BREAKING: Temple Fox Announces New Interim Dean Ronald C. Anderson
Just two weeks after the resignation of longtime dean Moshe Porat, the Temple University Fox School of Business announced that Ronald C. Anderson, professor and chair of the Fox finance department, will become the school’s interim dean.
Porat was forced to resign six months after the school’s rankings debacle with U.S. News & World Report. The publication removed the Philadelphia metro business school from all of its annual rankings after discovering falsified data was submitted. The turn of events occurred right after the publication revealed is annual Online MBA rankings, in which Temple had won first place for the fourth year in a row.
Fox School of Business Interim Dean Ronald C. Anderson / Photo via Ryan S. Brandenberg
In a new statement, Temple president Richard M. Englert says, “Ron has led significant growth in the department of finance, which is one of the most popular majors at Temple. He is an accomplished researcher and a well-regarded teacher who takes great pride in his students’ success. His professional experiences, both in industry and academia, are well suited for this critical leadership role.”
Anderson, who earned an MBA at the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration and his finance Ph.D. and doctorate at Texas A&M, joined the university in 2012 as a professor and department chair. As a respected member of the Temple community, news that Anderson would be manning the Fox School of Business ship at a tumultuous time seemed to earn praise from several members of the university.
Speaking with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fox finance professor and deputy chair of the finance department Jonathan Scott says, “We were just hoping we could get through the process of identifying an interim dean and get on with righting the ship. Ron is the right person to get us back on track.”
Still, there is plenty of trepidation at Fox, with lingering lawsuits from several dismayed students hanging overhead, as well as the school’s upcoming accreditation re-approval this winter. Temple Association of University Professionals President Steve Newman, speaking with the Inquirer says, “This scandal has damaged the trust that students in and outside of Fox as well as the general public place in our university.”
“This scandal is in part the result of an unhealthy fixation on rankings that warps the priorities of our university as a whole. We understand that rankings matter in recruiting students, but their effect on fiscal and pedagogical decisions at Temple is entirely too strong.” – Temple Association of University Professionals President Steve Newman
Stay tuned with MetroMBA as this story continues to unfold.
Empathy and Power, According to Northwestern Research – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
How Much Empathy Do You Feel When Powerful People Suffer? – Kellogg Insight
Northwestern Kellogg assistant professor of management and organizations Nour Kteily recently co-authored new research with Cornell University assistant professor Brian Lucas that explores how much empathy people experience when the factory floor worker suffers a pay cut compared to when the executive’s six-figure salary gets lobbed off.
Kteily writes, “The prevailing view has been that anti-egalitarians do not have it in them to empathize, and egalitarians are empathetic toward everyone.
Kteily’s research found that “when people read about victims with lower social status, egalitarians consistently expressed more empathy than people with anti-egalitarian views did. But when they read about victims with a higher socioeconomic standing, the opposite occurred. Participants who strongly favored a social hierarchy expressed more concern for victims like the wealthy executive than the egalitarians did.”
You can read the full article here.
Friend or Foe? Notre Dame Conference Explores Ethical Considerations of AI – Mendoza Ideas & News
Notre Dame University’s Mendoza College of Business recently announced “Artificial Intelligence and Business Ethics: Friends or Foes,” a fall 2018 conference sponsored by the Chase Manhattan Lecture Series, that “will explore the ethical issues arising from the use of AI in business and larger culture.”
Associate teaching professor in Mendoza’s IT, Analytics, and Operations Department Timothy Carone, who organized the conference, writes:
“The reason AI is so important is that it can make and implement decisions that heretofore were the purview of humans only. Over time, these decisions set up a pattern and it is this pattern we call ‘ethical behavior.’ We have only begun to explore the ethical implications to businesses of using AI to replace human decision-making and understand how to manage the new risks that come with this transformation.”
Featured speakers include:
- Daniel Fagella, the founder of daily newsletter TechEmergence, which serves as an industry source for business applications of AI.
- Martin Fiore, EY Americas Tax Talent leader who has explored the implications of AI in the tax, audit and talent acquisition areas.
- Otto Berkes, the chief technology officer for CA Technologies, one of the largest independent system software companies in the world.
- Ryan Welsh, founder and CEO of Kyndi, a venture-backed software company that is changing the paradigm of machine intelligence and how it’s used to solve some of the world’s hardest problems.
You can read the full article from Mendoza here.
Alan Dershowitz Shares His View on Key Legal and Ethical Issues – Gies College of Business News
High-profile lawyer and frequent contributor on FOX News and CNN, Alan Dershowitz, whose distinguished career in law has encompassed high-profile celebrity clients like Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, and O.J. Simpson, visited the University of Illinois this past April.
Controversial lawyer and political personality Alan Dershowitz recently spoke at the University of Illinois / Photo via NYT
Dershowitz used his lecture as an opportunity to “discuss and to answer questions about freedom of speech, professional ethics, attorney-client privilege, and a range of other topics,” such as “media issues, attorney-client privilege, conflict of interest, and comparative ethics” with students from the Gies College of Business and the U-IL College of Law.
“Ethics are very situational. As lawyers, we’ve all be told things by our clients that we can’t sleep at night keeping as secrets. You feel you have to tell somebody. And you can’t. I can’t tell my wife or my children. You go to the grave with these secrets. And if you don’t want to do that, you can’t become a very good lawyer.”
You can read the full article here.
What They’re Saying: The Facebook Fallout
It seems puzzling to say a company that is worth nearly half a trillion dollars is venturing somewhere near zero degrees Kelvin, but if you were only reading headlines this week you’d get the sense that Facebook isn’t looking so hot.
Since the break of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the tech giant lost an estimated $100 billion USD in value, and its beleaguered founder Mark Zuckerberg lost an estimated $14 billion of his own worth. Fortunately for him, according to CNN, he’s still worth over $60 billion so he can easily afford more mayonnaise and butter sandwiches.
But the fallout is more than monetary. Trust in the social media company is at a critical low point, according to Statista data.
Janina Conboye at the Financial Times recently asked how the company may go about repairing its own image in “The MBA view: can Facebook fix its reputation?,” speaking with numerous business school faculty members, including London Business School‘s Jill Schlechtweg, who plainly says, “It is worth wondering whether Facebook can regain credibility at all. Arguably Mark Zuckerberg has evaded responsibility for the social costs of social media addiction, the proliferation of fake news, and now leaks of personal data for political ends.”
Check out how other business schools and industry experts are reacting the ongoing Facebook story below.
What @facebook knows about you apparently includes data about phone calls and messages. The revelation could make Facebook’s huge data scandal hurt more than ever. https://t.co/jActrbEB5i
— MIT Tech Review (@techreview) March 27, 2018
PSA: “Harvard Business School Prof. Shoshana Zuboff calls it “surveillance capitalism.” And as creepy as Facebook is turning out to be, the entire industry is far creepier. It has existed in secret far too long…” https://t.co/vSPlAyWnzu
— Mitchell Schneider (@Mitski) March 27, 2018
What Cambridge Analytica is accused of doing, Facebook and Silicon Valley giants like Google do every day, indeed, every minute we’re logged on. – https://t.co/8O9730vddo
— Mark Schaefer (@markwschaefer) March 29, 2018
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Apple is making their position clear on privacy. https://t.co/OLIl5ihtby
— FOX MBA & MS (@FoxMBA) March 28, 2018
.@profgalloway weighs in on #Facebook‘s handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal via @barronsonline https://t.co/6zWqfAa3nk
— NYU Stern (@NYUStern) March 28, 2018
So, What is a Strategy MBA and Where Can You Find One?
For those who don’t have a natural knack for strategic thinking, the ability to analyze effectively and make logical decisions can often seem like the kind of skill that just can’t be taught. Luckily, most business schools disagree.
Not only is strategic thinking a skill that can be studied and improved, but an advanced education in this field can lead to a wide array of careers, often incredibly lucrative ones. After all, the ability to make strategic decisions can lead to success in all aspects of business and across numerous industries- that might be why those who earn MBAs in Strategic Management are entrepreneurs, COOs, Department Supervisors, Business Analysts, and are found at any number of high-level management positions.
Whether you are born with the skill or not, pursuing a Strategy MBA is the perfect way to set yourself up for a versatile career in strategic management.
What is a Strategic Manager?
In an ever-changing and often tumultuous business world, an organization’s strategic planner can be a crucial part of their growth and continued success. A career in strategic management or planning will involve keeping an organization on course through the collection, analysis, and organization of information pertinent to the company’s profitability. This may include tracking industry trends, keeping an eye on external business competition or threats, identifying opportunities and creating action plans for a company based on strategic problem solving.
Strategy jobs typically deal in the “big picture” of the company, and are a key part of both shaping and supporting a company’s overall vision and values. The role is a desirable one within a company, as it provides direct access to senior managers and frequently leads to higher level leadership positions.
Strategy jobs require a candidate to use skills from a variety of disciplines, such as finance and marketing. Since these positions are often highly competitive and require candidates to demonstrate a high level of business acumen, earning an advanced degree in strategy is one of the best ways to prove you have the unique combination of skills and drive required for this often demanding—but incredibly rewarding—career.
What Is a Strategy MBA?
Given the breadth of skills required to be a successful Strategic Manager for a company, it’s easy to see why one would want an advanced degree in the field. An MBA specialization in Strategic Management is designed to provide students with a deep grounding within the logic of competitive advantage, focusing on both a broad understanding of business competition as well as a more nuanced training in analysis and decision making.
Offered at some of the top business schools throughout the globe, a Strategy MBA will help set future business leaders on course for careers in strategy consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, and a number of other careers that require the careful skills of analysis and problem solving gained with this degree.
Why Should I Get a Strategy MBA?
With the unique skill set required for a higher-level role in Strategic Management, earning an MBA with a specialization or major in Strategy can be crucial to proving your skill to potential employers. Regardless of your ultimate career goal, the “big picture” type of training offered by a Strategy MBA can be seen as shorthand for a person with the drive and acumen necessary to make crucial business decisions. And graduates with Strategy MBAs don’t always take jobs as Strategic Planners—they are CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other high-level leaders within their organizations.
Those who do earn Strategy MBAs are also often the highest earners among their MBA-holding peers. According to Payscale, Senior Strategy Manager positions can earn salaries of up to $119,000 per year, a large portion of which comes from bonuses, and occasionally, profit sharing. Graduates of Strategy MBA programs are employed at some of the world’s top companies, such as Deloitte, Amazon, and the Intel Corporation.
Where Can You Get a Strategy MBA?
With an increasing demand throughout the years for qualified and experienced strategy planners, a wide variety of business schools—including some of the top ranked MBA programs in the country—have begun to offer MBA specializations in the field of strategy management/planning.
Below are just a few of the MBA programs throughout the United States offering an MBA in Strategy or Strategic Management.
Temple University Fox School of Business
The Fox School of Business at Temple allows MBA students to focus their degree in Strategic Management, or earn a dual degree that combines an MBA with a Master in Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship (IME). The Department of Strategic Management (SGM) at Fox allows students to approach business strategy from four different angles- entrepreneurship, management, consulting, and international business. All for disciplines help prepare students to be leaders within the strategic management field through hands-on instruction, internship opportunities, networking events, travel abroad experiences, and more.
New York University Stern School of Business
The Stern School of Business at NYU allows MBA students to specialize their degree in Strategy, which will help provide a strong business foundation for the business leaders of tomorrow. The degree will help prepare students for a wide variety of fields, including careers in strategic planning, risk management, and management consulting. Courses in strategic management at Stern include: Competitive strategy in the marketplace, corporate governance, strategic design, strategic talent management, and more.
University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business
The world-renowned Wharton School at UPenn also offers students the opportunity to earn an MBA in Strategic Management, a major which aims to provide a “deep grounding in the basic logic of competitive advantage premised on a careful analytical treatment of the distinct qualities of positions of individual firms and an understanding of broader competitive dynamics.” Some of the courses offered as part of this major at Wharton include: Deals: the Economic Structure of Transacting and Contracting, Strategic Implementation, Multinational Business Strategy, Competitive Strategy and Industrial Structure, and more
How Temple University’s Fox School Remains King of the Online MBA (UPDATED)
UPDATE: Since the release of this article, U.S. News & World Report has removed the Fox School of Business from its 2018 Best Online MBA ranking for reporting falsified application information. This article does not reflect the changes in the ranking.
The Temple University Fox School of Business Online MBA program has been named the best in the United States for the fourth consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report. We recently spoke with Darin Kapanjie—Fox Temple associate professor, Academic Director of the Online BBA, Online MBA, and part-time MBA programs, and the Managing Director of Online and Digital Learning—about the school’s miraculous online supremacy and what the future holds.
Staying at the top of any MBA ranking, not just in one region, but across the entire U.S. for four years, is unprecedented. For Kapanjie, it’s been long enough for him and the rest of the Temple Fox team to start guessing when, if ever, another school will take over.
“We keep waiting for someone else to claim the top spot,” he says. “To be honest, the end of the day we built a program that we believe to be the best in land. We don’t tailor our program to the rankings, it just so happens that the program we built does well in the rankings.”
Unlike many new online MBA programs, which are designed for applicants with less experience, the Fox School of Business Online MBA caters to a more “mature” demographic, he notes.
“The design of our program speaks to a more mature business professional. [Students] average over 12 years of work experience, which is unusual for an online program. That mature population helps with some of the ranking criteria. We’ve also invested heavily in the product we are delivering, we have a team of instructional designers, instructional technologist, technical support specialists, and web developers. We have built our program, marketing, recruiting, and instructional design teams from within, nothing is outsourced. As a result, this team is dedicated to the success of this program. There is a sense of pride and community around the Fox Online MBA.
Despite the Online MBA’s miraculous rise to prominent among business schools, Kapanjie acknowledges that Fox and other schools like it are still competing against traditional MBA programs. However, there are plenty of reasons to prefer the digital format.
Fox School of Business Academic Director Darin Kapanjie
“This is more of a personal preference or pressure from a busy travel schedule from work, than a more attractive alternative,” he explains. “We at Fox understand the market is changing and that online/hybrid learning is the now and will continue into the future. Personally, I believe that in a few years the hybrid and online MBA’s will dominate the market. Online education is being accepted more and more, it’s no longer viewed as a cheaper and easier solution. It’s schools like us and Carnegie Melon, UNC, Indiana, University of Florida, etc. that are dedicated to delivering quality online opportunities that are helping change that perception. Personally, I believe our online program stacks up well against most of the top ranked traditional MBA’s.”
Even with a rich tradition of forward-thinking business school programs located in and around Philadelphia, Fox manages to stand out—particularly among schools offering an online degree.
“We have made a significant investment in online education here at Fox,” he says. “Our entire operation is run in-house and is built for the future. We put a great deal of effort around the entire student experience, from inquiry to alumni. I can’t speak for other schools in the region, I can only say that we believe there is a vast market in need of a high-quality online MBA program and we are listening to that market.”
But to keep Fox’s top spot, Kapanjie acknowledges that the program cannot remain stagnant.
We are building more and more concentrations (mini-major within our MBA) and integrating several dual degree opportunities to widen our net,” he explains. “I personally believe that the dual degrees, MBA/MS, will become more popular in the next few years.”
For more information on the Online MBA at the Temple University Fox School of Business and other MBA offerings, check out our profile on the business school and head over to the official Fox Temple site.
Comparing The U.S. News Full-Time and Online MBA Rankings
When it comes to business school rankings, U.S. News & World Report issues one of the most comprehensive annual lists. The annual rankings includes separate lists for the “Best Business Schools” and the “Best Online MBA Programs,” but deciding which format is right for you can still be tricky. Continue reading…
