Not Resting on Our Laurels

This week we got some good news about the full-time and working professional MBA program rankings. For the first time since 2007, the Full-time Program is back in the Top 50! Also, congratulations goes to Bill Davis and all of those associated with the part-time MBA working professional programs (in Winston-Salem and Charlotte) for being the only school in North Carolina to be ranked in the Top 50!

It took a lot of work in the extra-curricular parts of the program to make this happen. The admissions team really rolled up their sleeves and worked harder than ever to improve the admissions profile of our incoming students and they are doing the same this year. Thank you Stacy, Carrie, Allison, Kevin, Ginny, LaKesha, Sarah, Pat and Lance!

The career management center’s outcomes from last year were also a major factor in our rankings improvement. Salaries and placement rates at three months after graduation really helped us this year. Thank you to Guy, Beth, Mike, Lori and Lisa for all your work to make this happen. Marlane and Emily are doing a great job this year with the graduating MA class. We have wonderful additions to our CMC staff this year (Phil, Hansford, Eric and Janice) and we know they will help to continuously build the success of the CMC.

Thanks also go to Sylvia Green and Courtney Cashin for their work in getting the word out about WFU! Improvements in our website and live coverage of the Marketing Summit and the Elevator Competition were among the many wonderful additions to our visibility this year!

There are countless others to thank and I’m sorry for leaving out those who have worked so hard. Much credit goes to the faculty who deliver great courses year after year and to those individuals serving our students every day both inside and outside the classroom. Betsy, Lisa, Jan, Ronda and Amy – thank you so much for being there for our students when they need you!

BUT, there is still much work to do. Lisa and I spent much of last week conducting exit interviews with the graduating class and we appreciate your feedback and suggestions for continued improvement. As we compile the data from these interviews, there are several major themes which stand out that we will address. In addition to focusing on ways to better articulate the vision and mission of the school, continuing to develop stronger relations with our alumni, and strengthening and growing our recruiter contacts in the business world, we also need to work on evolving the curriculum for the full-time program. This is exactly what we are about to do! All of your feedback about classes, course sequence and experiences within each concentration will be considered as we undergo a significant curriculum review and re-design. Substantial effort is being made to implement necessary changes to the second-year curriculum, to maximize your experience next year.

In addition to the curriculum work, I am excited that all full-time students will be getting mentors next year who will be able to directly help them with career development, contacts and support above and beyond your CMC career coaches. I’m very thankful to Hansford for getting this piloted this year with the MA class and rolled out to the full-time program next year.

So, while there’s much more work to do and we certainly do not want to rest on our recent laurels, I would ask that we all take a brief moment to celebrate our achievements and then roll up our sleeves and get ready to tackle the next challenge! Students, faculty, staff and administration are all important parts of this process.

~ Sherry Moss

Rolling Out the Red Carpet

David McGrady is a first-year student in the evening MBA program and an ambassador for the Wake Forest University Schools of Business. In both capacities, he spent the past weekend welcoming students to the first of two Red Carpet events designed to get accepted candidates accustomed to the Wake Forest experience. Here are his initial thoughts, with more to come.

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Red Carpet weekend is the first opportunity for every admitted student to the full-time MBA, evening MBA, MSA, and MA programs to join together in a formal event. Last weekend’s event is the first of two this year that can help an admitted student determine if they want to join our Wake Forest family. Many in attendance had already determined that Wake would be their home for the next year or two. But for those who remain undecided, this was an opportunity for them to get an overall feel for the community, meet other admitted students, and interact with the faculty that Wake Forest has to offer.

The weekend had plenty to offer with house/apartment hunting, multiple chances to socialize with future peers and use some free time to explore Winston-Salem. The final event of the weekend was a chance for the admitted students to ask any forgotten questions of the weekend and hear from our Dean Steve Reinemund about our current momentum at Wake Forest. The night started with current SGA president David Madison (left) talking about his decision to attend Wake Forest and his experiences from his first year of MBA school. After what seemed like only a few minutes the night was almost over and with a cling of a glass the Dean stood. Most of us have heard him speak before but for some this was their first opportunity to grasp the presence of our great leader. His past experience, including as CEO of PepsiCo, speaks for itself but tonight he gave a few words of wisdom to every student about to make the transition into a graduate school program.

He began with a simple questions: “Why do you want to go back?” Next, he shared his reason for going back after starting at IBM. He quickly realized that he was unprepared to truly excel in the business world and that he needed to go back to school. But the dean challenged every student to make their own decision about what is best for them. The second part of his speech was about momentum. He stated that momentum is critical in both your career and organization if they are to move forward.

It gave the Dean another reason to discuss the recent rankings (#46 rank from U.S. News & World Report, a five-place improvement from 2009) and accomplishments of the Schools of Business that shows the current momentum at Wake Forest. This ended the night on an upbeat note for the ones who had already decided to attend Wake next year. And it gave undecided prospects something to consider on the ride or flight home the next day.

Building a Better Team

During my Project Management Institute Prep class, there was a discussion around the importance of developing the project team. In order to have a high-performing team, it is important to develop the project team. Per PMI, tools and techniques for project managers to utilize are interpersonal skills, training, team-building activities, and recognition and rewards.

What caught my attention during the class were the five stages of development of a team, which are referred to as Tuckman’s Stages:

• Form: The team meets and learns about the project and the objectives.
• Storm: The work of the project begins to get started.
• Norm: The team works together and adjusts their work habits.
• Perform: The team functions as a team – unit.
• Adjourn: The team completes the work and moves on.

For the programs that have one more year left, are we still going back to the norm stage? How do we get past from norm to the perform stage – a stage that we are working together as a team and as an organized unit? There are several roles our team members can play, that can be constructive or destructive. Constructive roles can range from initiators – whose attitude is “let’s do this” – to gate keeper, who helps others participate. Destructive roles can hurt a team as you can have aggressors, who criticize and deflates status of others, blockers, who reject others view, or dominators, who tries to take over the discussion. Are we effectively utilizing the tools, such as interpersonal skills, which include communication, influence, leadership, motivation, and problem solving methods effectively to build the team?

~ Bobbie Shrivastav

Winding Down

Three weeks left! By all rights, the downhill portion of the course; amazing how no one ever tells you how much effort goes into ensuring you don’t crash when you’re going downhill! Those little tiny rocks look just as dangerous as the boulders when you’re headed towards them at 100 mph.

The MAs are in the final module of our studies here at Wake Forest and I’m beginning to feel slightly nostalgic. We’re taking International Business, Strategic Management and Macroeconomics – what a way to finish! The discussions in each of the classes truly reflect how much we’ve grown and changed over the past 10 months, and it’s interesting to hear the debates that these former liberal arts students can get into!

Our Action Learning Project is winding down as well, although this current project with ISP Sports has brought every possible class we’ve taken together for Team 15. We’ve had to use all of our resources and know-how to figure out the solution that ISP presented us with – but we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from them, which to any consulting team always feels great. ISP has been a wonderful sponsor to work with as they are consistently supportive and welcoming to the MA team. They have facilitated our learning process outside of the classroom and given us wonderful insight into the business world we are all so anxious to enter.

Once again, the progress that we’ve made over the past few months is marked. Not only is it shown through our conversations in class, but with our professors, visiting speakers, interviews, and our families. In talking with Professor Shafer the other night at a team meeting, my team mentioned how much we felt we had gained from our program; in fact, far more than we thought we would entering the MA program at Wake.

The MAs are looking forward to our gala event with our mentors next Wednesday, where we will formally extend our thanks to the people who have helped us through the last few months and given us some true and heartfelt advice not only about our careers, but also surviving in the business world. My mentor with the Russell Agency has been such a wonderful gift to me and I think it’s one of the most valuable parts of the MA program. Wake is known for its alumni network and the welcoming atmosphere, but so often the skill and desire of its staff to meet every possible need of the student is overlooked.

So has it been stressful? Yes. But the experience in working with a team, gaining a fundamental knowledge of the business world, and building myself as a business person has been invaluable to me.

~ Jen Ratliff

Dean Reinemund Talks Momentum as Rankings Released

Momentum: force or speed of movement; impetus, as of a physical object or course of events
That is the word that perhaps best represents the Wake Forest University Schools of Business after finishing among the fifty best business schools for the first time since 2007, according to the latest rankings from U.S. News & World Report.
Dean Steve Reinemund clearly had momentum in mind as he discussed his vision for the Wake Forest Schools of Business with about 50 evening MBA students Wednesday night. Clearly it was top of mind when he discussed the latest ranking, though he was unable to tease out the final result to interested students.

Though mum on the placement, the smile on Dean Reinemund's face gave away his general pleasure at the results. He emphasized during the Q&A that the actual ranking is less relevant than overall improvement. He favors momentum over ranking and “absolute results” instead of comparisons to others. The key is for each MBA, MA and MSA student to have pride the in the degree each is working hard to capture.

“We want you to feel that your education will increase in value,” he said.
Wake Forest University's overall ranking was 46 this year. The university's part-time business school program was ranked at 31, marking its first finish in the Top 50 since 2004.
The Wake Forest Schools of Business is making other moves designed to instill pride among current students and alumni, while adding luster for those considering its programs.
Diversity, a hallmark of Reinemund’s corporate career, will be more noticeable. The business schools are set to hire two Hispanic women to tenure-track posts, marking an historic first. Administrators are also in final negotiations that would add a second African-American professor to the faculty, he said.
Facilities are poised to improve. Reinemund said his team has secured $25 million of the $45 million needed to construct a new building for the schools of business, which he hopes to have completed and filled by fall 2013. He said there are also plans for a new building in Charlotte to accommodate students there.
It was obvious that the key word in all this was momentum, with optimism that the schools of business is gaining such movement. It is an exciting time to be at the university.

Fast Forward: Moving Quickly in B-School

It's been a while since I last blogged, but since the moment school started back up in January, everyone has been running a hundred miles an hour. It's been difficult to get on any sort of legit schedule; things change so rapidly and without notice. Hopefully, things will calm down for the final mini, but probably not.
So, let's talk classes. We are finally at the point where we have declared concentrations and selected two electives for mini four. I'm enrolled in Financial Statement Analysis and Practical Issues of Marketing; my concentration is marketing. I went back and forth between marketing and finance, but in the end decided to stick with what I know. Most of my interviews were for marketing positions, and sitting in on the finance elective found me applying to switch classes DURING class. I'm certain I made the right decision!
Trips: I spent my spring break in Nicaragua for Project Nicaragua. Basically, we consult with local business owners and teach seminars on basic business concepts. The people we taught and work with can have pretty primitive business knowledge, yet they are some of the smartest people I've met. If there was something they didn't understand, it was usually our fault, not theirs. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I cannot wait to get back. This is why I came here, to do things like this.
Jobs: This is where it gets interesting. I participated in quite a bit of on-campus recruiting. I had an offer from one company, with a deadline to let them know the day I returned from Nicaragua. I had asked for an extension, as I was waiting on two more offers. They said no, so I said no. It was one of the scariest things I've ever done, turning down a sure thing in this economy for possibilities down the road. Luckily for me, it paid off, as I was offered a summer position with one of my top choices! I'm pretty pumped, and it's an enormous load off of my shoulders.
What's upcoming? Two electives, three required courses, finding housing in Atlanta, going to China for two weeks before the internship starts, and becoming an uncle. Things move quickly in B-school!

Justin Berthelot (second from left) and fellow Wake Forest students serving as teachers for a day in Nicaragua.

Wake Students Shine Online

Wake Forest University’s visibility on the Web has seemingly exploded in the last 12 months, following a trend recently highlighted by TopMBA that looks at how much perspective students are also using social media to evaluate potential MBA programs. Using a variety of media, Wake students are making a name for themselves and the university.

Here are just a view recent examples:

Sandie Taylor (right), a first-year in the full-time program, co-authored an article that ran on Forbes.com. Taylor collaborated with Selena Rezvani, the author of The Next Generation of Woman Leaders: What You Need to Learn But Won’t Learn in Business School, on an article examining why business schools are failing women. The duo determined that administrators must take responsibility for “elevating women’s status in the business world and growing the female leadership pipeline.

The article makes a good argument: MBA programs still admit just 30% of women annually, while law and medical schools are almost balanced. (Women also make up less than 20% of the faculty at some top business schools.) Further, they argue that business schools must do more for gender-specific leadership training and matching MBA candidates with mentors. It will be interesting to see if Taylor collaborates again with Rezvani (left), who earned her MBA from Johns Hopkins University.

The entire article starts here.

Another student generating buzz online is Andy Rinehart (right), who is also nearing the halfway point at the Wake Forest University Schools of Business. Rinehart is one of several MBAs blogging on BusinessWeek.com, and he used his last post to provide a firsthand account of preparation for this year’s Marketing Summit. Wake, the host team, placed second in the competition in February. "It should come as no great surprise that I really enjoy competition in all its forms," Rinehart declares before detailing why he joined the team and how they tackled their case from IBM. The entire blog can be accessed here.

We will also express our excitement after finding out that TopMBA for included our Twitter site and, by extension, this blog on its list of 10 social media sites to follow. Every member of this team greatly enjoys giving current, future, and perspective students the inside track on the Wake Forest Schools of Business experience, and it is rewarding to know that others are taking notice!

~ Paul Davis