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August 2006

Dean's Column: Bold Moves Toward a New Curriculum

Dean JossAbout once a decade, a business school takes a deep look at its curriculum and asks important questions about the knowledge and skills students need for the many years of management practice they have ahead. At my request, Professor Garth Saloner led a task force of 11 faculty, alumni, and staff members to review the MBA Program.

In May, our faculty overwhelmingly accepted a bold vision for the School. These new ideas do not tweak at the margins. To be sure, the fundamentals—finance, accounting, operations, marketing and strategy, organizational behavior, and economics—are still there. However, the plan capitalizes on the enormous advantages of the School’s small size and creates a highly personal program with significant faculty-student advising. Four key elements characterize the new educational model: a customized program; a deeper, more engaging intellectual experience; a more global curriculum; and expanded leadership and communication development.

First, the curriculum will be customized to each student. After a common program in the first quarter, students will face no required courses, but rather a set of distribution requirements that will give them broad general management knowledge. The suite of requirements will vary by pace, depth, and assumed knowledge in order to challenge every student regardless of experience. In some cases “flavors” of a given topic will be offered, so that students can tailor their curriculum to career goals. The initial common courses will raise fundamental questions of managerial relevance and will include these four: Teams and Organizational Behavior, Strategic Leadership, Managerial Finance, and The Global Context of Management. Each student also will form an advising relationship with a faculty member. Aided by placement exams, the student and advisor will craft an individual study plan. Students come to the MBA Program with extremely diverse academic and work experience and varying career goals. The new program will channel students into courses that will challenge and prepare them, regardless of their background.

Second, the new curriculum will foster a much deeper intellectual exploration of both broad and narrow subjects. This will begin in a fifth course, tentatively titled Critical Analytical Thinking, that will be offered in the first quarter. In seminars of fewer than 20 people, students will examine issues that transcend any single function or discipline, such as: What responsibilities does a corporation have to society? When do markets perform well, and when do they perform poorly? When does it make sense to exercise discretion; when should relatively rigid rules govern behavior? Students will be taught to think and argue about such issues clearly, concisely, and analytically, setting the tone for the rest of the program.

We will press students to think across disciplines and functions. And improved placement will engage students more effectively. A second-year fall schedule will feature intensive one-week seminars, in which students will delve into specific subjects. The School also plans to add to its Bass Seminars, funded in part by a recent $30 million gift from Robert M. Bass, MBA ’74. The seminars, as small as 10 people, move students beyond passive learning and into topics of their own choosing. Guided by supervising faculty, the students are largely responsible for creating the content of their courses.

Third, the plan calls for enhancements to the global management curriculum. This begins with the first-quarter course, The Global Context of Management. The school will continue to globalize its cases and courses, and a global experience, such as an international internship, an overseas service-learning trip, or a student exchange, will be required of students during their two years at the School.

Finally, the new curriculum includes expanded leadership and communication development. The Strategic Leadership course will integrate leadership development, strategy, and implementation. Critical Analytical Thinking will hone students’ written and oral communication skills. In a new capstone seminar near the end of the two years, students will synthesize what they have learned, examine strengths and weaknesses in their personal leadership style, and reflect on how they hope to achieve their goals as they embark on their careers.

Taking the MBA Program to this new level will require significant funding, a 5 to 10 percent increase in faculty, and ultimately, a new facility with flexible classrooms to accommodate more and smaller classes. Following the approval of a campus concept by the trustees in June, we are making plans for new buildings. Please join me in embracing this new vision, about which you will hear more in the fall.

If you have comments on the proposed new vision for our management education, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 650.723.2146.

Photo by Saul Bromberger/ Sandra Hoover Photography