"i never thought about it that way" The Executive Education faculty trains about 40 school support officers to coach school principals about "what the school really is, how to analyze its problems and organizational development." The faculty also works with HISD administrators, the cabinet and the superintendent.
Open to anyone
In the open enrollment offerings, which make up one-third of the Executive Education program, certificates are awarded in finance and accounting, health care management, customerfocused strategy and leadership. And courses in executive development focus on the skills needed for greater management roles. The open enrollment program is just that: open to anyone, generally those who also are preparing for major transitions in their business careers, either as business owners themselves or "looking to advance their career within a company," says Karen Nelson, the Harmon Whittington Professor of Accounting. "It's 30 random people showing up in a classroom, sometimes two or three from one company. By the end of the week a lot of them are exchanging information, wanting to 24 // JONES JOURNAL SPRING 2014
stay in touch," she says, echoing comments from other professors about the bonding, and sharing of experience in these open programs. "It's not all Fortune 500 companies," Nelson points out. "Some of them come from smaller, private, family-owned businesses; they're people who decided they need to get up to speed," or "people starting their own business, who've been in the corporate world for a while and are rounding out their skill set." Natasha Baughman of Columbia, Mississippi, is one of those people. The 37-year-old attended the open enrollment Accelerated Development Program (ADP) this winter along with her younger sister, Melissa Jones. Their father started Quality Manufacturing Group, an oil-and-gas related manufacturing business in Columbia in 1994, and it now has 120 employees. Baughman, who joined the family business in 2006, is vice-president of operations, and she and her sister "are working towards taking over leadership of the company," she writes in an email. Baughman heard about Rice Executive Education through a customer who had recently attended the leadership
program and highly recommended it, she says. After talking with Executive Education staff about it, she decided to attend the ADP. "I feel that I have gained a great deal of knowledge about myself as a leader and have a better understanding of ways that I can continue my professional development more strategically rather than generically," she says. "I also have made connections with other leaders who are a great resource for continued mutual growth." James Wei of Houston looked at programs at Harvard and the University of Texas before deciding on Rice for its value and location. The 31-year-old is taking over the family-owned office supply business in Houston, whose main customer has been the federal government for the past 30 years. With the downsizing of government, "we need to diversify," says Wei. Thanks to a background in Internet technology, Wei is hoping to help his family's company diversify into IT office solutions. "We can compete with consultants by concentrating on small businesses instead of larger enterprises," he says. But he needed "a push in terms of education,
management, and strategy to take my leadership to the next level," he says. "It helped me to work through my competitive strategy. "I was thinking structure. But actually you have to have strategy first. Then structure follows. This has really helped me." That's what Harvey fondly calls "the immediacy of the impact" and part of "the beauty of what we do — a guy gets to use on Monday what he learned on Friday."
The slightly different way
In a strategy class with Prashant Kale, associate professor of strategic management, “The goal is to push these experienced executives to challenge their assumptions, individually and as a group, to change their perspective on why they do what they do. I'm playing the devil's advocate," Kale tells his students. "In this class we challenge everything." Kale uses a quote from Doris Lessing to explain his teaching approach: "What is learning but to understand something you've understood all your life but in a slightly different way."
Professor Nelson says, 'I never thought about it that way' is a common response from her executive students in financial reporting. "They come away with a better understanding of what their company is doing, what investors and the board of directors are looking at." In his high-level custom classes, "the philosophy that I share up front is that each one of them has a lot of experience," says Kale. "Collectively the experience in the room is several hundred man-years. They know their industry well, better than I." Sometimes too well. Part of the teaching task is to enable executives to move out of their own silo and into crossfunctional management. And Kale says Jones School professors bring their experienced students enlightening perspectives from other industries. The students also bring enlightening perspectives to the teacher. The classes can "become an opportunity to identify a good topic of research," says Kale. "It's a two-way street. We learn as much from them as they learn from us." Does he encounter skepticism? "There's always skepticism. They're spending
valuable time and money to be there." But Kale and other professors in the program have research to back them up. "I am able to emphatically say something because there is a body of research behind it. It gives them comfort. It's not just my opinion. It's not a random case." Kale welcomes the skepticism. "It keeps us on our toes. We can't take anything for granted. I have to keep reminding myself every time I go up to bat: my score is zero." Executive Director Harvey is upbeat about the future. “In our program, Houston and regional business leaders have a resource that helps them challenge themselves, grow themselves and their companies and institutions. The success of these companies has made our Houston metropolitan area vibrant and dynamic. We like to think, as partners in development, that we have contributed to this and that we will do even more in the future as Executive Education grows with our ever-expanding global business community.”
SPRING 2014 JONES JOURNAL // 25