Business Turnaround Management teaches diagnosis and treatment of ailing businesses
When CBA's pioneering Business Turnaround Management (BTM) program launched in Fall 2005, the Wall Street Journal predicted continued demand for its graduates. That career outlook hasn't changed, says Oswald Mascarenhas, S.J., Charles H. Kellstadt professor of Marketing and BTM program coordinator.
Fr. Mascarenhas leads a discussion during MBA 564, the Business Turnaround Management introductory course.
"There is a definite need for people who know how to put businesses back on the road," says Fr. Mascarenhas. "Forty percent of U.S. businesses are in distress, whether they are bankrupt, underperforming, insolvent or failing. This trend began with the dot-com crash in 1999, and it will probably continue. Turnaround managers have what the market needs and thus are virtually guaranteed job security."
The program includes both a certification and an MBA concentration. Both seek a holistic and systemic solution to business turnarounds, thus uniquely training students to exercise leadership in rescuing and restructuring ailing businesses and non-profit institutions. Through its capstone course, "Ethics of Business Turnaround Management," the program empowers students with the ethics of both rescue and restructuring skills management.
Fr. Mascarenhas emphasizes the uniqueness of the BTM program and the interaction with industry that it offers. He notes, "We are the only program of this kind in the U.S. In addition, our classes have a constant interface with industry through CEOs of companies that actually handle companies in distress. We look at actual cases, a process which provides invaluable experience to our students."
Fr. Mascarenhas notes that there are 40 students enrolled in either the BTM certification or the BTM concentration in the MBA program for academic year 2006-2007; he hopes to increase that number to 230 by 2011. He also hopes to add a distance learning option in 2007-2008.
There is still time to enroll in the program for the Winter 2007 semester. For more information, please visit UDM's Business Turnaround Management page or contact Bonnie Naski at 313.993.1203 or naskibom@udmercy.edu.