Wake Forest University School Of Business

The Wake Forest University School of Business (formerly Babcock Graduate School of Management) is one of the graduate schools of Wake Forest University. Established in 1969, it admitted its first classes of full-time and executive students in 1971 and presented its first graduating class in 1973. The Babcock School was established with a gift from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation and named in honor of Charles H. Babcock, a noted businessman and philanthropist who influenced civic, cultural and business development in Winston-Salem and North Carolina.

In 1985, the Babcock Graduate School of Management earned its accreditation from the AACSB, and in 1993, the school moved into the newly constructed Worrell Professional Center, the first building in the nation to house both graduate business and law schools under one roof. In 1987, Babcock launched its evening Master of Business Administration (MBA) program in Winston-Salem, followed by an evening MBA program in Charlotte in 1995 and a Saturday MBA program in Charlotte in 2004.

International relationships

The Wake Forest University School of Business has long-standing relationships with leading international business schools including eight international programs that allow faculty and students from each school to teach and study at the other. The partner schools are Bordeaux School of Business, France; EM-Lyon Graduate School of Management, France; European Business School, Germany; Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, India; Institute of Business Studies, Russia; University of Kaiserslautern, Germany; WHU-Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management, Germany and Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria.

Rankings

The Wake Forest University School of Business is consistently ranked among the world's best graduate business schools. It is currently #2 in regional school rankings by The Wall Street Journal, #10 in the world by Beyond Grey Pinstripes (for preparing its MBA graduates for social and environmental stewardship), and among the top 50 U.S. business schools by BusinessWeek, América Economia, Financial Times, The Economist, and Forbes.

• Entrepreneurship - Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Babcock's entrepreneurship programs #17 in the nation, and Stan Mandel, director of the Angell Center for Entrepreneurship, has been recognized as the #3 entrepreneurial program director in the country.
• Return on Investment - Forbes calculated that, on average, it takes Wake Forest's full-time graduates 3.4 years to break even on their MBA investment, and ranked The Schools of Business #12 in the nation for evening MBA program return on investment.
• Technology - Based in part upon its far-reaching implementation of technology in the Babcock Graduate School of Management, Wake Forest University was declared a best-practice organization for technology usage by the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) and AACSB International.

Centers and institutes

The Wake Forest University School of Business houses several centers and institutions.

Angell Center for Entrepreneurship

The Angell Center is an entrepreneurship institution. It houses several entrepreneurship-oriented programs, such as the Family Business Center and the Babcock Demon Incubator, provides students with multiple internship opportunities in start-ups across the nation, sponsors educational programs within the region, introduces students to venture capitalists and financiers, and partners with non-profits to build social capital.

The Angell Center also sponsors the Elevator Competition, a business-plan pitch competition that attracts MBA students from across the country.

Primary endowment funding for the Angell Center comes from Winston-Salem area entrepreneur Don Angell and the Angell Foundation. In addition, significant program funding comes from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Price Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.

Family Business Center

The Family Business Center was established in 1999 to address the issues faced by closely held and family firms. Family businesses make up almost 90 percent of all companies and 37 percent of the Fortune 500, yet only 30 percent of all family firms survive to the second generation. Consulting with local businesses, the FBC helps family firms recognize and plan for the many unique issues they face. In addition, they hold several seminars each year that focus on critical family business issues.

The significant growth of the Family Business Center ~ Triad generated extensive interest from the Charlotte community to open a Family Business Center to address the needs of closely held firms in the Charlotte Metro area. The success and growth of the Triad and Charlotte Metro programs have made Babcock's Family Business Center one of the fastest growing centers of its kind in the United States.

Babcock Demon Incubator

The Babcock Demon Incubator operates under Babcock's Angell Center for Entrepreneurship. It works to launch companies that have the potential to create significant economic impact in the Triad through jobs and business investment. The incubator offers office space, Internet access, discounted professional resources and networking opportunities for growth-oriented, early stage ventures. It houses approximately five start-up businesses, with tenants admitted on a rolling basis throughout the year. Each business that enters the incubator has about a year to grow and find a permanent location. Winners of the Triad Entrepreneurial Initiative's annual business plan competition are among companies housed in the incubator.

In addition to playing an instrumental role in helping launch new ventures, the incubator serves as a living laboratory for students. Working in the incubator helps students apply their evolving business knowledge while providing a stronger appreciation for the ambiguity that exists within start-up companies. Their work is often under faculty supervision, thus assuring the delivery of quality services while applying sound business principles. This experience helps students bridge the business theory-to-practice gap that often exists in business programs.

Flow Institute for International Studies

The Flow Institute for International Studies helps students develop their understanding of other countries’ economies, businesses and cultures through study tours, speakers and seminars.

The Flow Institute organizes the annual International Summer Study Tours to destinations such as China, Japan, India, Central Europe and Latin America. These two-week trips offer students the opportunity to observe international business practices, meet with business and government leaders, tour historical sites, and appreciate the role of culture in business. The international study trips are integrated into the Babcock School's various programs in different ways.

Marketing Summit

Each year, the Babcock School hosts a Marketing Summit which includes an MBA case competition, undergraduate case competition and a marketing forum.

For the MBA case competition, major corporations submit marketing challenges in a business case format. For example, in 2008, (judged by Bingham Willis) the event was sponsored by PepsiCo and students were challenged to develop new business opportunities for its True North snack food brand. In 2007, Motorola challenged students to create a marketing plan for its new Q product for small and mid-size U.S. companies. MBA student teams have 36 hours to create a marketing solution that is presented to a panel of judges and the sponsor's representatives. Past sponsors have included Motorola, Yahoo!, Coca-Cola, Lowe's Home Improvement Store, Apple Computer, Sara Lee, GlaxoSmithKline, Heineken, Microsoft, DISH Network / Echostar Communications and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The first-place team receives $5,000; second place, $3,000; and third place $2,000. In addition to prize money, participating students get great exposure to some of the world's best companies. Resumes of participating team members are published in a book that is distributed to the sponsor, panelists, judges and distinguished guests attending the Summit. Moreover, communications to senior marketing executives and recruiters at the country's 1,000 largest corporations highlight the competition and encourage executives to review participants' resumes. Past participants in the MBA case competition include teams from the University of Washington, University of Virginia, Michigan State University, Indiana University, Hong Kong University, Dartmouth College, University of California-Berkeley, and the Babcock School.

In the undergraduate case competition competing teams participate in a three-phase challenge over the course of two months in which they deal with pressing issues facing the event’s corporate sponsor. The three highest-scoring teams are invited to attend the Marketing Summit and present their solutions before a panel of MBA faculty, CEOs, CMOs and representatives from the sponsor. The winners are announced at the closing awards dinner and receive their cash prize. Past participants have included teams from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Florida and Boston College, among others.

The Marketing Forum features marketing leaders executives from companies from around the world arranged for a panel discussion with the general public. Panelists discuss issues facing their companies and offer unique insights into current marketing trends.

Babcock International Consulting Program

A recent addition to the School of Business, the student-run Babcock International Consulting Program works to share the expertise of Babcock students with emerging businesses in developing countries.

In December 2006, a small team of Babcock students traveled to Nicaragua to conduct preliminary research and identify opportunities to help the Missionary Ventures International Vocational School develop a sustainable business model. After consulting with community members and students, the Babcock team suggested a new business model for the MVI School that focused on selling hand-crafted metal products made by its students. Revenue from the sales of these products will supply real wages to students and graduates who have few economic opportunities and also help fund the school to advance its mission of educating a labor force. Both the MVI School and the Babcock student team worked to sell the products through various distribution channels to local and international markets.

After the Babcock student team returned home, the project continued to grow as input from students, faculty and external organizations increased. A group of 18 Babcock students and faculty returned to Nicaragua in March 2007 to conduct a seminar for area business owners and to implement the marketing, operations and accounting components of the MVI school’s new business model.

Elevator Competition

Another nationally recognized event at the Babcock School is the Elevator Competition. The competition was first held in 2000 and has been held every year since at the Wachovia Center in downtown Winston-Salem. During this competition, MBA students with an interest in entrepreneurship pitch their ideas to a venture capitalist while riding in an elevator for two minutes. The student must also supply a detailed business plan and prepare a formal presentation of their business venture. The objective is to earn more time to present their ideas formally to a panel of venture capitalists, which chooses the winners. The winning team wins $5,000 in cash, $40,000 in professional services and the opportunity to meet with a venture capital group to explore possible funding for their business plan.

Past participants have included MBA students from Babson College, Carnegie Mellon University, Yale University, Duke University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, New York University, Peking University, Purdue University, University of Arkansas, University of Chicago, University of Michigan and Wake Forest University.

In 2010, Wake Forest launched a blog site to track the progress of the event.

Student life

The Babcock School's primary location is on the Wake Forest University campus in Winston-Salem, N.C. Programs offered there are the full-time and Winston-Salem evening MBA programs as well as the MA in Management program. The Babcock School also maintains a campus in Charlotte, N.C., that houses the Charlotte evening and Saturday MBA programs.

Student clubs and organizations

Students at the Wake Forest University School of Business can choose from among nearly 20 clubs and organizations, or they can participate in a variety of events including the Greater Babcock Open and a Charity Auction. Student organizations include the Black Business Students Association, Entrepreneurs Club, Hispanic Club, Net Impact Club, Strategy and Consulting Club, Women in Business and The Joint Degree Society.

Campus

The Worrell Professional Center for Law and Management opened in 1993 and is named after alumnus, trustee and benefactor Eugene Worrell and his wife, Anne, of Charlottesville, Virginia. The facility includes 30 private study rooms open 24 hours a day; spacious lounges with televisions tuned to financial news channels; and an adjacent food court, bookstore and gift shop. Worrell is located on the Wake Forest University grounds in Winston-Salem, NC.

Wake Forest’s Charlotte MBA programs are housed at One Morrocroft Centre, which is located in the city’s SouthPark area. Classrooms offer a technologically advanced setting, and all study spaces offer wireless access to the Internet and to the school’s Intranet.

Lecture Series

Through the Babcock Leadership Series and Broyhill Executive Lecture Series, MBA students can meet, both formally and informally, with business and government leaders.

Past speakers have included Duane Ackerman, Chairman & CEO of BellSouth; John T. Chambers, President & CEO of Cisco Systems; Michael Dell, Chairman & CEO of Dell Computer; Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), former U.S. Secretary of Transportation; David Farr, CEO of Emerson; Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board; Julia Homer, Founding Editor and Editor in Chief of CFO Magazine; Katherine M. Hudson, President & CEO of Brady Corp.; Robert A. Ingram, Vice Chairman of Pharmaceuticals of GlaxoSmithKline; William R. Johnson, Chairman, President and CEO of H.J. Heinz Co.; Hugh L. McColl Jr., retired Chairman & CEO of Bank of America; Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, former U.S. Ambassador to Finland, Chair of the American Red Cross and Founder & CEO, Pace Communications; Raul Muñoz Leos, Director General of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex); Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, and Director, Citigroup; former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; Rosendo Parra, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Home and Small Business Group, Dell; Greg Bridgeford, Executive Vice President - Business Development, Lowe's Companies Inc.; Anna Cabral, Treasurer of the United States; and John Mackey, Chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market.

Members of Pilobolus (dance company) also visited to stress the importance of creative thinking in the business world.

Career Management Center

The Career Management Center (CMC) staff works with students to assess career options, refine goals, and network with well-placed corporate contacts. Beyond the immediate job search, the staff works with students to develop interview and résumé skills.

Faculty and academic units

More than 75% of Babcock faculty have international consulting, teaching work or research experience. More than 90% hold a PhD or other doctoral degree, 33% serve on a company board of directors and 30% have experience owning their own company.

Admissions

To be considered for admission to any program, a candidate must successfully complete the following: A degree program at an accredited U.S. four-year undergraduate college/university or its equivalent; the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) exam; an interview with an admissions counselor; and the Babcock School application which consists of general information, essay questions, a resume, recommendations, academic history, GMAT scores, TOEFL or IELTS scores (if applicable), and a nonrefundable application fee. In addition, a candidate must fulfill the work experience requirements for each program.

Notable students and alumni

• Susan Alt - President and CEO, Volvo Logistics North America
• Steve Davis - Senior VP of Marketing, Heineken NA
• David Dupree - Managing Director and CEO, The Halifax Group
• Charlie Ergen - Chairman and CEO, EchoStar Communications Corporation
• Ann Johnston - Executive VP, HR, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
• John Medica - former Senior VP and General Manager of Product Group, Dell Computer
• Jorge Rodriguez - Head of Private Banking, ING Group, Mexico
• Warren Stephens - Chairman, President and CEO, Stephens Inc.
• G. Kennedy Thompson - Chairman, President and CEO, Wachovia Corp.
• Eric Wiseman - President and COO, VF Corp.
• Anil Rai Gupta, Managing Director, Havells India Ltd.

Deans

See also

• List of United States business school rankings
• List of business schools in the United States
• Wake Forest University School of Medicine

References