Saif Sarfani, Campus Carrier Features Editor
Berry provides students opportunities beyond the undergraduate business experience with their MBA program.
The Campbell School of Business offers a certified Masters in Business Administration (MBA) for working professionals. The program’s goal is to train working professionals and managers in all types of organizations by making them proficient in analysis and problem solving, management of organizational resources and ethics and organizational leadership.
“The MBA program at Berry has been in existence since 1973,” assistant dean of the Campbell School of Business and director of MBA marketing and admissions Nancy Mercer said. “It came about originally at a request of the local chamber of commerce.”
Mercer said MBA students have recently started a student association that visits sites like Lowe’s Distribution Center and Harbin Clinic to understand the processes involved in bringing a product or service from idea to reality, or value-chain management. MBA students also help with community projects by doing both non- profit and for-profit work, often asking professors for guidance in strategic and marketing planning.
Dean of the Campbell School of Business John Grout teaches value-chain management and service management as part of the MBA program.
“What I teach is essentially all the work an efficiency expert would do,” Grout said. “I talk to students about how to add value to goods and services, to make things operate more efficiently, how to save money in doing whatever work the company is doing.”
Grout said that when people in management positions are doing their job well and things are running smoothly they sometimes aren’t recognized.
“Some of the best accomplishments aren’t necessarily the ones that make headlines,” Grout said. “Some of the best accomplishments keep people from making headlines.”
However, Grout said he sees real changes being made by MBA alumni, like in the work of Floyd County manager Jamie McCord.
“All of the changes in Rome city’s garbage collection were the direct result of a class that Jamie McCord took,” Grout said. “They’ve simplified things dramatically, saving millions of dollars over the course of a number of years.”
Kyle Stapleton (‘13C) is currently taking a service management course with Grout.
“I really want to have a lot of knowledge about the business world and have applicable experience that I can take from the classroom and put into the workplace,” Stapleton said.
Stapleton also said he enjoys Grout’s class because it’s all-encompassing.
“He’s got a lot of experience outside of Berry and a ton of knowledge when it comes to working in the field,” Stapleton said. “He’s just one of the exceptional professors here at Berry in my opinion. He always has a story to explain, a background to a issue. It’s a very kind of comprehensive teaching he does and I really appreciate it.”
Stapleton works for the WinShape Foundation, but wants to move to Atlanta and work there after graduating. Other MBA alumni include Sonny Rigas, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Floyd Medical Center, and Todd Murphy, vice president of manufacturing at HNI Corporation. Though the MBA program is small, students are able to interact more with their professors and apply their skill sets to their careers.