However, 20 years ago, the majority of students in our MBA programs
would have received at least partial funding from their corporations. Today, it’s
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significantly less, more like 25/30%.
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The program can be delivered online in 15 months, considerably you have put a great deal of effort into establishing an online mBA
less time than the customary two-year period for many programs program. What prompted this? Research shows that online education
out there. Opportunities to network with other CEOs and execu- in the US, and in much of the world, is increasing at a much higher
tives are provided, thus facilitating an intermingling with others of rate than higher education generally. There are many MBA programs,
like mind and nature. Allied to this, we provide a curriculum that but only a few executive online programs, so we focused our attention
delivers international experience and is taught by faculty with real on the executive MBA. Another reason we proceeded is because RIT
world experience. has a very strong regional reputation in the Northeast part of the US,
however, if you go to places like Illinois, California or Texas, people are
how much emphasis do you place upon entrepreneurship? A less aware of our reputation. Although we have had a significant amount
great deal. We have a very innovative curriculum and focus on in- of success with our international offerings, whether in Eastern Europe,
novation in most of our courses. We have very strong ties with vari- Dubai, Prague, or India, as I mentioned, we have not enjoyed the same
ous businesses and this allows us to really provide entrepreneurial success across the US. Consequently, we feel that an online EMBA will
business coverage for new companies or start-ups as well as medium be helpful to our expansion.
sized and existing organizations. In addition, we also have programs
in new product design, development and sustainability, which are To what extent has your collaboration with Embanet made this
components within an entrepreneurial setting. possible? The people at Embanet are professionals. In an analy-
sis of the requirements for building an online delivery system, the
Within the University, we recently started a program at PhD level course development process can be classified as easy, and the cur-
for sustainability and several of our Saunders business faculty mem- riculum development process, reasonably easy. We have very good
bers are working on projects and research in that area. The new people on campus who are quite capable of doing that.
knowledge acquired is filtered into our business classes in conjunc-
tion with issues pertaining to sustainable production. Ultimately, However, there are other implications involved. The delivery expertise,
the student is the beneficiary. the marketing ability coupled with the capacity to identify qualified stu-
dents and the inclusion of exceptional student services – these are all-
Given the current economic climate, do you foresee there be- important facets of the online delivery system. This is where Embanet,
ing an upswing in the number of self-funded mBA students with their background and skill base, comes to the forefront.
attending RiT’s E. philip Saunders College of Business? It’s a
trend we have been noticing for the last 5-6 years. Certainly, corpo- In talking to our business advisory group, their unequivocal advice
rations have tightened their belts leading to reducing budgets. As was to outsource, because the skills and knowledge needed to build
a corollary, corporate education programs have suffered and con- a marketing campaign and to deal with online students 24/7 was
sequently there are more people self-funding at that level. Partly not something we were ready to do or even gear up for in time.
because of the large corporations downsizing, we observe that more
of our students are coming from midsize and smaller firms and en- how does the Saunders online Executive mBA program differ
terprises, but many of the latter cannot afford, or do not choose to from other online mBA offerings? RIT has the Saunders College of
provide, corporate education for their employees. Business. There are actually eight colleges under the umbrella of RIT.
We have a new college of sustainability, a school of design, and technol-
Another pertinent issue is that the loyalty of corporations to their ogy programs in the area of imaging, microelectronics, nanotechnology,
employees does not appear to be as strong as it was twenty years and packaging. RIT is one of the very few universities with technology
ago. We also see that students who graduate are changing jobs more management, design and co-operative education. We also have the Na-
frequently than heretofore. This trend is evident, even among very tional Technical Institute for the Deaf. This provides a large skill base
successful mid and upper level managers. and affords access to very strong support.
None of it is unexpected. However, 20 years ago, the majority of We focus heavily on leadership, global strategic thinking, innova-
students in our MBA programs would have received at least partial tion, sustainability and creativity and on the ability of teams to col-
funding from their corporations. Today, it’s significantly less, more laborate and increase the productivity. We also have two courses
like 25/30%. that deal specifically with innovation; one is called new product
development and the other commercialization and brand manage-
It is noteworthy however, that overall our enrollment has remained ment. However, we ensure that innovation is woven into all of the
very stable. courses within the EMBA program.
76 | CEO
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