Look Back, Think Ahead, Keep Learning
GSB Programsfrom the 2008 GSB-Wide Alumni Survey
Kaufman Associates
5/12/08
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Objectives
This is the third annual GSB-wide alumni
survey. The objectives are to:
1) Collect feedback on GSB programs
2) Understand how perceptions change over time
3) Coordinate market research on GSB programs
so alumni do not experience survey “burnout”
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Method
Online survey when email address available;
otherwise paper
Mailed Jan. 2007 with an invitation from Dean
Joss
To a sample of the alumni population
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Respondents
An excellent email response rate -- 39%
1,282 surveys completed
• 89% MBA, 8% Sloan, 4% PhD
• 76% male, 24% female
• 33% Bay area, 50% other U.S., 17% international
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GSB vs. Other Top Business Schools
Best On Par Not Quite
as Good
Not as
Good
Entrepreneurship 78% 19% 3% <1%
Innovation 58 41 1 <1%
Teamwork & collaboration 52 45 2 1
Corporate social responsibility 42 53 4 1
Leadership 36 59 4 1
Managing change 28 66 5 <1%
Finance 23 62 13 2
Global management 20 64 13 3
Marketing 9 59 26 6
How would you rate the GSB compared with other top business schools
in the U.S. in terms of teaching & research in these areas?
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Familiarity with GSB Initiatives
Only a few are very familiar with initiatives such as increasing
collaboration between the GSB and other Stanford departments.
Percent of Respondents in 2008 (*)
(*) Note: All bar graphs show 2008 data only. Some tables compare results from the surveys in 2006, 2007 and 2008..
8
8
13
44
54
66
0 20 40 60 80
Collaboration GSB
& other depts
New MBA
curriculum
Building new GSB
campus
Very Familiar Somewhat Familiar
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Familiarity with GSB Programs
Awareness ranges from 96% familiar with Stanford Business
magazine to 32% familiar with the Stanford Knowledgebase.
(*) Continuing Ed defined as “alumni
weekends & conferences”
Percent of Respondents
7
8
10
11
44
26
70
24
35
42
55
42
63
26
0 20 40 60 80 100
Stanford
Knowledgebase
MBA Admissions
Ambass. Prog.
Oppties to volunteer
at GSB
Alumni Career
Services
@GSB Today
Continuing Ed.
Events (*)
Stanford Business
Magazine
Very familiar Somewhat familiar
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Alumni Career Services
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Career Services Communications (past 2 years)
2
2
3
4
5
12
27
34
57
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Other
GSB alumni referral
Career Pathways
GSB staff
Career Services brochure
Ad in Stanford Business
GSB website
@GSB Today
Have heard about svcs
57% have heard about Career Services in past 2 years, often
through @GSB Today or the GSB website.
Percent of Respondents
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Career Services Used (past 2 years)
1
1
1
2
4
6
12
18
0 5 10 15 20 25
Career Workshop Video downloads
Career Coaches
Career Workshops
Partner School Job Boards
Alumni Career Advising
Online Library Research Databases
Alumni Career Services Website
GSB Job Board
Percent of Respondents
28% have used any Career Service in the past 2 years. The most
popular services are the Job Board and the website. (Only 2% of
respondents are currently out of work and looking for a job.)
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Bay Area Effect
Some programs are used more by Bay Area alumni, e.g. the Job
Board was used by 24% of Bay area alumni, 15% other U.S., 14%
overseas in the past 2 years.
Percent of Respondents
2
9
14
3
4
15
5
8
24
0 10 20 30
Alumni
Advising
Research
Databases (*)
Job Board
International Other U.S. Bay Area
(*) Research databases may include Lifelong Learning research databases.
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Executive Education
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Familiarity with Executive Ed Programs
7
8
8
17
23
0 5 10 15 20 25
Environmental
Sustainability
Philanthropy
Leaders
Custom Programs
Director's Forum
Summer Institute
Percent of Respondents
73% are not familiar with the Summer Institute and 62% are not
familiar with any of these programs. (Only 5 programs were tested. The
questionnaire listed the complete program title and a brief description of each one.)
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GSB Centers
Familiarity
Center for Leadership
Center for Social Innovation
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GSB Centers
Familiar Interest
Center for: Yes No Very Somewhat Not
Very
Entrepreneurial Studies 46% 54% 27% 37% 29%
Global Business & the
Economy18 82 20 39 34
Leadership Development &
Research21 79 23 39 31
Social Innovation 34 66 18 35 39
Many alumni are unfamiliar with the GSB centers, especially
Global Business and Leadership. About 60% are interested in
learning more, including about 20 to 25% who are very interested
in learning more about each center.
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Center for Leadership
Development & Research
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Interest in Leadership Activities (chose up to 2)
27
1
9
35
38
47
0 20 40 60
Not interested
Other
Stories re. leadership initiatives for
students
Content & educational leadership tools
available online
Leadership-related events such as talks
& seminars
Summaries of latest GSB research
“Summaries of the latest research from GSB faculty on leadership topics” was a top 2 choice for many. Few chose “stories about leadership development initiatives for GSB students.”
Percent of Respondents
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Leadership Speakers (choose up to 3)
TOTAL Bay
Area
Other
U.S.
Overseas
Technology 51% 57% 46% 52%
Politics 44 50 39 44
Finance 40 34 41 49
Education 32 32 33 31
Health Care 26 30 26 17
Athletics 18 22 18 13
Military 16 17 17 13
Religion 14 17 13 11
Technology, politics and finance are the most popular topics. Health care and athletics are less popular, finance more popular overseas than in the U.S.
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How Would You Prefer to Participate?
35
52
53
64
0 20 40 60 80
Podcast
In person
Online video
Written article
summary
64% want written articles about the leadership events, and many would use online video, podcasts or attend in person.
Percent of Respondents
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Center for Social Innovation
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Social Responsibility in Career Decisions
39%
45%
16%
68% say social or environmental responsibility was important
when making career decisions. It was more important for:
- Women (69% say it was important vs. 63% of men)
- Public Management graduates (92% say yes vs. 64% of others)
Key decision factorNot a consideration
Nice Plus
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Interest in Learning More
29%
44%
27%
Very interested
Somewhat interested
Not at all interested
73% are interested in “learning how to use their business and
leadership skills to develop innovative solutions to social or
environmental problems” including:
- 84% of women + 70% of men
- 40% of those graduating before 1970, 68% of 1970s grads, 82%
of more recent classes
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Percent of Those Interested in Learning more
All of these topics are popular among those interested in learning more,
especially Environment Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship.
Center for Social Innovation Topics
31
36
36
38
47
51
0 20 40 60
Philanthropy
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Education
International
Development
Social
Entrepreneurship
Environmental
Sustainability
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Percent of Those Interested in Learning More
Those interested in learning more were asked to chose ONE
method for learning, and almost half chose printed articles.
Learning about CSI Educational Opportunities
1
1
7
12
14
15
47
0 10 20 30 40 50
e-mail/web
Multi-day Exec Ed progs
Online Affinity Groups
Web seminars
Podcasts
In person seminars
Printed articles
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Development
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Giving Over the Past 5 Years
16
2
6
7
24
45
0 10 20 30 40 50
Did not contribute
Not sure I
contributed
Not sure how often
Only in my reunion
year
A couple of times
Every year
Many believe they contribute financially to the GSB every year:
- 48% living in the U.S. vs. 29% overseas
- 47% pre-1970 grads, 41% 70s, 43% 80s, 38% 90s, 53% 2000+ grads
Percent of Respondents
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Motivation to Give to the GSBPercent of Respondents
6
6
10
11
20
24
25
25
33
43
9
12
15
14
22
24
25
28
28
25
0 20 40 60 80
Feel recognized + appreciated
See the impact of my gift
When it's my reunion year
Classmate asked me
Know importance of my gift to GSB
Same opportunities for current students
Keep brand strong
Like direction of school
Loyalty
Recognize impact on my career + life
Very important Somewhat important
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Unrestricted Gifts (choose up to 2)
Unrestricted gifts to the GSB support the following activities.
Which 2 are most important to you personally? Those who
contributed to the GSB over the past 5 years chose:
3
5
11
16
19
36
66
0 20 40 60 80
Other
Student clubs +conferences
New campusplanning/design
Junior faculty
Adv tech forteaching/research
New courses +cases
Wherever it'sneeded
Percent of Respondents Who Gave
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Company Matching
8%5%
44%
36%
7%
Self employed or unemployed
Don’t know if co. matches
Co. matches, use it for GSB
Co. matches but don’t use it for GSB
Co. does not match
Only 13% say their company matches contributions -- 8% take advantage of it for GSB contributions, 5% don’t. 80% don’t have access to a matching program and 7% don’t know.
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Preferred Contribution Method
Alumni prefer to make GSB contributions using checks, credit cards or online.
Percent of Respondents
1
1
1
6
6
20
30
36
0 20 40
Other
Automatic electronic fund transfers
Automatic credit card charges
Charitable gift fund
Stocks
Online
Credit card
Check
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GSB Communications
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GSB Publications
Percent of Respondents
Read Not
FamiliarUsually Some Never
Class notes in Stanford Business 70% 25% 4% 2%
Stanford Business articles 53 44 3 1
Annual letter from Dean Joss 43 41 10 5
@ GSB Today (email newsletter) 25 51 13 11
GSB Annual Report 21 48 24 7
Other GSB emails 19 52 11 18
ACT (email newsletter) 5 17 31 47
Stanford Social Innovation Review 5 17 31 47
Readership of some GSB publications is very high.
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Digital Information Use (once a month)
10
18
26
46
53
65
0 20 40 60 80
None
RSS feeds
Podcasts
Online photo websites
Social networking sites
Watch online video
Percent of Respondents Using at Least Once a Month
What do alumni use at least once a month on average? Social networking use varies by age. Use of other media is more consistent, except that pre-1970 graduates use everything less. Use of podcasts was 10% in 06, 14% in 07, now 26% in 08.
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Social Networking (at least once a month)
Social networking use is 7% among pre-1970 grads, 26% in the 70s, 50% in the 80s, 61% in the 90s, 83% for 2000+ grads. Only 1% use InCircle, less than 1% use Spoke.
24
3
26
42
53
0 20 40 60
Other sites
MySpace
Social networking sites (net)
Percent of Respondents Using at Least Once a Month
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Other Online Activities
Recent graduates are more likely to maintain a website or write a
blog. Few GSB alumni have created a podcast.
Percent of Respondents
25
9
2
35
16
2
0 10 20 30 40
Maintained a
website
Written a blog
Created a
podcast
1970s + 80s 1990s or later
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Keeping Up With Fellow Alumni
Percent of Respondents Definite
Yes
Definite
No
Rating 5 4 3 2 1
GSB-specific social networking site 15% 22% 24% 18% 22%
Social networking sites Facebook,
MySpace, Spoke, LinkedIn13 13 17 22 36
Photo albums online 9 16 22 28 26
Discussion groups or forums 7 17 29 24 23
Blogs 6 11 21 38 35
RSS feeds (email of new website
content)2 6 19 29 45
To keep up with fellow GSB alumni, how likely would you be to
use each of the following? Please use a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is
“definitely would use” and 1 is “definitely would not use”.
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Reasons Visited a GSB Web Page (past 12 mos)
The alumni directory and GSB events drew alumni to the GSB
website over the past 12 months. 95% read class notes in the
Stanford Business magazine but only 8% read them online.
Percent of Respondents
3
7
8
10
13
14
34
49
0 20 40 60
Other
Someone sent a link to check out
Read class notes column
Research business topics
Access Jackson Library online databases
Find info on GSB program or dept
Get info or register for GSB events
Access alumni directory
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Satisfaction with the GSB Website
22%
48%
24%
6%2 rating -
- 5 rating (very well)
3 rating -
- 4 rating
How well did the GSB website meet your needs? Please use a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is “met my needs very well” and 1 is “did not meet my needs at all.” 70% gave it a 4 or 5 rating. Only 3 people gave it the lowest rating.
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In Summary
No dramatic changes from last year’s survey
Some opportunities
• The GSB has a strong reputation in entrepreneurship and
innovation; needs to build awareness of leadership and global
programs
• Many recent grads are familiar with the 3 initiatives and the 4
Centers; many older grads are not
• Awareness of many GSB programs & services is high; some
need more visibility such as Executive Ed, the GSB website
• Many alumni are involved in social networking; use of podcasts
is increasing