Kellogg announces major changes

I attended the annual GMAC Leadership Conference in Miami last week and the closing session discussed the major trends that are affecting the strategies of business schools.  So far higher education has avoided the competitive pressures from globalization and technological change that have transformed other industries.  I think the clock is ticking, especially for schools that rely on "sage on a stage" for information delivery.  (Aside: Why should literally tens of thousands of b-school professors be giving the same lectures semester in and semester out?  Schools could tape the very top profs and sell their lectures to other schools and both sides would end up ahead.) 

Back in the office yesterday, I got a note from Adrienne Jablonski (formerly an NC State colleague, now at Oklahoma) with a link to this BWeek article on Kellogg's new strategic plan (here is another take from the Economist).  Here are the major changes afoot:

• The size of Kellogg's highly regarded two-year, full-time MBA program will shrink by as much as 25 percent over the next three to four years--from 1,115 students to about 850--and enrollment in the executive MBA program would also come down. At the same time, the size of the one-year MBA program will double or triple, from 80 students to as many as 240.

• New, one-year master's degrees will be added to the Kellogg portfolio. These would be alternatives to the MBA. One such degree that the b-school is considering is a fifth-year master of science degree for undergraduates.

• The entire Kellogg MBA curriculum and research program will come in for a major overhaul, its first since 2002-03 and its deepest in nearly 30 years. It will be structured around four areas: markets, customers, and growth; "architectures of collaboration," or managing relationships with suppliers and customers through the use of technology; innovation and entrepreneurship; and the role of public policy in private enterprise.

• New, short-term certification programs will be established in international locations, including Sao Paulo and Shanghai. The non-degree programs, which lack the academic heft of an actual degree, will allow students to earn a Kellogg certificate for taking a group of courses on a specific topic. Faculty will be reviewing this idea in coming months.

We have started one new one-year degree at NC State -- the Master of Global Innovation Management -- and have a couple of others on the drawing board.  I clearly see pressure to shorten the time needed to complete the MBA.  I also see increased pressure to make sure that we are delivering as much value added as possible in each credit hour.  We continue to live in interesting times.  For more details on Kellogg's plan, click here.