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The Wall Street Journal Spreading Its Wings The top-ranked Regional school is addressing one of its chief weaknesses by aiming to become a little less regional. In The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey of corporate recruiters, Purdue University's Krannert School of Management received one of its lowest ratings for students' international knowledge and experience. But in the coming year, the West Lafayette, Ind., school plans to extend its reach beyond the Midwest by establishing academic partnerships in China. THE WINNERS National picks: Regional picks: The Top International School:
"We need to expand our global program offerings and have been looking in China and Korea," says Krannert Dean Richard Cosier. "We've decided to concentrate on China for now, because it is going to be such a major focus for global business." Students' Strengths The Krannert School earned its No. 1 ranking because of high ratings for students' analytical and problem-solving skills and their willingness to relocate, as well as for being a good value for the money invested in the recruiting effort. Recruiters also like Purdue M.B.A.s' dogged work habits. "The students who have joined us from Purdue tend to fit the strong work ethic of my company," says Russell Flugel, a financial manager at Air Products & Chemicals Inc. "Air Products also values their analytical capabilities. They are often successful in joining a part of our finance function called 'Decision Support,' where much of the work is focused on helping to make business decisions based on risk/reward and data analysis." Established in 1958 as the School of Industrial Management, Purdue's business school grew out of the university's economics department and its engineering school. Since then, it has maintained its focus on quantitative skills, operations management, manufacturing and technology. In the Journal survey, recruiters ranked Krannert among the top 10 schools in the academic disciplines of operations management and information technology. Although still closely connected to manufacturing companies, Krannert has been shedding its industrial image and creating a more high-tech reputation. For example, it is an integral part of Purdue's interdisciplinary Discovery Park complex, which includes centers on entrepreneurship, the environment, nanotechnology, bioscience and e-enterprise. Krannert also is expanding in the medical area. Some Krannert operations professors are working with their university colleagues on a project to make health-care delivery more efficient, and the business school plans to develop a joint master's program with Purdue's biomedical-engineering department. Purdue University's Krannert School of Management Krannert's robust reputation for engineering and technology has its downside, however. For one thing, school officials believe the quantitative image deters many women from applying to Krannert. About half of the students have backgrounds in engineering and science, fields traditionally less popular with women. With women representing only 18% of its full-time M.B.A.s, Krannert lags far behind other top-ranked schools with a 30% or higher share of women. Operations management and technology also overshadow some of Krannert's other strengths, causing frustration among some professors who feel that finance, marketing and other academic areas get too little attention. A recent study in the Journal of Finance Literature did single out Krannert professors John McConnell and Wilbur Lewellen as two of the most prolific finance researchers. But Krannert's future clearly is quantitative-based. Based on input from students and recruiters, Krannert recently added three new areas of academic concentration for its M.B.A. students: global supply-chain management, analytical consulting, and technological innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition, Dean Cosier says, "We're looking into an executive M.B.A. degree focused on energy." Krannert is expanding its academic offerings after adding 20 faculty members over the past four years. By creating the three new interdisciplinary study options, the school hopes to attract more high-caliber M.B.A. applicants, as well as new corporate recruiters. "We started our regular four-year program review by benchmarking our programs against schools such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Northwestern," says Manohar Kalwani, the management professor who headed the faculty review group. "Our overarching goal was to provide students with a curriculum that is flexible, up-to-date and innovative. We looked at designing option areas that reflect and reinforce the school's strengths." Enrollment is starting to pick up in Purdue's executive M.B.A. program, but the school still faces an application downturn for its full-time M.B.A. degree. The number of applicants fell 27% in 2004 and 15% this year. That trend has compelled the school to reduce its full-time enrollment about 20% from the level of just a few years back. "It's been pretty challenging," says Dean Cosier, noting that the volume of foreign applications, particularly from China, continues to be weak. "Some schools are dropping their quality indicators to keep class size up. But our strategy is to keep quality as high as we can." More Experience Wanted To that end, Krannert has been raising the bar on work experience. The school has tended to admit engineering students with an outstanding undergraduate academic record even though they have spent little time in the workplace, but such modest experience is a sore point with corporate recruiters. So, Krannert students now have an average of 4.6 years of work experience, up from four years previously Krannert enjoyed a strong placement season this year. Salaries and signing bonuses rose about 8%, and such industries as financial services and technology stepped up their recruiting. Students' top career choices continued to be marketing, operations and finance. "The academic quality, student preparedness and helpful staff make recruiting at Purdue a painless experience," says Darris Sherman, who works in category management at General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios Home Entertainment unit. "Purdue's strong focus on marketing, strategy and operations fits well with GE's growth-oriented and process-driven culture."
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