SPECIAL REPORT

Get in the fast lane with a mini

Business classes for executives bring them up to speed

By Peter Hull

Monday August 2, 2004

It’s not hard to find an engineer who can explain why tall buildings are designed to sway in high winds, or why a 155,000-ton ship doesn’t sink. But when it comes to understanding business, most engineers agree that, to them, it all sounds like a foreign language.

That’s why two years ago, after 30 years away from the classroom, W.A. Gresham, 54-year-old president of E. T. Gresham and Company, a Norfolk-based general contractor and crane service, went back to school.

Along with his brother, an architect, Gresham enrolled in a mini-executive MBA program for managers, run by the Executive Development Center at Old Dominion University.

The 14-session program, which runs from October to March with classes every other Friday for eight hours, plus three Saturdays, is tailored for business managers who may have taken some business classes in the past, but have no formal business background. It also caters to those who have studied business – even those with a master’s of business administration – but need an update on modern business practices.

“I took business 30 years ago, but I felt a compelling need to update,” Gresham said. “I felt like there was something I was doing wrong, something I didn’t know.”

Students in the program follow a series of modules – each designed as a foundation for the next – on subjects ranging from leadership development and human resources to marketing concepts and financial analysis.

While the format may sound relaxed, the center’s director warns that it’s a fast-paced intensive program of study. And students should not expect to suddenly become experts in strategic planning or negotiation and influencing, other modules in the program. Rather, they will learn the essentials of business principles in a way they can take directly from the classroom to their office.

“These folks are coming to learn, to apply on Monday morning if they wish, what they’ve learned in class,” said Sheila M. Powell, director of the Executive Development Center.

“As a manager, it’s about the kinds of questions and information you need to be asking,” she said. “It’s really about becoming well rounded in areas where they may have no knowledge or they need to be a bit more current.”

Many managers rise to those positions because they shined in their jobs, but they have little or no formal business or managerial training. So in 2001, Powell canvassed business leaders, executives and managers about the kinds of professional development programs they wanted to see that would benefit them and their staff.

The program was launched in 2002 as a noncredit continuing education professional development course within the College of Business and Public Administration. While there are no exams, students must complete a group project and presentation in order to receive their certificate.

The center opened in the early 1980s and has operated under a number of different names. Originally called the Institute of Management, it most recently was known as the Center for Global Business and Executive Education before becoming the more straightforward Executive Development Center.

It offers a range of programs aimed at the business community including professional financial planning and a master’s certificate in government contracting, with class times scheduled to suit busy professionals.

Space on the mini-MBA program is limited to 20 students. To qualify, applicants must hold an undergraduate degree and/or several years’ management experience. Employer recommendation is required and applicants must complete a participant profile through the center’s Web site.

The profile information is used by instructors, who are members of university’s full-MBA faculty and experts from the business community, to craft courses that will best suit the demographics and expectations of the incoming class.

The students’ average age is in the mid-30s, but can range from late 20s to mid-50s, Powell said. Many are middle-management looking to climb the corporate ladder. Others are like Gresham, experienced professionals who seek a basic understanding of modern business principles.

The students come from all sectors of business – sales, marketing, accounting, engineering, health care – and the eclectic mix of students are encouraged to interact and share their different experiences, Powell said.

And with a course that places a strong emphasis on leadership and team-building, such characteristics are implicit throughout the program, she said.

“Those people have great information to share,” Powell said, “They’re comfortable giving each other feedback, so it creates a lively environment.”

But Powell is quick to point out what the program isn’t: It isn’t a full-blown MBA. Those seeking an MBA should be in the MBA program, she said, but if they’re seeking a well-rounded and practical knowledge of business, it could be the perfect fit.

“For some folks an MBA’s not necessary for them,” she said. “They quickly want to acquire the information then go back and apply it.

“It’s a program that people will use in their everyday jobs.”

And that’s exactly why Maersk Line Limited enrolled Norfolk-based executive Fred Finger in the course. Finger, 47, attended the center during last fall’s session when he was director of commercial operations for the shipping line.

Like many engineers, Finger attended numerous training sessions and seminars over the years to help stay in touch with advances in his industry. But the mini-MBA was the first time since his college days – he earned a B.S. in nautical science in 1978 – that Finger had taken classes outside his working environment.

But what really made this course different, he said, was the ability to attend class without it getting in the way of his job. Unlike evening classes, which can often take one or more evenings a week, he found the every-other-week format of the mini-MBA allowed plenty of time to prepare for class – and kept his employer happy because he spent minimal time away from the office.

“It was every other week, so I still was in the office enough that I didn’t lose the flow,” Finger said. “I gave up one of my days, the company gave up one of their days, so it worked pretty well.”

Last fall, when Finger took the course, classes were held Friday and Saturday, every other week. The administration changed the course to every other Friday, plus three Saturday sessions, based on feedback from students like Finger.

A year after graduating, Finger is still with Maersk, but has moved from operations to the commercial side of the business. As director of specialized vessels, he speaks of profit and loss and accountability, a language he says was completely foreign to him two years ago.

And he freely admits that without the mini-MBA certificate, he probably would never have landed his new job.

“In order to accept a job like this, if I was going to move ahead, I knew it was something I was going to have to do,” he said. “I owe a lot to it. It was very important to me.”