London Business School Students
London Business School
Your best customers are repeat customers. They know the value of your solution. They use it. They champion it. And they’re always looking for more of it.
That’s the audience that the London Business School is targeting with a new one-year MBA program. Unlike a traditional European one-year program, the LBS degree targets a specific audience: graduates of management master’s programs who want to build on this education with an MBA.
“We have now a growing population of students who’ve taken a one-year pre-experience master in management, a graduate master’s,” says LBS Dean Sergei Guriev in a 2025 interview with Poets&Quants. “If you look 20 years ago, that would be almost nowhere. Now you have a reasonably large group of potential students who’ve already done a one-year master in management. So for them, we created this program, which is a one-year MBA program with the prerequisite being a one-year master in management.”
A DIFFERENT KIND OF MBA
Beyond its marketing, the program distinguishes itself by taking an “AI-first” approach. For Nicos Savva, a management sciences professor who designed the program, that translates to “integrating AI into traditional subjects [and] using AI to improve how we teach.” In a 2025 interview with P&Q, Savva points to the program’s unique structure, which opens with a data analytics module that uses ChatGPT instead of Excel to teach many concepts. From there, students complete 10 core courses, which address the impact of AI – and its problem-solving capabilities – in areas ranging from strategy to operations. To conclude, students can choose among 80 electives along with completing a week-long Global Experience course overseas.
Savva himself has created a custom AI assistant, which he calls “copilot” for his course to answer student questions and further teach topics. In the end, it won’t be the AI that draws students to the one-year MBA, Savva says. Instead, it will be LBS’ foundational advantages.
“We have world-class faculty, intellectually curious students, and a culture that prioritizes relevance and impact.”
London Business School MBA Welcome BBQ
FLEXIBILITY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
You could add “flexibility” to the list of cultural superlatives. After all, LBS offers a wide range of completion options for its Full-Time MBA program: 12, 15, 18, and 21 months to be exact. And it isn’t just the AI-driven One-Year MBA program where LBS is innovating. With 2025 representing the school’s 60-year anniversary, the school revamped its Executive MBA program. Dubbed the Smart EMBA, it enables to students to complete coursework from either the London or Dubai campuses and finish in as few as 17 months. A mix of in-person, digital online synchronous, and self-paced programming, the Smart EMBA is a response to changing conditions for professionals. Notably, the compressed timelines and lower travel requirements reflect the realities of companies investing less in employee education and prospective students needing to spend less time traveling.
“Overall, this market needs innovation,” explains Dean Guriev. “And it just simply with the fact that companies are less likely to pay and require students to spend more time in office, that creates a tension in the market.”
The school has also carved out a new niche in executive education, adds Guriev. Known as Corporate 100, it is an invitation-only community of global leaders organized by LBS. More than education and networking, the Corporate 100 is designed as a “safe space” where leaders can candidly discuss large scale issues and learn how their peers are addressing them.
“There are programs for different levels of executives in those organizations,” adds Guriev. “And basically we don’t bring companies which compete with each other. So there is less of a fear that somebody will steal your commercial secrets. So this is a very interesting step forward, which is not your standard executive education offer.”
Such programming also reflects the larger vision of LBS, a program known for its aptitude in Finance and deep connections across London.
“This is the story of LBS in a few foundational pieces, and this is what LBS is, and will be in the years to come,” explains Guriev. “We’ll invest more in innovation, of course, we’ll invest more in driving impact on the most pressing challenges of our times, including environment, AI, digital transformation, including issues related to global poverty and developing countries, including issues related to healthcare.”
London Business School’s Women’s Touch Rugby Team
DIVERSE IN NATIONALITY AND EXPERIENCE
Ranked as the 4th-best MBA program in the world by The Financial Times, London Business School is defined by its diversity. In a 2025 interview with P&Q, Oliver Ashby, the MBA programme director, noted that the 2027 Full-Time MBA Class includes more than 60 nationalities. Even more, the largest nationality encompasses just 16% of the class, meaning no single nationality dominates the class. Call it a daily cultural exchange, where students can learn how business is done across various regions without ever leaving London.
“There is no such thing as a hard border,” observes Susan Ren, a second-year MBA. “Even if you’re working for a national company, it is inevitable that you will be influenced by, collaborating with, or competing against others in your industry across the world. Learning to better understand diverse viewpoints, gaining exposure to different approaches to problem-solving and communication, and, most of all, developing empathy for others, will be invaluable in all business scenarios, from negotiation to leadership.”
At London Business School, diversity isn’t just confined to a breakdown of nationalities on a class profile, adds Helen Foley, a 20-year veteran of the school who currently serves as its executive director for transformation.
“Our classes and our study groups are carefully crafted to bring diversity of experience, of education and of thought to each and every class, study group session, networking event, and career workshop,” Foley told P&Q in a 2023 interview. “Students are challenged and encouraged to challenge each other, using their unique experiences to educate those around them, to think twice about problems, and to see things from new perspectives. The value this brings – which we believe cannot be replicated without our commitment to diversity – is what makes the London Business School MBA unique and distinctive in what we do.”
‘IF YOU’RE TIRED OF LONDON, YOU’RE TIRED OF LIFE’
This approach takes inspiration from London itself. Home to over 300 nationalities, the city is a cultural melting pot as much as a business Mecca. Regarding the latter, London vies with New York City as the world’s financial capital. Forget the eulogies written about London’s dwindling influence in the wake of Brexit. Between the Square Mile and Canary Wharf, London remains the envy of Europe. The city is still home to 20% of Europe’s largest companies. Not to mention, 75% of the Fortune 500 maintain a presence there. Plus, Silicon Roundabout and Silicon Fen are a relatively short train ride away. In terms of new ventures, London ranks as the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem according to Startup Genome, attracting $102-billion in venture capital from 2022-2024 while spinning out 67 unicorns.
“With our base in the centre of London, on the doorstep of world-leading banks and consultancy firms, not to mention a growing and thriving tech space, we have the best of global talent working together in one of the world’s most dynamic cities,” says Oliver Ashby.
There is a saying that “If you’re tired of London, you’re tired of life.” Indeed, London is a city that is constantly evolving, no different than the business school bearing its name. Beyond the opportunities for building networks and landing jobs, the city is a place to live as much as learn. In the end, that may be one of London Business School’s biggest assets, says Shavan Pethe, a 2024 LBS grad.
“One of the most apt ways I’ve heard the city being described, is as a collection of villages. Each borough or neighbourhood brings a unique flavour into London’s melting pot. London Business School is in Marylebone – a manicured locality in the heart of the city. Jumping on the tube (or the ‘subway’ as it’s known across the Atlantic) will take you to diverse neighbourhoods with a plethora of authentic food and culture. Check out Wembley for fantastic Indian food, Hampstead Heath for a beautiful park and view of the city, or Greenwich for a slower-paced vibe on the banks of the Thames. Even these suburbs are just the tip of the iceberg. Regardless of where your interests might lie, there are places and communities for you in London!”
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