Business School Rankings - Do they matter?

This topic seems to obsess multitudes of people throughout the world. People seem to have nothing better to do than to spend hours, days, week s arguing as to the veracity of a ranking quotient for business school. The question of whether HBS, Stanford or Wharton is the number one ranked school in the US (or the world) causes rational people to blow a gasket and produces verbal (or written/typed) diarrhoea.

Add to this mix INSEAD and all hell breaks loose. I was referred to a BW forum discussion about INSEAD and whether it was a good school based on a particular ranking. Someone was arguing that a school in Hong Kong was a superior school. It caused something verging on an international diplomatic incident with the proponent of this argument being "launched" upon by an alliance of nationalities - as George Dubya would put it "a coalition of the free/willing" - and proved...well absolutely nothing.

I start from the belief that all formal ranking methodologies are imperfect and have in built bias. You can put a case for the Businessweek rankings, but they have an inherent bias towards the US and the FT, EIU rankings etc... all have their own flaws.

I think the rankings debate distracts from the truth that the perception of students and more importantly employers is the key in determining ranking and attractiveness of a school. From that point of view HBS, INSEAD, Stanford, Wharton are head and shoulders above the rest. One only has to examine the published statistics for employment post MBA to see that the "blue chip" companies are swarming all over these schools. For a detailed analysis see Necromongers analysis in http://onwardtomba.blogspot.com/2007/06/insead-career-report-2006-stanford-and.html

Yes, rankings do matter, but only with the understanding that beyond a certain point the ranking is irrelevant. Whether INSEAD is ranked higher than Chicago or Columbia or LBS is unimportant. All that matters is that most employers recognise these schools as producing the people they want.

For what its worth I would rank business schools (on a worldwide basis, not just US) as :

1) Stanford
2) HBS
3) Wharton
4) INSEAD
5) LBS
6) Chicago
7) MIT
8) Columbia
9) Kellog
10) IMD

You should note that this is my perception and it is based on mostly intangible factors. A further caveat is that I chose INSEAD over some of its rivals and so I am likely to have an inherent bias. Finally, ranking is an art not a science.

Ranking is a brand, an intangible aura, established over decades, self perpetuating, sustainable and as such has its own power. And therein lies the truth that if the top companies concentrate their recruitment on these schools, then these schools are the top schools.

As such the exact ranking is not such a big deal because of the simple fact that if you went to any of the above schools you should walk out and be a serious candidate for the employers of choice whether conglomerates, consultancies, IBs or PE houses.

And surely that is the point of rankings - helping you identify the group of schools you want to apply to because that is where the employers of choice visit and recruit.