Babson virtual MBA strums the right tune
In the late 17th century, when the D'Addario family started making strings for lutes, guitars, harps, violins and other musical instruments, the creation of top-quality products was far removed from disciplines such as finance, marketing or supply chain management.
Instead, the family relied on the expertise of highly-skilled craftsmen using sheep and pig gut for their strings.
Sticking to the family tradition, John D'Addario and his three sons formed a company in 1974 that still makes musical instrument strings – as well as reeds for wind instruments and musical accessories – but what started life as a small family business in Italy is now a global enterprise based in the US.
Rick Drumm was already improving his business acumen with an online MBA that specialised in entrepreneurship at Babson College when he was appointed as president of D'Addario in 2006.
It was an interview with Jack Welch that secured Mr Drumm the position at D'Addario after Jim D'Addario, his predecessor, attended a seminar where he met the former GE boss.
Hearing Mr D'Addario, who was then president of the music company, complaining about how hard it was to find his replacement, Mr Welch offered to conduct an interview with the leading candidate.
“I called one of my professors at Babson and told him that I had to have this interview with Jack Welch,” recalls Mr Drumm, “And his response was, ‘My, my – we have moved to the fast lane!'”
Mr Drumm was no stranger to the music industry when he joined D'Addario. He started by working in his father's music retail store in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and after a stint in the Air Force he became a touring musician.
He then worked his way up in the industry, taking positions at companies such as Remo, the drummaker, and Vic Firth, a leading global drumstick maker.
“I found myself coming up through the music industry starting at entry level positions and, over time, ending up in high-level management positions,” explains Mr Drumm. “So I got a lot of on-the-job training and experience as I was growing professionally.
“But I also realised that there were holes in my knowledge base and if I was going to continue further, I'd do well to try to fill those holes.”
D'Addario is based in Farmingdale, New York, and has more than 900 employees, a 190,000 sq feet facility and, in addition to its sales teams in the US, has distribution channels in more than 100 countries.
When embarking on his studies, Mr Drumm was president of Vic Firth, where he was leading the company's growth into global markets.
As the president of a fast-growing global company, and with family commitments, Mr Drumm was clearly not going to be able to take time out to study full-time for an MBA. He also decided against taking an executive MBA.
“I did consider it,” he says. “But I felt that going with a true MBA, I was going to get more information and be able to dive into things a little deeper.”
As a result he settled on the idea of a virtual business degree and chose Babson College's Fast Track programme.
“Babson was the choice, due to some people that I knew,” he says. “I did some research and found that they concentrated on entrepreneurship.
“I felt that was the direction I wanted to go in – not only to continue to manage companies but also to start some new ones.”
Fast Track is an accelerated online MBA degree that can be completed in 24 months.
Its “blended” model of teaching incorporates face-to-face and web-based discussions, case studies and field-based projects.
For Mr Drumm, the blended model involved Thursday, Friday and Saturday sessions at the school's base in Wellesley, Massachusetts, once every month.
In between the face-to-face sessions he put in 25 to 30 hours a week of remote study.
The biggest challenge, he says, was time management and ensuring that whenever he was on business trips he stayed in hotels that offered the high-speed internet connections that were necessary for him to get involved with team projects online with his classmates around the world.
But just as Mr Drumm was a veteran of the music business when he became president of D'Addario, he also had previous experience of online learning before embarking on the Babson degree.
Aged 49, he had taken his undergraduate degree – a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Southern New Hampshire University – as an online student.
And because he was already occupying a senior management position, he says he was able to apply many of the lessons he was learning through Babson's case studies, team projects and face-to-face sessions directly to his day-to-day work.
Mr Drumm also claims he enjoys the virtual teaching process. “One of the things I noticed in an online education is that you can't hide,” he says.
“The professor posts questions out there based on the assignment and you really have to respond. If you're sitting in a brick-and-mortar classroom, it's easy to hide in the back.”
However, he also recognises the importance of the face-to-face sessions, allowing a rapid exchange of questions and answers that is hard to replicate online.
“There is a dynamic that occurs when we humans get together that is more spontaneous,” he says. “You can get it up to a point online, but it's easier when you are face-to-face.”
Mr Drumm foresees a time when, with the availability of additional bandwidth and improvements in technology, more of the in-class experience will be possible online.
“But we're not quite there yet,” he says. “And that's why the blended programme is best of both worlds.”
为什么去读网上MBA？
17世纪末，当达达里奥(D'Addario)家族开始制作琵琶、吉他、竖琴、小提琴和其它乐器的琴弦时，高质量产品的制造远远被排除在财务、营销或供应链管理等学科之外。
事实上，该家族依赖技艺高超的工匠的专业技能，他们利用羊肠和猪肠来制作琴弦。
约翰•达达里奥(John D'Addario)和他的三个儿子遵照家族传统，在1974年创办了一家公司，仍然专门制作乐器琴弦以及管乐器簧片和乐器配件，但在意大利起家的这个小型家族生意如今却成为一家总部位于美国的全球性企业。
当里克•德拉姆(Rick Drumm)于2006年被任命为达达里奥的总裁时，他已经在不断提高他的商业才能，当时他在攻读巴布森学院(Babson College)创业专业的MBA网络课程。
与杰克•韦尔奇(Jack Welch)的一次面试令德拉姆获得了在达达里奥公司的职位，此前他的前任吉姆•达达里奥(Jim D'Addario)参加了一次研讨会，遇到了这位通用电气(GE)的前老板。
当时，时任这家乐器公司总裁的达达里奥向韦尔奇抱怨说，他很难找到自己的继任者。听完这番话后，韦尔奇提出对这位排在首位的候选人进行一次面试。
“我打电话给我在巴布森学院的一位教授，告诉他我要接受杰克•韦尔奇的面试，”德拉姆回忆道。“他的反应是，‘天哪，我们进入了快车道！'”
当德拉姆加盟达达里奥时，他对音乐行业并不陌生。最初，他是在他父亲位于马萨诸塞州西斯普林菲尔德(West Springfield)的乐器零售店工作，在美国空军服完役后，他成为了一名巡回演奏家。
他随后进入了乐器行业，先后在鼓制造企业Remo和领先的全球鼓槌制造企业Vic Firth等公司任职。
“我发现自己进入乐器行业是从基层职位做起，随着时间的推移，我最终获得了高层管理职位，”德拉姆解释道。“因此，随着我专业的提高，我获得了很多在职培训和经验。
“但我还意识到，我的知识基础有很多漏洞，如果我想继续下去，我就要努力填补这些漏洞。”
达达里奥公司的总部位于纽约法明岱尔(Farmingdale)，拥有900多名员工，占地19万平方英尺。除了美国的销售团队，该公司还在100多个国家建立了分销渠道。
在开始MBA学业时，德拉姆担任Vic Firth总裁，他正领导该公司打入国际市场。
作为一家增长迅速的全球性公司的总裁，同时也肩负着家族承诺，德拉姆明显不可能有时间攻读全日制MBA。他还决定不攻读EMBA。
“我确实考虑过它，”他表示。“但我认为，要成为一名真正的MBA，我要得到更多信息，并能稍微更为深入地分析问题。”
因此，他决定攻读一个网上商业学位，并选择了巴布森学院的快速(Fast Track)课程。
“由于我认识的一些人，巴布森成为了我最终的选择，”他表示。“我做了一些研究，发现他们关注于创业。”
“我认为，这正是我希望前进的方向，不仅是要继续管理企业，还要创办一些新的企业。”
快速课程是速成网络MBA学位，24个月就能读完。
这一课程的“混合”教学模式，把面对面讨论和在线讨论、案例研究以及实地项目结合起来。
对于德拉姆而言，这种混合教学模式包括每月在该校位于马萨诸塞州韦尔斯利本部授课一次，时间为周四、周五、周六3天。
除了面对面授课，他每周要花25至30小时进行远程学习。
他表示，最大的挑战在于时间管理，并确保无论什么时候出差，他所住的酒店都能提供高速互联网接入服务，这是与他在全世界的同学在线讨论小组项目所必需的条件。
不过，德拉姆在成为达达里奥总裁时已经是乐器行业的一位资深人士，他在开始攻读巴布森学院的学位前有过网络学习的经历。
德拉姆现年49岁，他的本科学位——南新罕布什尔大学(Southern New Hampshire University)商业管理专业理学士——就是通过网络教育获得的。
他表示，由于他已在担任高层管理职位，通过巴布森学院的案例研究、小组项目和面对面上课，他能够直接将很多他在巴布森学院学习的课程应用到他的日常工作中。
德拉姆还表示，他享受虚拟教学的过程。他表示：“我注意到，网络教育的一个特点在于你无处躲藏。”
“教授会根据作业提出问题，你确实不得不回答。如果你是坐在教室里，你可以坐在后排，轻松逃过提问。”
然而，他也意识到面对面授课的重要性，能够迅速提问和解答，而网上则很难做到这点。
“当我们坐在一起时，会自然而然地产生一种活力，”他表示。“网络教育在某种程度可以做到这点，但面对面授课更为容易。”
德拉姆预测，随着带宽的提高和科技的进步，更多的课堂体验将在网上成为可能。
“但我们现在还没达到这种水平，”他表示。“这就是混合课程是两个世界最佳方式的原因。” （编辑：HD）
