Managíng the Age of Complexity and Uncertainty


Academic Generalist Master Education instead of MBAs of Business Schools

“Generalization that can be specialized” is the attitude underlying the master programs at Zeppelin University. Together with an approach of research-oriented learning, the aim is to qualify and encourage students to take on entrepreneurial responsibility as well as sustainable business start-ups by means of an academic “establishing of substance”.

Thus, in the concept of its master programs Zeppelin University follows international studies that analyze management education regarding later career developments. The work scientist Edward P. Lazear of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University has carried out research on the educational background of successful entrepreneurs. Thus, his elaborate survey, based on the biographies of 5,000 alumni, shows that generalists achieve significantly better positions and are much more likely to start their own businesses (Lazear 2003). Management theorist Henry Mintzberg expresses this idea even more succinctly: “It is high time to consider traditional MBA programs as what they really are – or to abolish them. They provide a specialist education in functions of business administration, but they do not teach you how to run a company.” (Mintzberg 2005, p.11)

ZU faces this challenge by offering a generalist master education as an alternative to traditional, specialized master and MBA programs of business schools. In addition to a high level of theoretical contents the master programs in the department Corporate Management & Economics offer a variety of individual options and opportunities for specialization. The high degree of freedom and flexibility makes the individual design of the program the first entrepreneurial challenge.

The master program “Corporate Management & Economics | CME“ is offered in two versions at Zeppelin University:

As a consecutive master program it provides a specialization in and complementation of the contents of domestic or foreign bachelor degrees in business.

As a non-consecutive master program it offers graduates of different faculties (humanities, social sciences, law, cultural sciences, and natural sciences) in Germany or abroad the opportunity to gain a well-founded management-oriented competence profile.

Due to the research orientation of both versions of the program the students gain not only theoretically well-founded management competences but also the ability carry out independently organized academic research. At the moment there are indications that especially the research-oriented master programs will replace the PhD programs which are currently a German phenomenon.

Thus, both master programs provide an entrepreneurial competence profile with a theoretically-based practical relevance:

| Competence in Entrepreneurial Leadership
(corporate strategy and politics, strategic organization, international and intercultural management, human resources)

| Generalist Competence in Management
(corporate financing & controlling, marketing & branding, mergers & acquisitions, corporate restructuring, service economy & consulting)

| Competence in Theories and Methods
(theory of science, empirical market and trend research, institutional and evolutional economics)
The master programs in the department “Corporate Management & Economics | CME” have a modular structure and cover an expected duration of studies of four semesters (=120 ECTS-credits):

Consecutive Master		Non consecutive Master
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Interested? Then apply now.