The Strategic Plan For the Terry College of Business

I. INTRODUCTION

The Terry College of Business’s strategic planning process was initiated by Dean George Benson in October 1998 when he named 18 college members to positions on the Dean’s Leadership Council. This group consisted of academic program directors, dean’s level administrators, at least two faculty members from each of the academic departments, and two students. This Council was designated as an ongoing committee with revolving membership that is to advise the Dean about major issues facing the Terry College. Its first task was to lead the development of the college’s strategic plan.

In his initial charge to the Council, Dean Benson was explicit as to his expectations for the strategic plan. It is to provide the vision that will guide the future development of the Terry College. It should provide carefully considered goals and objectives for the college as a whole, its individual academic programs, and its tripartite mission of research, instruction, and service. It should identify changes within the college necessary to reach these objectives. Dean Benson indicated that the strategic planning process should extend beyond faculty and administrators and include staff, students, alumni, and the business community.

To carry out the dean’s charge, the Council performed the following activities:

• asked each of the administrative and academic units of the college to determine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT Analysis)
• conducted focus group meetings with approximately 400 individuals, including students, university administrators, business and community leaders, alumni, faculty, retired faculty, and staff, concerning their perceptions of how the Terry College could better serve their needs
• examined the external business, economic, academic, and political environments of the college in order to identify factors that may affect its future
• examined other business schools to ascertain the nature of their programs and resources
• developed statements of the social imperative, purpose, envisioned future, and core values of the college
• determined specific strategic goals for the college based upon the information gathered and the analysis performed in the planning process
• developed objectives for the Terry College’s activities and academic programs that support the strategic goals
• identified the infrastructure within the college necessary to reach the strategic goals.

II. CURRENT STATUS OF THE TERRY COLLEGE

A. Description of the Terry College

Faculty and Staff

The Terry College is one of 13 colleges and schools within The University of Georgia. As of July 1999, it had 102 faculty members in seven academic departments: Accounting; Banking and Finance; Economics; Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies; Management; Management Information Systems; and Marketing and Distribution. There are 95 Terry College staff in the academic departments, Dean’s Office, Office of MBA Programs, Office of Undergraduate Studies, Office of Corporate Education, Alumni Office, Development Office, Communications Office, the Computer Center, the Selig Center for Economic Growth, and Logistics Office. In addition, 17 instructors and 55 Ph.D. students serve as teaching assistants. The college’s organization chart is presented in Figure 1.

Degree Programs

As of the Fall 1999 term, the Terry College has approximately 5400 undergraduate students: 1333 seniors, 1403 juniors, 1439 sophomores, and 1199 freshmen. In addition, the faculty directs the work of approximately 246 AB degrees in Economics. The college is among the ten largest undergraduate business programs in the country and includes approximately 20% of all undergraduates at UGA.

The college also has 474 graduate students. Of these, the MBA program has a total of 257 students. Forty-nine are enrolled in the one-year full-time residential MBA program, 123 are in the two-year full-time residential MBA program, and 81 are in the two-year custom-designed PricewaterhouseCoopers MBA program. There are 76 students in the Master of Accounting (MAcc) program, 46 in the Master of Marketing Research (MMR) program, and 18 in other Master programs. Finally, 81 students are enrolled in the Ph.D. program for the Fall 1999 term.

Budget

The FY2000 budget of the Terry College is $22.0 million, including the $2.3 million in fringe benefits for faculty and staff. Of this amount, $20.1 million (91.4%) are from state sources, $609,000 (2.7%) are from endowment income, and $1,300,000 (5.9%) from other sources such as economic forecasting luncheons, gifts, and the PricewaterhouseCoopers MBA program.

Rankings of Academic Programs

Several of the Terry College’s academic programs have received national rankings from various sources. For example, the MBA program was ranked 38th in the world in the 1999 by The Financial Times and is also included by Business Week in the 1999 top 50 U.S. business schools. However, this program fell from 39th in the 1998 U.S. News & World Report’s rankings to out of its top 50 in 1999 (the actual unpublished ranking was 51st). The undergraduate program was ranked 26th in the United States (19th among public universities) in August 1999 by U.S. News & World Report. The same source also ranked the undergraduate Risk Management and Insurance program 4th and the undergraduate Real Estate program 5th in the country.

Quality and Quantity of Faculty Research Publications

Even though research publication has long been stressed as a primary part of faculty performance, the college has not systematically tracked the amount or quality of research output by its faculty. It is therefore difficult to make a valid comparison of faculty research to that of faculty in other colleges of business. However, there are limited data from multiple sources that provide some information. A study conducted by two faculty of the Terry College determined that the college ranked 33rd among major business schools in faculty publications in a small number of top research journals (publication dates: 1986-1998) in each of six academic areas. Another recent study rated the management information systems faculty first among such departments in terms of publication in two leading MIS journals (publication dates: 1993-1997). A third study ranked faculty in insurance second in publications in one leading insurance journal (publication dates: 1987-1996).

Physical Facilities

The majority of the Terry College staff and the entire faculty are located in Brooks Hall, newly renovated after the devastating August 1995 fire. The Office of Undergraduate Studies is in Sanford Hall, which opened in Fall 1997. This building is used for almost all MBA classes as well as a number of undergraduate classes. Caldwell Hall is used primarily for undergraduate classes and labs. Because of the size of the undergraduate program, classes are also held in a variety of other buildings around the campus, including south campus.

B. Comparisons to Other Highly Rated Schools of Business

At present, colleges of business are primarily measured and valued externally for their achievements in MBA programs, faculty research, and executive education. Of these three, MBA programs are the most visible, being rated annually by many different media sources. In comparing the Terry College to other schools of business, we selected those that had highly rated MBA programs. The schools used for comparison are presented in Table 1 together with data summarizing their important characteristics, e.g., number of faculty, size of undergraduate and graduate programs, annual budget, and size of endowment. These data (except where noted) are AY 1998-99 data. Therefore, the numbers describing the Terry College differ slightly from those reported earlier in this report that pertain to the September 1999 status of the college.

The Terry College is qualitatively different from top-rated, private business schools like Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, and Northwestern. These are “super-funded” schools with very large MBA programs, endowments in excess of $200 million and large revenue-generating executive programs. Accordingly, it is misleading and inappropriate to make general comparisons to those institutions. Instead, we focus on the major public business schools. We compared ourselves to regional competitors: the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, the University of Florida, and the Georgia Institute of Technology; to national competitors with large undergraduate programs: Indiana University, Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Texas; and to the highly ranked public competitors: the University of Michigan, UCLA, and the University of Minnesota.

The most important conclusions drawn from our comparisons with these institutions are discussed below:

• Generally, the top-rated public institutions have much larger full-time MBA enrollments than does Terry. While Terry has 197 students, the University of Michigan has 862, University of Texas at Austin has 813, University of California at Los Angeles has 711, and Indiana University has 590. None of the 10 public schools we evaluated has a smaller MBA program than Terry.
• Terry is fourth among the list of public business schools in terms of the number of undergraduate degrees granted during the 1997-98 academic year (1104). Only four other schools awarded more than 900 undergraduate degrees during this time period: Indiana University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Florida, and University of Texas - Austin. All four have more faculty than Terry.
• The Terry College has the highest ratio of undergraduate to full-time MBA students among the public business schools (5.6). The only other school with a similar ratio is Pennsylvania State University (4.34).
• Of the public business schools, only the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (85) and Georgia Institute of Technology (49) have fewer faculty than Terry. However, these two colleges have significantly smaller undergraduate programs with 345 and 201 graduates, respectively.
• The budget of the Terry College ($20.3 million) is smaller than the budgets of the eight other public business schools with available data. Only two others, University of Florida ($27.1 million) and Michigan State University ($26.0 million), have budgets less than $30 million per year.
• The endowment of the Terry College ($42 million) is less than that of seven of the other nine public business schools for which information is available. The endowments of four of the schools are two or more times larger than ours: University of Michigan ($125.7 million), University of Minnesota ($105 million), University of Texas - Austin ($104 million), and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ($80 million).
• In the area of executive education, all seven of the other public universities for which data are available have far greater revenues than the Terry College. The next smallest amount of revenue is $2.3 million.
• The Terry College is one of only three public institutions in the comparison set that do not have part-time MBA programs. The others are University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and University of Texas - Austin.
• More than half of the universities in the comparison set have an Executive MBA program. The Terry College is the only one which has neither a part-time nor an Executive MBA program.

These comparisons reveal a number of significant differences relative to our competitors that must be addressed if we are to improve our reputation, ranking, and service to our students and the business community. To close the gaps with our competitors we need to:

• increase dramatically the size of our endowment
• increase the enrollment of the full-time MBA program
• reduce the size of the undergraduate program or increase substantially the number of our faculty
• reduce Terry’s reliance on the state as a revenue source by increasing endowment income, executive education revenues, and external research grants
• establish a part-time MBA program to better serve the business community in Georgia, and initiate an executive MBA program to serve those at higher management levels who wish to pursue a degree.

C. Comments from Constituents

A third source of information concerning the current status of the Terry College was provided by the individuals who attended focus group meetings on campus, across Georgia, and in two other states. From January to March 1999, members of the Leadership Council conducted five focus group meetings with Terry College faculty, five with staff, seven with graduate students, and five with undergraduate students. These meetings involved over 200 people. In addition, the Council contacted alumni, business leaders, and other members of the UGA community. Three focus group meetings were held in Atlanta with 26 alumni and business leaders participating. Four meetings were held with community leaders and alumni in the Athens area. Meetings were held in Augusta, Columbus, Dalton, Macon, Rome, Savannah, St. Simons Island, and Waycross, as well as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida. These meetings had a total participation of 150 community leaders and alumni. Finally, separate focus group meetings were held with top UGA administrators and with retired faculty of the Terry College.

The various constituent groups were asked to answer questions about the Terry College appropriate for their relationships to the college, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the college. Major themes that emerged from these focus groups are summarized in the following paragraphs.

Faculty groups commented favorably about the collegial environment among faculty and staff of the college, the emphasis on research, and the academic excellence of our students. Unfavorable comments focused on the small size of the faculty relative to student demand, the need for technical personnel to support computing operations, and the lack of flexibility in scheduling classes in order to provide blocks of time for research.

Staff groups also positively evaluated interaction among faculty and staff and the activities of theTerry College Staff Council. Critical remarks focused on the existing salary structure and pay raises, the need for increased involvement of staff in administrative decisions, staff training in the latest computer operations, technical support from the computer center, and the communication among program offices, academic departments, faculty and staff.

Students were positive about the interaction with faculty and the willingness of faculty to meet with students outside of scheduled classes. Also receiving high marks were applied class projects and class presentations by members of the business community. Graduate students were very positive about the available financial support. Finally, many students commented favorably about the availability of instructional technology and labs. Negative comments concerned the size of undergraduate classes, the lack of meeting rooms for teams of graduate students, the lack of career placement facilities and personnel, lack of student lounges for social interaction, and the lack of flexibility in the various curricula.

The comments of business and community leaders almost exclusively addressed services that the college could provide to the external community. The most frequently mentioned items were offering various MBA programs (part-time and executive versions) and nondegree short courses on specific topics; introducing the students to the business communities of such cities as Savannah, Albany, Columbus, Macon, etc.; developing more internships; providing communities and high schools with more information about the activities and programs of the Terry College; offering distance learning courses; integrating the business community into the curricula of the college; developing co-op programs; and developing a systematic plan for life-long learning for Terry graduates.

In summary, we conclude that the Terry College is well regarded for the interactions among faculty, staff, and students; its educational technology; and the applied nature of its curriculum. The college was criticized, however, for the large sizes of its classes; staff salary levels; its lack of placement personnel and facilities; the rigidity of its curricula; and the lack of several types of meeting and public rooms. The external community was especially concerned about the absence of executive education, distance learning, alternative MBA programs, and the limited community involvement of the Terry faculty. A full summary of the focus groups’ comments is available from the Office of the Dean.

D. Terry College Misalignments and Limitations

Our review of the Terry College indicates that the following factors will constrain the future development of the college and must be addressed.

Limited Executive Education and Contact with Business Community

Executive education offered by the Terry College mainly consists of a few specialized programs targeted at specific industries that have been organized by individual faculty members or co-sponsored by outside groups. One notable exception is the annual Economic Forecasting Conference held in Atlanta and at nine other locations around the state. This low level of activity is in sharp contrast to the extensive executive education programs of other leading business schools. It is also counter to the interests of the business community. This lack of executive education contributes to the Terry faculty’s limited contact with and visibility in the business community.

Too Few MBA Students and Too Many Undergraduates

Graduating approximately 100 students per year, the MBA program is too small to attract the attention of many companies that hire MBAs. In 1999, only 27 companies visited campus to recruit MBA students. One contributing factor to this small number of companies is that members of our small graduating class select from 19 different “majors,” leaving us without a clear content-area identity in the marketplace. These scale issues are a partial explanation for the MBA program’s recent fall in the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

At the same time, the undergraduate program is too large relative to our existing resources. With approximately 5400 total undergraduates, 2700 of which are juniors and seniors, class sizes have reached 300 students in junior-level courses and nearly 100 students in many senior-level courses. Over 80 class sections per academic year have enrollments in excess of 100.

Limited Endowment, Budget, and Staff

Both the budget and endowment of the Terry College are much smaller than those of higher-ranked business schools. These shortages affect some of the college’s activities and services. For example, we need several additional academic advisors to provide adequate counseling for undergraduates. Approximately two dozen more faculty are needed to reduce the sizes of our undergraduate classes and enable us to offer a sufficient number of honors sections. Additional placement professionals are needed to work with MBA students, and several technical support specialists are required to meet faculty research demands. The college also has too few personnel available for important functions such as disseminating information to and developing relationships with alumni, donors, present students, staff, and the general public. The college also needs an experienced director and additional staff to develop and implement executive education programs.

Inadequate Physical Facilities

Despite the recent addition of Sanford Hall and the renovations to Brooks Hall, physical space is marginal in quantity and quality. Examples of the space limitations include:

• no interview rooms for recruiters of our undergraduate students and only five offices for MBA recruiters. This is in stark contrast to the spacious corporate-level facilities at such business schools as the University of Texas - Austin, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and Indiana University.
• no “team” rooms (i.e., breakout rooms) for the many classes that utilize this important pedagogical technique. Business schools such as the University of Michigan and Ohio State University have enough to adequately service much larger MBA enrollments than Terry’s.
• not enough offices for Undergraduate Program administrators and academic advisers.
• no rooms for student organizations.
• no reception/meeting space for a group larger than 20 or 30. We know of no other major business school without space to hold receptions and public events.
• by Fall 2000 we will have no office space for additional faculty and staff. This is, obviously, a major limitation for the growth of the MBA and executive programs.
• inadequate office facilities to centralize the Computer Center’s Help Desk and End User Support personnel.
• the two small student lounges are inadequate to serve over 5800 graduate and undergraduate students.
• inadequate facilities for future Terry College executive education programs. While the Georgia Center for Continuing Education is available for many conferences, it serves a wider audience and performs a more general function than that anticipated for future Terry College executive education programs.

Underfunded Endowed Chairs

The Terry College has 23 named chairs and professorships, but many are underfunded. Only 10 have endowments in excess of $1 million, 9 have endowments between $500,000 and $1 million, and 4 have endowments of less than $500,000.

As a result, operating funds of approximately $200,000 annually (equivalent to an additional $4 million endowment) must be used to supplement the chairs. If all chairs were fully funded, these operating funds could be re-directed to enhance current or initiate new programs and activities.

Absence of Specific Goals for and Review of Chaired Professors

Chaired professors have been given appointments in addition to the faculty rank of professor to indicate their leadership roles within the Terry College. However, goals regarding the activities of chairholders in areas such as mentoring, research, teaching, executive education, and obtaining funded external research grants have not been articulated. Also, there is no periodic review of chairholders to determine whether they should continue in or be removed from their positions.

Because chaired professorships are critical to the success of the college, their activities should be clearly aligned with the strategic goals of the Terry College and periodic reviews of their activities should be initiated.

The Potential Clash of Longstanding Departmental Culture with New Demands of the Terry Culture

The Terry College has long been a loose collection of academic departments, not unlike most arts and sciences colleges. Little emphasis has been placed on college-level programs and activities. Consequently, communication among departments has been limited, as has alignment toward a common vision for the college.

This plan emphasizes college-level programs that require coordination among departments. This is in contrast to the previous manner in which programs were developed. That is, previously an academic program was formed by a faculty committee that specified the number of courses that each department would teach in the program and also a general topic for each course. Each department then independently built each course for which it was responsible with very little communication between departments. This method of forming curricula should be changed. In the future, college-level faculty committees should play an active role in specifying courses and major course content. Individual faculty who deliver these courses should communicate among themselves regarding overlapping material.

III. THE ENVIRONMENT FACING THE TERRY COLLEGE

As a professional school, the Terry College has responsibilities and obligations to both the academic and business communities. This dual responsibility requires understanding the dynamics of both the business and academic environments for the development of strategic direction and focus.

A. Business Environment

Perhaps the most important structural change in the business environment has been the change from an economy largely driven by the production of physical goods to one that is increasingly dominated by services, the production and dissemination of information, and the global computer-linked network of businesses and households. Ideas, concepts, and technological expertise are becoming more important to economic growth than the actual production of physical assets.

This explosion of knowledge and information, together with the increased speed of change within organizations, has contributed to the recent surge in the economy. The Schumpeterian forces of creative destruction have never been more visible than today. Ironically, this rapidly changing and innovating economy has also produced a continuously evolving workplace in which individuals’ fears of job obsolescence and lack of adequate knowledge are widespread.

The American economy has always been characterized by competition, but the degree of competition has intensified in recent years. In the production of goods and physical assets, global forces dictate where production takes place. There are few, if any, industries and firms for which global competition does not represent a crucial challenge. Also, new products, technology improvements, and rapid knowledge creation pose competitive threats to existing firms and industries while simultaneously giving rise to new firms and industries virtually overnight.

These trends clearly point to the opportunity and need for schools of business to provide life-long learning for individuals in a wide variety of organizations. Such topics as competitive strategy, new business startups, management of change, leadership skills, marketing research, financial management, information systems, and e-commerce are in demand.

B. Economic Climate of the Region

The southeastern United States, and Georgia in particular, have outpaced the economic growth of the U.S. economy for several years. By all indications, this will continue in the near future. Georgia is especially well positioned to be the leader in regional economic growth for the next decade.

Employment growth in the region is expected to lead the nation for the next decade. Led by the service sector and the high-tech jobs in the Atlanta region, the state will increasingly become a magnet for higher-income employment.

The outlook for the economic growth of the state can be summarized by the following points from the Georgia Economic Outlook 1999, published by the Selig Center for Economic Growth of the Terry College of Business.

• Recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the state ranks first in the rate of growth of high-tech jobs, second in the number of such jobs created from 1990-1996, and eleventh in the total number of such jobs.
• The state’s recent emphasis on education helps attract venture capital and provides strong local markets that support fledgling businesses. The University System’s HOPE scholarship and ICAPP programs, the technical institutes’ Quick Start program, and greater emphasis on distance learning tell the business community that the state will nurture and develop intellectual capital, train workers in the skills that businesses need, and encourage the most talented students to stay in Georgia.
• Another favorable factor is that much of the state’s growth and capital investment is recent. As a result, the state’s business community should remain very productive, as it takes full advantage of technological advances and uses more modern capital equipment than many other regions of the U.S.

There are, of course, constraints and problems. For example, there is a lack of uniformity within the state in making improvements across all educational levels. Universities and technical schools outpace the performance of primary and secondary schools. Also, the Atlanta region faces severe physical infrastructure constraints (highway congestion, water availability in the future, air quality, etc.) and increasing concerns over environmental issues. Finally, rural portions of the state face more severe challenges from global competition and weak export markets than do the more diversified urban markets. On balance, however, the outlook for the economic climate of Georgia is exceptionally good.

One definite result of these economic trends is the increased demand for life-long learning opportunities. These growth trends have the following specific implications for the Terry College. First, the demand for executive education will increase throughout the state, but especially in the Atlanta area. Second, the continued population growth will further increase the demand for undergraduate and master’s programs. Finally, high-tech and knowledge-based organizations will continue to develop and flourish in Atlanta and other parts of Georgia and will demand education in both technical subjects and leadership skills.

C. Academic Environment

The academic environment is also experiencing structural changes, including increased competition among colleges for students and funds. National rankings of graduate programs, especially MBA programs, have become increasingly important benchmarks for measuring the quality of business schools. Students, faculty and recruiters use these rankings as they make decisions about which programs to attend, where to seek academic employment, and from which programs to recruit. Universities in the region and throughout the nation continue to work to improve their programs and rankings. As a result, the academic marketplace has become increasingly competitive. At the same time, improvements in information technology and telecommunications enable universities and corporations to offer graduate and executive education programs in any market. Geographic and other barriers to entry have fallen, and universities no longer face competition only from “nearby” public and private colleges and universities. Many companies also offer their own programs, and it is reasonable to expect that these may be opened to wider audiences.

In this environment, the Terry College faces significant challenges. While it is the preferred provider of undergraduate education in Georgia, there is strong competition at the MBA level from higher-ranked programs located in the Southeast. Strong competitors include the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, Wake Forest University, the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Florida. In the local market, Emory, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Georgia State University provide serious competition for graduate business programs.

Simultaneously, the Terry College faces stiff competition in the executive education arena. For example, Emory University, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Kennesaw State University already offer executive MBA programs in the Atlanta region, while Duke University and the Wharton School of Business recruit aggressively for executive MBA students from the Atlanta area. All of these schools also currently offer customized and public executive programs in Atlanta and the Southeast.

D. Local Environmental and Political Forces

In addition to market forces in the business, regional, and academic environments, several other factors will have an effect on the Terry College during the next several years. The following are of special importance:

• The recently elected governor of Georgia has continued the focus on the enhancement of the educational system in the state. The consistently strong economic growth in Georgia should enable the state to provide continuing support for higher education as well as increased support for K-12 programs.
• The Board of Regents of the University System has strongly encouraged the Terry College to enroll more Georgia students in the MBA program and to insure that a 50/50 ratio of Georgia residents to non-residents is maintained. Such a ratio may affect the growth of the MBA program as well as the diversity among students.
• UGA President Michael Adams has pointed to the need for considering the establishment of new colleges at The University of Georgia. Absent new funding specifically tied to the development of those initiatives, additional colleges might increase the competition for funding among the colleges within the university. This could have negative implications for the university’s funding of the Terry College.
• The Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost of The University of Georgia, Karen Holbrook, has been explicit about her strong interest in science and biotechnology. Although she has said the Terry College should play a major role in these initiatives, the implications for the Terry College are unclear at this point. We believe this focus offers new opportunities for cooperative program development with other academic units on campus.

The majority of the Terry College’s budget consists of state dollars allocated by the university to the college. This allocation is not directly tied to student enrollment. Over the last four years the student credit hours taught in both the undergraduate and graduate programs of the college have increased, while the percentage of the total university budget that has been allocated to the Terry College has decreased. It is difficult to provide a consistent level of instructional quality without a definite link between student demand and college funding.

The Terry College is significantly underfunded relative to other academic units of The University of Georgia. Referencing AY 93-94 and AY 98-99, the percentage of UGA academic year credit hours taught in the Terry College rose from 11.16% to 13.1% of the total while the percentage of the UGA academic budget allocated to the Terry College fell from 9.04% to 8.58% of the total. As a result, the “funding ratio” of budget percentage to academic credit percentage fell from 0.81 to 0.655. This ratio was the lowest of all academic units in the university during AY 98-99.

Together, these factors suggest that the amount of state and university support for the Terry College may not grow proportionately to the anticipated workload of faculty and staff. Accordingly, the college must develop and implement programs that not only provide important professional interaction with the business community for faculty and students, but also generate the additional revenue that will be necessary for improving the existing academic programs and services of the college. These factors also suggest that the college should develop an enrollment strategy for controlling its rapidly growing undergraduate program.

IV. THE TERRY COLLEGE VISION

Following the advice of James Collins and Jerry Porras in Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (HarperBusiness, 1997), our vision includes the college’s purpose, its core values, and its envisioned future. To this we have added the college’s social imperative.

A. Social Imperative

We believe that the social imperative of all business schools (their social contract as part of society) is to enhance economic growth through the development of organizations and individuals. By economic growth and development we mean sustained increases in the productivity of organizations and the standards of living of individuals.

The Terry College’s vision follows from this social imperative. It also reflects our analysis of the current status of the college, its environment, its academic units, and the input from our stakeholders and customers. This vision consists of three parts: the college’s purpose, envisioned future, and core values. These terms are defined below:

• The Purpose of the college is its reason for existing. It is guided by the social imperative and the college’s role as a unit of The University of Georgia.
• The Envisioned Future is a description of the college as we would like it to be in ten years.
• The Core Values are the basic principles that guide the actions and interactions of all members of the Terry College community.

Together, these three factors define who we are and what we plan to accomplish.

B. Purpose

Our social imperative dictates that we support individuals and organizations in their quests for economic growth and development within the private enterprise system. As a unit of a major research and teaching university supported by the state of Georgia, the Terry College must engage in activities that benefit Georgia, as well as the rest of the world. We must be proficient in the creation, development, and application of knowledge for the business communities of Georgia and beyond. Given this context, we adopt the following purpose for the Terry College: to develop the business leaders of the private enterprise system.

We achieve this purpose through our research, teaching, and service. Our research poses and answers important descriptive and prescriptive questions about business operation and related human behavior. We develop innovative and effective ways of communicating the answers to these questions to students and members of the business community through life-long learning opportunities and to our peers in academic institutions through publication and presentation. We also support and develop business leaders through consultation, participation in professional organizations, and active involvement in the broad array of academic programs and activities within the Terry College.

C. Envisioned Future

The Terry College will excel in the 21st century by focusing on creating leaders for the networked economy. This economy will be propelled by the interaction of human knowledge, computer technology, and connectivity (the capability to communicate ideas in the form of data, voice, and video over networks). In this economy, dominance in knowledge will create competitive advantages for firms.

The Terry College will therefore emphasize the development of knowledge and its management within organizations through technology. To do this, we have identified three areas of focus for our research, instructional, and executive programs: enterprise risk management, leadership, and organizational systems for the networked economy. They are described in detail later in this summary.

The following paragraphs describe the Terry College ten years from now.

Our accomplishments in the three areas of focus have established an identity for the Terry College and are widely acknowledged by students, business leaders, and other academics.

The Terry College is one of the business schools of choice for undergraduate and MBA students interested in becoming leaders in the economy of the 21st century. The college also provides life-long learning opportunities for its alumni and other members of the business community. Instruction is designed for individuals at all stages of their careers and all levels of leadership. Our programs are in demand throughout Georgia and beyond. Our innovative part-time MBA and Executive MBA programs are the most respected in the Atlanta region and the state of Georgia, and have a strong national presence.

The Terry College is an interwoven learning community of faculty, staff, business practitioners, and students. Through multi-faceted partnerships and alliances, faculty and practitioners learn from each other, while students are provided with opportunities for experiential learning and access to current practice and theory.

Terry College students experience the networked global economy. At least 25 percent of undergraduates and 40 percent of MBAs are involved in study abroad programs and/or international visits. All undergraduate and MBA students experience the global marketplace electronically through their coursework.

Working with our business partners, our faculty and Ph.D. students produce research and writing that have significant impact on the scholarly community and are highly valued by business leaders and executive education programs. Much of this research is funded by the business community and federal and state agencies.

The Terry College doctoral program develops excellent researchers and teachers. Its graduates are consistently placed in top research universities and organizations.

The Terry College is less dependent on the state of Georgia for its operating budget. More than $12 million are provided annually by enterprises within the Terry College and the income generated by an endowment that has grown to over $150 million.

D. Core Values

The faculty, staff and students of the Terry College adhere to and believe in the following set of values regarding our interactions.

• We value learning in an environment characterized by intellectual curiosity, scientific advancement, and academic freedom. We have high expectations for our scholarly work and its impact upon the business and academic communities.
• We value scientific integrity and intellectual honesty. Firm adherence to the science of inquiry and to an environment of academic honesty are central to our culture.
• We value educational excellence and pursue uncompromisingly high classroom standards. We expect our faculty to deliver courses that are both interesting and valuable. We expect our students to add value to each class through their open and full participation.
• We value helping members of the Terry College community achieve their full potential over the course of their careers. It is important to provide individuals with the opportunities and resources to develop and apply their skills and knowledge.
• We value creativity, enterprise, and continuous improvement in our learning environment. Imaginative insight, entrepreneurial spirit and energy, and individual efforts are encouraged and rewarded. We want faculty, staff, and students to be aggressive and unrelenting in finding new and better ways to perform.
• We value collegiality and expect professional courtesy and dignity among individuals. Diversity among ideas and people is respected and desired.
• We value ethical behavior. High levels of honesty and integrity will provide a foundation for trust, openness, and mutual respect in interpersonal relations and communication.

V. ACHIEVING THE VISION:

THE STRATEGIC GOALS OF THE TERRY COLLEGE

Achieving our vision demands that the Terry College re-emphasize its commitment to excellence in the traditional missions of teaching, research, and service, and at the same time refocus some of its goals and restructure a number of its activities.

High-quality and effective instruction will continue to be at the heart of the Terry College. At undergraduate and graduate levels, regardless of class size, the Terry College reiterates its commitment to providing the best possible instruction in classroom settings, electronic interactions, and other forms of instruction.

Research excellence is essential to the Terry College. In the future, we must emphasize the quality and impact of our scholarly work and also increase the number of publications in the best academic outlets. The Terry College will continue to support research in core business areas essential to all top-quality business schools. However, over time our research should increasingly reflect the specific topics of focus within the college, be integrated across departments, and be conducted in concert with our business partners. As a result, we expect that an increasing amount of our research will be supported by foundations, federal and state agencies, and business organizations. It is also vital that our research have importance for the practicing business community and be regularly disseminated to business through discussions, papers, workshops, and executive education programs.

Service by the faculty to the Terry College, the university community, and to professional organizations is both encouraged and supported. The college is an important part of The University of Georgia and will be involved in meaningful ways with university committees and governance. At the same time, individual faculty members are expected to be engaged in the activities of their various professional and service associations and organizations.

While we reiterate the Terry College’s commitment to the basic academic missions of teaching, research, and service, our envisioned future necessitates that we also accomplish the following strategic goals.

Goal 1: Develop closer working relationships with the business community

Our purpose -- developing business leaders -- necessitates that we become closely linked to the business community. This linking must take many forms: developing advisory boards of business leaders, establishing more internships for students, having practicing managers and professionals participating in classes, conducting joint research projects with business organizations, having faculty frequently visit and participate in the activities of business organizations, and establishing executive education programs. The latter two activities are especially important because the relationships and interactions that result from them can provide our faculty with opportunities for knowledge that will benefit both their classroom activities and their research agendas.

Goal 2: Build strong global partnerships

The international nature of business demands that a leading business school develop strong global partnerships with multinational firms and other universities around the world. Because Georgia is the base for several of the world’s leading multinational companies and is among the leading recipients of foreign direct investment, we have both an advantage over many business schools and an obligation to develop strong international programs. Accordingly, the Terry College will systematically develop for our faculty and students educational programs and activities that provide experience in international business and education and reflect the global initiatives of firms in our region. By leveraging the knowledge and experience gained in distance education delivery in the PwC MBA program, these international programs should have a significant electronic-based component. These international initiatives should contribute to the development of the key areas of focus within the Terry College (see Goal 4).

Goal 3: Develop a Terry College culture

Establishing the Terry brand name necessitates a college-level culture. This will be accomplished, in part, by increasing our emphasis on the Terry College undergraduate, MBA, and Ph.D. programs. Department-level programs will, of course, remain important. However, they should not be the only focus of our faculty and staff. College program emphasis may be achieved in several ways. First, faculty should be assigned to courses with the goal of delivering top-quality learning experiences for students. Second, there should be consistency among departments in such program characteristics as advising, course rigor, course grading, faculty and graduate student teaching assignments, student-instructor class ratios, and instructor evaluations. Third, the curricula of Terry College programs should be designed relative to specific programmatic learning objectives. Fourth, significantly more program monitoring should be conducted through college-level faculty committees. Other aspects of culture development include marketing all programs as Terry College programs rather than departmental programs, providing opportunities for staff development, staging more frequent college-wide meetings and social events, and linking faculty rewards to performance in college programs and activities.

Goal 4: Identify and develop key areas of focus within the Terry College

We believe it is necessary for the Terry College to identify and specialize in a small number of academic content areas that cut across departmental boundaries. This specialization will facilitate the college’s efforts to develop widely known expertise and research streams, attract faculty that complement existing activities in the college, improve its reputation in the business and academic communities, and attract and place talented students. This strategy is in contrast to the current one of giving almost equal emphasis to a very large number of academic areas. The present strategy results in a lack of a clear identity for the Terry College.

Even though we currently have many faculty working in each of these three focus areas, their work has not been well coordinated, and the Terry College is not well recognized for their expertise and accomplishments. In the following paragraphs, we describe all three areas of focus. We wish to clearly and strongly point out that these areas are meant to integrate faculty across departments rather than to serve as niches for individual departments. Each area is part of our envisioned future of being a college known for developing leaders of the private enterprise system. Each area is also important to the economy of the state and the nation and is relevant for diverse organizations in a variety of industries. The central theme of these areas is developing and using information for decision-making that influences the performance of individuals and organizations. This theme reflects our aim of focusing on knowledge leadership in a networked economy. Accordingly, our expertise in management information systems should be integrated into each of these areas. Each area requires the aggregation and analysis of data and the dissemination of the resulting information to appropriate leaders and decision-makers. Information systems are the vehicles for these activities.

These three areas are intentionally stated as broad topics of inquiry. There is no attempt in what follows to either assign faculty to particular areas or define topics of study within each area. Specific topics that are mentioned are suggestions, not directives. For each area, cross-functional faculty teams should develop common themes of instruction and research. These themes will shape the identity of the Terry College. Accordingly, future new resource allocations within the college will follow these areas.

Leadership. Recent changes in the manner in which business operations are conducted (e.g., autonomous work teams, decentralized structure, networked organizations), require that employees throughout an organization function as effective leaders. That is, current business practices place employees in roles that include decision-making, continuous improvement of work operations, and influencing the actions of others. In addition, leadership is an essential component of entrepreneurship and new venture start-ups.

Although leadership is a complex topic that has a variety of meanings, we define it as a set of knowledge and skills that include self-awareness, planning for and organizing resources, adaptability, social influence, vision, human capital development, and managing organizational systems and people. In turn, each of these knowledge and skill topics is composed of a number of subtopics. According to this definition, leadership requires an understanding of the future competitive environment, as well as the ability to conceptualize appropriate organizational vision, translate these ideas into key fundamental requirements, and influence others to carry out these strategies and tactics.

Many organizations have become so concerned about the leadership skills of their employees that they have incorporated leadership training into career development or have implemented specific leadership programs. In addition, many colleges and universities offer instruction in this area. Our distinctive competence will be the combination of research, assessment, and instruction. Research provides cutting-edge information in leadership, assessment produces a diagnosis of the organization’s or individual’s present level of leadership knowledge and skill, and instruction provides methods for developing leadership skills.

Enterprise Risk Management. Increasingly firms are systematically considering the broader set of risks that they face. This change in the way organizations view and manage risk has been termed integrated or enterprise risk management. Such a holistic view recognizes the importance of risk, regardless of its source, in affecting a firm’s ability to realize its strategic objectives. Additionally, it reflects the realization that risks from different sources interact to define the overall risk profile of the firm.

The enterprise-wide view of risk management includes building a structure and a systematic process for managing all of a corporation’s risks, regardless of their source. It considers financial, commodity, credit, legal, environmental, reputational, cyclical, as well as insurable risks such as injury to employees that could adversely affect the value of the firm.

As more and more firms are attempting to take an enterprise-wide view of the risks they face, integrating the identification, assessment, and management of risk has become increasingly important for firms to meet their strategic goals.

Management Models for Emerging Technologies. Information technologies such as the internet, intranets, electronically integrated supply chains, customer relationship management systems, e-business retailing, search engines, intelligent agents, and electronic marketplaces are changing the rules of business competition, disrupting established market patterns and creating opportunities for new business models. Businesses that can adapt their practices to capitalize on these new realities will realize major strategic advantages. Businesses that fail to adapt to the changes in technology and markets will risk compromising their competitive futures. Decisions concerning the adoption of these new technologies and the design of new business models that realize their inherent advantages are the substance of strategic and creative thinking on the part of business leaders and academics.

A prime example is the world wide web and the way it is revolutionizing the marketing and distribution of goods and services through electronic commerce. Individuals can now interactively obtain both the general and the specific product information they desire and purchase items at any hour of the day or night. In turn, these electronic transactions require changes in business models, including marketing, manufacturing, logistics, accounting and finance, and services. Understanding the nature of these markets and their economic implications is critical.

Forward-thinking businesses and governments will need assistance in understanding the business implications of these new technologies and their organizational impacts. The Terry College should be on the forefront of identifying and interpreting the marketplace and strategic role of new technology on business processes and enhancing organizational performance through new business models.

VI. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE TERRY COLLEGE

To fulfill its strategic goals, the Terry College must set and achieve specific objectives for its activities and programs. The previously described vision and strategic goals, as well as the information obtained from the focus groups and analyses of its academic units, are the basis for the development of these objectives. It is expected that these objectives will be reached through activities consistent with our core values.

A. Instruction

Instruction has always been an important and valued activity of the Terry College, as evidenced by the numerous university-level teaching awards earned by faculty and the extensive educational technology that has been obtained and supported for classroom, faculty, and student-lab activities. However, two major limitations exist relative to our instructional activities. First, we have a minimal teaching development program for faculty and teaching assistants. Second, there is little coordination of curriculum within and between departments in the undergraduate, MBA and Ph.D. programs.

Objective 1: Implement faculty and graduate student teaching development programs by January 2001

Teaching development programs must be initiated for all faculty and instructors. Additionally, the Terry College will have a mentoring program for newly hired assistant professors, and Ph.D. students who are responsible for teaching classes. We will initiate a teaching workshop series to be held twice a year, with each workshop focusing on a specific type of teaching challenge (e.g., large classes, MBA classes, case classes, Ph.D. seminars). We should also encourage participation in campus teaching improvement programs such as Lilly Fellows, Senior Teaching Fellows, and Franklin Teaching Fellows. Finally, the college will also increase instructional technology support, including additional faculty training in the use of educational technology and additional technicians, to maintain and develop delivery systems.

Objective 2: Review the curriculum in each degree program by September 2001

We must develop learning objectives for each program (undergraduate, MBA, MMR, MAcc, Ph.D.). That is, we must identify the knowledge and abilities that students are expected to gain from each program. All courses will then be evaluated in terms of the program’s objectives. Also, we must coordinate courses and content across departments to ensure that courses complement one another in developing learning objectives. Faculty work groups will be formed to accomplish this review and coordination.

Objective 3: Appoint a Ph.D. Program Director

Immediate changes must be made in the operation of the Ph.D. program. Currently, this program is a series of independent departmental offerings. Inadequate college-level coordination has resulted in areas of inefficiency. Additionally, there are no consistent research and learning objectives for students across our departments. Finally, there is little done to monitor and control the quality of the Ph.D. mentoring process. A director will be appointed before the end of 1999. This position will be active in these issues as well as in recruitment, assistantship and fellowship assignment, monitoring student progress, and placement of students.

B. Research

The Terry College will continue to emphasize quality research, both basic and applied. The desired results of this research are publications that are recognized by the academic and business communities as being important contributions. Increased research involvement with business organizations is to be encouraged so long as this activity results in notable publications in top-rated journals. To attain our goal of being in the top 30 universities in research, we must accomplish the following:

Objective 1: Increase the number of articles in top-rated journals by 10% per year for five years beginning in AY 2002

It is important to increase the presence of Terry College faculty in the top-rated journals of each discipline, but particularly in subject matter associated with our key areas of focus. Such placements are vital to the impact of our research and directly related to our reputation in the academic community. Such publications also have major implications for attracting faculty and Ph.D. students and obtaining funded research, particularly from governmental institutions. This goal requires that we identify a set of publications for each academic area that serve as our target journals. We must also develop necessary resources (e.g., research assistants, data bases, and data collection instruments) to support faculty publication efforts.

Objective 2: Increase funded/sponsored research to $1,000,000 annually by 2004

Individual faculty should obtain external funding to support programmatic research efforts. Since the college has not previously encouraged such activities, there will be a steep learning curve involved in identifying funding sources and developing assistance for proposal writing and the administration of grants. Chaired and tenured professors in each academic department should be the leaders in developing and obtaining funded/sponsored research from foundations, government agencies, and businesses.

Objective 3: Coordinate computer and database resources by December 2000

There are a number of databases and servers scattered throughout the college. Some of these are maintained by the college and others by individual departments. This arrangement is inefficient and results in wasted resources and duplication of effort. We must centrally coordinate the maintenance of these databases to maximize their availability and usefulness. This coordination requires personnel, centralized computer acquisitions, consistent upgrades, and Web support. Additionally, we will partner more effectively with The University of Georgia Library to extend the use of data to a wider set of faculty and graduate students and to share the increasing cost of data bases.

C. Staff Development

Staff members are critical to the Terry College’s ability to meet its strategic goals and the particular objectives of its academic programs. However, the nature of the work of the staff has changed dramatically in recent years and is expected to continue changing in the near future. Specifically, educational technology has required many staff to master computer information equipment, software and graphic packages, and web site construction and maintenance. Others have been involved in skilled activities such as marketing the college, conflict resolution with students and their families, and academic advising. Although these changes in work activities have taken place, the college and university have not revised the human resource systems that affect the staff. This issue should be addressed.

Objective 1: Review the consistency of job classifications and salary ranges and levels across all units of the Terry College by September 2000

The staff positions within the college must, of course, comply with the University of Georgia’s policies regarding classification and compensation. However, the college has not had a recent review of the validity of the present classification of staff positions relative to the recent changes in work activities. We should establish a committee that will examine the match between the present university classification of all positions and the current assigned tasks of the positions. This committee should also review the consistency of job classifications and compensation for similar jobs in different units of the college.

Objective 2: Develop and disseminate a staff skill development policy by June 2000

It is necessary that staff attend various training workshops and programs in order to increase skill levels in computer operations, interpersonal working relationships, and administrative and clerical tasks integral to present positions. The university regularly sponsors such workshops and programs, and the college has offered support for attending these programs. However, the college has not developed a formal staff development policy. This policy should discuss appropriate topics for study, procedures for obtaining college support, and frequency of program or workshop attendance.

Objective 3: By January 2001, review and significantly improve the availability and management of technical support for computer equipment operated by staff members

The Terry College has a computer center that successfully supports its research and instructional activities. However, this center must also serve the requests of staff regarding the malfunctioning of present equipment, the need for additional or modification of existing software applications, and the development of web sites. The Terry computing center should review the number and assignment of its existing staff to determine if the present levels meet the needs of staff members.

Objective 4: Review the adequacy of existing staffing levels relative to program, departmental, and college demands by September 2001

This strategic plan may result in altering the work demands made on the staff in the various units of the Terry College. For example, growth of the MBA program and the executive education program, and enrollment management of the undergraduate program all have implications for the work loads of various departments and offices. The match of existing staffing levels relative to new work demands should be reviewed and staffing levels evaluated in response to the outcomes of this analysis. In addition, the college should develop an orientation program for new staff employees that presents information about the college, its programs, and policies.

D. Programs of the Terry College

Undergraduate Program

The Terry College offers a four-year undergraduate program that in August 1999 was ranked 26th (19th among public universities) in the United States by U.S News & World Report. In the Fall 1999 semester, there are approximately 5400 students in the 11 majors of the program. Students can enter the program during any semester of their undergraduate careers. Enrollment has grown rapidly from 3360 students in Fall 1994 to the current level and, if entrance and transfer requirements remain the same, is expected to increase to higher levels. Enrollment growth has forced the college to increase its use of graduate students and adjunct professors as instructors. In addition, many classes have become too large. Almost all introductory courses are offered in sections of 300 or more students, and many of the major courses at the senior level have enrollments of at least 80 students. The size of the undergraduate program has also limited the ability of the college to provide curriculum and career counseling to students. For example, the professional advisors in the undergraduate office as well as in individual departments are able to see each of their advisees only once each semester for 15-20 minutes.

Objective 1: Determine the optimal size of the Terry College undergraduate program and specify policies to achieve this size by June 2000 and reach this size goal by September 2003

The Undergraduate Admissions Committee, together with the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Director of the Undergraduate Program, will study the size of the program and make recommendations to the Provost concerning optimal size and accompanying entrance and transfer requirements. As part of this review, these parties should closely examine the following:

1. entrance and transfer requirements
2. academic coursework necessary for transfer
3. entrance to major requirements
4. joint programs with other colleges

Objective 2: Improve the advising and course scheduling information provided to our students by August 2000

An important component of an excellent educational experience is the set of services and activities available to students outside the classroom. Managing the size and the services of the undergraduate program will help reduce the advising load of the undergraduate and departmental offices and enable advisors to deliver career information and guidance to students. For example, web-based descriptions of courses and majors have been developed that can be easily accessed by undergraduate students. Similarly, a web-based scheduling system for making advising appointments of students with advisers has been created.

Objective 3: Review and improve the undergraduate curriculum by June 2001

The undergraduate curriculum should be reviewed and coordinated across departments. This review should begin with an examination of the current accreditation requirements of our association, AACSB - The International Association for Management Education. It must also examine the percentage of the curriculum that should be composed of liberal arts courses, the level of knowledge in information systems that each student should obtain, how topics of international business should be integrated into the curriculum, and the number and types of honors program courses that should be offered.

Additionally, the coordination of course content across departments should be improved to enhance the multidisciplinary aspects of the curriculum. Possible vehicles to achieve this include applied business projects, ethics cases, analytical assignments, etc., that combine concepts from multiple courses in the curriculum. Coordination will move us toward a more integrated curriculum that will provide students with a better understanding of organizations and how they function.

MBA Program

Historically, the Terry College has delivered two full-time MBA programs, the traditional two-year model and a one-year version for candidates who have an undergraduate degree in business from an AACSB-accredited program. The former has approximately 100 students and the latter approximately 50 students. In the past three years, the college has also followed a mandate from the Board of Regents to maintain at least 50% Georgia residents in the program, a constraint that has limited the size of the program.

Through consistent recruitment efforts, the percentage of students in these two programs with at least one year of work experience has risen from 62% in 1991 to 95% in 1999, and, at the same time, the mean GMAT has increased to 644 (89th percentile). One of the key reasons for this success in recruiting top students has been the many assistantships (approximately 100 each year) that are available to students.

In Fall 1998, the Terry College launched a custom-designed distance MBA for PricewaterhouseCoopers that successfully combines specialized coursework, virtual teams, and technology-enabled interactions among faculty and students. The curriculum of this program integrates the traditional disciplines of business and is global in perspective.

The Terry College is presently developing a part-time MBA program to be located in the Atlanta area. While this program would help reach a large number of Georgia residents, it would also require using faculty who are already needed in other programs, especially the large undergraduate program. The successful implementation of this program will require additional faculty.

Because MBAs have great visibility in both the academic and business communities, comparisons of the Terry program with others provide valuable information. The Terry MBA program is highly ranked by the Financial Times and Business Week. However, the small enrollment of the full-time MBA program and lack of adequate career services staff and facilities have contributed to the program’s fall in U.S. News & World Report rankings . Additionally, a review of other large public universities indicates that no other ranked college of business has such a small MBA program combined with such a large undergraduate program. Finally, only a few other highly ranked colleges lack an Executive MBA.

Objective 1: To be among the top fifteen MBA programs at public universities and the top 30 overall by 2006

Raising the ranking of the MBA program will require at least the following changes in the existing program and its delivery. First, we should take the best characteristics of our current PwC MBA program (e.g., knowledge-focused coursework, virtual teams, technology-enabled interactions, integration across academic areas, global focus) and apply them to the full-time MBA program. Second, the personnel and facilities devoted to the placement of students should be enhanced. Third, the number of “sequences” in the program should be decreased and refocused to mesh with those areas specified in Strategic Goal #4. This change will allow for focused recruiting of students with specific interests and relevant work experience, targeted student placement efforts, and public information activities that clearly convey the strengths of the Terry MBA.

Objective 2: Substantially increase the interaction between the business community and the faculty, staff and students of the MBA program by January 2001

As a professional program, the MBA should be closely linked to the business community. This can be achieved in numerous ways. For example, a Board of Advisors could be established that would comment on curriculum issues. Executives and managers could be presenters in courses and serve as judges for various case competitions and student presentations. Additionally, student groups could, under faculty direction, increasingly serve as external consulting teams that examine specific issues of concern to host organizations.

Objective 3: Develop and implement a part-time MBA program by January 2001

Many participants in the focus groups that were conducted during January through March 1999 commented that the Terry College should offer a part-time MBA program that could be taken by individuals who would remain full-time employees of their organizations. In addition, President Michael Adams has strongly recommended that such a program be based in Gwinnett County. The Terry College should offer such a program in Gwinnett County if it could be implemented with no financial loss to the college during its initial years and some financial return in subsequent years.

Objective 4: Develop and implement an Executive MBA, focused on managers with at least 8-10 years experience, by Fall 2003

An Executive MBA program would provide an additional mechanism for integrating faculty with the business community. This program should have a lockstep, focused curriculum, and utilize the distance learning technology of the PwC program. It should follow a traditional weekend model program and be priced comparably to EMBA programs at other business schools.

Objective 5: Substantially increase the publicity and information distributed about the MBA program by January 2001

The reputation of an MBA program depends upon its quality and the extent to which this quality is known by the business community and the public at large. Even though the quality of the MBA program is high, it has been poorly publicized to the external community. It is necessary to increase the marketing and public information of the program (e.g., the number of recruitment ads for students that are placed in media, brochures and magazines that describe important activities and achievements of students and faculty, symbolic gifts and items that carry the logo of the program, and the number of marketing/sales calls to businesses in the region and nationally).

Objective 6: By May 2002, review existing joint programs within The University of Georgia and examine the feasibility of developing additional ones

We currently have various forms of joint programs with the colleges of Law, Forest Resources, and Journalism. These programs should be reviewed to determine if they can be enlarged and more actively marketed. In addition, we should evaluate the feasibility of developing additional programs with other colleges within the university.

Master of Accounting Program

The 150 semester hour requirement to sit for the CPA examination in Georgia (the five-year rule) has caused a dramatic increase in the demand for graduate education in accounting in the state. There is presently a shortage of qualified graduates, particularly in the Atlanta market. In response to these conditions, the MAcc program has grown rapidly over the last four years. There are presently 79 students enrolled in the program. In Fall 1999, these students had a mean GMAT score of 610 and a median entering GPA of 3.56. Over 75% of the Terry College MAcc graduates receive job offers from the Big Five accounting firms with most receiving multiple offers.

Objective 1: Develop a board of advisors for the Tull School of Accounting by December 2000

Because more than 80 graduates of our accounting program are partners in Big Five firms, an executive-level advisory group could be easily formed. This advisory board would provide information about current developments in accounting practice and examine the relevance of existing and proposed curricula.

Objective 2: Complete a comprehensive review of the MAcc curriculum by June 2001

There is growing demand for graduates with specializations in managerial accounting and the combination of auditing and systems. Similar programs at other universities place all of their graduates. The Tull School of Accounting faculty will work with faculty in MIS and other related areas to develop and implement this specialization within the MAcc program.

There is a need to evaluate the relevance and appropriateness of the topics in the current curriculum and the effectiveness of the instructional methods. For example, faculty should examine methods of facilitating group work and evaluating individual efforts in a group process. In addition, ways must be found to more effectively utilize the many professionals who are willing to contribute to the students’ classroom experience.

The internship program (approximately 59 students per year) must also be expanded. Internships provide experiential learning and are critical avenues to employment for students. Further, they increase employer awareness of the quality of our students and programs. Internships allow returning students to bring work experiences back to the classroom, thereby enriching the educational process for both students and faculty.

Objective 3: Increase the number of students enrolled in the MAcc program by 25% by Fall 2003

This increase will help to meet the high demand for qualified new entrants to the profession and allow us to solidify our dominance in graduate accounting education in the region. This growth, however, must be accompanied by faculty, staff, and advisors. In addition, MAcc accreditation requires that students take either 9 or 12 hours of MBA courses. Therefore, increased enrollment means that additional sections of MBA courses may be necessary.

Master of Marketing Research Program

The Master of Marketing Research (MMR) program was established in 1980 as the nation’s first specialized master’s degree in marketing research. It is partially funded by endowment grants from The Coca-Cola Company, The Coca-Cola Foundation, the AC Nielsen Company, the M/A/R/C Group, and Audits and Surveys, Inc. Scholarships and internships are provided by a Board of Advisors comprised of individuals from 74 nationally recognized companies.

Historically, admission to the MMR program has been selective. The 1999 entering class had a mean GMAT score of 622 and an undergraduate grade-point average of 3.18. Prior work experience, preferably in marketing research or marketing, is a critical factor in the admission process. Over 90 percent of the 1999 class had at least one year of work experience.

Objective 1: Be the recognized leader in marketing research education worldwide by 2005

The steps to achieve this goal include enhancements to the quality of the MMR curriculum and its facilities; increases in the size and industry diversity of the MMR Board of Advisors; and further development of emerging external relationships with professional and academic marketing research associations. An additional $100,000 in operational funds must be added to the annual budget of the Coca-Cola Center for Marketing Studies to support student scholarships, the minority partner program, and the retention of superior faculty.

Objective 2: Develop lifetime education courses for marketing research professionals by September 2003

The marketing research industry attracts a variety of talented individuals to the field. Yet few are adequately prepared by education for their immediate and long-term career demands. A variety of on-campus and distance learning courses, certificate programs, and customized degree programs should be designed and implemented to provide this necessary education.

Ph.D. Program

There are currently 11 Ph.D. programs within the seven departments of the Terry College. The faculty of each program select their students, direct student research, and mentor their professional development. However, there is little coordination among these programs in the recruitment and placement of students. Moreover, the programs have historically varied in the rigor and scope of the research and teaching assignments given to students. As a result, there have been large differences among students in research and teaching achievements while in the program and in the quality of placement upon completion of the program.

Objective 1: Improve the recruiting, administration, and coordination of the Ph.D program by January 2001

To achieve this objective, a Director of Ph.D. Programs will be appointed from the Terry College faculty by January 2000. This position will

1. initiate college-level recruitment
2. monitor progress of students
3. monitor research opportunities given to students
4. develop college-wide teaching development programs for students
5. control the allocation of Ph.D. stipend funding to departments
6. improve the integration of programs across departments

Objective 2: Specify plans for developing Ph.D. students’ research skills by January 2001

To achieve this goal, each area must establish a strategy for training its Ph.D. students to be productive researchers. This includes providing appropriate research seminars, opportunities for work with productive faculty, and resources for data gathering and analyses. In addition, externally funded research projects should be obtained by faculty to support and develop Ph.D. students.

Objective 3: Implement programs to enhance Ph.D. students’ teaching competence by September 2000

This goal will be achieved through a more structured approach within the Terry College for developing our Ph.D. students as teachers. It will include teaching seminars, formal mentoring relationships, and discussion groups among students and faculty.

International Programs

Three factors serve as the basis for developing strong international programs. First, international activities have received a great deal of attention and public emphasis during the past two years from both President Michael Adams and Dean George Benson. Second, the Terry College has in place a strong undergraduate international business major. Third, individual Terry College faculty possess a significant number of “international” contacts since individual faculty have worked with academic institutions in all parts of the world.

Objective 1: By August 2000, review existing international agreements and programs and develop the strategies necessary for the identification and implementation of new programs

As the first step toward this objective, a Director for International Programs will be named by December, 1999. This individual will both review existing agreements and develop new ones. The purpose of international programs should be to provide appropriate research and learning opportunities for students and faculty in the Terry College. Additionally, the Coca-Cola Center for International Business will be a focal point for international program development.

Objective 2: Develop a strategy to expand by January 2001 the worldwide presence of the Terry College in the business community

The Terry College should identify appropriate geographical areas for offering international executive development instruction including both degree and nondegree programs.

E. Executive Education

An important theme of this strategic plan is building relationships with the business community. Executive education programs represent an important means to develop these relationships. They provide multiple opportunities for discussion between faculty and business leaders on topics important to both groups. Moreover, they often serve as the first step for other interactions such as classroom presentations by business leaders and joint research projects between faculty and practicing managers. That is, executive education can and should complement our teaching and research missions. It is critical that the college deliver a larger number of customized and public programs. Many of these programs will be delivered in both Athens and Atlanta. With an existing campus facility designed for executive education and easy access to Atlanta facilities, the Terry College will leverage the advantage provided by our Athens/Atlanta locations.

Such programs will enable us to provide learning opportunities for alumni and others at every stage of their careers.

The Terry College is in the process of recruiting an Associate Dean for Executive Programs. This person will lead the college’s activities in executive education.

Objective 1: Develop the first formal agreement(s) by September 2001 with a major firm for which the Terry College will create customized executive education programs

These programs should match the competencies of the Terry College with the educational needs in the business community. Thus, these programs must provide relevant knowledge to managers and executives and enrichment opportunities for faculty.

Objective 2: Develop the first open enrollment program offered by the Terry College by June 2001

These programs will present topics that are of interest to large numbers of individuals across different industries and organizations. It is anticipated that these programs would focus on current topics of the business environment and provide opportunities for interaction between faculty and business leaders.

Objective 3: Conduct the first of many public forums that feature joint presentations of Terry faculty and executive leaders by June 2001

The Terry College has already established a presence within the Georgia business community through its economic forecasting luncheons that are held each winter. The college should leverage this presence by conducting similar forums that address other topics relevant for doing business in a networked, global economy, (e.g., e-commerce developments, employee involvement practices, development of knowledge systems, and learning organizations). These forums would feature one or two Terry faculty and one or two business leaders. Faculty would clearly communicate summaries of recent relevant research on the topic, and business leaders would address the topic in terms of organizational operations.

VII. CREATING THE FOUNDATION FOR GOAL ACHIEVEMENT

To reach the goals laid out in this document, the Terry College must build the necessary foundation and infrastructure. This will require significant effort and investment in the following areas.

A. Marketing the Terry College

Little effort to date has been devoted to systematically publicizing the numerous strong programs and extensive faculty and student activities of the Terry College. A number of initiatives are completed or underway that should increase the visibility of the college. However, much more must be done.

• a Director of Alumni Relations has been hired to increase the outreach to the Terry alumni base, which numbers more than 40,000.
• a Director of Communication has been hired to increase the visibility of the Terry College within the business and academic communities and the public at large. The Communications Department should add a writer to its staff before January 2001.
• an Associate Dean for External Relations will be hired by June 2000 to coordinate all marketing efforts of the college. This position will also direct fund-raising and alumni programs.
• an endowment of at least $4 million should be established by December 2002 to support the marketing efforts of the college.

B. Fund Raising

The $42 million endowment of the Terry College is well below that of business schools at public institutions similar to Terry and significantly below that of top private business schools. Fund-raising activities and efforts have been increased and will be intensified in the years ahead.

• a college capital campaign must be initiated within the next two years. It must be coordinated with The University of Georgia Foundation.
• three new endowed chairs at $3 million each should be established to support the three areas of focus identified earlier in this document. Efforts should be made to increase the funding of all of the existing endowed chairs to at least $1,000,000.
• start-up funding for the Terry College Leadership Center must be obtained by September 2000. Proposals for the funding of some of its programs have been made to prospective donors. An endowment of $2 million is necessary to begin the operation of the center.
• the overall fund-raising goal is an endowment of $150 million by September 2009.

C. Physical Facilities

The physical facilities available for Terry College activities, students, faculty, and student services are extremely limited. Additional space on North Campus must be obtained. Specific objectives include:

• obtain use of all space in Caldwell Hall when the School of Environmental Design moves to its new facilities.
• expand Sanford Hall or construct a new building near Sanford Hall.

D. Developing a Terry College Culture

There has been little, if any, college-level culture within Terry because of the strong emphasis on departments. Efforts are underway to create a Terry College culture. New efforts will include:

• all academic degree programs will be publicized as Terry College programs.
• all executive education programs will be Terry College programs.
• the development of and emphasis on areas of focus that cut across departments will facilitate the development of college-wide teaching and research activities.
• undergraduates and graduate students who complete degree programs will be marketed as Terry College graduates.
• all material provided from the Terry College academic units and support areas, whether electronic or paper, will display prominently the Terry College name.
• all publications by faculty will include reference to the Terry College as well as individual departments.
• an internal newsletter for faculty and staff will be published regularly.
• two additional college-wide social events per year will be added to the calendar.
• departmental budgets will be linked to departmental contributions to the Terry College.
• faculty merit raises will be linked to individuals’ contributions to the Terry College.

E. Developing and Implementing Appropriate Faculty Incentive Programs

Reaching the goals and objectives of this plan will require a more varied set of activities by faculty than have previously been required (e.g., research with business organizations, coordination of academic programs across departments, participation in executive education, greater involvement with students). It is therefore necessary to redesign the programs of faculty recruitment, selection, development, evaluation, compensation, and promotion to match and support the new expectations. Since faculty may vary in the percentages of time devoted to teaching, research, and service, raise and promotion decisions should be based on accomplishment in a weighted profile of teaching, research, and service. New incentive systems should be developed and implemented by January 2001.

VIII. FUTURE ACTIVITIES

The purpose of this strategic plan is to shape the future activities of the Terry College of Business. Specifically, we wish to gain competitive advantage relative to other schools of business through our strategic goals, especially the areas of focus, and improve our activities and academic programs through the specific objectives described in the plan. Accomplishing these goals and objectives will require that our future activities be different from our current ones. It is beyond the scope of this plan to describe the mechanisms that will be used to accomplish these changes. However, a context for these changes is discussed below.

Areas of Focus. The three areas of focus that are presented in this plan are primarily the result of the departmental SWOT analyses, the specification of the various environments in which the college operates, and the information from the focus group discussions. The three areas have common characteristics, namely they are based on present faculty teaching and research accomplishments, relate to the information-gathering and decision-making activities of organizations, and address topics that will be of continued importance to organizations. The areas are described in general terms and can be embodied by multiple specific topics. The determination of topics and the accompanying operationalization of the areas of focus will depend upon the across-department interactions of the faculty of the Terry College. It is expected that the scope of these areas will continually change. As faculty members undertake new research and instruction, the specific expertise in an area will evolve. It is also understood that the areas of focus themselves may change. In departmental discussions, several faculty commented that the college could support only two areas of concentration. Others presented arguments for areas other than the three areas listed in this document. Clearly, faculty achievements and the acceptance of those achievements by our external communities will ultimately determine our continuing areas of focus.

Faculty Research. The Terry College will continue to support all topics of faculty research that result in high-quality work with impact in the academic and/or business communities. That is, this plan does not require that each faculty member shift his/her research activities to concentrate on the areas of focus of the college. It is expected that there will be differential levels of work in these focus areas among faculty. Faculty who are currently working in these areas will likely continue this work and assist in defining the specific content of the focus areas. Others will continue research in topics that do not relate to the focus areas and may shift some portion of their effort to these areas at a later date. While the college will support excellent work in all research areas, much of the college’s future financial support and faculty positions will be targeted to the areas of focus. If these areas are to provide competitive advantage and determine our image in the external communities, they must be appropriately funded and staffed.

Differences in Activities Among Faculty. Accomplishment of the goals and objectives of this plan will require many different faculty activities, (e.g., degree and non-degree instruction, research, continuous interaction with business organizations, faculty review and implementation of academic programs). Accordingly, it is expected that there may be large differences among faculty in terms of their specific activity profiles. Discussions in many departmental meetings addressed these differences in terms of portfolio differences in the work of faculty. However, it is important that these differences be understood within the context of some basic assumptions.

First, research achievement will always be essential to advancement by tenure-track faculty from assistant to associate professor and from associate professor to professor. Research is essential to our instruction, work with the business community, and external funding. All tenured faculty must excel in this area. Second, it is expected that as faculty progress in their careers, they will take on additional activities and responsibilities. Simply put, more is expected of chaired and full professors than is expected of associate and assistant professors. This is a common characteristic of advancement in both academia and industry. As faculty develop expertise in teaching and research, they are expected also to engage in additional activities in college and professional service as well as interact with the business community. Third, senior faculty may concentrate much of their work in one area (e.g., teaching, research, or service). However, it is expected that such concentration of activity will have significant positive effects upon the programs and constituents of the college. For example, concentration in teaching may result in improvement in instruction for large section classes or the development of additional skills in undergraduates. Merely teaching more classes is not sufficient. Similarly, concentration in research should result in widely cited publications in highly visible and respected academic outlets and significant recognition in the academic and/or business community. Merely producing more articles is not sufficient.

Administrative Changes. It is not within the scope of this strategic plan to present the mechanisms necessary to accomplish the goals and objectives of the plan. Such mechanisms will be developed through analysis and evaluation by faculty and administrators of the college. However, two organizational structure topics were discussed in various departmental meetings in which the strategic plan was discussed. The first of these is the development of a center for each of the areas of focus (e.g., center for leadership, center for management of strategic technologies). These centers would serve as magnets both for obtaining external funding and for attracting the interests and efforts of faculty to the areas of focus. The centers would support faculty instruction and research activities. Support from organizations, foundations, and individuals would be gathered for each center. A center would use this support to fund instructional development or research in topics important to the mission of the center. Such centers would provide the framework for working more closely with related areas from other academic units of The University of Georgia.

A second possible organizational change is the development of a matrix-type structure for the college. In such an arrangement, the traditional academic departments would be one dimension of structure while programs or activities (e.g., MBA, undergraduate, executive education, centers) would be the second dimension. The result would be cells of faculty activities defined both by departmental membership and program participation. Faculty members would therefore work with both departmental chairs and program directors. Information from both sources would be gathered for performance review.

Accountability. To direct our progress toward the envisioned future, it is important that we develop measures of our accomplishments relative to the goals and objectives specified in this plan. Additionally, we expect that funding agents for college activities will demand information about our effectiveness. Some measures are obvious and fairly easy to obtain (e.g., enrollment in programs and classes, number of academic articles, dollars in external funding, number of executive education programs). However, it is necessary that such measures be more than convenient. They must relate to the critical areas of accomplishment and be complete in the scope of the data that are collected. Faculty and administrators of the college must discuss, identify, and monitor such measures.