TO:



TO: Beth Dobkin, Provost

FROM: Mindy Thomas, Chair

Academic Senate

DATE: January 20, 2017

RE: Senate Action S-16/17-28

Proposal for a Revised

Executive MBA Program

At the January 18, 2017 meeting of the Academic Senate, the Senate accepted the Proposal for a Redesign of all of the Executive MBA Programs in the School of Economics and Business Administration by a vote of 8-0 with one abstention. This item was approved by the Graduate and Professional Studies Educational Policies Committee at its December 12, 2016 meeting by a vote of three in favor of submission to the Senate’s Consent Agenda and two in favor of submission to the Senate for discussion.

This action was assigned Senate Action # S-16/17-28.

Attachment

Cc: President James A. Donahue

Dean Zhan Li

Vice Provost Chris Sindt

School of Economics and Business Administration

Proposal for a Revised Executive MBA Program

January 18, 2017

Faculty and Staff Task Force Members: Berna Aksu (Chair), Dave Bowen, Kim Clark, John Dennen, Craig Kaufman, Kirk Knapp, Nancy Lam, Yung Jae Lee, Andras Margitay-Becht, Mary Alice McNeil, George Papagiannis, Tammy Soulsby

* The following faculty members have also contributed to the proposal at different times during the course of the revision: Jyoti Bachani, Barry Eckhouse, Tomas Gomez, Terrence Pitre, Kirsten Schwartz, Saroja Subrahmanyan, Sankaran Venkateswar

Introduction and a Historical Background on the EMBA Program

The Executive MBA program in Graduate Business was established in 1975 as the first Saint Mary's College offering in graduate business study and the first executive MBA program in Northern California. The program was designed for working professionals with substantial business experience and through the years the vast majority of our students have completed the program while maintaining full time mid- to high-level positions in demanding careers. In 1986, the program was first offered on Saturdays to accommodate students who needed to travel extensively for business during the week. In the mid-90s, the EMBA program was modified from a 21-month cohort-based program to its current 18-month configuration. The program was offered on the Saint Mary's College campus in a format of two, four-unit classes per week consisting of three and one half hours of instruction and a half hour dinner break each evening.

In the Lasallian spirit of service to our students we have, over time, expanded the formats and locations in which the EMBA program was offered while always maintaining the integrity of our original vision of executive management education. These modifications have allowed us to bring an educational experience of high quality to students at times and in places that are most convenient to them. In 1998 we began offering the program in San Ramon. In 2001, we recruited our first cohort in the South Bay and in 2003, we began a program in Fairfield, which was subsequently relocated to Sacramento. However, the Sacramento offering was suspended in 2009. These additional locations allowed us to bring a Saint Mary's EMBA to students in locations that lacked quality graduate level management education.

In 2005 we began offering a Hybrid version of our EMBA program in which approximately half of the instruction takes place on-line and half takes place in the classroom. The Hybrid Executive MBA program extends our management offerings to students who find it more convenient to do part of their program from remote locations while obtaining the full benefit of a cohort-based program with face-to-face contact with professors and classmates. The Hybrid program has become the most popular choice for students over the years. The curricula for all the cohorts are identical and students take two subjects in each quarter for six 11-week long quarters.

During recent years, however, we have experienced a significant decrease in enrollments due to increasing competition and reduced general level of interest in the EMBA degree. While we only had a few competing programs in the Bay Area EMBA market until 2010, we now have many high profile schools, such as University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and Babson, fiercely competing for market share. In addition, many working professionals have recently started pursuing specialized masters such as Business Analytics instead of general EMBA degrees.

It is against this market backdrop that we have decided on different courses of action to try and reverse the trend in our enrollments: First, due to significantly declining enrollment in the South Bay, we have recently decided to suspend our Santa Clara cohort in 2016. With the discontinuation, we now admit five cohorts a year: two hybrid, Moraga weeknight, Moraga Saturday, and San Ramon weeknight. In response to the drastically changing market conditions, the EMBA revision task force has been formed to revive the appeal of Saint Mary’s EMBA offerings.

I. Current Program Description

Saint Mary's Executive MBA Program offers a collaborative cohort-based learning environment that addresses the core knowledge used to impact organizations in ways that are practical, ethically sound, and globally aware. The program is designed to provide students with the educational opportunity and confidence needed to grow as a business leader in an environment that encourages ethical and responsible leadership with global perspectives.

Program Benefits

Small and selective cohorts create an ideal learning environment:

• The ability to effectively lead and collaborate with diverse teams across and within your industry is critical in today’s professional environment. Our small class size, which averages 20 experienced managers per cohort, encourages avid and diverse discussions.

• Many of our Executive MBA courses include team projects, offering opportunities to refine your analytical, presentation, collaboration and leadership skills.

• We also believe that our unique Lasallian approach creates a student-centered learning environment that encourages ethical and responsible leadership.

Saint Mary’s Executive MBA immediately expands students’ business network:

• Saint Mary's graduate business alumni network includes more than 4,000 business professionals and over 40,000 general alumni.  With a Saint Mary’s MBA graduate at nearly every company in the greater Bay Area, you gain instant access to the best and the brightest in and outside of your industry or sector.

• Through their cohort, students have access to a strong support system and a significant network of business connections and friendships.  They immediately gain knowledge and contacts that they are able to leverage throughout your career.

• As a student (and alum), students are invited to a number of mixers, panel discussions, and volunteer opportunities – all are ways to expand their network.

Multiple locations and various schedules, all tailored for the full-time working professional. You can choose which option is most suited for you:

• Moraga

- Evening EMBA: Monday and Wednesday evenings

- Saturday EMBA: Every Saturday

- Hybrid EMBA: Live web conferencing Monday and Wednesday evenings; on-campus sessions on alternating Saturdays

• San Ramon: Tuesday and Thursday evenings

The Program allows students to earn a well-respected MBA degree in just 18 months —while continuing your career. Surrounded by a classroom of accomplished participants and educated practitioners, the atmosphere is interactive, collaborative, and designed to stimulate critical thinking and engage dynamic discussion. 

Combine classroom and digital technology to enhance your experience:

The Saint Mary’s MBA has long been on the cutting edge of using technology to help deliver quality business education, and since its beginning, our hybrid offering has been a model for other top schools and institutions. Our approach to online classroom technology in the Executive MBA Program is aligned with the Saint Mary’s tradition—we only use technology when it enhances Saint Mary’s mission to provide a high-quality education that places students first, with emphasis on small classes and personal attention.

Preparing you to think globally, challenging you to lead responsibly:

The Saint Mary's learning environment is student-centered, interactive, focused on collaboration, and designed to stimulate critical thinking. Students join an intimate class of experienced professionals, which allows professors to actively engage everyone in the learning process—even during online sessions. Many students tell us that they learn as much from classmates as they do from professors.

The curriculum is designed to develop students’ capabilities in three broad areas:

Analysis and critical thinking

• Assess organizational performance across a wide range of criteria, including financial, operational, ethical, and marketing effectiveness.

• Forecast changes and evaluate the effect on the business using quantitative and qualitative techniques and models.

Broad functional knowledge

• Identify and diagnose business problems related to human resources, accounting and financial management, operations, marketing, and other functional areas.

• Identify, select, and justify strategies and tactics at functional, business, and corporate levels.

Responsible leadership

• Evaluate business opportunities and develop strategic implementation plans.

• Communicate effectively as a manager and leader, including presenting analysis, justifying recommended actions, and gaining support from others.

• Negotiate and collaborate with others who have different interests and objectives.

• Create a committed and motivated workplace culture with a shared mission and common values.

• Assess and discuss ethical and social implications of situations, actions, policies, and proposals.

II. Proposed Changes to the Program and Rationale for the Changes

The global Executive MBA market has been shrinking for half a decade now, as we have discussed in the introduction. Demand seems to have partially shifted away from the general MBA degrees to the specialized masters degrees, like our own Business Analytics, MSFAIM and Accounting degrees. For many years, this trend did not show up in our enrollment numbers, but over the past two years we have seen a rapid and drastic decline both in enrollment and interest of our MBA program.

To identify and analyze the issues, and to find possible solutions, we have used a multi-pronged approach. We have conducted multiple surveys of current and prospective students. We have conducted deep interviews of students who dropped out of the program. We have looked at our direct competitors in the SF Bay area, and even analyzed other EMBA schools that have recently managed a successful reversal of this downward trend in enrollments.

Results of the Student and Alumni Survey

We conducted a survey that was sent to all EMBA alumni and current students. 50 current students and 67 alumni completed the survey. Of the current students, 51% were female, and the overall average age of respondents was 39. Of the alumni, 31% were female, and the overall average age of respondents was 49.

The survey indicates a significant discrepancy in the number of very satisfied students versus alumni—61% of alumni said they were very satisfied with their EMBA program, while only 37% of current students said they were very satisfied. Overall, however, more than 84% of respondents in both groups indicated they were somewhat or very satisfied. Of the qualities they were looking for in an MBA program, both groups ranked the following five attributes as most important: quality of faculty, reputation of program, location, length of the program, and program rigor.

The survey results largely supported the direction of the revision committee. In both response groups, top choices for elective areas of concentration were Entrepreneurship, Global Leadership, and Business Analytics (over other choices that included Marketing, Finance, Responsible Business, and Sports Management.) Both groups indicated a willingness to take electives in a different location or in a different format than the core curriculum courses.

In addition, about two-thirds of all respondents indicated that the inclusion of a required week-long global trip would have enhanced their EMBA experience, and more than 83% of all respondents indicated they would be somewhat or very interested in participating in a quarter-long consulting project with a social component and revenue-generating objectives.

The survey also indicated a stronger-than-expected desire for a “Designing Your Future” course which would provide students with executive-level career development—98% of current students and 92% of alumni indicated such a course would be somewhat or very useful and relevant. Ultimately, more than 87% of current students and 70% of alumni indicated they would be willing to pay $60,000 or more for a program with the proposed elements. More than 46% of current students and 43% of alumni would be willing to pay more than $70,000 for a program with the proposed elements.

Based on the feedback we have received from these multiple constituents, the following changes to the program are recommended:

• Partial redesign of the curriculum to introduce a choice between three distinct concentrations.

The current program is a lock-step program: everyone takes the same courses within the same sequence. While our proposal maintains the core courses at the beginning of the program, we propose to offer a choice to students of a concentration in a specific area in the latter part of the program. This will make the EMBA program attractive to those students who do want (and need) the broad overview an EMBA offers, but would also like to gain some technical skills or go deeper into a particular area. The proposed Entrepreneurship concentration will empower our students to start and manage their own ventures, giving them the skills to turn an idea into a viable business. The Business Analytics concentration will teach students the robust analytical skills to better manage today's data-centric corporate entities. The Global Leadership concentration will give students a deep and functional understanding of leadership challenges in today’s global business environment and equip them with strategic thinking skills.

• Offer an optional travel component

Many of our current EMBA students would like to have a travel component in the program; some take part in the trips organized for our PMBA students. Offering this option to our EMBA students will enable us to tailor the content, format, and logistics specifically to the executive-level participant.

• Final project in the community

As a capstone experience a course-long project involving a real organization in the East-Bay community reinforces program-long learning by giving the students an opportunity to practice the theories covered in the classes. Our community partners will be chosen among organizations that would otherwise not have access to this level of consulting, those operating in underprivileged communities as well as minority-owned businesses. This setup fully embodies our Lasallian mission of “entering to learn, leaving to serve”.

• Enhanced student services

This will be detailed in further sections but the central theme here is to offer improved and expanded services to students in order to increase their perceived value of the program. Examples include dedicated faculty advising, mentoring, career counseling, updated and well-maintained facilities. We believe the current condition of our facilities is actually creating a negative effect the student experience that is diminishing the perceived quality of our program.

• Letter grade system

We are currently using a Pass/Fail grading system in the EMBA Program that is creating many complexities for students, faculty, and administration. For one thing, students perceive the system as “unfair” since the range of Pass is very broad and it does not differentiate much between a Marginal Pass and Honors. This perception creates an unnecessarily high number of student complaints about grades, which are seen as subjectively determined. Over the years, we have tried many things to alleviate these concerns, none of which has proven successful. It is time for us to abandon the Pass/Fail system, and move on to a letter grade system.

III. Target Market and Admissions Criteria

Executive MBA admission standards are consistent with SEBA’s and each Graduate Business Programs mission of educating business professionals in a globally aware and socially, environmentally, ethically and performance-oriented manner. The admissions requirements are also consistent with the Lasallian principles that underlie a Saint Mary’s College education, namely: quality education, concern for the poor and social justice, inclusive community, respect for all persons and faith in the presence of God. Graduate Business with its Lasallian tradition, going back to the foundation of SMC in 1863 in San Francisco with a commerce degree at that time, seeks broad diversity in its student population.

The Graduate Business admission team focuses on high touch customer service in an effort to recruit high caliber students. The team works to ensure that individuals meet admissions standards as well as embody the maturity and ability to successfully contribute and work well in an intimate classroom environment. Our recruitment process is a high-touch process where multiple contact points are established with the prospect and the process is facilitated by a series of decision points where the prospect is qualified and moved on to application submission by the Graduate Business Programs recruiting staff.

Admission Requirements

● Online Graduate Application

● Non-refundable $50 Application Fee

● Complete the Personal Statement within the Online Application - the essay helps determine whether the candidate’s goals align with the school and program mission. Additionally, also the admissions committee to assess whether the candidate can write at a graduate level.

● Official transcripts of all colleges and universities attended - candidates are expected to have a minimum GPA of 2.80 or higher. If their GPA falls below this standard, candidates may be asked to complete Harvard Business Review’s Quantitative Methods online course as a condition to their admission.

Quality of students has been an issue in the program as of late. We would like to strongly encourage the GPC to consider perhaps a higher GPA requirement, or to require a certain level of quantitative skills from all students. Students could be required to take the HBR test in order to be able to waive the requirement of the HBR Quantitative Methods course.

● Copies of all degrees, diplomas, certificates or professional qualifications - candidates are expected to submit official transcripts from their undergraduate degree granting institution. If additional course work is relevant, we will request those transcripts for consideration during the admissions process.

● A resume of relevant business experience

● Two letters of reference from individuals who can discuss the applicant's professional and/or academic experience

● Admissions Interview - Candidates must participate in and admissions interview. This process evaluates a candidate’s: management/ professional experience; ability to contribute to the intimate class size experience and work well with others; and quantitative abilities

● International students are also required potentially to submit a TOEFL score

Target Audience

Our Executive MBA students typically have been mid- to high-level managers looking to broaden their knowledge base and skillset, or those individuals in a technical position looking to advance into management. They have more work and managerial experience. Their years of professional experience allow them to add depth to class discussions by sharing work challenges and solutions. Thus, our Executive MBA Program normally attracts successful, experienced professionals who thrive in a collaborative learning environment. The typical candidate for the Executive MBA program has a minimum of five years of management and leadership experience, and they come from a variety of industries, academic preparation, and companies. With the proposed changes in the curriculum, we would also like to expand our target to include those who are interested in starting their own ventures or working for a startup, as well as better serve the needs of our current target population.

Sample EMBA Class Profile Demographics

Average Age: 39

Average Years of Work Experience: 16

Average Years in Management: 10

Middle 80% Age Range: 28-50

Women: 49%

Industry

Technology: 20%

Biotechnology/Healthcare: 18%

Not-for-Profit: 16%

Energy: 9%

Financial Services: 9%

Manufacturing: 9%

Real Estate: 5%

Consulting: 2%

Government:2%

Media/Entertainment: 2%

Other: 8%

Undergraduate Major

Business/Economics: 37%

Science/Math/Engineering: 42%

Social Science: 17%

Other: 4%

IV. Competitive Analysis

Competitive Landscape. To better understand the current EMBA market, we have reviewed other Executive MBA, or equivalent, offerings available in the Bay Area. We have looked at the programs offered by University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, San Francisco State University, SCU Monterey Bay, Babson College, Pepperdine University, Sacramento State University, Sonoma State University, Golden Gate University, UC Berkeley/Haas and Cornell. Aside from analyzing their curricula, we also compared the programs based on length, price, AACSB accreditation, GMAT requirement, and the availability of a Hybrid format.

Program Length. Among Bay Area schools, the program length varies from 15 months (Sacramento State) to 24 months (Wharton and CSU Monterey Bay). With our 18-month long program, SMC falls somewhere around the middle of the pack. We have considered the possibility of shortening the program, but found it logistically impossible. As long as we remain on a quarterly calendar[1], shortening the program would have meant dropping it down to 15 months, directly competing with Sacramento State in length. At this point, we do not feel that the sacrifices in the curriculum would be justified by such a change, so we recommend maintaining the current length of the program.

Price. There seems to be three groups of schools with respect to price. The budget solutions offer an EMBA degree starting at $36,000 (Sacramento State), and stay below $50,000. The good value options charge between $90,000 and $100,000, while the premium schools charge over $150,000. The current SMC pricetag of $65,000 falls halfway between the budget and the value options. Based on a market survey conducted, it does not seem realistic to be able to go up into the $90,000 group, and dropping the price is not necessarily a move that will fit our business model. A lower price would also not allow us to generate a decent margin. However, a slight increase in our tuition, assuming all the proposed changes are undertaken and the issues (such as facilities) are resolved, is not out of the question.

AACSB Accreditation. Aside from CSU Monterey Bay (who is in the process of getting accredited) and Golden Gate University, all of our competitors are AACSB accredited.

GMAT Requirement. Roughly half the schools do not require GMAT, while the other half do. If we have to generalize, the more expensive programs seem to be more focused on requiring the GMAT.

Hybrid Format. Since the inception of our Hybrid EMBA program, we have multiple new entrants into this segment. Babson College, Sacramento State and Cornell all offer hybrid options, while CSU Monterey Bay offers a fully online format.

Curriculum. We have analyzed each competitor’s curriculum to see whether trends and patterns emerge. We wanted to make sure that the redesigned EMBA will be attractive on the curriculum side, offering core classes that are competitive, while retaining and strengthening the unique flavor of Saint Mary’s.

Of the 36 distinct categories of classes investigated, only five appear in at least 10 of the 12 programs analyzed: Accounting, Economics, Marketing, Strategy, and some form of Technology management. Other frequent offerings are Finance, Innovation management, Leadership, Statistics, Operations Management, Global Business and Organizational Behavior. Communication, a course that both faculty and students feel strongly contributes to their success, only appears in the curricula of 4 schools, making it an ideal differentiator for the Saint Mary's program.

V. Curriculum and Sequencing

The Program consists of a Core Sequence as well as a Concentration sequence to follow. Students can choose to take four classes in one area, a sequence at the end of which they will receive a certificate in addition to their EMBA degree. They may also choose not to concentrate, in which case they will receive their general EMBA degree. The length of the program remains 18 months. Once the Program Core is completed in the first four quarters with all students working together in a cohort in the same courses, students can choose electives in the next two quarters that focus on important and timely topics in today’s economy including Global Leadership, Business Analytics, Entrepreneurship, and a global business travel course. The program ends with a hands-on capstone experience that spans the final quarter.

Since the responsible business course has a much smaller presence in the revised core, the committee recommends that responsible business topics be integrated into each course, in much the same way as global topics are, since these two areas (i.e. global and responsible business) are SEBA’s foci. Specifically, at least half of the Firm Governance and the Regulatory Environment course, offered during Quarter V, will be ethics and social responsibility topics. (The Committee is not opposed to adding the word “Ethics” in the title of the course.)

In addition to the mentioned course, ethics topics will be integrated into each core course, allowing a more thorough investigation of the subject from multiple approaches and providing a continuous learning experience that permeates the whole program.

We find this necessary, as our vision of “incorporating ethics into the whole curriculum” is not just including an additional module in course design but a much more seamless, integrated approach. Even though there is no course that has the word “ethics” in its title in the proposed core, we feel integrating ethics into each course will actually increase the program’s emphasis on ethical and responsible behavior, in line with the SEBA foci, as well as the program learning goals, which remain unchanged and still include “responsible leadership.”

It is also notable our competitive analysis has revealed that out of the 11 institutions we examined, only 1 has a full-credit (3-4 units) ethics course (USF). The only other offering that is somewhat related is a 1-unit course at Pepperdine that is partially ethics (Contemporary Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Issues in Business), and a Corporate Governance course at Cornell.

The revised program offers more choices to busy professionals in terms of content, location, and program start times. We will have two start times during the year, fall and spring, with two locations including Moraga and San Ramon, classes either on weeknights and/or weekends, and classroom formats with a choice of either full face-to-face classroom sessions or the hybrid format combining weeknight sessions on-line (available anywhere) with weekend face-to-face classes. In the Fall, we will have three distinct formats, all based in Moraga: TTh Evening, Saturday, and MW, Sat Hybrid. In the Spring, we will have another hybrid cohort, in addition to a TTh evening San Ramon offering. All electives in all concentrations will be offered in the hybrid format.

Courses are sequenced as follows. The core consists of the first 4.5 quarters – core courses are designated with their titles in the below sequence, and electives are clearly identified as such. In Quarter 5 and 6, students choose one of four options: either to concentrate in one of the three areas or to not concentrate. All core courses in Qs 1-4 are a full quarter long (11 weeks); in Qs 5 and 6, all courses (core and electives) are half quarter long (5 weeks). The travel course is also equivalent of a full quarter course, mandatory for the Global Leadership focus, and optional for others. The actual travel takes place between Qs 4 and 5. The content for core courses have remained largely the same, with minor revisions in only a few of them: The Strategy course is decoupled from the Capstone and is being offered as a half course on Competitive Firm and Corporate Strategy. Industry Analysis will be removed from the Strategy course and integrated into the Econ and Marketing classes.

Quarter I:

Managing & Leading Organizations. The course provides you with theory-based knowledge of managerial and organizational processes from a behavioral point of view, along with the necessary tools to enable you to design those processes prudently and optimize their uses. You will develop leadership skills that promote, in yourself and others, ethically and socially responsible behavior as you engage others in areas such as motivation, job satisfaction, commitment, positive team dynamics, effective negotiation, and cross-cultural understanding. You will emerge from the course with a solid understanding of organization structure and the key principles of organizational design, as well as gain not just theoretical approaches to organizational change, but practical methods useful for building momentum around the need for change and widespread acceptance of change objectives.

Leadership Communication. This course is designed to evaluate and sharpen your business writing and speaking skills and to show you how language can be used as a tool to identify issues solve problems and communicate policy. You will be introduced to argumentation as an advanced form of communication that is crucial for effective managerial performance. You will also gain expertise in the various forms of professional writing, oral presentation, audience analysis, and copy editing.

Quarter II:

Applied Economics. This course introduces the requisite micro and macroeconomic tools needed to analyze business problems. The emphasis is on establishing a practical link between basic economic concepts and a wide range of contemporary business problems, including economic data analysis for business decision-making, forecasting, demand analysis, pricing and cost analysis. Topics include market structure, cost and production, international trade and finance, national income determination, and monetary and fiscal policy.

Data Analytics for Executives. This course arms you with knowledge of probability theory and inferential statistics and demonstrates their uses in business decision-making. You will become skilled in the many uses of data as critical components in organizational decision processes. In particular, you will learn quantitative tools such as data visualization, probability models, interval estimation, hypothesis testing and regression analysis which you will use as the analytical foundation for other courses in the program.  

Quarter III:

Supply-Chain Management. The course provides you with a broad overview of operational issues in manufacturing and service organizations, and equips you with an assortment of quantitative and qualitative techniques for analyzing and optimizing business processes. Your managerial tool kit will be considerably enhanced by learning how to make use of time series analysis, process analysis, queuing theory, models of inventory management, total quality management and the six sigma approach, and global supply chain management.

Accounting for Executives. We begin our comprehensive approach to accounting by sharpening your understanding of the accounting concepts, principles, and conventions underlying financial statements, and what motivates a manager to select a particular accounting treatment, and how this choice affects financial statements as well as how it affects the analysis of those statements.  We then move on to demonstrating how you can use accounting information for best-practice organizational planning, control, and decision-making.   You will develop skills in such areas as cross driver analysis, budgeting, variance analysis, cost-volume-profit analysis, capital budgeting, differential cost analysis, and optimal performance evaluation schemes which incent ethical managerial behavior rather than the reverse.   Much of what you learn is also applicable globally.

Quarter IV:

Goal-Centered Finance. In this course, you will learn how to apply the key principles of finance in managing contemporary organizations. Centered on the measurement and creation of value, this course will make you adept at analyzing financial statements and financial markets responsibly, in both domestic and global contexts, and will give you considerable expertise in present value analysis, the theory of risk and return, portfolio theory, asset pricing models, and cost of capital, capital budgeting, and capital structure.

Global Marketing. Here is where you will acquire the analytical tools and frameworks that will enable you to make effective and responsible marketing decisions in support of your organization’s overall strategy and in service to the organization’s economic and social objectives. You will learn how to investigate consumer behavior, analyze industries, segment and target markets, create customer value through product policy, position brands, design channels of distribution, as well as how to develop communication channels and pricing policies. Through practical case studies you develop a keen appreciation for how global markets function.

Quarter V:

Firm Governance and the Regulatory Environment. This course introduces the student to think critically about business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance concepts. The course addresses how the regulatory environment affects business operations and management. The subjects covered include employment law and relevant federal regulations, including civil rights, and equal employment opportunity legislation affecting employer/employee relationships; intellectual property and unfair business practices; and how contract law affects various business transactions and relationships, focusing on compliance and responsible business strategies that are preventative rather than reactive.

Competitive Strategy. This course builds upon and integrates the core functional areas of business as it delves deeply into the rich variety of strategies which enable firms to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in domestic and global markets, while upholding and promoting organizational values characteristic of a responsible corporate citizen. We equip you with concepts and models in areas essential to the formulation, analysis, and implementation of business unit and corporate strategies.

Elective

Elective

Quarter VI:

Capstone/Project. This is a project-based course that aims to provide students with the strategic tools to address a specific problem or opportunity faced by a local organization – primarily a small business, a startup, or a non-profit in an underserved local community, or owned by a minority owner. Students will work in small teams to develop implementable recommendations to the client organization and the instructor and address the issues or leverage the opportunity the organization is facing. Final deliverables will include a presentation and a written report.

Elective

Capstone/Project. See above.

Elective

Proposed Concentration Courses:

Entrepreneurship courses:

• Think Like an Entrepreneur. This course will introduce you to the field of entrepreneurship with a main focus on helping you differentiate between an idea and an opportunity, increasing your awareness of the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship, as well as developing your skills in problem solving with inadequate information and in decision making under uncertainty. The course will include topics of market assessment, developing the business plan, and forming and leading the executive team.

• Creativity and Innovation. In this course, students develop their creativity thinking, sharpen their idea generation process, and learn to stimulate creativity in more meaningful and manageable ways. Students will also gain a better understanding of the appropriate context to cultivate and implement creativity in the workplace. The purpose of the course is to help students acquire skills to form novel, useful, and fresh solutions to new and unfamiliar problems. In addition, we focus on various types of innovations, the trajectories of emerging technologies, and the distinctions between standards and dominant design.

• New Venture Financing. This course supports the study of raising capital for new ventures involving start-up businesses, financing a new strategic unit or project within an existing company, and solving financial problems unique to small-and medium-sized firms undergoing rapid growth. Topics for the course include raising seed capital from family, friends, and angel investors; raising later-stage capital from venture capitalists, private equity, business angels, investment banking, and commercial banking sources; legal and regulatory issues that arise in new venture financing; strategies for growth and exit; and financial modeling to determine the financial health of companies and strategies for their growth.

• New Venture Creation and Growth. This course will teach you to think strategically about creating and growing a venture through the initial fast-paced stages. We will discuss managing rapid growth with limited resources, and exit/harvest strategies for new ventures, as well as effective market positioning. We will provide you with sophisticated views on the role of intellectual property, the timing of market entry, and the latest business models, including social innovation, for bringing innovations to market.

Analytics courses:

• Business Analytics. This course is designed as an introduction to Business Analytics, with an emphasis on basic programming concepts. It covers the fundamental concepts of computer programming using a standard programming language such as Python. Topics include data structures, control structures, data input/output, and debugging. Concepts and methods introduced in the course are illustrated with simple data analysis examples.

• Advanced modeling. This course teaches you to recognize and translate managerial decision scenarios into structured mathematical models and find optimal solutions using Excel solver. Upon completion of this hands-on interactive course, you will enhance your problem-solving capabilities and spreadsheet skills. Topics include linear programming, integer programming, and simulation.

• Customer analytics. This course will provide students with methods for calculating customer lifetime value, the analytical skills that are needed to judge the appropriateness, performance, and value of different statistical techniques that are related to customer acquisition, development and retention. The course content includes forecasting the adoption of new products, projecting customer retention rates, and targeting marketing activities. Examples of statistical techniques include logistic regression analysis and cluster analysis.

• Data Visualization and Story Telling. This course prepares students to create compelling narratives to effectively present the results of their data driven analysis. Students learn various techniques and tools to present analytical results visually, communicate information clearly, and articulate the business insights effectively. Students learn data visualization software packages (e.g. Tableau) to present data effectively and dynamically.

Global Leadership courses:

• Institutional Context of Global Business (travel course). This experiential international immersion course features a study trip to key countries with economic significance. The objective of the course is to learn about a selected country’s dynamic cultural, economic, and business environment through hands-on learning such as lectures by the world-class hosting university faculty, company visits, and interactions with local managers. Through this course, students will raise awareness about broader social, cultural, political, economic, business and strategic factors when evaluating companies and organizations in visiting countries. 

• Effective Cultural Competence for Managers. This course focuses on issues managers face when managing across cultures, developing global understanding, and developing competency in global management. The course introduces theories and practices that are essential to managing successfully in a global landscape. It aims to enhance understanding on the effect of cultures on workplace processes and offer solutions to effective resolve challenges that may arise from cultural influences.

• Global Strategy. The objective of this course is to understand the strategic management of multinational corporations (MNCs). We will examine how, and why, firms decide to develop operations in foreign countries, and how firms can become successful once their operations cross national boundaries. Through this course, students will understand the strategic issues and tradeoffs in a multinational context and assess the strategic performance of MNCs.

•  Visionary Leadership Across Cultures. This course addresses key challenges to leading across cultures and developing change in intercultural contexts. It provides students with skills and competencies that leaders require for guiding their organizations through global change. Further, students will learn tools for engaging others to effectively collaborate. The course examines frameworks of leadership, power and power dynamics, influence, and the role of culture in a work place context.

VI. Program Learning Goals

Program learning goals for the revised program will remain the same due to the core curriculum in the program remaining largely the same:

GOAL #1: GRADUATES WILL BE EFFECTIVE BUSINESS ANALYSTS

OBJECTIVE #1: Students will be able to apply appropriate financial tools and techniques.

OBJECTIVE #2: Students will be able to apply appropriate marketing tools and techniques.

OBJECTIVE #3: Students will be able to apply appropriate operations management tools and techniques.

GOAL #2: GRADUATES WILL BE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS

OBJECTIVE #1: Students will be able to produce business writing that meets professional standards.

OBJECTIVE #2: Students will be able to deliver a professional oral presentation.

GOAL #3: GRADUATES WILL BE EFFECTIVE AND RESPONSIBLE LEADERS

OBJECTIVE #1: Students will be able to understand and apply techniques to build trust, motivation, and commitment among individuals and groups.

OBJECTIVE #2: Students will be able to understand and apply methods and models to build organizations that act responsibly and ethically.

GOAL #4: GRADUATES WILL BE GLOBAL STRATEGIC DECISION MAKERS

OBJECTIVE #1: Students will be able to develop business strategies that serve the long-term interests of a firm or major division of a firm.

VII. Grading Procedures and Graduation Requirements

The grading procedures and policy will be in line with other Graduate Business programs with letter grades.

Letter Grades

In Graduate Business programs with conventional grading, the following shall apply:

• A student must achieve a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 (B), as measured at the end of each quarter, to remain in good standing in the program.

• A student who fails to maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 will be placed on academic probation. Students on probation are notified of their status in writing by the vice provost for graduate and professional studies.

• Failed courses must be retaken when available during the subsequent quarters. A student who fails a required course must repeat that course with a passing grade in order to graduate. Students who are on academic probation would need to bring their cumulative grade point average up by the end of the term in which their failed courses are offered again.

• A student on academic probation must meet with the Program Director.

• A student who fails a course a second time is automatically dismissed from the program.

• A student who accumulates a second failing grade, even though an earlier failed course may have been successfully repeated, is subject to dismissal after review.

Graduation Requirements:

• Students must complete all coursework for the degree within five years of matriculation. Extensions may be granted but only in special circumstances.

• Completion of all program requirements.

• If a student has earned an incomplete (I) in a course, there will be a deadline assigned by when the assignments/coursework must be completed for the (I) to be removed. When the grade is recorded, the (I) will convert to a letter grade.

• The Graduation Candidacy Form must be completed by the student so that the appropriate offices are notified of the students’ intention to graduate.

VIII. Student Services

Facilities. The most urgent issue that needs immediate attention from the College is resolving our facilities concerns. EMBA students are, by definition, executives. They are used to certain minimum acceptable standards regarding facilities. If we want to increase enrollments, we need to improve the quality of the facilities we are able to offer our students. The condition of our facilities is currently working against us by failing to provide a minimum level of functionality and comfort to our students (and faculty). Specifically needed are, among others:

Janitorial service on weekend. EMBA classes on Saturday have to endure the dirty classrooms and bathrooms as there is no service provided during the weekend. This is a basic hygiene factor that has to be in place.

Sufficient electrical outlets.  Students need access to electrical outlets for their laptops. EMBA classes are four hours long; they need to charge their laptops, which they frequently use for reference, research, data analysis, and notetaking, etc.

Room temperature control. Classroom temperatures need to be checked and controlled. Currently, they do not even seem to be adjustable.

Flexible lighting levels. On/off lighting is not sufficient for the needs of the 21st-century classroom. Lighting levels that adjust to a wide range of learning activities better accommodate today’s realities. Lights must be easily dimmed or enhanced according to the needs of the moment.

Collaborative classroom furniture. Collaboration is an important part of the EMBA program and current classroom furniture is not suitable for collaborative work. Problem-solving and group projects require furniture that adjusts to multiple learners, then quickly reconfigures to individual mode or seminar mode.

Lunch on Saturdays. Nearly all our competitors offer this option. Our students spend 9 hours with us during the weekend - providing them with a shared lunch will not just improve the perceived value of the program, but will provide an invaluable networking opportunity amongst the different cohorts. This is a fairly inexpensive addition that is likely to create a disproportionate increase in convenience and value for the students.

Mentoring, Advising, and Career Counseling. Many of our students enter the EMBA program because they are looking for a change of career. Enhancing our career counseling, establishing advising by faculty, providing mentoring by alums and other affiliates will help us serve students’ needs better.

IX. Professional Development

The program currently provides professional development for our students in the form of workshops and career services. SEBA Graduate Career Services supports their professional advancement through training and development programs aligned with their professional goals and strategic priorities. Students are provided an opportunity to build their leadership skills and strengthen their organizational effectiveness, focusing on the following areas: Time Management, Stress Elimination, Negotiation Skills, Networking Within, Self-Promotion, Creating Your Personal Career Map, C-Suite Speaker Series.

Our current co- and extra-curricular programming includes Career Advantage Series, Monthly webinars, Executive Speaker Series, and Alumni Networking. We would like to expand our current programming by offering alternative times such as Friday evenings or Saturday afternoons. In terms of content, one exciting new series of workshops we plan to offer is titled “Designing Your Future.” This workshop utilizes the design-thinking framework to help students examine their life goals, integrate their perspectives of the world and work place, and “design” a meaningful personal and professional plan. We plan to offer this workshop toward the beginning of the program and to incorporate parts of it into the capstone course toward the end of the program. The aim is for the students to enter the program with a fresh perspective of their life goals and to leave the program with reinvigorated motivation to achieve those goals.

X. Additional Resources Needed

We do not anticipate a need for additional faculty; however, we believe there will be a need for additional staff time to 1) coordinate the international trips, and 2) coordinate and manage the capstone projects and clients.

Projected additional costs per student are as such if the proposal is implemented:

|Cohort |Travel* |Lunch |Facility |Total |Total w/o Travel |Calculation Details |

|Moraga Evening |$3,000 |0 |0 |$3,000 |$0 |no additional cost |

|Moraga Saturday |$3,000 |540 |0 |$3,540 |$540 |10 lunches at $9 per quarter x 6 quarters |

|Moraga Hybrid |$3,000 |270 |0 |$3,270 |$270 |5 luncjhes at $9 per quarter x 6 quarters |

|San Ramon Weeknight |$3,000 |0 |0 |$3,000 |$0 |no additional cost |

|San Ramon Hybrid** | $3,000 |0 |2340 | $5,340 | $2,340 | |

| | | | | | | |

|* mandatory for students pursuing Global Concentration, optional for others | | | | |

|** facility cost includes lunch. Additional hybrid classroom costs are negligible. | |

|With $60K plus tuition, the breakeven point for each cohort is about 5 students. So, any cohort size bigger than 5 would generate net revenues for the | |

|College, over all costs, including those additional ones identified in the proposal as well as above.  | |

|As a whole, Graduate Business Programs have met or exceeded 30% net revenue contribution target every year since 2010, in spite of our recent enrollment | |

|challenges facing the EMBA program. The EMBA Program has been the main reason for this accomplishment. In other words, the above outlined additional costs | |

|associated with the EMBA revision proposal would not alter the fact that the EMBA would continue to be profitable for the College, even though it may be | |

|slightly less so if the enrollment does not go up as we expect with the revised curriculum.  | |

|It is also noteworthy to mention that much of these additional implementation costs can be modified, minimized, or managed separately from the curriculum | |

|(except for travel cost) as they are related to facilities. | |

XI. Library Review

Submitted by Sarah Vital, Business Librarian

Overview

The Saint Mary’s College Library actively supports the School of Economics and Business Administration through the acquisition, collection, arrangement, storage, and accessibility of the materials and information needed for study in the discipline by both students and faculty. The librarian works with the departmental liaison and chair to identify individual items or general themes of material to collect. The librarian also offers in-class presentations to assist students in learning the materials and research tools available, and individual one-on-one sessions are available through our regular Reference service and by appointment.

This review looks at the resources and services available and used by the EMBA program as a whole.

Library Budget

The expenditures for library materials in support of the entire School of Economics and Business Administration for the 2015-2016 Fiscal Year is as follows:

|Books / Media |Standing Orders |Periodicals |Electronic Resources |TOTAL |

|$35,843 |$33,083 |$27,211 |$101,880 |$199,027 |

The budget allocation for SEBA programs is by far the single largest subject allocation. The next highest, for the Kalmanovitz School of Education, is less than half the amount. This is in large part due to the higher cost of business-related resources. While KSOE curriculum is much heavier in traditional, scholarly research, they need fewer electronic resources for their studies and the materials cost less.

Collection Statistics

The following are materials included in Albert— the Library’s online catalog— that are recorded as having Business related subjects.

| |Books- Print |Books- |Periodicals |Media |Media |Electronic |

| |(includes circulating, |electronic | |(VHS & DVD) |(streaming) |Resources |

| |reference and storage )| | | | | |

|TOTAL |10,368 |28,262 |27 |117 |2,898 |27 |

|Added in |245 |4,564 |0 |3 |540 |1 |

|2015-2016 | | | | | | |

Books and Media

The totals above reflect the materials in the overall collection. Individual new material chosen for purchase is often recommended / requested by and through the faculty liaisons. Other materials are chosen by the librarian from a variety of academic review sources. 

Electronic books are a key addition, especially for the students in Graduate Business. We select, when feasible and appropriate, electronic copies of reference material for ease of use for distance students. Collections of monographs are also being purchased or leased in packages, again to provide ease of access for students and faculty who are off-site. Our subscription to the e-Brary Academic collection greatly increased the number of overall titles related to business. The new subscription to EBSCO’s eBook Business Collection and purchase of the several years of Business Expert Press e-books increased our electronic offerings that much more.

With limited budget and extremely limited space, selection, purchase, and storage of that many new titles would be impossible in print. The electronic book packages were able to more than double our access to monographic titles in a single year. However, noting that the majority of these titles are “leased” via subscription is crucial. Should the Library lose significant funding, we will lose access to these thousands of titles.

Previously, video material was purchased title by title by request of faculty. The addition of our subscriptions to Alexander Street Press, Films on Demand, and Kanopy streaming video resources has increased our access to related video material significantly. These videos can be viewed anywhere, at any time. Faculty can show the videos live in class to support instruction or have students view them via their course websites. Most of these titles, too, are leased and subject to ongoing subscription to maintain access.

Periodicals

Currently, we subscribe individually to just 27 business-related periodical titles. The titles listed in Albert reflect only those that we specifically subscribe to in print or electronic. However, this number does not include the titles that are incidentally included in our subscriptions to full-text periodicals collections, which is greatly larger. Relying on vendor access to publisher collections or aggregated titles has proven to be much more cost efficient than maintaining individual subscriptions. Though, the same caution remains for journals as e-books and streaming media: access is leased and subject to change. Should a publisher pull a needed title from the database, we will need to re-institute a subscription; and should the Library lose funding for the source, all leased titles from that source would be lost.

Thankfully, to this point, loss of titles has been minimal, and with the addition of publisher e-journal packages and other electronic full-text made possible by our subscription to 200 licensed electronic databases, we provide access to another 12,000 additional titles in the area of business and economics. The following summarizes the number of available titles in some of the more popular areas of the EMBA program.

• Commerce (1,726)

• Finance (1,352)

• Management (1,916)

An area that remains a sore spot, particularly with students in Graduate Business programs, continues to be accessing two key business newspapers: Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. We provide daily access in print to both, and online access to the content of the WSJ. But online access to Financial Times in embargoed one month in our subscription database. And while the content of the WSJ is available, the ease of use and browsability is limited. Both titles provide site-wide access to their websites, much like the New York Times does, but the cost of access remains well out of our budget (i.e, last quoted at $30,000 annually for each). Both of the sources should be available for students in any MBA programs, so the titles will continue to remain high atop our wishlist.

Electronic Resources

As mentioned above, the Library subscribes to over 200 electronic databases. We break down our numbers into major subject areas or disciplines, and 27 resources are classified as “Business.” Some of these resources have already been mentioned regarding e-book and streaming video collections. The additional resources are particularly useful for the coursework in and study of business:

For periodical literature and case studies:

• ABI / Inform (includes Wall Street Journal)

• Business Source Premier (includes Harvard Business Review)

• Business Abstracts (with full-text)

• Emerald

• EconLit

• SAGE Business Cases

For data, analysis, and reports:

• Euromonitor’s Passport GMID

• IBISWorld

• Statistical Datasets (Data-Planet)

• Mintel

• OneSource

• The Conference Board Business & Economics Portfolio

• Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage

• Value Line Research Center

• Key Business Ratios

• Plunkett Research Online

• Mergent Online

• Mergent Intellect

• Mergent First Research

• Morningstar Research Center

• Morningstar Direct (see below)

Usage Statistics

The library captures a variety of usage statistics, but many of them are generally assigned to large departments or Schools as a whole. For instance, many of the statistics collected for circulation to students in “Graduate Business” include all of the programs in the Department. Most of these statistics aren’t representative of a group small enough to be very meaningful here, but some numbers are shared below. Also, we do not yet have a way to measure use of individual e-book titles. This is at the top of our list to continue investigating, and as something so linked to Graduate Business use, I’ll continue to keep this at the forefront.

Reference service, or one-on-one assistance with a librarian, remains a highly utilized service among all students (both undergraduate and graduate) in the various SEBA programs in the 2015-2016 year, with 396 of the total questions, the third highest rank after Education and “general” questions. But again, worth noting, this statistics include all SEBA programs and not just EMBA students. Anecdotal evidence from librarians shares that this, too, is an underutilized service by this particular group of students. High use in other programs shows that this is a useful service, especially our distance communication channels (i.e., phone, email, online chat) so I will continue to ask faculty to promote reference help in their classes. I will also continue to investigate reference service via appointment in Adobe Connect.

|Circulation by students in Graduate Business |211 (1.1%) |

|(percentage of total circulation) | |

|Reference questions related to business topics (percentage of total questions asked) |396 (10.9%) |

Information Literacy

AACSB Accreditation Standard 15[2] states that the learning experiences of the college business curriculum should include such areas as communication abilities, ethical understanding and reasoning abilities, analytic skills, use of information technology, and reflective thinking skills.

Business Administration is an information and data driven field. Searching for, retrieving, evaluating, and using informational sources is a vital learning outcome, and one the Business Librarian is ready, willing, and able to assist with. In addition to the traditional guest lecture, the Business Librarian is available to be involved further in the development of assignments and projects to best incorporate information literacy, and in creating alternative means of instruction, such as online tutorials or learning modules.

Currently, the Business Librarian or other designated library representative gives a brief overall orientation of library services and basic overview of available resources at each new Graduate Business new student orientation. This inclusion is welcomed and appreciated by both the Library and the new students, and is a start towards encouraging utilization of the library’s services and resources. But point-of-need demonstration of resources and more integrated instruction and discussion of research skills and information evaluation is needed.

A recent study by a PMBA student group in a marketing class confirmed that graduate business students are still unclear on the library’s offerings. Thus, I will continue to look for opportunities to work with the faculty to see what objectives match areas the library is especially well equipped to assist with and provide introduction and instruction as necessary.

Conclusion

To this point, library resources are meeting the needs of graduate student research, and we are thrilled to offer access to so much professional and academic periodical literature. We’re additionally thrilled that so much monographic and video content is able to be purchased electronically and economically, increasing our collection size vastly beyond what our walls can hold and individual title purchase power can afford. The changes to the EMBA curriculum proposed will not significantly change the ability of the Library to support the faculty and students’ studies. The changes are consistent with other movements in the SEBA curriculum that are being reflected in the Library’s buying and collecting decisions.

As always, though, moving into the future, acquiring new continuing resources will remain a challenge. This is particularly clear in business, where the resources requested are often very expensive electronic databases or online access (i.e., CompuStat; online access to Wall Street Journal and Financial Times). Based on use statistics and overall enrollment, Business Administration is allocated the second largest amount for monographs and annual purchases (behind only Education, which houses research intensive graduate programs and a doctoral program). Though, over half of that allocation (70%) is already committed annually to continuing resources to support the needs of SEBA programs. New ongoing subscriptions must come from this budget line and permanently reduces the amount of available funds for new books, reference books and media.  Inflation of these large ongoing subscriptions is unpredictable, and can cause further reduction in available funds. There is a tipping point nearly reached, after which almost no new books, reference books and media can be selected.

As programs grow or focus changes and new resources are requested by faculty, we cannot continue to absorb costs of these expensive resources without additional funding. Three lesser used resources (PROMT, ReferenceUSA, and Mergent BondViewer) were recently canceled to free funds for an expensive financial statistics database, but such cuts will be harder in the future. We are past the point of “cutting fat”; the next cuts will be of valuable and used resources. The Dean for Academic Resources continues to work with the other academic deans and College administration to address budget concerns as needed. We appreciate the faculty’s understanding of our limitations, as well as their advocacy for future budget enhancements.

Another area of improvement is to better coordinate a scaffold approach to information literacy instruction in the discipline, and to better delineate ways of teaching the research and information evaluation skills demanded by both AACSB and the College’s Institutional Learning Outcomes. As student surveys show, Graduate Business students are still less certain of Library offerings, I will continue to work with SEBA faculty and staff to develop appropriate introductions to the valuable resources.

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[1] The committee seriously considered converting from the quarter system to a 7-week cycle, among other options, that would have been more in line with the SMC undergraduate calendar. We eventually abandoned the idea because of significant content, staffing, and scheduling concerns.

[2]

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