A Prize for Business Mind and Spirit

In response to proposals for the USC College Dean’s Prize for the enrichment of student academic life and to answer the question: “How would you go about making the educational experience at USC college even better?”, this week’s post focuses on my suggestion to integrate undergraduate businesses class lectures with invited practitioners in the field. For brevity, let us call my suggestion the “Classroom Motivation Speakers” (CMS). The role and mission of USC is the “development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit.” Too many of my undergraduate classes are interesting in their own right but fail to show how the course material relate to the business community. For example, BUAD-311 Operations Management, examines maximizing efficiencies in production assembly lines but lacks referencing any contemporary real world examples. With all the resources available to the USC Marshall School of Business, it is depressing that no one from the multitude of industries surrounding Los Angeles was brought into class to provide a personal success story of how they used the principles studied in class to turnaround a moribund company. With this simple connection, the class would have educated both the mind and spirit of business students.

The winners for this year’s College Dean’s Prize will be judged on the following selection criteria: (1) importance of the issues being addressed, (2) originality or creativity of the idea, (3) feasibility and potential for successful implementation, and (4) range of students affected if implemented. CMS will provide important benefits to the business school and students in all the above criteria. Part of USC’s Plan for Increasing Academic Excellence is a vision that “advances knowledge and at the same time addresses issues critical to our community, the nation, and the world.” By bringing into the classroom champions of industry, students will be able to recognize immediately the connection between theory and application. Although the concept of CMS is not original, its implementation in a classroom setting is far from optimum today. CMS should be easily enacted within the USC business school environment because of enthusiastic alumni support groups and the strategic value of attracting top students to companies represented by the speakers. Embedding CMS as part of all business classes will provide the widest range of benefit to all students and counter any arguments of favoritism toward specific business curricula. Any fears that CMS will require significant funds to secure distinguished speakers can be countered by the natural appeal to USC alumni to share their successes with future leaders of America.

Creating a CMS program facilitates development of USC’s four major strategic capabilities contained within its Plan for Increasing Academic Excellence. First, CMS will help span disciplinary and school boundaries by enhancing interest and engagement by students in other USC schools. For example, the Viterbi School of Engineering already has a cooperative graduate course of study with Marshall in 3D Animation. Second, CMS will provide and stimulate dialogue among researchers and business practitioners. It will demonstrate how theory is transformed into profitable practices. Today, many sound business decisions are based on probability and statistics. Just one business success explained in a CMS setting, such as choosing the best set of stock options, can only encourage students to dig deeper into the underlying theory of this branch of mathematics. Third, CMS encourages the formation of networks and partnerships by disseminating success stories among a wide range of people within and outside of USC. Today, UPenn-Wharton already provides an “Executive Speaker Series” in-class for undergraduates. Because of existing collaborations with other top business colleges including Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia, a USC CMS program will expand existing networks and coalitions beyond the Trojan Family. Fourth, CMS will increase responsiveness to learners by highlighting the latest technology and process improvements in business circles based on evolving strategies and methods. CMS will enhance learning opportunities to the Trojan Family well after graduation and into retirement. Finally, CMS will strengthen USC’s Core Values of free inquiry and code of ethics by promoting open discussion between industry and academics.