a prerequisite to graduation. Both MM and MBA offer electives in the finishing portions of their respective schedules.

How are the MBA and MM different?

The MBA and MM approaches and content are dramatically different.

The MBA builds a foundation for students' thinking, analytical, and decision-making skills. Students learn "classic" management and business knowledge areas such as control, finance, operations, accounting, strategy, oral and written communication, quantitative methods. Though the MBA prepares students for future general manager positions, we recognize that students may choose specializations in their first job out of the MBA. The program therefore offers finance, marketing, and entrepreneurship "tracks" or majors.

By contrast the MM assumes that students already have foundational management skills, having gone through more years of managerial experience. Note that the MM is not a shorter MBA; it focuses instead on developing students' higher-level adaptive, transformational, and inspirational leadership skills, and strategy formulation and execution skills. The MM program faculty members work in close, mentoring collaboration with students as they learn how to manage change, in parallel to building skills in strategy development, management, and implementation.  As a result of this mentoring, the students develop radically new outlooks of themselves, their organizations, and how to cope with a rapidly-changing environment. The students bring these fresh outlooks back to their jobs in preparation for fast-track leadership positions.

What are other distinctive features of the AIM MBA?

Aside from the way the different functional areas are taught to the students, there are two distinct features of the AIM MBA:

1. MRR. The Management Research Report is a major original work by AIM MBA candidates. Through the MRR, students are expected to apply knowledge and skills to actual managerial problems. The final deliverable is a thesis-like document that must be accepted as a final hurdle in the MBA.
   
   
2. WAC. The Written Analysis of Cases is the most memorable activity in an AIM MBA students' life. A new case is given to the students every Friday at 5:00 p.m. The WAC must be submitted on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. This is a demonstration of AIM rigor.