Bentley MBA gets Dramatic Reset

Among U.S. business schools, Bentley is first out of the gate with a dramatically re-engineered MBA. The 11-month program – distinctive in content and delivery – is precisely calibrated for the new demands of leading organizations within the broad context of society. Here, three of the program’s principal designers offer a look under the hood.

What was the impetus for developing the new Bentley MBA?

Mike Page: Business schools around the world have been reexamining what they do in management education, as a result of recent financial crises. There are big questions about whether we’re developing the kind of managers and leaders needed for the future of our societies and for the global corporate environment. 

Bentley stepped back from the debates and said, “Let’s start from almost a zero-base perspective and ask, ‘How can we create a program that addresses the real challenges of the world today?’”

Challenges such as?

David Schwarzkopf: The business problems of the past decade will be repeated if we don’t have good leaders – and we’re not talking about CEOs. We need people who can take their place at the head of a group. People who can contribute an idea, then get others to follow along.

MP: As we become a smaller global community, the corporate world needs individuals who can integrate. That is, bring together knowledge across disciplines and among people in other parts of the world who have very different life experiences and very different assumptions about the firm’s purpose and role in society.

What do these challenges mean for management education?
 
MP: The corporate world has always valued MBAs for their expertise and skills related to the functional areas of business. Now they are asking: Do these graduates have the ability to engage with and lead others to do the kind of innovation, the kind of change, the kind of decision-making that is necessary for success. So teaching accounting, finance, marketing, and so forth is important – but no longer sufficient.

DS: It’s time we got rid of this notion in academe that management education is forced into channels. That there are accountants, and finance people, and marketing people – and you need a visa for one to talk with another. Management is not just about business; it’s about business in society.

Roy “Chip” Wiggins: The charge for MBA programs is to develop a fluency across the functions of the organization. We need to develop a set of tools that employees can use to identify and creatively solve problems, add value, and contribute in ways that are not rote or routine.

Are business schools responding to the new demands?

DS: Some are re-evaluating their MBA programs. But Bentley is the first school in the country to launch a European-style one-year program.

Who were your key collaborators in shaping the program?

MP: The initiative was led by faculty, but we consulted throughout the process with people in industry. What are they looking for in developing their own talent? What do they see as an appropriate intervention for someone with five to seven years of work experience who has shown potential for leadership in the organization?

DS: Another significant point is that the faculty who developed the program – and will teach in it – are not from business disciplines alone. Arts and sciences faculty are very engaged in the process. In particular, their perspectives help provide the social context for what business is doing.

What makes the Bentley MBA distinctive? 

DS: The distinctions start with the structure and content of the curriculum. Instead of traditional courses, the program has four broad themes, each covered over 10 weeks. Another major difference is that our on-campus learning environment is not a classroom. Students and faculty will study and collaborate in a dedicated MBA studio being built in the Adamian Academic Center.

CW: The fact that arts and sciences faculty are joining business faculty to deliver the program is unique among MBA offerings. This approach gives students a different set of lenses through which to analyze problems and identify solutions. Also, as students move through the program, there will be ongoing assessment of their leadership style and their potential for leadership.

MP: Most MBAs are built on an individualistic, competitive landscape. The Bentley MBA program is designed to emphasize collaboration. Students will learn as cohesive group, which encourages the idea that “I win only if everyone else in my class wins as well.”

Say more about the four themes.

DS: The innovation theme looks at how design plays a role in business, how innovative thinking can be fostered in individuals and in groups. We’re asking, is innovation something new or something that’s an improvement on an existing product or process? How do you keep innovation going? How do you know when innovation has run its course?

In the value theme, we explore what it means for something to have value to a consumer, to a stakeholder, to a company. Which aspects of marketing, finance, operations and so forth provide value – and to whom? How do you resolve conflicts in value?

The environments theme – and the plural is intentional – considers the social context in which organizations operate. It’s not the typical focus on organizational behavior. We look at how the behavior is expressed through distributed work channels, through different cultural settings, and through challenges such as a product recall.

Our fourth theme, leadership, is about developing the individual, that is, the 30 to 35 students enrolled in the program. How does someone discover their personal style of leadership? What style fits their particular mode of decision-making, their appetite for risk? This is not leadership in some abstract sense.

What is the role and significance of the MBA studio?

CW: The studio is a dedicated facility with leading technologies for communication, videoconferencing and work sharing. It’s a place where students will come together outside of traditional class meeting time. They’ll work on projects together with the faculty and with each other.

MP: The studio setting is more effective than a classroom for engaging students and faculty in a process of mutual discovery. This is a program of collaborative learning, where faculty and students explore problems that are only beginning to surface in the corporate world. The MBA studio creates an environment where students can master the ability to ask questions, resolve issues together with others, and navigate a path to the future.

Three themes end with projects “in the field” at a host organization, two of which will be overseas. What are the goals?

DS: The first thing to know is that our students will have been in touch with the host organization throughout the initial eight weeks of the themes. And when we actually visit the sites for two weeks, we’re not coming in as experts with answers. We’re there as people who may have a different perspective on the relevant issue, say, improving tourism to the area or becoming a “green” city.  Ideally it would be a perspective that helps our hosts move toward resolving the issue.

Why 11 months rather than the typical two years for an MBA?

MP: The one-year program is very prevalent internationally. For significantly experienced students in MBA programs, the opportunity cost of two years is very high. Also, their experience brings in a large body of knowledge that can be built into the learning experience of fellow students. So you leverage that knowledge and compress some of the time needed to cover important concepts.

What type of person is a good match for the Bentley MBA?

DS: Candidates need to have at least five years’ experience in an organization, whether corporate or nonprofit. They might have previous business education – or maybe not – but either way they have learned something from the work experience.

Our student is someone who has shown a capacity for leadership. Maybe they took the lead on a project or headed a small department. They want to keep the managerial momentum going and assume a leadership position in their organization. An ability to work well in teams and a strong interest in how business is done globally is important, given the nature of the program.

MP: Our program, more than others, challenges you to confront your capacities and take yourself forward to the next phase of your life. So there is a risk of self involved. Students who enroll are saying, “I choose a career of organizational leadership,” which means contributing not only to oneself and family, but to the company and broader society.

What are the outcomes for program graduates?

CW: Bentley MBA students will gain competencies in traditional areas of business, but with a different set of lenses through which to see business problems and generate solutions. They’ll leave the program with a good sense of who they are as a leader – their strengths and weaknesses as they head back into the work force.

MP: The very particular ROI of this program comes in the longer term career development. It sets students up for not just the next job and the job thereafter, but for entry to the C suite, to the board-level position, and for a sustained career at that level that might span 20 or 25 years.

DS: This is how graduate education should be done. I have no qualms about saying that.