Extending our reach and drawing on our strengths
As I’ve settled into my role as eleventh dean of the school, I have
identified three areas of focus for moving Johnson forward in the
coming months. I’d like to share an overview with you here; you’ll
find more details in my Q&A in this issue.
First, we have an unprecedented opportunity before us as
Cornell University expands its presence in New York City. The
city itself offers us many new options, while the planned
Cornell NYC Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island campus provides a unique
technology and entrepreneurship angle. There is no other major
business school that has a similar strength. The question for
Johnson is: “How do we leverage the power of New York City
and exploit it, not only to innovate, but also to strengthen the
programs and activities in our home base of Ithaca?” The
goal is to see how we can harness some of the talents, energy,
and excitement around New York City and the NYC Tech
Campus to create a new business innovation ecosystem.
The second area of focus, which is quite natural,
given my background, is the global dimension. We
hope to reach out to key regions and countries,
such as China, Latin America, and India, seeking
to increase the global impact of Johnson.
The goal is to extend our programs to these
markets, and also to do more research in and
about those regions. Without the latter, we
have no competitive advantage. We need
faculty members to do research in those
markets, and for our MBA students to
engage in international immersion projects.
We have to design mechanisms to work
collaboratively with emerging markets to both
receive knowledge from those markets and to give
our expertise to them.
I’ve decided, with my management team, to
first focus on the Chinese market. China is a
key global economy today, and represents a very
important source of talent in students, professors,
and new ideas. We have put together a small faculty
group, headed by Ya-Ru Chen, the faculty co-director
of the Emerging Markets Institute, to come back with
recommendations for Johnson.
The third area of focus involves leveraging the power
of Cornell University for Johnson in two areas: aggressively
recruiting the best Cornell undergraduates to pursue an MBA at Johnson, and creating more unique program
combinations between Johnson and the university’s professional
and discipline-based schools.
Being embedded within Cornell, one of the most diverse Ivy
League universities, makes Johnson peerless in its position to
collaborate with other disciplines outside the business school
to address some of the world’s most pressing problems —
health, energy, poverty, the environment, and inequality.
Linking our business knowledge and research with Cornell’s
strengths, such as engineering, will make Johnson
more distinct for MBA recruiters and for companies
to partner with us.
As you can see, we have an exciting and
ambitious agenda for Johnson’s future. We
will need the help of you, Johnson’s strong,
dedicated, and supportive graduates, to envision,
plan, and execute new initiatives, aimed
at moving Johnson forward to the next level
of excellence — in Ithaca, New York City, the
U.S., and globally. Because my communication
and connection to you is so important, I have
begun a series of webcasts to interact with
you, holding the first one on Oct. 31, 2012.
I hope these live chats will give us the chance
to discuss your thoughts and concerns, and
keep you informed about the latest developments
happening at Johnson.
Soumitra Dutta
Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean
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