MBA programs are getting extreme makeovers

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special to USA TODAY
The master of business administration degree just isn't what it used to be, thanks to a reinventing of the way executives are trained at more than 50 business schools nationwide.
Fast fading are the days when students spent two graduate years mastering management theory and honing a specialty in finance or marketing to serve them in any number of industries. Instead, business schools are aiming to graduate more well-rounded managers who are as strong in communication as in technical analysis but geared often for a career in one particular industry.
Spurred by a mix of factors, from declining application numbers to feedback from unsatisfied employers, many of the nation's smaller business schools are carving out a niche by overhauling their MBA curricula. Over the next three years, about 300 business schools are expected either to add academic programs or substantially revise their curricula, according to a 2004 survey by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. More than 50 programs already have made significant revisions, association president John Fernandez says.
"Business wants a better developed student, a more broadly developed student," Fernandez says.
To get there, business schools are in some cases remaking the MBA from the ground up. Miami University (Ohio), for instance, laid to rest in 2003 the two-year traditional MBA program that treated each business subject separately. Next month, the program rises anew to confer the same degree in just 14 months. Formal management topics are now tackled in summer "boot camp." After that, students approach actual business problems through broad themes such as "product, service and customer development" and "the competitive environment," culminating in a six-week field experience abroad.

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