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Collaborative Project Brings IT Skills to MBA Students

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 05-02-11 | Comments

IBM and Yale Business School team up to bring high-tech analytics skills to MBA students. As part of the effort, the students will learn how to manage Web-based customer opinions about businesses.

Although more organizations are using tools like mobile devices and social media, traditional business training often ignores these types of technology. Now, Yale Business School is teaming up with IBM to provide analytics and training resources about new technologies for MBA students.

Social media tools, like Facebook and Twitter, have changed the way consumers interact with each other and with businesses. Consumer blogs and company Websites are also drastically changing the business world. Technology-based analytics skills for harnessing and measuring brand and customer opinion are becoming crucial tools for future business leaders.

"Business analytics is going mainstream, and the explosion of data from the social networks is a sign that the tides are shifting. It's important for us to energize the classroom, and that calls for integrating the latest technology into our curriculum in order to prepare students for high-value job opportunities," said Ravi Dhar, professor and director of the Center for Customer Insights, Yale School of Management.

The collaboration between Yale School of Management's Center for Customer Insights and IBM will include analytics-focused classes for MBA students. The program will enable students to apply analytics skills to real-world situations. For example, they might use social analytics capabilities to determine whether customers feel satisfied with service or if new staff should be hired. Such hypothetical situations will focus largely on avoiding negative comments�such as on social media sites�being made about a brand.

"With this collaboration with IBM, we are giving students the opportunity to tackle real-world projects. The idea is to focus on learning by doing, and with this type of real training under their belts, students can be productive a lot sooner in their new job roles,� said Dhar.

The project will bring IT knowledge to managerial staff, as students will learn how to leverage customer opinion on the Web. "Analytics skills are no longer just a requirement for the IT professional," said Rob Ashe, general manager of business analytics for IBM.