SPRINGFIELD, Mo., May 4, 2020 — Drury University announces MBA Ventures, a new and innovative MBA program from the Breech School of Business.
Launching in fall 2020, Breech faculty have built the MBAV’s new courses around the process of creating and leading business ventures, while also deepening the program’s long-held commitment to international business and ethical practice.
“We asked ourselves: ‘What questions come naturally in the course of taking on a venture larger than you’ve taken on before?’” says Dr. Clif Petty, interim dean of the Breech School. “Those were the professionally focused, naturally occurring, multi-faceted questions that drove our thinking in fully rebuilding the MBA program for today’s business environment.”
The two-year program consists of 30 credit hours across 10 tightly integrated and intentionally sequenced courses, emphasizing a holistic approach built on challenging course work, case studies, field studies, small group sessions and strategic leadership. Students will join small-group Venture Teams based on personality assessments. They will focus on establishing business leadership skills in the first year and move on to practical application of those skills during the second year.
The new courses dive deep into topics that include Reading Economic Patterns and Conditions, Engaging in International Commerce, Measuring and Funding Performance, Designing Future Ventures, and more. The program will use the issues of the day – from international trade to the COVID-19 crisis – to examine the world of business. Rather than focus on answers, students will learn what they need to know in order to ask the right questions to execute on strategy and gain competitive advantages.
Some of the questions that drove the creation of new courses included:
“The entire program can be seen as an in-depth case study. We want students to see a business venture as a process,” says Dr. Robin Soster, associate dean of the Breech School and director of the MBA program at Drury. “Today’s business professionals must see the bigger picture for what it is – a problem to solve and an opportunity to make an impact.”
New cohorts will enter the program each August. All MBA classes are offered in a synchronous video format via Zoom, allowing for students to have a Drury classroom experience from anywhere in the country or the world. Seated courses are also available.
“Not all MBA programs are created equal,” Soster says. “While many programs are now moving to more basic and simplified curriculums, our MBAV program is designed to challenge you and change you.”
The full MBAV curriculum and prerequisites can be found online at: www.drury.edu/mba.
Prospective students who do not have an undergraduate business degree can enroll in Drury’s MBA Boot Camp, an intensive five-week course that satisfies all prerequisites for entry into the MBAV program. Boot Camp begins July 13.
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