Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57338
The MBA That Delivers The part-time MBA landscape is fundamentally changing—location and duration, cost and content. mg I've also observed that you can fit into your life every- thing you love to do, and you have trouble fitting in any- thing you find frustrating, tedious, boring, or unfulfilling. The goal is to find a professional life that you look forward to every morning, and then get rid of all the stuff that's meaningless. A friend of mine said to me years ago, "Dust has no emotional content." There's nothing fulfilling about cleaning your house or doing laundry, so give those things away. Fill your time with the things you love—and one of them should be your professional life. You've been deeply involved with education, serving on various boards at Smith College, Columbia School of Business, and the Judge Business School at Cambridge University. How do your insights about branding fit into these educational settings? I have discovered that, on any one of these boards, if I bring up the issue of the school's brand and what it actu- ally stands for, I can derail the conversation for three hours. Everyone has a point of view! But the conversation is a good way of getting board members to specify the values of the school and the choices they want to make. For instance, Columbia Business School is known for being strong in finance. Is that what we want to stand for, LEADS THE FIELD in creating innovative solutions for part-time students: BABSON ® Fast Track MBA Portland, OR campus • Nationally ranked MBA taught in 24 months Wellesley, MA campus • Collaborative, team-based learning environment • Unique combination of Web-based and classroom learning Evening MBA Wellesley, MA campus • Nationally ranked MBA taught in 36 months • Team-taught "cluster courses" encourage learning from multiple perspectives • Career Contexts help students design their electives with a career focus The MBA That Delivers www.babson.edu/mba Ranked #1 in entrepreneurship by U.S.News & World Report. Ranked Top 10 Best Opportunity for Women by The Princeton Review. or do we want to be broader? If we want to be known as a place that's strong in marketing, what resources would we draw on and how would we communicate our brand? With all these schools, I provide the outside-in perspec- tive. I ask questions. How does the world see you? How do prospective students see you? How do prospective fac- ulty see you? How does the rest of the university see you? Is the university proud of where you stand among busi- ness schools? What does Columbia University represent? What does Cambridge University represent? How much does the business school derive from the mother institu- tion, and how much does it give back? It can be a great conversation. You've had an impressive career so far. What are you proudest of? The fact that I've taken a company founded 60 years ago by a man with a point of view about communication and advertising, and that I've managed to bring it into the 21st century while keeping the basic principles and values as strong as they've ever been. Is there anything else you'd like to accomplish? Figuring out the world! It changes every week! ■ z BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2008 21 ®