Lawrence Benveniste became dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in 2001. Benveniste came to the Carlson School from Boston College in 1996 and has served as the school’s US Bancorp Professor of Finance, chair of the finance department, and associate dean of faculty and research. He earned a doctorate from the University of California-Berkeley, and was a staff economist with the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., during the Reagan Administration. His research areas include initial public offerings, commercial mortgages, and loan scoring systems in portfolios and securities.

In 2004, the Carlson MBA Full-Time Program received its highest ranking in the school’s history, 21st, up from 26th last year, according to U.S. News and World Report. The Carlson School was tied for sixth among public schools.

In a Q&A for Exchange, Benveniste discusses the current environment for business schools and the changes that are taking place.

What characterizes the environment for business schools today?
Everything is changing – very quickly. Business schools face the challenge of understanding the environment and changing fast enough to adapt and thrive. The question is not whether change will happen; the question is how the change will happen.

What are key challenges?
The expectation of business schools continues to grow. Businesses expect more and more from their employees, and, as a result, expect more and more from the business schools that train those employees. That expectation directly relates to mission. We are evolving. We have to move even faster and that’s about mission.

Funding is always an ongoing concern, and we continue to address funding challenges by expanding successful programs, by strengthening our relationships with the corporate community, and by raising private funds.

The business schools in the top 30 set the bar for other business schools that want to break into the top 30. It’s competitive, and we have to look at ways to add value to our education.

How is the Carlson School responding to these challenges?
We have spent much time looking at our processes and changing the ways that we work with students.

We significantly expanded the experiential learning component of our Full-Time MBA Program. During their program, students now run enterprises where they gain real-world experience in funds management, consulting, brand management, and business development. We also continue to emphasize communication, presentation, and leadership skills.

In our programs for professionals, we also have made changes.

This year, we added the option of Saturday classes for our Part-Time MBA students, who traditionally earn their MBA through evening courses.

We also recently introduced the concept of professional portfolios for our Part-Time MBA students. Depending on their career interests, students can tailor their menu of electives to better meet their professional goals. We assist them in identifying the courses that will best prepare them for where they want to go in their careers. The focus on careers helps the school in meeting the growing expectations of businesses, which are demanding more of our program’s graduates.

Our Executive MBA Program brings together managers and leaders with more than eight years of experience who enter the program and attend classes as a cohort on all-day alternating Fridays and Saturdays. We recently hired an executive coach to help position Executive MBA students to move forward within their organizations and with their careers. The executive coach also assists Part-Time MBA students.