Program Profiles
MAcc and PhD Highlights
MBA Highlights
MBA Recruiting Results
MBA Program Recent Rankings
MBA: A Partial List of Companies Hiring Fisher MBAs in 2001
MLHR Highlights
MLHR Recruiting Results

MBA Highlights

New MBA electives. To reflect student interests and current business issues, the Fisher College launched a number of new electives during the 2000–2001 school year. Courses included Mergers and Acquisitions in the Private Market (offered jointly with the College of Law), The Market for Venture Capital, Globalization of Smaller Firms, Entrepreneurship and Business Plan Development, Understanding and Enhancing Leadership Capability, and others.

The VC marketplace. Fisher College students gained perspective on and insight into the venture capital industry from guest lecturers in the new Market for Venture Capital class. They gained additional insight on entrepreneurial challenges through The Business of Diversity—The Alcoa Minority Entrepreneurial Symposium hosted by Fisher College, and Connectivity 2001: The TechPartners Venture Summit coordinated by The Ohio State University’s Technology Partnership Alliance. Michael Dell was keynote speaker at Connectivity 2001. Among guest presenters for the course were Jeffrey Soloman and Fisher alumni Peter Cohen and Aaron Wood.

Fisher College of Business/Andersen Business Plan Competition. The
first-ever Fisher College/Andersen Business Plan Competition drew 150 participants from across and beyond the Ohio State campus. The winning team, Armada Group, Inc., submitted its plan to offer a secured, Web-based selection of software and services for law enforcement agencies on a subscription basis. Second place went to OConnect, a company whose proposed all-optical switching equipment will increase the speed and capacity for data traffic on the Internet. Armada Group won $85,000 in goods and services; OConnect came away with $15,000.

Scotts Product Concept Competition. The Fisher MBA Marketing Association partnered with The Scotts Company on a product concept competition for Scotts’ next Ortho Weed-B-Gon® marketing campaign. Under the leadership of Professor Robert Leone, the students came up with a concept statement for Weed-B-Gon® and investigated its customer appeal as a safe liquid weed control product. Scotts is planning to use the winning team’s ideas in its next advertising campaign.

Student consulting opportunities. The Business Marketing Field Studies Problems class, led by Professor Walter Zinn, worked on projects from five different companies, including Agilent Technologies in California. The team analyzed Agilent’s shipping operations and suggested ways to save the company approximately $600,000. The college’s Business Solutions Teams program, Globalization of the Smaller Firm course, research groups and individual projects also offered students the chance to work directly with companies.

NBMBAA case competition. For the third year in a row, a team from Fisher College won the National Black MBA Association regional case competition. The team dealt with a human resources problem faced by a health care company. Venkat Bendapudi, assistant professor of management and human resources, served as the team’s faculty advisor.

Evening MBA expanded. Responding to the needs of working professionals seeking an MBA degree, starting in autumn of 2000 the college expanded its Evening MBA program to include a wider selection of courses for a larger number of students.

Community service. This year’s Community Care Day activities were held at Reeb and Arlington Park elementary schools, with more than 150 MBAs involved. The students taught foreign language and other classroom lessons, built a playground and engaged in other activities with the children. Throughout the year, MBAs also tutor school-age children, and this year initiated a scholarship program through the sale of specialty license plates.

International work experience. In September, the Fisher College
announced a new partnership with the Peace Corps through the Masters International (MI) program. MI starts with a year of the MBA curriculum, followed by a two-year Peace Corps business assignment and then a final year of study. Fisher also selected to join the MBA Enterprise Corps, providing MBA graduates an opportunity to put their skills to work in an emerging economy.

Super September Start-up. During the college’s MBA orientation, students tapped into several decades of collective management experience shared by four leading executives. The speakers, who shared their personal philosophies, included: Tanny Crane, president and CEO, Crane Group, Inc.; Peter Dunn, president and CEO, Borden Foods Corporation; John B. McCoy, retired chairman and CEO, Bank One, and chairman, Corillian Corporation; and Carl A. Nelson, Jr., managing partner, Andersen.

International study opportunities. The popular Emerging Markets Field Study course took MBA students to either Athens, Greece and Cyprus or Shanghai and Hangzhou, China this year. This course, taught by professors Stephen Hills and Keong Leong, offers students a unique opportunity to experience some of the world’s fastest growing economies firsthand. Another international opportunity comes through the Strategic Alliance Partners for MBA and undergraduate exchange. That list of internationally oriented business schools now numbers eight and continues to grow—the Copenhagen Business School and the Swiss Banking Institute at the University of Zurich are recent additions.

Enhanced communications and community spirit. Students, faculty and staff have initiated several new programs during the past few years, including MBA town meetings, coffee talks, focus groups and Fisher Follies. Other specialty programs offered students information on business etiquette, the opera, salary negotiations and how to assess a job offer.

“Lean” internships. Seven Fisher MBA interns saved their companies more than $500,000 last summer. The internships were part of the Implementing and Managing Lean Processes course taught by Professor Peter Ward in partnership with Ford Motor Company. The interns learned the lean tools that they used in their summer jobs during the first half of the course in the spring, then concluded the course in the fall with case presentations for their summer employers.

MBA Recruiting Results next >

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Revised MBA curriculum

The Fisher College radically revised the MBA curriculum in 1996, and in the spirit of continuous improvement has added many other innovative elective courses since then. MBAs Athinia Campbell and Mike Madigan practice an assimilation exercise based on manufacturing processes they learned through Professor Peter Ward’s “Implementing and Managing Lean Processes” class, developed in partnership with the Ford Motor Company.