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Three years ago, Clio Straram was sitting in her university classroom learning about music history and theory. Today, instead of her trumpet, her primary instrument is a calculator.
Doing a master of business administration may be a strange follow to a music undergraduate degree she completed in 2005. But Ms. Straram is part of a unique program at Simon Fraser University that takes students with little to no business experience and puts them through the rigours of an MBA.
Launched last September, the full-time MBA for students with non-business undergrad degrees fills a gaping hole for companies that liked the different perspectives liberal arts students bring to the table but also found these graduates lacking in the business wherewithal.
Ms. Straram always had a certain fondness for math, but the trumpet was her first love. She wanted to play in an orchestra until she found out in her fourth year at Manitoba's Brandon University that she had some issues with her lips. She shifted her focus after graduation to become an actuary and then heard about SFU's MBA program. Not only would she qualify for it, she thought, but it wouldn't be as intimidating as doing an MBA with business undergrads or executives.
Clio Straram, originally headed for an orchestra, is now in SFU’s MBA program for non-business students. (Lyle Stafford For the Globe and Mail)
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"I don't have a lot of experience sitting in classrooms with people who have a business background. Our program is really energetic and talkative and incredibly involved," the 24-year-old says.
"I really feel very comfortable in the program. I'm really enjoying the material."
That's music to Ed Bukszar's ears.
In designing the program, Dr. Bukszar, associate dean of graduate studies at SFU's Segal Graduate School of Business, and his colleagues knew it had to be as intense as other MBAs. Business executives told them to catch students early, because companies didn't want to have to retrain them.
The product of their intense discussions is a two-year curriculum, shoehorned into 12 months of intensive coursework for students with non-business undergrad degrees and less than five years of professional work experience. A paid internship follows.
Students enrolled in the $27,000 program come with degrees in music, literature, archeology and art history, to name a few. Unlike many other MBA programs, two-thirds of the students are women.
Dr. Bukszar stresses that professors expect the same effort from this class of students as they do from those enrolled in other MBA programs.
"This is an MBA. This is unquestionably an MBA," he says. "I warned them in their first class. I said, 'This is really full-time. Don't even think about trying to hold down a job. You're really going to be busy.'
"When I walk into a class to teach strategy, I expect people to learn strategy," he adds. "I don't expect people to learn two-thirds of strategy. They are really getting the full deal."
Already Dr. Bukszar has heard rumblings of other North American universities looking to replicate the SFU program, especially as companies experience shortages in qualified managers or people who have the business acumen.
"When you put a program together on paper, you kind of hope things will work out. Without trying to sound like I'm blowing smoke at you, so far absolutely everything has worked out the way we would have wanted it to," he says. "The students seem delighted with what's going on. Even overworked and stressed, they still seem pretty happy with what's happening."
Amanda Blair, 27, enjoys the classroom discussions. She did her undergrad degree in anthropology and geography, and had been working as an assistant to a CEO for the past couple of years. She wanted to continue her education, but was nervous about enrolling in this MBA program.
"I had this idea that it was going to be a particular A-type personality, competitive and really aggressive, really hard to keep up," she explains. "But these diverse backgrounds are excellent because everyone has their perspective that they look at things from."
Classmate Jasdeep Chahal says that in conversations with students in other MBA programs, it's all about competing and achieving the bottom line. "It's still hardwired in that mentality. It's approaching it from a paper perspective, not necessarily more of a real-life or, dare I say, humane perspective," he says.
Mr. Chahal, 25, completed a bachelor of science degree at the University of Calgary. But while a student, he was also doing consulting work under his own numbered company and in the midst of launching an online networking site.
But other than accounting and management studies courses in university, Mr. Chahal, like other students, had no business background. The SFU program has proved to be a perfect fit.
"I realized that I did business but had no business education," he says. "I thought this is the best way to equip myself with the knowledge and education as well as the credentials to move into whichever discipline I choose to go into in the future."
Dr. Bukszar says some professors have remarked that this group of students is outperforming those in SFU's executive MBA program.
"Unquestionably, the executives bring a wealth of experience to the discussions," he says. "But what these people bring is a very fresh perspective and a naiveté that allows them to ask questions that others wouldn't ask. The conversations go in a wide variety of ways."
Ms. Straram is surprised to find herself as excited in her finance class as she is when playing her trumpet. But business, she believes, will yield more job opportunities. And although she has found a new passion and plans to enter the financial services industry, she's not about to put away her musical instrument just yet. She still plays in a brass band. "When I've had enough finance," she says, "I pull out the trumpet."
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