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Executive MBA faculty testimonials
"Coincident with Florida International
University's celebration of its quarter century mark, the University has
just graduated its first Executive MBA class. I was scheduled to teach
one of the last two courses in our EMBA: Strategic Marketing Management,
and I was faced with a challenge. Our EMBA students had just concluded
more than 18 months of rigorous study; they had covered the traditional
academic fields through lectures, cases, guest speakers, field trips,
team presentations, and tutorials. How could they be stimulated to concentrate
on another 10 weeks of study when they were already planning their Spring
graduation party?
With some trepidation, I opted to embrace a full-scale, term-long, intensive
experiential approach, wherein our EMBA participants would be obliged
to draw upon all the skills and techniques they had acquired in their
program, as well as insights from their business experiences. The answer
to my conundrum seemed to be a complex and wide-ranging simulation, provided
that I was not being misled by a Delphic oracle. Although I was familiar
with several possible alternatives, the one that appealed to me was Ernie
Cadotte's Marketplace. The appeal of the Marketplace simulation
was manifold: considerable marketing detail (such as sales, advertising,
segmentation, pricing); a range of strategic activities besides marketing
(such as production, accounting, finance, banking, and management); its
interface had been revamped and streamlined; support from the folks at
the Marketplace was incomparable.
Ever cautious and conscious that our EMBA students expected — indeed,
demanded — the best product available and wished to have a high-tech
experience, I asked Ernie if I could observe his intensive (nine day)
EMBA course in action. He readily agreed and so I journeyed up to Knoxville
to experience Ernie's EMBA course first hand. It was enthralling: redolent
with thoughtful strategy, risk-taking, and competitive pressure. Just
the dish to set before our EMBA participants.
The structures of EMBA programs vary markedly. The one at FIU features
courses that meet for 40 contact hours, spread over a ten-week period.
These classes are scheduled for three Saturdays and one Friday a month
(one weekend free). With classes of four hours each, I estimated that
the participants could make one decision a week, with one class period
for a Venture Capital Fair, and a final class for team reports to the
venture capitalists and the class as a whole.
What I did not anticipate, initially, was the wholeheartedness with which
our EMBA participants embraced the Marketplace experience. The
decisions for the first quarter were not completed until after 7:30 PM
over two hours beyond the time set for the class. Except for the last
two class periods, when there was little room for further maneuver, all
the classes ran at least six hours. On one intense occasion, the week
of the business plans, the session did not finish until after 10:00 PM.
(In fact, that week a couple of the EMBA teams pulled all-nighters so
as to fine-tune their presentations to the venture capitalists.)
Since this class constituted my first experience with our EMBA students,
I did not wish to rein in the participants' enthusiasm and commitment
in any way. At the time I had, and in retrospect I have, no regrets about
this decision, even though I was acutely conscious of the fact that my
social life was compromised. However, the class length decision is not
one that should be undertaken lightly. It would be entirely possible to
force decisions at the end of a specified period. Perhaps this decision
depends upon style and purpose: the difference between a regular chess
game and timed chess moves.
A highlight of Strategic Marketing was the Venture Capital Fair. The EMBA
participants enjoyed the excitement, the competitive atmosphere, vying
for attention, and extemporaneous response. A key element in this success
was, I felt, the venture capitalists themselves. These were actual venture
capitalists who devoted a Saturday afternoon to listening to the teams'
business plans, commenting on the plans, bargaining with the teams, and
investing their marketplace money. I did not have the contacts to identify
venture capitalist in our community. Our dean did since he interfaced
with an association of venture capitalists in South Florida. The presence
of outsiders (as contrasted with faculty) lent a veracity to the proceedings
that could not be duplicated by insiders. However much effort it may require
to identify venture capitalists and persuade them to participate in the
course will be repaid in the reaction of the EMBA teams.
One of my techniques was to produce a newsletter that summarized some
of the main results from each quarter and added gossipy comments on current
dynamics, augmented with digital photographs. The participants were eager
to read the copy each time we met after the previous quarter's decision;
they relished the interpersonal scuttlebutt, and adjourned to their decisions
with an even greater determination to succeed (whatever that might mean).
Throughout the course, participants were uninhibited in expressing their
enthusiasm for the chance to have the hands-on experience provided by
Marketplace. This enthusiasm continued, undiminished, into the
evaluation phase at the end of the course. The overall evaluation was
4.95 for 18 items on a 5-point scale. A prospective user of this simulation
may be interested in the written
comments of our EMBA participants."
John Nicholls
Chair & Professor of Marketing
Florida International University
"During the Spring semester, we had 34
EMBA students, in seven teams, play in Global Marketplace Internet
Games. As you know EMBA students want to use tomorrow what they learn
today. We did not have one criticism. 'Best experience of the program'
was more typical. We have incorporated the game into our new curriculum
based on this test. It will be a 3 credit hour course. The students participated
in the game in lieu of their independent study requirement. I told them
it would be as much, if not more work.
General feedback was that it was 15 to 20 hours of work per week
but more fun than they wanted to admit to me or their spouses at home.
They did the game concurrent with their regular weekly class. I made faculty
advisors available but they were not utilized to any great extent by our
students.
The faculty also endorsed the game and even discussed how they might adopt
some of their classes to better prepare the students for the game. I see
it becoming a thread through our first year for both the students and
the faculty.
As far as real life applicability of the game, I played the game last
summer and found it very realistic. In my first career I was the VP of
Pricing and Planning for Xerox. I was also in sales, marketing and operations
for Xerox and IBM. The game tracks the real world very well."
Jim Shapiro,
Vice President, Enrollment Management
University of New Haven
"The Executive MBA Program at the University
of Rhode Island and an Extended Run of Marketplace.
Our EMBA program is a weekend program which lasts 21 months. This program
is delivered in three phases:
- Phase I: Managerial Skills
- Phase II: Functional Knowledge and Strategies
- Phase III: Integration
The first time we used Marketplace, we ran it just in Phase III
(8 months). At the suggestion of EMBA students involved in this run of
the simulation, we switched to running the game through Phase II and Phase
III (12 months, 10 quarters of play). The idea was to have the game supplement
the functional knowledge areas of Phase II and to provide a dynamic environment
in which to examine organizational change and transformation in Phase
III. Prior to running the game with the students, instructors in the functional
areas were provided with an opportunity to play a few quarters of the
game. They were also given the text material to see how their functional
areas were incorporated into the structure of the game.
Two weeks before the start-up of the game, the students were given operating
manuals to read for the next weekend session. Three hours were then spent
going over the basics of the game and helping the students prepare to
make their initial decisions. Thereafter decisions were made on a monthly
basis; meetings with the lead instructor were scheduled for every other
decision period. During the first four quarters the marketing, finance,
and management science faculty devoted some of their allotted time with
the students to Marketplace topics. For instance, the finance
instructor stressed the construction of the financial statements and incorporated
other game-specific issues such as stock valuation into his assignments.
On paper it sounds great, but does it work? Overall the students indicate
that the simulation provides an added dimension to their studies. They
like the integrative component which the simulation provides across all
of their modules, not just the marketing areas. Stretching the game over
12 months provides the EMBA student with more time to digest the nuances
of the game. In most cases this seems to help the teams that got off to
a shaky start.
From the faculty's perspective the game has also been well received.
Though not all of the faculty involved in the EMBA program took advantage
of the training session, the critical faculty members have included the
necessary material in their sessions giving the game continuity. In addition,
the faculty have commented that the simulation confronts the students
with the implications of their strategic decisions, something which a
case study cannot accomplish.
Having used the game for two EMBA classes, we are considering restructuring
the experience to include a more intensive startup We hope that by completing
at least the initial 3 quarters over a long weekend session, the teams
will get off to a more even start. If we go to this structure, the game
will still run for 10 quarters but it would span only 10 months of the
program."
Deborah E. Rosen
Department of Marketing
University of Rhode Island
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