The ability to pursue a business case down to its roots is a professor's dream. "At Microsoft, they slice and dice information every which way," says Jiambalvo. "They're really into drilling down." In Jiambalvo's course on variances, analyzing deviations from the various plans Microsoft draws up, participants are constantly suggesting new product areas they want to test, he says.
In another case, an employee from a business unit took Jiambalvo's performance-measurement class, then volunteered to come back three months later and make a presentation on the balanced scorecard. "I thought she was going to be out of her depth, talking to finance people, but she did a fabulous presentation about what it took to implement the scorecard," Jiambalvo says. He now routinely asks people from business units to make presentations in finance classes.
While Microsoft values its on-site approach, other companies see benefits in offering students a change of venue. Lucent Technologies began a custom program in finance with Wellesley, Massachusetts's Babson College in 1997 by running five sessions at the company's New Jersey headquarters and two at Babson. By mutual agreement, Lucent has been moving more toward using Babson's facilities, and now offers five of the seven classes at the school. "When executives come here," says Babson professor of management accounting Larry Carr, "we get more of their minds."
The belief that first-class facilities will attract companies has led such schools as Fuqua, Kellogg, the University of Virginia's Darden Business School, and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to build separate, state-of-the-art conference centers.
Lately, though, some schools seem to view new facilities more as the price of staying even in the executive-education game. "Sure we think our architecture and design will be conducive to facilitating organizational change," says Steve Hick, director for custom programs at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, which is engaged in a major building project. "But a center just brings you even with the competition."
Other business schools would rather send professors to company locations, or concentrate on "distance-learning" technology using multimedia presentations. The University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business is a leader in delivering customized training by teleconferencing. During 1997-98, its professors gave 42 three-hour interactive courses to high-level managers at DaimlerBenz headquarters in Germany. The teachers never left Los Angeles, except during the program's design phase.
Ties with individual professors often prove valuable to companies, especially that select group of teachers that understands a company's culture and programs.
"Teaching adults is different from teaching kids," says Carol Newcomb, executive director of executive education at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. "The faculty needs to be connected to real-world problems, which some professors are not interested in." At Indiana University, only about 10 percent of business-school professors are heavily involved in the custom-program workload because of the unique skills required. Specialist faculty, says Cam Danielson, "must be facilitators, coaches, critiquers, and students themselves."
While ABB hasn't measured the return on investment from its program with Fuqua, treasurer Barry Wentworth says he sees the program's value daily in corporate interactions that have been transformed. "Can I quantify the heightened awareness and better communications? I think not," he says. "It's more of a feel." S
Stephen Barr is senior contributing editor at CFO; Roy Harris is a senior editor.
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The Microsoft School of Finance
It aims for more flexibility by passing up a direct tie to the University of Washington.
Like many high-tech outfits, Microsoft Corp. calls its headquarters complex "the campus." For much of its corporate finance staff, it's a campus in more ways than one.
In initiating its finance-training program last year, Microsoft senior director of finance development Norman Tonina opted not to deal directly with the University of Washington, whose professors Microsoft sought. Instead, Tonina contracted with three professors separately, and began designing with them the courses that would all be delivered on Microsoft property.
Why? For one thing, Microsoft wanted greater control over the course planning and logistics than it thought a business school's custom training could provide. "You don't always have enough flexibility when you're working with established programs," Tonina says, adding that what has made the program work is that "it's very much tailored to our needs."
The university hasn't exactly been shut out, however. Company executives visit the school to talk to MBA students more often. Case-study references are appearing in textbooks such as one Prof. Jim Jiambalvo is writing on managerial accounting. More internships and other employment possibilities have been opened to Washington's Business School graduates. And Microsoft makes grants each year to the university, in part reflecting its work with university staff.
The business school, which has increased the number of its corporate custom tie-ins from 12 to 19 in the past five years, including a major one with Boeing Co., would love a formal Microsoft custom-education arrangement. It has recently lost business from South Korean and Japanese companies because of the Asian financial crisis, reducing its overall revenues from custom work, notes Ann Lightbody, assistant dean and director of Washington's executive education programs.
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