Customized degree program welcomes international group

About 30 executives – many from provincial government positions in China – will begin taking classes Sept. 10 in Springfield for a yearlong executive MBA program, according to MSU College of Business Administration Associate Dean and program director Jerry Udell.

“They’re coming over here to get the culture,” he said. “There are MBA programs in China, and in many instances, they don’t work well because a Chinese MBA is different from an American MBA. A lot of companies and agencies want their folks to have an American MBA.”

The students, men and women in their 20s to 40s, will meet three times a week per class, and one class will be offered every four weeks. In all, they will take seven core classes, two elective classes and two additional classes either within MSU’s College of Business Administration or in other graduate programs at MSU, such as political science or agri-business, depending on the executives’ roles back home.

Udell also is working to line up tours of and speakers from local businesses, though he declined to specify which companies could be involved. Udell would like to introduce students to companies that have succeeded in industries, such as financial services, that are fledgling in China.

“We want them to have as broad exposure in the community as possible,” he said. “(And) we’ve got something to learn from those folks.”

The students are sponsored financially by their employers and will be housed together off-campus.

Udell said MSU is considering hosting another group from China beginning in January.

Customized learning

The Chinese students are not the first to utilize MSU’s customized MBA offerings.

St. John’s Health System in 2004 graduated a class of 19 doctors and administrators from an MSU MBA program that was designed specifically for the hospital. Classes were held Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, once a month, for three years.

“It all started with that concept of getting doctors involved with helping run the hospital and bringing the administrators and the doctors together to closely see what it took to do that,” MSU’s College of Business Administration Dean Ron Bottin said.

The advantage, Bottin said, is the ability to use real St. John’s information in the classrooms.

“When we talked about accounting, we could use St. John’s data. When we talked about marketing, we could use St. John’s data,” he said.

St. John’s officials also came to MSU with specific issues or topics the health system was dealing with at the time, and the school selected expert speakers from around the country to speak during classes.

The final project had each student identify a real problem at St. John’s and work with faculty members to find a solution. As a result, Bottin said, the hospital estimated it saved as much as $700,000 in consulting fees.

That benefit was “invaluable,” according to St. John’s Vice President of Human Resources Jim Brookhart, who was instrumental in creating the program with MSU, and positive effects from the program continue to be seen at the hospital, he said.

The classroom setting allowed doctors and administrators to see others’ perspectives on issues, and to speak frankly, Brookhart said.

Bottin said MSU is always open to discussions about customizing an MBA program for other businesses – and St. John’s Brookhart says other companies ought to consider it.

“I would certainly not hesitate to recommend this type of program,” Brookhart said.

“It really does build camaraderie and a sense of a shared experience that transcends the normal working relationships.”