Lessons for Real Life: 10 Years of Exec Ed

Programs geared to help experienced Managers thrive on relevancy and quick
response

By Jeanne Spreier


Editor's Note: It's been a decade drawn from real life for The School of
Management's Executive Education programs. This year, Exec Ed, geared to
answer the higher-education needs of experienced workers anxious to
improve their skills and move up in the job market, celebrates ten years
of fast-paced response, real-world immediacy, and lasting value. Benefits
have accrued all around. As graduates have earned credentials and
credibility, the School has learned the importance of these oxymorons:
Make change a permanent part of the program; be absolute about
adaptability.

These students aren't looking for another diploma to paper their wall,
although it doesn't hurt. These students aren't demanding business theory,
unless it's applicable right now. Some of these students, in fact, might
not even show up on The University of Texas at Dallas campus except once
every couple of months. Students in The School of Management's Executive
Education programs, all people who have been out in the working world for
typically ten or fifteen years or more, in fact might be some of UTD's
most demanding students.

Associate Dean for Executive Education Dr. David Springate knows that -
and respects it.

"We draw on that experience," says Dr. Springate of the four component
curriculums that operate under his aegis. The Executive MBA (EMBA) Program
appeals to seasoned managers seeking to upgrade their skills, and the
Project Management Program helps project team leaders keep apace - even
ahead of - changes in corporate structures and operations. Managers
seeking international expertise and a flexible learning environment are
drawn to the Global Leadership Executive MBA (GLEMBA) Program. There's
even an Exec Ed program, the Alliance for Medical Management Education
(AMME), for medical professionals to learn business skills specific to
healthcare settings.


A decade drawn from real life

In all these, Dr. Springate says, "folks expect to contribute, and they
expect [classes] to be relevant. Not only do they want long-term
relevance, but they want relevance next week, next month." These students
need professors who can think on their feet, who aren't doctrine-driven,
who can keep the class focused on the day's topic while incorporating
real-life challenges. That might include a student observing, after a
textbook discussion: "Our company tried that two years ago, and it didn't
work."

Academia can have what in the business world is a deathly long change
cycle, sometimes taking as long as ten years to switch program
requirements. But Dr. Springate says UTD's Executive Education offerings
are much more nimble than that. "Each program has graduates who we talk
to. They are not shy about what they like and don't like." The youth of
Executive Education at UTD - this year it celebrates its tenth anniversary
- gives the program its flexibility. "We don't have a long enough history
to have institutionalized the program," Dr. Springate says.


EMBA: Giving 'em that 'got-to-know' subset

That has allowed for some remarkably quick responses to the demands of
business execs looking for advanced degrees.

In all the Executive Education programs, the two driving issues are a
potential student's lack of flexible time coupled with a thirst for
additional education, percolating under the demand for information readily
usable today. "Adults want to learn things that are relevant to them,"
says Dr. Jasper Arnold, head of UTD's largest Executive Education
offering, its EMBA Program. "They are not too interested in learning stuff
that they can't put into action right now."

Exec Ed addresses the students' need for immediate relevance by
incorporating team assignments and an international component throughout
its curriculum. Students grouped together in teams that change from course
to course and semester to semester usually find corollary benefits in
their mini-assemblies. Cultural diversity stands out and is appreciated
for the horizons it broadens; clear communication and productivity gain
new respect; networking, negotiating, and bonding offer useful subtexts.
Global aspects of business are interwoven into course topics whenever
possible. Three of the programs - EMBA, Project Management, and GLEMBA -
follow this up with an international trip project, and team efforts also
go into preparations for the classes' ten-day travel tours abroad.

In the twenty-one month EMBA Program, students work on team projects each
semester. In addition, as a class, they take a domestic trip as well as
the international tour. This strategy is well-planned for students, most
of whom are in their 30s and 40s with a decade or more of corporate
experience. "Our Exec MBA Program gives knowledge but also know-how," Dr.
Arnold says, "[and] the skills to put it in play.... There's a got-to-know
subset of knowledge and some that's-nice-to-know.

"What we have to do is give them the got-to-know stuff."


Project Management: a New twist on a career From Noah's time

Jim Joiner, head of the Exec Ed's Project Management Program, hands out
the "got-to-know" in a program he began just five years ago in response to
needs of local companies. The needs existed in companies like Raytheon,
where work strategies are based on the project management ethic
exemplified in team efforts. This year, because of demands from potential
students who couldn't attend the monthly three-day sessions required of
Project Management students, Mr. Joiner instituted an online program. It
kicked off this past spring with nine students.

There isn't a job in this nation, Mr. Joiner says, that doesn't require
some amount of project management sensibility. "Project management has
been around since Noah's time," he says. "But in the past, it was kind of
an engineering thing."

Mr. Joiner retired from Texas Instruments after a thirty-one-year career
there. After one year at home, he knew he needed to do something else. He
hooked up with Dr. Springate to upgrade the School's eighteen-hour
certificate program in project management.

"It really needed to be a degree program," Mr. Joiner says. Response to
that need was immediate, and options of completing either a Master of
Science degree or an MBA were added to the certificate program.


GLEMBA: Flexible, portable, and global, too

Dr. Anne Ferrante oversees another Executive Education offering, the
Global Leadership Executive MBA (GLEMBA) Program. GLEMBA allows students
to do the vast majority of their coursework online. "The main issue for
most [GLE-MBA students] is they need flexibility and portability," Dr.
Ferrante says. "The driver of that is travel. That is the number one
reason they can't commit to a Friday-Saturday program."

Don't think matchbook-cover diploma mill, however. Think about how people
already operate in the business world. Their team members are in corporate
offices across the nation, or even the world; teleconferencing is routine;
and, for some, they need the ability to attend a program regardless of
where they live. GLEMBA allows students to be anywhere and requires them
to be on the Richardson campus just once a quarter.

The global focus of this program, Dr. Ferrante says, answers needs that
people can't possibly know as they enter the workforce in their early 20s.
Thus GLEMBA students are returning students who find themselves employed
in an industry with global reach or plans, and they find they need more
international management knowledge. "We are giving extra-heavy doses of
economics at the macro and micro level," she says, in addition to "skill
building that goes with the knowledge set."


AMME: A true mix of management and medicine

This overall flexibility has allowed Executive Education to develop
programs to address very specific needs in advanced learning. John
McCracken, a UTD faculty member whose doctorate is in finance, oversees a
strategic partnership between UTD and U.T. Southwestern Medical School.
That partnership developed a graduate business degree program specifically
designed for physicians and senior healthcare administrators in management
roles in medicine. The program, the Alliance for Medical Management
Education (AMME), targets those overseeing a large clinic or practice,
heading a hospital department, or working in private industry in a
medicine-related field.

"About 95 percent of doctors want to practice clinical medicine and want
to leave the business side alone," Dr. McCracken says. "About 5 percent
are natural leaders. They aspire to a leadership role." It's a finite
number of potential students, Dr. McCracken knows, but those who come for
the Medical Management Executive MBA know it's what they need. And, he
says, UTD offers one of the only programs nationwide that is not simply a
reconstituted MBA program. "It's a true joint venture between the medical
school and the business school," he says.

Mark G Ewell, an anesthesiologist now working in Laredo, Texas, is
wrapping up his AMME Program studies. "There's been a leadership void
among physicians," says Dr. Ewell, who only realized after years of
training that more than just clinical skills were needed to be a good
physician.

"I don't think [the AMME Program] has changed my clinical skills.... But
there is a nonclinical skill set, too," he says. Especially in areas of
conflict resolution, he now understands the dynamics and roles involved,
using a business model approach. The program "has been a plus for my
professional development and my personal development.

I only wish I'd done this earlier."

Sam Gilliland: Ten years' worth of credibility

One executive who did do it earlier is Sam Gilliland, now president and
CEO of Travelocity.com, the Fort Worth-based travel marketing and
transaction company. He joined UTD's first Exec MBA class ten years ago.
His education was in electrical engineering, but as he moved up in Sabre,
Travelocity's parent company, he saw some blanks in his knowledge base. "I
felt I needed a foundation in basic business principles," he says. "It's
not that the technical track was unfulfilling to me. I was having a great
time.... The [Exec MBA] Program [helped] me in solving problems that were
outside my technical background."

The results, as he looks back, were twofold. It built his confidence, and,
he says, "my contribution had more credibility."


Useful in booms-and in busts

Dr. Arnold expects EMBA enrollment, now at ninety-one students, to remain
stable despite economic uncertainties. "During recession times, people go
back to school because they feel insecure," he says. "During boom times,
they go back to gain new skills. There's pressure in both the boom and
bust phase."

That certainly holds true for Laura Sellers, an EMBA student who expects
to graduate in May. She started her program while at one
Internet-dependent firm, lost that job, got student loans to fund her
tuition, went ahead with her education plans, and then had some additional
job upheavals in the shaky Internet environment. Worried that finding
another position would be difficult when potential employers learned she
needed every other Friday off to attend EMBA classes, she toyed with the
idea of dropping out.

Instead, the fact that she was enrolled helped her land her current
position as vice president for marketing at Trintech, an Irish software
and services company with its U.S. headquarters in Dallas. "It impressed
[my future boss] that I was doing this. It was an asset for me. It helped
me get this job."

Ready to change, able to adapt, Ms. Sellers epitomizes the character of
most Executive Education students and the essence of the programs
themselves. Just as the future isn't a lock, the programs aren't locked
in, either.

It's all a matter relevancy, after all; especially in Executive Education.



Exec Ed Survey Report:

This summer, as we approached the tenth anniversary of Executive Education
at UTD, we surveyed our alumni to find out how successful our programs
have been in achieving their objectives. The charts below reflect positive
feedback we received.

Those surveyed were asked to rate their experiences on a 5-point scale
with 1=Not at All and 5=Extremely Well.

The average annual salary increase within five years of graduation from
the executive MBA program ranges from $32,000 to $45,000.



We asked our alumni in what ways the skills and knowledge they gained in
their UTD Executive Education program changed their business careers. 
Here's what they said:


". . . The UTD program gave me a different perspective on things and the
way to handle business situations." - Charles M. Prowant, MBA 2002,
Project Management, market area manager, Ericsson


"The UTD program has given me a greater awareness of the entire business
environment. With this greater awareness, I see opportunities in my
day-to-day business activities that were simply overlooked in the past.
When the opportunities surface, I move strategically and confidently,
taking full advantage of the circumstances." - John J. Grothe, GLEMBA
2001, account manager, Warren Electric Group


". . . Added broader corporate/organizational perspective and context to
the individual and small-group work that is my specialty." - Kim Sawyer,
MS 2002, ODCM, executive coach/business facilitator, The Wealth Source


". . . My training has enabled me to direct my group with more authority
and expertise while still wearing the same white coat they do." - E.A.
(Andy) Clark, AMME 2000, medical director, Diagnostic Clinic


"Not only am I able to recognize significant opportunities as I market
myself based on having an MBA, but I am also in a better position to
recognize needs of and enhance business operations of companies with which
I interface." - Patricia Gorman, EMBA 1997, Business Development, Pegasus
Texas Construction LP


"The program made me realize the value of globalization. I have a job that
involves a German parent company and customers and suppliers that operate
in all regions of the world. . . . As a company, our ability to operate
and function globally is a strategic advantage over competitors in our
industry." - Charles Calhoun, EMBA 1996, director sales and
marketing-U.S., Kraiburg TPE Corporation


"The Executive MBA program has given me the confidence to believe in
myself and follow my own path, pace, and theme. . . " - Esther M. Bauer,
EMBA 1995, EB Writers Inc.


"The knowledge that I gained helped me to better understand some issues
that earlier were being decided only on my gut feelings. It helped put
some methodology to the process of thinking through some complex
management issues." - Satish Kirtikar, EMBA 1998, president, ACTIA
Corporation


". . . Going to school again opened up my mind to new ideas and a new way
of thinking. The education helped me formalize my practical experiences in
business. I attribute my increase in earnings, in part, to the education I
received at UTD." - George W. Aubrey, EMBA 1997, vice president, Kabira
Technologies, Inc.