“President Simon often says that what makes Michigan State special is not what we do, but why we do it and how we do it,” MSU Broad College of Business Dean Sanjay Gupta tells Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon and Spartans Athletic Director Mark Hollis on MSU Today. And he says the new Broad Business Pavilion currently under construction addresses the why and the how.
“The student experience is a prominent piece of MSU’s Bolder by Design initiative. That student experience must be real and it must come through on a daily basis.” For business schools, Gupta says the facilities like those in the new building are critical for business students and their success and “for that student experience to become real.”
Gupta adds that he’s “proud of the way the Broad College is presenting itself outside of East Lansing.” The most recent example is taking the college’s executive MBA program to downtown Detroit.
On the plethora of business school rankings that abound in the media, Gupta says Broad is ranked in the top 25 undergraduate programs by U.S. News. Both the undergraduate and graduate supply chain programs are ranked number one this year.
“What’s really important is that for the first time, all of our areas within business are ranked in the top 25. We’ve been able to push all of the disciplines within the Broad College to get appropriately recognized.
“The MBA program is where all the light shines all the time. There are five major MBA program rankings. Our full time MBA program is ranked in the top 15 public universities in all five of these major MBA rankings.”
Gupta says the college gets high marks from employers, too.
“We have a mid-90 percent placement success within 90 days of graduation. Employers tell us that Spartans roll up their sleeves and get the job done. They give us credit for preparing students who come in without a sense of entitlement, yet they have all of the chops to compete with the best of the best.”
Looking ahead, Gupta says “we’re taking this notion of the new economy and making it part and parcel of everything that we do in our curriculum. That’s the goal we have. How do we distinguish a Broad College education such that it becomes much more about the ability of our students to work and succeed in the new economy?
“We’re focusing on creativity and innovation as a signature part of the curriculum within the business school. It’s not as if you can take a course in creativity and innovation and then check the box and say you’ve done it. It’s about how you infuse that in the curriculum as a way of thinking about those disruptive technologies and how you think outside the box and think about problem solving in unstructured ways and look at problems differently.”
MSU Today airs Sunday afternoons at 4:00 on 94.5 FM and AM 870.