Textbook cases
Entrepreneurs who seek higher ed
find variety of options
by beth ewen
Donna Block, M.D., is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist with the advanced degrees and certifications necessary to practice medicine. But when she was planning to start her own business, which she calls Clinic Sofia, providing health care services to women and girls, she sought another credential: a master’s in business administration or MBA.
The reason: “As physicians we’re scientific so our processes are a little different. It gave me the opportunity to see all the categories that I needed to think about,” she says. “Plus it gave me credibility in working with business people, so I would be able to have a conversation with them. We were able to develop a common language.”
Everyone has met entrepreneurs who learned everything they know on the job—the self-made men and women who may even scorn an undergraduate college degree, not to mention a master’s, as a waste of time better spent on real-world experience.
People like Block defy that stereotype, saying they seek higher business education, including formal degrees, as a way to fill gaps in their background, realize their strengths and weaknesses, network with other professionals, and arm themselves with cutting-edge ideas they can apply to their own companies.
Those in the latter mold find plenty of options in Minnesota and beyond. At least 25 accredited schools in the state offer as many as 224 different MBA programs, plus more offer online programs. Yearly tuition ranges from $5,280 to $28,240. Models vary, from part-time to online to hybrid, and so do philosophies, with one program emphasizing ethics and another focusing on practical applications, for example.
Finding the right fit takes research and networking, says Tom Salonek, the CEO of Intertech, a software development and training company in Eagan. He believes strongly in continuing education as imperative for leaders of growing companies.
“If you really want to grow, the skill set I had at $1 million in sales is not the same skill set that I have now that we’re approaching $15 million in sales a year,” Salonek says.
What’s valuable to him in higher education? “For me anyway, it’s being able to look at and ask questions about what’s next, what are the things I’ll need to be concerned about at my business as it grows,” he says. “I might have stumbled upon those decisions just naturally, but I think for me it’s better to be proactive.”
He got his undergrad from the University of St. Thomas, then was accepted into the evening MBA program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. But at the time he felt a disconnect, because he was starting his business in the back of his house and at school they were analyzing case studies from mega-corporations like Frito-Lay.
Since then he’s completed a variety of programs that focus on high-growth companies, from a mini-master’s at St. Thomas to executive education at MIT and Harvard. He’s found those programs valuable as much for the curriculum as for the fellow students. “For me it’s been a combination of the content, as well as being around other people that are in different industries from me,” Salonek says.
He advises entrepreneurs to look into the content of each program, analyze the professors who will be teaching, and then vet the experience by talking with students who have been through it. A bonus: He’s met entrepreneurs who seemingly “walk on water,” but in fact they’re just people like him who can build a business step by step. If they can do it, he figures, so can he.
Plus he’s enjoyed the rush of learning from premier teachers. “From a bucket list perspective, just to experience what it was like to have these world-class professors—it was phenomenal,” he says.
Donna Block has put her business education to work. She opened her first Clinic Sofia in Edina in 2004, after leaving a large, established OB/gyn practice, and finished her MBA at the University of St. Thomas in December 2005. June of 2012 marked her first expansion, when she opened a second Clinic Sofia in Maple Grove, across from Maple Grove Hospital.
These days she’s working hardest on getting the culture right at her second clinic, so it matches the emphasis on the full circle of women’s health. They have Monday morning huddles via Skype, where staff at both clinics tune in. The clinic managers go back and forth between sites, and beginning in August Block herself will begin treating patients there one day each week.
She believes in one bedrock topic she studied in business school—branding, which she says she learned means the entire experience customers have as they interact with her clinic. And even though getting a medical degree is about as rigorous as it gets, she says her MBA was another kind of challenge.
“It’s just different. It’s really evaluating yourself, and how to manage people, and that’s hard,” she says. “And that self-reflection is a critical piece, because it told me I’m fiscally responsible and very productive, but I’m also very creative, and somehow it all works together.”
Upsize presents a snapshot of four MBA programs in the area, intended to give just a sampling of the variety of programs available and meant as inspiration for any entrepreneur wanting to follow in Block’s or Salonek’s footsteps.
“It’s kind of the theme du jour in a lot of business programs, but we’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Randy Zimmermann,
The College of St. Scholastica
ABOUT THE ST. SCHOLASTICA MBA: We offer two master level management programs. The oldest program started in 1984 is the Master of Arts in management. In 2008 we enrolled our first cohort in the new MBA program, and we offer that through three of our six campuses, in Duluth, St. Paul and St. Cloud. Between both programs, we have 200 students.
One additional feature of the MBA is a global focus; we revised the curriculum to include an understanding of multicultural workplaces. We’ve sent students to China, India, Argentina, Eastern Europe, Poland.
ABOUT THE VALUE OF AN MBA: Students can use their capstone project to formulate a new business, or a marketing plan. So they can put it to practical use. I just sat in on our marketing course where they had to develop a marketing plan for a new business. Most of them did it for a business they intended to establish.
ABOUT VALUES: We’re independent of the Benedictine sisters that founded us well over a hundred years ago, but nevertheless we try to incorporate that heritage by articulating a set of values that are consistent with the Benedictine values, and we take that a step further by building in an ethics component, and we regard every student as a leader in social responsibility. It’s kind of a theme du jour in a lot of business programs, but we’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Randy Zimmermann is chair of graduate programs at The College of St. Scholastica: 218.625.4929; rzimmerm@css.edu; www.css.edu
“We have a lot of students from small companies who just want the knowledge to be able to do it better.”
Dan Lehmann,
ABOUT THE HAMLINE MBA: It’s a full-time program but it only has meetings once a week for four hours for classes year around, three semesters a year. It’s a two-year program, made up of six semesters.
No. 1 it’s a cohort program, so you come in with 20 to 30 students, and they move through the program together. No. 2, the program is on general management with prescribed curriculum. We have thought through with a lot of people in business and academics about the critical areas of study, and we designed those courses into the program.
No. 3, in our last two modules we have students do consulting with businesses and organizations within the community. The company will come up with a problem and we’ll assign four to five students to the project for a full 16 to 18 weeks. Examples are: students investigated a new market opportunity for a company’s signage. Another group worked on implementing a fully automated pill-dispensing equipment system in their pharmacies.
ABOUT THE VALUE OF AN MBA: For people from small companies, it’s about broadening skills. We had the CFO at an automotive dealership come in to broaden skills. We have a few students that have their own company, and we have a lot of people in family businesses. They’re wanting to advance their companies
Dan Lehmann is director of the MBA program at Hamline University: dlehmann01@hamline.edu; www.hamline.edu
“There’s an emphasis and a focus on human relationships.”
Gregory Rance,
ABOUT THE BETHEL MBA: The starting point will be Bethel University’s value proposition. The program is designed to work with adult professionals who need a leadership and creation model of learning. Our program is designed to make sure that when our graduates leave, they have figured out a way to think strategically, critically, and make people willing to follow them.
In other words, a good graduate of Bethel will be able to persuade and influence others to follow them, to buy into their dream or vision, because they’re competent in their ability to perform, but also they do leadership in the right way.
ABOUT THE PROFESSORS: We offer curriculum on the core business competence development from business men and women themselves. For example, one of our professors is an attorney with his own practice in downtown Minneapolis. His primary work is, he helps men and women who want to launch an idea, but also think through the life cycle of that company. These are men and women who are experts in their field who are in the marketplace doing business, and are teaching in our program.
ABOUT THE STUDENTS: Primarily our adult students are people who have seven to 14 years of business experience. They’re trying to go make business happen themselves during the day, and how do they fit in this graduate school thing? We have two formats to deliver our offerings, including a one-night-a-week and online hybrid.
Gregory Rance is senior/MBA enrollment counselor at Bethel University: 651.635.8095; grance@bethel.edu; www.bethel.edu
“It’s really the connections the students are making, the network they’re building.”
Tiffany Cork,
ABOUT THE ST. THOMAS MBA: We have two MBA programs that would fit that entrepreneurial market, our evening MBA, which is our part-time program. We have just under a thousand students active in that space. The alternative is our executive MBA program. Those are generally for people in a higher level in the organization, mid-range employees with a few years experience. We’re trying to match the needs in the business community.
WHY AN MBA HAS VALUE: Having those skills is important. The education and the classroom experience are going to be valuable, they’re going to be applicable. But outside of that, it’s really the connections the students are making.
WHAT PROSPECTS SHOULD CONSIDER: We talk a lot about fit. We talk a lot about the community they’re joining. And we talk about the network we’re offering. Part of it is doing your research. There are a lot of options so a lot of research can be done online, but the best way is to visit the school, to visit a class, to see how the students and professors are interacting.
Where do you want to spend your two to three years? It’s a big time commitment and a big monetary commitment as well, so we want to be sure people are ready.
Tiffany Cork is director, evening and full-time MBA admissions, at the University of St. Thomas: 651.962.8801; tiffany.cork@stthomas.edu; www.stthomas.edu
“It’s kind of the theme du jour in a lot of business programs, but we’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Randy Zimmermann,
The College of St. Scholastica
ABOUT THE ST. SCHOLASTICA MBA: We offer two master level management programs. The oldest program started in 1984 is the Master of Arts in management. In 2008 we enrolled our first cohort in the new MBA program, and we offer that through three of our six campuses, in Duluth, St. Paul and St. Cloud. Between both programs, we have 200 students.
One additional feature of the MBA is a global focus; we revised the curriculum to include an understanding of multicultural workplaces. We’ve sent students to China, India, Argentina, Eastern Europe, Poland.
ABOUT THE VALUE OF AN MBA: Students can use their capstone project to formulate a new business, or a marketing plan. So they can put it to practical use. I just sat in on our marketing course where they had to develop a marketing plan for a new business. Most of them did it for a business they intended to establish.
ABOUT VALUES: We’re independent of the Benedictine sisters that founded us well over a hundred years ago, but nevertheless we try to incorporate that heritage by articulating a set of values that are consistent with the Benedictine values, and we take that a step further by building in an ethics component, and we regard every student as a leader in social responsibility. It’s kind of a theme du jour in a lot of business programs, but we’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Randy Zimmermann is chair of graduate programs at The College of St. Scholastica: 218.625.4929; rzimmerm@css.edu; www.css.edu
“We have a lot of students from small companies who just want the knowledge to be able to do it better.”
Dan Lehmann,
ABOUT THE HAMLINE MBA: It’s a full-time program but it only has meetings once a week for four hours for classes year around, three semesters a year. It’s a two-year program, made up of six semesters.
No. 1 it’s a cohort program, so you come in with 20 to 30 students, and they move through the program together. No. 2, the program is on general management with prescribed curriculum. We have thought through with a lot of people in business and academics about the critical areas of study, and we designed those courses into the program.
No. 3, in our last two modules we have students do consulting with businesses and organizations within the community. The company will come up with a problem and we’ll assign four to five students to the project for a full 16 to 18 weeks. Examples are: students investigated a new market opportunity for a company’s signage. Another group worked on implementing a fully automated pill-dispensing equipment system in their pharmacies.
ABOUT THE VALUE OF AN MBA: For people from small companies, it’s about broadening skills. We had the CFO at an automotive dealership come in to broaden skills. We have a few students that have their own company, and we have a lot of people in family businesses. They’re wanting to advance their companies
Dan Lehmann is director of the MBA program at Hamline University: dlehmann01@hamline.edu; www.hamline.edu
“There’s an emphasis and a focus on human relationships.”
Gregory Rance,
ABOUT THE BETHEL MBA: The starting point will be Bethel University’s value proposition. The program is designed to work with adult professionals who need a leadership and creation model of learning. Our program is designed to make sure that when our graduates leave, they have figured out a way to think strategically, critically, and make people willing to follow them.
In other words, a good graduate of Bethel will be able to persuade and influence others to follow them, to buy into their dream or vision, because they’re competent in their ability to perform, but also they do leadership in the right way.
ABOUT THE PROFESSORS: We offer curriculum on the core business competence development from business men and women themselves. For example, one of our professors is an attorney with his own practice in downtown Minneapolis. His primary work is, he helps men and women who want to launch an idea, but also think through the life cycle of that company. These are men and women who are experts in their field who are in the marketplace doing business, and are teaching in our program.
ABOUT THE STUDENTS: Primarily our adult students are people who have seven to 14 years of business experience. They’re trying to go make business happen themselves during the day, and how do they fit in this graduate school thing? We have two formats to deliver our offerings, including a one-night-a-week and online hybrid.
Gregory Rance is senior/MBA enrollment counselor at Bethel University: 651.635.8095; grance@bethel.edu; www.bethel.edu
“It’s really the connections the students are making, the network they’re building.”
Tiffany Cork,
ABOUT THE ST. THOMAS MBA: We have two MBA programs that would fit that entrepreneurial market, our evening MBA, which is our part-time program. We have just under a thousand students active in that space. The alternative is our executive MBA program. Those are generally for people in a higher level in the organization, mid-range employees with a few years experience. We’re trying to match the needs in the business community.
WHY AN MBA HAS VALUE: Having those skills is important. The education and the classroom experience are going to be valuable, they’re going to be applicable. But outside of that, it’s really the connections the students are making.
WHAT PROSPECTS SHOULD CONSIDER: We talk a lot about fit. We talk a lot about the community they’re joining. And we talk about the network we’re offering. Part of it is doing your research. There are a lot of options so a lot of research can be done online, but the best way is to visit the school, to visit a class, to see how the students and professors are interacting.
Where do you want to spend your two to three years? It’s a big time commitment and a big monetary commitment as well, so we want to be sure people are ready.
Tiffany Cork is director, evening and full-time MBA admissions, at the University of St. Thomas: 651.962.8801; tiffany.cork@stthomas.edu; www.stthomas.edu
