Four Reasons to Study in an Emerging Market

Not all MBA programs are created equal, and almost as important as deciding to study an MBA is deciding where to study your MBA.

The school you choose will have a big impact on the career path you want to pursue after you graduate.

According to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s (GMAC) Global Graduate Management Education Segmentation Study, which surveyed 5,900 MBA applicants in 15 countries, one of the top five reasons students give for choosing to embark on graduate management education is to stand out from others. Studying in an emerging market can help to give you that, and more.

An MBA in an emerging market is a rich experience in innovating solutions, the life-blood of modern business, can-do attitudes, cross-cultural collaboration, and humility. And while many top-ranked schools around the world offer study tours and semester abroad options for students, a full, year-long immersion in this environment prepares you for the real world of business like nothing else can.

Here’s four reasons why you should consider an MBA in an emerging market:

1. If you can thrive in an emerging market, you can thrive anywhere.

First off, in a world of low growth and low returns, emerging markets—with their fast-growing economies, young populations, and large consumer markets—are widely considered as drivers of global growth for 2018.

The student who has had a full-immersion experience in one of these booming economies will have an edge. Not only because they will have a deeper understanding of the political complexities and instabilities that go hand-in-hand with these contexts—making them more able to navigate them skillfully—but because they will have gained an ability to work in diverse teams and cultures—making them more adaptive and resilient.

These markets require you to think on your feet and become comfortable in an environment where uncertainty is the norm. One of the biggest criticisms leveled against MBAs today is that they battle to convert theory into practice. In an emerging market, you are much more likely to be able to practice what you are learning within the cut and thrust of a fast-paced business environment.

2. You’ll get a crash course in innovation and sustainability

Emerging markets are increasingly recognized as being incubators of innovation. They are markets that demand it. As the old adage goes, necessity is the mother of innovation and, confined by geographical, technical, economical, or infrastructure challenges, solutions in emerging markets are often dictated to by the point of need, happening from the ground up. This, in turn, can drive innovation in the developed world in a process termed "reverse innovation".

Consider for example, the low-tech wallet and payment service, M-Pesa, which sprang from the need for an innovative payment solution in Kenya and Tanzania and has subsequently spread to numerous other countries.

Why is this important? Because innovation is widely understood to be vital to business success today, the ability to innovate and problem solve gives individuals and companies an edge. Because much of the innovation in emerging markets is driven by a very real need to solve challenges such as a lack of healthcare or education, it is, by definition, concerned with sustainability.

Dianna Moore, a Texan who previously studied at New York University, elected to do her MBA in Cape Town, South Africa, to take a deep dive into sustainability and social impact. “I wanted a career that had more of a direct impact on improving people's lives,” she says.

"Businesses need to be sustainable, but for that to happen, they first need to ensure that they are financially sustainable. My MBA taught me both the traditional foundation needed to run a company well and the importance of thinking in a new, longer-term, and more collaborative way if a business is to stay relevant in the future.”

3. You’ll get great value

An MBA is an expensive degree and any consideration around value for money inevitably considers cost versus quality. While the top schools in emerging markets may not have the brand of the Ivy League schools, they are by no means light on quality. Several schools have triple-crown accreditation—meaning they are accredited by the top three global accreditation bodies. There are only 87 such schools in 33 countries around the world; 23 of these are located in emerging markets!

You could walk away with a rigorous, accredited MBA which holds its own in the international arena. If you combine the currency advantage (fees in local currencies compared to those in dollars, euro, or pounds), the accreditation, and the immersion in business on the frontier, there is tremendous advantage offered to international students.

4. People with international experience are easy to employ

In today’s jobs market, international experience is a must. More than 80 percent of employers say they look to hire business school graduates who have studied overseas.

Consider that Africa alone has an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 languages, with 520 spoken in Nigeria alone. China boasts at least eight linguistic groups, with hundreds of dialects and variations. And that diversity of language is likely to come with diversity of etiquette and social norms too.

This diversity spills over into the MBA classrooms in emerging markets. Shafika Isaacs, who studied an EMBA at the UCT Graduate School of Business in South Africa, says the range of cultures in the classroom stood out. “My MBA took me to the next level in engaging with people who think and act in radically different ways from me,” he says.

One word of warning: Studying your MBA in an emerging market may also come with lots of fun and sunshine, as well as a beautiful and exotic culture and city guaranteed to offer an extraordinary life experience. You may never want go home!

This article was originally published on BusinessBecause.

Whether you’re considering an MBA, EMBA, or Master’s program, read more content like this and get practical resources to help your business school application on BusinessBecause.