ALUMNI SUCCESSES

Emory University
The Executive MBA class of 2003 at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School raised funds to support a pre-business boot camp for students who otherwise would not experience such an opportunity.

Alumni Sarah C. O’Brien, CFO of Kodak Dental Systems in Atlanta, along with a committee of six classmates, including Lou Cataland, Kenneth Poinsette, and Jim Lester, started fund raising when Andrea Hershatter, associate dean and director of the BBA at Emory, suggested the idea.

The plan struck a chord with the executives, and now, the Executive MBA alumni are mentoring prospective Emory students on business concepts and careers, in an effort to make studying business a more accessible path for students who need additional support in reaching their professional goals.

“In the business school, there is the idea of an interdependent community,” says Hershatter. “Even younger alums—those not yet in the position to donate large sums—can find ways to add significant value to the school. We see it when alumni help other Goizueta graduates secure positions in their firms. Many of our alumni are very invested in Goizueta’s continued success and want to help bring along the next generation.”

University of Houston
Jill Finke, 2007 graduate of the Executive MBA Program at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business, received the 2008 Leadership Award from the Western Group Ambulatory Surgery Division of HCA Health Care, the first time a first-year administrator has earned the award. Finke started her new position at HCA shortly before graduation. Her achievements include beating projected earnings and retaining valued employees even as a competitor entered the market one block away.

University of Virginia
The McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia established a new alumni outreach program especially for graduates of the management of technology master’s degree program.

“It’s really important that we build relationships with our graduate alumni,” says Nicole Fitzwater, the school’s first-ever director of graduate alumni development. “Doing so will help our grads to stay connected with one another and with McIntire, as well as creating lifelong learning opportunities.”

Lifelong learning is an important component of alumni outreach, says Fitzwater. Faculty members are selecting readings for alumni, which are posted in a blog format that allows alumni to discuss them.

In addition, the school has hosted 18 alumni events for more than 550 participants. In summer 2008, events included family picnics, lunches, wine tastings, golf clinics, and happy hours. In fall, a football tailgate event raised more than $5,000 for the school’s annual fund.

Events also are taking place regularly in Charlottesville, Richmond, Northern Virginia, and Washington. Future alumni events are planned in Atlanta, Boston, New York, and Charlotte.

GLOBAL EFFORTS

Jacksonville University
The Executive MBA Program at Jacksonville University includes a global business experience that involves an international trip. The trip offers students experience with conducting business and managing organizations around the world, including exposure to the social, political, historical, and other environmental elements that influence the decision-making process, business functions, and the leadership styles at a variety of global organizations.
 
During summer 2008, the Executive MBA class traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to visit leading organizations that included Ulster Bank Group, Dublin Port Company, Microsoft Ireland, The Ogilvy Group, O’Briens Irish Sandwich Bars, Lee Overlay Partners, and Irish Distillers.  Both professors and students reported very positive feedback on the value of the trip. 

NYU
In spring 2008, first-year NYU Stern Executive MBA students stepped off campus and into South America to expand their global business acumen and cultural perspectives.

Students traveled to Argentina and Brazil as part of a Global Study Tour (GST) course, which Anat Lechner, clinical associate professor of management and organizations, taught. Required in each year of the program, GST courses reflect the curriculum’s global perspective on business. The course culminates in a one-week trip abroad where students meet with leaders of industry, financial institutions, and government organizations. Past destinations include Chile, China, India, Russia, and Turkey, among others.

During the Argentina trip, students visited BOVESPA, the São Paulo Stock Exchange – the only stock trading center in Brazil and Latin America’s largest stock exchange – and discussed the exchange’s transformation into an electronic marketplace. They also met with leaders from The Votorantim Group, one of the largest private industrial conglomerates in Latin America, and from Tenaris, a global tube supplier for the energy industry, to learn about the latest in biofuels. Students also spoke with representatives of the Central Bank of Argentina about the socioeconomic issues that face South America.

After studying Brazil and Argentina’s economic, political, and social characteristics in class, many of the students found the visit to be an eye-opening experience. First-year Executive MBA student and stem-cell biologist Dr. Raj Chadalavada (MBA ’09) explained: “We talk about inflation every day in America and how it’s topping out at 5 percent, but then you go to Buenos Aires, where they’re facing 25 percent inflation, and it really puts your life into perspective.”

University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Executive MBA recently launched its International Study capstone course for the class of 2009.  

During the final nine months of the 20-month program, the class will work in small groups on consulting projects for organizations with operations in China.  For their final exam, students will travel to China in spring 2009 to present their findings to the senior executives of their client partner organizations and to participate in an outstanding immersion experience.  The International Study course faculty members are also the executive and associate directors of Illinois Business Consulting, the student consulting organization of the Illinois College of Business.  
 
This year’s clients include large global corporations – most with headquarters in Illinois – a Chinese financial exchange and several Asian-based startups.  Many client partner organizations have returned for their third or fourth project with Illinois Executive MBA students.  One new client is a Beijing-based company that is owned by an alumnus, who was inspired to move to China after completing his Executive MBA.  
 
Examples of recent projects include:

• Recommending an organizational structure for a U.S. company’s planned China operations
  
  
• Assessing the feasibility of a branded used equipment market in China
  
  
• Developing a strategy for an Asian-based startup to enter the U.S. market
  
  
• Recommending the Eurasian country in which the company should build its next factory
  
  
• Researching anticipated safety/emissions standards in different countries and recommending target production standards
  
  
• Evaluating the projected competitive market in Australia for a key product produced in China

MILESTONES

Boise State University
Boise State University celebrated the graduation of the first class of its two-year Executive MBA Program in May 2008.

This outstanding group of 25 Northwest business leaders left a lasting impact on the university and community with their following contributions:

• Inspired by the Executive MBA faculty “call to leadership” throughout the program and hoping to leave a legacy of giving, the class established and funded the Executive MBA Class of 2008 Endowed Scholarship as a class gift.
  
  
• More than 60 percent of class members already have received promotions or job advancements since beginning the program.
  
  
• Several Treasure Valley-based companies are already considering or implementing Executive MBA student capstone projects. For example: The Idaho Youth Ranch’s fund-raising arm, The IYR Thrift Shop, is starting to implement the business model of one Executive MBA team.  The Idaho Youth Ranch is expanding with the sale of donated items on amazon.com. (http://www.youthranch.org/).
  
  
• Local business leader, Mark Rivers, was so inspired after witnessing several Executive MBA teams’ visions for a high-tech incubator, that he, along with the help of Executive MBA students, opened the Water Cooler in downtown Boise, Idaho.

Cornell University
Rachel Shelton has joined the Executive Programs’ team at Cornell University as assistant director for admissions and marketing.

Shelton worked as a television producer for major networks, as well as a consultant with Towers-Perrin, and with private clients on graduate school admissions.  She received her MBA from the Wharton School.  Shelton will be based in the New York metro region and will work with both the Cornell Executive MBA and the Cornell-Queen’s Executive MBA Programs.

Georgia State University
Maury Kalnitz, former managing director of the Executive MBA Council, will serve as director of the latest offering of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University – the Executive Doctorate in Business.

With classes set to begin in fall 2009, Robinson's Executive Doctorate is one of only a few such programs in the world. Unlike other doctoral programs, the Executive Doctorate is targeted at senior executives with an MBA or other advanced degree who are working full time, and want to bring the knowledge that they gain to bear on problems and issues within their organization.  The program is designed to enable executives to understand the research process and to apply research in solving actual business problems.

Comprising three years of academic work, the executive format program will include once-a-month residencies in Atlanta, running from Thursday through Saturday. Robinson's Executive Doctorate in Business will provide its graduates with the knowledge and acumen needed to identify, understand, and tackle the complex and interdisciplinary issues that characterize current and emerging global management. The degree curriculum is composed of course-based activities and research projects, with an increasing focus on the latter as students progress through the program, culminating in writing and defending a thesis.

Lars Mathiassen, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, professor of computer information systems at Robinson, and co-founder of its Center for Process Innovation, will serve as academic director. Throughout his career, Mathiassen has frequently collaborated with industry on research to develop and improve information services, business processes, and organizational change initiatives. Kalnitz is a graduate of Robinson's Executive MBA Program as well as its former director.

"Lars and Maury are uniquely qualified to develop and deliver an executive doctorate program that is equal parts rigor and relevance," says H. Fenwick Huss, dean of Robinson College. "By combining Maury's understanding of executive education with Lars' experience applying academic research methodology to contemporary business problems, we will provide a program that will benefit both our students and the companies with whom they work."

IESE
IESE Business School noted the following milestones:

• The school is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, with an array of academic conferences and events. The school began in 1957, when it offered its first executive education program for senior managers at a time when the concept of executive education was scarcely known outside of the U.S. IESE launched the MBA Program in 1964, under the guidance of Harvard Business School. The Harvard-IESE Committee continues to meet annually to discuss matters of mutual interest and relevance. In 1993, in response to a rapidly globalizing environment, IESE began forging joint programs with a number of top U.S. business schools such as HBS, Stanford, MIT Sloan School of Management, and the University of Michigan. In addition to its portfolio of MBA Programs, IESE offers a Ph.D. in management and a wide range of executive education programs.
  
  
• IESE has expanded its well-established Global Executive MBA Program by offering a new monthly version for working executives. The program integrates the latest distance learning technology with residential modules in Barcelona, Madrid, India, and New York –17 residential weeks in 22 months. In between modules, they remain connected with faculty members and other participants. The program also includes company visits, guest speakers, and networking events.
  
  
• Driven by the strength of its existing relationships in the U.S., IESE now has a permanent office in New York.  
  
  
• Membership in the IESE Alumni Association has reached more than 31,000, including alumni in 104 countries and 29 alumni chapters. The association supports networking through continuous education programs, regional chapter meetings, and annual global alumni reunions. It also assists IESE in its goals of helping companies better serve people and society, delivering educational initiatives by encouraging the development of management research and teaching, and increasing awareness of IESE and its activities.

Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management announced the following appointments.

• Larry W. Cox joins the faculty as associate professor of entrepreneurship. He previously served as director of the nationally recognized Entrepreneurship Center at Ball State University's Miller College of Business. Under his leadership, the Entrepreneurship Center established a new venture generation program, the Nascent 500 Business Plan Challenge, and an entrepreneurship apprenticeship program, among many other innovations. Cox received his Ph.D., M.A., and B.S. degrees from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
  
  
• Kevin Groves joins the faculty as associate professor of organizational theory. Previously, he served as an assistant management professor at California State University, Los Angeles, and director of the PepsiCo Leadership Center. He is actively involved in a range of empirical research projects that address leadership and organizational behavior topics, including charismatic/transformational leadership, leadership competencies, emotional intelligence, managerial thinking styles, executive development, and succession planning. Groves received both his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from Claremont Graduate University and a B.A. degree from Eastern Washington University.
  
  
• Demos Vardiabasis, professor of economics and commissioner for the California Commission for Economic Development (CED), has been appointed to chair the commission’s Entertainment and Tourism Advisory Committee. The committee will identify key challenges to the industries’ growth and offer recommendations for solutions to the California Commission for Economic Development.
  
  “The entertainment and tourism industry are vital for the economic growth of California, and creating proactive strategies will make them more competitive domestically and internationally,” says Vardiabasis. “I have the fortune of working with a select group of business leaders at the forefront of California’s entertainment and tourism industry. I am confident we will provide the governor, lieutenant governor, and legislature with excellent suggestions that will make California even more competitive.”
  
  Vardiabasis leads the Presidential and Key Executive (PKE) MBA Program and Executive MBA Program at Pepperdine University. He has more than 25 years of experience as a professor, entrepreneur, executive, and consultant.

Purdue University
Krannert Executive Education Programs at Purdue University celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2008.

The school launched its first executive master’s degree program and dedicated the Krannert Center for Executive Education in 1983.  Today, Krannert Executive Education Programs (KEEP) enroll more than 200 working professionals in three unique part-time degree paths and provide customized, non-degree programming to hundreds more annually.

In spring 2008, U.S. News & World Report ranked the KEEP Executive MBA Program in the top 20 nationwide. In 2007, the Financial Times ranked the KEEP International Executive MBA Program 11th worldwide. Both programs began in 1994.

KEEP also recently expanded its Weekend MBA Program for working professionals. The program originally ran one class every three years.  For the first time in January 2009, a new group of students will start classes while another class begins its second year and a third completes the program. 

In addition, KEEP continues to offer open enrollment and customized non-degree programs.

In staff news, Hank Suerth, previously director of student and academic services at KEEP, now serves as director of corporate and alumni relations.  Alan Ferrell, director of Krannert graduate career services for the past 16 years, is now director of Executive Education Programs at KEEP.  In his new position, Ferrell is responsible for the management of administrative operations related to the Executive MBA, International Master’s in Management, and Weekend MBA, and non-degree programs.  He also will expand career services, programming, and other resources for students and alumni of executive programs.

Thunderbird School of Global Management
Thunderbird and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies have begun a new strategic collaboration in executive education. Through this new alliance, Thunderbird is taking its top-ranked Executive MBA to Geneva, its well-established European headquarters for its corporate learning division. Both schools also will expand their menu of offerings in executive education through collaborative open enrollment programs and the development of a joint certificate.

Developed in a modular format and targeted to working professionals in Europe and the Middle East, the program will begin in fall 2009. Most Executive MBA Program modules will take place in Geneva, with global rotations in China, Russia, the Middle East, and the Americas.

Thunderbird also expanded its global learning network through a new partnership with Peking University in Beijing, China. As a result of the partnership, Peking University will be a new site for Thunderbird students to participate in a six-week study-abroad module. Thunderbird and Peking University’s School of International Studies also have agreed to work together to develop a dual degree program and executive, non-degree programs.

In other news, a $1.6 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development-USAID to the Business Development Center in Jordan, will fund a partnership with Thunderbird School of Global Management to offer business training programs for Jordanian executives and entrepreneurs. The partnership will bring Thunderbird's leading business education expertise into Jordan through executive training, scholarships for Jordanian students, and specialized training for Jordanian business owners.

With the grant, Thunderbird will launch Project Artemis Jordan in October 2009. The school founded the business training program Artemis in 2005 to educate female entrepreneurs. The program provides women with entrepreneurial training, coaching, mentoring and access to resources that allow them to start or grow small businesses in their homeland.

University of Alabama
Cheryl Altemara recently joined the University of Alabama's Executive MBA Program as manager of admissions. She also will assist with recruiting and marketing.

University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee noted the following milestones:

• The Executive MBA 2008 class traveled to Vietnam and China for its annual Global Seminar.  During September, students and faculty spent two weeks in Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzen, visiting companies and meeting with executives and government officials to learn about doing business in Vietnam and China.  Several highlights of this trip included a visit to a Metro Store in Ho Chi Minh City and a tour of the DP World Container Port in Hong Kong.  
  
  
• Bruce Behn, Ergen Professor in Business, received the Outstanding Service Award from the American Accounting Association’s International Section. He also was elected vice president of section and regions for the American Accounting Association.
  
  
• Jan Williams, dean of the College of Business Administration, was awarded the inaugural Stokely Foundation Leadership Chair, the first such endowed dean's chair on the University of Tennessee Knoxville campus.
  
  
• Donde Ashmos Plowman, Faskerud Professor of Strategic Management, received the Academy of Management Journal Best Paper Award for 2007.
  
  
• Anne Smith was named Best Reviewer for Business Policy and Strategy by the Academy of Management Journal.
  
  
• Tom Mentzer, Bruce Chair of Excellence, is one of the initial Chancellor's Professors. 
  
  
• In its fifth year, the Aerospace MBA 2008 graduating class is its largest to-date, with 27 students from 15 commercial and government organizations in five states. 
  
  
• The Professional MBA Program just celebrated its 10th year with a record-setting class of 57 students from east and middle Tennessee.
  
  
• The University recently created the National Defense Business Institute (NDBI), the first university-based institute focused on helping the Department of Defense, other government agencies, and the defense industry analyze, find innovative and practical solutions, and improve results to their acquisition and business management programs. Dave Patterson, who has a long and distinguished career in the aerospace/defense industry, is its director.

University of Missouri-Kansas City
Joan V. Gallos, Ed.D., professor of leadership and director of the Bloch Executive MBA at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, has been named the University of Missouri Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Leadership. 

As its highest academic rank, the University of Missouri awards the professorship to a select few tenured faculty with extraordinary records of teaching excellence, award-winning scholarship, and professional accomplishment.   This appointment honors the career-long commitment to innovative management and professional education of Gallos and underscores the visibility and impact that her leadership brings to the Executive MBA Program at the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration.

Villanova University
In 2008, Villanova School of Business launched the inaugural Read to Lead program. As part of the program, Executive MBA alumni and incoming undergraduate students read a business book with a highly relevant theme and met to discuss it.

During the summer, freshmen students received a of Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Shultz and Dori Jones Yang.  In fall, Executive MBA alumni conducted workshops with freshmen to explore the complex leadership topics highlighted in Pour Your Heart Into It. More than 25 percent of Executive MBA alumni participated in the event.  Starbucks Senior Vice President Katharine Lindemann also spoke to students about the book, her perspectives on global leadership, and the Starbucks approach to management, marketing, and ethical business practices.

In addition, Villanova announced the following staff updates:

• Robert F. Bonner has been named associate dean of graduate and executive programs at the Villanova School of Business. Bonner has served as an executive officer of the MBA Career Services Council and on the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Industry Conference Advisory Board. The Philadelphia Business Journal recently recognized his work in graduate business education by naming him one of the top young leaders in the greater Philadelphia region.
  
  
• Rachel Garonzik joined Villanova as the director of recruiting and marketing for the Executive MBA Program.
  
  
• Jennifer Wiess is the new associate director of the Executive MBA Program.

PROGRAM INNOVATIONS

Arizona State University
The W. P. Carey MBA – Executive Program at Arizona State University introduced a new program that exposes Executive MBA students to diverse local arts organizations through a panel discussion, performances, and backstage tours.

The “Business 4 Arts” partnership includes a class session that features executives from Arizona Opera, Ballet Arizona, the Phoenix Symphony, and Arizona Theatre Company, as part of the Executive Program’s Thought Leadership series.

The idea originated with Diana Hossack, a 2008 W. P. Carey MBA graduate who worked in non-profit opera for two decades and whose time in the Executive MBA Program transformed her perspective.

“It was such a profound experience for me to immerse myself in business thought for two years after being totally focused on the non-profit arts for 20 years,” says Hossack. The Executive MBA experience so changed Hossack that she felt challenged to return the favor – by bringing her passion for arts back to the Executive MBA alumni.

“One of the things that Diana brought to our attention was that we don’t quite have the outreach into the arts that we should,” says Ajay Vinze, faculty director for the Executive Program, and the Earl and Gladys Davis Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at the W. P. Carey School. The partnership is mutually beneficial, as Executive MBA students benefit from learning more about the arts and the arts organizations gain exposure to current and future business leaders who might become season ticket holders, or one day join their governing boards.

“As we look at the MBA students who are coming through the program and going into the field of business, we’re catching them at the level where they can gain an understanding of the value of the arts,” says Debra Harrison, executive director of Arizona Opera.

IAE
IAE Business School recently undertook several initiatives relating to corporate relations, regional oriented research, and innovation to enrich its program portfolio.

As a result, the Executive MBA Program introduced the following changes:

• A student-centered model
  
  
• A pedagogical approach based on the development of competencies
  
  
• More emphasis on the regional and global perspective
  
  
• More weight to other active methodologies that complement the case methodology

The program’s learning outcomes involve developing and strengthening leadership ability; building strong analytical thinking; enhancing the ability to manage diversity and keeping an open mind in a culturally varied environment; considering the ethical perspective in making business decisions; and developing creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial skills.

The program continuously considers options for redesign to help students acquire the skills that they need to succeed in today’s environment. The Executive MBA Program at IAE ranks first in South America, according to a Wall Street Journal ranking. Non-Argentinean headhunters also place the school in the top position within the Argentine market.

Santa Clara University
Executive MBA students at Santa Clara University are exploring emerging business practices from the inside as part of a cutting-edge immersion project.

“It takes a very long time for innovative business practices to reach the classroom,” says Kirthi Kalyanam, marketing professor and faculty director of the Executive MBA Program, which makes it frustrating for both faculty who want to stay on the cutting edge and students who want to apply the business practices of tomorrow today.

To address that issue, Kalyanam is partnering with Keith Goodwin, senior vice president of World Wide Channels at Cisco Systems, to develop the first immersion for students, which showcases Cisco’s value-based channel management program. Other planned immersion projects look at the evolution of entrepreneurial ventures and reverse logistics that enable customers to responsibly dispose of products when they are finished with them.

Each immersion begins when a faculty member identifies an innovative practice at a company from both a theoretical and practical perspective. The faculty member then works with an executive sponsor from the company to design the immersion experience. Santa Clara faculty’s deep contacts with Silicon Valley businesses make the immersions possible, says Kalyanam.

“We’re connected well enough so that we’re able to spot new business practices in the making,” he says. “The immersions are about getting an inside look into new frontiers that you’re not going to find out about somewhere else.”

BSP - Business School São Paulo
Recognizing the importance of integrative thinking for leadership, the BSP - Business School São Paulo - has strengthened its approach in exploring the topic.

Integrative thinking at the Executive MBA Program builds bridges between the Cartesian and systems models. The linear, Cartesian thinking model fragments the objects of knowledge and examines them separately. The systems thinking model examines the whole and the relationships between the parts that build it without fragmenting it.

Integrative thinking uses a set of methods that allows building those bridges between the Cartesian and systems models. It supplies the necessary flexibility to deal with local and global issues and to switch from one to the other according to the needs of the moment. It is a fundamental management and leadership development instrument. Management complexity requires patient, pragmatic, and disciplined work. Integrative thinking is, until now, the best answer to that challenge and supports management of the complexity in the corporate environment.

SDA Bocconi
The SDA Bocconi School of Management took the overall victory in the fifth edition of the MBA Cup, the yearly regatta for MBA students. The SDA team has placed first four times and second once in five regattas.

This year, 17 business schools from nine different countries and more than 300 students participated in the regatta, which was organized by the Sailing Club of SDA, in partnership with the prestigious Yacht Club Italiano, and was held in Santa Margherita Ligure on the Mediterranean coast.  Among the participants, a boat from London Business School, the “Pink Ladies” consisted of only female sailors decked in pink, and a crew from INSEAD with eight students of eight different nationalities.

BMW, Deloitte, Santandrea (Gabetti Group), and Vodafone sponsored the event. The top finishers follow:

1. SDA Bocconi - Italy
2. Ipade Business School - Mexico
3. Instituto de Empresa - Spain
4. Warwick Business school – U.S.
5. RSM Erasmus University - Holland
6. London Business school – U.K.
7. INSEAD - France
8. Tuck Business school – U.S.
9. Columbia Business School – U.S.
10. Whu - Otto Beisheim School of Management - Germany
11. Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia - Canada
12. Kellogg School of Management – U.S.
13. Wharton Business School – U.S.
14. IESE - Spain

University of California, Berkeley and Columbia Business School
Kimberly Cooper, MBA 08, president and CEO of Fortuna Group Inc. in Portland, wanted to design an independent study that would allow her to examine the interplay of capital and positive social returns and to analyze any competitive advantages of sustainable practices.

Thanks to the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program, she succeeded in initiating a course on sustainability that looked at the role of capital in achieving quantifiable social returns.

A partnership of the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Columbia Business School, the Berkeley-Columbia program recently introduced the ability for students to create new courses. The social enterprise course was the program’s first student-designed class.

Cooper’s classmate Tracy Gray, MBA 08, managing director of Collaborative Equity Partners in Los Angeles, lined up corporate and academic speakers for the course, including Dan Henkle, senior vice president, social responsibility, Gap Inc.; Bonnie Nixon-Gardiner, global program manager, Hewlett-Packard; and Lloyd Kurtz, CFA, lead portfolio manager, socially responsible investing, Nelson Capital Management.
The course covered three primary program areas: competitive advantages of economic and social convergence; strategies that benefit the “triple-bottom line;” and consumer relations.

Columbia Professor Ray Fisman inspired the students to think about the social side of business, says Gray. Haas School Professor David Levine was the faculty sponsor.  “He elevated our thinking to a much higher level,” says Cooper. “He challenged us to do a doctorate-level project.”

University of Minnesota
Since its inception in 1984, the Carlson Executive MBA (CEMBA) Program at the University of Minnesota has used projects with local organizations to help create practical, real-world experiences for students in exchange for some useful (and free) consulting analysis. 

Historically, these course projects were stand-alone projects aligned with specific courses.   In 2004, a group of students suggested combining some of these course projects into a single project.  As a result, the program developed an integrated, first-semester experience that was shared with three first semester courses ­– organizational behavior, financial accounting, and operations management. 

Now in its fourth year, the First Semester Capstone has proven has a resounding success on several dimensions.  Students have a great consulting experience while being mentored by their professors and fellow students.  They are challenged to connect what they have learned in the classroom with a real-world company.  Since most of the consulting clients are firms that employ students, these projects add direct value to the organizations where students work.  The project is an important opportunity for the program to help students develop their project leadership, analysis, problem solving, and presentation skills.  CEMBA students receive valuable, structured, and personal feedback from many sources – their teammates at both midterm and end of the semester, their professors, and their consulting clients.