Inspired Leadership, Digitally Driven

Inspired Leadership, Digitally Driven: The Merage School is ushering in a new age in MBA programs

As our lives become more digitally mediated, we must adapt ourselves and the businesses we create to keep pace. It is with this vision in mind that The Paul Merage School of Business has completely reframed its MBA curriculum to give students the high-caliber, holistic preparation they need to become effective leaders in a digitally driven world.

Located in the heart of Orange School is surrounded by a network of innovative businesses which include an as Blizzard Entertainment, Broadcom and Western Digital, and digitally-savvy Bell. It is in this environment that the Merage School prepares students for the new opportunities and challenges being unveiled by disruptive technologies. and his colleague Margarethe Wiersema, Strategic Management, have worked closely with the Merage School faculty to redesign the MBA curriculum through the lens of emerging digital technologies, taking into consideration their impact on industry and how companies compete. The goal of the new curriculum, launched

in Fall 2017, is not only to teach students the scope of these technologies, but also the potential opportunity to create value in the marketplace through digital innovation. Core courses in the Merage School MBA programs now examine how technology is disrupting all aspects of business across a diverse range of healthcare and retail. our students to answer new questions about how to adapt as business leaders, how to invest in emerging technologies and how to manage the transformation of a company from an old way of doing business to a new one. We are preparing them to navigate the cultural shift

As part of the curricular initiative, Merage School faculty met with leading industry executives to determine the competencies they look for in new MBA hires and how they see their respective industries changing with business needs in the contemporary world, focusing on actionable ideas and building a new set of competencies suited to the digital age. Experience-based decision-making skills are integrated into the curriculum with data-driven decision-making at the forefront. Experiential learning components continue to provide real world education, allowing teams of students to immerse themselves in valuable projects with real organizations.

to deal with the digitally driven world has not been taken up at large in the business management programs are stocked with techsavvy, plugged-in people. However, to date, no school offers an MBA focused on competing in a digitally driven world that provides students with the knowledge and strategic thinking skills to address the dynamic and disruptive changes

A highly impactful resource available at the Merage School is the Center for Digital Transformation (CDT). Established in 2012, the advancing the competitiveness and productivity of business in the digital economy. Each year, the CDT hosts a landmark annual conference, CEOs and thought leaders to discuss critical issues senior executives must consider as they guide their companies in the age of emerging technology. At the 2017 conference, CXOs of innovative businesses like Target, Lyft, Ticketmaster, Edmunds, and Warner Bros. spoke on themes of leadership, transformative technology, and reinventing business models.

With a compelling new curriculum and Center for Digital Transformation, the UCI Paul Merage School of Business is poised to enter a unique leadership role in educating generations of competent, digitally-aware leaders in our age of disruptive technology.