The MBA is the Lally School’s premier program and offers students both depth and breadth in management education with an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship. The focus on “innovation” is concerned with organizational, financial, and technological innovation, while the emphasis on “entrepreneurship” involves both individually-driven new start-ups and the launch of new businesses within larger corporations.
The curriculum provides a strong grounding in managerial fundamentals while highlighting the strategic role that technology plays in enhancing business performance and creating sustainable competitive advantage.
In addition, it includes a non-pay community service (Practicum) course in the Spring semester in which students use training in service and process innovation to help solve local community problems. Individual faculty will supervise teams of students who work with local agencies and small business start-ups. Projects come from faculty in conjunction with local organizations, agencies and businesses.
If they choose, students can complete the 51-credit hour MBA in one year from September to August. The MBA includes 11 required courses (33 CREDITS), a selection of two “flex core” courses (from 5) (6 CREDITS), and four electives (12 CREDITS) for a total of 51 credits.
The infusion of innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit begins prior to the start of official classes with a special week-long orientation program called “Heroes, Leaders, and Innovators.” The program immerses new students in the examination of the key characteristics of successful business leaders; the experience and behaviors of these leaders from both inside and outside of the business world is done through case studies, laboratory simulations, and classroom exchanges.
Throughout the remainder of the MBA curriculum, students are exposed to the cutting-edge methods and strategies that corporations deploy to create and capture value in today’s global economy. The program also provides ample opportunity for professional development by developing such skills in business communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, and team building. In one of their final courses, Managing on the Edge, students marshal together their accumulated learning from across the entire program to develop creative solutions for a series of unique, unanticipated business problems characterized by their non-linear, unpredictable nature.
Return to: