杰克•韦尔奇商学院探秘

    这个学院本身的运作方式也像一家企业而不是学术机构。韦尔奇经常问学生他们对这个项目的看法，让他们提改进意见。他既把学员看成学生，也看成客户。另外他也经常密切关注学院的“净推荐值”（NPS），这个数据通常用来衡量一家公司的客户关系。这家学院称，它的高印象得分是65%，凭此分数，它在客户印象上也比肩苹果（Apple）和谷歌（Google）的水平。一般公司的平均得分只有10%到15%。

    这所学院里的客户满意度调查就和期末考试一样平常。韦尔奇指出：“他们应该知道，他们填写的调查表我们会非常认真地看。我们就像研究一只动物一样仔细研究NPS评分，想找出它反映的所有细节。如果我们的得分不是特别理想的话，我们就要纠正可能出现的问题。我们就是根据它来给每个工作人员打分的。”

    该学校最近的一次满意度调查是在10月31日完成的，它抽样调查了在校的94名学生。调查显示，93%的学生表示，他们很可能会把这个项目推荐给其他人，有98%的学生表示，这个项目对他们来说是一笔有价值的投资（有27%的学生甚至表示，这是他们做过的最有价值的投资）。更令人惊讶的是，54%的受访者表示，他们自从参加这个项目后已经获得了晋升、加薪或是其它某种职业上的认可。四分之一的学生表示，自从参加韦尔奇的MBA项目后，他们的事业都有了突飞猛进的进步。

    这所学校表示，从2012年到2013年，该校毕业生的平均工资增长了20%，达到12.2984万美元。根据这个平均薪金增幅，该校校长白克曼表示，该校MBA学位的投资回报期大概只有1.8年。

    韦尔奇最初于2010年与盈利教育提供商钱斯勒大学(Chancellor University)合作开办了这所学校。两年后，他把合作伙伴换成了斯特雷教育公司（Strayer Education Inc），这家公司在盈利教育市场上的地位更强，也有更深的资源。目前这个项目已经培养了130多名毕业生。

    很显然，韦尔奇的这所MBA学校与传统的两年制MBA教育大相径庭，后者往往有一个夏季实习环节，很多新学生由此在毕业后得到了一份新工作。而在线MBA项目一般最适合那些希望学习商业基础课以及想继续在自己的公司里发展的管理人员。这所学校的MBA学位在认知度上可能比不上康奈尔、达特茅斯（Dartmouth）、耶鲁（Yale）或哈佛等老牌知名商学院，毕竟这所学校不把通过北美研究生管理科学入学考试（GMAT）当成硬性要求。但是它还是要求学员必须有五年以上的专业经验，而且本科的GPA必须要达到3.0以上。

    经常有人认为，在线学习与在校学习的效果不能等同。不过这所学校的校长、曾在德保罗大学（DePaul University）和弗吉尼亚大学（the University of Virginia）从事远程教育工作的安德里娅•白克曼指出：“即使是最好的学校也在往在线领域发展。因为人们不想在学校里待上整整两年。”

    今年年初，当韦尔奇把白克曼从弗吉尼亚大学挖到他的学校时，白克曼曾问他，为什么对在线商业教学这么感兴趣。她记得韦尔奇这样说道：“我不是为了赚钱才做这件事，而是想让这个世界不再有那么多不合格的领导，而且我不认为现在有项目在做这件事。”

    那么韦尔奇对这项事业的投入程度有多大呢？白克曼说：“他的投入达到了难以想象的地步，而且学生们也有联系他的渠道。当初我想，如果我跳槽到这里，我可能会与杰克有很多互动，也有机会从他身上学到东西。现在这个愿望100%地实现了。我能从他身上获得的教导远远超过我之前的预期。”

    The institute itself is run like a business, not an academic enterprise. Welch is constantly asking students what they think of the program and how it can be improved. He treats them as customers as well as students. He also keeps close tabs on the institute's "net promoter score" (NPS) -- used to gauge the loyalty of a firm's customer relationships. The institute claims a highly impressive score of 65% which would put it in a class that includes such companies as Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG). The average is 10% to 15%.

    Customer satisfaction surveys at the institute are as common as final exams. "They ought to know that when they fill out a survey we are all over it," insists Welch. "We look at that NPS score like an animal. We want to find out every detail about it and we want to fix something whenever we have a score that is not at the top of the range. Everybody at our school is measured on it."

    The latest satisfaction survey, completed on Oct. 31 by a sample of 94 current students, found that 93% said it was highly likely that they would recommend the program to others, while 98% said it was a valuable investment (with 27% saying it was the most valuable investment they have ever made). Perhaps even more surprising, 54% of the responding students said they have received a promotion, a raise, or some professional recognition since they started the program. One in four students said they are achieving significant career advancement since starting the Welch MBA.

    From 2012 to 2013, the institute says that the average salary of its graduates has increased 20% since graduation to $122,984. Based on the average pay boost, Backman says that the payback time for the Welch MBA degree is about 1.8 years.

    Welch initially started his institute in 2010 with for-profit education provider Chancellor University. After two years, he moved the institute to Strayer Education Inc., a stronger player with deeper resources in the for-profit education market. So far, there are more than 130 graduates of the program.

    It goes without saying that this is not anything like a two-year MBA with a summer internship that lines up a student for a new job at graduation. Online MBA programs are best suited for managers who want to learn the business basics and who generally want to advance in their own organizations. A Welch MBA won't have the cache of the imprimatur of a Cornell, Dartmouth, Yale, or Harvard degree. After all, applicants to Welch's institute do not have to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) to get into the program, although they must have five years of professional experience and a 3.0 undergraduate GPA.

    What of the often-stated notion that online learning is hardly equal to on-campus study? "Even the best schools are moving into the online space," argues Andrea Backman, dean of the institute, who has worked in the distance learning at DePaul University and the University of Virginia. "People aren't going to want to sit in a lecture hall for two years."

    When Welch recruited Backman from the University of Virginia, where she was director of online and off-grounds programs, earlier this year, she asked him why he was so interested in online business education. "I'm not in it to make money," she recalls Welch saying, "'but I want to rid the world of bad managers and I don't think there is a program out there that does this."

    Just how involved is Welch in this enterprise? "He is incredibly involved and students have access to him," says Backman. "I was hoping when I made the move that I would have a lot of interaction with Jack and get to learn from him. That has been 100% the case. The ability to get coached by Jack is way more than I anticipated."