Heather Scaglione, EMBA ’05
Project Manager / Technical Marketing Polybatch, A. Schulman
When I arrived at Baldwin-Wallace College and met with the director of graduate business programs, Prof. Peter Kelly, as a prospective MBA student, I was immediately intrigued by the B-W slogan, “Practical. Principled. Powerful.” As a polymer engineer, I suppose that I’ve always strived to assess things on the most basic level and do so in a pragmatic and diligent manner. However, as so many of us now understand about U.S. manufacturing, competition is global regardless of the customer’s geography. This heightens the need to produce tangible deliverables in a cost effective and competitive manner. I knew I needed to broaden the breath of my thinking beyond a purely engineering and research mentality.
I signed on at B-W and was quickly introduced to “Systems Thinking.” This approach to thinking is core to B-W’s MBA experience. Now that I’ve graduated, it is proving to be critical to my personal growth and mastery of practical, business fundamentals. I’ll explain.
Traditional analysis and business programs focus on separating and analyzing the individual pieces. An individual piece might be the highly regulated finance department, which is clearly separated from the marketing department. This is where other learning institutions have focused student learning in their MBA programs. These programs are effective at addressing the needs of the individual pieces, yet are overlooking the critical links between organizations, departments and individuals, particularly on a global scale.
To put this into context, system thinking takes into consideration the interactions between the constituents of a system and studies the elicited behavior. B-W has assembled an integrated and effective program that clearly demonstrates and builds upon this system approach. The program channels opportunities for personal growth. As controversial as it might sound, Baldwin-Wallace’s EMBA, under the guidance of Peter Rea and Don Lefelar, asserts that ethics should be taught and mentored in business managers through the lenses of the Aristotle’s Seven Classical Virtues. Where would the business world be today had Enron’s executives and managers focused on virtuous behavior? One can now only imagine.
The cornerstone of the B-W’s EMBA program for me was the capstone project during the second year. The capstone project is effectively the final culmination of the program and provides a for-profit, multinational organization with a tangible deliverable. Prior to the second year, EMBA students are charged with engaging a client, specifically a manufacturing organization. At the completion of the consulting project, the management students provide their clients with a five-year financial blueprint, as well as strategic, structural, cultural, system and leadership recommendations. In my opinion, this single “hands-on” consulting experience was more efficacious than any program structured purely around theories and lectures. It sealed my experience at B-W and transformed my managerial skill level from rudimentary to executive.
The instructor for B-W’s EMBA capstone project, Tony Khuri, provided an effective and powerful process that systematically drilled down the key deliverables for the client. As a strategic management consultant, who exercises and maximizes the fundamentals of the capstone project, he understands the benefit and the financial significance of a consulting project of this magnitude. In his industry, he tells us, this deliverable could conceivably cost in excess of $100,000.
Invacare CEO Mal Mixon, an advocate of education and supporter of various philanthropic activities both 6 locally and internationally, graciously agreed to sponsor our activities and provided us with access to the Invacare operations, executives and staff. Invacare is a globally renowned and respected manufacturer and distributor of home medical equipment.
For my group consisting of fellow teammates, Ana Esper, Allen McCann and Kathy Albright, the consulting project was both personally rewarding and daunting. As expected, it was challenging to review an organization of this magnitude and to provide recommendations that the Invacare executives had not already considered or implemented.
Beyond the lifelong friendships with professors and classmates, Baldwin-Wallace’s EMBA program solidified a lifelong calling to serve the community, a personal motivation to passionately lead others, and a desire to strive for excellence personally and professionally. I am also armed with a competitive advantage as a result of the capstone project. Now the slogan that once intrigued me – Practical, Principled, Powerful – inspires how I live, lead and relate to others.
“From what I’ve observed the past 25 years, I would say that by the end of the capstone project of the second year that B-W EMBA students’ brains have sprouted new wiring that starts them on a rest-of- life posture of thinking and acting strategically…. It is closer than most other EMBA programs in giving the student the opportunity to diagnose and formulate a multi-year, strategic blueprint for a real-world business, and on a real-time basis, from the perspective of a C-level executive – CEO, COO, CFO and the like.”
– Anthony Khuri, B-W EMBA Instructor and Strategic Management Consultant
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