Past Recipients and Finalists

INNOVATOR AWARD RECIPIENTS

2021
Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware - Motivational Tiered Assessment: Rethinking How We Assess Our GME Students

University of Delaware Professors Mark Serva, Amanda Convery and Amanda Bullough at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics redesigned how Lerner College assesses graduate management students (GME) by creating an innovative motivational tiered assessment (MTA). MTA is changing assumptions about grading in the Lerner MBA program, MTA's relative advantages, data that support these advantages, and how MTA will be integrated into Lerner GME programs in the future. Under MTA, students can achieve higher grades only when they exhibit higher levels of intrinsic motivation, because students choose the amount (and difficulty) of work they complete.

2021
Johns Hopkins Carey Business School- Fully Integrated FT MBA Innovative Experiential Learning Curriculum:

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School’s emphasis on experiential learning provides MBA students with many opportunities to put leadership and analytical skills to work in addressing real-world business challenges. Through a sequential and carefully designed portfolio of experiential courses and electives, students learn to collaborate with corporate teams to address current business opportunities, and practice creative problem solving through design thinking and quantitative analysis, ultimately culminating in evidenced-based recommendations. A key component in the sequence of experiential learning courses is the Innovation Field Project, in which student teams work directly with corporate partners to analyze critical business opportunities and challenges, provide consultation, and identify new business possibilities for their sponsors. Other courses in the curriculum sequence include the Big Data Consulting Project, and the two-part Design Lab and Commercializing Discovery courses.

2019
Asia School of Business (Early Stage Innovation winner)

The Asia School of Business (ASB) was established in collaboration with MIT Sloan School of Management in 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the initiative and support of Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia) as a response to the demand for highly-qualified, industry-ready talent to meet the needs of the growth opportunities of the emerging world, in particular of Asia. 

2019
Colorado State University (Established Innovation winner)

For more than a decade, Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) MBA students have learned to merge their business goals with their desire to nourish, empower and protect people. In GSSE, students gain hands-on experience and the business skills necessary to identify and create opportunities where the market falls short.

2017
University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management
Medical Industry Valuation Lab
The valuation lab is the Carlson School Medical Industry Leadership Institute’s signature course and represents interdisciplinary, experiential learning at its finest. It brings together students from across the University of Minnesota campus to work in cross-functional teams conducting rapid market assessments for new medical innovations, helping evaluate lifesaving ideas and streamlining the time to market for critical new products.

2015
University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business

Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs
Texas Venture Labs (TVL) is a gateway for students, faculty, and entrepreneurs to access the vast resources of the University of Texas and create an environment that builds entrepreneurs from UT graduate students campus wide and accelerates investment for startup businesses in Austin, TX.

2013
Rice University, Jesse H. Jones School of Business

Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP)
REEP grew out of the need recognized by education and business leaders to develop autonomous school leadership who can then become  
change agents to serve the needs of the Houston community.

2012
The State University of New York at Buffalo

LeaderCORE Program
LeaderCORE is a comprehensive leadership certification program that spans the entire two years of the full-time MBA program and builds 10 core
competencies considered vital by the business community for effective performance and successful leadership.

2011
Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School

Critical Thinking @Olin
Critical Thinking@Olin was developed to address the need for more advanced critical thinking skills among MBA graduates.

Innovator Award Finalists

2021
TBS Education - Teaching through comedy: Injecting humor into educational videos

University of Iowa - Innovating the Triple Threat MBA: Flexibility, Quality and Scalability

PSG Institute of Management - Transformative Matrix Pedagogy for Teaching Organizational Behavior

University of Wisconsin-Madison - Professional MBA: Innovative "Badge" Curriculum

2019
Fordham University -- Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Data Analytics Challenge Program

Through this program, Fordham has raised awareness of many business educators to enhance their pedagogy with emerging technology of AR/VR. Working with The Glimpse Group, a consortium of New York-based enterprises creating VR and augmented reality tools, the school has been able to create unique educational experiences.

University at Buffalo -- Social Impact Fellowship (SIF) Program
The SIF program is a unique opportunity for UB MBAs to collaborate with other UB professional and graduate students to deliver triple bottom line people, planet, and profit impact to the community . While there are Business Schools who work on social innovation and Social Work programs who focus on social impact, SIF program efforts are combined in a collaborative, experiential - based learning program.

University of Colorado -- High Growth Venture Initiative
Leeds introduced a high - growth venture fellowship program in Spring 2018 that immerses a select group of MBA candidates to academic and experiential learning unique to growth - stage companies. This two-year program integrates academic excellence and unique industry experience to prepare MBA graduates to contribute meaningfully to high-growth ventures or launch their own.

University of Rochester -- STEM MBA 
The STEM MBA option at Simon is preparing students not just to excel in data-driven areas like science, technology, engineering and math; it is preparing them to lead in these areas. A Simon MBA graduate with a STEM designation may not work as coder, but they’ll be much better equipped to manage coders, thanks to their technical understanding of the work itself, paired with the soft skills and ability to execute on data analysis that they learn from Simon

2017
University of Alabama, Culverhouse College of Commerce—STEM Path to the MBA
Launched in Fall 2011, the STEM Path to the MBA allows high-achieving undergraduate students majoring in STEM disciplines to complete coursework to earn an MBA from the Manderson Graduate School of Business in only one calendar year beyond the completion of an undergraduate degree.  The program is centered around innovative solutions to real-world problems. Using nontraditional classroom methods and experiential learning opportunities, students have the opportunity to grow both academically deep into your major of study and functionally broad across different areas like communication, leadership, and professionalism. 

University of Illinois — World's First MOOC-Based Stackable MBA
A Vision for the Planet: The access point for diverse range of remarkable talent, creating rich engagement and brilliant futures.  The University of Illinois' iMBA makes premium-brand, hands-on, real-world-applicable management education affordable and globally accessible – and brings diverse learners together in a global classroom producing an exceptionally rich learning experience.  

2015
Duquesne University—Action Learning Curriculum
In their revamped program, Duquesne MBAs apply learning from concurrently taught core courses to solve contemporary challenges for multi-national corporations, regional businesses, not-for-profit agencies and government organizations.  They complete three live problem solving progressive consulting engagements that anchor the three-semester program and serve as proving ground for tying theory to practice while fostering lively, cross-functional team teaching and research.

University of California—Berkeley, Haas School of Business—Silicon Valley Immersion Week
The design of the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program increased experiential learning to 25% of the curriculum with five “field immersions” at the end of each term. The Silicon Valley Immersion Week provides students with an insider’s understanding of both the business and culture of Silicon Valley;  its rich entrepreneurial ecosystem; and an entrepreneurial skill set to analyze ideas and balance the passion of founding a company with the practicality of making it succeed. 

University of Houston, Downtown—Corporate Driven Curriculum
Curricular reform in the MBA program involved industry members to define precisely what knowledge base was needed, as well as, the corresponding learning goals.  A methodology that engaged corporate representatives and faculty drew the College closer to the corporate community and resulted in learning that enabled graduates to be well-positioned and prepared to deliver to their organization.

2013
University of Washington—Foster School of Business— Student Leadership Initiative embodies the school’s key focus on leadership and strategic thinking with a redesigned curriculum that includes experiential learning and direct integration of extracurricular and co-curricular activities with the academic curriculum. read more.

Yale University—Global Network Week uses a many-to-many approach to bring MBA students from schools participating in the Global Network for Advanced Management together in a week long academic programs immersion that leverages local faculty expertise on topics of global significance. 

2012
Auckland University of Technology—Developing High Performance Teams Initiative develops the skills needed to create and participate in high-performing teams by combining theoretical study and practical knowledge of team performance.

Fayetteville State University—Integrated Distance Learning and Online MBA Program uses video conferencing technology and remote teaching centers to deliver online courses with the look and feel of a traditional classroom experience, helping the university better meet the needs of the area’s significant military and health care communities. 

Monterey Institute of International Studies—Frontier Market Scouts Program offers academic and experiential training to professionals aspiring to careers in social ventures or impact investing. The program features a rigorous two-week training session followed by a six-month internship with leading impact investors around the world.

Rice University, Jesse Jones School of Business —MBA Capstone Course provides teams of Professional and Executive MBA students the opportunity to research, assess, and develop detailed strategic plans for Houston nonprofits with critical challenges. The program benefits the nonprofit while providing students a meaningful way to apply classroom theory and concepts to a “real-world” problem. 

2011
Babson College, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business—Common Core Curriculum which was a fast-track effort to develop a common core curriculum and signature learning experiences for its four MBA programs. The redesign provided a standardized experience for students regardless of the program in which they enrolled.

Dalhousie University, School of Business Administration—Corporate Residency MBA which was Canada’s first residency program designed for direct-entry students and those with limited business experience that featured an eight-month paid work experience that allowed students to apply knowledge learned in the classroom. 

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler School of Business—Online MBA which the quality and content of UNC-Chapel Hill's traditional MBA and used the latest in online interactive technology to deliver the content, administrative and student services, and faculty interfaces, including interactive tools for critiquing students and assessing their engagement in real time.

University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School—Global Modular Courses which are an accelerated study abroad program held at locations around the world and combine local immersion, academic theory, and the contemporary and emerging business issues of the geographic region in which the course is held.