October 13, 2003
Fall Plus Program Connects MBAs with Careers, Takes Fresh Look at Ethics
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Austin, TX - Two topics on the minds of many Americans -- business ethics and jobs -- are front and center during the fall session of Plus, a two-week, professional development program for MBAs at The University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business.
From Oct. 13-24, McCombs MBAs are experiencing a fresh approach to business ethics, exploring practical realities through an innovative series of seminars, experiential exercises and a competition that simulates a corporate crisis, forcing students to develop realistic responses.
"We have fashioned a curriculum that takes seriously the tension between long-term values and short-term performance," said the director of the Plus program, Steven Tomlinson.
Beefing up exposure to ethics is important for business schools, says Steve Salbu, associate dean for graduate programs at McCombs. "MBA students should receive this kind of exposure, and our constituencies rightly expect us to provide it," said Salbu, who noted that an increasing number of companies are requesting strong coverage of ethics at the schools where they recruit.
All 400 of the McCombs School's second-year MBAs will undergo the ethics curriculum.
Meanwhile first-year students will focus on sales and persuasion, which is one of the Plus program's four major themes along with international business and collaboration and networking.
Jobs will be a theme for nearly all of the students. Based on feedback after last year's pilot run of Plus, Tomlinson enhanced one of the program's most appealing features -- the opportunity for students to work on group projects of their own design, acting as mini-consulting teams to businesses and non-profits. The process is meant to help students explore their career goals and connect with potential employers.
"We give the MBAs two weeks where they are in consulting mode, where they set aside their student hats and reclaim their managerial authority," said Tomlinson. "The idea is to connect them with people who have jobs for them, to get them in front of managers and leaders, and to give students more opportunities to network."
The consulting projects can also expand recruiting opportunities. "Say a company doesn't recruit at UT or you didn't get an interview. You can offer them a project," said Tomlinson. "You have two weeks to impress them."
Connecting students with careers
Now in its second year, the Plus program encourages students to look up from their laptops and zero in on the "soft skills" managers need to succeed. For two weeks, the MBA program suspends regular classes so students can focus completely on professional development.
In response to feedback on last year's pilot program, Plus has become more student-driven, with greater emphasis on the student-initiated consulting projects. As an incentive to leadership, Tomlinson offered a refund of the program's fee to all students who became "Project Captains" of group consulting ventures. Students competed for the captain positions and then had to recruit classmates to their project teams.
Captains manage relationships with client organizations. Through group sessions with clients, the team members also have the chance for increased contact with corporate executives, which addressed another student goal for the program -- more chances to network with recruiters.
By offering a low-risk way for students to interact with corporate clients, Tomlinson believes that Plus may offer a new model of outreach recruiting. The consulting projects, which can last two weeks or continue over two years, offer "a sweet spot between case interviews and internships," which are two of the traditional ways that b-schools have engaged with employers.
For the fall session, McCombs MBAs will lead more than 100 consulting projects at a wide range of organizations from Dell Computers to the Ronald McDonald Foundation. The projects fall into broad categories that include b-school staples like corporate finance and entrepreneurship but also niche areas such as real estate, product design innovation, and film.
The Business Across Borders academy, designed to help future managers cope with the increasingly global nature of U.S. companies, is particularly popular with both students and regional employers, focusing on the pressing issue of distance management.
Throughout the two-year MBA program, business students at McCombs can now use Plus to test the waters in a new field before diving into full-time jobs or even summer-long commitments.
Through Plus, Tomlinson says, students can integrate the theory and practice of business, then apply their classroom learnings in the field.
"We want to connect students with their dream jobs," said Tomlinson, "and then coach them to succeed."
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
