Can you explain the concept of "Ideas into Action" and how that
translates into a Darden student's daily experiences?
Yes; every class starts with what we call the
"cold call." What the professor will do is turn to any given person in the
class and say, "Okay, you're the protagonist in this case. What would you
do?" The student doesn't just lay out the case facts or lay out their
analysis of what the case facts led to, but they actually lay out their
action plan.
What we're trying to train people in is
to think in terms of: "What actions should the leader take?" So you lay out
your action plan, and then you lay out the analysis that goes behind it. The
best action plans are driven by ideas, so this whole academic environment
fosters and teaches how to create new ideas based on analysis, but we don't
stop there. We take it one step further to this notion of: "What actions
should the leader take?"
What benefits does the case method have over
other teaching methods?
The case method is based on the Socratic
teaching method, which is basically the theory that you learn best when you
have to teach others—or, you learn best what you can explain to others. So
the case method is founded in that the students are teaching each other. In
the best case discussions, the faculty member is much more like the
conductor of an orchestra.
The faculty member is making sure the discussion
continues because it's actually students that are teaching each other. When
a student struggles to get a concept out, put meaning behind it, and then
take that concept into an action plan, then the student is really learning.
When they have to articulate that in the classroom, then they're teaching
others, and by teaching, they are truly learning.
Can you talk a little bit more about the
First-Year Learning Teams?
The First-Year Learning Teams are set up in the
first week of the class. They are relatively orchestrated by student
services to create diversity—culturally, demographically, and
experientially—to bring six or so students together to work on the cases.
Darden's first year is divided into approximately five, 65-person sections.
You go to all your classes together with that section.
These
Learning Teams cut across sections, so you draw people from each section.
The Learning Team meets the night before a case is taught, but after you've
done your individual preparation. So you do your individual preparation, and
you come together with your Learning Team and you try out your ideas. You
share with them your analysis.
Because of
the diversity built into the Learning Teams, you hope, then, that someone
there will have a different perspective on it, will challenge your
thinking—sort of a warm-up for the next day. Learning Teams generally spend
an hour or two on each case, so two or three hours on any given night going
through the analysis, sharing with each other, trying out ideas, and then
they can take those ideas to the classroom discussion the next day.
What differentiates the Darden curriculum?
Darden's first year is composed of three
quarters of core curriculum and only one-quarter of electives. The core
courses are integrated: one day the same case might be used for both
operations class and marketing class, as the issues in busy are never
clearly as functionally clean as business school would like it to be. The
addition of electives in the first year is a recent innovation in the Darden
curriculum. These electives are extensions of the core courses, to give
students more depth in their functional area of interest. We believe this
will enable students to be more prepared for their summer internships.
Darden has a reputation of being much more
work intensive than some of the other top schools. In fact, the first year
is often referred to as "boot camp." How do you respond to those comments?
We believe the first year is rigorous, and we
believe that one of the things we're teaching is how to stretch yourself and
how to manage your time, but we firmly believe that the type of students we
attract are looking to stretch themselves, and that you will actually learn
the most from your stretching.
While
you're learning, you not only learn the fundamental, quantitative skills,
but you also learn a lot about yourself and about your leadership style and
ability. The stretch part of the program is certainly by design. It's a
hallmark and we believe it makes sense.
Can you describe the Global Business Experience?
In the second half of the first year—or, more
likely, in the second year—you can go on a Global Business Experience, which
is a four-to-14-day experience in a foreign country. We have a number of
locations that vary every year. It's generally between five and eight
locations.
Each one of them differs, but I guess what's
common across them is to help you dive deep into another culture and
experience business from their point of view. Some of them are academic in
nature, so it's like an exchange program with another university. Some are
at a company, where the class will actually work on a business problem that
the company is facing in that geographic location.
But what takes students out of their comfort
zone is all of a sudden, they're dealing with different government,
regulatory, cultural issues than what they deal with in the U.S.
Can you talk about the entrepreneurial
programs available at Darden?
There are a number of different things that I
think are attractive to entrepreneurs. Interestingly, when I spoke to the
whole incoming class on the first day, I asked, "How many of you expect, in
your futures, to be an entrepreneur?" and I believe it was over 90% of the
people who raised their hands.
Then I said, "How many of you expect to be
entrepreneurs when you leave Darden two years from now?" You could count the
number on your hands and toes at least, maybe just your fingers. We have a
great reputation among our alumni for helping train you to run your own
business, and that is because of our general-management approach,
particularly in the first year.
You're constantly focusing on business issues
from a leader's point of view. If you're an entrepreneur wannabe, and right
out of school—if you already have your own business, or if you have a
business plan that you're working on—we have a number of different things
that can help you.
Several years ago, Frank Batten of Landmark
Communications gave Darden a significant endowment to found the Batten
Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. It's from this center of
excellence, around entrepreneurship and innovation, that a number of
programs emanate. One is we have something called a "Darden incubator,"
which is a physical location for people in the summer or once they graduate
to go have an office, a copy machine, a telephone, and incubate their own
business.
In the second year, we have a number of
electives on entrepreneurship, and again, the research comes out of the
Batten Institute that fuels those classes.
We have a
number of idea competitions that go across the two years, within Darden and
external to Darden, where you can actually write your business plan, present
it, and win a competition, and therefore get some seed money to start the
company. So that, in itself, helps you work with faculty to develop your
business plan and then maybe get a little bit of money to go along with it.
We also
have an office in northern Virginia, run by a venture capitalist named John
May where a lot of businesses emanate, so he has a lot of connections to the
venture capital world there, and to the high-tech environment there to help
students come up with ideas and connect with ideas. A lot of times, you'll
find a Darden business person connecting with another entrepreneur who has
the idea to pull the idea and business together.
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