AGSM is under the UC system, which is regarded as one of the best public institutions in the country. In Southern California UCR is the only UC that has an undergraduate business program. So, AGSM does not have to compete with any major academic institution within Southern California. In my opinion the mission statement should include a more focused goal, such as to be the best business school in Southern California. AGSM should create a mission that is still ambitious but allowing the management to see the way to achieve that mission. If I would have to revise the mission statement it would look something like this: “The AGSM is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in Southern California by doing scholarly research and offering high-quality business programs in a student-centered learning environment to the scholarly community, business manager and the public.” This mission give signals to stakeholders that AGSM is best business school in Southern California.
Completing the accreditation process is the beginning process of becoming a better school. The AGSM did not achieve the mission they want to achieve earlier because of the mission statement was too ambitious and school was tiny and unknown. To complete the accreditation process AGSM must show the AACSB that they have the capabilities to achieve their mission and goals. In my opinion if the AGSM want to complete the accreditation process they should take step by step to achieve the mission. According to the mission statement that I suggested, first thing AGSM should do is that they must establish themselves as one of top business school in Southern California. They should start by the short term goals and if that is achieved, would lead to move to achieve long term goals. They should continually revise their mission statement at each step as their goals are achieved.
The next step, AGSM should make all kind of effort to bring all of the local students to their school. They can do this only if mission statement is more focused. They should keep in mind that they are competing with local schools and also they should keep in mind that they have advantage because they are under UC system in Southern California. Surveys have shown that many students stay close to home and attend UCR rather than a Cal State San Bernardino. But still if AGSM look at their undergraduate program they would find that there is a need to improve its undergraduate program. Students currently enrolled believe that the classes are very crowded and have complained about the lack of professors. Students also believe that classes taught by lecturers are boring and they are not learning from them. Dye tried to solve this problem by bringing more experienced faculty and but he spent too much money in other areas resulting in firings and a hiring freeze.
Many students attend UCR to earn a Bachelors degree in the undergraduate business program and attend other university to earn Masters Degree. AGSM should find some way to keep the students here for MBA program. AGSM should hire more experienced professors to keep the students to stay here. If this could happen then there would be no problems for the MBA program because of the lack of enrollment and money used to recruit out of the area. Once AGSM is accredited, students will look at the school in a different way and the payoff will be seen.
AGSM strengthening both undergraduate and graduate program at the UCR is a major opportunity for AGSM to capitalize on, instead of focusing only on graduate program. The data shows that there is increase demand for undergraduate business program over MBA program. UC Berkley and UCLA both have large MBA recruitment. Only Berkley offers an undergraduate business program, but enrollment is still less than the MBA enrollment. Both schools are in the top 16 of full time MBA programs. AGSM can use both schools as model of success. Many of AGSM’s resources are attained through the undergraduate program. The undergraduate program is of value and can be used for internal recruitment.
All the goals can be achieved once the mission statement is clear, focused, and easily attainable. With a clear mission statement, many problem can be solved and accreditation will be completed much sooner. AGSM should take the goals of its mission one at a time and at each step they should revise their mission statement as their goals are met. By doing this they would reach their goals sooner and will be nationally recognized.
