Executive Education Programs Benefit Lifelong Learners
Executive Education programs are designed to benefit the unique needs of alumni and regional businesses.
When Dr. Stephen Ferris officially started in his role as the new Bryan Dean of the Miller College of Business (MCOB) in July 2019, he studied the University’s strategic plan and saw a clear opportunity.
MCOB was already respected across the country for its first-class student learning experience. But Ferris looked at Goal 2 of the plan—graduate education and lifetime learning—and knew there was work to be done.
“When I looked at the business school, I saw that we were doing relatively little to reach out to businesses and industries to benefit them from our extensive skillsets,” Ferris said. “We know that having robust industries and strong businesses adds to the well-being of our communities and indeed of the entire region.”
What followed was the creation of MCOB’s Executive Education programs, which match client companies with expert faculty members to solve problems and foster business growth and company profitability.
Ferris hired Greg Zirkle to fill the newly-created position of director of Executive Programs—first to collaborate with MCOB faculty to develop a catalog of available programs, and then to work with regional companies to assess their needs and then design training content that would benefit their business operations.
Whether it’s Management & Strategy, Innovation & Leadership, Professional Selling, or Accounting—or perhaps even more customized programming—the Executive Education programs have been built to meet clients’ unique needs.
Executive programs include consulting services that help organizations solve unique problems such as stimulating innovation and enhancing communication effectiveness.
“We don’t have to bring a cookie-cutter solution to every business,” Zirkle said. “We ask, ‘What are your objectives?’ And once we learn their objective, we might track in a different direction or focus on the creation of an entirely different type of program. So that’s how we’ve built it, by listening to our clients and learning their needs.”
But the icing on the cake is when these Executive Learning Programs make a positive impact on Ball State graduates—sticking to those initial Goal 2 hopes.
“This is a collaboration with our alums and the friends of alums where we think it can be a win-win,” Ferris said. “We can help them build their business, grow their business, and have more fulfilling business success.”
A list of available programs can be found on the Miller College of Business Executive Education website. Those interested in more information can also contact Greg Zirkle.
