Interview with Gareth Howells, Executive Director of the MBA, MiF & Early Career Programmes at London Business School [Show Summary]

Harvard Business Review declared in 2012 that being a data scientist is the “sexiest job of the 21st century.” Bloomberg Businessweek’s headline in May 2018 pronounced, “This Is America’s Hottest Job.” Let’s hear from the director of London Business School’s Early Career Programs about its response to surging demand for graduates in data analytics, its brand new master's in analytics and management.

The Master's in Analytics and Management Program at LBS: Everything You Need to Know [Show Notes]

Our guest today is Gareth Howells, Executive Director of the MBA, MiF & Early Career Programmes at London Business School. He graduated with a degree in Politics in 1995 from the University of Leeds. In 2004 he joined London Business School as Associate Director of the MBA Program, and has been at LBS in different and expanding roles culminating in his current position.

What is the master's in analytics and management at London Business School? Can you provide an overview? [2:17]

It is our newest and most exciting program. We have four different early career programs which make up about 500 students, and we launched this new program last summer and are enrolling our first cohort for the Fall of 2019. There is a strong focus on analytics with a rigorous leading-edge curriculum and strong emphasis on experiential learning. The program is customizable as well.

Can you give us a bit of background on how it came into being and how it fits into the portfolio of early careers programs at LBS? [3:42]

We have 13 different degree programs at LBS, but early career programs are split into two groups. We have two general management and two specialized master's - one in finance and this one in analytics and management. We came to this because data analytics is transforming the way the world does business. It is sector neutral. All businesses are switching on the power of data and responding to a data-driven world, and business school is nothing if it doesn’t create graduates and programs that speak to the needs of business.

We talked a lot to our recruiters who wanted this level of capability and we wanted to respond to that. There has been a real explosion of programs of this type. We wanted to leverage our own faculty, and London is the largest data center in Europe. There is a projected 250% increase in data jobs in the next five years so we wanted to meet those needs.

Business analytics master's programs have been mushrooming around the world. What is distinctive about LBS’ program? [6:21]

We feel that the blend between analytics and management is unique. When we talked to recruiters, they said they see data scientists in an organization, mining the data and then handing it off to business managers to analyze. If you can develop those skills and capabilities in one candidate – mining data but then also translating the data, we would hire those students. We are trying to develop that skillset in one graduate as opposed to needing a data scientist AND a business manager. The curriculum is roughly 60% analytics, 40% management. It is a one-year program with an option to stay for a third term.

What kind of careers will graduates go into? [10:39]