BusinessTN

The group ClimateCounts.org recently released its second yearly scorecard ranking the environmental performance of 56 companies that compete in nine industries around the world. Eighty-four percent of the companies improved their ranking by an average of 10% in the span of just one year. With stricter government regulations abroad and increasing scrutiny in the United States, phrases such as "global marketplace" and "environmentally sustainable business" are becoming ever more trendy.

To help students prepare for the rapid changes, many schools across Tennessee are offering MBA programs with concentrations in either international or sustainable business.

Three of the four programs at UT -Knoxville have an international component that requires students to spend time overseas. "We ask our students to look at cultural elements of the country, including government, law, global resources, supplier proximity and governmental policy related to business investment," says Amy Cathey, director of the Executive MBA program for UT-Knoxville.

Cathey says considerable time is spent selecting locations for international trips.
"Let's take India for example. The Executive MBA program went to India a couple of years ago. We took the group into Bangalor and had the opportunity for them to spend some time there," Cathey says. "One student's employer had that individual go back to India three times as the leader of a team to expand that company's business in the country."

Cathey says all MBA students are encouraged to make one or two individual visits that would be of interest to their business or employer. Sometimes, she says, the students' work during the program results in new offices for their companies. At the very least, they bring back a better understanding of how to compete and cooperate internationally.

Thinking globally means more than just having an allowance for other languages and cultures.

"If you're thinking globally, you have to be thinking in terms of sustainability, as well," says Sarah Gardial, associate dean for the College of Business Administration at UT-Knoxville. "If you look at other countries, they're generally about a decade ahead of us, thinking about environmental issues and regulations."

Gardial says the college's MBA programs are incorporating cases, lectures and discussions about environmental sustainability. One area in which they directly address environmental issues is in ethics. Another area is strategy, where Gardial says there are "some outstanding cases" of companies that are seeking sustainability as a new way to make a profit.

Lipscomb and Vanderbilt universities in Nashville both offer classes that allow students to focus directly on global or environmentally sustainable business.

At Lipscomb, students in the full-time MBA program can choose from a menu of international courses or a trip to China, while a global marketing and international travel course is built into the weekend-format program. The trip is meant to give international experience, as well as provide insight into how marketing varies in different cultures.

"One of the places we have visited is Volkswagen in Berlin. The executive from Volkswagen was talking about what they're trying to do to get cars with better gas mileage and help the ecology and so forth," says Lipscomb business professor George Boulware. "So, they are ahead of us. One of the things about the European Union is that everybody is so concerned about the environment; all through the supply chain, everybody has to take care to recycle things that are used for their parts. But then, China is behind the U.S."

Like UT-Knoxville's Cathey, Boulware says much consideration is given to where students will travel each year. Sometimes, the reason is economic—they are headed to Argentina this fall because the dollar's plunge has made Europe too expensive.

Vanderbilt's international studies emphasis combines a series of elective courses with one of 17 exchange programs and various international internship opportunities. Graduates examine trade policies, operations, strategy, international markets and foreign exchange.

The school's environmental emphasis pulls from expertise in the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies (VCEMS) and the School of Engineering. Mark Cohen, an Owen Graduate School of Management business professor and director of the VCEMS, has been teaching environmental management courses in the MBA program since about 1993.

"We've had the emphasis since the mid-'90s," Cohen says. "Essentially, it involves taking four courses in the curriculum, two in the business school and two others outside (from the engineering school or even philosophy). Interested students are basically broadening their specialty base."

One of the courses in the emphasis offered through Owen deals with how companies are using environmental and social issues to their benefit, which includes human rights. The other course focuses on the emerging issue of climate change and how companies are addressing it.

Lipscomb's decision to offer a specialized MBA in conjunction with its Institute for Sustainable Practice came from the top—university president Randolph Lowry. Lowry spends summers teaching at the Vermont Law School in South Royalton, which has one of the best-known environmental law schools in the country.

"He has been an observer of this sea change from radical environmentalism to business environmentalism," says Dodd Galbreath, executive director of the institute and professor of sustainability. "He started noticing a void in academic training during this revolution of thinking—much like that found in the Information Age and Industrial Age. He saw an opportunity to grow a program and fulfill a potential consumer demand."

Galbreath's own background is in government policy and local conservation work, holding policy positions in both the McWherter and Sundquist administrations, as well as a technical role under current Gov. Phil Bredesen.

"I learned from those experiences that there's a recognition that we're behind the world because they're already positioned to take advantage of this market. Companies that do business all over the world can't operate in a vacuum. It's having a huge influence on the way we do things."

Galbreath says that, during the course of advising governors on environmental policy, he found businesses sometimes had "equal or greater concern" about how to operate sustainably, due to both legislative mandates and an interest in taking advantage of a new market.

Lipscomb recently hosted and co-sponsored with a variety of businesses the state's first sustainable business conference and exposition. Galbreath says Gov. Bredesen is investing heavily in sustainability, as are several businesses in the state. "Ingram Barge, for instance, had a financial interest in having enough water to float its barges," Galbreath says.

The University of Memphis offers an International MBA at the Fogelman College of Business and Economics, while Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville offers an international concentration. Like the other programs, both require students to take international trips.

The University of Memphis program offers seven business tracks, including five country tracks—Spanish, German, French, Chinese or Japanese—for U.S. students with three years of foreign language proficiency. Students who would like to specialize in international business, but where English is the preferred language, can follow the World Region Business Track, while international students can follow the U.S. Business Track.

The full-time program, which includes one summer session, requires a total of 59 credit hours and is comprised of courses on global accounting and international competitiveness. The International MBA courses are reserved for students in that program.
Tennessee Tech is uniquely positioned as offering the only program that allows students the option to earn an international concentration MBA with 100% distance learning.

"They never have to come to campus," says Bob Wood, assistant dean of the College of Business at Tennessee Tech. "So it has allowed students working full time who want the international knowledge the opportunity to do this while still working."

Students enrolled in the international concentration take three of five courses, choosing among finance, marketing, management, economics. and a 10- to 20-day immersion trip abroad.

Wood says that many companies have customers outside the country. Even if they are a truly domestic company, a lot of competitors are from outside the United States.

Like his peers, Wood says the interaction between business and the natural environment is a subject that often comes up when traveling internationally. "Our trip in March 2008 was to South America, and we [noticed] a recurring theme of sustainable business, including one software operator in Argentina who spoke at length about his company's commitment to sustainable business."

Wood says students in the program come from varied backgrounds, most often to help their companies get a better global position or to enter international sales. He says sustainability is something the school is considering incorporating into its current program as another tool to better equip its students coming out of the global concentration.

Lipscomb's Galbreath says firms and organizations "are starting to realize that strategic services are just as important as products."

"Where do business people go to get trained? They get an MBA," he says. "And we need to teach the fundamentals and principles, then give practice at putting those principles to use. These new fields are not about answers; rather, they are about opportunities and new thinking."

MBA Programs 2008 Chart