An MBA Triple Threat That’s Tough to Beat | Alumni Magazine, Fall 2019

AROUND CAMPUS

The MBA programs offered by Tech's Scheller College of Business rank among the best in the country.

AN MBA TRIPLE THREAT THAT’S TOUGH TO BEAT

THE THREE DISTINCT MBA PROGRAMS FROM THE SCHELLER COLLEGE OF BUSINESS PROVIDE A WINNING COMBINATION OF TECH EXPERTISE AND BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS TO GIVE PROFESSIONALS THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO EXCEL IN TODAY’S GLOBAL MARKETPLACE.

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IT WAS 2007, and Joe Urban could see that business was undergoing a sea change. From his vantage point as a sales and marketing professional at the medical tech company Boston Scientific, it was clear that business was getting more technology-focused and globally aware. Urban was ready to get his MBA to turbocharge his career, and he was eager to attend a school that was attuned to the shift.

When he looked into Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business, he found a school with an approach that didn’t just align with what he had already seen in his career—it doubled down on it. “I wanted to be part of what they were building,” says Urban, MBA 08, of Scheller’s global, tech-oriented education. “They were right at the forefront of technology and global business.”

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BY ERIN PETERSON Urban’s time at the school, which included residencies in Buenos Aires and Dubai, paid significant dividends. He’s now the CEO of Potrero, a Silicon Valley–based medical AI company. To date, it’s raised more than $50 million to develop technology to detect and predict acute kidney injury, a condition that kills 300,000 people each year.

The integrated technology and business focus of Scheller’s three unique MBA programs may have felt a bit unusual a dozen years ago. But today, they reside squarely at the heart of almost all meaningful business, says Assistant Dean of MBA Programs Katie Lloyd. “Almost all of the exciting things happening in the world and in business right now—supply chain, business analytics, innovation, digital disruption—are happening at the intersection of business and technology,” she says.

“This isn’t just about IT. It’s about marketing and finance, and

it’s about nearly every industry.”

If Scheller’s tech strengths are deeply embedded in its DNA, its business bona fides have been strengthened with the innovation ecosystem that’s developed in Scheller College’s home in the Midtown Atlanta’s Tech Square. Innovation Centers— partnerships with more than a dozen high-profile companies ranging from The Home Depot to Panasonic— are where students, faculty, researchers and companies work together to explore how business and technology can work together seamlessly.

One recent beneficiary of these collaborative efforts was Lindsey Waters, a current full-time student who landed at Georgia Tech after graduating from Harvard and working in marketing at Coca-Cola. While visiting The Home Depot's innovation studio during orientation, she learned about the HoloLens, an augmented-reality product developed by Microsoft that was being used to train Home Depot employees.

“That demonstration made me realize how technology could be used across business functions,” she says.

A month later, while at the National Black MBA Conference in Detroit, she talked to Microsoft recruiters about the HoloLens—a conversation that later led to her summer internship with the company. “The program does such a good job of connecting us with these companies and helping us get in front of them,” says Waters. “Then we’re able to use experiences from Christian White, MBA 16, and Christian Hyatt, MBA 16, got an entrepreneurial boost from their time at the Scheller College.

THREE DISTINCT PROGRAMS, ONE BIG GOAL:

BREAKING DOWN SCHELLER’S MBA OFFERINGS THE THREE MBA PROGRAMS OFFERED BY THE SCHELLER COLLEGE OF BUSINESS SUPPORT A DIVERSE RANGE OF PROFESSIONALS READY TO TURBOCHARGE THEIR CAREERS THROUGH AN MBA THAT EXCELS IN INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS, EQUIPPING ITS GRADUATES TO TACKLE THE CHALLENGES OF THE EVER-CHANGING GLOBAL LANDSCAPE.

FULL-TIME MBA

The 22-month program is designed to help students focus on what interests them most. Students tackle their core courses during the first semester, which frees them up to pursue electives, dive deep into immersive tracks within the Tech Square innovation ecosystem, and pursue areas of focus and leadership development opportunities.

“Scheller’s emphasis on leveraging analytics as a tool, rather than a buzzword, has been crucial for my career. The curriculum empowered me to understand and deploy analytical tools in real time to make evidence-based decisions with confidence.”

– K A T I E W O O D S , M B A 19 , A S S O C I A T E B R A N D B U I L D I N G MANAGER AT GEORGIA -PACIFIC

EVENING (PART-TIME) MBA

The part-time program allows working professionals to complete the program at their own pace with evening, as well as select weekend and online courses. (Most complete the program within 2 to 3 years.) Students get the same opportunities and rigorous curriculum as full-time students, including real-world projects and connections to Fortune 500 companies.

“Learning all facets of business—information systems, finance, accounting, leadership—as well as making connections with people at big companies like Delta and Coca-Cola, was incredibly empowering.”

–SAWYER WILLIAMSON, CURRENT EVENING STUDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT AT WILLIAMSON BROS. BAR-B-Q

EXECUTIVE MBA

This 17-month program, with courses on weekends, is designed to hone students’ expertise in global business skills and emerging technologies with two options—global business and management of technology. The Global Business Capstone project brings teams together to tackle strategic issues faced by partner Fortune 500 companies, while the Management of Technology Capstone puts forth new products and services in a “Shark Tank”–style format.

“The international residencies were really eye-opening for me. And that paid dividends at one of my later companies, when I did 22 international trips in 12 months. But I felt comfortable, because I’d already had the initial exposure when I was at Georgia Tech.”

–JOE URBAN, MBA 08, CEO AT POTRERO MEDIC AL

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AROUND CAMPUS the program and turn them into opportunities for ourselves.”

It’s not just the students who are noticing the benefits.

Scheller’s MBA programs have earned an armful of accolades and top rankings. Among them: a top 10 ranking from U.S. News & World Report for full-time and evening programs, a top 5 MBA Career Services ranking from Financial Times, a top 10 MBA for return on investment by QS World University Rankings, top 20 Executive MBA program in the U.S. from Financial Times, and a No. 1 in Career Progress for EMBA Alumni from Financial Times.

For current evening student Sawyer Williamson, the rankings are notable—but numbers he’s been most impressed with are the ones he’s seen with his own business. Williamson, a vice president at Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q, currently balances his role at the company with evening classes in the MBA program.

He wanted more than theory. “Anything I was going to devote myself to had to have some kind of payback—and not on a three- to five-year scale, but immediately,” he says.

His MBA program has delivered, and his improved decision making is having a real impact on his company—a multimillion-dollar business with more than 200 employees. “I’ve gone into a class and learned new techniques in cost accounting that I’ve been able to take into work the next morning to change our accounting system,” he says. “I’ve seen a huge upside.”

Even those who aren’t balancing a job and school are getting plenty of chances to do real-world work with practicums and other types of experiential learning. Waters, for example, took a strategy course that paired her with employees at Delta Air Lines. Her project focused on improving Delta's engagement with corporate travelers. “In practicum courses, you learn about facing conflict in a team setting anddealing effectively with clients—all the real-life experiences you’ll need in your career and for responses to interview questions,” Waters says.

For entrepreneurs, Tech’s location and support can help bring great ideas to life. Christian Hyatt, MBA 16, and Christian White, MBA 16, were able to stress test a business idea they had about information security and compliance through an array of opportunities at Tech. “We iterated through product/service-market fit in a sandbox environment,” White says.

“We were encouraged to reach out to entrepreneurs, we were introduced to growing technology startups, and we were provided an ecosystem to prepare, develop and ultimately launch a successful business venture.” The information risk management firm— called risk3sixty—that they launched as a result of this work is thriving.

Declan Nishiyama, MBA 18, a chemical engineer who had been working at Exxon before arriving at Scheller’s faculty brings a multidisciplinary approach to teaching, leveraging Tech's strengths in science and engineering.

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TECH SQUARE:

WHERE INNOVATION HAPPENS Artist's rendering of Tech Square's Phase III.

AS THE WORLD BECOMES EVER MORE FOCUSED ON TECHNOLOGY—FROM AUGMENTED REALITY TO AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES TO CYBERSECURITY— BUSINESS MUST KEEP PACE. AT GEORGIA TECH, THIS TECHNOLOGY FOCUS IS SECOND NATURE, AND THE INSTITUTE HAS WORKED TO MAKE IT E V E N S T RO N G E R I N T E C H S Q U A R E . M O R E T H A N 1. 4 MILLION SQUARE FEET OF SPACE ARE DEVOTED TO AMBITIOUS INNOVATION INITIATIVES IN BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY. HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL FIND: 10 0 - P L U S S T A R T U P S 2 2 C O R P O R A T E I N N O VA T I O N C E N T E R S , INCUDING AT&T, BOEING AND HONEYWELL T H E A D VA N C E D T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T CENTER (ATDC), A STARTUP INCUBATOR THAT HELPS TEC HN OLOGY ENTREPRENEURS L AUN C H A N D B U I L D C O M PA N I E S VENTURELAB, WHICH WORKS WITH STUDENTS TO CREATE STARTUPS BASED ON RESEARC H CODA, A 755,000-SQUARE-FOOT FACILIT Y DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION BET WEEN UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCHERS, STUDENTS AND INDUS TRY

AND THAT’S JUST THE START. TECH SQUARE KEEPS GROWING, AND THE PHASE III EXPANSION OF ATL ANTA’S PREMIER INNOVATION HUB WILL INCLUDE THE SCHELLER TOWER (PICTURED), WHICH WILL HOUSE TECH’S MBA AND EXECUTIVE EDUCATION PROGRAMS. IT’S SL ATED TO OPEN IN 2022.

Georgia Tech’s program, was drawn to the Scheller’s College strength in entrepreneurship. He did a project as a part of the TI:GER (Technology Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program, which teams up MBA, engineering and computing students with industry mentors and corporate innovation centers. He was one of a trio of students who focused on commercializing autonomous vehicle research. Among his tasks were to learn exactly how they could position their efforts to attract companies including Uber and Google.

While the tools and techniques are valuable to students, perhaps the most important benefit of an MBA from Scheller is the alumni network—a community of people who are excited to support fellow Yellow Jackets as they seek their next job and solve the next problem. There are more than 165,000 alumni,

and they can be found in in every state and more than 130 countries. That includes 4,000 C-suite executives ready to help.

Among those standing at the ready to help Scheller students is alumnus Joe Urban. After earning his degree in 2008, he’s stayed connected to Scheller. He happily invites Scheller students who go on annual Silicon Valley tours to visit Potrero to learn about the ethos of their work—and the benefits they might expect to see from Georgia Tech even beyond their graduation. “We love to show them the way that we operate—failing fast and failing often, learning and moving forward,” he says.

“Our team presents to them, gives them a tour and has lunch.

We’ll crack a beer at a happy hour. I’m happy to open up my arms and welcome Georgia Tech, because they gave me such a great opportunity to be part of their program.”

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