Admissions Innovation

The Harvard Business School (HBS) has expanded its scope in admissions beyond the usual cohort of students with five or six years of business experience. A new program, HBS 2+2, offers deferred MBA admissions to undergraduate students. The program guarantees a place in a future HBS MBA class, contingent on the student’s graduation from college and successful completion of two years of approved work experience. Specifically targeting students who may not typically consider business as a career path or business education as a future option, HBS 2+2 will reach out to high-achieving college juniors studying in the fields of science, engineering, healthcare, government, and public service, among other disciplines, as they begin to explore career and graduate school opportunities.

HBS will help students accepted into HBS 2+2 find a job for the two years between their college graduation and full-time matriculation. During their work experience, accepted students will participate in on-campus summer academic programs, where they will take classes with HBS faculty and meet their fellow classmates. They will also have access to career coaching. HBS anticipates that HBS 2+2 will grow to about 5 to 10 percent of the 900-member incoming Harvard MBA class over the next several years.

Ties with Private Equity

As the world of corporate buyouts flourishes, many MBA students find great allure in the private equity industry. At the same time, MBA admissions officers recruit actively in that field to find highly motivated junior-level players who want stronger skills to move ahead. This fall, Columbia Business School took steps to build its already strong links with this industry by establishing a new Private Equity Program. The program includes stronger coursework in private equity and ample networking opportunities; it was supported in part by a grant from an alumus interested in linking students with practitioners. In a statement, dean Glenn Hubbard said that “by providing points of access to the private equity industry and facilitating networking opportunities for students, alumni, and practitioners, the Private Equity Program reinforces the school’s commitment to linking theory with contemporary business practice.”

Marketing Management Turns 40

Marketing Management, Philip Kotler’s classic textbook, celebrates its 40th birthday this year—and is still as relevant as ever. Few other books can claim to have influenced their fields to the extent that Marketing Management has done. By arguing that companies ought to be driven by customers and markets and by applying analytical thinking to the field, Kotler’s book revolutionized marketing theory, teaching, and practice. New editions—the 13th is due in 2008—have kept the book fresh. According to the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where Kotler continues to teach at age 76, Marketing Management has been translated into more than 25 languages and is the most widely used text in graduate business schools around the world.

Refreshing the MBA Program

In August, the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis announced significant revisions in its MBA program. Among the changes, the school created a series of new courses on leadership that focus on teamwork, leadership effectiveness, and leadership development. In that same vein, the school added a new required course, “Critical Thinking for Leaders.” The school has extended the first semester of the program’s first year by several weeks to make room for new material and allow more time for students to absorb lessons learned. Other changes include a longer orientation program for incoming students.

Ethics, Take One: Graduate Management Research

Research from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University suggests that unethical behavior in corporate settings is often not a deliberate act, but evolves from small missteps in individual behavior. Gradually accepted as part of the corporate culture, those missteps create the quintessential “slippery slope.” The answer, the study suggests, is not so much to change individual behavior as it is to change the corporation. “Companies must more clearly and consistently communicate ethical standards to employees and strive to create a culture in which there's a commitment to doing the right thing,” said Francesca Gino, visiting assistant professor in organizational behavior at the Tepper School and a coauthor of the study.

Ethics, Take Two: Truth in the Classroom

At the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, students learn ethics by mirroring the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. That legislation requires business executives to attest to the accuracy of their quarterly and annual financial statements. Similarly, students in Kelley School students are required to sign a "deliverable affirmation" before every exam and presentation that confirms that they neither gave nor received unauthorized help on the assignment.

Biz Briefs

• In August, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University rolled out a new version of its cultural orientation program for incoming international students. The three-week program orients students to their new MBA program, but also introduces them to American culture, helps them hone their language skills, and explains the nuances of successful business and social interactions.
• Columbia Business School has joined with Columbia University Press to create its own publishing imprint, Columbia Business School Publishing. The new venture will publish books, case studies, and other publications in finance, economics, and other areas of business.
• The College of Business Administration at Northeastern University has established a new annual MBA scholarship for returning Peace Corps volunteers.
• Inside its college of management, North Carolina State University has established the Jenkins Graduate School of Management, named for Benjamin P. Jenkins III, vice chairman and president of the General Bank at Wachovia Corporation.
• The College of Business Administration at Central Michigan University is offering what it calls the only online MBA program with a management information systems concentration that emphasizes SAP, the software used by 85 percent of all Fortune 1,000 companies.

From the Philanthropy Desk…

In recognition of gifts totaling $50 million from the Foster Foundation, the business school at the University of Washington has been named the Michael G. Foster School of Business… AQR Capital Management, Barclays Bank, and Northern Trust have agreed to contribute a combined $1.35 million to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business for its Initiative on Global Markets (IGM). Launched in 2006 with a $1.5 million founding grant from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Trust, the initiative is an umbrella for research, conferences, papers, classroom materials, and the exchange of ideas on international business, financial markets, and public policy… The Sorenson Legacy Foundation has donated $6 million to the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah for the creation of an interdisciplinary center for the study of discovery and innovation… Faculty, staff, and students at the University of Colorado at Boulder have moved into the Koelbel Building, the new home of the Leeds School of Business. The product of a $38 million expansion and renovation project, the building was renamed in honor of the Koelbel family, leaders in the Colorado real estate industry, who donated $4 million to the project… Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., has given $1.5 million to the Applied Sustainability Center in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at University of Arkansas to support research on how retailers can cut greenhouse gases and be more environmentally friendly. The grant is Wal-Mart’s largest donation so far to academic research on sustainability issues… In London, Ontario, the Scotiabank Group has given $1.9 million to the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario for scholarships for MBA and undergraduate business students… The Center for Real Estate Development at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received $4 million from real estate developer Leonard W. Wood… In the annual giving campaign at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, a notable 66.2 percent of all active Tuck alumni gave a financial contribution to the school, far eclipsing alumni giving levels at other business schools. Of Tuck’s latest graduating class, 100 percent contributed toward their class gift.

New Programs

The Thunderbird School of Global Management has inked an agreement to expand its international learning programs through a partnership with Fudan University's School of Management in Shanghai, China… The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University has started a Saturday Program as an option for its part-time students. Some 70 percent of students commute from outside the school’s immediate region in Chicago, including some who fly in from Toronto, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.… In conjunction with the Harvard Business School India Research Center, the Harvard Business School has announced plans to offer its first executive education program in India. Designed for senior executives from India and around the region, Building a Global Enterprise in India will be taught in Hyderabad in February 2008… The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and research/consulting giant Gartner have partnered to launch a new executive education program, “CIO as Full Business Partner,” to bolster business skills among chief information officers… The Stanford University Graduate School of Business is developing new multidisciplinary programs with seven other schools at the university, including joint degree programs with the schools of law and education and the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment. Another program will offer a joint MBA-public policy degree in conjunction with Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research… Integrating engineering study with business and management, Penn State Harrisburg has launched a new program leading to a master’s degree in Professional Studies in Engineering Management… The American University of Beirut (AUB) Suliman S. Olayan School of Business has signed an agreement with the Abu-Dhabi-based Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training through which AUB will offer a corporate executive MBA program for citizens and residents of the United Arab Emirates… The University of Rhode Island is developing the world’s first graduate degree program that would merge a master’s of business administration with a master’s degree in ocean and climate science. If approved, the program will launch next fall.