Destination Weatherhead
Linking Our Legacy To Our Future
Weatherhead School of Management’s 2020 strategic plan, “Destination Weatherhead: Linking Our Legacy To Our Future,” was completed in May 2020 after a diligent 10-month process that sought input from a diverse group of stakeholders including alumni, students, faculty and staff.
The newly outlined mission, vision and values for the future not only align with the university’s Think Big strategic plan, but also support its execution and implementation for the next decade.
Destination Weatherhead is anchored in our strengths across the entire spectrum of research and learning ranging from appreciative inquiry to artificial intelligence. We will focus our initial strategic initiatives on the management of the healthcare vertical as well as analytics and data-driven management.
As the birthplace of appreciative inquiry, we have a long history of excellence in leadership development, emotional intelligence and executive coaching. We also strive to build on our unique strengths in quantitative modeling, business analytics and artificial intelligence-based applications. This excellence positions us as the institution of choice that students, researchers and organizations look to for the latest programs, research and learnings.
Being a part of a comprehensive world-class research university with a stellar reputation in experiential learning will help produce students skilled in multiple functional areas. Weatherhead graduates will understand how to harness modern technology to see the bigger picture, and how to use that knowledge to ethically lead their organizations forward.
Few other business schools can match this value proposition. Read our new and improved mission, vision and values and discover the four pillars and goals that will support the strategic plan.
Executive Summary
Management practice is heading toward an entirely new paradigm, driven by the technological and social challenges of our time.
The technology sector has led academia in propagating these trends through rapid acceleration in data analytics, deep machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, digital transformation, and cloud computing.
The growing social challenges of our time include ongoing disruptions created by pandemics, climate change, growing social inequalities, the digital divide, and the new realities of the geo-political environment. They are pushing the business community to the front lines of social responsibility, and demanding a new generation of ethical leaders and decision makers. The need for forward-looking leaders is even more accentuated today, as this plan is forged in the dark shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The delivery mode of education is evolving rapidly, with many universities shifting a significant proportion of their degree programs to online or hybrid programs. In order to compete and to diversify and expand the geography of student recruitment, creating a significant online presence has become a necessity rather than an option.
These trends challenge Weatherhead to rise to the occasion. The journey will not be an easy one, but our excellence in research and teaching, passionate alumni, and plain old Midwestern grit will power our success.
If we execute well against our newly outlined vision, we will reclaim our rightful place among the nation’s elite centers of business education, improve our financial sustainability, enhance faculty and staff morale and diversity, and build a network of loyal alumni and brand ambassadors well into the future.
This, in essence, is what we mean by “Destination Weatherhead.”