The Chapter has a great responsibility in selecting the methodology of the Ranking, because MBA studies educate leaders of modern business, which faces enormous challenges in a dynamically changing world. The list of these challenges is long and growing, so the requirements for MBA studies are also growing. It is no longer enough to "simply" educate efficient, well-traveled managers in the business world: they must also be people who are exceptionally responsible, socially sensitive, open to change and able to respond to it quickly and adequately. This also applies to the issue of real equality for women in business, which is close to my heart. One of the criteria of our MBA Ranking is gender equality among students and gender equality among lecturers. We want to put a premium on this value, because in terms of gender equality, as a country we still have a lot to do.

The expectation of more women on boards applies to all European Union countries. Poland is not well prepared to implement this directive, mainly for cultural reasons. Although we have recently observed a huge change and a great wave of women eager to act, perfectly prepared to do so, ambitious, with the right attitude, but there are still a great many women who are afraid, who have her negative experiences from the past and do not want a second time to confront difficult, unpleasant situations, rejection, underestimation.

There is a lot of talk about equal opportunities, about female endings, about not saying, for example, "Now I'm giving the floor to Mr. Professor, and in a moment I'll give the floor to Ms. Kasia," when "Ms. Kasia" is also a professor. It turns out that as a society we have patterns firmly sewn up, and we need to fight against them, because they are a powerful obstacle. The way people are positioned in an organization either gives wings and allows them to function, or completely discredits, discriminates. Sometimes people do this unconsciously, and badly referring to women or patronizing them simply depreciates their entire contribution.

Women are well prepared professionally and in terms of social skills to build the world of large multinational companies and Polish small and medium-sized enterprises, so that the female element is firmly established there and so that it is not associated with pushing out the male element, but means symbiosis.

Time is a key issue in the business I'm in, but the same principle applies to MBAs as well. In the Ranking, we evaluated only those programs that do not waste either money or the most precious non-renewable resource: time.

Dominika Bettman
Chairwoman of the MBA Ranking Chapter
Director General of Microsoft Poland

 

published: February 29, 2024