Spring 2010: Graduate Business Programs

As professionals adapt to a growing global business world, business schools must also adapt to train leaders who can effectively manage rapidly changing market conditions while making ethical business decisions.

In this issue of the Baylor Business Review, we focus on graduate business education. Along with our undergraduate degree program, Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business offers 14 graduate degrees (including specialized and joint degrees); two integrated graduate degree programs; and one PhD degree in Information Systems, our newest offering and the first doctoral degree awarded by the School.

To get a picture of what graduate business education of the future will resemble, it helps to look back 2,500 years or so.

That’s when Greek philosopher Heraclitus proclaimed that “character is destiny.” This ancient wisdom describes the way in which business schools currently strive to differentiate their cultural offering to prospective students…in the midst of a global financial crisis that has forced university leadership to rethink the fundamental nature of graduate business education.

Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business offers a variety of graduate degrees. Whether it’s an MBA degree, joint or specialized degree, candidates are sure to find a degree program that incorporates a balance of theory and application, which will further their education and bolster them as business professionals. We caught up with these alumni to see how their graduate degrees have served them within their careers.

Say we have two companies-T. Rex and Gazelle Inc. Once powerful, T. Rex now is merely unwieldy, using old practices that hinder its response to current market realities and top-down management reluctant to change. Gazelle Inc. is lean and fleet, quick to switch direction if necessary-after first taking a quick consensus of other gazelles on the team and posting a video on YouTube. The former is business old school, the latter 2010 reality. Don’t get too snuggly with 2010’s new ways, however, because they may be passé by 2011. And by the way, professors still teaching T. Rex theory to MBA students belong in a museum, not the classroom.

An internship lends necessary credibility to an applicant. Employers need to know whether the applicant is as capable as his or her well-crafted resume claims. Baylor’s Graduate Accounting program offers two degrees: a Master of Accountancy (MAcc) and a Master of Taxation (MTax). Both tracks offer a five year program, which combines the master’s degree with a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and waives 12 undergraduate elective hours.

The economic crisis of the past couple of years has confused us all. It’s had profound effects on not only those who’ve participated in stock markets, but also on workers and families and communities who’ve been dependent on companies for their well-being. It’s caused business leaders to take stock of what they should have been doing and how they should have been doing it. And it’s made most all of us who are interested stop and think about the rules of business today and whether they’re responsible or even workable for society as a whole.

With new technology, like iPhones and Facebook, emerging at an overwhelming pace, and businesses scrambling to learn how these technologies can enhance their bottom lines, people with degrees in Information Systems (IS) are in high demand. As the need for qualified IS professionals increases, so does the demand for IS education. Responding to that need, Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business created its first PhD program, the PhD in Information Systems.

The efforts for technology entrepreneurship at Baylor have been approved as a strategic initiative of the University. The Technology Entrepreneurship Initiative looks to make a campus-wide and global impact through an international, multi-disciplinary approach. This initiative will further experiential learning for Baylor undergraduate and graduate students by establishing partnerships among schools within Baylor, other universities, companies, and countries around the world.

A photo album for Jennifer Fox and James B. (Jay) Gambrell IV might resemble a “Where’s Waldo?” montage-with a smart-looking couple substituting for the perpetually blank-faced Waldo.

ut the image would have to include two separate globes: Half of this professional couple grew up in Australia, half in New York and Texas. One attended universities in Australia, the other in New York. The map would merge in Texas, where they met, and in London, where they live. It would part again when they go off to work.

Two professors at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business lay out a universal health care plan in their new book Health Care for Us All: Getting More for Our Investment, published by Cambridge University Press, that does not create a government entitlement program or threaten in any way the insurance coverage or health care of Americans who currently have coverage.

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Stephen D. Locke, BBA, now owns and operates a tax service in Fort Worth, where he not only prepares tax returns, but also performs tax resolution services such as filing delinquent returns, filing amendments, releasing liens, levies, and negotiating installment agreements and offers in compromise. As an Enrolled Agent, Locke has the authority to represent taxpayers before the IRS, the same authority as attorneys and CPAs. Locke was previously a revenue agent with the IRS for over 20 years.

Baylor University MBA Students Recognized for Prison Entrepreneurship Program

Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business was one of six MBA programs from across the United States and Europe to be recognized by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) in its TeamMBA Awards and received the Service Award for a Collaborative Program. More than 30 MBA students from the school volunteer regularly as business plan advisors for inmates in a Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP). GMAC confers the honor in recognition of commitment to community engagement and corporate social responsibility. The schools received the awards at the GMAC Annual Industry Conference in June.