Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511170106
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: G-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MYLENE MANGALINDAN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long
The Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration will open a $36 million business school complex in January, implement a more sophisticated curriculum and improve its corporate ties in hope of cracking the Top 10 of academic business institutions nationwide.
Those behind the three-pronged strategy at Darden are betting that prospective students, faculty and corporations will agree that the changes warrant a prestigious ranking. Though changes to the school's core programs are crucial, Darden administrators know that ultimately, the schools' place among the business school elite hinges on its ability to build ``brand equity,'' or name cachet.
As University of Virginia President John Casteen has put it, ``Small clubs are always hard to break into.''
As Darden observes its 40th anniversary this year, officials there are reflecting on where it has been, where it is now and where it wants to be.
Where it is today begins with its dean - Leo I. Higdon Jr., a 20-year Wall Street veteran lured from heading Salomon Brothers Inc.'s global investment banking department. As Higdon starts his third year at the helm, the faculty is examining and implementing curriculum changes designed to keep students in step with the demands and needs of a rapidly evolving corporate America.
The architectural crown jewel of the new complex - a stately, white columned, red-brick building with a rotunda harkening back to the Jeffersonian Lawn, the heart of the University of Virginia - underpins Darden's latest hopes.
``We saw the building as an essential piece of the strategy to move Darden to the top five among business schools,'' Casteen said. ``I think it'll happen in the next decade.''
Business Week magazine ranked Darden No.12 in its 1994 biennial survey. Darden captured No.11 in the magazine's 1992 survey. It's been ranked in the Top 10 before, but falls in and out.
``The rankings are a huge deal at every school,'' said Allison Adams, communication director for the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Why are rankings so important? Though they may seem arbitrary, the ratings inevitably convince the best and brightest students where to go, sway faculty toward the high-quality programs, and focus companies' attention on the hottest recruiting grounds.
To some people, Darden's inability to permanently land in the Top 10 of various surveys betrays a long-standing - and some think undeserved - image problem surrounding the institution. Easily acknowledged as a Top 20 business school, Darden has yet to shake the shadow of Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration, and the stigma of being a southern school, some say.
Founded by Harvard faculty, Darden often finds itself compared to the Ivy League school with which it shares a history and a general management, case-method teaching approach. This approach tries to prepare students for any type of management career by presenting them daily with business situations and problems that they solve using critical thinking.
``Darden is a place that has a bit of an identity problem,'' said one professor at a top business school who is familiar with Darden. ``It is a state school that aspires to be an international school.''
While Darden attracts applicants from more than 50 countries and has an international student body that makes up 13 percent of enrollment, about 35 percent of each class is Virginians.
Darden Dean Higdon disagrees that the school has an image problem. But he acknowledges that it is working to solidify its reputation on a playing field that isn't necessarily level.
``What we're dealing with is mostly private schools that are larger,'' he said. ``They've been in existence longer. They have more capital resources. They have more alums in the business world.
``While our alums have achieved, it just takes time to develop and build a reputation. I would argue this school has done a magnificent job building its reputation given the numbers of our graduates out there.''
Founded in 1955, Darden keeps its class sizes small - 240 students. Harvard recently increased its entering classes from 800 to 900. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has about 750 students, and Stanford University averages 360.
``It's going to take greater resources and a greater commitment to take us to the next level,'' Higdon said.
Twenty years ago, 35,000 MBAs were annually awarded in the United States. Now the number is close to 90,000, according to the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, the primary professional organization and accreditation association for U.S. business schools.
Business schools award a quarter of all master's degrees in this country. In 1974, 389 institutions - among them the College of William and Mary and Old Dominion University - awarded MBA degrees, compared with nearly 700 now.
``The cost of playing in the business school big leagues has gone way up,'' said Charles Hickman, director of projects and services at AACSB. ``The competition isn't sleeping, either. The number of schools that want to be in the Top 20 far outnumbers the number of spots available.''
Business-school watchers say two schools in the modern era ascended the ranks from being second-string to first-rate schools: Stanford University and Northwestern University.
Stanford climbed the ladder in the '70s by buying its way, some say. It recruited big-name faculty members, and paid professors high salaries. Everything grew from that broad-based approach: curriculum, students, reputation.
The J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern did it by deciding it would be the best school in the country in marketing. It focused more on consumer marketing and built off some relationships with General Mills and other top companies that excel in that area.
To rise to the next level, the Darden school is focusing on three key areas:
A new $36 million business complex: The five-building complex set on a hill next to Darden's current building evokes the same grand architectural style as the rest of the university but includes the most advanced in information technology. It will allow students or companies in New York or Hong Kong to communicate with people on campus through video conference calls or Internet hookups.
The building also underlines changes the school wants to make regarding students' computer skills and technology know-how. First-year students soon will be required to buy a laptop computer when they begin the MBA program. They will be called on to plug in their spreadsheets and problem sets from their laptops while in class so their answers can be projected on a big screen.
Curriculum changes: International issues are receiving more emphasis. The Darden faculty is implementing more directed study projects - individual research projects required in a student's second year - that involve global issues or international companies. To expose students to different environments, one professor, for example, is offering a one-week elective course in Mexico.
Companies, like Bacardi, that have already had long-standing relationships with Darden have students and projects set up in Argentina and Chile.
Darden is also exploring the creation of an elective course that teams faculty and students interested in similar areas of expertise. It will launch a pilot course in investments so professors and students can work together on projects. It is also considering courses in manufacturing, marketing and consulting.
``It's a way of focusing the student's learning experience on a special area, whether it be career-related or educationally interesting,'' said Robert Landel, associate dean for MBA education.
Improving corporate ties: Darden's dean renewed serious efforts to improve the school's corporate ties when he took over in 1993. Having worked on Wall Street, Higdon reinforced Darden's ``practitioner'' bent. He called on companies and encouraged them to recruit at and visit Darden or work with the school on special projects.
But interaction with managers, chief executives and other top management may not be enough without knowing how to use it. The challenge for Darden is to create a strategy for these corporate contacts and build off that, some say. Kellogg, for example, had a goal toward which it focused its interaction with such companies as AT&T, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. Duke's Fuqua School is another example of a business school that rose from obscurity to the top based on its partnership with companies.
While there is a decreasing number of people taking the Graduate Management Admission Test, which helps determine entrance into business school, applications at Darden have increased over the years. In 1995, it received 2,297 applications, a 10 percent rise from the previous year. Darden accepts one student for every nine applicants. (Harvard, by comparison, accepts one of every 13 applicants.)
And for those who do gain acceptance to Darden and graduate with an MBA, job prospects are bright: 99 percent have jobs when they graduate. The average salary, excluding guaranteed bonuses, for graduates is $64,000.
Added to this rising competition for admission and reputation for placing graduates, Darden's teaching is world-renowned.
``Virginia has one of the finest teaching faculties in the world,'' said John Byrne, a Business Week reporter who covers business schools and compiles the magazine's survey. On surveys, students continually praise the teaching at the school. Several Darden professors top Business Week's best teachers list.
``This is a school that has a very strong culture, a real sense of itself,'' Higdon said. ``From my standpoint, it's a situation of building on strengths and considerable competencies.''
While many Darden students gripe about the heavy workload, most are happy with the program and the school. Recruiters like Bain & Co. Inc. director David Bechhofer have come to recognize the quality of that education.
``We came to Darden because it does have a very, very good reputation, and the only thing that matters to us is the quality of the students,'' Bechhofer said. ``That is the bottom line and all we worry about.''
by CNB