New Directions for MSU's Business School: Engaged, Global, Sustainable, Entrepreneurial
Stefanie Lenway, the new Eli and Edythe L. Broad College of Business dean, brings new vision for building a global mindset.
What is your current vision for the college?
There are three main things I'd like to focus on, all of which will help the Broad School focus on the reimagination of Michigan's economy and how local companies can leverage global networks to become the new multinational corporations.
Eli Broad College of Business
I'd like for us to work at partnering more with the Michigan business community, which will help engage students in contributing to economic development through consulting projects, new product development, and new venture creation. I'm looking forward to engaging Michigan businesses very soon. For instance, we can put students to work writing business plans based on faculty inventions, which could get funded by local venture capitalists.
I'd like to continue the work that's been done to partner with business schools in key international markets to deliver new degree and non-degree programs through global strategic alliances. There is tremendous potential for building global programs to support research on the global dimensions of business by leveraging the college's Center for International Business Education and Research, as well as the university's global networks.
I'd also like to create even more partnerships with other colleges at MSU and use the work that's been done already to build a multidisciplinary ustainability curriculum.
Where do you see the future of business education going?
Our students need to...be creative and innovative with the ability to apply multifunctional and multidisciplinary perspectives to ill-defined problems.
A few years ago there was a study done about this at Harvard Business School that has challenged the leadership of business schools around the world to think creatively about the future. Concerning the MBA degree, I think a lot of schools are looking at the relevancy of the two-year degree, the sufficiency of the classroom experience, and the increasing importance of entrepreneurship in the curriculum as the number of entry level positions in typical MBA jobs, such as consulting and investment banking, continue to decline.
In general, I think we need to be giving students a more global perspective so they can build sensitivity to cultural differences and have a "global mindset." They need to understand the limits of markets and models and the importance of judgment, risk management, and the imperfections and incompleteness of mathematical models. And they need to be creative and innovative with the ability to apply multifunctional and multidisciplinary perspectives to ill-defined problems.
They also need to be able to apply classroom models to real world problems, see organizations as political entities, have the ability to work in teams, and master oral and written communications.
Values, attitudes, and beliefs are also important, because they form managers' world views and professional identities. Our students need to nderstand their personal strengths, weaknesses, and values, as well as the social consequences of business decisions. We need to give them frameworks to deal with ethical dilemmas.
