new program enhances mba experience

By Andrea Ferdinand

One student group designed a fuel-hedging strategy for Continental Airlines. Another created a plan to help Minute Maid enter a new market. A third developed a new product feasibility study for Hewlett-Packard—all for nothing. No monetary compensation or course credit, that is. But the experience they gained was the perfect payment. 

Each project was a part of the new McCombs ENHANCE program, designed to provide working professional MBA students with real-life, functional business experience. Based on the success of the MBA Plus Program, ENHANCE provides students who are working while earning their degree, the opportunity to experience a short-term work project—much as full-time students do during summer internships.

“Historically, very few career services existed for working professional MBA students because after graduation they remained with their existing employer,” says Dianne Priddy, senior placement representative for McCombs Executive Education. While those companies often paid for students’ education, today corporate sponsorship is less common among working professional MBA students. And, like full-time MBA students who take a two-year career hiatus, working professional students are increasingly interested in changing careers and industries.

“Many of our students come back to school to help facilitate a career transition,” says Steven Burton, assistant director of Career Services for Executive Education. “It was difficult because their résumés didn’t have relevant experience for the fields they wanted to enter.” To help bridge this gap, Burton and Priddy established ENHANCE to help students ease these career moves.

As part of ENHANCE, teams of four to seven students select a company, attack a pressing business issue and present their findings to company executives at the end of the eight-week program.

Pascal Nicolas, MBA ’07, saw such value in ENHANCE projects that he took five courses (two more than the standard course load for working professional students) last spring to make time to lead two ENHANCE projects during the summer.

“I wanted to learn as much as possible about the private equity industry to decide whether I wanted to leave my current job for a private equity job,” says Nicolas, who chaired both the Focus Strategies and CIC Partners teams. “I believe these projects are critical to get exposure to the industry. But they also serve as a résumé builder for all types of employers.”

About a third of the 30 projects were student-developed—the students contacted the company on their own to set up the project. This allows the students to tailor the experience to their interests.

“One student came up to me and told me he was a ‘foodie’ and that he could make the world’s best hamburger,” Priddy recalls.

With her help, Mike Nowlin, MBA ’07 and a self-professed gourmand, recruited a team and went to work for Whole Foods Market developing a leadership analysis study to support the company’s recruiting strategy.

The team conducted interviews and surveys with the top-level store managers at about 10 stores in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. After interpreting the results of these questionnaires and incorporating additional employment and performance statistics provided by Whole Foods, the ENHANCE team—which included five Texas Evening MBA students—presented its findings and recommendations to the regional staff.

“I got a much deeper understanding of the culture and management practices of Whole Foods Market,” Nowlin says. “And I got exposure to a high-level management team and the experience of pitching our recommendations to them.” The students’ presentation to the regional management team garnered a positive response; their recommendations are being used to define the direction of staffing and leadership training for the company.

As demonstrated by the Whole Foods project, the students aren’t the only participants who benefit from ENHANCE. Burton and Priddy say the companies credit the program with helping them avoid the pitfalls of groupthink by giving them a fresh perspective. Not to mention the fact that the students’ work saves the company time and money.

With ENHANCE’s early success, Burton and Priddy anticipate expanding the program. “We think it is a major competitive advantage that our Texas MBA program has over other working professional MBA programs,” says Priddy. “It seems destined to double—or possibly triple—in scope for 2007, which is a win-win for both the MBA students and the sponsoring employers.”