Mini MBA for artists

Creative Continuum: Business and the Creative Process

May 31 -- June 15, 2012
Evenings, weekends, and some days
Program Cost: $975 until May 15, 2012; $1,050 thereafter

There is increasing recognition in the business world that companies that will thrive in the future are the ones that will innovate radically and approach challenges creatively. Businesses are in need of a more creative workforce in order to remain competitive. This course is for artists and designers who would like to develop skills in applying the creativity and mindset they nurtured and developed as an artist to the business world.

This unique program, developed jointly by MassArt and Bentley University, offers participants insight into the issues and workings of business. Over ten class days, students participate in lively lecture sessions that offer a condensed introduction to the subject areas of an MBA including marketing, organizational behavior, finance, negotiations, and operations, woven together through the perspective of the history of business and business strategy. Then, in working sessions, participants put their creative skills and experience to use working on a live case study of a real strategic business problem or challenge presented by a participating business.

Business classes are taught by Bentley faculty with working sessions led by MassArt faculty. Students work in groups, in collaboration with area businesses. Business partners have included Fidelity Investments, Keyspan (National Grid), Constant Contact, Dunkin' Donuts, the Harvard Bookstore, Hill Holiday, Rule Broadcast, bocoup, and Reebok.

Lead Faculty

Alan Hoffman is a professor of management at Bentley University and Visiting Professor at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands. His major areas of interest include strategic management, global competition, investment strategy, and technology. He is co-author of The Strategic Management Casebook and Skill Builder textbook. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, and other publications. He has authored more than twenty strategic management cases, including The Boston YWCA, Liz Claiborne, Ben & Jerry's, Cisco Systems, Palm, Ebay, AOL/Time Warner and Apple Computer, Whole Foods Market, Wynn Resorts, Tivo, Best Buy, and iRobot. He was the recipient of the 2004 Bentley College Teaching Innovation award for MG755: The Organizational Life Cycle — The Boston Beer Company Brewers of Samuel Adams Lager Beer. Alan Hoffman has a DBA and MBA from Indiana University—Bloomington and a BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Joe Quackenbush is an assistant professor of design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate (Dynamic Media Institute) programs. He is president of Jam Design, Inc., an interactive and print design studio, with clients that include The Rhode Island School of Design, Bryant College, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The New York Times, Keane Inc., International Data Group, Andersen Consulting, and The Boston Athenaeum. He has taught graphic design and interactive design courses at The Rhode Island School of Design, Clark University, and The University of Hartford. He co-organized the 2008 AIGA design education conference entitled Massaging Media 2: Graphic Design in the Age of Dynamic Media. He has an MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, a BA in English from Oakland University in Rochester, MI and is a graduate of the Radcliffe Publishing Course at Harvard University.

Impact

From a student...

"These past three weeks were enjoyable and rewarding on so many levels... the sheer pleasure of being in a classroom again ... receiving so much new and interestingly presented information. Some of the concepts and terminology were new, and some were things that I found I'd been doing right all along, but didn't have the words for, and therefore ... lacking confidence about. There's something about the combination of some 'official' training with stimulating thought, both from professors and students that is enriching, pleasurable and pure... I look forward to the time that I'll take, over the next few weeks to go back over my notes, absorbing, recalling and refining what I've learned, and will continue to learn from this interesting and unique process. "

From a business partner...

"The Creative Continuum group helped validate many of the ideas that we were focused on regarding our Online Survey product as well as offered up a number of new ideas that we explored more deeply here at Constant Contact...The team from Constant Contact who attended the presentation fully enjoyed and appreciated both the presentation and the great discussion that took place after the group put forth their ideas."
Chris Litster, Senior Director, Conversion Marketing

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