Graziadio School Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Education-to-Business Program

This fall the Graziadio School of Business and Management celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Education-to-Business (E2B) program, a real-world intense learning experience embedded within the curriculum of select MBA classes such as marketing, finance, information systems, decision sciences, and organization management. Over the past 10 years, Pepperdine students have completed 285 consulting projects for businesses of all sizes in a variety of industry sectors.

The E2B program provides applied, experiential learning that allows students to translate textbook theories into solving real-world business challenges. Over a 14-week term, students research, analyze, and provide recommendations to selected businesses. At the end of the trimester, the teams present a report—both oral and written—to the team of executives.

In spring 2014 Pepperdine will embark on its 300th E2B project. “There is nothing more powerful than watching students who have little or no familiarity with complex theory in a given subject area, not only learn the theory, but apply it to create solutions for a company,” said Doreen Shanahan, E2B program director and marketing faculty. “It’s only with the collaboration of innovative faculty, committed toward improvement, that we were able to get this program to the level of success it is today.”

Now Pepperdine has enhanced the program by offering global E2B projects through their G3 course (Going Global with Graziadio). During this course students plan entry into a foreign market for their E2B clients and the teams travel to the target country to conduct primary research, establish relationships, and validate the proposed global business development strategy.

This fall the Graziadio School also enrolled its 100th cohort in the Executive MBA program and marked the 10-year anniversary of the dedication of the Drescher Graduate Campus.
bschool.pepperdine.edu/e2b