Vanderbilt Business

Category: From the Dean

  • From the Dean

    dean-spring2009To the Owen Community,

    It’s been five years since I stepped up to lead the Owen School—a year as interim Dean and four in a full-time capacity. Despite the fact that we currently find ourselves at an economic low point, I can’t help but reflect favorably on the past five years. It’s been a tremendous period of personal and professional growth for me and of remarkable endeavors and accomplishment for the Owen School and those who comprise our community.

    Today, however, my highest priority is not to reflect upon the past; rather I’d like to pause and look ahead to the next five years.

    These are transformative times.

    Pundits and experts, far smarter than I, are finding it challenging to predict our future in this time of economic upheaval. Surely we will look back on this time as a defining moment in history. We are in a period in which established business models—those for publishing, entertainment and retail, to name a few—are changing and crumbling. Yet, in that destruction lies tremendous opportunity to innovate and create.

    Additionally, the awareness and concern for our environment, the desire for sustainable practices and our knowledge of the interconnectedness of peoples around the world will—perhaps once and for all—reduce our passions for consuming and make us more conscious of our impact on society and the world.

    For the baby boomer generation (of which I am on the leading edge) and others already in the leadership positions, this is truly the time to begin to embrace the unknown and to be open to exploring that which we do not currently understand. Only by doing so will we survive—and, hopefully, thrive—as we make some necessary transitions.

    For those in their graduate school years, this will be a period of personal definition as you choose your paths for the foreseeable future. Those who hustle, who persevere, will invent their own opportunities.

    What lies ahead for Owen?

    We will move Owen into the Top 20 graduate business schools in North America. To achieve this goal, we will continue to differentiate our MBA and other programs and attract top faculty and students. It will require a united effort by everyone—faculty, alumni, students and staff, alike—but we are up for this challenge.

    Drucker’s “knowledge economy” will be passé. Owen will be a market-focused institution, creating not just knowledge but solutions.

    Owen’s strong health care offerings will position us as the premier school for health care management education nationally and, hopefully, globally.

    Our stellar finance faculty will help define the financial markets of the future, learning from the past and present to identify and recommend regulatory and free market solutions to the shortcomings of current times.

    We will be a far more global school, using technology to reach well beyond our physical space as well as innovative partnerships and programs to bring the world into our classroom.

    We will lead in defining the responsibility of the business world to society.

    Social entrepreneurship, ethics, and addressing our responsibility to society, will find equal standing in our curricula.

    We will remain a small and intimate school. Students and faculty will continue to choose Owen for our uniquely collaborative and supportive culture.

    Our school will succeed because we will make a difference by shaping our communities, our businesses, our society and the world.

    Are these mere dreams or reality? Will we hunker down and try to protect the past or will we choose the opportunity to transition to a bright—but different—future? It is our collective choice to make. I hope and trust you will join me in the decision to embrace the future and all it holds.

    Warm regards,

    James W. Bradford
    Dean, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Managment
    Ralph Owen Professor for the Practice of Management

  • From the Dean

    From the Dean

    Dean Bradford

    The following is excerpted from the Academic Year 2007-08 Annual Report. Click here to view the report in its entirety.

    In the midst of a world financial crisis, the fundamentals of success are in place. We have solid programs, superb faculty and staff, and an incoming student body that is one of the strongest—if not the strongest—in the history of the school. Lest I repeat myself, I feel confident that we are poised to grow to our full potential. And, achieving that full potential is all about continuing our push for quality—quality faculty and programs, quality students and quality facilities. From health care reform to the increased financial markets regulatory scheme that is certain to follow, there will be a need for talented, well-educated Owen graduates who can change and mold the future. We are in for a difficult economic period, but in the long run, the investment in a great education will continue to pay outstanding returns.

    Quality Faculty and Programs

    We are in the knowledge business; our faculty provides both the “product” and the experience that is the foundation on which our reputation is built. To maintain and grow our stature as a Tier 1 research institution, a partner to business, and an innovator in the business of management education, we will continue to invest in individuals who bring fresh insights, knowledge, skills and experience to the academic and business communities.

    We have significantly strengthened both our research and clinical faculty during the past four years. While we’ve only increased the overall size of our faculty by three individuals, a full third of our faculty members—17 of 48—have been purposefully recruited and added to faculty during this period. And, we are not yet done. This coming year, we will likely add two or three new marketing faculty, as well as one more faculty member each to our finance and operations departments.

    Quality Students

    As the number of MBA programs grow and capacity among established schools increases, competition for the caliber of students we seek continues to intensify. As a result, our cost of scholarships—the dues we must pay to attract desirable students who hold multiple offers—is increasing.

    While we take in almost $21 million in tuition and fees, almost 25 percent of that amount goes back to students—predominantly MBA students—in the form of scholarships. Like other B-schools, current scholarships are almost exclusively merit-based. There is a great opportunity to channel some of these funds into needs-based scholarships that will attract individuals who have the academic and the personal qualities we seek, but who are unable to afford the higher costs of a private institution such as Vanderbilt.

    Quality Facilities

    Management Hall is an architecturally innovative facility, but the building itself hasn’t kept pace with our needs. A facility originally built to house 300 students plus a weekend Executive MBA program no longer accommodates the classroom, congregation or study space needs of the 500 students who grace our halls on a daily basis.

    An all-stakeholder task force concluded that Owen needs 155,000 square feet of space—double our existing footprint of 76,000 square feet. With the needs assessment done, our next step is to determine the options and costs for a new or dramatically enhanced building and ascertain the feasibility of raising or borrowing the funds needed to move forward.

    Thank You

    Thank you for your support no matter what form—your time, your talents, your financial gifts. Most of all, thank you for all you’ve done and will continue to do for this school that we are all so proud of. I am humbled and grateful.

    James W. Bradford
    Dean and Ralph Owen Professor for the Practice of Management