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From Business at Leeds 2022 |听Full issue

As the lines blur between business and business schools, Leeds' innovation and adaptability are keeping alumni in the driver's seat.

In the business world, change was once said to be constant.

Today, that word fails to capture the relentless pace of disruption, one in which a company鈥檚 fortunes can change seemingly overnight as a result of an innovation that unlocks a new market, enables new ways to connect to customers, or radically realigns established industry categories.

Businesses have been forced to find new ways to be agile, to anticipate change and to rethink risk as they navigate this new world. A core piece of their strategy is finding ways to partner with business schools, which have created and revamped programs to ensure graduates add value the moment they start work. 听

With its emphases on entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and analytics, it鈥檚 no surprise Leeds is a frequent partner of companies seeking nimble professionals.听

鈥淭he field is always moving so fast鈥攕omething new comes up every year,鈥� said Dan Zhang, interim chair of Leeds鈥� strategy, entrepreneurship and operations division. He brings his extensive consulting experience to bear in refreshing his Advanced Data Analytics course each summer, and 鈥渋f you do not do regular updates, you can鈥檛 keep up to date with industry. It鈥檚 a necessity.鈥澨�

鈥楧ata are not going away鈥�

Industry, meanwhile, is appreciative of Leeds鈥� willingness to anticipate the new skills businesses will need in the years to come. Libby Duane Adams, chief advocacy officer at Alteryx, has had a front-row seat to the changes in industry since she and Dean Stoecker (IntBus鈥�79) co-founded the software company. As Alteryx has grown, it鈥檚 begun offering scholarships to schools like Leeds to ensure graduates have the right set of skills for a workplace driven by change.

鈥淒ata are not going away,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he ability to work with data is a required skill now鈥攁nd the more students invest in that skill set, and develop their ability to work with data, the richer their career opportunities are.鈥�

Alteryx also co-sponsored a conference at Leeds over the summer that brought the directors of business analytics programs together to address and begin solving some of their shared challenges. The two-day event, which attracted representatives from nearly two dozen programs nationwide, also featured industry input through panel discussions and a keynote. Kai R. Larsen, faculty director of the master鈥檚 in business analytics at Leeds, said industry involvement showcased the scale and pace of change that has disrupted companies across the spectrum.听

Poet warrior, meet Python

鈥淓very time we ask chief information officers what they want in a recent grad, it鈥檚 always the same thing. They want a poet warrior,鈥� Larsen said. 鈥淏ut in reality, they want a warrior who also knows how to program Python, and that鈥檚 what they test for in their entry interviews.鈥�

Data and analytics are, of course, driving conversations in business. But that鈥檚 not all you need to stay current. Tim Weiss (MBA鈥�16), co-founder and chief operating officer of Boulder-based Optera, said in his industry, new regulations and changing attitudes around climate are keying rising interest in the sustainability management software provider鈥檚 services.

鈥淟eeds taught me new business skills and how to market myself for prospective opportunities, as well as become better engaged with the Boulder community,鈥� Weiss said. He added, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know of any programs that specifically teach what you need to know for this industry. It鈥檚 moving too quickly.鈥�

Faces of Leeds: Meet Tim Weiss

That said, a glance at the company鈥檚 roster shows more than a few CU Boulder alumni. 鈥淲hen we recruit, we try to hire the full package鈥攚hich means ensuring we have fundamentally good people, for whom values are not optional,鈥� Weiss said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of great people from CU Boulder who fit that mold. We do have to train them in sustainability, but they come out with the skills needed to quickly adapt.鈥�

Finding good people

Wanting to hire good people鈥攏ot just skilled people鈥攊s an important consideration against the backdrop of shifting workplace attitudes toward ethics, said Joshua Nunziato, a teaching assistant professor in Leeds鈥� Social Responsibility and Sustainability Division and director of the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program. Increasingly, professionals want to work for companies that value their values; just ask Theranos, Facebook or Uber, which have all landed in hot water for conduct coming out of their C-suites.听

In Nunziato鈥檚 classes, he sees a subset of students with a deep desire to make a positive social and environmental impact.听

鈥淏ut what interests me are those students who instead see sustainability and ethical leadership as inseparable from their own career ambitions,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to teach them, because they understand that ethical leadership is not an either-or choice.鈥�

A focus on values helped Jenny Gerson (EBio鈥�06; MBA鈥�14) transition from working as an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service to creating a sustainability role at Zayo Group.听

She鈥檚 now director of sustainability at DataBank; the company鈥檚 data centers enable the kind of cloud storage and computing power that have put data within reach at so many companies.

Too much information

鈥淥ne of the ways I鈥檝e stayed current with all the changes going on in my industry is something I learned at Leeds鈥攏etworking,鈥� she said. She started a group for sustainability professionals which numbers more than 100 people鈥攊ncluding more than a few Leeds alumni鈥攎ainly at small to midsize tech companies in the Denver area.听

鈥淲hen you have a network like that, any time a question comes up, you can immediately go to someone and get a different perspective on what it means for own your work,鈥� Gerson said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 so much information out there鈥攖oo much, really鈥攁nd having peers who can help you focus is incredibly valuable.鈥澨�

Leeds is listening to its network, too, which helps shape its approach to academic programs. For instance, the school recently created an MBA pathway in natural and organic products in response to the needs of both small local businesses and large internationals seeking insights in an organics stronghold like Boulder. Students in this pathway spent their summers interning at companies like Jack & Annie鈥檚, Danone and Clorox鈥攑roof that the perspective taught in the program is sought at companies of all sizes.听

鈥淏ecause natural and organics has become so competitive, it鈥檚 much more difficult to turn a passion project into a thriving business,鈥� said Heather Kennedy, a teaching assistant professor and consumer marketing specialist who鈥檚 held marketing leadership roles at Whole Foods and Kraft. 鈥淭hese entrepreneurs need business acumen, so they can get their products to market. On the flip side, large consumer packaged goods companies see the growth of the natural industry and realize that, to stay competitive, they need to move in this direction.鈥澨�

That, of course, speaks to the blurred boundaries between business and business school.

鈥淲ork has become almost a continuation of business school,鈥� Gerson said. 鈥淭hings come at you quickly, and you have to figure out how to prioritize them, solve problems and plan ahead.鈥�

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Curricular Updates

At Leeds, faculty leverage relationships in industry to ensure that when curricular changes are considered, they meet both current and future needs of the workplace. 听

Joshua Neil, faculty director of the accounting and taxation master鈥檚 program, said input from both the Big Four professional services companies and changing requirements for the CPA exam drove Leeds to add more technical courses to the curriculum. 听

鈥淭he accounting firms have been asking us what we鈥檙e doing in this space, probably for the last five years,鈥� Neil said. 鈥淔or students that were analytically inclined, we were able to steer them into some specialized elective courses.听But data have become more mainstream in the last 18 to 24 months鈥攜ou鈥檙e seeing textbooks now with tools like Tableau embedded in them, you hear from our students that they鈥檙e asked to use tools like Alteryx on their internships.鈥� 听

This fall, an analytics course offered by Kai Larsen is being modified for accounting master鈥檚 students, with an emphasis on bringing in people from industry to show how these skills are used to help accountants do their jobs better.听

鈥淭he CPA is doing the same thing鈥攖hey鈥檙e responding to the industry, saying we need a license track in this area,鈥� Neil said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e gone from what was a novel intersection to realizing we鈥檙e going to need a lot of jobs in this space, and you might be at a real competitive disadvantage if you don鈥檛 have these tools.鈥澨�

Leeds also is increasingly intentional about hiring industry-qualified instructors, who bring real-world knowledge around topics like licensing requirements and disclosures鈥攚hich may change faster than a textbook can reflect.听

Ahead of the Curve

Close connections to industry and a roster of top faculty have helped Leeds create programs that meet鈥攐r anticipate鈥攔eal-world demands. A few examples: 听

BASE. The sophomore year capstone each Leeds student completes, BASE鈥攐r B-core Applied Semester Experience鈥攆ollows industry-intensive dives into each business discipline. Students learn to combine lessons from those disciplines on a real-world project that helps them determine their areas of emphasis as upperclassmen. 听

Business+Engineering. Much of the change driving the business world comes from technology and engineering. This program鈥�symbolized by the new Rustandy Building鈥攐ffers structured cross-collaborative opportunities between business and engineering students and faculty. 听

Buffs With a Brand.听Developed by the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship in partnership with CU鈥檚 Athletics Department, this program gives scholar-athletes tools to help them navigate the new rules around name, image and likeness use. That foresight helped CU roll out a partnership with INFLCR to create the Buffs NIL Exchange.听