CEO Magazine: Volume 1

Contents Unlike 4th edition “ textbooks, where they’ve added a new chapter called “International Business,” our specialization means integrating international business throughout all of the topic areas.

”

PG. 27

Foreword 7

10

12

The Interview Process Jason Price

North American EMBA Review 16

Creative Entrepreneurs can Survive the Crisis Jean-Claude Larréché

21

The Innovation Value Chain

24

Morten Hansen & Julian Birkinshaw

Setting the Standard

Gonzalo Freixes & Kelly Bean

Executive Education: The Case Method at Harvard Business School Jim Aisner

Molding Tomorrow’s Leaders

Dr. Pamela Davies, Terry Broderick & Ron Veith

More

>> CEO | 1

Contents 40

30

35 30

35

Flexibility is the Key Hugh O’Neill

Your Future in Safe Hands – The College of Business at the University of Louisville

Dr. Robert Nixon

40

USF – The Road Ahead

Jennifer Contreras, Carlos Baradello,

Mike Duffy & Karl Boedecker

48

52

Adapting to Change Dr. Christopher Earley

Your Personalized EMBA Experience

Robert Krampf

54

Not a Typical EMBA Program

Steve Tokar

56

The MBA Review More

2 | CEO

>>

Keep an overview of your assets, identify opportunities.

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Precise, continuously updated information provides you with a comprehensive overview of your institutional assets.

Contact your investment advisor or our Global Custody specialists: +41-44-236 91 89.

www.ubs.com/globalcustody Š UBS 2008. All rights reserved.

CEO | 3

78

69

88

60 4 | CEO

Contents It is refreshing that business schools are being “ held accountable for assessment of learning and for

students to be able to demonstrate competencies they have gained in their programs of study.

”

European EMBA Review 60

Why Mainstreaming Corporate Social Responsibility Still Makes Good Business Sense

Craig Smith

64

The Humanistic Approach

69

74

Marianne Conde Salazar & Philippe Gabilliet

Listening to the Market

78

PG. 84

Putting the ‘Value’ in Value for Money Mark Goode

Online MBA Review 84

88

The International MBA Dr. Muscia

Technology and Business Working Hand-in-Hand Norman wilkinson

Elaine Dunn & Steve Brown

93

Kim Donaldson

Nordic Innovation Helsinki School of Economics

96

List of Contributors

Cultivating Entrepreneurs

CEO | 5

CEO

Victor J. Callender

COO

Anthony Gordon

Financial Controller

Philip Ashgrove

Operations Director

Emma Sawyer

Editor-in-Chief

Jonathan Calens

European Editor

Susan Gault

Senior Editor

Debbie Moss

Art Director

Candace Cohen

Head of Production

Steven Whitaker

Head of New Media

Silvio Ferrero

Published by Money Markets Ltd., a Callender Media Group Publication

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The Publisher disclaims responsibility for the views and opinions expressed herein by the contributors and do not give any warranty regarding the accuracy thereof.

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6 | CEO

9/22/08 12:50:37 PM

Foreword

•••

The

Interview Process »EMBA World, Jason Price, M.S., M.B.A. Current Climate

With the current economic environment it is no surprise that business schools report significant increases in inquiries, higher attendance to on and off-site information sessions, and an increased volume of applications for attendance in 2009. But this rosy picture does not necessarily transfer toward the executive MBA, which may prove to be advantageous if you are planning to attend in the upcoming year.

The executive MBA is highly selective and lesser known than the traditional MBA. The EMBA’s 210 plus programs in the United States and around the world attract an older and more professional student body. The average age is 33 to 35 and typically seven years of work experience. Many students receive some level of financial assistance although this appears to wane during troubled economies.

With less corporate financial support enrollment may not look as strong as in the past. For instance, EMBA enrollment is approximately 10% down from last year, due to the economy, reports Joan C. Coonrod, Director, EMBA Admissions, Goizueta Business School, Emory University. Wharton reports little to no growth in applications for similar reasons.

At the same time schools are seeing more self-financed students.

Enrollees accept the higher cost education of the EMBA to a traditional MBA with the understanding of a richer and more rewarding real-world, practical business education. No matter how many slots will be competed for in the upcoming years, one of the most important parts of the application process is the graduate business school interview.

The interview is one of several components to the career record as we discuss at length in our book The Executive MBA: An Insider’s Guide for Working Professionals in Pursuit of Graduate Business Education. The career record is an aggregation of professional and personal history summarized in a series of steps that include the essays, interview, evaluation, and the business school application. The career record best represents a total picture of a working professional applying to the EMBA. Each component of the career record deserves careful attention and no part should be treated less than the

next, although admissions officers agree that certain aspects of the career record receive more weight than others.

The Interview

An interview is essential and strongly encouraged to take place face-to-face rather than by phone, although phone interviews are available for the international and cross continent applicant. “At Fordham University we do require an interview for admissions. For foreign students this interview is done via phone,” says Francis Petit, assistant dean and EMBA program director at Fordham’s Graduate School of Business Administration.

Schools vary on the formality of the actual interview, but do not underestimate the importance of the interview in the evaluation process. If an interview is scheduled then you have passed a round of internal reviews and now it is time to meet. Some important considerations for preparation include wearing professional attire, understanding the audience, having some working knowledge about what the interviewers want from their applicants, and being able to clearly articulate personal and professional achievements.

Bring a few copies of your resume and note taking during the interview is acceptable. Treat the interview as if it were a high profile meeting. Interviews are generally conducted by faculty who will be teaching the course and it takes about 30 minutes. “It’s a formal interview, the candidate should expect a similar format to a job interview,” says Josie Powell, PR Coordinator, Saïd Business School of Oxford University.

The actual interview will typically last for up to an hour. Expect a lot of open-ended questions as they will want to get to know more about you as a person. In your explanations they will evaluate you CEO | 7

Before we look more closely at the actual types of questions asked, the “ applicant will want to ask questions as well, and it is ok to be inquisitive. ” on attitude, communication skills, general intellect and, most of all, the ability to fit with fellow classmates and contribute to the cohesion of the group. As Diane A. Sharp, Associate Director, Marketing and Admissions, MBA Program for Executives, The Wharton School at UPenn, describes, “Interviews are one-on-one and with a member of the Admissions Committee. They last approximately 45 minutes. We focus mostly on job history and why an MBA is necessary. We are looking to see if the individual has positive interpersonal skills and has examples of leadership in his/her past.”

Since the whole person is the objective even traditionally taboo subjects may have a place here. For example, if you volunteer, belong to a political group, are active in a religious group, or even play an instrument, all help to color the picture of who you are and what separates you from the next candidate to walk through the door to be interviewed.

Since business is a global discipline it is advisable to discuss your international experience including business overseas, family that may live in another country, a foreign language you may speak, and ability to work with people in other cultures. Admissions directors value international experience.

Before we look more closely at the actual types of questions asked, the applicant will want to ask questions as well, and it is ok to be inquisitive. But avoid asking questions that can be answered in the school’s literature like, emphasis or strength of the program, size of class etc.

Asking for tips or insights on juggling work with school is reasonable and might reveal some interesting tricks of the trade. Try to get a feel if your career and background is the right fit for the school. If the prospective EMBA has a pharmaceutical tract then inquire how this would work for someone not in the same field.

How to Respond

Have you ever considered why bus doors are always opposite to the driver’s seat? Or why manhole covers are round? These classic interview questions by top consulting firms are meant purely to judge your intellect and reasoning process. They want to see how you think and draw conclusions in a cogent and meaningful way.

The same is true of the sample questions in this article. Do not take them lightly, but also, do not sound scripted. Instead, carefully prepare your responses. If you have not given the consideration as to why you want to go back to school or fully understand the responsibilities and demands of the education on work life and personal life then trying to figure this out in the interview will sink your objective of getting accepted. To get you started and determine if the EMBA is right for you try the Executive MBA Self-Assessment Form on the EMBA World website (www.EMBAWorld.com).

Sample Questions

Here are samples of basic questions you can expect to be asked: Sample Interview Questions: • Tell me about yourself, or, how would you describe yourself?

8 | CEO

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Why have you chosen this particular program?

What are your interests outside of work?

What are your plans after graduation?

Where do you see yourself in five, ten years?

What are you looking for in the Executive MBA? What are your greatest strengths/weaknesses?

Who recommended our program to you?

What would you do next year if you did not get accepted into business school?

Why should I choose you over another applicant?

What questions do you have for me about the program?

What do you do in your spare time? Hobbies? Last book read for pleasure?

Tell me about your most challenging experience at your company and what did you learn from it?

Tell me about a stressful experience and how you coped with it?

How would you describe your personal philosophy?

What is the biggest failure you’ve had to deal with?

What have your supervisors criticized most about your performance?

If you could change one thing about your personality with a snap of your fingers, what would it be?

Tell me about your most satisfying experience at your company?

Tell me about an experience working with a difficult colleague?

Tell us about an ethical business situation you faced?

Sample questions to the interviewer Are there any major changes anticipated at the school for the upcoming year?

What industries do graduates come from?

What do you consider the greatest strengths and weaknesses of the program?

How would you describe the EMBA teaching methods?

What is the percentage of students who change careers after graduation?

(It never hurts: Send a note of thanks to the people you met, especially to programs under serious consideration.)

Interview Discussion Points: • ·Work experience • Conflict resolution and problem solving • Relationship with peers and superiors • ·Personal successes and failures • Professional successes and failures • Ability to manage change Extracurricular activities: volunteer work, hobbies, and other personal and professional accomplishments

Taking the lead from comments made by the interviewer, you can feel free to continue discussion on a given topic. Keep the conversation interesting and on a professional level. ■ Biography Jason Price is the Director of EMBA World.

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CEO | 9

Creative Entrepreneurs

can Survive

the Crisis » Jean-Claude Larréché, INSEAD Knowledge

Creative entrepreneurs can weather the current global economic crisis better than traditional businesses, says Jean-Claude Larréché , INSEAD professor of marketing.

“It’s not the creative entrepreneurs but it’s the large companies that are being challenged. Creative companies can survive any condition,” Larréché said at the recent World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, South Korea.

10 | CEO

Virgin Atlantic, which was founded by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson in 1984, survived and came out stronger after the airline crisis of the early 1990s when many established airlines went bankrupt, notes Larréché.

Speaking via satellite, Branson said a lot of opportunities will emerge as a result of the current global economic slowdown but companies need to be nimble to move quickly and decisively to realise these opportunities.

“There are enormous opportunities when there is a crisis. In a situation like this, it’s absolutely essential to conserve cash. I think companies that do have cash owe it to their country and the people in the company to actually invest that cash in order to grow out of the crisis,” Branson says.

With oil prices and stock prices of airlines collapsing, Branson said it could be the time to look at whether it is good for Virgin to start an airline

in South Korea, Russia or Brazil. “We should consider expanding if (there is) cash to do so.”

The best companies with the best products and services survive in a crisis. “You will see other companies all around you going bust and you’ll benefit from that,” Branson says.

Government needs to allow companies to go bust, so that new and more efficient companies can emerge, Branson says. The US government, for instance, should allow ailing airlines to go bankrupt so that new and more efficient airlines are set up in their place.

Agreeing, Larréché says: “In this crisis, we have to accept the consequences.”

To encourage entrepreneurship, governments should do their part to stir competition, Branson says. For instance a merger between British Airways and American Airlines would be bad news for the consumer and governments should prevent this from happening, he argues.

It was Branson’s desire to improve airline services that inspired him to launch Virgin At-

lantic, providing travellers value for money service that brought fun to flying. “Virgin Atlantic’s acceptance of British and Far Eastern travellers spurred all of us to start breaking the rules in other areas.”Today, some 40 years since Branson and his partners established Virgin Entertainment, their recording business, the Virgin Group has over 250 companies in its stable. Besides airlines and entertainment, Virgin is into hotels, leisure, finance, renewable energy, telecommunications and even space travel. Virgin Galactic will start its space flights next year, using environment-friendly space launch technology.

responsibility to promote greater good. “They have the responsibility to look closely on how they can possibly redistribute wealth for the collective good.”

Apart from promoting entrepreneurship and competition, governments need to regulate when there is not enough regulation, particularly in the banking sector.

“I’ve always believed that there is no point in going to business unless you’re going to make an enormous and positive difference,” Branson says. ■

He says the banking mortgage community should never be allowed “to bring the world almost to its knees ever again. There obviously has to be a better regulation in that area.”

Beyond making money, Branson says entrepreneurs must also realise that they have the

Business people, for instance, should not leave money sitting unproductively in banks. “They should use that wealth creatively to change society and to start new companies. They should expand their businesses in new regions of the world, thereby employing more people and bringing opportunities to areas which are previously being exploited by companies that are monopolistic.”

Acknowledgement This article is republished courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge.insead.edu).

Copyright INSEAD 2009.

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The Innovation

Value Chain » Morten Hansen and Julian Birkinshaw, INSEAD Knowledge

Innovation isn’t all about great ideas. INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship Morten Hansen and visiting professor Julian Birkinshaw argue that companies often fail because they don’t recognise that innovation is a chain that requires strength at every link to succeed. The chain starts with idea generation, but then moves to prioritising and funding ideas, to converting those ideas to products and finally to diffusing those products and business practices across the company. Hansen says that managers who are constantly working to come up with new ideas when there are other problems in the chain actually may be causing more problems. “What you’re essentially doing is pumping more ideas into a broken process and that makes it even worse.” He cites one company that was intent on becoming more innovative. “They had a great pool of ideas but management started having more brainstorming 12 | CEO

sessions … believing that they just needed more ideas,“ he said. “Ideas did not get selected or funded and nor did they die. Nothing happened to them at all. They were just floating around and, as a consequence, the company did not develop new products.” This can become an even bigger corporate problem because creative employees quickly become disillusioned when none of the ideas that emerge during brainstorming sessions ever sees the light of day. Those employees eventually leave to find a more innovative place to work. So, the authors argue, companies need to develop a process, a chain, to get those good ideas to market. bManagers need to improve their selection mechanism for screening and identifying the best ideas, funding them through development, building external and internal networks to roll out those ideas across the company and sustain this ongoing process.

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CEO | 13

‘One size does not fit all’ In their research, Hansen and Birkinshaw met many managers who were looking for a one-size-fits-all innovation management solution.

They wanted to import a something from a successful company. “One size does not fit all,” Hansen says. Managers must first understand their unique problem, then they can go out and look for a solution that fits their needs. “That’s a very big difference. It’s a very big change in the way that you think about improving innovation in a company.”

Hansen says managers require a broader perspective on innovation. He advises managers to “think innovation value chain as opposed to thinking only about a part of the chain or read a book on innovation and think you should be doing that. It may not be what you need. It’s the wrong medicine for you,” he says.

Find the weakest link Another mistake managers make is to concentrate on their strengths, when what they should be doing is finding and fixing their weakest link. Hansen admits this is counter-intuitive. “Every company thinks they have a great strength and they should just further that strength.

We’re saying that when it comes to the innovation value chain, that’s not correct because your strength can cause further problems down the road,” Hansen said. Hansen and Birkinshaw have developed assessment tools that help companies evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. “You need to look at the entire process of innovation,” Hansen says. Put simply, companies are idea poor, conversion poor or diffusion poor. Idea poor may be obvious. Conversion poor means companies are unable to pinpoint the best idea, fund it and bring it to market.

Diffusion poor means a company may have a good idea, but cannot 14 | CEO

generate company-wide support and cannot develop the idea into new products or new markets. Hansen says Proctor & Gamble and Apple are good examples of companies that have shown real success across the innovation value chain.

“If you look at Apple, they’re very good at generating good ideas. They’re very good at bringing those ideas to market and they are also very good at monetising (them). They are able to further expand the product offering, with different extensions and different versions,” he says, noting Apple’s iPod and iPhone products. It’s not just about trendy products Hansen says, Apple knows how to take those good ideas and, using the innovation value chain, turn them into successful products. The prescription works for all types of innovation. Hansen and Birkinshaw define innovation broadly, including products and services, new business models and best practices. “How you do things in a company – that’s also innovation.

And all these three elements follow the same process,” Hansen says.

Keep improving the links Start by finding the weakest link. But the assessment process doesn’t end when a manager fixes one link. Hansen says companies need to keep evaluating the links in the chain and improving them. As one link becomes stronger, managers need to improve the others to keep up. ■

Acknowledgement This article is republished courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge.insead.edu). Copyright INSEAD 2009.

North America EMBA REVIEW

“We want the students to be able to appreciate that the MBA degree is more than textbook learning,which is part of what distinguishes it from an undergraduate business degree.�

CEO | 15

Setting The

Standard » Gonzalo Freixes and Kelly Bean talk to Debbie Moss

Over the last six years we’ve witnessed tremendous growth in both “ EMBA programs and part time MBA programs. Part time programs allow professionals to continue to work normal hours and this has certainly been a catalyst for growth. In fact, our part time population surpassed our fulltime population two to three years ago.

”

Introduction Define UCLA Anderson’s School of Management MBA Value Proposition.

It’s fourfold: • • • •

To provide broad-based knowledge of leading management thought and theories.

To provide students with the analytical and leadership skills necessary to manage the businesses of tomorrow.

To provide experiential learning through strategic management research Connection to our global alumni network

However, from a non-degree perspective, our programming brings together the management and leadership perspective. This is where we strive to give our participant the opportunity to gain forward thinking behaviors so they can solve the pressing problems facing their organizations today.

Our programming is research-based, but highly applicable, and we tend to focus on the areas of strategic sustainability, diverse perspectives, and innovation.

The Strategic Management Research (SMR) program that you offer as part of the EMBA at UCLA Anderson adds an exciting dynamic to the program. What can students and corporations expect to derive from the program?

The student, the company, the administration and faculty of UCLA Anderson define the scope mutually. SMR provides two strategic goals: 16 | CEO

•

•

The company works with the student to develop a strategic plan for expanding existing markets, developing new markets, or addressing organizational challenges.

Students engage in real world consulting projects, thereby experiencing – hands on –all of the requisite components involved in the development of a strategic plan.

It’s the type of program that doesn’t really exist in management MBA programs. It’s the EMBA’s equivalent of our Master’s thesis for MBA students. The six-month program requires each student to invest 400 to 500 hours of time. Grouped in teams of six, students prepare these strategic business plans for companies that contract with UCLA Anderson to conduct the study.

Example: UCLA Anderson did a study (Early 2007) for a major hospital in the L.A. area. The hospital was rebuilding as a result of damage sustained by an earthquake some years earlier. The initiative was to include a new center for women. They asked a student team to develop a plan for the implementation of the new facility. Students canvassed the community, the physicians and all of the stakeholders involved. They put together a comprehensive plan detailing how the center should be structured and launched. With that very plan the hospital was able to find a single donor to fund the entire project. They launched it exactly the way the EMBA student plan was developed.

In our customized executive education programs, we may be engaged with one corporation, developing its high potential leaders, while working closely with another to develop a “business challenge project.” These projects are a great way to offer practical application of the content. But, it is also an incredible opportunity for participants to practice leadership skills, work in teams/virtual teams and manage cross functionally.

North America

•••

UCLA Anderson’s EMBA program offers an international travelstudy option. What does this entail?

We’ve found significant interest among our students in international study. So, we have incorporated international management into the entire curriculum. In so doing, we’ve developed a cross section of different programs: •

• •

•

International seminar. At the end of the program the entire class goes to China. They work with a partner university in Beijing or Shanghai where the students are introduced to the Chinese economy, Chinese markets and doing business in general in China.

Chinese business. Classroom time with faculty from China, along with company visits and discussions with Chinese executives.

Exchange courses between EMBA programs. We now offer students one-week block electives twice a year, in partnership with London Business School, HEC in Paris and SDA Marconi University in Milan. We’re working with other partner schools to develop similar relationships. We currently have 16 students with us from England, Milan and other parts of Europe taking some of our one- week classes and vice versa.

Travel study option. We’re developing dedicated programs within the school - strategically identified areas like the Pacific Rim. We

have a finance program that we are putting together with our faculty in conjunction with India’s School of Business in Hyderabad, India. Several of our students are there presently.

In December I’m taking a group of 52 students to Chili for a course on international management, with a focus on South America.

The group will encompass both EMBAs and fully employed MBA students. We are also developing similar programs in other countries.

The majority of these programs have a field component - company visits. This gives the student a sense of how business is conducted in other countries.

Online learning is one of many tools that enrich the executive MBA experience. To what extent does e-learning factor into UCLA Anderson’s EMBA program? Regarding the EMBA, we use e-learning

as a component of classroom learning. We video all core classes for our EMBA students so they have an opportunity to view the classes online, but we still believe it’s important for the interactive learning to be done in the classroom.

There are some e-learning products available that we utilize such as, basic financial models, online testing or pre-imposed testing.

CEO | 17

In the EMBA program our GMAT “scores are higher than they’ve been in several years, and the number of applicants has increased as well.

”

KSA into the curriculum…and we do. For example, we have a dedicated leadership foundation. We continually provide blocks of leadership, persuasion, communication, and presentation skills throughout the curriculum so that students can enhance these skills.

When it comes to the non-degree program, this is not really the case.

The primary objective for most of our non-degree students is to gain the requisite KSA. This helps leads to career development. In an EMBA, it’s probably split.

Accreditation Do you feel accreditation is an indicator of quality and do employers use it as a benchmark? I think the need for accreditation is just a

given. If you have an MBA from an unaccredited school it doesn’t weigh as heavily.

EMBA programs have enjoyed significant growth over the last six years. To what do you attribute the recent success? Over the last

six years we’ve witnessed tremendous growth in both EMBA programs and part time MBA programs. Part time programs allow professionals to continue to work normal hours and this has certainly been a catalyst for growth. In fact, our part time population surpassed our fulltime population two to three years ago.

Participants are now exposed to developmental experiences earlier in their careers, which often include a university-based component. We find a lot of participants from our non-degree executive education actually move on to either the Fully Employed MBA (part time) or EMBA program. Our non-degree programs do an excellent job at planting the seed.

According to a recent GMAC study, the quality of MBA applicants has risen significantly over the past three years. Is this something you’ve witnessed at UCLA? Absolutely. In the EMBA program our

GMAT scores are higher than they’ve been in several years, and the number of applicants has increased as well.

What that means for the program is a more diverse class profile (geography, industry, types of students) and a higher academic quality (test scores, grades). Also, 40% of students in today’s EMBA classes already have another advanced degree.

Improving one’s knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) is certainly a motivating factor for MBA candidates. However, in your opinion, is KSA acquisition second to career development? They go hand-

in-hand. We can no longer just teach accounting, finance, statistics and macroeconomics. Rather, now we are expected to weave leadership and 18 | CEO

Ranking and reputation, in part, are what drives our student body and the employers that come here to seek out our students. Most organizations that have decided to sponsor their high potential leaders (depending on the role they want them to play) are likely to choose an accredited business school as their first choice. They also have to consider how competitive the admissions process is. However, I feel that being a top tier school carries the most credibility, certainly in the eyes of an employer.

Return on Investment An MBA graduate that performs well can anticipate certain opportunities. However, what can graduates typically expect from the UCLA Anderson School of Management EMBA program, in terms of ROI? If students look at what they will earn, in terms of ad-

ditional salary, from their MBA investment, they’re looking at a very short time frame. I think statistically, the ROI for the industry is two to two ­and-a-half years. When you factor in all of the schools in the latest GMAC survey, it goes up a year. It’s a very positive benchmark for the EMBA experience.

With regards to executive education, customized programs that are company specific, organizations often see ROI within the first six to twelve months. As Business Challenge Projects are executed, the benefits to the company often pay for the price of the program. There’s no question – the value is there.

Impact of Globalization on the MBA Market The explosion of MBA programs in Eastern Europe and China further underlines the impact of globalization on executive education.

North America

•••

With this in mind, how does a business school like UCLA’s Anderson School of Management differentiate itself from the competition?

We’ve created the UCLA-NUS Global Executive MBA. We work with our international partner, the National University of Singapore, to offer a dual degree, or what we call an International MBA. We’re actively looking into a similar partnership in Latin America.

The UCLA-NUS Global Executive MBA has a relatively unique format in that it’s completed over a 15 month period. Also, it’s conducted in four economic centers: three in Asia and one in the United States. Each session is a two-week intensive immersion for the students and the blend of participants is great. So it gives each session an excellent global orientation over the 15 months.

Additionally, our Center for International Business and Education Research (CIBER). CIBER works with 10 EMBA programs from significant institutions around the world. Each brings its students for one week of the executive education portion of their curriculum.

Program Selection In your opinion, when is the best time to enroll in an MBA program or executive education program? It depends what program you’re looking

at. The average age of EMBA students is 35 to 38. Those in their late 30s have had about 13 years of management experience. When considering the part time MBA program, typically, students have three to 10 years work experience. The average age tends to be 30 to 31. In the fulltime program there’s about a one year difference.

In Executive Education, the average age of our program participants is 43 so, considerably higher than EMBA or any of the other MBAs. By providing executives, in the age group we serve, research-based tools that are immediately applicable in developing sustainable management solutions, we provide a continuous opportunity to refine executives’ expertise as the face new business challenges, at all stages of their careers, whether or not they possess an MBA. Financial Drivers Some say that when the economy is in decline, enrollment seems to rise proportionately. Do you agree with this? Yes, but not just busi-

ness school; the increase is reflected in a lot of other graduate programs.

When the economy is in decline it’s a good time to go back to school, particularly if you’re a fulltime student. The thinking is that, because the economy is tough, people need to diversify their skills. Organizations typically rally behind that thinking because EMBAs are often pursued in one’s own time.

With regard to Executive Education, troubled economic time confront organizations with the need to find efficiencie as well as to develop new sources of revenues. Our programs offer companies not only cost effective solutions to their most pressing short term challenges but also the opportunity to develop their executives to be more productive, innovative and agile in envisioning, communicating and implementing change that will drive organizational growth in the long run. Which is

a long-winded way of saying that even if you’re watching every penny, our programs make great economic sense.

The Next Chapter What can new and existing students expect from UCLA Anderson’s School of Management, in terms of program innovations, over the next twelve to eighteen months? Some of the trends we’re engaged

in currently are global initiatives. We’ve gone from one international option for our EMBA students to several, and we’re expanding both the number of options and the regions of the world.

We’re looking at greater flexibility and more modular programs. We recently implemented a group of one-week block electives, which have proven very popular with students. Instead of just taking the traditional “every quarter” class, the aforementioned modular programs are shorter and so it gives the student greater flexibility. Technology is always being innovated and woven into the curriculum.

Also, there’s the Global Access Program (GAP). This is the structural model upon which the SMR (Strategic Management Research) program is based. The innovative component here is that all of the companies are internationally based. We have agency and quasi-government partners around the world. They refer us to emerging high-tech companies and our student teams are assigned accordingly. Once they’ve completed a business plan, it is introduced to the emerging company. Executives also come here from different countries. It’s a unique educational experience that weaves the global economy into the curriculum.

Industry wide, Executive Education has to acknowledge and embrace the fact that there has been a huge influx of MBAs into the workforce over the last two decades. This means that, increasingly, our programs must meet the needs of executives who already possess an MBA skillset. And we’re very comfortable that the UCLA Anderson faculty can and do deliver to the heightened expectations that this creates.

However, the onus is on us to continue to hone a program experience that is audience specific, highly experiential, and above all, immediately applicable to the problems that drive organizations and executives to seek us out. Executive Education is a great resource that MBA holders will seek out in order to refresh their skills, or to learn emerging competencies that were perhaps unavailable or less developed when they too their diploma. Certainly, recent economic events make it very clear that – whether you’re an organization or an individual executive – you can’t afford to rest on your laurels, no matter how lofty. You have to be forward thinking. And forward thinking requires a commitment to continually seeking out the new knowledge and diverse perspectives that will drive innovation and create growth. ■

Biographies Gonzalo Freixes is the Associate Dean for the Fully Employed and Executive MBA Programs.

Kelly Bean is the Assistant Dean for Executive Education Programs.

CEO | 19

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North America

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Executive Education

The Case Method At Harvard Business School » Jim Aisner, Director of Media Relations & Senior Editor The goal of Harvard Business School (HBS) is to prepare students for the challenges of leadership. We belive that the case method is by far the most powerful way to learn the skills required to manage, and to lead.

The case method forces students to grapple with exactly the kinds of decisions and dilemmas managers confront every day. In doing so, it redefines the traditional educational dynamic in which the professor dispences knowledge and students passively receive it. The case method creates a classroom in which students succeed not by simply absorbing facts and theories, but also by exercising the skills of leadership and teamwork in the face of real problems. Under the skilful guidance of a faculty member, they work together to analyse and synthesize conflicting data and points of view, to define and prioritise goals, to persuade and inspire others who think differently, to make tough decisions with uncertain information and to seize opportunity in the face of doubt.

Pioneered by HBS faculty in the 1920s, the case method began as a way of importing slices of business reality into the cassroom in order to breathe life and instil greater meaning into the lessons of management education. Today, although we also make use of lectures, simulations, fieldwork, and other forms of teaching as appropriate, more than 80 percent of HBS classes are built on the case method.

The Role Of Faculty Teaching an HBS case is an unpredictable business. There is no familiar lecture to deliver, and no telling quite which way the conversation might turn. Recent events in the business world may cast the case in an entirely new light. Thus, just as students must prepare intensely for every class, HBS faculty spend a great deal of time preparing for each class as well, alone and in teaching teams, even for cases they wrote themselves or have taught many times before. Students bring so much new energy and insight to every discussion, that case teaching is a process of constant intellectual renewal and growth in which the teachers can learn as much as the students do.

What students remember and value most about the faculty is their extraordinary passion, commitment and skill as teachers. Our faculty members are famously “close to practice”: Many serve as business leaders, entrepreneurs, consultants, and board members in their own right. Drawing on that experience as well as their intellectual rigor, they have produced some of the most influential business research in the world, and they write by far the greatest number of cases used in business classrooms around the globe. Yet they truly come alive in the classroom, pursuing their mission to educate the next generation of leaders who will make a difference in the world.

Is The case method Effective?

The HBS approach to the case method of teaching may represent the most demanding, engaging, and provocative way to learn about the skills of leadership, short of actually serving as a CEO. Perhaps the best measure of it is the extraordinary success of our alumni.

HBS graduates have gone on to positions of leadership in an exceptional range of entrepreneurial firms, established companies, governments, and non-profit organizations in countries across the globe. Many of them have maintained that their experience with the case method at HBS has been crucial to their success, giving them the knowledge, the skills, and confidence to deal effectively with the wide array of difficult decisions they have faced throughout their careers.

Although there is no substitute for experience, the education students receive at HBS helps them make the most of that experience, providing a solid foundation that serves them for a lifetime. ■

Acknowledgement © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted with permission of Harvard Business School.

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molding Tomorrow’s

leaders

» Debbie Moss talks to Dr. Pamela Davies, Terry Broderick and Ron Veith

today want leaders “whoBusinesses can think creatively. You do not

develop original thinkers by following the same old rules. That is what makes the McColl Executive MBA a one-of-a-kind experience - we started by breaking the rules.

”

Introduction Kindly define the McColl School of Business EMBA value proposition. It’s a 20-month leadership development program for individuals

identified as either in leadership positions or about to be in leadership positions. As part of this 20-month executive development program, where the central theme is leadership, you also earn an MBA. Really the value proposition is: the leadership development, the MBA and, tied to that, experiential learning. In other words, if they’re not already using a concept they’ve learned in class on Monday, they’ll be using it in a week or two. What they learn is that relevant to today’s world.

With the emphasis on leadership, we stress self-discovery. A great deal of attention is focused upon greater self-awareness because we believe the essence of leadership lies in being aware of self. And, as a consequence of creating greater self-awareness, we feel the potential for personal and professional transformation is very much in play. In fact, the tagline for our advertising is, “Not just a degree, but an experience.” We’d like to say that in many cases we believe it’s a transformational experience.

In your opinion, when is the best time to enroll in an MBA program? Well, it depends. It’s a combination of the executive and the

individual. For an EMBA, the best time is when you have some substantive experience (10-15 years). With the EMBA and the way we are structured, our participants really learn as much from each other as they do from a case study or a faculty member. So, the decision really rests with the individual.

EMBA programs have enjoyed significant growth over the last six years. To what do you attribute this success? There are a couple

24 | CEO

different reasons: Regarding MBA programs in general and the people major corporations are hiring, one thing they’re doing increasingly is hiring people with diverse backgrounds.

For example, big banks don’t just come to us and other universities and hire undergraduate business majors exclusively. They’re looking at English majors as well, because they want liberal arts degrees. So, as they progress through the program, more need the business education and it makes sense to do it at the graduate level – and that goes for MBAs overall. With the EMBA there’s recognition that we can do more for companies than just traditional classroom teaching, like accounting and finance. We can help them with the people they’ve identified as the future leaders in the organization; that is, develop them not just academically, but in leadership.

The level of competition for top jobs has become so intense that anything positive to add to a portfolio of experiences is terribly important.

If you can add an EMBA from an accredited institution, it just provides another opportunity to advance, which one might not otherwise have.

What sets the McColl School of Business EMBA program apart from the competition? Leadership and leadership development are a

big part of what sets McColl apart, in addition to the role we play in helping students and participants develop that potential. The concepts of leadership and leadership development are integrated all the way through the program. It’s not just a three credit-hour course on leadership; rather there are formal sessions in leadership throughout the 20 months. We even integrate the concepts of leadership into traditional topic areas like economics, finance, etc. We emphasize self-discovery, self-awareness, finding out who you are, what you stand for and what you believe in. We use a number of different methodologies to arrive at that.

Another factor that sets McColl apart from the competition is that we’re a cohort program and relatively small in size. Cohorts range in size from low 20s to low 30s in terms of number of students. There’s a sense of community that’s built into the program as well, and that extends well beyond graduation. Also, we’re set apart by the relationship we have with the business community and the non-profit community. We have a number of non-profit students in our programs. All in all, graduates have a real affiliation and affection for both Queens University and its McColl School of Business.

North America

•••

With the EMBA there’s “ recognition that we can do more for companies than just traditional classroom teaching, like accounting and finance.

”

Another exciting facet of the Program was inspired by a trip we made to the Wharton School. We learned of an organization called Vertical. Operating from Santiago, Chili, they create and mange leadership ventures for five leading business schools in the U.S.: Harvard, Wharton, MIT, NYU Stern and McColl. Students travel to Santiago, Chili, where they spend a day at the local university and go to a couple of classes. They also do a high ropes course in the Andes, which is led by Vertical’s chairman, Rodrico Jordon. In addition, Vertical has a foundation for the indigent poor in Chili. So, for two days, students build housing for the foundation. For those who don’t go to Santiago, we have a program in the North Carolina Mountains. Here, Vertical’s Rodrico again leads 35 students.

According to a recent GMAC study, the quality of MBA applicants has risen significantly over the past three years. Is this something that you’ve witnessed at the McColl School of Business? Yes I

have. However, we use other quality measures as well, like finding out

what the faculty thinks. We believe another characteristic of quality is diversity. To this end, the number of women and international students has also increased significantly. They bring an important and unique perspective to all of our students.

Improving one’s knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) is certainly a motivating factor for MBA candidates. However, in your opinion, is KSA acquisition second to career development? We think it’s

best if it happens iteratively. The best news we could receive is that a student acquires some theoretical knowledge during a Friday or Saturday class and walks into work on Monday realizing there’s an opportunity to apply that knowledge.

By the same token, if they experience something relevant at work during the week and come to class on the weekend, ready to talk about the skill set necessary to support or deliver it – that’s the kind of real learning that works best.

CEO | 25

In other words, if they’re not already using a concept they’ve learned in “ class on Monday, they’ll be using it in a week or two. What they learn is that relevant to today’s world. ” It’s important to note that so often students come into the program without knowing what they’ll be gaining, but along the way they realize they’ve changed. Intellectually they’re not the same as when they started. In short, students shouldn’t be surprised to come in motivated by one thing but leave having realized something very different.

An MBA graduate that performs well can anticipate certain opportunities. However, what can graduates typically expect from the McColl School of Business EMBA program in terms of ROI? We are seeing ROI very early. When an individual comes into

the program, part of the admission guidelines is to have a company sponsorship letter. Part of that is logistical and part of it is so that everybody understands what we’re trying to do. Since their company is actively sponsoring them, we survey those sponsors and they confirm they’re seeing a difference while the student is enrolled. In fact, 80 percent of our EMBA students report back that they were either promoted or took on greater responsibility while in or shortly after completing the program.

Green Issues Can you talk to us about the school’s “green” building, the Duke Energy Sciences & Health Building? We are committed to being

responsible environmentally. In fact, we recently established our own Sustainability Council that addresses green issues across our campus.

We are about to break ground on our new science building, the Duke Energy Science & Health Building. We are committed to achieving a gold standard lead-certification for that building, which is really quite aggressive given that it is a science building and naturally a consumer of energy. We want it to be a model building for our region and for our community.

The Sustainability Council works on many fronts to educate people about ways they can be more responsible to the environment. Each week we incorporate a leadership forum where we bring in individuals to speak to classes. It’s relaxed and no one takes notes. Last week we had a panel discussion on green issues and green opportunities from a corporate and community sense.

Leadership and Relationship Building

Your EMBA program places a great deal of emphasis on leadership and, in times of crisis, this is certainly a very important 26 | CEO

trait. However, it is far easier to propose well thought-out leadership actions in the classroom than under conditions of extreme business pressure.

How do you test the leadership qualities of your students and, ultimately, prepare them for the real world business challenges that lay ahead? Charlotte is a very unique place in

large part because of the community leaders who live here, work here and who impact the thinking. The heroes in Charlotte are community leaders who give back almost sacrificially so that the city can thrive. A good example is Hugh McColl, the consummate community leader who gives back through the arts, through health and human services agencies and through education. Leadership is the premise upon which the McColl School of Business was founded and we define leadership using three different concepts:

Competence: Having the requisite business acumen and skills to be a leader. A key determinant of a successful business education is its relevance. Our curriculum is designed to emphasize inter-connections and relationships between the traditional academic areas so that students develop a heightened awareness of cross-functional issues. This is accomplished by exposing students to many functional areas during each of our four academic terms. An overriding theme for each term guides the selection of topics within traditional functional areas.

Character: Having the right values and integrity to lead others.

Under this heading, there’s a lot we do in order to create greater selfawareness, which we believe is the basis of leadership. For example, we do a 360 evaluation, where each student is obligated to prepare an individual development plan. Each individual is assigned a professional coach who volunteers time to work with students on a one-to-one basis.

Work focuses on a personal development plan and other aspects of their personal and professional lives.

Community: A commitment to giving back, to building your community around you whether it be your neighborhood, your city, state, country, but a commitment to others and to building community. That was the foundation upon which the leadership model was developed. When it comes to times of crisis and challenge – we’ve given students the fundamentals. We’ve helped them to develop an understanding of the importance of values and integrity and transparency and serving others, well beyond simply how to make a lot of money.

North America

•••

Unlike 4th edition “ textbooks, where they’ve added a new chapter called “International Business,” our specialization means integrating international business throughout all of the topic areas.

”

The McColl School of Business has been successful in forging alliances with local businesses. To what extent do these relationships benefit the EMBA program and its students?

I’ll list a few examples: 1. Speaker series. Seeing leadership up close and personal is hugely important. For that reason we have the Leaders in Action Speaker Series. Students listen to the lecture and have dinner with these key leaders. (e.g. Ken Lewis) 2. Executives in residence. We have executives in residence at the business school that donate their time to students in small groups and individually to work with them on issues they might be facing at work.

3. Drop-ins. We all look forward to frequent drop-ins from Charlotte leaders. One of our most frequent drop-ins is Hugh McColl.

4. Case writing. Case writing efforts help with leadership studies.

Each student is assigned a company to write a case about.

5. Entrepreneurial Leadership Circle. This is where 75 local entrepreneurs contribute time and money to the school, for example judging business plan competitions.

6. Executive Leadership Institute. This is our executive education arm. Here, we use our own faculty to work on customized programs for regional companies. The value to students is that the faculty interacts directly with the companies to solve their problems and then takes it back into the classroom for students to consider.

CEO | 27

There are a number of major corporations locally and nationally that “ won’t reimburse employees for schools that aren’t AASCB accredited. We

are one of only two schools in North Carolina that holds two accreditations.

While the AACSB puts its emphasis on a university’s research standards, the ACBSP puts its emphasis on teaching.

”

Accreditation McColl’s EMBA program is accredited by the AACSB, the gold standard in accreditation. What does the school do in order to maintain the aforementioned seal of approval? Well, it’s complex

and lengthy. It takes six years initially to move through the accreditation process. Maintaining the accreditation is all about implementing processes, assurance of learning goals, and keeping our faculty both academically and professionally qualified.

We are committed to McColl’s Business School maintaining its accreditation with them. I think we have been reasonably generous from a resource allocation standpoint to ensure its success and will continue to do so going forward. For instance, a budget has already been made available for faculty to participate in AACSB conferences and seminars.

When selecting an EMBA program, how important is accreditation? It’s extremely important, especially with more and more MBA

programs to pick from and, quite honestly, more sophisticated buyers. The majority of people investigating MBA programs are doing it via the web, thereby becoming more astute. They understand more about what accreditation means. As a result, it’s very important for recruiting students. There are a number of major corporations locally and nationally that won’t reimburse employees for schools that aren’t AASCB accredited. We are one of only two schools in North Carolina that holds two accreditations. While the AACSB puts its emphasis on a university’s research standards, the ACBSP puts its emphasis on teaching.

The number of program providers servicing the EMBA market has increased significantly over the last five years, some say the market has reached saturation point. As corollary, has the AACSB raised the bar in terms of qualifying standards? Yes, I think the

scholarships. It’s their primary purpose, which benefits individuals, corporations and non-profits in the Charlotte region. They also take part in a symposium where topical issues are discussed at length and programming is created accordingly.

The Alumni Association is a wonderful networking arm for current graduates and active students, a very functional and committed group.

What can new and existing students expect from the McColl School of Business, in terms of program innovations, over the next 12-18 months? We have introduced a Master of Science in Organiza-

tion Development, which ties in very nicely with our leadership mission.

It’s unique in its particular emphasis on research methods and statistics, as well as teaching organizational development practitioners how to converse in the language of business.

Along with the aforementioned Master’s degree, we now offer a certificate in coaching. We’re trying to bolster our undergraduate curriculum by adding a specialization in finance, which will be followed up in a year with one in international business. Finally, we’re in the early stages of developing a center for entrepreneurship.

It’s important to mention that, over the next year, once again we’ll be looking at our curriculum to make sure it’s highly relevant to what’s happening in the business community. This involves taking a hard look at international business. Unlike 4th edition textbooks, where they’ve added a new chapter called “International Business,” our specialization means integrating international business throughout all of the topic areas. ■

AACSB has raised qualifying standards. It has raised the bar in terms of educating people about what accreditation means – how to get it, what it means once you have it and how to maintain it.

Biographies Dr. Pamela Davies became President of Queens University of Charlotte on July 1, 2002, making her the 20th president of the institution. She is the former Dean of the McColl School of Business, and before coming to the institution, she was Professor of Management and Dean of the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University.

Six years ago we might have thought of the AACSB as something we had to take care of. However, in the course of doing so, we’ve realized there is real and tangible value in the process. We wouldn’t be involved in some of the efforts we’re making today without the AACSB emphasis behind us.

Terry Broderick is the Dean of the McColl School of Business. Prior to this Mr. Broderick served on the Queens University of Charlotte Board of Trustees. Mr. Broderick retired as CEO and President of Royal & SunAlliance USA in June 2002.

Looking Ahead What can graduates and employers expect, in terms of support, from the McColl School of Business Alumni Association (MCAA)?

One activity the alumni association has taken on is raising money for 28 | CEO

Ron Veith joined the McColl School of Business as the Director of the Executive MBA Program in the fall of 2007. Prior to his joining the McColl School Mr. Veith spent more than 20 years with Accenture retiring as a partner in 2002.

At Accenture he was the Global Managing Partner for one of the firm’s global practice areas. Mr. Veith served as a lead partner for many large clients including Bell South (now AT&T), Nabisco, Sara Lee, and Michelin.

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CEO | 29

Flexibility is

the Key » Debbie Moss talks to Hugh O’Neill

Program Over view There are many options and a wide range of program formats from which to choose as an executive MBA candidate. Kindly define the University of North Carolina’s (UNC’s) MBA value proposition. In de-

fining our value proposition, the first element concerns the flexibility in the programs we offer. We have an evening and weekend version, and we have our OneMBA, which is a global partnership. Offering different programs accommodates students’ learning styles and their major interests. Some people prefer learning in a sequenced way, like every Monday and every Thursday. The evening program takes care of those people. Others prefer learning on an immersion basis, for which the Friday and Saturday classes meet twice each month. The OneMBA program participants meet Friday, Saturday and Sunday, once a month.

The second part of the value proposition is that we allow a fair amount of customization for the students in the weekend and evening programs, once they have finished their core courses, which represent about 60 percent of the curriculum. The remaining 40 percent can choose from as many as 40 different courses in order to complete the elements that will best serve their career. For example, if they’re interested in marketing, they could focus on a set of marketing courses; the same goes with finance. For the OneMBA program, the focus is on global expansion and they get to study in Europe, China, Brazil and Mexico.

The final part of the value proposition is the delivery in the classroom. With respect to support services we have a cadre of very 30 | CEO

skilled teachers working simultaneously in academic and corporate environments and a very dedicated support staff. Across the elements of design, delivery and support, value is created.

A graduate of the OneMBA Program at UNC gets the traditional MBA, along with the OneMBA certificate. Please explain what the certificate represents. The OneMBA is

a partnership across five different schools that span the globe. Each has a strong, local brand and a good degree. Students in each of the particular areas earn that degree. But, those who are in the OneMBA have an experience that goes just beyond the normal degree. They have studied at each of the schools and they have studied with faculty in each. The OneMBA certificate recognizes the unique value of that particular form of study.

To stay competitive it’s important to specialize. UNC allows MBA participants to customize their career goals. How does this work? How does it tie in with other courses? The specialization for our students occurs

through the opportunity for them to take the electives. Specialization also occurs by having the ability to design work-specific projects as part of the curriculum. First the student finishes the common body of knowledge courses such as, accounting, finance, marketing, strategy, etc. Then, the student has the opportunity to craft a set of courses that fit his/her particular needs. Generally we have three classes of people. First, there are people who are climbers.

They are inside a hierarchy trying to advance within that particular hierarchy. Then, we have those we call shifters who are trying to shift into a different arena. And we have founders, who dream of being entrepreneurs. These three

North America

•••

Back in the 80s and early 90s we “recognized it was important for companies to become international, so we added a course in international business. However, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the establishment of the European Union in ’92, and the growth of China, etc. we began to realize that this was something happening to business in general. As a corollary, we reached a point where every course was designed with some international or global content.

”

CEO | 31

groups represent 70 to 80 percent of the students in the class.

For the first group, the climbers, the curriculum offers a fair number of management, strategy and human resources courses. Here they can learn to design, manage and build organizations. For that particular group we also offer access to executive coaches so they can get some guidance on how to enhance their visibility inside their corporation.

With respect to shifters, what they’re generally trying to do is shift from a function they started in, to a different function. Take, for example, someone who starts in information technology and wants to move into marketing. These individuals would take marketing courses. We also pair them with a career coach to help them understand the difference in skills. The entrepreneurs (founders) have a number of basic courses to choose from, along with a couple of entrepreneurial courses. In one the student creates a business plan for an outside company. Second, the student creates a business plan for a company that will be his or hers, and then gets to propose that plan to a number of potential investors.

Each year we change a few of the electives to match the unique needs of that class.

Sometimes we try to probe the class to see if there’s something we need to add. Two examples help to illustrate the point: •

•

Class of 2008: We had a larger than usual number of students interested in the health industry. So, we added an elective on health industry marketing.

The class of 2009: Although they’re not finished yet, they’re fascinated by the financial crisis, so we’ve added an elective on Managing a Financial Forum in Distress.

As we go along we try to enhance the customization by responding to the specific needs.

ROI Explain the ROI expectations a typical corporation has from an executive MBA program. I don’t think there’s a typical cor-

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poration anymore. In our case, they want the candidate to begin to demonstrate improved competence while they are still in the program, and they generally want the candidate ready for some type of promotion somewhere near graduation. So, from the perspective of improvement in job performance, I’d say somewhere between one and two years. From the perspective of full recovery of investment, it’s three to four years.

How much emphasis should be placed on the return that comes from a lifetime of networking with a group of smart, successful professionals? You almost can’t

underestimate the return there. But, we have an interesting conflict in terms of what our agency responsibilities are. There’s absolutely no doubt that some corporations are paying for the education of students and we have to help enhance the value of those students for those corporations, but we also have some students who are paying their own way and we have to help them enhance their value. The value of the network is somewhat different across those two groups. So, with respect to the corporations, the network will be an opportunity for partnership and advice that will last through life. We had a recent example of a student whose company was thinking of going into business in China. He knew one of the colleagues from his class had considered that question earlier so he used that colleague as a sounding board for how to best enter the Chinese market.

When it comes to cost vs. quality, UNC offers significant value. What do you consider UNC’s key strengths? Our key strengths,

again, begin with flexibility in choice because of the customization allowed by our electives. There’s also the balanced strength of our faculty. We are a school that for decades has insisted on first class research and first class teaching. Our staff, both in terms of professional services and indirect services, is focused exclusively on the executive MBA program and provides an environment where if students need career or any other kind of help, they can get it. It makes for a very comfortable and safe learning environment.

Leadership In this ever-changing economy, what role does leadership play and to what extent

is it addressed throughout the program?

There are two levels of leadership we need to think about. One level is the traditional sense, “I lead an organization” or “I lead a group of people.” The second level of leadership is, “I am responsible for managing myself.” We address both; and I think in this changing economy, both are critically important. Now, with respect to leadership at the organizational level, what we do is first choose candidates into the classroom based on testimony that they’ve already signaled they’ll be strong leaders. We also take past career, and reports from previous managers/colleagues very seriously when thinking about the choice of the individual. We then start very early in the program with a 360 form of evaluation that’s been done at the workplace. We use that as a basis for the candidate writing his/her professional development program, which is part of one of the first courses he/she takes. We revisit the professional development tool in the middle and end of the curriculum to make sure the candidate is making progress.

We hold events directed at building leadership skills. So, for example, we have a new leader speaking exercise where each student gets up in front of a small group, which includes a coach. The student gives a speech and gets coached about his/her ability to do speaking.

Everyone is in teams and we rotate the leadership function of the team so each gets the opportunity to take responsibility for the specific projects. We have blind feedback about their ability to do it, meaning we gather assessment from their colleagues. We don’t tell them which colleague said what, but we share their strengths and weaknesses.

With respect to the notion of self-leadership, we start early on with responsibility for issues of personal brand and career management.

We do try to get them to recognize early on: “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” They have to put themselves in positions where they are visible, they have to take responsibility for managing their own career, and they have to create their own sense of unique and individual value. These services take place primarily through both our career management and coaching activities.

In UNC’s program, leadership style is attended to prior to the managerial and

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leadership skills core course. Does UNC advocate a specific leadership style or do you prefer to strengthen the style that the participant has already adopted? Please elaborate. This is a question where both an-

swers are true within the context of the entire program. For example, we do promote a style of leadership that builds on empathy, as well as on the ability to listen and be an effective team member. We do find some individuals come in with well-established, strong, personal styles of leadership that are effective and only need the opportunity to nourish and blossom. And then some come in that haven’t yet developed an effective style. For those who haven’t developed one we expose them to a breadth of ideas about leadership and gently get them to test different approaches within the context of a small group environment so they can find a space where they’re comfortable.

How do you test the leadership qualities of your students and, ultimately, prepare them for the real world business challenges that lay ahead? First, we rotate the

assignment of projects in the group. Secondly, we encourage many of them to take projects and work that can add immediate value to the workplace. Thirdly, we put them through the presentation activities. We also try to emphasize an involvement in community work.

Accreditation To what extent does accreditation underline the quality of a school? It provides an opportu-

nity to be assessed and vetted by outsiders who do have strong knowledge of the business of educating professionals. And, I think external perspective is very useful when it comes to understanding what you’re doing well and understanding what you can do better.

What aspect of the accreditation process has been most beneficial in your rise to excellence? Accreditation has been both un-

official and painful. It’s the aspect of articulating objectives, assessing performance toward objectives, maintaining a record of that assessment and then engaging in remedial actions to improve whatever shortfalls you have. Because of the accreditation process, every few years we do have to demonstrate that we are adhering to the precepts involved.

International Business MBA programs have taught international business courses for some time now.

However, given the fact that our global economy has become so upfront and center for today’s executive, does that mean global business classes should change accordingly? Back in the 80s and early 90s we

recognized it was important for companies to become international, so we added a course in international business. However, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the establishment of the European Union in ’92, and the growth of China, etc. we began to realize that this was something happening to business in general.

As a corollary, we reached a point where every course was designed with some international or global content.

There’s rarely a course you can take that’s not addressing some of the international components of business. Then we began to understand that while learning in a classroom does provide cognitive insight, it doesn’t address behavioral skills. So, our goal was to ensure that every student was somehow exposed to international opportunities. One part of that was recruiting more aggressively to get international people both on the faculty and in the program. And, we now have opportunities for them to take what we call an immersion course which is focused study on one particular part of the world, which includes a seven to 10 day trip to that country.

Students can choose from China, India, South America, East Europe, and this year there’s one to Dubai.

So, that took us through the 90s. Then we got to 2002-2003 and realized we needed to build alliances with other schools. Now we offer a comprehensively global program. Students study in the United States with American faculty but have colleagues who are citizens of other parts of the world. They learn from people with different cultural backgrounds and become global by virtue of experiencing the globe.

The number of students coming from around the world to graduate school grows every year. And, both the number of American companies bringing people from around the world to work here, as well as the number of

international companies relocating here are increasing all the time. So, globalization is happening right down the block. We know it, we see it, and we have to respond to it.

The OneMBA curriculum draws knowledge and talent from five business schools on four continents. Kindly identify the schools involved and why they were selected.

• • • •

•

University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands Chinese University of Hong Kong Fundacao Getulio Vargas, School of Business Administration, Sao Paulo, Brazil EGADE Monterrey Graduate School of Business, Mexico

Culturally, these are schools that value both scholarship and teaching. As far as similar goals as concerned – these are schools that want to build world-class programs and want to achieve excellence in everything they do.

We approached it as any major corporation would approach a learning alliance. We wanted to be full partners and make joint decisions about curriculum and how to build the program from start to next generation. It’s a wonderful but complex collaboration across five different campuses around the world.

Looking Ahead Since the onset of the global financial crisis, has UNC changed the focus of certain courses? We’ve added a course to address

troubled financial institutions and troubled financial products. Also, we have two courses that were already in the electives curriculum: Managing Under Uncertainty and Managing Decline and Turnaround. Naturally, we expect there to be higher demand for these courses. ■

Biographies Hugh O’Neill is a strategic management professor and associate dean of Executive Evening and Weekend MBA Programs for the University of North Carolina’s KenanFlagler Business School.

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Beyond managing to leading. Beyond knowledge to insight.

Accelerate your career into fast forward — without putting life on hold. Choose the MBA that gives you three flexible programs, true collaboration and real-world experience to launch your future. With UNC, your beyond starts today. 1.877.UNC. EMBA | emba.unc.edu

MBA FOR EXECUTIVES

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Your Future in Safe Hands The College of Business at the University of Louisville » Dr. Robert Nixon talks to Susan Gault Introduction According to the US-based Graduate Management Admission Council, business school application volumes have increased significantly over the last eighteen months. To what do you attribute this? We have seen a substantial increase in applications for our MBA

Second, worldwide economic factors increasingly emphasize general business acumen, regardless of the type of business. As a result, it is becoming more important to know how to apply business concepts.

If you deal with people, money or organizations, that’s business. It doesn’t matter if it is a publishing, medical or educational business; people need to have business management tools.

programs over the past 18 months, due to several factors. First, I think that, in business, there is always a premium put on graduate business education. An MBA is the key business credential for CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and people who aspire to these roles.

Finally, given current concerns over the economy and job security, managers are increasingly looking at how the MBA credentials can help them increase their personal financial security. Where there have been personnel cutbacks, CEO | 35

and an individual has some free time or severance pay, they may decide they need to retool and invest in additional education.

Defining the University of Louisville’s Value Proposition Kindly define the University of Louisville’s (UofL) MBA value proposition? One of the most important aspects of our program is

providing the value of a full-time MBA in a part-time format. The program is concentrated and completed within two years. However, the students don’t need to leave their jobs which reduces their financial burden because they can continue to work. An additional added value for our students is that they can use what they are currently learning in their current employment (which employers also appreciate).

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Another unique aspect of our MBA program is flexibility. Each intake of students gets to select their list of electives. We offer 35 to 37 different electives choices, in addition to the core courses. Each student selects the six electives they would like to take, and the 12 to 15 electives that are most in demand for a particular cohort of students are then scheduled. Students participating in our evening program also have the ability to select an elective offered through our Saturday program which may be different from the evening cohort’s selection. Similarly, Saturday students can take an evening elective Apart from the professional MBA program - a full-time program with a part-time format - how many study options do you offer? We offer our Professional MBA in two part-time formats: one

involves two evening study sessions each week for two years; the other is also taught over two years, but the classes are held on Sat-

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of the most important aspects “of One our program is providing the value of a full-time MBA in a part-time format. The program is concentrated and completed within two years.

”

urdays, for those individuals who travel during the week or find Saturdays more convenient. Both formats are lock-step, cohort-based programs.1 They offer the same courses, with the same professors.

Essentially, what is taught on Monday and Wednesday in the evening program is taught on Saturday mornings and afternoons in the Saturday-only program.

We also offer a unique MBA program, called the IMBA for Entrepreneurial Thinking. It is a full MBA covering all the expected business content, but it’s taught from the perspective of an individual or corporate entrepreneur. The IMBA is a two-year, lock-step program, taught typically two nights a week with occasional Saturdays. The course culminates with national and international business plan competitions.

During the last academic year, our teams won prizes worth a total of $100,000, and our IMBA program has been ranked number 10 in the nation for graduate entrepreneurs by Entrepreneurship Magazine & the Princeton Review.

lines — have you redefined your professional MBA program?

Yes, we have. We felt that it was very important for our students to gain international experience and, therefore, we implemented a required course we call ‘Global Learning’. As well as classroom learning, the course includes an international residency in which all students participate. We are currently planning trips to China, Brazil/Argentina and Vietnam/Thailand. Students choose the experience in which they will participate. These 10-day trips include visits to local businesses, classes on the local culture, history and business environment, and provide an opportunity for students to experience firsthand a different cultural and political environment.

The ground cost of the trip is included in the MBA tuition.

We feel that it’s important to offer a global business education and international experiences because, although we have a number of international corporations headquartered in Louisville, our students are not necessarily going to live and work here their entire careers.

We also offer electives that focus on international management, cultural management, ethics, and other global issues in business.

We sponsor a business plan competition called the Cardinal Challenge, which is one of the national business plan competition qualifying events for the Global Moot Corp2 in Austin, Texas. Moot Corp is the ‘Superbowl’ of business plan competitions for MBA students.

We have also instituted a required capstone project, which is essentially a consulting opportunity working with a local business.

Each student team is assigned to a business (sometimes a not-forprofit). The students work on an issue the firm would like explored – this could be anything from a marketing plan to an IT upgrade.

The student team undertakes an investigation and comes up with recommendations. A portion of the team’s grade is based upon the firm’s evaluation, with additional classroom work evaluated by the professor. This allows our students to experience challenges and opportunities they might not normally face, even if they are already working in a business environment.

Some schools prefer to use senior faculty members when teaching courses. Is this something that you advocate at the UofL?

In terms of career management, how much support does the UofL provide? Our College of Business has it own career man-

We carefully select the faculty to teach in our MBA programs. The faculty teaching in our programs are not randomly assigned. Rather, they must be among the best faculty in the College, be committed to fully participating in MBA team meetings as well as MBA program activities. Selecting the best faculty member to teach a particular topic is always discussed at length.

agement center, the Ulmer Career Management Center, which we consider to be a ‘services-for-life’ kind of center. It provides workshops, resumé services, recruiting events, and access to web-based job banks offering regional, national and international positions, in addition to running mentoring programs. The center is not just available to our current students – College of Business alumnae can use our services at any time in the future.

The quality and background of the professors charged with teaching and motivating the UofL’s students is clearly very important. However, what sets the UofL’s faculty apart from other schools? The quality and experience of our faculty members sets us

apart from other schools. For example, some of our faculty served on the boards of directors of multi-billion dollar companies, and many started and ran their own businesses before entering academia. One particular faculty member, who teaches part of our marketing and franchising course, was in charge of the international franchise operations for one of the largest fast-food operations in the world. A number of faculty continue to consult with the business community.

Given the competitive demands placed upon corporations today, and increasing globalization — both of which require tomorrow’s business leaders to be flexible and manage workforces and internal structures that cross cultural and political

About 50% of the center’s staff focus on helping individuals with interviewing techniques, resumé writing, communicating effectively, etc.; the other 50% focus on attracting businesses to the school to recruit students.

Selecting the Right Program When is the best time to enroll in an MBA program? In our current

MBA programs, we look for students to have some work experience before they enroll. We want the students to be able to appreciate that the MBA degree is more than textbook learning, which is part of what distinguishes it from an undergraduate business degree. Five years’ work experience is normally sufficient for the student to have gained some experience before embarking upon their MBA. CEO | 37

We want the students to be able to appreciate that the MBA degree is “more than textbook learning, which is part of what distinguishes it from an undergraduate business degree. ” Our average student has about 10 years work experience, is about 30 years of age, works full-time and takes the aforementioned program in the evenings.

The general MBA is typically shorter in duration when compared to the specialized MBA. However, some say that the specialized MBA can make the graduate more marketable. Do you concur with this?

It very much depends on the individual. If someone knows that they are going to follow a particular track in their career, an MBA that specializes in finance, marketing or supply chain management, for example, will be of value. However, for the majority of students, it is the MBA itself that is of value rather than any particular specialization. This is because it is, by definition, a generalist degree applicable to a wide range of situations. With the degree, a graduate is prepared to manage any type of business or division within a large organization.

Traversing International Borders Part of the globalization of graduate-level business studies includes the propagation of strategic alliances among institutions in different countries. Aside from your partnership with Akademie Würth Business School in Germany, do you have any plans to join forces with other international partners? In addition to our

German partner, for the past eight years, we have had MBA programs in Panama, Greece, and Singapore. We are actively looking to expand partnerships and alliances for student and faculty exchanges into more schools in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Accreditation Do you feel accreditation is an indicator of quality and do employers use it as a benchmark? Accreditation signifies that the faculty, students

and programs are all meeting a very high standard. In a marketplace that is brimming with options – numerous MBA programs- the first goal has to be to establish the credibility and quality of your product. AACSB International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accreditation, without question, does this for us and other schools. In fact, we only transfer credits from other AACSB-accredited schools. So, we believe it is very important.

We sometimes talk about having a degree ‘with legs’, i.e. a degree that can travel beyond the local area. Everyone has heard of the University of Louisville. A student from a smaller, unknown, regional or local school that does not have accreditation will have to continually explain from where they obtained their degree. With accreditation, a recognized name and credibility, you just don’t have to explain. Employers recognize accreditation as a reliable standard, similar to an ISO certification. It is getting more and more difficult to meet this standard, which means that only the best institutions have the credibility to be part of ‘the club’, so 38 | CEO

to speak. Additionally, accreditation keeps the focus on continuous improvement for the faculty. This keeps our eye on ensuring we are monitoring and measuring our goals for learning, keeping the curriculum relevant and up to date, and ensuring faculty are qualified to teach in the programs.

Does accreditation increase the value of one’s MBA in the commercial world? Yes, without question. Employers who understand business know

what accreditation is, it’s the “gold” standard of business education.

Not all MBA programs are created equal. Therefore, do you consider accreditation to be the benchmark by which schools should be judged, or at least categorized? In our region, we have about 20

institutions/organizations that offer some type of business education.

However, only three are AACSB-accredited. Needless to say, we are very pleased to be the number one accredited school.

Although employers understand accreditation, students need to understand it even more. Otherwise the danger is that a student ends up with a degree that simply does not have the weight or credibility that a degree from the University of Louisville has.

The Next Chapter Moving forward, what can new and existing students expect from the UofL over the next twelve to eighteen months, in terms of program innovation? First of all, we are continuing to refine our

curriculum for our Professional MBA as well as our IMBA for Entrepreneurial Thinking. We are also considering offering an MBA to individuals who are bright, capable and motivated, but who may not have extensive industrial experience. There is a need and a market, we believe, for this type of program. It would be a full-time MBA, with students attending classes in the evening, but during the day, undertaking an internship for credit with one of our substantial, local businesses. Our business community is very receptive to being involved in such a program. This would not only give graduates a high-quality MBA, but also two years of intensive work experience with a high-quality company. This is a huge advantage when compared to many other full-time MBA programs that basically offer education but no work experience. ■ Biographies Robert D. Nixon, Ph.D. is the Associate Dean for Masters Programs in the College of Business at the University of Louisville where he teaches strategic management to MBAs. He has an engineering degree from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from Texas A&M University. His extensive industrial experience encompasses work for international, high-tech firms and the founding/management of a dozen entrepreneurial firms. For the past six years, Dr. Nixon served as a member of the Board of Directors of The Genlyte Group (Nasdaq-GLYT).

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USF

The Road Ahead » Jennifer Contreras, Carlos Baradello, Mike Duffy and Karl Boedecker talk to Debbie Moss MBAE Program Overview Kindly define USF’s unique MBAE value proposition.

(Karl Boedecker) We feel very strongly that there

are several aspects involved. One is the integrative learning experience. As a Jesuit Catholic school, it’s very important to us that we treat our students as individuals and get to know them very well, just as they get to know one another very well. We make a point of having as much faculty contact from as many different disciplines as possible throughout the entire program. It all begins with the Foundation Module where there might be five or six faculty members at any one time.

(Mike Duffy) We have many unique pedagogical features that engage the student in interesting and exciting ways and that is a differentiating factor. The University is truly committed to educating students who will make a positive difference in the world and society around them – and who will consider the impact of their actions and those of their organizations.

Values-based learning is truly an integrated part of our program and has been for 155 years. We’re in an environment where even though everyone might not have identical values (certainly not the same religious background) we nevertheless provide an environment 40 | CEO

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immigrants. Many of their first languages may not have been English. The University of San Francisco is not only a place that welcomes them, but also one that actively seeks them for the program. I think our MBAE has a level of diversity (background, economic class, language spoken at home, place of birth) that may be different from other programs around the U.S. where the population is not as diverse as it is in California. But, that is a feature I should like to celebrate as an identifying feature of what experiences they’ll get at USF in the MBAE program. Students encounter a really diverse student body that comes from all sectors of society, and so many different backgrounds in terms of economic class, language, culture, etc. It really is a wonderful, rich learning experience.

The “Foundation” module and the “Completion” module frame the MBAE curriculum at USF. Please explain how these two modules enhance the overall program.

where discussing values and being open about a consideration of values in decisionmaking is just part of our DNA. This aspect of our education affects how we think of our interaction between faculty and student.

Another thing I’m trying to increase in this regard is bringing our MBAE students into contact with people in the community with whom we have a relationship. By doing so the students learn and understand things about people who are much less fortunate than they are, as well as about individual and corporate responses to those social needs.

Recently we’ve been in touch with a local high school for girls. It is converting to a school model where the high school students do job sharing in local businesses as a way to pay their tuition, as the students are quite poor. We’re bringing the people from the school to talk to the MBAE students so they understand something about the social problem, as well as the fact that there are people in society who are trying to ameliorate the problem. It helps to underscore how there are roles to play 42 | CEO

for both individuals as well as organizations. (e.g. providing employment for these high school students in exchange for help to address social problems.) Again these efforts are part of the DNA of the University of San Francisco. It’s expressed differently with undergrads in what we call “service learning.”

It gets exposed in another program where we take students to South or Central America for international experiences. Again, we go to relatively poor populations. In the MBAE this is not just classroom learning, but great exposure in a volunteer opportunity, as well as an understanding of the social need and how people are actively working to make the community better. I think that’s part of our Jesuit heritage. Back in 1855 we were just a Catholic school in a small town called San Francisco, and we were founded as the University to serve the children of immigrants.

Because of its Catholic nature, as well as the growth of the city, our students for most of our history have been first generation college students and the children of immigrants.

Our MBAE population is quite similar.

If you talk to them, many of our students are themselves immigrants or children of

(Mike Duffy) The Foundation module is just

what the term implies. At the very beginning of the program, for several consecutive days (from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm) we get students involved. Avoiding lectures and lengthy introductions, we jump right in to work on a case after a 15-minute welcoming address from the dean. Typically we divide the students into teams to go off to do analysis and preparation. They come back to do a presentation on the results. Then, we have other exercises, most experiential in nature. In the Completion Module, we try to bring the program full circle. We use a two-day, computer-based simulation that involves role-plays. It offers them a multifaceted challenge. Six faculty members from different disciplines, each push the participants on one or another aspect of the problem. Several objectives are set for that Completion Module: To continue to reinforce the integrative nature of the program, to end the program on a real high note, and to build something that generates a lot of enthusiasm, team spirit and camaraderie.

The evening of the second day, we have a graduation dinner and a little ceremony where one student representing the cohort gives a speech.

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Integrative Learning Please elaborate on USF’s “multiple lenses” theory of integrative learning.

(Karl Boedecker) Integrative learning is one

of the key components of our program. As managers rise within an organization, the most important problems they have to face are multi-faceted problems that require drawing upon a wide range of skills in this area. So, in our program we frontload the development of leadership and communication skills because they’ll use those throughout the program.

Then, they can continue to develop and hone those skills as they get more experience.

Another important part of integrative learning is the way our faculty works together on everything from curriculum design to how the education is actually delivered. For example, we have periodic meetings with faculty from the different business disciplines. (e.g. finance, marketing, accounting, etc.) At these meetings we talk about the topics we’ll cover, which ones we want to repeat and emphasize and which ones we don’t want to repeat unnecessarily. We also have what we call handoffs. Here, the faculty member teaching the Finance module, for example, works closely with the person teaching the Macroeconomic Business Conditions and Managerial Finance module. In fact, in this particular go around, our Finance faculty member has decided to take one less session for his area because he can’t build directly on the last session the macroeconomics

Briefly describe how simulations are tied into the program.

(Karl Boedecker) We do a variety of simulations. Some of them are role-play and some are computer-based simulations, which include competitive games. Some of them are integrative business problems; that is, general management cases from a variety of sources. But, the important thing is to choose exercises that are multidimensional in terms of the challenges posed by the simulation, or the challenges posed by question. And, as we run those simulations or those case analyses (which can sometimes take up to two consecutive days) we make a point of having multiple faculty members from different disciplinary backgrounds in the room, especially for the debriefing so that the exercise doesn’t get overly focused on any one subject.

Accreditation Generally speaking, how influential is AACSB accreditation for an executive MBA program today?

Understanding what (Mike Duffy) accreditation means tells a lot about how important it is. The old-fashioned view of accreditation was that it was a one-time seal of approval. The school met certain criteria, like for example it should have a certain number of books in its library, or a certain size faculty. Then it was done, it got the gold star and it was indeed accredited. There’s been

not require. One example: In the old days (25 to 30 years ago), if a faculty member had a PhD, he/she was in effect certified forever; it’s what we now call ‘academically qualified.’ Now the emphasis is on whether or not the school is current.

Our faculty members must demonstrate, with output, that they understand what is going on in business today and that they are up-to-date in their field. For our MBAE this is very important because it makes a huge impact on the quality of instruction.

It really changes what a student can expect from our faculty.

What happened, I think, was that the accreditation association (AACSB) deans realized that the old standards really did not encourage, promote, nor support a lot of effort at being up-to-date or at the cutting edge of your field. The old standards were too static and I think the deans realized that being behind the times and out of sync with industry practices were risks too bold to take.

Gaining AACSB accreditation doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a very lengthy process that requires great effort. Aside from actually gaining accreditation, what are the ongoing benefits for USF? (Mike Duffy) Another example comes in

the way of assessment. We are now required by our accreditation standards to not only

As a Jesuit Catholic school, it’s very important to us that we treat our “students as individuals and get to know them very well, just as they get to know one another very well. ” professor is using, including using his handouts and so on. So, it’s very highly integrated in every sense, from the faculty communicating closely and consistently with one another, to curriculum design and actual curriculum implementation and delivery.

Those are very important aspects of what we like to call USF’s Multiple Lenses approach to integrative learning.

a huge shift in accreditation to an emphasis on moving from a one-time approach to an almost continuous approach; that is, a continuous improvement model and annual reviews versus the one time big affair. I think that’s important for this program because it requires that we maintain our accreditation to constantly improve, to keep up-to-date in ways that the old-fashioned approach did

say here’s what we think the students should learn, but to figure out if we can tell if they’ve really learned it. The educational workup for this now is “assessment.” We have to assess whether the learning took place. One of the things I’ll note about assessment is that we not only use the faculty members who taught the subject, but we also bring in other faculty and CEO | 43

As you know, there is evidence “ across all graduate studies that in past recessions enrollments go up. �

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outside assessors to review the business plans students write. And those outside assessors abide by a special set of criteria related to the learning goal. So, in effect it’s an audit that gives us a little more assurance that the learning is taking place in a more objective manner. All of this is a revolution in what accreditation means. In a program like our MBA for executives, we have more certainty that we are delivering what we promised to the student.

Ethics and Social Responsibility One of four broadly define areas at USF is Ethics, Social Responsibility and Law. With corporate social responsibility high on the list of values for many future business leaders, how is the subject approached at USF?

ethical tools and what happens, for example, in a statistics class. It helps to illustrate how one can be confronted with a whole lot of data and rearrange it to work in a number of ways.

But, the truth is, if they really want to make a difference and do a more complete analysis, they need tools like hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, regression analysis and forecasting techniques. In the realm of ethics and social responsibility they’re a comparable toolkit and it’s important for our students to remain competent in those areas, know what those tools can do and know how to use them.

With the current financial crisis, that has only just begun to mushroom, will USF change its curriculum to address these unprecedented events?

(Karl Boedecker) It certainly is a central,

integral aspect of our program; that is, related to the Jesuit Catholic nature of USF. The most important thing, among others, is that students have a high level of self-awareness in terms of personal values – what’s really important to them. Secondly, we want students to be very aware of the environment in the organizations for which they work, whether for profit or non-profit.

What does that organization stand for and what are its values? This means not only their stated values, but also the ones observed day to day. When there’s no alignment between personal values and the corporation’s values, students will eventually deal with a lot of stress, tension, frustration and unhappiness.

In general, it’s an unhealthy situation.

It’s important to bring these questions up several times throughout the program so the students develop a habit of examining those questions and dealing with those issues.

Second, and in somewhat more technical ways, I think it’s very important to provide people with the tools and techniques of ethical analysis so when they confront an ethical dilemma they can take more than just a superficial approach. They must be able to go beyond that; they have to be able to deal with a set of ethical tools, some of which are process-based and others which are outcomebased. I always draw a parallel between those

(Mike Duffy) The structure at USF makes it so much easier for every one of our instructors to bring current events into the class. What’s happening with the mortgage crisis, for example, whether it’s from a legal and ethical point of view, or a macroeconomic point of view. So, it’s this structural element that makes the MBAE more flexible and adaptable than a traditional classroom setting.

We have a session where our macroeconomist, our new venture person and a few others meet with MBAE students to talk about what’s happening. For example, what the fault is with funding interest rate lending and how it all fit together. We just do ad hoc meetings in response to a crisis like the current one, versus a structural change in the curriculum. I’m skeptical of ad hoc structural changes because we really have no idea what the crisis is about and how or if it’s really different in nature from others. I don’t believe that, as the University of San Francisco, we need to change and suddenly teach businesspeople about good practice because we’ve been doing that since 1855.

(Carlos Baradello) Another very important dimension in the way we teach and educate our students is our location. We are in San Francisco, the Bay area, which is recognized as one of the more successful cities in the world.

We bring three dimensions into play. The first are the new ventures and new technology to support the new ventures. Then there’s the global aspect that connects San Francisco to the rest of the world. Third is that it is also a growing sector of non-profit. One role that is important to USF is determining the best way to connect with our location advantage in terms of bringing the experience to the students. We need to recognize these are executives who bring daily work experience that they can connect to the classroom.

Faculty’s Role How does faculty at USF help to maximize student learning?

(Karl Boedecker) One of the key factors is recognition that in an MBAE program, with the level of student maturity and experience, the people sitting next to them in the room are every bit as important as the ones standing at the front as instructors.

For every one of our modules we have specific tools, techniques and content that we want the students to master and be able to apply. At the same time our faculty consciously spends a fair amount of time facilitating discussions around issues that, especially in terms of drawing upon those with different experience, will draw out their backgrounds, their experience and how they see a situation. So, the faculty role is by no means limited to lecturing.

It’s just as important to be a facilitator and to encourage the group, individually and collectively, to identify vital issues and alternative action.

Also, faculty meet periodically to discuss the program. We cover everything from curriculum design to curriculum implementation, to occasional discussions of individual student performance. We will know, for example, the background of all students coming in. We’ll recognize the need to develop more in certain areas than others.

To what extent is faculty hired based on years of experience in business (vs. academic)?

CEO | 45

We will increasingly emphasize the strength of the Bay area, which “includes plugging our students into the business community. ” (Mike Duffy) Historically, our school is oriented toward teaching. We do not have a PhD. program. If you think of universities as being along a continuum, at one end is only teaching and at the other is almost only research. Originally we were at the teaching end of it, but over 155 years we’ve moved much more to the center. We’re still not an extreme research university, which has as one of its primary purposes producing new PhDs who have highly refined research skills. We, instead, are oriented toward teaching undergrads and graduate business students. And, our role in that is providing them with new ideas and structured ways of thinking about their current jobs and careers in general.

But, we don’t provide any group of students the kind of abstract research skills that typify PhD. Programs. We have a faculty that understands business problems and wants to use their teaching and research to demonstrate best practice, or to highlight future areas of concern for businesses.

International In which of the program’s four broadly defined areas is international business addressed and how?

(Karl Boedecker) Overall, the international scope of organizational operations runs throughout our program. For example, in the communications module we specifically address cross cultural communication issues and challenges. During the Ethics and Social Responsibility module we talk about topics like the Foreign & Corrupt Practices Act and the difficulty an American manager sometimes faces when operating overseas. Often managers are restrained by the provisions of that law and expected perhaps to behave contrary to the legal standards in other parts of the world. We also talk about Transparency International and their movement toward trying to establish worldwide standards with respect to bribery and their international ranking of nations according to corruptions, the

46 | CEO

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They have conventions on bribery, anti-bribery, getting ratification and acceptance from, I believe, 39 countries now. So that’s all certainly global perspective.

As I said, there’s cross-cultural communication and cross-cultural management, both important aspects of our leadership component. Our strategy component and marketing component, likewise – weave in the global perspective almost seamlessly.

I think most business schools do this today, rather than trying to separate it as a distinct module.

(Mike Duffy) At times we’ve had exercises for the MBAE students with other visiting executives who have come to the school for short programs. At times, on an ad hoc basis, we take the opportunity to run a crosscultural communication or do a business negotiation with a group of our MBAEs and these other students. It’s a very interesting cross-cultural experience. A second very important aspect of our school is that these students have faculty members who are quite diverse. In our MBAE quite typically one or another faculty member who teaches marketing is a native from China and brings a perspective of Chinese languages, culture, history and economy. Our strategy courses have the same. I believe this diversity of faculty enriches the student’s experience. It’s a very valuable aspect of USF’s education for our students generally and for this program particularly.

Does the MBAE program at USF include international travel with its students?

Please explain.

(Mike Duffy) I expect in future generations

we’ll go back to a tour of international study outside the U.S. We’ve had that in the past, but not in a while for a variety of reasons.

One rationale deals with the level of executives in the program and the amount of international business experience they bring with them. So, there was a tradeoff between

whether we provide that niche (a study tour) or whether the marginal value of some type of other activity was greater given the high percentage that have already done business outside of the U.S. Something may reappear, but it will be in a different form that is a sort of general study tour. If we do this we’ll end up with something more focused on a particular topic in order to gain more depth in one area.

(Carlos Baradello) Tours overseas – I would like to bring that experience into the executive MBA – we have a joint session at the end of the semester to talk about the theme of this study. I think by having theme-based study tours it brings into focus the business practice that covers history, the realities, the microeconomics of the country into the specific study subject.

The other element that is very important is the use of up-to-date indicators, rankings, trends, etc, so they can have access very quickly to the global situation. All that is factored into the type of immersion we’re planning overseas.

Looking Ahead In this uncertain economy, what impact is USF expecting on the popularity of executive MBA programs?

(Mike Duffy) As you know, there is evidence

across all graduate studies that in past recessions enrollments go up. It’s a gross generalization across the data and it may not be that it goes up evenly across every type of program. I think we’ll see more people seeking the executive MBA and our part-time MBA because in the uncertain economy people that have a job don’t want to quit to go back to graduate school. This will increase the popularity of our MBA for Executives. I also think people want more flexibility in terms of their own career path.

Those without a graduate education may feel limited in the opportunities they have and may see an MBAE as a way to make them more attractive to a potential employer.

That is really important if you think your

current employer may start layoffs or go out of business. Building up your own human capital becomes more important in a recessionary environment because you might be left more to your own devices than having some company take care of you.

From an innovation standpoint, what can new and existing MBAE students expect from USF over the next 12-18 months?

(Mike Duffy) We will increasingly emphasize

the strength of the Bay area, which includes plugging our students into the business community. This might happen through classes on venture capital where they get to understand the important underlying structure of the Bay area. Or, they might get involved through the businesspeople they meet at various lectures. I think the areas that we’ll emphasize are innovation, entrepreneurship and the global economy.

These are what drive much of the Bay area economy and put us in a unique position.

Many business schools can say they do these

things, but we have the living laboratory in the Silicone Valley and in the Bay area biotech community.

And, a great strength is the students learning from each other. For example, we have many students from Genentech. In fact, we get a regular set of students into our MBAE from similar companies which means our students, when they learn from each other, are learning from people in highly innovative companies.

It’s one of the great strengths of being a student at USF. We’ll also see more emphasis on the Jesuit value of engagement with the community; demonstrating the importance of the impact we as individuals and organizations have on society. This is part of what you come to USF for. What we discuss is not imposing values but inviting reflections on ourselves and on the values we act on.

When a student leaves USF and says, “I have received something that’s very different to that

which I would have received elsewhere” – that refers to the Jesuit character, tradition and history. If I had to think why I’d want someone to come to USF, I’d say this is one of the most attractive characteristics for our students. I remember when I realized how relevant it was to my life as a businessperson. ■

Biographies Karl Boedecker is a Professor of Ethics, Social Responsibility and the Law at the University of San Francisco.

Jennifer Contreras is the Director of Executive Education and Corporate Relations at the University of San Francisco.

Carlos Baradello is the Associate Dean of Corporate and International Programs at the University of San Francisco.

Mike Duffy is the Dean of the School of Business and Management at the University of San Francisco.

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CEO | 47

Adapting

to Change » Dr. Christopher Earley talks to CEO Magazine

It’s important for employers to “understand that when an individual

has gone through an accredited program there is a level of quality assurance. However, it would be a mistake to assume that accreditation is the endpoint.

”

Introduction Generally speaking, to what extent are universities changing program structures, formats and requirements to appeal to today’s EMBA candidates? I think this is a very important change for a lot of

universities. We are just one of the universities trying to accommodate many different travel schedules and formats. At UConn we focus heavily on our local market, meaning New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Those states represent our strongest market currently.

We draw our EMBA from all of those campuses and business communities. So, now we’re trying to coordinate an exchange so to speak where some classes will be taught at one location and other classes at another. This way students will have access to more diverse interaction and those from certain locations won’t necessarily feel like they are always the ones traveling.

Describe changes the University of Connecticut has made in this regard. Well, I think we need to look at the sophistication of

online delivery. While our Masters of Accounting is nearly all online, we don’t think that going purely online is the right model for an EMBA format. The level and sophistication of the interaction require too much face-to-face time. So, instead, we have chosen to complement the classroom time with limited use of online programs.

Please talk briefly about the local supply of EMBA programs in terms of market demand. How is the University of Connect-

48 | CEO

icut’s School of Business meeting the needs of the most highly qualified candidates? We try to be very responsive. For example, if an

employer would like to see more finance-related courses, we can actually generate new modules specific to that audience. It’s possible to accomplish because we’re not doing this as a massive, large-scale, 200-person cohort. We have a very limited cohort of 30 to 40 executives, so we’re able to tailor it to their specific needs from year to year. One year they might want a course on ‘derivatives,’ the next year it might be ‘global teams.’

Again, because of the small nature of the cohort, UConn has flexibility.

Actually, there’s no reason a university shouldn’t stay very current. In fact, we’re holding a special panel later in the year. The topic of discussion will be the financial crisis. Some of our alumni are highly accomplished CEOs and CFOs of major corporations.

Going Green Kindly define some of the initiatives that you have implemented at the University of Connecticut in order to become a “greener” campus? The whole idea of sustainability is now part of UConn’s aca-

demic plan. Examples include: •

•

•

Vegetable oil conversion. We convert vegetable oil from dining halls into bio-diesel fuel, which is then used for the campus shuttle buses.

Mark R. Shenkman Training Center. This facility is built completely around the issue of sustainability and environmental accomplishments. The University has received many accolades and awards as a result.

Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Sustainability and social entrepreneurship is a new initiative at the University. Within entrepreneurship as a general area, we’re trying to develop a very specific emphasis on new technologies for sustainability, but from a social entrepreneurship perspective.

Real benefits are being seen in the area of virtualization. In your opinion, is this a wise choice for universities that want to control costs and improve availability/resiliency? As a cross-cultural psychologist by

training, my experience suggests that making a global team successful via a

North America

•••

In building our global “network, we will be forging alliances and partnerships with schools internationally that are accredited, or are in the process of obtaining accreditation.

This provides the level of quality assurance necessary in order to have a meaningful exchange between institutions.

”

purely virtual experience is very difficult. It can work – but nine times out of 10 it won’t.

Global teams need some kind of physical proximity, at least in the early stages of team development. There should be about 20 hours of face time, co-location time, especially for a global team where you have the complexity that comes from the different business practices. Every six months there should be some kind of co-location to renew that physical proximity.

We see virtualization in a teaching context as a complement to, not a substitute for, bricks and mortar or face-to-face experiences. Maybe two to three generations from now the online world will become so inculcated to the human experience that people won’t need that physical proximity; but, especially in a global environment, I don’t see it happening for a very long time.

Accreditation Do you feel accreditation is an indicator of quality and do employers use it as a benchmark? From a business school viewpoint it’s

used as a stamp of validation. It’s a necessary but not sufficient condition. It establishes that an institution has done the necessary due diligence in providing the structure needed to carry out universally accepted business education. At the same time there’s a lot of variability in the quality of instruction in AACSB-accredited schools. One has to be careful to use the stamp of approval as a starting point, not an ending point.

What you find now is that the re-accreditation and ongoing demands help the entire profession build itself up. For instance, the AACSB has much more sophisticated demands on how we evaluate the actual effectiveness of business programs. We need to establish credibility and impact with respect to learning objectives. What were they? Were they achieved? Can the students apply them? How have they applied them? This level of assessment sophistication was unheard of a decade ago.

Does accreditation increase the value of one’s MBA in the commercial world? Employers want to know their employees are

going to an accredited program. When I was in Singapore there was a big uproar about ‘degree mills.’ A couple of universities in the United States were giving out PhD and MBA degrees without any substance CEO | 49

We want to be known as the business school that focuses on risk from “a multidimensional perspective. ” behind them. It’s important for employers to understand that when an individual has gone through an accredited program there is a level of quality assurance. However, it would be a mistake to assume that accreditation is the endpoint.

Not all MBA programs are created equal. Therefore, do you consider accreditation to be the benchmark by which schools should be judged, or at least categorized? Categorized…yes.

We look to one another for this, especially if you look at developing educational markets. Examples would include Asia or the Middle East, South America and even Africa. We can use accreditation as a benchmark to say that these developing educational markets are coming of age, have established their credibility and are ready to partner with institutions that are in developing educational markets. It’s an important signal to that external community that an institution has done their due diligence.

In building our global network, we will be forging alliances and partnerships with schools internationally that are accredited, or are in the process of obtaining accreditation. This provides the level of quality assurance necessary in order to have a meaningful exchange between institutions.

Standing out from the Competition Please identify the top five components that give the University of Connecticut’s EMBA program its high quality reputation. First and foremost is the experiential learning emphasis that we

have. In all of our programs we emphasize an integration of real world practice in a classroom context and visa versa.

With an EMBA this aspect is lessened in as much as the students bring in such richness themselves. We get some of them involved in 50 | CEO

our Learning Accelerators, which are joint ventures that really create integration between business and education. (Mainly MBAs, not so much EMBAs because they’re fully employed.)

For example, we have a Learning Accelerator at our Stamford campus that’s called ‘edGElab.’ It’s a joint venture between General Electric and UConn. An entire floor of the University’s building is dedicated to this facility. We have two GE managers that stay on campus fulltime, even though GE employs them. They work with our faculty and student groups (MBAs & EMBAs) on intensive projects for 14-weeks, projects that are brought in globally from GE. It’s like a consulting academy. It’s very intensive and very sophisticated. These are real projects that have real meaning to the company. Working with GE over an eight-year period, we’ve actually hit our 100th project. They’ve seen such positive financial impact from these projects that GE worldwide sends managers in to bid, because they want their projects in there. They know they’ll profit if the project gets implemented.

Another Learning Accelerator is funded by the state of Connecticut and it’s called the Innovation Accelerator. It’s a joint venture between the state of Connecticut, UConn’s Business School and UConn’s Law School. This one works on new venture start-ups, it’s entrepreneurially oriented. Projects that have come through the incubator stage come to this facility to develop a very elaborate and immediately applicable business plan. The State funded it because the Governor was very keen to enhance and stimulate entrepreneurial activity within the state.

A third version is called the Financial Accelerator, which is like the former but it focuses on financial services companies. It may be working with a hedge fund, developing a new approach to risk, or developing a new financial services model for better delivery. Basically, it’s an integration of experience in a way that’s very different. It’s not just about reading

case studies or CEOs/CFOs guest lectures. Those are both very good things…don’t get me wrong. But, this is a much more grounded, handson approach.

An interesting fact is that even though Innovation Accelerator focuses on entrepreneurship and Financial Accelerator focuses on financial services, these projects are inherently cross-disciplinary. Rolling out a business plan means that a company not only has to have financial advice, but also guidance with marketing, management and strategic thinking. Since these Accelerators present real problems with real people that have real consequences, they create an integration that’s far more meaningful than a hypothetical discussion.

UConn’s high quality reputation also comes from our small class size. We don’t want a class size between 100 and 200; we limit ours to 40 at the most in order to facilitate integrated, meaningful discussions.

Another plus is that our EMBAs come from a fairly diverse set of professional backgrounds. Students come from corporate environments, but we also have lawyers, medical doctors, entrepreneurs and non-profits.

It’s a fairly eclectic mix.

The Business Mastery Certificate program offered at the University of Connecticut is one example of a customized program.

Explain how it differs from the norm. We tend to develop Business

Mastery programs around local market needs. In fact, we’ll often devel12/20/06 PM Page 1 op36479_MnyMrkt these Business Mastery programs12:49 for particular companies.

Because

we’re more agile, and not pushed to the limit on doing dozens of these, we can really focus on custom-developing exactly what the client needs.

And, we’re not as dependent. We have the time and resources to make sure our clients and participants are pleased.

Looking to the Future Moving forward, what can new and existing students expect from the University of Connecticut’s School of Business over the next 12-18 months, in terms of program innovation? First

and foremost, we’re getting ready to launch our Masters of Financial Risk Management. It’s very timely and just what the economy needs.

Initially it will be launched from our Stamford campus.

It’s just the first step in a whole range. We want to be known as the business school that focuses on risk from a multidimensional perspective.

We’re starting with financial risk, but eventually we want to bridge into insurance-based risk, legal risk, operational risk; and we want to look at risk from a much more holistic perspective. We’re in just the right market and we have just the right resources to do so. ■

Biography Dr. Christopher Earley is the Dean of the University of Connecticut’s Business School and Auran J. Fox Chair in Business.

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CEO | 51

Your Personalized EMBA Experience » Debbie Moss talks to Robert Krampf

is tough to define, but if we’re able to attract people with “anQuality average of 10 to 15 years of work experience who have received

promotions throughout their career, we consider this to be higher quality.

EMBA Program Overview Kindly define Kent State’s unique EMBA value proposition.

We believe we have one of the best value programs in the state of Ohio. Obviously there are two aspects to value. One is the quality of the faculty and second would be the program. We use both academically and professionally qualified individuals. This kind of expertise helps to present a very strong program. Also, the cost of the program tends to be quite attractive to most people.

Kent State claims to offer a “highly personalized EMBA experience” can you please expand on this? Well, the size of our

program is fairly small. Over the course of the year we will work with 25 to 30 students. By limiting the numbers our faculty gets to know every student in the program, and this goes well beyond knowing names; our faculty learns about each student’s background, hometown, employers, etc.

According to a recent GMAC study, the quality of MBA applicants has risen significantly over the past three years. Is this something that you’ve witnessed at Kent State? Yes we have.

Although GMAT scores have gone up, we’ve also noticed that the managerial and experience level of the students applying has risen. Quality is tough to define, but if we’re able to attract people with an average of 10 to 15 years of work experience who have received promotions throughout their career, we consider this to be higher quality.

Admissions Kent State’s admissions requirements for an EMBA focus less on previous academic accomplishments and more on business experience. Please explain. We use undergraduate GPA

and GMAT scores in the admission process. For the applicant with 52 | CEO

”

less business experience, typically five to seven years, the aforementioned scores carry more weight. However, we tend to place most of the emphasis on what their resume says about their work experience. In addition, we arrange personal interviews with all prospective students. Letters of recommendation come into play, as does a statement of their goals and objectives. The latter helps us to not only see what they’re aiming for, but also how well they can write.

Return on Investment An MBA graduate that performs well can anticipate certain opportunities. However, what can graduates typically expect from the Kent State EMBA program, in terms of ROI? It goes back to the

value equation. They’re going to get a good return on the money they’ve invested, because it is a relatively low investment. We’ve actually come up with a new advertising theme: “Invest in Yourself.” It’s rather timely right now because anything seems better than investing in the markets.

We don’t really conduct surveys in order to ask students’ how much their pay has increased as a result of their degree, but we do stay in touch with graduates and often receive letters with promotion news.

Both students and employers alike expect a certain return on their investment. To this end, how important is it to select the right school and what should the aforesaid parties consider before making a final decision? They should consider three ma-

jor factors: the price of the program, the quality of the faculty and, of course, accreditation. It’s just not wise to select an EMBA program from an unaccredited school. We do what are called Information Sessions. This means inviting prospective students in to talk to Kent State EMBA alumni, other faculty members and myself.

These sessions offer a wealth of information on the program, in addition to the School and it’s fit. Most of the sessions are held at our campus, but some are held in the outlying communities of Akron and Cleveland.

North America

•••

International Reach Briefly explain Kent State’s EMBA “International Business Experience.” (IBE) The IBE is a 10 to 12 day excursion, which takes

place abroad. It basically gives students the opportunity to observe how business is conducted in other countries. As a cultural learning experience, it encompasses both work and recreation. Students are required to write a paper in exchange for two credit hours. Although we encourage students to participate in the IBE, they may instead opt to take an additional elective, or complete an independent study project instead.

Having been one of the first schools in the country to offer an international experience (1986), we understand what’s important when it comes to teaching international business. We’ve gone to 25 different countries over the last 23 years. Where we go is governed by where the action is. Last year the activity was in China, and it will probably be the same next year. Past IBE destinations have included India, Portugal, Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels, Berlin, Sidney, Auckland, and Switzerland.

The IBE allows students to observe how business is conducted in other countries. What benefits can students derive from the aforementioned experience? Students say it’s a “life-altering” expe-

rience. They certainly have a much better understanding of the factors that influence global decision-making. It’s one thing to read it in a book, it’s quite another to actually see it firsthand. The trip takes them to companies that represent all types of industries. Also, each student is required to set up an interview with a company in that country. They are required to complete the entire experience alone, which helps to build confidence in their ability to conduct international business.

International partnerships between universities seem to be a hot trend. To what extent do these partnerships benefit the student and their employer? We have about 30 different partners. Therefore,

finding a school that is interested in working with us is rather easy. We also have campuses in Geneva, Switzerland and Florence, Italy.

In the Future What impact, if any, do you believe the current financial crisis will have on the popularity of EMBA programs? I think it boils

to stay on top of after graduating. It works quite simply. Students come together online and interact on an academic topic (e.g. leadership). If it’s leadership, they click on the leadership icon and it allows them to interact with alumni on that topic. We will also assign a monitoring professor to each academic topic who will be responsible for keeping the site current and flowing with information. We like to think of it as continuing education for our graduates.

Another unique aspect of Kent State’s EMBA is the lack of specialization. We actually only have one elective. Ultimately, most students want to obtain their EMBA as quickly as possible. As a result of eliminating areas of specialization, we have been able to create a 19-month program. However, for those who require a specific specialization, we’re developing the MBA Plus. Students return after graduating and select an area of specialization. They must then obtain an additional 12 credit hours in order to receive a certification in their chosen field. Finance and leadership appear to be at the top of the list, as well as international business.

We’re also focused on increasing the strength of our alumni relationships.

To this end, we’re offering a Mini IBE to alumni. However, the trip will have more of a vacation appeal.

down to the fact that, right now, investing in oneself might be the best investment. It will allow individuals to create greater wealth. Ultimately, we hope that prospective students will go back to the value equation and look at the price of our program. To this end, the financial crisis may be a positive for Kent State.

Finally, our University is in the process of creating a School of Public Health. They’ve asked the EMBA program to be involved from a leadership standpoint. Defining exactly what that means will become clearer as the project advances. ■

What can new and existing students expect from Kent State, in terms of program innovations, over the next 12-18 months?

Biography Robert Krampf is the Director of the Executive MBA Program at Kent State University.

One program we’re setting up is called “Communities of Practice.” The web site will be categorized into areas of knowledge that students want

CEO | 53

North America •••

Not a Typical EMBA Program » Steve Tokar talks to CEO Magazine

“

The EMBA offers a higher level of competency for employers due to the nature of the program, especially because it is broad-based versus being specialized.

How does the University determine what skills to emphasize in its curriculum? We

Introduction

EMBA programs have enjoyed significant growth over the last six years. To what do you attribute this success? The number one

”

Please discuss the University of Indianapolis’ EMBA Program from the perspective of its “Cohort Concept” and its lock-step nature. We find that many of our

students attend because they are not available to take classes during the week. So, it’s a way for participants to obtain a full strength MBA without interfering with company travel schedules or other commitments.

As for advantages – our EMBA is unlike many others. One example of this is the level of peer-to-peer support we offer and the resulting opportunities for networking. Also, it is faster than the evening program without being watered down or accelerated. It is what we call a turnkey program, meaning we take care of everything from books to meals to registration and bill paying.

54 | CEO

in the provision of online learning.

We have a huge supplement of e-learning tools: •

•

•

• •

Blackboard: A method for classroom collaboration, submission of assignments Online Lectures: For example, we have a Corporate Financial Theory course, which is the backbone of our program. There are e-lectures available to help review the material covered in class.

Homework Manager: This tool enables students to do their homework online and submit it online.

Learning Resource Center: Text-based material TurnItIn.com: Submission of papers, which automatically checks for plagiarism.

Return on Investment

emphasize the skills that local employers are looking for in their MBA graduates. To obtain this information we conduct a survey of local employers approximately every two years.

Since every EMBA program is different, there cannot be a universal ROI recipe for success. How would the University of Indianapolis calculate the ROI a student might expect from its program? Our

Consequently, what we have found time and time again is that, while people skills are very important, technical skills are more important, at least here in the local marketplace, As a result, we try to focus on practical application for today’s business world.

EMBA program is not typical because we offer a full strength MBA on weekends. Again, the cohort model offers return because there are better networking opportunities arising from the selective nature of the program.

It also provides their employees with better skill sets. The EMBA offers a higher level of competency for employers due to the nature of the program, especially because it is broad-based versus being specialized.

reason is convenience – at least for our program.

Most people do not work a 40-hour week anymore, so it becomes that much more challenging for students to find a way to make it work.

Online Learning Online learning is one of many tools that enrich the executive MBA experience. To what extent does e-learning factor into the University of Indianapolis’ EMBA program? We use e-learning tools as a supplement

to enhance in-classroom material. However, we do not really offer all online courses.

Kindly define the delivery methods currently employed by the University of Indianapolis

Corporation-University Partnerships Increasingly, corporations are managing their educational needs by establishing collaborative relationships with universities. Has the University of Indianapolis forged relationships with corporations in the local area and, if so, what impact has this had on the school’s EMBA program? We strongly believe in forging rela-

tionships with local businesses. As a matter of fact, we have the largest corporate MBA presence in Indianapolis. For some of the larger employers, this means we go on-site and offer customized MBA programs to their employees. This has been successful

for some of the largest employers in Indianapolis. This includes defense contractors, engineering companies, financial firms and healthcare organizations.

Consider a major hospital. This might entail a dual degree program between a Masters in Nursing and an MBA oriented toward healthcare. So, all of the general courses like marketing and finance would be oriented accordingly. The employer influences the curriculum. Another nice thing about the employer relationship model is that employees that have particular problems can bring them to class as case studies related to that particular course, which helps to solve business problems specific to that organization.

•

When companies define selection criteria for a university partnership, what should be their top three priorities?

•

Go through the accreditation process and make sure the university is accredited. Today many MBA programs

•

are not. We are accredited by ACBSP, but we are also members of AACSB. However, the latter does not accredit us because we are not a researchbased institution. The University of Indianapolis can be thought of as a hybrid, because we are a teachingbased institution – meaning we believe in practical applications of classroom learning, but at the same time there is also research being done here. This, however, is not our primary focus, our primary focus is teaching.

Check for a customized curriculum.

A willingness to customize the curriculum by organization means the university might also be willing to customize schedules. For example, if corporations want their employees to earn an MBA at a faster pace, we can offer a customized schedule that can accelerate it. We’re very responsive to our organizations here in the local area.

Ability to bring real world projects into

the classroom. Some schools have their own curriculum – and it’s a “buy what we have” mentality. Our program is more, “You tell us what you want and we’ll deliver it.”

The Next Chapter What can new and existing students expect from the University of Indianapolis, in terms of program innovations, over the next 12-18 months? They can expect new

choices for majors, based on employer market demands or needs. We recently added a major in global supply chain management.

We’re currently looking at specific areas in project management, lean manufacturing and global business. ■

Biography Steve Tokar is the Director of Graduate Business Programs at Indianapolis University.

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the MBA

Review

The benefits attached to an MBA qualification are significant.

Career progression, networking opportunities and salary increases are just some of the reasons why application volumes have been increasing. » Having made the decision to pursue an MBA, deciding upon a school is not easy. Many factors need to be considered, including location, reputation and teaching methods. However, preparing a short list of schools is perhaps the most difficult task given the plethora of schools offering an MBA option. Therefore, in order to simplify the decision-making process, CEO Magazine has assessed the performance of EMBA and online MBA providers based upon certain key performance indicators:

Key Performance Indicators • • • • • •

Faculty Tuition fees International reach Innovation Delivery methods Career progression (where possible)

Those schools, which have been identified for inclusion into the tables below, are considered by the CEO Review Panel (CRP) to be of tier-one status. Typically, these schools demonstrate a high level of innovation and thought leadership; class sizes tend to be moderate, senior faculty are used and the make up of students is diverse.

56 | CEO

Europe/Global

North America/Global

Executive MBA Rankings: Tier-One

Executive MBA Rankings: Tier-One

School

Location

School

Location

Ashridge

UK

Columbia Business School

US / UK

City University: Cass

UK

Cornell University

US

CITY College

Greece

Duke University: Fuqua

US

Copenhagen Business School

Denmark

George Washington University

US

Duham Buiness School

UK

Kent State University

US

EM Lyon

France

Northern Illinois University

US

Erasmus University:RSM

Netherlands

Northwestern: Kellogg

US

Essec & Mannheim Business School

France/Germany

ESCP-EAP European School of Management

France / UK / Germany Spain / Italy

Helsinki School of Economics

Finland / S. Korea / Singapore

IE Business School

Spain

IESE Business School

Spain

INSEAD

France / Singapore

IMD

Switzerland

Kent University

UK

London Business School

UK

Manchester Business School

UK

UCLA: Anderson

US

MIB School of Management

Italy

University of Chicago GSB

US / UK / Singapore

Nottingham University Business School Robert Gordon University

UK

University of Indianapolis

US

UK

University of Louisville

US

Stockholm School of Economics

Sweden / Russia / Latvia

US

Swansea University

UK Netherlands / US Hungary / Germany

University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler Business School University of Pittsburgh: Katz

US / Brazil / Czech Republic

University of Pennsylvania: Wharton

US

Warwick Business School

UK

University of San Francisco

US

University College Dublin: Smurfit

Ireland

USC: Marshall

US

Tilburg University: TiasNimbas

NYU: Stern

US

Pepperdine University: Graziadio

US

Purdue University: Krannert

US / Netherlands Hungary / Germany

Queens University of Charlotte: McColl Rochester Institute of Technology

US

Rutgers Business School

US

Texas A&M University: Mays

US

Thunderbird

US US

US

UC Berkley: Hass School of Business

Online MBA Rankings: Tier-One School

American InterContinental University

Hofstra University

Baker College

Jones International University

Boston University

Nova Southeastern University

Capella University

South University

DeVry University

Strayer University

Edinburgh Business School

University of Liverpool

George Washington University

University of Phoenix

Golden Gate University

University of San Francisco

Gonzaga University

University of Wisconsin Whitewater

Grand Canyon University

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

CEO | 57

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European

EMBA REVIEW

“Yes, accreditation is a key quality kite mark and I would strongly recommend any students looking for an MBA to look for an AMBA accredited school first.”

CEO | 59

Why Mainstreaming Corporate Social Responsibility Still Makes

Good Business Sense » Craig Smith, INSEAD Knowledge With the recession in full swing and no reprieve in sight, one might expect interest in corporate social responsibility to wane, or perhaps even die a natural death. Not so, according to Craig Smith, INSEAD Chaired Professor of Ethics and Social Responsibility. He believes that corporate responsibility has never been more prominent on the corporate agenda. The financial crisis and its effects on the global economy have made it clear, he says, that the stability of our global market system depends on responsible behaviour, sustainable business models and proactive management of business impacts on society, as well as regulatory frameworks.

Smith is the co-author of a new book called Mainstreaming Corporate Responsibility: Cases and Text for Integrating Corporate Responsibility across the Business School Curriculum (Wiley 2009 forthcoming), which advocates the mainstreaming of CSR into business school curricula – which includes strategy, accounting, entrepreneurship, marketing and finance.

He explains that the book is really trying to do within business schools what many businesses are doing – accepting that CSR 60 | CEO

Europe

•••

CEO | 61

The recent events seem to suggest that companies, or their managers at “ least, certainly haven’t been maximising shareholder value. We’ve seen one of

the largest destructions of shareholder value in recent times – if not the largest destruction of shareholder value – and yet purportedly by managers who should be paying attention to the interests of shareholders… This socially irresponsible behaviour has wider repercussions and we’re all now suffering as a result.

”

“can’t simply be some bolt-on to a ‘business-as-usual’ approach, but instead something deeply embedded in the day-to-day operations of the company.”

A disconnect from reality In the book, Smith refers to the ideas of the late Sumantra Ghoshal, a professor of strategy and management luminary, who stated unequivocally that mainstream courses in strategy, finance and economics were disconnected from any moral reasoning or societal implications, and therefore needed to be de-masked as a root cause of the ethical deficiencies in business education. Smith adds, however, that he and his co-author Gilbert Lenssen take the view that it’s not so much radical change that the schools need to embrace, but more incremental change; change that really gives a fuller account of what business is about. “In contrast to Ghoshal, what we would say is, there is perhaps too much attention to maximising shareholder value and not enough attention to the broader purposes of the firm, as well as the assumptions and ideological underpinnings that go with this view of shareholder value maximisation.”

Maximising stakeholder value is, of course, an idea which has a substantial following, but it is not without its limitations. “The recent events seem to suggest that companies, or their managers at least, certainly haven’t been maximising shareholder value. We’ve seen one of the largest destructions of shareholder value in recent times – if not the largest destruction of shareholder value – and yet purportedly by managers who should be paying attention to the interests of shareholders… This socially irresponsible behaviour has wider repercussions and we’re all now suffering as a result.”

Out with the old, in with the new That said, there’s never been a better time than now to regroup, and Smith advises the ditching of the old notion that CR programmes are oriented towards PR and designed “to build goodwill as a sort of insurance policy, to be redeemed in case something goes badly wrong in the main part of the business.” He adds that the ‘decoupled’ approach by corporations to CR, which provides the appearance of conformity to socially-responsible processes and outcomes, needs to give way to an integrated policy which affects the day-to-day decision-making and actions of the organisation at all levels. That, he explains, is the crux of mainstreaming, which requires a good understanding of the business case, as well as the case for business to seriously engage with CR beyond enlightened profit maximisation.

62 | CEO

Mainstreaming, however good as it may seem on paper, does come with accompanying challenges and requires a process of planned and emergent change. The book reveals that Shell, for example, which is known as a leader in corporate sustainability initiatives, faced a daunting task of mainstreaming sustainability, as this required both ‘hardwiring’ and ‘softwiring’. Smith explains that hardwiring is about the integration of CR into organisational systems, processes and structures – the ‘brain of the firm’. Softwiring, on the other hand, is about integration in organisational culture, skills and competencies – the ‘heart of the enterprise’.

Clearly, mainstreaming by organisational transformation is not a quick fix.

A sound investment The upside is that more companies are realising that corporate responsibility and sustainability are linked to competitiveness; and sustainability could very well be the next major change businesses need to adapt to. Marks and Spencer, for example, has a programme to invest up to 200 million pounds to position itself as the UK’s greenest retailer. According to its CEO Stuart Rose, the company has not not spent nearly as much money as it expected to date because it discovered many cost savings as a result of embarking on the programme.

“In many cases, particularly for companies that are concerned about their reputation and are here for the long term, this is an investment and it’s a necessary investment that they need to make to protect their reputation, apart from motives they may have for doing the right thing.”

Perhaps this even calls for a new kind of thinking. “The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has questioned why governments are introducing economic stimulus measures and why they are prompting people to consume and to continue consuming when maybe that’s the wrong approach … Maybe we should think of a different approach, in not valuing materialism and consumption so highly. It’s a provocative thought but the times perhaps call for this sort of thinking.” ■

Acknowledgement This article is republished courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge.insead.edu). Copyright INSEAD 2009.

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CEO | 63

The Humanistic Approach » Marianne Conde Salazar and Philippe Gabilliet talk to Debbie Moss

Program Overview Please define ESCP-EAP’s value proposition? (European School of Management) Our primary objective is to offer a

truly European curriculum. MBA courses are not only offered in Berlin, but also in London, Turin, Madrid and Paris – these are the five campuses. The MBA courses are already very strong because the international dimension is very strong. Students can choose 12 out of a possible 36 electives offered. Each elective has a mixed group of MBA participants, so it is a new group for each elective. It’s interesting to work with such group dynamics.

One of our strong beliefs is that there is truly a European way of doing business that is very different from others. As a business school we really stress the fact that 2010 executives not only have to be good with business issues, but posses a high level of cultural and humanistic skills. The humanistic approach is very important for us in terms of culture, economy, sociology and ethics. Diversity is also important. Our social mission is to train executives, not only from the viewpoint of acquiring business skills, but also to endow them with a high level of social awareness.

Some schools prefer to use senior faculty members when teaching courses.

Is this something that you advocate at ESCP-EAP? Yes, for us the seniority of the

professor is a very important part and we have 70 percent of lectures taught by permanent faculty. However, seniority is one 64 | CEO

thing, experience is another. Sometimes there are very senior professors who have never been in a company. So, I prefer to have younger professors with experience in real companies. For some issues, like organizational behavior or strategy, the academic aspect is very important, but understanding how to use it and knowing how a given tool can help you to make better decisions is just as important.

The quality and background of the professors charged with teaching and motivating ESCP-EAP’s students is clearly very important. However, what sets ESCPEAP’s faculty apart from other schools?

We try to be ourselves. We try to be as international and European as we can be. We try to be as diverse as possible and we really try to share the same set of values we talked about earlier.

We try to make sure our professors look at new and different ways of teaching their subjects, a humanistic concern that really gives a specific colour to the program.

The ESCP-EAP’s EEMBA programme states three ambitions in its quest to shape successful managers into international business leaders. Please explain each.

1.

2.

Try to understand the world better. We achieve this through using new skills, grids, models and concepts.

Anticipate the next move. For us, anticipating means perceiving links among the phenomenon, links among the facts, among the economic and sociological movements and trying to perceive these links before others do. The one who wins is the one who

3.

is playing in advance and predicting what is about to happen - risk-taking, innovation, etc.

Make better decisions. There’s a lot of debate about exactly what it means to make good decisions. When you’re living in a stable environment, the right decision is the decision that prepares you for a future crisis. The problem is when you wait too long and find yourself in a crisis with no plan. Uncertain times means the value of your decision cannot be created before making the decision. The problem isn’t forecasting anything; the problem is doing the right thing. This is really important for us in terms of strategy.

From where do the most notable benefits come for a student who is studying with 120 executives from over 25 different nationalities? It’s about opening one’s mind and

exchanging, exchanging and exchanging again with people who are very different to you.

Sharing experiences is valuable, but sharing experiences with people who are so diverse as a group is even better.

Given the current economic climate, do you foresee there being an upswing in the number of self-funded MBA students attending ESCP-EAP? We don’t know. Cur-

rently, we are 30 percent self-funded. We’ll probably have more information around April or May and we can make our decision then.

We’re of the same mindset as everyone else in terms of thinking that future months still look a little bit foggy.

Europe

•••

Sharing experiences “ is valuable, but sharing

experiences with people who are so diverse as a group is even better.

”

CEO | 65

the 90s “theSince concepts of flexibility, cost control dynamics, etc. have been at the heart of the programme.

”

Leadership In this ever-changing economy, what role does leadership play and to what extent is it addressed throughout the program? Our

philosophy is very clear. In troubled times, the person who is supposed to be the leader of the group has three basic missions: 1.

2.

3.

Design and maintain the right vision for the people. Having this vision requires skills in strategy, finance and marketing among other areas.

Create trust. The trust factor in troubled times is critical. Earning trust means being competent with the people around you, as well as being ethical.

Inspire motivation. Create a collective commitment between the group and the challenge, the group and the issue, etc.

We ask all professors to keep these three elements in mind, regardless of what they’re teaching.

66 | CEO

How do you test the leadership qualities of your students and, ultimately, prepare them for the real world business challenges that lay ahead? We are very innova-

tive. Through the elective portfolio, students have the ability to choose leadership classes only - Negotiating, Facing Conflicts, Leadership Development, etc. Our philosophy is that students know what they want to get out of the programme, but we can teach them how to find the right situations and context in which their personal skills and abilities will transform in the leadership process. On that point, we must have an added value.

Accreditation Do you feel accreditation is an indicator of quality and do employers use it as a benchmark? It is an indicator. More than 70 percent

of our MBA participants are financed by their companies and, of course, we maintain contact

with those companies. They are very cautious when it comes to accreditation issues. Yes, it increases the value of MBA programmes.

According to the Financial Times we are the 21st most successful programme.

ESCP-EAP is accredited by the AMBA, an accreditation achieved only by those programs meeting strict definitions and standards. A key criterion is the program participant’s previous work experience. Please elaborate. It’s really

important, because we need executives that are able to draw on their managerial experiences. It accounts for the success of much of our programme, which is why we’re very careful when selecting our candidates. We make sure they have something to share and that they are already aware of what they can contribute to the programme.

Also, we evaluate their work experience from an international standpoint, as well as what they’re most proud of.

International Business Given the competitive demands placed upon corporations today, and increasing globalization – both of which require tomorrow’s business leaders to be flexible and manage workforces and internal structures that cross cultural and political lines – have you redefined your MBA programmes? We

have always designed in this way, because it’s the only way to create a competitive advantage.

Since the 90s the concepts of flexibility, cost control dynamics, etc. have been at the heart of the programme. Over the last few years we’ve been trying to emphasize this even more.

in Turin where marketing and brand management are more important. In Berlin, the human resources aspect is quite different, and in Madrid the entrepreneurial dimension is focused on.

Each one proposes to provide a specific identity through its course offerings and electives. We respect a high level of flexibility, diversity and mobility among the campuses.

Looking Ahead What can new and existing students expect from ESCP-EAP, in terms of programme innovations, over the next 12 to 18 months?

Since the onset of the global financial crisis, has ESCP-EAP changed the focus of certain courses? Yes, we’ve asked

all professors to really focus on the global aspects of the current crisis. Finance is one thing, but it cannot be understood from the global economic content alone. Crisis leadership is becoming an important topic, as is decision-making. Next year we’ll probably increase our focus on the aspect of control management. What does it mean to control what people are doing within the company?

This means what they’re doing with the finances of the company, the brand and image of the company, etc. ■

Two issues: Among the five campuses in Paris, Berlin, London, Madrid and Turin, does the global business aspect of the curriculum change focus? The idea is really to respect the red line

of standards in terms of international and global management. We ask each campus to focus on a dimension specific to their country. For example, in London, the financial aspects of management are supposed to be more important than they are

1.

2.

With respect to facing a crisis, programme content will be increased.

Regarding our internal process, we are proposing post-MBA electives. This allows alumni to keep in touch, not only from a socialization standpoint, but also academically. It will mix those MBA participants taking the elective with perhaps three to five post-MBA individuals.

Biography Marianne Conde Salazar is the MBA Programme Director for ESCP-EAP. Philippe Gabilliet is Dean of the ESCPEAP European Executive MBA and Associate Professor in Organizational Behaviour and Management.

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Europe

•••

Listening to the

Market » Elaine Dunn and Steve Brown talk to Debbie Moss

It is an honour and an ongoing challenge for us at Exeter to ensure that “ we produce world-class MBA graduates. ” Introduction Given the investment of both time and money from the employee and, in some cases, the employer, what makes the part-time MBA such a hot ticket? Prior to launching the Modu-

lar MBA we spent considerable time researching the MBA market.

What became very clear was that organizations saw the need for a Modular MBA, saying it had something distinct to offer. It really provides the ideal learning vehicle for combining theory, learning, reflection and application. By now most people understand how managers need a combination of new knowledge and fresh perspec-

tive, but they also need the opportunity to apply these and integrate them with their daily work, especially because that’s where the real learning takes place. A part-time MBA offers that kind of learning experience.

In order to better serve your students, you have carried out a significant amount of research into what an MBA programme should deliver. What were you able to glean from this research?

Reaching major employers in both the public and private sector, our key question was, ‘What did they expect from MBA graduates?’

The most popular response was that employers want them to unCEO | 69

On the part-time and Modular MBA at Exeter the work experience can be “ considerable and this can provide remarkable richness to the quality of the student experience within the classroom. ” derstand the bigger picture, as well as apply holistic and strategic thinking. Essentially they want MBA graduates to be able to work across the boundaries. The second area important to employers was the impact the graduates would have on the people around them.

Most comments focused on people management, leadership skills and communication skills.

The third stage of the programme allows students to specialize in areas of their choice. This can be in a particular functional area if they so wish or they can explore major themes of management including innovation entrepreneurship, pubic sector and leadership.

It’s all about application, where they use the learning from stages one and two and apply it to contemporary issues.

We also asked them questions about which programme format they’d prefer if sending an employee through the part-time programme.

Their main preference was for short, residential modules over three to four days, with some of that time running into the weekend.

These employers felt the participants should give up some of their own time, along with studying during work time. It’s a way to test their commitment.

This three-stage approach ensures that managers will not be out of their depth in any of their core areas of the business and also will be able to manage in competitive environments that have become increasingly complex over time.

Also, we do offer an optional feature to take part in which is called the “Roundtables” module. This provides massive networking opportunities for students on an international basis because it brings together students from other world-class business schools, including the Bled School of Management in Slovenia and McGill University in Montreal.

What prompted you to launch a Modular MBA? We did a lot

of market research, looking at market growth rates, student numbers, supply numbers and so on. We concluded the part-time MBA was the growth area within the overall MBA market. It seems this preference allows managers to retain their jobs and income while studying, so it offered a lower risk option when compared to a fulltime MBA. Prior to launching our modular programme, our part-time programme was just one day a week. The people attending weren’t necessarily the people who were geographically close to Exeter, and that was such a limited market. So, the modular MBA that we launched in January 2008 effectively enabled us to meet the requirements of a national and international audience.

Your Modular MBA is delivered in three stages, kindly breakdown each stage. The first stage of the Modular MBA is to ensure

that all students, regardless of their background, will have a good knowledge of the key managerial areas they are likely to face in their future careers. Thus, the core management functional areas are dealt with in some depth. This includes areas such as marketing strategy, operations, finance, accounting and the global economy.

The second stage is based on the recognition that managers aren’t just faced with managing one specialist functional area. Consequently, we have designed a range of integrated modules. These modules deliberately draw upon, and develop, the core subjects from stage one, however, in stage two we develop these in a cross functional approach.

70 | CEO

We understand that your part-time programme is fully integrated into its full-time counterpart. How does this benefit the student? We have two part-time programmes. We have the one

that is modular, where students come for three to four days at a time to study a module. That is a separate and distinct cohort. We also have a part-time programme where students come once a week for three years. That part-time route is fully integrated with the full time programme in that the students are attending the same lectures, the same seminars and many of the learning events. They come once a week and are integrated with the full-time students.

The value comes from the resulting exposure they have to people all around the world.

The real difference between our full-time and part time MBA is one of timing. We deliberately wanted to mix full-time and part time MBA students in some, but not all, of the modules and the feedback from our students on the MBA at Exeter is that this approach works very well.

You’ve enjoyed a great deal of success with your part-time programme. Do you attribute this to the quality and background of your professors? Undoubtedly part of the success is

due to the professors and other key academic staff who provide first class teaching, supported by excellent and up to date research, which feeds into their lectures. The quality of an MBA depends a great deal on the faculty who deliver it. The expertise and interests

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of our professors play a role in giving the Exeter MBA its distinctive flavor.

Given the current economic climate, do you foresee there being an upswing in the number of self-funded MBA students attending the University of Exeter Business School? I think the

figures we uncovered during our recent market research demonstrate that over half the students taking a full-time MBA are doing so in order to change careers. With regards to part-time MBA students, it’s possible that self-funding might fall, but equally we have evidence suggesting that a certain percentage of employers invest in their talented staff to retain them during such turbulent times. We all know that, when a recession hits an organization, one of the first budgets that gets reduced or even eliminated is the training budget.

However, we also know that smart organizations invest in their staff and recognise that outstanding human capital will continue to be the core requirements of world-class organizations.

Programme Selection Unfortunately, not all programmes are created equal. Therefore, programme selection is incredibly important. What do potential students need to consider when identifying, assessing and selecting a program provider? I think there are three

important considerations. First, in the MBA market the key issue is AMBA accreditation. This is one of the major factors that determine whether an MBA provider will be allowed to continue into the future. Exeter has AMBA accreditation and we will ensure that this is protected.

Secondly, I’d advise candidates to consider the overall learning experience being offered. That would be a combination of numerous things, such as quality of faculty, curriculum, teaching methods, quality of learning facilities and learning spaces, as well as the quality of the support they’ll receive. Basically, be certain the provider is CEO | 71

When we researched employers and asked them whether or not accreditation “ mattered, most of them didn’t pay very much attention to it at all. ” offering a program that will enable students to become better managers. This means programs need to expose students to the very latest thinking in management and must equip students to deal with very competitive markets that operate within increasingly complex networks. An MBA program shouldn’t provide quick-fix solutions and ready-made answers; these approaches have no relevance to what managers really have to face at work. At Exeter we enable students to think strategically and deeply about management.

Third, candidates should consider the extent to which the programme seeks to develop them as individuals, as much as offering them new knowledge. For example, on the Exeter Modular MBA, we have a module we call Personal Effectiveness Coaching. This runs throughout the entire period of study. Through that module all students receive personal coaching, mentoring and feedback as they try out their new skills and approaches in their daily work.

When is the best time to enroll in an MBA programme? The answer, of course, is that it depends. Actually, it often depends on your previous education and career path. At Exeter we require at least five years of experience since graduating, with at least two of those at managerial level, by which we mean achieving results through other people. You could also look at age. For example, our students range from about 24 to 55, with most of them in their thirties. I think it can be linked to your own career situation. For example, if you’re in a very specific discipline, such as engineering, and you’re at the top of your profession you might find that you’re required to take on additional responsibilities, broader managerial responsibilities, which is an ideal time to look to an MBA.

For others who are perhaps already in more general management roles and want to increase their competency level, the part-time route is ideal. Then, of course, there are the career changers who are looking for a complete switch. They typically see a full-time MBA as the route to achieving that. This can happen to people in their 20s, 30s, 40s or even 50s. So, I think it depends on your experience, your career, your life situation and perhaps on a few unplanned events that happen in your life.

The general MBA is typically shorter in duration when compared to the specialized MBA. However, some say that the specialised MBA can make the graduate more marketable. Do you concur with this? Employers tell us they expect MBA graduates to have an

understanding of the bigger picture beyond their specialised area. They expect MBA graduates to work across the functions or divisions in any organisation. Although we allow our students to specialize in options of their choice they can only do so once they have shown understanding in the core general management areas.

Quality vs. Quantity The number of schools offering part-time and EMBA pro-

72 | CEO

grammes has grown exponentially over the last six years. Has the market reached saturation point? Looking at the U.K., our

own research suggests that between 1995 and 2005 the market for part-time programmes (whether modular or executive formats) grew by about 30 percent in terms of student numbers. That was one of the factors that motivated us to launch our modular MBA in January 2008. Clearly, in a growing market you always expect to see new providers entering, which leads to saturation. But, I think the important point here is that MBA programmes are not commodity items.

There’s always room for innovative programmes to attract a higher proportion of the market. We believe that the Exeter Modular MBA was designed to achieve just that. It combines very high quality research (in a research-led university), with a programme that focuses on the personal development of each student. Not all business schools can offer that combination. Basically, we feel that if MBA providers can make their programme distinctive, there is room for those sorts of programmes to attract a growing number of students.

The level of full-time work experience required by many schools seems to be in decline. Whilst this may boost enrollment, what impact does this have on the quality of one’s programme? We

believe that all MBA’s should have students with work experience.

Such experience brings valuable insights in class. With the full-time MBA most students are in their late twenties or early thirties but they all have work experience. On the part-time and Modular MBA at Exeter the work experience can be considerable and this can provide remarkable richness to the quality of the student experience within the classroom. It also enables academics to draw upon such experience and knowledge. We believe it’s an important factor in the quality of the learning experience that the individual student will have, but also for the cohort as a whole.

Accreditation What does accreditation mean to the University of Exeter Business School? Of course we’re very proud to have AMBA accredita-

tion, but we regard this as a minimum threshold in terms of quality.

We’re very focused on making sure our students have very enjoyable, stimulating and valuable experiences, which typically exceeds many of the criteria required to secure the AMBA quality mark.

Such awards are only indicative signs and all Business Schools need to safeguard against complacency once these awards are made. We will continue to pursue high levels of quality in all of our MBA programs.

Does accreditation increase the value of one’s MBA in the commercial world? Possibly, but I think that question mixes together

two things. It’s clear when a candidate is looking to choose an MBA programme then the accreditation really matters; it’s very much a filtering device for choosing the programmes they might pay attention to. When we researched employers and asked them whether or not accreditation mattered, most of them didn’t pay very much attention

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to it at all. They were much more interested in the quality of the MBA graduates, what they’ve learned and what they might bring to the organisation.

Looking to the Future What impact, if any, do you believe the current financial crisis will have on the popularity of part-time programmes? If people

are employed and valued by their employer, then it’s very likely those employers will seek to retain their talented people and will continue to invest in them. I understand fully that some short-term training budgets may be cut, but I also believe many organisations still wish to retain and invest in those they really want to keep, so we’ll have to wait and see. Much depends on the duration of the current financial crisis. If it is for a short time only the sources of funding, via company sponsorships, will remain largely the same. If the crisis continues for a much longer period it is likely that many students will be self-funded.

What can students expect from Exeter’s EMBA, in terms of programme innovations, over the next 12-18 months? Well, quite a

lot. Having launched our Modular MBA in January of 2008, we’re now in the process of re-launching our full-time MBA for October 2009. A couple of the changes would include opportunities for international studies and exchange and significant emphasis on management practice and personal development, such as the coaching I

mentioned earlier. Also, we’re introducing a core module on macroeconomics, which I think we all know is important to understand given the current climate. And, there will be an increasing number of cross-functional modules, which integrate knowledge with business issues. So, we’re trying as hard as we can to convert their learning into understanding the real issues facing their companies and how they might deal with those given everything they’ve learned.

The overwhelming feedback we have from our MBA graduates is that we do, indeed, have MBA students who can deal with the remarkably exciting but very volatile business world in which we now operate. It is an honour and an ongoing challenge for us at Exeter to ensure that we produce world-class MBA graduates. ■ Biographies Elaine Dunn is the University of Exeter’s Business Education Manager having previously been the Assistant Director of the Centre for Leadership Studies for 7 years. Prior to this appointment she worked for 18 years in the financial services sector in IT systems development, corporate project management culminating in becoming a Senior Business Consultant within the NatWest Group.

Dr. Steve Brown is Professor of Management within the School and joined from the School of Management at Bath, where he led the Operations Management Group and was Director of the Centre of Technology and Innovation Management (CENTAIM).

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CEO | 73

Nordic Innovation » Debbie Moss talks to the Helsinki School of Economics

Tailor-made programmes tend to “ be adversely affected by an economic slowdown, whereas open-degree programmes often prosper.

”

EMBA Program Overview Kindly define Helsinki School of Economics’ unique EMBA value proposition. We believe we offer a quality programme with

a global dimension. There are two primary areas of strength. One is our international faculty network. Helsinki School of Economics uses a highly diverse network of 150 professionals from all over the world.

Also, we promote international exchange for our students, which is why we are located in six different regions: Helsinki, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, South Korea (Seoul) and China.

As the recipient of the rare ‘Triple Crown’ (AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS accreditations), how does this translate into benefits for a qualified EMBA candidate? The Triple Crown can be attributed,

in part, to the very high standards we maintain throughout our operation. The quality of the faculty is assured, as is programme content.

The participants chosen for our programme also meet certain quality standards. For example, they must have relevant work experience, both executive and relevant education. Networking really tends to be one of those aspects that our participants value. They network with people who, in a sense, represent the same level of experience that they themselves have. They find this incredibly valuable.

Comparatively, 18 months duration for an EMBA programme is very short. How is it possible to get someone through the programme this quickly? We plan very well. All of the obligatory

modules (core modules) are completed during the first year. Our programme meets the standards that the European Credit System establishes. They require universities to cover 60 European study points, and we cover that amount exactly.

74 | CEO

Faculty/Learning Philosophy Explain how HSE’s EMBA places emphasis on applied rather than theoretical study. One of our aims is to develop the participant’s

own work context and tasks. This helps them to apply what they have learned in the classroom in the workplace.

In addition to solid academic qualifications, the accrediting organization also dictates that the faculty must be involved in business. This insures that our staff is not only competent in the delivery of business theory but also in the practical application of said theory.

Practical application also comes in the form of an EMBA business project completed by participants. They take a practical example from one of their own at-work projects, or work with other participants in a group.

Merger Talks Much has been said, and written, about the merger of Helsinki School of Economics (HSE), University of Art and Design (TaiK) and Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) in order to create Aalto University. Will this happen and, if so, when? It will hap-

pen in August of 2009. The process has already started. We have a lot of groups working in different areas like teaching, research and executive education.

What is the thinking behind the aforementioned merger? I think

the original idea emerged from a certain desire to trigger the innovation of the Finnish society. In a small society, innovation is crucial so, one of the main ideas was to encourage the three disciplines, design, technology and business, to collaborate. The idea is to increase innovation and offer truly multidisciplinary education in addition to conducting multidisciplinary research. This is a very interesting initiative, because the Finnish government also supports it. All of the Finnish universities are public universities. We don’t have any private universities. However, Aalto University will be different, as it will be foundation-based.

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What impact, if any, will the merger have on HSE’s graduate programmes? This will only strengthen our graduate programme. We

metropolitan area and are well connected by public transportation. I’m not sure that they will nominate a main campus.

will add more faculty, we have faculty from three merging schools, as well as from different disciplines. This is a very exciting time. I also anticipate that the multidisciplinary approach will be of great interest to our students.

To what extent will the direction of the School be governed by outside forces, i.e. commercial entities? Until now, all Finnish

Will any one school dictate the curriculum? The basic idea is, again,

the multidisciplinary approach. But, there should be a balance in the curriculum when it comes to the different disciplines. Fruitful exchange is the main target with this merger. The most interesting point for me is how to bring art and design into the areas of business and technology.

At this stage, do you know which school will be used as the main campus? All of the merging schools are located in the Helsinki

universities have been public universities. The new Aalto University is organized in a format of a foundation. The foundation gets its resources mainly from the government, but also private financing is included.

The new Aalto Board consists of several high-level Finnish executives so, in this sense, the business community viewpoint is represented.

The Finnish business community is very excited by the venture. It’s something they’ve wanted for a while. The working title for this university was Innovation University, which explains why the business community is so excited.

CEO | 75

The idea is to increase innovation and offer truly multidisciplinary education “ in addition to conducting multidisciplinary research. ” Finally, how difficult will it be to merge the cultures of three schools? This is a very good question and one that’s quite difficult to

answer. In general, people are very positive and expectations are high.

Everyone is looking forward to seeing what the university can offer.

The excitement surrounding the merger is a good sign. Although the merger is very new it has already received a great deal of media attention and as such has triggered a great deal of interest from the surrounding community.

HSE in Asia Students can participate in your EMBA programme at six different locations, four of which are in Asia. Why is HSE so heavily committed to the region? Asia is clearly a growth market.

It is also home to many Finnish companies. It’s really the place to be when partnering with businesses.

autumn of this year. We invite students from around the world to participate in a one-week programme, which consists of three modules. The first is Business Simulation. It is a business game that students start at home before joining us, with their teams, in Helsinki where the game is played to its end. With the second module, students must choose from three electives. Topics include cross-cultural management, corporate responsibility and innovation. The third module is called Breakthrough Leadership.

This year International Week was a great success. I believe the most important aspect of this initiative is the networking opportunity. Students are able to connect with likeminded professionals from around the world. Students agreed that this was one of the greatest benefits they took home.

In the Future

What prompted you to offer graduate programme options to the Asian market? One very prominent professor at Helsinki be-

What impact, if any, do you believe the current financial crisis will have on the popularity of EMBA programmes? Historically,

came familiar with a well-known Korean professor and the two started the idea. I think one of the reasons we’ve been so successful in Korea is because we started early – 1995.

what we have found is that, when the economy goes down, the number of participants goes up, which is actually quite interesting. I think that in times of recession, the number of people who find themselves out of work or searching for new opportunities increases.

Kindly define the strengths of the Singapore EMBA programme.

First, the classes are very international. Secondly, the instructors aren’t just academics; they also have current and prior consulting experience.

One of our requirements is that they have business experience from both the West and the East. This gives them the ability to offer examples accordingly. Thirdly, when you compare our EMBA in Singapore with many others, we offer exceptional value for money. Our prices are very competitive.

Curriculum/Content Describe what is meant by the “modular structure of the programme.” One module, we could say, encompasses approximately six

weeks. This means that before the three days of contact time (Thursday – Saturday), the students work for a couple of weeks on preparatory material. Then they take the three-day module. After that, they have a take-home exam for which they’re given another two to three weeks.

This equates to six weeks and thus you have the modular structure.

Students take a total of 20 modules. Seven core modules are mandatory and the rest can be chosen by the students. Additionally, there is always the choice of taking a module in Singapore, Poland, Seoul or Taiwan.

What are the three modules included during international week? International week is a new concept that we launched in the

76 | CEO

Tailor-made programmes tend to be adversely affected by an economic slowdown, whereas open-degree programmes often prosper. We are fortunate in that we offer both, this mixture works for us in different ways.

It gives us some backup, a good balance.

What can new and existing students expect from HSE’s EMBA, in terms of programme innovations over the next 12-18 months?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, International Week is a new initiative and we are excited to see where it goes. Also, I’m convinced that Aalto will offer an array of exciting opportunities. The multi-disciplinary aspect, together with new faculty, might just bring original pedagogical approaches. For example, in a more interactive way. I think it will be extremely interesting to combine business, technology and design.

In Singapore, we’re launching a new focus area within our EMBA: Innovation Management. This is a new endeavor, which I believe will be of great interest, particularly to the Asian market. It will be available from March of next year. ■

Biography The HSE is the third oldest institute of higher education in Finland, and the leading university in economics and business administration.

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Putting The Value In

Value for money » Mark Goode talks to CEO Magazine

accreditation is a key quality “kiteYes,mark and I would strongly recommend any students looking for an MBA to look for an AMBA accredited school first.

”

Introduction with Mark Goode Mark, you have an impressive teaching background: Can you tell us a little bit about your journey through academia? I

have been teaching for over 23 years and I have taught a large number of MBA students. I started my academic career with two degrees in Economics and have held a research position in Financial Economics and lectureships in Statistics, Operations Management and Marketing.

In 2008 I won a Swansea University Distinguished Teaching Award. I have also published over 30 journal articles, 40 conferences papers and a book.

do you do it? By having small numbers of students we only have

lecturers on the course who inspire student trust. Most have at least ten years MBA teaching experience. By spending lots of time with students, putting on extra classes, providing a drop-in surgery to students if they want to talk to either me or another member of the staff on a Friday morning.

Why can’t other schools offer the same value? They could but they would have to a) have the experience and b) the time to provide a unique experience to the students. Some schools see MBAs as cash cows, in my opinion they are not and it is a fundamental mistake to treat them as such. I have taught on MBA courses (not at Swansea may I add) with over 300 students in the class and the students hate it, there is no interaction or group discussion.

Apart from your full-time MBA programme, how many study options do you offer? On the MBA there are two options: full-time

and Executive or weekend delivery.

Senior lecturer and then promotion to a Readership as well.

Some schools prefer to use senior faculty members when teaching courses. Is this something that you advocate at Swansea University? Yes, we generally use our very best staff to

Your MBA programmes continue to evolve. What motivates you? Initially I wanted the Swansea Executive MBA to be the best

teach on the MBA and Executive MBA, but where we know of people outside the school who have outstanding skills – such as leadership guru Andrew St George - we bring them in as well.

What brought you to Swansea University? First promotion to a

in Wales; three years after its launch I feel I have already achieved this and I now aim to make it one of the best Executive MBA courses in the UK. This can only be achieved by giving the students the very best experience on the course and creating advocates who will spread the word to other potential students. I am motivated by wanting to do better, self-Kaizen if you like.

Swansea University Kindly define Swansea University’s MBA value proposition?

To provide a challenging and outstanding student experience, but at the same time offer the best value for money. We also offer a highly integrated curriculum with a strong emphasis on developing leadership skills. The Swansea Executive MBA is only £9,950 for the full course.

You offer perhaps the most cost-effective MBA programme in the country, whilst still maintaining exceptional quality. How

78 | CEO

The quality and background of the professors charged with teaching and motivating Swansea University’s students is clearly very important. However, what sets Swansea University’s faculty apart from other schools? The School has been re-built by

the Head of School Andy Henley over the last five years, with some outstanding appointments in all areas and levels. All new appointments have great potential and in most cases very high international standing in terms of research. This together with very experienced older members of staff has improved the standing of the department in terms of teaching (lots of new and exciting courses), research (excellent RAE return) and a very dynamic and flexible department.

Given the competitive demands placed upon corporations today, and increasing globalisation — both of which require tomorrow’s business leaders to be flexible and manage workforces and internal structures that cross cultural and

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CEO | 79

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To download a brochure for the course please go to www.swansea.ac.uk/sbe/pgrad/

• The Executive MBA at Swansea University allows you the flexibility to study at weekends (12 per year) and achieve an MBA qualification in only two and half years and still continue your chosen career.

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School of Business and Economics 80 | CEO

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•••

political lines — have you redefined your MBA programmes?

We are always looking to improve the school’s courses, whether at undergraduate or postgraduate level, in the words of Kotler, ‘If you want to succeed in the long run you have to be the best’.

Some General Comments about the course from the five students.

STUDENT 1

Level Of Satisfaction How often do you update your full-time and executive MBA programmes? Every year, both from student feedback, changes in the

world and the use of best practice/new ideas. (Programme was subject to a root and branch redesign in 2005)

Inclusion of activities such as ‘Call of the Wild’ (an outward bounds one day leadership event) was superb. However I have found the content of lectures very demanding (but I expected it to be so). So far the course content has been excellent, and it can be easily and directly related to my work environment.

Student Reflections

Perceived Value

Five current students (from year 1, year 2 and year 3) on the Swansea University Executive MBA programme were interviewed independently about their perceptions and experience of the course. Initially the five students were asked four questions and the results are shown in the following table, these interviews were carried out anonymously.

The diversity of the lecturers and lectures is excellent. Furthermore, the use of internal and external lecturers with extensive real life experiences brings the whole course to life.

Structure

Excellent fit with part-time study, course delivered at weekends, as each module is delivered one at a time you can focus all Student Student Student Student Student Student your attention on one subject.

Questions

1

2

3

4

5

Avg.

What is your level of overall satisfaction with the Executive MBA course on a 1 to 10 scale?

8

8

9

9

7

8.2

What is your overall perceived value of the Executive MBA course on a 1 to 10 scale?

10

8

9

10

8

9.0

Recommend To Others Based on my current experience with the Swansea University executive MBA I would definitely recommend it to any one looking for a high quality Executive MBA STUDENT 2

Strengths Of The Course

The ability to combine full time work with weekend study is a major plus point for the course; furthermore, all of the modules are highly relevant to my work. All the lecturers on the course are all very different and use very different styles and teaching techniques.

How likely are you to recommend 10 10 9 10 7 9.2 Furthermore all the lecturers on the course this Executive MBA course to have extensive real world experience in their other people on a 1 to 10 scale field of expertise. You really feel like you are being taught by experts, I particularly enjoy the group interactions and sharing real world experiences. Detailed feedback is Overall the five students displayed very high levels of average satisfaction also given along with lots of support, if you need it.

What do you think about the structure of the Executive MBA course on a 1 to 10 scale?

7

7

7

and average perceived value with the course. The high perceived value is not surprising as the Swansea University Executive MBA only costs £9,950 for the whole course (this is one of the most cost effective AMBA accredited MBAs in the UK). Interestingly it is the last question on positive word of mouth that shows the highest average of 9.2. All Executive MBA courses rely on positive word of mouth to encourage future students to apply, as it has been found to be the most powerful and believable form of advertising available. The students on the Swansea University Executive MBA therefore must be very happy with the course to display such a high and positive word of mouth effect.

It is also worth mentioning that “ no student on the Executive MBA has failed a course or dropped out of the programme since it was launched in 2006.

”

10

7

7.6

Weakness Of The Course The course moves very quickly over the weekend and you need to concentrate very hard both Saturday and Sunday, the Finance module was very intense but I expected this, as finance is not my area of expertise.

STUDENT 3

Strengths of the course Delivery outside normal working hours Availability of support both online and face-to-face Access to university resources, library, web Excellent coverage of relevant subject areas Opportunity to see things from different perspectives (other student’s real world experiences) Long term view of the timetable, the timetable is set for the whole year before the year starts, all year 1 courses are delivered in weekend two of the month and all year 2 courses are delivered in weekend four of the month

CEO | 81

Easy access to course materials – the University gives us the major core textbooks for each subject four weeks before the subject starts, plus the books are ours to keep forever, building up into an excellent reference library.

Weakness of the course Sometimes it is difficult to manage the work/life/study balance, however the department is always flexible in extreme cases, which is very helpful.

STUDENT 4

Strengths of the course The variety of teaching styles and presentations Working with men and women from a wide variety of backgrounds (public sector, private sector and charity) Teaching staff are always willing to give additional time and support (sometimes one to one sometimes special additional sessions are timetabled). The directors of the course are always available on Friday mornings to talk about assignments, study skills or to solve problems.

Practical application of work to my own work situation Relevance to current trends and financial situations in the World Pushes you to the limits of perceived ability Applies knowledge learnt to real problems

Does accreditation increase the value of one’s MBA in the commercial world? Yes, without a shadow of doubt, accreditation

increases the absolute and perceived value of the course by both students and employers.

Weakness of the course Early starts (8.30am) on a Saturday and Sunday morning Don’t like the mayonnaise in the sandwiches the University provides for lunch

Not all MBA programmes are created equal. Therefore, do you consider accreditation to be the benchmark by which schools should be judged, or at least categorized? Yes, accreditation is

STUDENT 5

Strengths of the course

a key quality kite mark and I would strongly recommend any students looking for an MBA to look for an AMBA accredited school first.

Builds strong relationships with other professions Excellent course structure and course content Great to talk to external lecturers about industry

The Next Chapter

Weakness of the course Early starts (8.30am) on a Saturday and Sunday morning

Programme Selection When is the best time to enroll in an MBA programme? Normally

in late spring or early summer time, but we will consider late application up to early September.

The general MBA is typically shorter in duration when compared to the specialised MBA. However, some say that the specialised MBA can make the graduate more marketable. Do you concur with this? It is often down to the student, many students

want a general course that covers lots of areas and this is the way we have designed the Swansea MBA and Executive MBA

Accreditation Do you feel accreditation is an indicator of quality and do employers use it as a benchmark? Yes accreditation is critical to the standing of the

course and employers actively use it to judge different MBA. The Swansea Executive MBA is the only AMBA accredited course in Wales.

82 | CEO

Moving forward, what can new and existing students expect from Swansea University over the next twelve to eighteen months, in terms of programme innovation? We are always

looking to improve the course and any good ideas will be acted upon very quickly, we regularly meet with the current Executive and full-time students to get feedback. The only negative comment so far on the Executive MBA course is too much mayonnaise in the sandwiches. It is also worth mentioning that no student on the Executive MBA has failed a course or dropped out of the programme since it was launched in 2006.

One area we are trying to introduce is the first Tuesday club where students can meet normally in a restaurant or pub and talk about the course as well as network. The first Tuesday club is run by the students and for the students, and allows students from different years to talk to each other. I think students get about 25% of the value of an MBA from the students they meet on the course, some will become life long friends others very useful sources of knowledge and information. ■

Biography Mark Goode is the Director of the Executive MBA at Swansea University’s School of Business and Economics.

Online EMBA REVIEW

“An interesting development of the downturn is that education proves to be counter-cyclical, i.e. when the economy is not doing well, at least in the short-term, people are understandably worried about job security and are therefore prepared to invest in themselves.�

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The International

MBA » Dr. Muscia talks to Jonathan Calens

It is refreshing that business schools are being “ held accountable for assessment of learning and for

students to be able to demonstrate competencies they have gained in their programs of study.

”

Program Overview Kindly define Arcadia’s MBA value proposition? The value proposition for the

MBA is very consistent with the school’s own value proposition, reflecting the three pillars on which our school stands.

The first one is a global perspective, which permeates all of our courses, with every 84 | CEO

course in our program being taught from that perspective. We also become involved with international speakers and work on international cases within each of the courses.

The second pillar is integrative learning: and that concept enables us to integrate basic theory with practical application. For example, as part of the experienced learning program, we take our students in the MBA program on two, one-week travel experiences: one week is

spent in a developed economy and another in a developing economy so there is an integration of global and actual experiential-type learning; further integration ensures that of all our courses dovetail, and are not merely independent silos of learning.

The third pillar of our program is personal attention. To facilitate this aspect, we maintain relatively small class sizes, with our faculty being highly interactive and accessible to our students. Additionally, because our students are working in a cohort based model and travel and attend class together for the duration of the 22 month program, they tend to bond, become close and work together during the program.

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In other words, if they’re not already using a concept they’ve learned in “ class on Monday, they’ll be using it in a week or two. What they learn is that relevant to today’s world. ” Part-time MBA program can be completed in person or online in 22 months. Which of the aforementioned options is more popular? First, we are relatively new in the

online arena; the online program went live in the fall semester, therefore, it goes without saying that the ground program is a lot more popular at this point.

There is a great deal of competition for the online student. A different type of marketing is required, and we are addressing that currently.

I would remark that online programs seem to be much more popular on the West Coast than here in the East, where there is more of a traditional focus on education. I think that a number of the big schools have been slow to adopt online programs.

Arcadia is considered to be a technology intensive institution. To what extent does this benefit your students? I think that

technology in general is changing the landscape of education. It is, of course, part and parcel of the online programs; but in so far as it concerns our ground-based classes we also use it for support and additional input.

In my opinion, technology permits more selfdirected and more problem-based learning: there is more feedback for students on an individual basis. Although discussion in the classroom tends to be wider, not everyone gets the opportunity to participate on a regular basis. However, the use of technology facilitates greater instructor and class interaction.

It also affords us an opportunity to do more simulations and enhances our ability to set up real world situations for students so they can experience and make decisions and then see the outcome of these decisions.

Allied to the foregoing, it can be seen that technology is requiring new ways of teaching, new ways of thinking, especially on the part

of faculty; with all the available resources out there, faculty are becoming more facilitators of learning, employing more of the Socratic method of leading students to find their own answers, as opposed to being merely presenters of content.

I understand that you try to keep classes quite small. Typically, how many students are there in a class? Our ground students are

kept to a maximum level of 25. Cohorts begin three times a year (fall, spring and summer) and, here again, the maximum is 25 students.

The online classes are kept to a maximum of 18 students. As mentioned earlier, the online is lower but we expect increases moving forward.

Some schools prefer to use senior faculty members when teaching courses. Is this something that you advocate at Arcadia? The quality and background of the professors charged with teaching and motivating Arcadia’s students is clearly very important. However, what sets Arcadia’s faculty apart from other schools? My preference is to employ faculty

that are practitioners. The word senior faculty means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In a traditional university, using senior faculty to teach may mean they are far removed from the real work world. They may have been in education, teaching for the past 30 years, but if they are not staying current in their discipline, if they are not out there consulting and working in the field, they tend to become very academic and lose the ability to relate to what is happening in the work environment.

In looking at faculty, I always check their academic credentials. However, I place greater emphasis on their practitioner and professional qualifications.

Given the current economic climate, do you foresee there being an upswing in the

number of self-funded MBA students?

As I read and look at what is happening in the industry there seems to be an increase in the number of people coming back to school, a recession tends to cause that to happen. However, my MBA program has remained relatively flat and we have not seen an upswing in the numbers yet. I believe this is due to the type of student we get in our program. These are, by and large, students who are on tuition reimbursement programs from their companies. Many companies are cutting back, so we are seeing a lot more people seeking financial aid in order to enter the program. However I anticipate that we will see an increase, as in times of economic decline, investment in self often proves to be the best investment. .

Leadership In this ever-changing economy, what role does leadership play and to what extent is it addressed throughout the program? How do you test the leadership qualities of your students and, ultimately, prepare them for the real world business challenges that lay ahead? I think it is part of the assessment

process. In talking about the measurement of learning we pay careful attention to the development of assessment plans, so that when we lay out our programs and course objectives, we put specific tools in place to measure progress in those areas. Again, there are a variety of assessment tools and techniques that instructors use within their own courses.

Looking at the courses that I teach personally: there are two experiential travel courses, where students do an industry analysis of each of the countries they visit from the perspective of the industry they are working in or have an interest in.

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I would remark that online programs seem to be much more popular on “ the West Coast than here in the East, where there is more of a traditional focus on education. I think that a number of the big schools have been slow to adopt online programs.

”

We are also examining a partnership with one of our chambers of commerce whereby the students that are in our leadership and entrepreneurship concentrations will work with the community itself, thus obtaining actual hands-on experience in the real world. It will be somewhat akin to an internship program but with more of a consultative approach.

Accreditation Do you feel accreditation is an indicator of quality and do employers use it as a benchmark? Accrediting

organizations are important to ensure quality and consistency in business programs throughout the world. It is refreshing that business schools are being held accountable for assessment of learning and for students to be able to demonstrate competencies they have gained in their programs of study.

Arcadia University is accredited by the Middle States Commission of Higher Education, and our undergraduate business program is accredited by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). We are in the process or completing the ACBSP documentation for our new MBA program.

My concern with business school accreditation is the overall emphasis on research and publishing, and the requirement for academically, rather than professionally qualified professors. Our emphasis is on practical application and so we are more interested in working professionals who can “talk the walk” in the classroom.

Arcadia professors are highly experienced business professionals with strong work backgrounds in the areas in which they teach.

Does accreditation increase the value of one’s MBA in the commercial

86 | CEO

world? It is difficult to answer this question because my personal experience has been that only the top tier schools seem to make a difference in hiring in the business world.

I think the reality is that name recognition of the school is actually more important than accreditation. Recognized schools open more doors, but the reality is that in the commercial world it boils down to how one uses the learning he or she has acquired.

Program Selection When is the best time to enroll in an MBA program? The old adage that ‘the best

time is the best available time’ is never truer.

Experience has taught that an investment in education provides the best ROI of any of the investments out there. It is always better to invest in your self than it is to take the money and invest it in something else. What I tell my students is that the decision to further one’s career is part of what we teach in terms of having an organization that interacts and adapts moving forward. The principle is enhanced by offering an academic program that enables the student to think critically and develop communication skills and problem solving ability, thus putting himself on a path for continuous improvement.

The general MBA is typically shorter in duration when compared to the specialized MBA. However, some say that the specialized MBA can make the graduate more marketable.

Do you concur with this? I find that in the

international arena it is almost a given that the student chooses a specialized MBA; especially in Asia where they are mostly looking at specialized MBA programs.

We consider our program to be specialized because of the international element. Therefore, within our basic program we consider that we

already have a focus or specialization. However, within the last year, effective this spring, we have decided to add MBA concentrations and certificate programs in five different areas to increase marketability.

International Business Given the competitive demands placed upon corporations today, and increasing globalization — both of which require tomorrow’s business leaders to be flexible and manage workforces and internal structures that cross cultural and political lines — have you redefined your MBA program? Given

that we try to recruit practitioners who develop their lesson plans from events in the real world, I think you can safely say that our program is constantly changing.

Clearly, the finance arena is changing. I think there is more emphasis today on social responsibility and ethics, sustainable development and the environment, and we weave those factors into the course work.

Students have the opportunity to experience both developed and developing economies firsthand through the Arcadia M.B.A. with an International Perspective, which is somewhat refreshing. What prompted you to incorporate this feature? Our advantage lies

in the fact that our MBA program is relatively new; we are just now moving into our fourth year. So we had a golden opportunity to look at the competitive landscape, see what was on offer, what would make us unique, and design the program accordingly.

We are a small university in a highly competitive market place, so we search for things that will give us competitive advantage in the market place. As mentioned

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previously, one of our major pillars is that we are an international school and as such have been rated number one in the nation for international experience.

In keeping with that reputation, and maintaining our emphasis on internationalism, we adhere to the principle that we should not merely examine developed economies, but emerging ones as well.

Looking Ahead What can new and existing students expect from Arcadia, in terms of program

innovations, over the next 12 to 18 months? I think of the future as an evolving

process. I do not foresee any major changes within the program itself, but rather major changes within the courses. We will continue to do the two international trips; still do the basic format, but the major change overall will be increased integration of technology, and blended learning.

Another ongoing challenge is maintaining the search for the ’right faculty’. I look at faculty in two ways, one as a presenter of content; the content expert who is going to lecture, and then I look at the other extreme, the person who is more of a Socratic method instructor whose

mission is to lead discussion and facilitate learning development in others. ■ Biography Dr. Tony Muscia is the Executive Director of Arcadia’s MBA with an International Perspective. He earned his doctorate from Nova Southeastern University, his MBA from Western International University, and both his M.A. in Psychology and B.A. in Journalism/ Advertising from Duquesne University. Dr. Muscia has more than 30 years of corporate experience in senior management positions, and he has owned and operated several small business ventures.

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Technology and Business

Working Hand-in-Hand » Norman Wilkinson talks to Debbie Moss

Students really need to do their own research and not rely on U.S. News and some “of those other rankings because they’re just defining what their top 10 would be. ” Introduction Given the investment of both time and money from the employee and, in some cases, the employer, what makes the online MBA such a hot ticket? Because an MBA is such a broad-based degree

program, it gives you a lot of career flexibility, which is why it’s the most popular graduate credential. In terms of the online MBA, it gives added flexibility – particularly in a tough economy. There’s certainly a need to keep yourself competitive, to upgrade your skill sets. What the online program gives you that an on campus program can’t is freedom from the time and place constraints that come with the on campus program. Rather than having to rush out of the office at 5:00 to make it to campus on time or trying to schedule your business trips around a class schedule, the online program fits your schedule. It’s the added degree of flexibility.

One of the beauties of WPI is that our program is the same on campus as it is online; the delivery method is the only thing that changes. So, our students have the luxury of mixing and matching, they can take some classes online and some on campus or all one way. It really varies semester to semester.

Kindly define the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Technology MBA value proposition. Technology is driving business.

To be an effective leader you need to understand how to use technology and how to use it as a tool to move your organization forward. At WPI you’re getting a business toolset that is geared towards a technologydriven environment. You learn how to manage as well as how to integrate technology in order to become a more effective leader.

It’s hard to think of an industry that’s not impacted by technology to some extent. The integration of business and technology is what 88 | CEO

separates WPI from the competition. Ultimately, it’s what gives our students that added value in the marketplace.

You’ve enjoyed a great deal of success with your Technology MBA. Do you attribute this to the quality and background of your professors? That certainly is a large part of it. The majority

of our faculty, in line with our folks at the business school, come from technical backgrounds prior to entering their doctoral area of expertise. We have professors with technology management backgrounds. We also have our Fulbright fellows, internationally renowned experts in everything from data quality to supply chain management. What really makes WPI different is the success our faculty, their hands-on approach and how much they care about the success of our students.

With respect to WPI’s Technology MBA, what sort of experience do potential applicants need to have? We’re not looking for any

particular undergraduate background, though about 80 percent are science and engineering undergrad majors before they commence their MBA. We’re certainly looking for a strong academic background, but not a particular major or industry. It’s about quality not quantity, especially when it comes to work experience. Our average part-time student has about eight years of professional work experience before they come to us. A lot of the value you derive from a graduate program is based upon whom you share the classroom with. The backgrounds of our students are second to none.

You offer an online MBA option in addition to your on campus MBA. How do the aforementioned programs differ, in terms of curriculum, cost and time? The key point of differentiation here is

that you’re not an online MBA student or an on campus MBA student, you’re a WPI student when you’re in the program. The delivery method

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is the only thing that changes; it’s the same curriculum, the same faculty, the same expectations, and the same admissions standards. It’s actually fairly rare that an MBA student graduates from WPI without having taken at least one online course at some point in the program. A lot of our part time students are in fairly senior positions, consequently, sometimes, it can be hard to get to campus more than once a week.

Therefore, they’ll take one class on campus and the second one online.

Sometimes there are two classes you want to take and they both meet at the same time. You can get around that by doing one class on campus and the other online.

So, having an employer and a job “ to believe in and feel good about are factors in the employment decisionmaking process.

”

The marriage of online study and technology seems to be a perfect match. Are you surprised that other schools have not followed in the footsteps of WPI? The technology MBA niche is one

one of the best in the world – actually the third oldest in the U.S. So it wouldn’t really make sense for a school like WPI to put out another generic MBA, particularly in the market we operate in – the greater Boston market, which is probably the most saturated MBA market in America. The technology niche is something we’ve really focused on and really stuck to.

a number of schools have tried to jump into, some more successfully than others. I think the reason WPI is successful is because we’re not trying to be all things to all people. We’re a technological university,

We have a very strong academic technology center that assists in the delivery of our programs. We have instructional designers and other CEO | 89

Certainly the reason that most top MBA programs, WPI included, have “ a strong preference for work experience is because it’s really a two-way

street. The students get more out of a program if they have prior work experience because it provides them with a frame of reference within which to put the concepts they’re discussing in the classroom

”

professionals that really help to create a well-constructed, seamless program. On the flip side people don’t come to WPI to study accounting, so we know our strengths.

Given the current economic climate, do you foresee there being an upswing in the number of self-funded MBA students attending WPI? We haven’t seen a big cutback in terms of employer

tuition benefits, at least for our students. But, we have heard from a few students that there’s a little less room to negotiate in terms of how much the company is willing to reimburse. Often grad students, because they tend to be on a fast track with their employers, are able to negotiate outside of the boundaries of the written policy with respect to how much the company will reimburse for tuition. But we haven’t seen companies wholesaling or cutting their tuition benefit.

That said, given the downturn in the economy, it’s even more important for students to retool and keep themselves current, and that’s what a graduate program does. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see more students paying a larger chunk of their tuition fees.

To what extent does WPI’s Career Development Center assist new and existing students? Our Career Development Center is

superb. It’s a comprehensive, full-service center, and not just for new and existing students, it’s also for alumni. Everything from resume building to interview skills and salary negotiation workshops are covered, it’s full-service, very hands on. Our students engage with them from day one at the orientation. It’s really a cradle to grave relationship.

The Growth and Quality of Online MBA Programs

preference for work experience is because it’s really a two-way street. The students get more out of a program if they have prior work experience because it provides them with a frame of reference within which to put the concepts they’re discussing in the classroom. Also, it allows them to add more to the classroom discussions. I think the old days of requiring three to five years experience have somewhat gone by the wayside. If you look at the surveys of employers with MBA students, communication skills sit at the top of the list.

I think part of it’s reflective of what’s going on in the world today. Your average 21 or 22-year old college grad has more life experience than in the old days. I know a lot of our students have run their own businesses as undergraduates and have done overseas internships, picking up some of the professional, global experience that employers and business schools are impressed by. I think there are a number of reasons why we’re seeing business schools less averse to taking younger applicants.

Is the learning experience of more qualified students adversely affected by the aforementioned development? We haven’t heard

complaints from our older students about younger classmates, primarily because of the quality of their experience. A lot of the younger students are international students who come from family-owned businesses.

Everybody here at WPI has a legitimate reason for being here and a reason they were admitted. Everyone really has something to offer.

Unfortunately, not all programs are created equal. Therefore, program selection is incredibly important. What do potential students need to consider when identifying, assessing and selecting a program provider? Students really need to do their own

programs. I think with some of the lower quality programs the return doesn’t justify the investment of time and money. We may see some of those disappearing. We’ve seen schools jump into the online market and then pull out when they realize it isn’t a quick moneymaker.

research and not rely on U.S. News and some of those other rankings because they’re just defining what their top 10 would be. Fortunately there’s plenty of information available to prospective students. One area to look at is the program’s strengths. You can gauge that by faculty research areas and elective offerings in the program. What students are often advised to do is look at which employers actively recruit at their school, which employers have that school on their T-School list for recruiting purposes, what kind of jobs do graduates leave with and what kind of access do they have to the alumni network.

Given the number of programs it’s even more important for the student to differentiate between the different levels of quality and what impact the credential will have. While there are a lot of programs out there, there will always be a market for the top ones and maybe even room for a few more top quality schools.

Also, again, it’s important to consider the students you’re sharing the classroom with. With most high quality MBA programs you’re doing a lot of project work, a lot of teamwork, so it’s an important consideration.

You build your own top 10 based on that kind of research rather than relying on the plethora of rankings out there.

The level of work experience required by many schools seems to be in decline. While this may boost enrollment, what impact does this have on the quality of one’s program? Certainly the

Accreditation

The number of schools offering online MBA programs has grown exponentially over the last six years. Has the market reached saturation point? I think there will always be a market for top quality

reason that most top MBA programs, WPI included, have a strong 90 | CEO

What does accreditation mean to WPI? As a university we pride ourselves on having the highest level of accreditation for all of our

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programs on campus. So, it’s important. We’re always in continuous improvement mode, but in terms of AACSB accreditation for the business school, it’s a quality benchmark that gives potential students a yardstick by which to sort prospective programs. I know some companies will only reimburse for schools that are AACSB-accredited. Some overseas governments that fund graduate education (e.g. Singapore) will only fund students going to AACSB-accredited schools. It’s important for a number of those reasons, as well as access to different industry relationships we forge.

Does accreditation increase the value of one’s MBA in the commercial world? Yes…absolutely. There are so many schools out

there. If you look at the number of schools on the planet granting MBAs, only about four percent are accredited by the AACSB. Particularly in the non-academic world, you can’t expect everybody to have heard of every university that’s out there, yet just because somebody hasn’t heard of it doesn’t mean it’s not high quality. I know that at WPI we don’t have the name recognition we’d like and certainly not recognition that’s commensurate with the quality of the university. It’s sort of an outside testament to the quality of the program and the university.

Ethics and Social Responsibility According to a number of recent studies, future business leaders rank corporate social responsibility high on their list of values.

WPI’s technology intensive MBA is second to none. However, to what extent does business conduct factor into your curriculum?

It’s a key part. We have a number of underlying themes that flow throughout the curriculum. For example, ethics along with things like social responsibility, global perspective and communication skills – these are all themes that flow throughout the program. The basic financial accounting course focuses on ethical matters like Sarbanes-Oxley, for example. So, it’s a recurrent theme and a big part of the program. It’s a big part of what students are looking for, especially now after some of the scandals we’ve seen and after watching what’s happening to Wall Street.

What steps have you taken in order to forge alliances with socially responsible firms? When I saw this question, it reminded

me of a survey that came out recently. It was on this website, where they listed top socially responsible companies. Many of the companies recruit heavily from WPI. One of the things about WPI’s curriculum is that the foundations of this university are learning and practice. So, it’s a very application-oriented university and, as such, heavily project-based. Our MBAs, for example, have what we call our Graduate Qualifying Project, which is a hands-on project they go off and do in their industry as an application of the skill set they’ve developed throughout the program. We have students doing projects for these companies all the time. In addition, these companies send us a lot of their employees as part-time students and hire a significant number of our fulltime and part-time graduates.

Do you feel that today’s graduating MBA student is more likely to take a reduction in salary in order to work with an employer that shares their values, in terms of corporate responsibility? Quality of

tend to be a bit older than the average MBA student (e.g. 31 years old).

These are people who are at a point in their lives where they have to like what they do to get up every morning. So, having an employer and a job to believe in and feel good about are factors in the employment decision-making process.

Regarding our nation’s current financial crisis, the topic certainly seems worthy of classroom discussion/application in any MBA program. Is the curriculum at WPI flexible enough to adapt the course work accordingly? Absolutely. Both our curriculum and

faculty are very nimble here because our student make up is about 75 percent part-time. Our students are practicing managers who are bringing their real world issues into the classroom at night and looking for solutions they can take back and apply the next morning. It’s very real-world based. Whatever is going on in the news – like the current financial crisis – becomes very much a part of the classroom.

Looking to the Future What impact, if any, do you believe the current financial crisis will have on the popularity of online programs? There’s

always a need for people to retool and put themselves ahead of the competition, which is a big part of why people come back for an MBA or any kind of graduate degree. I think where the online element fits in with that is it gives them access to schools outside of the national geographic area, and it also gives them the flexibility to fit graduate school around their commitments, both professional and personal. That’s also the reason why a lot of our online students are a bit older than our on-campus students, because they do have other commitments that just don’t allow them to come to campus at a given time every week. I think the added flexibility is important, particularly in a challenging economy where people don’t enjoy the same level of security with their jobs.

In terms of program innovations, what can students expect from WPI’s Technology MBA over the next 12 to 18 months?

Innovation is really the key to American business. We’re seeing a lot of manufacturing being off-shored, but what isn’t going away is our leadership in terms of innovation. We’re revamping our curriculum to focus even more on technology-based innovation and entrepreneurship, while addressing the big questions facing business, such as social responsibility, sustainability, globalization, etc. Just as our students are always adding to their skill sets, business schools also need to be in continuous improvement mode.

That’s always the case here. Even though we’ve always received accolades for our curriculum, it’s always a work in progress to some extent. But, never forgetting the core principles: integration of business and technology in combination with ethics, globalization and communication skills. Things are always shaking here, but fortunately always for the better. ■

Biography Norman Wilkinson is the Director of Graduate Management Programs for Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

life has always been important, and maybe it’s the fact that our students CEO | 91

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92 | CEO

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Cultivating Entrepreneurs » Kim Donaldson talks to Jonathan Calens Program Overview Kindly define Grand Canyon University’s (GCU’s) MBA value proposition? Our value proposition is based on three pillars. The

first relates to leadership: in particular, our brand of leadership; we call it servant leadership, sometimes referred to as egoless leadership. It’s aligned to the Ken Blanchard philosophy that successful leaders are those who serve their constituents. Many MBA courses do not make leadership a centerpiece of their program but we do.

The relationship with Ken Blanchard and his name adds credence, and students are very attracted conceptually to the underlying theme that organizations could be more successful by adopting the principles inherent in servant leadership.

Our second pillar concerns innovation and creativity. In looking at the 21st century, successful organizations will be those that can continue to

innovate and come up with new ideas and market them successfully. As a corollary we do not believe that you can separate leadership from the importance of creativity and an innovative mindset. Accordingly we devote time to addressing these issues.

Our third pillar which is related to the other two, is the concept of entrepreneurilism, which can be defined as entrepreneurship in large organizations, startups or relatively new businesses. Its also linked to innovation, but really entrepreneurship is more an aptitude for risk taking; an ability to link good business decisions, stay agile, employ best practice, and ensure these precepts are not lost as a business grows larger and becomes more bureaucratic. In this connection we have created a complete program in entrepreneurship at undergraduate level.

Let us now turn our attention to the online sector; here, part of the value proposition is our reach. We see it as serving the community: providing education to those who would not be able to avail themselves of higher CEO | 93

An interesting development of the downturn is that education proves to be “ counter-cyclical, i.e. when the economy is not doing well, at least in the shortterm, people are understandably worried about job security and are therefore prepared to invest in themselves.

”

education in a traditional way. A large cross section of people would not have this opportunity if we did not provide the technology and platform to complete university degrees at home 24/7at their convenience.

The Ken Blanchard EMBA has adopted a unique crossfunctional learning approach. Kindly explain. The Ken Blanchard

EMBA has been designed specifically to address cross functionality.

The best way of explaining the concept is to think of it as an “outside to in” rather than an “inside out” perspective. Our goal was the creation of a program that looks at the world through the eyes of a business leader. In other words it is not segment oriented, but rather it focuses on looking at ‘the big picture,’ i.e., the stakeholders, and examining ways to keep customers loyal, and have them choose your organization over the entire field.

From an employee point of view -our second stakeholder group- the question asked is, ‘How do we attract and keep the best talent and make them excited to come to work every day?’

Turning now to the shareholder, of paramount importance, the equation is quite complex, as he must believe in the organization before investing. Neither must the importance of the community be understated: there can be no long-term success unless the business is in harmony with it, rather than enduring prolonged conflict, which would clearly drain resources and impinge on long term sustainability.

At the same time as taking the courses that are focused on the stakeholder, students are studying the leadership framework, leading self, leading others and leading organizations. This creative and unique “outside in” approach has proven to be a hit with the students, and the feedback is phenomenal.

GCU is considered to be a technology intensive institution.

To what extent has this benefited your students? Whilst

both our ground and online student bodies are growing, the online is growing much faster. It is mandatory to serve this sector well and we need hardly state that it is critical that we maintain continuity without technical problems.

Two years ago we changed to a new platform designed to provide greater capacity. Additionally, over the last three months we have established a multimedia department, allowing the integration of multimedia capability into the courses. This innovation appeals to a wide range of learning aptitudes.

The most difficult concept in a given week would have some element of multimedia added in. This feature also has the ability to stop the student when an element proves unclear, directing him back to that 94 | CEO

part of the lecture or module which needs to be reviewed again in order to fully understand the principles involved.

Our medium term goal is to enhance all of our existing courses, and new courses from the outset with this type of multimedia. The students prefer it as they think it’s so much better than sitting and reading which tends to be quite unexciting.

Some schools prefer to use senior faculty members when teaching courses. Is this something that you advocate at GCU? In the business

college two things are important to us. One is academic preparation and credentials but we also wish to attract people who have either corporate or business consulting experience: therefore, when we recruit, we look at both sides of the equation. However in order to maintain balance we also recruit young faculty, who tend to be more research orientated. The ultimate goal is to expose students to faculty who can really draw on the real world.

As it happens, we have a relatively small fulltime faculty, because most of our students are online and so we complement that with a group of adjunct faculty.

Notwithstanding, the fulltime professor really adds value. Obviously they are excellent teachers, and we always ensure that they teach our critical core courses. We believe fundamentals are the intrinsic part of a program and if the student does not acquire them, he struggles in the more advanced courses: for example, when you start to get into your emphasis areas. And so our fulltime faculty is focused on those core courses at both undergrad and graduate level. It is noticeable that students perform much better on this regimen.

The quality and background of the professors charged with teaching and motivating GCU’s students is clearly very important. However, what sets GCU’s faculty apart from other schools? The fulltime faculty has oversight responsibility for the quality

of the content in the subject matter area of the courses they teach, which mostly relates to ground, but I also ask them to teach online so that they understand that aspect as well.

The professors also interface with adjunct faculty periodically to ensure all is going to plan, thus further enhancing the value brought to our system by the full time professor.

Given the current economic climate, do you foresee there being an upswing in the number of self-funded MBA students? Most

of the time the process is driven by the student who finds out about our program and approaches his employer for whatever support he may wish to offer. So traditionally in an EMBA you’ll find one third funded by employers, a third part-funded and the remaining third self-funded.

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However, this trend appears to be changing, as more and more students appear to be self-funding.

An interesting development of the downturn is that education proves to be counter-cyclical, i.e. when the economy is not doing well, at least in the short-term, people are understandably worried about job security and are therefore prepared to invest in themselves. Naturally educational institutions are not recession proof, if recession deepens significantly people may even stop going to school.

In our case, with our very professional structure, we find that employers trust us, and this in turn helps us to help people have better careers and better lives.

Accreditation Do you feel accreditation is an indicator of quality and do employers use it as a benchmark? I do believe in accreditation, it holds the school to

certain standards, and prospective students enquire about it.

We are accredited by the ACBSP, who review our existing and new programs. In this era where the whole paradigm is changing in education and we are developing new programs all the time, it keeps us focused, making certain that core competencies are covered. Parents and students alike express satisfaction that standards are set, monitored and adhered to.

Program Selection When is the best time to enroll in an MBA program? The MBA by

definition is a generalized degree. It was originally devised for people who did not have an undergraduate degree in business but who decided they needed some business skills, after working for a while. It’s not a building block degree; it’s also open to people who have undergraduate degrees in a wide range of subjects other than business, which makes it interesting.

We have seen over the last 15 years more undergrads in business applying for MBAs. Sometimes they work for five years; sometimes they come straight in from a business degree. Consequently, many business schools are scrapping the five-year requirement, giving rise to a lot of duality. A student who does not have a business degree but is progressing through his organization may seek to return to obtain the requisite business skills, and since the MBA is at a higher, more strategic level it’s perfect for that purpose.

Our own MBA is built on two entry points. One for the non-business undergrad, which offers fundamentals and basics- the second is for the business undergrad who has the required GPA and is accepted into the regular program; this group is more likely to go on and do an emphasis area. We are also in the process of offering a postgraduate certificate, which allows an MBA to return and do an emphasis area after the fact.

saturation point? The short answer is no. Put simply, demographics are in our favour. There are many tens of thousands of people who left school early and realize they are not progressing their careers to any significant degree, if at all. Then there are those unable to obtain a leave of absence to return to school. The challenge is, as always, ‘who is going to get those students.’

International Business Given the competitive demands placed upon corporations today, and increasing globalization - both of which require tomorrow’s business leaders to be flexible and manage workforces and internal structures that cross cultural and political lines - have you redefined your MBA program? We

are continually looking at and reviewing our programs. As mentioned earlier, we launched a BS degree in entrepreneurial studies. We have also launched a sports management emphasis area in our undergraduate program aimed at the surprisingly large number of students interested in industries related to sports.

However, as I have emphasized earlier, there must be balance. You must balance innovation and stay on the leading edge; you do not wish for there to be a great deal of churn, not to the extent that it seems that nothing ever stays the same: an element of stability is also needed, so we have a more formal process, where our programs come up for intensive review.

We also have focus groups with business community leaders, alumni and graduated students coming in to discuss the effectiveness or otherwise of programs with a view to improvements if needed.

The Future What can new and existing students expect from GCU, in terms of program innovations, over the next 12 to 18 months? I think

of ourselves as the school that will get the quality and academic rigour right in the online environment, and that’s key. The old paradigm that has to be either low-cost or high quality can be cast out. You can have quantity and build for scale without necessarily sacrificing quality: that’s the direction in which we will be moving.

It’s also important to grow our ground college as well, as it is the centerpiece that attracts the online student. Although at first glance they seem very different, from our side of the fence, they are mutually complimentary.

Finally, I see us enhancing our reputation as a high quality, extensive reach school at the college level, with emphasis on ethics values, servant leadership and the cross functionality approach to our curriculum. ■

Quality vs. Quantity The number of schools offering online MBA programs has grown exponentially over the last six years. Has the market reached

Biography Kim Donaldson is the Dean of the Ken Blanchard College of Business and the College of Entrepreneurship.

CEO | 95

List of Contributors

A

Arcadia University

C

Citigroup

E

EMBA World ESCP- EAP European School of Management

G

Grand Canyon University

H

Harvard HEC

96 | CEO

Helsinki School of Economics

I

INSEAD

K

Kent State University

N

Nottingham University Business School Nova Southeastern University

Q

Queens University of Charlotte: McColl

R

Robert Gordon University: Aberdeen

University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler University of San Francisco

S

W

Swansea University

U

UBS UCLA: Anderson Union Bank of California University of Connecticut University of Exeter Business School University of Indianapolis University of Kent University of Louisville

Wells Fargo Worcester Polytechnic Institute