Dean Schroeder

Professor of Management, College of Business Administration
Herbert H. & Agnes S. Schulz Professor of Business
Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate Programs in Management, College of Business Administration

Why a strong moral compass means better leaders and better business

Dean Schroeder

What does Dean Schroeder, award-winning author, international business consultant, and corporate board member think it takes to build a better business? Schroeder says a strong moral compass has a great deal to do with outstanding leadership.

Which is why when he spearheaded the creation of Valpo’s Masters of Business Administration program – and this past year the Masters of Engineering Management program – Schroeder advocated a curriculum based on the theories of values-based leadership and environmental stewardship. It’s true those business paradigms meld perfectly with Valpo’s commitment to Christian higher education, but Schroeder says they also make good sense for today’s savvy managers.

“When we created the MBA program, we talked with business people and College of Business Administration alumni and this is what they told us: that they need leaders with sound technical skills but also with broader-based leadership ability. You simply cannot have competency without a conscience,” Schroeder says.

“What is most important for businesses? Maximizing shareholders’ wealth? That just doesn’t cut it anymore with most people. Think about the organizations that really impact lives – they are businesses. So great leaders have to know how to optimize profits while at the same time optimizing the lives of their people and the communities they are in. That’s the type of thing we are into at Valpo.”

Schroeder, who is the Herbert and Agnes Schultz professor of management, brings considerable “real world” experience to the classroom via activities like serving on the Board of Examiners of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award and the Board for the American Creativity Association. He has also done consulting for international giants including Toyota, Siemens, Unilever, Fifth Third Bank, and Halliburton. And he has recently authored a critically acclaimed book on business management and leadership.

Last year, Schroeder and long-time colleague Alan Robinson published “Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations”. The book has won critical praise and was listed as one of the “Top 30 books of 2004” by Executive Business Summaries, was recognized as “Book of the Month” by the on-line business review Summaries.com., and was voted the “Readers’ Choice Award” for July by the readers of Fast Company magazine.

Most recently, “Ideas Are Free” opened doors in China for Schroeder and the MBA program (the book is being translated into Chinese and seven other languages). Schroeder, along with CBA Professor Zhenhu Jin, is planning an international “hands-on” course in China during May 2006 for Valpo MBA students. They will have opportunities to tour manufacturing plants, talk with managers of state-owned companies, and see first-hand the world’s fastest growing economy.

Cutting edge management experiences like this are one of the reasons Valpo’s MBA is growing by leaps and bounds. In only its fourth year, Schroeder says the program will have to double the number of sections it offers next year to accommodate demand. And the program hasn’t gone unnoticed at the national level. For the second year in a row the Valpo MBA has been ranked by The Princeton Review as one of the ten “Best Administered” programs in the country.

“To keep up this pace we know we have to respond to the market,” Schroeder says. “The China trip is a great example. Our third year internal review showed that we were weaker than we should be in global management courses, so this is one remedy.”

Schroeder believes that teaching values-based leadership and environmental stewardship concepts are not only savvy responses to current market demand, but also simply the right way to train leaders. “One of the exciting things about graduate programs is that you are influencing the way people think. You can challenge students with the concepts of social responsibility, and being aware of environmental risks. But this isn’t a goodie two-shoes program at Valpo,” he stresses.

“Our mission is to improve the quality of life for people through excellent management. I think we do that every day at Valpo because of our commitment to building leaders with strong technical skills and well-developed personal moral compasses.”

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