The genius of an MBA has always been that it teaches skills and tools that can apply to any business in any industry facing any sort of difficult business problem. Communication, team-building, critical analysis, financial acuity, and strategic planning are the teeth on a chainsaw that cut through any kind of business challenge to find workable solutions.
The MBA is known for delivering all-purpose management skills, but the modern world sometimes demands niche expertise.
But as the world has become more and more complex, the role of specialists in business has become increasingly important. While the analytical skills and critical thinking tools may be the same, an executive applying them in the rarified air of a hot new AI startup needs a different kind of background knowledge and market information in their hands than one working in a commercial aquaculture operation in Crescent City.
The role of graduate business education has evolved to meet those highly specialized needs, as well. Today’s MBA programs come with dozens of different concentrations that deliver coursework to give you a head start in demanding fields.
What Does it Mean to Add a Concentrations To Your MBA Degree
An MBA concentration, also sometimes called a specialization, emphasis, or a degree focus, is a packaged set of coursework and sometimes experiential learning placements that guide your business education toward a specific field of knowledge and expertise.
They stack on to the elemental core of MBA education, so you don’t sacrifice any courses in communication, strategic planning, and other key areas. They do, however, fit within the overall framework of the program’s credit hour requirements—so you take concentration courses at the expense of other possible electives.
In some cases, concentrations focus on a specific role, such as marketing or accounting. Those are jobs you can find in any industry, and the day-to-day practices and patterns are broadly similar.
In other cases, concentrations can focus on industries themselves, such as sports management.
And finally, another kind of concentration covers broad trends that aren’t restricted to a single role or industry, but which may be useful in many kinds of executive role or various types of businesses. Examples of these would include a concentration in international business or sustainability.
All kinds of concentrations can be useful in guiding your career toward a certain path. By launching your management education with a specific focus, you’re more likely to land the positions your competitors aren’t as well prepared for.
MBA Concentrations Available at California’s Business Schools Represent the Hottest Subjects in Every Industry
California is home to nearly 90 schools of business offering graduate programs in business administration. Each of those schools makes choices about what professors to hire, what industries to cultivate connections within, and what research to fund. They also face the demands of the market and have to consider what type of education students are seeking, and what kind of graduates local, regional, and national businesses are hiring.
All these choices impact the concentrations they offer.
Some of these are more common than others, driven by popularity and demand. Others represent paths less traveled but offer a way for students to set themselves apart from the crowd. Any of them can lead to lucrative careers in related fields or roles.
MBA specialization in the field of Health Management, Health Services Administration, Healthcare Leadership, or Healthcare Executive take you into the complex business of modern medicine. They cover singular topics like Life Sciences Marketing and the Changing Healthcare Economy. You may find electives that dive into such highly specialized subjects as Digital Innovation in Healthcare Delivery.
On the whole, however, these specializations give you a head start in understanding how to manage a delicate, high-cost, high-stakes business in insurance, clinical services, or medical supply and services.
There are also some crossover concentrations, such as Business Analytics in Healthcare or Public Health that lead to positions in the healthcare industry.
If ever there is a place to study the role of information technology in business, it is surely at California’s business schools. Surfing the wavefront of innovation rolling out of Silicon Valley, this is the time and the place to get the inside track on how to use technology and business for maximum efficiency.
These concentrations cover the gory details of hardware development, software project management and coding oversight, software supply chains, and computational theory. With uses both within the technology industry and in every other kind of corporation under the sun, IT MBA specializations are popular at many California business schools. Just as importantly, they are closely associated with some of the most lucrative job placements for MBA graduates available today.
You may find variations on this general theme with concentrations such as:
- Technology Leadership
- Energy and Clean Technology
- Information Systems
- Cybersecurity
- Digital Innovation and Information Systems
- Artificial Intelligence Management
- Applied AI in Business
- Digital Leadership
From fintech startups to old-school investment firms, California has every kind of business there is in the finance industry. That industry has become more complicated than ever with high-speed trading, exotic derivative instruments, cryptocurrencies, and shifting regulatory features that executives can’t afford to not understand.
A finance specialization comes with courses in managerial economics, financial accounting, capital budgeting, investment management, merger and acquisition considerations, and corporate governance. They typically also lean on core coursework found in all MBA programs covering quantitative analysis and business analytics.
Just as importantly, you are likely to find internship opportunities and projects that take you inside some of California’s most respected and advanced financial businesses. Whether it’s elite VC firms on Sand Hill Road or investment firms bankrolling the next big Hollywood production, you’ll see how the big players get things done and make contacts to launch your own career.
Accounting is closely related to finance and shares that universal demand that big players like Meta and Alphabet share with small family-run manufacturing or agriculture operations in the Central Valley.
Compared to finance, however, you’ll find studies in accounting MBA concentrations lean more toward the practical management of accounts, cash flow, and reporting. You’ll find some of the same crossover with business analytics and analysis classes. But you’ll also have elective options that can take you in even more specialized directions, such as tax accounting, forensic accounting and fraud investigation, and accounting for public and non-profit entities.
HR is a function that every business engages in at some level, but is more important to some California industries than others. Attracting rockstar programmers, for example, can make or break any new Silicon Valley startup. Managing actual rockstars, on the other hand, is a core competency for LA’s recording and talent management industry.
An HR concentration in your MBA studies can level up your understanding of this highly regulated and highly sensitive field. You may also find these listed as a concentration in Human Resources Management, or Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior. You’ll find courses dealing with subjects like:
- Strategic HR Management
- Human Analytics
- Leading Teams and Managing Creativity
- Talent Management
- Compensation and Reward Systems Design
These take you through both the psychology of creating cohesive organizations and outline your ethical and legal obligations to your workforce in one of the most heavily regulated states in the nation. It’s training that opens doors in businesses where recruiting and retention may make all the difference.
Marketing, or Marketing Management, is one of the most commonly available concentrations found in California MBA programs. The art of understanding, researching, and establishing markets for your company’s products is a never-ending challenge. The difference between success and failure often isn’t the core value of the product; it’s whether anyone has even heard of it.
Overcoming that hurdle gets easier with coursework in marketing research and analytics, branding and product management, sales and distribution channels, integrated marketing, pricing strategy, and marketing data viz.
You’ll also find increasing numbers of concentrations that are focused on specific kinds of marketing, such as:
- Strategic Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Marketing and Digital Trends
These will open up new avenues in marketing through coursework in mobile marketing, social and digital media analytics, database marketing, and even AI uses in marketing.
In a sense, every kind of management position is a job in project management. The basic elements of defining business challenges, lining up resources, scheduling, and budgeting is the work of business management itself.
So a concentration in project management can pay dividends in all kinds of different career aspirations. Classes in professional communication, team building, interpersonal skills, project cost and timeline estimation, and procurement management prepare you both for PM jobs and all kinds of other executive roles.
You may also find specialized courses available, such as in IT project management, which is always in demand in California these days.
Some schools, like DeVry’s Keller Graduate School of Management, can even give you a leg up into the professional with a complimentary membership in the Project Management Institute, the most recognized professional project management certification body.
Environmental, social, and governance principles (ESG) are probably more of a factor in California business than anywhere else in the country. That creates both a ready-made market for MBA graduates with a sustainability concentration behind them, and some of the best schools in the country at providing a business sustainability education.
With real-world partnerships and examples of sustainable business, you won’t have to go far to find public and private efforts that prize a future further away than the next quarterly report. Classes in these specializations deliver an education in energy systems selection, social justice considerations in business operations, greenhouse gas accounting and management, and climate action planning.
One of the interesting things about sustainability concentrations is that they each have an opportunity to forge a unique path into a new field. So you will find variations on this theme such as concentrations in Sustainable Business, Sustainable & Impact Finance, Strategic Sustainability, and Sustainable Solutions. They may each have their own strengths in areas such as sustainable investing, workforce considerations, energy and sourcing concerns, or other valuable takes on what it means to build a sustainable company in the 21st century.
MBA Supply Chain Management Concentration
Staring out toward Catalina, or into San Francisco Bay, or across San Diego Harbor during the quiet days of 2020 and 2021 and watching the ships pile up at anchor, unmoving, day after day after day, told Californians all they needed to know about what was happening with the global supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you didn’t know how critical it was before then, you surely did afterward.
So do California’s businesses. The state spends more on imports than any other state in the union, much of it fueling retail and manufacturing businesses, and has the second highest export market, representing more than $178 billion in goods to 227 countries in 2023 alone. Supply chain management is what keeps all those goods moving. Making sure it happens smoothly is the skillset you pick up in a supply chain management MBA.
These come with classes in forecasting and modeling, teaching you how to game out all the various possibilities in suppliers and transportation. This is a field that ties in tightly to analytics and project management, so you can also expect coursework dealing with those skillsets.
Supply chain concerns are also broad and international operational concerns, so you’ll also find these concentrations offered as an MBA in Operations and Supply Chain Management or Global Supply Chain Management.
MBA Sports Management Concentration
Professional sports teams thrive in California’s vast media market. The state boasts four professional baseball teams, three NFL franchises, three pro hockey teams, and six NBA or WNBA teams. That’s before you start talking about all the insanely popular college teams and new soccer franchises making waves.
These are hugely popular entertainment options for die-hard fans, but they are also smashingly successful business operations. It’s been estimated that the typical California pro-sports team is worth one-third more than the average franchise in their leagues. And the Los Angeles Sports Council and Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation released a study in 2024 that assessed the impact of sports on the LA region alone at over $11 billion.
Running that kind of operation takes real managerial skill, which sports MBAs deliver with a curriculum focused on the unique environment in which big teams operate. They cover topics like:
- Sports Economics
- Managerial Marketing in the Sports World
- Sports Law
- Management of International Sporting Organizations
That comes with a healthy helping of the analytics that have come to rule the sports world, as well as financial analysis, strategic thinking, and organizational behavior and leadership.
Many of California’s MBAs with sports management concentrations also leverage their proximity to such major players in the games. At San Diego State, for example, that includes developing and pitching sponsorship plans for real-world properties and pitching them to actual employees of those organizations. It also comes with an overseas trip to the Dominican Republic for a truly international exposure to a field that unites people of all cultures and creeds.
MBA With a Concentration in International Business
Speaking of all cultures and creeds, it’s hard to find a region that is better suited to the study of international business than California. The state’s business schools are already a top destination for international students. That means that specialists in international business are going to be rubbing shoulders with overseas contacts and getting unique foreign perspectives that business schools in other states can’t always offer.
Also found as tracks in international business development, global business, global strategy, global leadership, or international management, these MBA concentrations come with classes that take you through the global supply chain, cultural considerations in marketing, global financial institutions, and governance of multinational corporations. Capstones may offer international business consulting projects. It’s common to find overseas field trips and internship options that put you into the thick of things at big multinational corporations.
International business is so big in California that many MBAs tout their incorporation of global business considerations even in their core curriculum. The CalState East Bay MBA for Global Innovators explores globalization and innovation opportunities, capped off with an immersion trip overseas to important trade partners like Vietnam, Hungary, or China. And the Haas full-time MBA comes with a global focus that puts you in a school that is part of the Global Network for Advanced Management, and offers an exchange program that can have you studying for a semester in Hong Kong, Spain, France, or elsewhere overseas.
California is a place where people want to go their own way, and there’s nothing that illustrates that better than the state’s history of entrepreneurship. Innovation runs deep here, and business students with inspiration and energy flock to schools offering concentrations in entrepreneurship to help them make their ideas real.
These specializations come with courses that address the hard parts of turning dreams to reality. They include:
- Building Business Models for Innovation
- Launching New Ventures
- Entrepreneurial Resource Management
- New Venture Financing
- Venture Capital and Private Equity
- Social Entrepreneurship
And in a business environment that is awash with successful companies that were sparked by graduates of these very same schools, you will typically have plenty of opportunities to tap into alumni networks and experiential training with entrepreneurs who pass along the wisdom of their experience.
In some cases, you’ll even find specializations within entrepreneurship concentrations, like Sac State’s MBA in Entrepreneurship and Global Business.
California business schools that are serious about helping you find your way as you take your own ideas to market aren’t tough to find. Many offer incubator and accelerator programs with special deals for students. That can bridge the gap between the theoretical and the practical and get your new venture off the ground with genuine assistance and even seed money.
How To Choose the Best MBA Concentration for Your Career Goals
As you review California’s business schools, you’ll notice right away that not every program offers every possible concentration. Some concentrations are available at many, or even most, MBA programs, such as a concentration in finance. Others may only be found at a handful of schools or even just one.
Since MBA graduates are often evaluated based on the quality of the business school they attended, this can set up a real tension as you try to balance your educational and business goals.
This is the point where you realize that your choice of concentration has a major impact on the field of options for schools you can attend.
There will be times when you have to consider if landing in the right MBA concentration can outweigh attending a school with a stronger reputation. You’ll have to weigh whether you are ultimately coming out ahead by picking one of the highest paying MBA concentrations, or picking one of the highest paying MBA schools.
What Are the Most Lucrative MBA Concentrations?
While we mentioned some of the job titles that these various MBA concentrations might lead to you, you probably noticed that we didn’t talk much about what they might pay.
It’s certainly clear that there are some jobs and industries that have higher average pay rates than others.
But it’s a little less clear that there’s a straight line between earning a concentration related to those roles or industries and bringing home the big bucks. MBA salaries are often discussed, though they aren’t always easy to pin down precisely.
It’s also a stone-cold fact that a lot more goes into deciding compensation than just the four or five extra classes you happened to take as you studied for your MBA. Much depends on factors such as:
- Your experience before and after attending the program
- The area of the state in which you are working
- The industry in which you are working
- The availability of job candidates with similar expertise
In any case, the best MBA concentrations for your consideration are probably not the same as those for the next person. Your career pays off not just financially, but spiritually. If you’re going to spend long days at the office, you had better make sure you are doing something rewarding in every way. You don’t have to look too far to find stories from MBA graduates who picked the highest paying MBA concentrations and end up searching for greener pastures, despite the salaries.
So think broadly about the most useful MBA concentrations in a field that you want to work in. Chances are, you will find a good fit at one of California’s business schools to get you the specialty education you need for a career you will love.