The Otago MBA programme is the oldest in the country.
Back in the mid-1990s it was top of the heap, according to School of Business dean George Benwell.
Now it competes against 12 "serious" MBA providers in New Zealand.
Once distance-learning MBAs are added in, the total rises sharply to 26.
Prof Benwell had some hard decisions to make when he looked at the options confronting the school.
He had to find a way of making Otago stand out from the crowd.
He decided that continuing to promote the MBA and executive education programmes at the quality end of the market was the way to success.
"We are not trading on price or being trendy. We trade on solid, rigorous assessment."
The Otago business school used the "GMAT", or graduate management admission test, to assess its prospective students, apparently the only school in the country to do so, he said.
The highest admission score in the world was Harvard at 750.
Otago used a admission score of 550.
Elsewhere around the world, admission scores of 250 were not uncommon.
"Otago has a position in the market place that says this university values quality and high academic standards. We are holding true to academic standards. If people need to fail, they will fail."
It was easy to increase numbers and drop standards, but that was not the way the Otago school was going to operate, Prof Benwell said.
It had taken a long time to find the right person to lead the executive programme, but Ian Lafferty (51) had recently been appointed.
His goal was to have 50 "quality MBA international students" within three to five years.
Prof Benwell said some MBA students at other institutions never met each other because there were so many students in the courses.
Some never attended a class with a lecturer as it was all done electronically.
"That's trash. Two people in an MBA or executive programme is not critical mass. Having 800 is unmanageable and unwieldy. They are into the commodity market."
Mr Lafferty said that the business school had about 24 full-time MBA students, an ideal size for good working relationships.
When the school reached its goal of 50 students, he wanted to maintain the small class atmosphere and would have 25 in each class.
Asked how he was going to promote the courses, along with the executive education programmes, Mr Lafferty said the school would be represented at MBA fairs around the world and advertise widely.
The key changes had been made, but some of them were quite simple, he said.
Much of it came down to the way students and the school engaged with each other.
Personal interviews would be carried out to decide if the school was the right choice for the students and whether they would fit in at the university.
"With 25 people in the class, they have to add value to each other and to the programme.
"We will be sending those people out to employment in 2010 and 2011 as future business leaders. We need to emulate the business situation - put them through their paces, reflecting what goes on in business."
However, the process had to be easy on both parties, Mr Lafferty said.
Rather than prospective students filling out 20 forms and waiting weeks for a call back from the MBA course, Mr Lafferty would be engaging directly with the potential students.
"Here is my phone number, here is my email, give me a call and send your CV. If you want to talk to alumni, here's our database of people willing to chat. If you want to talk to a current student, talk to this person. If you are bringing your family or want to talk about Dunedin lifestyle, we can provide those people."
The network was in place long before the students arrived, he said.
If they were prepared to come to Dunedin for 16 months and put their career on hold while they studied, there had to be something in it for them.
A recent 20-year reunion of the business school had demonstrated to Mr Lafferty the importance of networks when so many people travelled large distances to attend the event in Dunedin.
As part of the selection process, MBA students would have to have a first degree and five years' work experience.
The work experience was what they shared with everyone else.
Having 125 years of work experience sitting in one room added to the experience.
Asked how he would keep the courses fresh as the global recovery continued, Mr Lafferty said economic cycles came and went, but that was something that would help the school.
This was one of the best times in history to take an MBA course.
The next students would start in 2010 and graduate in the middle of 2011 when economic growth was expected to be back in positive territory.
A lot of employers who had shed staff during the recession would be out looking again for quality staff.
That would be the time to be on the job market.
Mr Lafferty comes to the university after being chief executive of a Wellington technology company.
Formerly of British Telecom, he spent 20 years in Asia running business units for the telecommunications company.
His background is all commercial.
