Dr. Joyce Kurpiers of Percept Research attended the 2017 Executive MBA Council Midwest regional meeting July 17-19. Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management hosted about 50 attendees at the event.
After a welcome and opening remarks from Weatherhead Assistant Dean Deborah Bibb, EMBAC Board Chair Elmer Almachar (Northwestern Kellogg) reported on the Council’s recent achievements, upcoming events, and the state of the Executive MBA industry.
EMBAC Board Chair Elmer Almachar (Northwestern Kellogg) delivers industry updates
The conference included two key sessions, entitled “Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Behavior,” and “Managing as Designing: Education for Innovation.” Each presentation included break-out meetings in which EMBA program leaders brainstormed on key traits of effective leadership and teamwork, shared inventive EMBA program adaptations to market trends, and considered the creative and design-oriented thinking required of effective managers.
Along with rich conversation and robust deliberations that addressed EMBA students’ needs, conference attendees enjoyed Weatherhead’s invitation to experience Cleveland’s sights, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
EMBAC Midwest conference attendees brainstorm in a breakout session
We wanted to share some of the interesting insights we heard at the meeting:
- Paul Velasco (Ohio State Fisher) described how certain prospective student population segments remain silent to traditional EMBA marketing and recruitment efforts as evidenced by Fisher’s launch of a new specialized Master’s degree. Although it appeared that these prospective students were unresponsive to the program’s outreach, the new program launched very successfully with abundant student interest.
- David Cooperrider (Case Weatherhead) revealed research and insights into the roles of positive thinking and strengths focus as fundamental to effective corporate leadership. David provided examples on how focusing on employee strengths and positive outcomes are essential to driving organizational behaviors that enable companies to prosper through change, stimulate growth, and retain engaged, thriving employees.
- Jill Terrill (Iowa Tippie) shared how Tippie streams guest lectures to two off-campus locations, which makes the events convenient for student access and enhances student engagement. Attendees deliberated on the benefits and challenges of collaborating to share future lectures among Midwest programs via streaming.
- Kimberli Cumming (Michigan Ross) presented a mock-up of a brochure designed to empower accepted Ross EMBA applicants in building and delivering successful cases to their employers for employer financial support.
- Fred Collopy (Case Weatherhead) challenged common myths that misrepresent “management” as strictly analytical and predictable. Instead, he framed management as “creative, messy, and filled with variability.” Reflecting on his research and other studies indicating that executives consider creativity a top asset for employees, Dr. Collopy offered thoughts on executive education that develops team members who “think outside the box.”
- Midwest attendees brainstormed on exchanging “job shadowing” opportunities to help staff learn from regional peers. Ohio Fisher plans to spearhead efforts to employ the EMBAC email list to help organize informal job shadowing and other resource-sharing ventures.
- Alex Baranpuria (Ivy Exec) shared social media marketing innovations, including Snapchat Takeovers (where an alumnus shares “a day in the life” of that alumnus) and Facebook Lookalikes (in which a program can use the general profile of its Facebook followers to identify other Facebook users – and potential new prospects – with similar traits).
Do you have other insights that you would like to share in our article comments section below?
Dr. Joyce Kurpiers led a session focused on key business school metrics in the industry that were measured in the 2016 Executive MBA Council Membership Program Survey and from the MBA Student Entry and MBA Student Exit Surveys offered by Percept Research.
Attendees enjoying the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Percept Research serves as the research partner to the Executive MBA Council. The mission of Executive MBA Council is to educate, network, and inform. The council both captures and disseminates valuable industry data to member schools, the media, and the corporate sector.
Percept Research also conducts higher education market research and communications consulting for over 240 business schools worldwide. Consulting engagements include new program feasibility studies, brand positioning, student lifecycle assessments, and messaging strategy.
Be sure to check out more photos from the regional meeting on the Percept Research Facebook page.
