An ADHOC Approach to the Full-Time MBA

A new private business school offering a full-time MBA program is to open simultaneously in three international locations next fall, 2016. 

ADHOC Business School, as the name suggests, comes with a promise that it will think on its feet as it seeks to give students the ability to keep pace with a rapidly changing business landscape.

At last night’s announcement, nobody decoded the ‘ADHOC’ abbreviation, in spite of the capitals – nor did they confirm exactly where the school’s three locations would be.

In fact, backed by what is loosely described as a nonprofit venture capital fund, the investors behind ADHOC Business School say that they’ve gone to great lengths to keep its development shrouded in secrecy, until now.

Three full-time MBA cohorts to run concurrently

“We are now in the final stages of preparing for the launch of a full-time MBA program that will accept twin-track cohorts in each of three locations at the same time – in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific,” said Sterling P. Lucre, who is to head up the school’s North American base.

Lucre adds that students can choose their starting location, but will then rotate by a process of random selection at designated points in the academic year. The idea behind this ‘ADHOC approach’ is to test student’s resourcefulness and emphasize the importance of being able to rise to unexpected challenges, at the same time as providing international exposure for each student.

The twin-track Lucre speaks of, meanwhile, is a way of dividing up each annual intake for a full-time MBA, based on a student’s preferred program length. There’s a ‘consolidated accelerated’ track for those looking to graduate in a year and an ‘authentic experience’ for those more inclined to opt for the traditional two-year format seen across the US.

The school says that the curriculum is to be the same on both tracks, and will simply be more intensive for those studying over a single year. Plus, those on the ‘authentic’ track will be guaranteed ADHOC Business School’s take on the MBA summer internship and experiential learning component. 

Experiential learning to plunge students into ‘wilderness’

Director of experiential learning at ADHOC Business School, Mickaela Rösman, explains that the full-time MBA’s action learning element will aim to drive home the point that students must react quickly to specific challenges, and without any preparation.

“We envisage the experiential learning as resembling one of those so-called ‘survival’ TV shows, where contestants are left out in the wilderness to fend for themselves,” Rösman says, adding “The business landscape is not unlike a remote wilderness for the uninitiated and the sooner our full-time MBA students realize this, the better.”

Rösman, who will also head the school’s European base, goes on to explain that students will be placed with partner corporations without any prior knowledge or background of the task ahead.

“They’ll have to figure out what is expected of them, and how to succeed in their project, through attending meetings and getting to know the team – who they can rely on for accurate information, and who they can’t, for instance,” she says.

Rösman is quick to point out that each student will receive a project that has been agreed on between the school and company – they just won’t know what it is until they are bundled into a car and driven to their ‘secret experiential learning location’ where they will then report to reception. But, can there be any advantage to the company from an MBA walking in unprepared? Rösman thinks there can.

“The companies we have spoken to are excited about the opportunity for someone to come in with a fresh perspective and without any preconceptions about what they can and can’t do in the time they will spend there,” she says adding that students will be asked to put together and present their findings in a manner befitting the company in question – something else that, it seems, will be Ad hoc in its approach.