William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business is updating its full-time Master of Business Administration program and inviting business professionals to weigh in on the process.
The school is currently in the midst of a seven-week online collaborative process set to run from the end of October through Dec. 27.
“Tomorrow’s MBA: Co-creating the Future of Business Education” allows professionals, executives, innovators and current business students to participate in an online discussion with one another about what William & Mary’s “MBA of the future” should look like, according to a recent news release from the college.
The project’s website includes sections to post comments on topics that will guide the school’s conversation in forming the new MBA program. Users can even go as far as to submit complete plans and outlines to the site.
At the close of the submission period, a panel of judges made up of CEOs and executives will select the best ideas from the site and present awards and prizes to the winners, including plaques engraved with their names to be displayed prominently in the business school and promotion on the school’s website and various media channels. Faculty at the school will use the input to create the new curriculum.
Asking potential and actual customers and users to assist in the design of the product, known in the business world as open innovation, is a new approach to higher education that administrators at the school are hopeful will yield unique results
“Our goal is to co-create the most differentiated, sustainable and relevant MBA program available,” Mason School of Business Dean Larry Pulley said. “Many of the world’s top companies rely on open innovation. We are doing the same with Tomorrow’s MBA.”
