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24 BizEd MARCH | APRIL 2015 STEM-oriented students who graduate from business programs have mastered the hard skills of science and the soft skills of communication, says Ronald Ackerman, director of graduate admissions and student services at Iowa State University's College of Business in Ames. That means they have the practical ability to solve technical issues and jump- start innovation, which is being hailed as the source of competitive advantage for both countries and corporations. But they also have the ability to work with teams, negotiate conflicts, measure results, and set long-term strategies. In short, they can combine technical brilliance with management smarts to become superstar managers and innovators. And business schools are gearing up to help them excel in their chosen careers. THE STEM CLASSROOM So far, only a handful of schools offer business programs designed expressly for STEM students or professionals. While each program is different, the common overarching goal is to help en- gineers and technicians think more like businesspeople. For one thing, they learn to work in teams, which is often a whole new ad- venture for individuals who are used to working in labs. "Students tell us, 'We've been lone wolves, and now we have to work together in a pack,'" says Lance Nail, dean of Rawls College. Schools also try to make sure the teams are as diverse as possible, mixing students from different disciplines and countries of origin so they learn how to adapt to many different cultural approaches and thinking patterns. STEM students also get vivid exam- ples of how their new business skills will be valuable in a tech-based envi- ronment. For instance, at Texas Tech, adjunct professor Ginger Kerrick holds a managerial position at NASA with the International Space Station. In her class- room, she presents a case study on the business model NASA uses when staffing and seeking procurements for the ISS. Kerrick, who has a physics background, "will show how she married her STEM acumen with her business acumen to progress to the role she's in," says Nail. Even standard business courses are being rethought to add a STEM angle. "Traditional business law courses might not be as appropriate in a STEM MBA program, because there's a lot more emphasis on intellectual proper- ty," says Texas Tech's Pasewark. "We're retooling our course to cover patents and copyrights." Students in STEM-based busi- ness courses also frequently have opportunities to apply their new knowledge in the workplace. For instance, at Iowa State, all indus- trial engineering students must complete a senior project where they work as consultants with a manu- facturing company; those in the STEM MBA program can use that same course to fulfill their MBA requirement of a service learning project in which they consult with area nonprofits. This class allows students to practice team-build- ing skills, apply newly learned business concepts, and benefit the community, all at the same time. Students conduct similar industry projects at Purdue. For a recent class, says Lynall, students considered how clients should incorporate 3-D print- ing into their businesses. They not only looked at engineering specs and mechanical characteristics, but also de- bated how 3-D printing could potentially reshape the firm. "With new technology, the disrup- tion often isn't the technology itself," says Lynall. "It's the implication it has for the organization's business model and the way the company cre- ates and captures value. If students leave here and don't understand that, we haven't done a good job." THE STEM EMPLOYEE Once STEM students master business skills, administrators expect to see them find jobs at a wide range of workplaces. For instance, a Texas Tech student with math and economics degrees recently took a position as a business analytics consultant at E&Y. The school expects to see students placed at energy companies, biotech firms, and pharmaceutical labs. Lynall predicts that Purdue students will end up in companies that use and will be affected by technological innova- tions, whether on the operations, supply chain, or distribution side. Some will go into product development and technol- ogy commercialization; others will take jobs where they deal with the implications of technology at their firms. But, he adds, the program is new enough that he's not sure yet what will happen. "Once we put students in front of recruit- ers, we'll have a clearer idea of what kinds of jobs these students will be moving into," he says. At Iowa State, where the STEM-re- lated business program is a five-year BS/ MBA, administrators first worried about the marketability of their graduates, who tend to be younger than the typical MBA. However, Ackerman notes, most are employed at graduation and all of them have jobs within three months. Those Iowa State graduates tend to fall into three categories, says Mark Peterson, director of graduate career services. The first group consists of graduates who take traditional first jobs in technical fields—however, they often start at higher salaries because of their expanded skill set. The second group is made up of graduates who go into their first jobs at a somewhat higher level, even though they're younger than other applicants and have less experience. The third group consists of individuals who took STEM courses because they're good at math or science, but they choose careers that have little to do with their undergraduate majors—for instance, they might be engineers who go into invest- ment firms. "Organizations like the way these engineers apply logic to problems and solutions," explains Peterson.