Penn State

T h e S m e a l M B A P r o g r a m
T H I N K B I G. T H I N K S M A L L.

“If there’s one thing that will distinguish
your career from everyone else’s, it’s your
ability to lead. It’s about creating a vision.
Spreading enthusiasm for that vision. And
showing also that you work hard to bring it
to life. Such skills are born of practice and
introspection. You’ll have the opportunity
to do both here at Penn State Smeal, as we
focus our vast resources and deep knowledge
base on you. What you will learn, will
endure for your lifetime.”
Judy Olian, Dean,
Penn State Smeal College of Business
The Penn State Smeal College of Business thinks big.
Our MBA program is internationally ranked. Our
faculty is world-class. New buildings extend our campus
each year. We’re part of one of the biggest education
brands in the world. And our alumni network stretches
out across the globe, opening doors for the thousands
of graduates who swell its ranks every year.
But we also think small.
Because this school looks at one person at a time–
you. You’re on the verge of making one of the most
important decisions of your career. Choosing the right
business school now can make all the difference in
your development as a leader. And here at Smeal we
offer you one of the best business educations in the
world coupled with one deciding factor – we give
you intensive individual attention.
To make this possible, we keep your class sizes small.
So at Smeal, not only do you get to take full advantage
of everything the University and our top-rated faculty
have to offer, but you also get ready access to our
extensive resources without having to elbow your way
past fellow students. It’s a special approach.
And it’s a special program. Along with our focus on
core business fundamentals, we have pioneered many
innovations including a yearlong course in leadership
communication skills as a fundamental element of
our MBA. This innovative curriculum gives you both
the knowledge to choose the right path, and the people
skills to lead others along it.
That’s the Penn State way. Here, you don’t just learn
to think, you learn to roll up your sleeves and do.
And for top leadership in any company, that makes
a big difference.
 T H E M E A N S T O L E A D

Today, leadership is number one. Everything else is number two. “Generally, there are two types
The modern business world is a complex, dynamic environment of people in business. Those
of technological and social change, global competition, workforce
who think strategically, and
diversity, and increasing social demands. The Smeal MBA has
been created to develop leaders – specifically those who will those who can execute. Smeal
thrive in such conditions. MBAs are pretty rare because

Why? Because our MBA is different. We understand that they can do both.”
leadership is about vision, employee morale, client relationships, – David Polansky, M.B.A. 1987,
influence, persuasion, and inspiring those around you. Such managing director,

issues can determine both the success of the company and J.P. Morgan Private Bank, New York

your career. So here at Smeal, we have pioneered a course in

leadership communication skills, dedicating a full year to it.
You’ll study communication, human behavior, and teamwork.
You’ll practice presentation, conflict resolution, team building,
and negotiation. In short, you’ll learn how to get things done.

Our approach is supported by a recent Wall Street Journal survey

of recruiters who rated such communication and interpersonal
skills as the most important skills MBA graduates could have.
And along with these, we’ll give you the fundamental knowledge
you’ll need to lead teams and organizations through the modern
business maze. You’ll learn to foresee and manage change. To
evaluate complex issues and recommend the course of action.
To assess organizations and identify opportunities. To develop
new designs for businesses including joint ventures, strategic
alliances, and multifirm networks.

Together, you get the complete package: knowing what to

do strategically and how to execute it. In all, Penn State Smeal
graduates mean business.
Teamwork
Our brand of leadership is
best described by Joe Paterno,
legendary Penn State football
coach and corporate icon:
“For a team to become excellent
it has to overcome individual
preferences and individual
performances.” There are no
names on our jerseys.
Integrity
Smeal MBA graduates learn to lead from within the team.
Our emphasis on leadership revolves around one value:
integrity. Because true leaders work hard for the group.
They communicate well. They care for the people around
them. They share their success and they take responsibility
for their failures. And above all, they make things happen.
It’s exactly the type of character employers want.
 T H E T O O L S O F T H E T R A D E – Y E A R O N E

Your first-year core curriculum concentrates on the three

fundamentals of business: leadership, strategic analysis, and
money management.

These themes are taught over four modules, developed in
partnership with corporate recruiters and senior alumni
executives. Each module lasts seven weeks. They are intense
learning sessions during which you will cover a lot of ground
in a short time. You will learn the specific tools and techniques
to apply to any situation in order to reach the right business
decision. The curriculum is also highly pragmatic: no one
can become an expert overnight, so we make sure you learn
how to ask the right questions as well.
Immersion weeks are offered between Modules I and II, and
between Modules III and IV to provide one week of an intense
experience in various topics.
The Executive Panel
At the conclusion of your first year, you’ll compete with your
classmates in an intensive case competition sponsored by M&T
Bank. The competition is judged by an Executive Panel of
senior Smeal alumni. Here we use the strength of our alumni
network, calling on some of the highest-ranking executives
from major national and international corporations.
This 25-year-old rite of passage is a chance to put together
everything you have learned. You and your team will be given
a complex business case. You then have 72 hours to analyze it
and devise a winning strategy before presenting your solution
to the panel.

At Smeal, you’ll choose your second year portfolio and begin It’s a test of your ability to work as a team player, to understand
taking its classes towards the end of your first year. So when the issues in the case and devise the solution, and to stand up
your summer internship starts, you’ll be ready to take full in front of some of the toughest professionals in the world and
advantage of it. satisfy them that you’re right. In short, it’s a learning crucible.

Fall FIRST-YEAR CURRICULUM Spring

Module I – 7 weeks Module II – 7 weeks Module III – 7 weeks Module IV – 7 weeks

SPRING IMMERSION WEEK
FALL IMMERSION WEEK

• Financial Accounting • Managerial Accounting • Finance • Leadership

Communications
• Leadership • Economics for Managers • Leadership
Communications Communications • Strategies for
• Leadership Converging Economies
• Management Communications • Global Perspectives
• IT Strategy
• Team Process and • Ethical Leadership • Supply Chain and
Performance Operations Management
• Risk and Decisions
• Marketing
International Business Immersion Week
Another advantage of our size is our ability to help you develop
your global perspective. During our International Business
Immersion Week, you’ll get to visit a foreign location. There, you’ll
do and see numerous events and get to meet business leaders.
You’ll learn how people in other cultures operate. How other nations
see the US and the world. And how other companies are responding
to the changes common to all businesses. In 2004, our students
traveled to Singapore, The Czech Republic/Hungary or France.
Such exposure to the diverse world of modern commerce is one
of the hallmarks of the Penn State Smeal experience.
Strategic Diversity Management
The leaders and organizations that will be most successful
in the 21st century are those that learn to adapt to the
ever-changing marketplace. Key to that ability is the
management of the differing talents available in modern,
diverse cultures. In our unique class, “Strategic Diversity
Management,” you will learn how to maximize the specific
advantages offered by the many differences in the work-
force, well beyond the traditional ones of race and gender.
The class, available to both first- and second-year MBAs,
is taught by Juan D. Johnson (pictured left), Vice President
of The Coca-Cola Company and President of the Diversity
Leadership Academy of America.
 D E F I N I N G Y O U R A G E N D A – Y E A R T W O

Toward the end of the first year, you will be able to focus your MBA according to your interests and objectives. You’ll choose from
six portfolios to study in depth during your second year. Each draws on a rich and broad spectrum of learning, and will help you
develop a compelling and distinctive specialty.

CORPORATE FINANCIAL
ANALYSIS AND PLANNING
Analyze and evaluate strategic investments for careful decision-making in the ever-changing economy. Understand
the corporate control function and the operating support it provides. Apply financial management skills which include
forecasting, data modeling, and statistical analysis. Use various financial techniques to model and evaluate such strategic
investments and disinvestments as capital outlays, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Analyze financial statements,
including uses and misuses of accounting data.

CORPORATE INNOVATION Identify, initiate, fund, and develop new opportunities within an existing business as a new venture. Competencies include
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP effecting change in existing organizations, managing resources flexibly, understanding private equity, launching new
products, managing intellectual property, developing a company, managing corporate innovation, and applying rigorous
standards to entrepreneurial opportunities.

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Understand capital markets and analyze and manage financial assets. Employ appropriate theoretical models to value
AND PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS financial assets; manage portfolios, using asset allocation and derivatives as a way to assess financial risk; apply
information from company, industry, and economy-wide levels to analyze financial performance; and understand effective
selling and trading in capital markets.

PRODUCT AND MARKET Create products and expand markets in fast-paced, converging economies or develop marketing strategies for existing
DEVELOPMENT products and services. Engage in consumer or business-to-business marketing. Evaluate businesses; analyze, segment
and target markets; develop and position products and projects; understand channel management and stage-gate analysis;
master customer analysis.

SUPPLY CHAIN Develop supply chain strategies for an organization and its suppliers. Understand supply chain network integration,
MANAGEMENT synchronization, and collaboration to create an effective process; leverage e-based technologies for improving
performance; evaluate global network designs; and provide customer solutions for deficiencies. Study the link between
supply chain performance and value creation.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
AND CONSULTING
Function effectively as an internal or external consultant who contributes to or provides leadership for a collaborative
team. Organize, develop, and implement consulting projects; diagnose organizational problems, understand strategic
choices and propose solutions; serve as a thought leader on consulting teams; lead teams to make decisions based on
predefined objectives and specific timeframes; design and implement strategic plans; negotiate effectively with teams,
organizations, clients, and vendors.
Supply Chain Lab
The Supply Chain Lab is one of the world’s leading institutions for the creation
and dissemination of new knowledge in business logistics. It’s a hands-on
experience where you will study, simulate, and test the key relationships in
end-to-end supply chains. The lab is now part of an interconnecting grid of
labs at several other universities. With them and IBM, you will conduct applied
research and teaching, helping real-life companies build dynamic supply
chains that can sense and rapidly respond to changing customer demands
and market conditions. What the Supply Chain Lab gives you is a real place,
not a classroom, where you put theory into practice.
Trading Room
Sometimes, the best way to learn is to do.
The Smeal Trading Room brings Wall Street
into our MBA program. Televisions give you live
coverage of CNBC, CNNfn, Bloomberg, and
other financial networks. Tickers are mounted
on its walls. Computers simulate trading, deal
capture, settlement, analytics, pricing, portfolio
management, and derivatives pricing – in real-
time. We are one of only a handful of colleges
nationwide whose students get to practice the
art and science of financial risk management
for real, in its real environment.
 W O R K I N G W I T H L E A D E R S

“We got such a lot of time

with our faculty – I had no
idea how much until I spoke
with work colleagues from
other MBA programs.”
– Erhardt Preitauer, M.B.A. 2003,
Great-West Healthcare

In developing the next generation of business leaders, our priority

is the quality of our teaching and the quality of your learning
experience. In this respect the Smeal faculty are leaders in their
own right. Collectively, we are ranked in the top 25 US research
faculties across all disciplines. In strategy, we are ranked third in
the country, with two of our professors listed among the top 10
coaches in the world for strategy and leadership.

And your learning experience is all about doing. There’s no limit

to the amount of hands-on, practical project experience you can
get in our research centers. Our structure ensures you’ll have
close contact with our faculty at all times. So at Smeal, you’re an
integral part of the knowledge creation process. You’ll be able to
work side by side with faculty members on the actual research
projects that are guiding businesses today. And there’s no better
way to learn.

Our research centers form the cutting edge of our contribution

to the way business is evolving around the world. This is
confirmed by the number of major companies that come to
us – and you – in search of the market insight that will make
the difference to their top and bottom lines.
Pictured, Top Left: Our Location
Donald Hambrick – Smeal Chaired Professor of
Smeal has the fifth-largest
Management and Organization.
business program in the country.
Pictured, Top Right: The jewel in its crown is the
Dr. Fariborz Ghadar – William A. Schreyer Professor of MBA program – distinguished
Global Management, Policies and Planning, Director of the by its small class sizes and the
Center for Global Business Studies. personal attention this allows you.
And it’s conveniently situated less
Pictured, Lower Right: than four hours from the major
Linda Treviño – Professor of Organizational Behavior, cities indicated on this map.
Franklin H. Cook Faculty Fellow in Business Ethics.
 I T ’ S N O T G O O D B Y E, I T ’ S H E L L O

“Smeal definitely opened

doors for me. It’s not
When you join Penn State Smeal you’re joining one of the just well respected, it’s
largest, most influential alumni organizations in the world.
got that huge Penn State
And one of the most active – membership in it opens doors
to great careers wherever you are. So when you graduate, network out there.”
we don’t think of it as saying goodbye. You’re saying hello – Cristal Brun, M.B.A. 2003
to a world of opportunity. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

As Milton Eisenhower, former Penn State President and brother

of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, said of our alumni,
“they are the real interpreters of the University to the people of
the nation.” The proof of this is found in the vast number of
companies and organizations led by our alumni today. The
influence of the University reaches every corner of the country;
indeed you could go almost anywhere in the world and find
a useful connection.
But probably wouldn’t have to. You will have access to some
of the world’s leading companies who come directly to Smeal
to recruit their MBA talent. And as a Penn Stater, you’ll be able
to take advantage of all the recruitment opportunities the larger
university attracts, too.
Career Services
Our Career Services go beyond the norm. In addition to
numerous career development programs, you will have access
to individual members of the Career Services team. They can
personally assist you in clarifying your unique career goals,
developing your long-term career strategy and polishing your job
search skills to a level that will serve you for your entire career.
Alumni mentoring
To help jump-start the careers of our students, we partner
with members of our MBA Alumni Board to develop mentoring
relationships with our students. Members of the alumni board –
all proven professionals in their own right – return to campus
three times a year to provide career advice and support to
Smeal MBAs.
The relationship is a vital one in terms of career planning and
securing good internships and jobs. In addition to experiencing
the commitment of Penn State Alumni, it serves as a direct
link between the real world of business and the student, offering
advice and support, and helping to facilitate key professional
introductions.
We are Penn State A partial list of companies DuPont M&T Bank Corporation
recruiting Smeal MBAs ExxonMobil Corporation National City Corporation
When it comes to joining Alumni associations,
Fifth Third Bancorp Navigant Consulting, Inc.
you’ll find few stronger than ours. It’s hard Air Products & Chemical, Inc.
Ford Motor Company Pfizer Inc.
to describe the loyalty, spirit, and sense of Avaya Inc.
Hewlett-Packard PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
pride our alumni feel about their alma mater. Bank of America Corporation
Honeywell International, Inc. Praxair, Inc.
Perhaps the 100,000 strong who turn out Bear Stearns Companies, Inc.
IBM Corporation PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
for every football game put it best with the Black & Decker Corporation
Intel Corporation SAP America
chant that reverberates and echoes around CIGNA Corporation
Johnson & Johnson Sara Lee Corporation
the stadium: “We are Penn State.” Dell Inc.
Kennametal Inc. The Walt Disney Company
Lexmark International, Inc.
Masterfoods USA
T A K E T H E F I R S T S T E P
T O W A R D A G R E A T C A R E E R

Picture yourself, two years from now. You’re graduating with Apply today:
an MBA in your pocket. And not just any MBA. It’s one taught MBA Full-time Program
by some of the finest minds in business education. It’s built on The Smeal College of Business
50 years of experience. It represents the very latest knowledge The Pennsylvania State University
and thinking that leads the world of business today. And it’ll 106 Business Administration Building
open the doors to the best companies in the land. University Park, PA 16802-3000

It’s the Penn State Smeal MBA. Phone: 814-863-0474

Toll free: 800-379-6445
Apply now for this unique business opportunity. Unique because
Fax: 814-863-8072
no other school can match the quality of our teaching and the
level of personal attention you will receive. We call it a world of E-mail: smealmba@psu.edu
education for one. And that one is you. Web: www.smeal.psu.edu/mba/goals/
Building the future
You’ll be the first to enjoy our new business building,
opening in summer 2005. The four-story, $68 million
structure will be the University’s largest academic
facility. Designed by world-renowned Architect Robert
A.M. Stern, it will contain more than 20 undergraduate
and MBA classrooms, six research and teaching
laboratories, a café and auditorium, an atrium with
event seating, and numerous other distinctive features
and amenities. In the architect’s own words: “This
building is a symbol of confidence – both in the school
and in the people it attracts.”
Diversity is everyone’s business
At Smeal, we promote an environment where diversity
is highly valued and strongly supported. We have a
long tradition of active minority alumni and student
organizations. To learn more, please contact our
MBA office.
Scholarships
Another advantage of our unique position as a large,
well-resourced establishment with deliberately small
class sizes is our ability to offer ample financial
support to qualified candidates. Unlike schools which
admit many more students, a significant percentage
of our MBA students receive graduate assistantships
which include a full tuition waiver and a generous
stipend, as well as scholarship awards.

www.smeal.psu.edu/mba/goals/
© 2004 The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities,
admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as
determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work
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University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY. U.Ed. BUS 05-02.
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