The Accelerated MBA at SCU has provided me with an intense, immersive, and experiential education that has unmasked the complex intricacies -- subtle and obvious, technical and human -- of creating, growing and leading as successful organization.

Today’s rapidly-evolving world economy requires more than great business skills, it requires leaders with confident, ethical integrity. The Accelerated MBA has given me the tools and frameworks for problem-solving, adaptability, innovation and creativity that will be assets throughout my career. It has done so with a model of leadership development that affects learning and change through collaborative interaction amongst a mature, diverse, and select peer group, by relevant academic instruction from a highly qualified and experienced faculty, and with direct industry involvement for an irreplaceable and practical real-world grounding.

I am truly impressed with the program’s comprehensive curriculum which integrates classroom learning and real-world experience into a structured 21-month program. The Leavey School of Business also features several organizations that give participating students the opportunity to network with other current students and an expansive pool of SCU alumni with similar interests.

By serving as the Vice President of Partnerships for the Entrepreneurial Connection, one such MBA organization, I am able to broaden my professional network to include local entrepreneurs and venture capital firms in the Silicon Valley. 

I believe an MBA from Santa Clara is not only a degree, but a life-long experience filled with world-class resources and access to networks that I can utilize throughout my personal and professional career.

Terri Griffith, professor of management in the Leavey School of Business since 2001, virtually immerses herself in research to learn how companies can best function with modifications to the traditional work environment.

Santa Clara’s location in the center of the technological world benefits her, since her research “is focused on the implications and effective use of technologies in organizations.” Griffith, who has served on advisory boards and has won numerous grants, has been looking at virtual work environments since 1984. Today’s business climate and technological advances allow and typically encourage formerly nontraditional communication methods.

“Most organizations are hybrids,” Griffith says. “They do some of their work face-to-face; use teleconferencing; instant messaging, e-mail. My colleagues and I study how that kind of work environment affects the rate of innovation.”

She has learned that “while communication is always easier face-to-face, the actual work outcome can be better in a virtual setting. A project team can pick the best people around the world and perform better.”

Griffith has been a visiting professor at various universities, and has served as senior editor of Organization Science, a research journal.

Through a National Science Foundation grant, Griffith is collaborating with John Sawyer of the University of Delaware to research  “knowledge, innovation, and virtual work” in science and engineering organizations.

“We’ve finished collecting data with a Fortune 100 science and technology company,” Griffith says. “We’ll be able to track how and which teams are more innovative” because of their virtual work environments.

Students in Griffith’s organizational design course at SCU average three to five years of professional experience and most plan to move into management positions at their companies.

“Each individual comes in with their own intuition and experience,” says Griffith, who won the Leavey School of Business Research Award in 2004. “If they are able to hear how others have handled situations, they can understand how to apply their knowledge. They can go back to their organization and apply what you just talked about. Since they have a fair amount of experience, we find a way to organize the knowledge they have.”  

Sanjiv Das left positions teaching finance at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and the University of California at Berkeley when Santa Clara University offered him academic freedom in 2000.

“They said that as long as I did research, they didn’t care if it was in computer science or finance,” he explains. “at Berkeley, it would have had to be one or the other.”

One of the fruits of the professor’s approach is an elective called Quantitative Business Models that makes extensive use of mathematical software – a first of its kind for a business school.

“I don’t think there’s a course like this at any other campus,” he says. “It aims to remedy the incorrect believe that quantitative models aren’t feasible for students who don’t have engineering backgrounds. I don’t think the QBM course would have been approved at some other places. I would have been accused of encroaching on computer science or the marketing field.”

He has brought that same kind of innovation to Santa Clara, putting together a distinguished group of faculty and advisors to launch the Santa Clara Initiative for Financial Innovation and Risk Management (SCIFIRM). The group, which includes SCU finance faculty George Chacko, Hersh Shefrin, Meir Statman, held its first conference, “The Value of Values” in Spring 2010, and brought together international leaders in the study of socially responsible investing.

“A thought process knows no boundaries,” adds Das, who earned his doctorate in finance from New York University, a master’s degree in computer science from Berkeley, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. It’s hands-on learning, and brings the satisfaction of learning by doing; in my case, learning by teaching.”

I needed the speed of a two-year MBA to catalyze my career change, but also wanted the flexibility to continue working on side projects. The Accelerated MBA program offered both and was a perfect fit for my ambitions. The program also offered a cohort experience similar to traditional MBA programs, facilitating close relationships with my classmates.

The Accelerated MBA program has been an enriching experience. Spending an entire year with my cohort not only made classes more enjoyable, but also provided valuable perspectives on group dynamics that have already helped me develop my management approach.

The experience has helped our cohort develop a class identity and a deep camaraderie that is unique among part-time MBA programs.

Santa Clara University and the Leavey Business School are well known both inside and outside of the Valley. This extensive network of relationships SCU has with its alumni and business leaders in the region has provided valuable experiences inside and outside of class, and will be an important resource in the future.