IOWA Tippie

History

The University of Iowa has been providing business education as a part of its curriculum from the past 150 years. It was taught as moral philosophy in a course in 1858 and has evolved over the years. Business education received the UI college status in 1921 and the institution acquired AACSB accreditation in 1923. The MBA program saw its inception in 1961. The institute was renamed as the College of Business Administration in 1959 and the college was renamed in 1999 in honor of benefactor and alumnus Henry B. Tippie.

MISSION STATEMENT

The Henry B. Tippie College of Business develops business leaders and scholars through a comprehensive and high-quality educational experience that is based on the core values of Integrity, Innovation, and Impact. This vision infuses our threefold mission to provide excellent teaching, research, and service. Our focused undergraduate and graduate programs are presented by a faculty talented in basic and applied research and dedicated to integrating theory and practice. Our success is measured by placement statistics, research productivity, the impact our alumni make in their chosen professions, and our national reputation.

Core Strengths of the School

The MBA program is built around inculcating values of integrity and social responsibility in students while training them to become future business leaders. The first semester comprises of courses that are critical to building a strong foundation on business concepts. Students then choose their specialization or academic tracks that align with their long term goals. The Leadership in Action course starts before the summer internship, where students are introduced to the best leadership practices. Students hone their leadership skills by putting them into practice, when they collaborate on group assignments. The course teaches the mechanics of power and influence, and the importance of persuasive leadership. Students are taught persuasive leadership by training them to identify the social styles of others in their team. Students learn to grow their team members and persuade them to get the work done. Students can put their newly acquired leadership skills into practice by leading their teams in Case Competitions or volunteering to lead a consulting project for a client or accepting a leadership role in a student organization. Leadership teaching is coupled with Social Responsibility & Ethics in the School as all business leaders of tomorrow must understand the impact of their decisions on the society and environment. In order to imbibe these values in students, Tippie has encouraged students to participate in consulting projects for non-profit companies. The Tippie Competency Model is a method to assess the skills of the students on various parameters like communication, teamwork, management and leadership, and global and strategic perspective. This assessment gives insights into the areas of strengths and weaknesses of the students so that they can work on enhancing their skills further.

Uniqueness in MBA Pedagogy

TExperiential Learning is integrated into the core curriculum of the program, so that the students can put their theoretical learning into practice. The Tippie Business Solutions Center BSC provides hands-on experience of working on consulting projects for clients, where students gain different perspectives from experienced business leaders. The teams comprise of students belonging to different functional areas of business, which proves to be a mutual learning experience for the members. Each project has a set of deliverables, milestones and management presentations, thus providing a real-world business experience to the students. In tandem with the BSC consulting projects, there are Hands-on Academy projects led by the career academy in the spring semester, where students analyze a business problem from all angles and come up with cutting-edge innovative solutions. The SPAM’s European Lunch, Henry Fund, The Ponseti Method are some of the past hands-on academy projects worth mentioning. The Iowa Medical Innovation Group IMIG is an initiative to collaborate students from diverse functional areas like business, medicine and engineering in order to bring innovative medical designs to market. The IMIG students network with CEOs of medical design and equipment companies with the intention to address the medical requests coming from clinicians. They also meet with Venture Capitalists and investors for funding and investment purposes. Students come up with functional prototypes, commercialization strategies and go-to market plan by the end of the IMIG program. Tippie offers Global Learning Opportunities GLO to its students in order to transform them into global business leaders. Students travel to GLO destinations like Hong Kong, Chile and India, where they visit eight corporate companies belonging to diverse industries in 6-8 days. Students learn about the various functional areas of these companies like finance, marketing or operations and learn about the ways of conducting business and trade while interacting with seasoned professionals. Apart from GLO, there are additional Study Abroad programs for students to gain international exposure and learn about the dynamic global business environment. The CIMBA Graduate Summer Program in Paderno del Grappa, Italy is a platform that brings together faculty and students from various countries to explore their passion for business. India Winterim is another program that helps students network with social entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations to get a feel of corporate social responsibility.

CONCENTRATIONS OFFERED

LOCATION ADVANTAGES

Iowa City is a hub for arts and entertainment. Hancher Auditorium witnesses an array of theater, dance and musical shows throughout the year. Iowa Arts Festival, Iowa City Jazz Festival, and Friday Night Concert Series are held in downtown Iowa City as a part of the Summer of Arts program. Johnson County Parks offer excellent opportunities for camping, fishing and hiking. Students can relax at the Iowa City Parks, swimming pools and recreational centers.

CAREER SUPPORT

The Business Acumen & Career Development course is an interactive course that helps students gain personal insights and develop their career plans. Students are trained to identify and leverage career opportunities to accelerate growth in their respective careers. Career Academy helps students in implementing the skills acquired in classrooms through hands-on academic projects, where they overcome the real-world hurdles to develop sustainable solutions. Students get access to the tools and resources that would groom their personalities and help them market themselves better. Apart from this, an Individual Development Plan IDP is prepared for each student with the intention to jot down the areas of improvement and work towards improving them. There are personalized assessments conducted on parameters such as leadership, teamwork and IQ, and a plan is created to improve the skills of the students in these areas. There are workshops and target activities that focus on improving a specific skill such as networking, communication, managing conflict and negotiation, etc. Career Academy coaches provide feedback, guidance and monitor the progress of each student. The MBA Career Services team works closely with the students in order to provide job search support and organizes career fairs within the campus to leverage employment opportunities available in the market.