Purdue News
Purdue News
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July 15, 2002 Krannert offers mini-MBA to area companies, managersWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University's Krannert Executive Education Programs are beginning their second "mini-MBA" program for area company management personnel on Aug. 6. Management at Caterpillar Inc.'s Lafayette plant initiated the program. In turn, Caterpillar, along with the local laboratories of Eli Lilly and Co. and Industrial Dielectrics Inc. in Noblesville, Ind., provided initial support for the inaugural series of business and management classes last spring.
Michael Sheahan, associate director of Krannert Executive Education Programs, describes the Executive Management Certificate (EMC) Program of 90 hours of in-class instruction as a "mini-MBA." The first class graduated in February. "Like our regular MBA, we use the case-study method in our specialized executive classes," Sheahan says. "But rather than Harvard cases, our instructors may use a Wall Street Journal article on one of Caterpillar's competitors as a starting point, provide further information and show how it relates to more general management and business principles." Before the classes started, Caterpillar was involved with setting up a curriculum that the company identified as critical to its executive management development. The final curriculum included: — Micro and macroeconomics, — Managerial accounting and financial management, — Human resource management, — Marketing management and — Global strategic management. Judy M. Potts, Caterpillar's workplace development manager of human resources at the company's large engine center in Lafayette, Ind., was involved in setting up the EMC program with the Krannert School. She's a February graduate of the first EMC program.
"At Caterpillar, lifelong education is part of the fabric of the company," she says. "For the EMC program, we looked for high-potential candidates from different disciplines and departments and from a variety of educational backgrounds on the management team. Our goal is a more well-rounded management team." There have been other benefits that Cat hadn't foreseen, she says. "There's been team building because there is no company hierarchy in the classroom. It's a level playing field." Because the plant is located in Lafayette, just across the river from Purdue's West Lafayette campus, all of the in-class instruction has been face-to-face. "That's appropriate," Sheahan says, "because management is a people-to-people activity, so management education should be people-to-people, too." Plans are to take these programs to Purdue's regional campuses, as well as to Indianapolis and Chicago through a mixture of classroom instruction and distance-learning technologies, Sheahan says. Interested students and companies can contact Sheahan at (765) 494-7700, sheahan@mgmt.purdue.edu. Writer: J.M. Lillich, (765) 494-2077, mlillich@purdue.edu Sources: Michael Sheahan, (765) 494-7700, sheahan@mgmt.purdue.edu Judy M. Potts, (765) 448-5813, pottsjm@cat.com PHOTO CAPTION: A publication-quality photograph is available at the News Service ftp site. Photo ID: sheahan.emc.jpeg Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu Related Web site:
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