Kellogg School's New Growth Mantra: The Transformation Behind Another New Tagline

Kellogg’s new brand video asks the question: “Are you growth minded?”

WILL EXPAND MS IN MANAGEMENT STUDIES TO LIBERAL ARTS GRADS OUTSIDE NORTHWESTERN

She also introduced an M.S. in management studies for liberal arts undergraduates who want to learn about management and business. The program, which takes students in during mid-July and graduates them the following year in mid-May, will be expanded next year. For two pilot cohorts, the program was limited to Northwestern students. Blount says Kellogg will expand the program outside the university next year. Though limited to just 30 students now, the dean says that the size of the program is dependent on the quality of applicants it receives. But Kellogg will move the program to downtown Chicago, where it could accommodate as many as 200 students, because “we think the energy down there is great and we can bring in executives every day so that will enrich that program.”

Earlier this year, the school also launched a fifth international Executive MBA program with a foreign partner, this one with the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. More importantly, however, Blount has moved these EMBA partnerships from a loose affiliation of partners to an integrated network where they work more closely with each other. Students in each EMBA program now take two to four courses at other network schools. “When I got to Kellogg, those partnerships were entirely separate programs,” says Blount. “The deans of those programs had never met. We created an infrastructure where the network has its own team based at Kellogg and the deans meet annually to set an agenda for each year.”

The school expects to continue to build on that network, with its 37 exchange programs across 20 countries and a new course for full-time MBA students to be launched this spring called “International Growth Lab.” “Most business schools programs take a cohort of students, ship them to a foreign country where they work on a problem, and then bring them back home,” says Simonds. “This program will use the EMBA network so that our students will work together with the full-time students of our partner schools. We’ll have about 20 Kellogg students in the pilot, but it is representative of the innovation and experimentation that is going on here.”

HALF OF KELLOGG’S FULL-TIME MBAS NOW PARTAKE IN GLOBAL EXPERIENCES

Already, says Blount, 125 to 150 of Kellogg’s MBA candidates are doing a quarter abroad at a partner or exchange school, while another 200 do a two-week experiential learning course abroad. “About 50% of all our MBA students are choosing to participate in these options,” says Blount. “We are doing it our way. We have it available for the people who want it and in many forms. It’s not a requirement. When 25% to 40% of your students are already global, you want to offer options and let them make the choices that are best for them.”

All of this change takes money, of course. Blount, who broke ground on a new business school building last fall, says the school has just completed a record-breaking year in fundraising. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Kellogg raised $47 million, bringing the $350 million goal of a capital campaign to $215 million.

More money. A new building. A repositioned brand. An entirely new senior leadership team. A radical reorganization of a business school’s faculty. Major innovation through both new and refreshed courses. New degree offerings and a new emphasis on the growth of the one-year MBA. An expansion of the school’s global EMBA portfolio with the creation of a true network with five partner schools.

That’s enough change in four years to make one dizzy. Or, to borrow Kellogg’s new tagline, it’s the work of a brave leader who has inspired a great deal of growth in people, the organization and the market this business school serves.