News

CU’s MBA program highlights real world

Lee Bagby was inspired by cold.

Mark Aldrich saw profit in ice.

Now, despite a chilly economy, the two recent graduates of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s executive MBA program are applying newly acquired business skills to their knowledge of Colorado’s wintry weather to warm their own economic future.

By Dan Luzadder Special to the
Denver Post

The 30-something entrepreneurs went back to school part-time in 1999, seeking advanced business degrees that would give them something more than academic theory.

They were seeking "relevance" and practical skills, something that academics and students agree is becoming more a part of business higher education in Colorado.

Bagby, a skier who prefers the powder found on below-zero days, designed, patented and is now selling a face mask that uses a heat exchanger to let users breath warm air in frigid temperatures.

Aldrich – his background is chemical engineering and chemical business management – developed an aircraft de-icing process that is friendlier to the environment, quicker and more economical.

Both rookie entrepreneurs credit CU’s approach to advance business studies – which draws heavily on the professional experience and expertise of its students and faculty – for the confidence to launch their private ventures.

"I could not have done what I have done in the last six months without what I learned in the program and without the relationships and continuing support I have gotten from other alumni," said Aldrich.

"The learning experience was different because in almost any topic we talked about in class, there was someone in the class that probably knew more about that exact topic than the professor," he said. "Then the networking, being able to draw on others’ professional experience, was extremely valuable."

Bagby, 38, a heating and air conditioning engineer, launched Psolar Inc. last year using a business model that was originally developed during a mid-program retreat at Beaver Creek held by CU faculty.

"We broke into groups to work on business models, and mine was selected," he said. "It got the most monopoly money venture capital. And that gave me some incentive."

After he graduated a year and a half ago, Bagby patented his small heat-exchange device. His father, Terry Bagby, a machinist, engineer and now member of his board, developed the process to manufacture the devices.

Bagby contracted with Colorado Cut and Sew to make the masks. His son and a teenage friend assemble the plastic heat-exchange units, insert them in the masks, and package them for sale.

"I’ve put together 500 of them myself during a three-hour Bronco game," he said. "So the process is pretty fast and easy."

Bagby said he hoped for $20,000 in sales in the first year, mostly using local retailers. But sales hit $26,000 in September, his second month. Reaction at outdoor product shows has been positive, he said, and he’s working with international marketers, and talking to outdoor equipment companies on future products.

"There are other applications for the heat exchanger," he said, "including jackets and sleeping bags."

At 10 below zero, the exchanger lets users breathe air warmed to 70 degrees.

"It’s great for hunters and people who are sedentary in the cold," he said. "You can use less material in sleeping bags because the breath helps warm the air inside. We’re also looking at military applications that could result in lighter-weight equipment."

Aldrich, 39, graduated in Bagby’s class. He said he applied business-modeling skills he learned at CU to his knowledge of chemical engineering and aircraft de-icing materials to find the catalyst for his own aircraft de-icing service.

Over the past six months he and a partner, Larry Hopkins, designed a de-icing system that in September won a competitive contract at the Colorado Springs airport. They now perform de-icing on about 40 percent of the aircraft flying out of Colorado Springs in bad weather.

"I knew engineering but not accounting," Aldrich said of his exposure to the business processes he needed to start Integrated Deicing Services Inc. "In marketing and operations classes, I had to write papers on positioning in the market and the kinds of strengths and weaknesses that companies had in the market."

"Most of those same concepts were applied as we tried to figure out how to position our service and exploit weakness of competitors while providing service airlines required," he said.

What he learned was that most de-icing service providers charge by how much de-icer they apply to an aircraft. By using different mixtures at different temperatures and conducting closer inspections, Aldrich said he found he could apply less de-icer to an aircraft with the same results, reduce the environmental impact and costs, and speed up the process.

"It costs $40 a minute for every minute that an aircraft is delayed by weather, so those are significant costs," he said. "We opted on using flat-rate pricing to get rid of the conflict of interest that encouraged competitors to use more gallons than necessary. That also speeds up the process."

Both Bagby and Aldrich are now looking at bigger market opportunities with the ventures they have developed.

David Biggie, who graduated with Aldrich and Bagby and whose day job involves public relations, says his own experience in the program has shown him that programs for working executives must bring relevance and practical skills to today’s business climate.

That, he says, is part of what is attracting a full house every year to CU’s executive MBA program.

"The fact that people like Lee Bagby and Mark Aldrich come out of this program and are able to do what they have done says a lot about how executive MBA programs are bringing more students," he said.

Admission to CU’s executive MBA program doesn’t come easy. About 45 new students are accepted each year. In addition to academic qualifications they have to have eight years of management experience to qualify. Their classes meet Friday and Saturday, every other week for two years.

Steve Lawrence, an associate professor in the program, has been there 10 years, and says he has seen both relevance and immediacy gain importance in its evolution.

Most students in the traditional MBA program, he said, are in their late 20s and are often looking to change careers. Students in the executive program are 10 years older on average, and are trying to apply business skills to what they already know.

"The expectations of students have evolved, as has the program," Lawrence said. "Most programs, especially in executive MBAs, there is more demand for relevance. You used to be able to say, this is theory, and it will be useful some day.

"Now more and more, people want to leave the classroom and apply what they learned the day before. Next week is too long."

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E33%257E1008769%257E,00.html#

Posted in:

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.