SRC Scientists Gain ‘Business Acumen’ through Customized Oswego MBA

SUNY Oswego has teamed with SRC Inc. to deliver a customized MBA degree program to employees of the research and development company at its North Syracuse offices.

On-site coursework—Ding Zhang, professor of marketing and management at SUNY Oswego, teaches a course in operations management as part of a customized MBA program at SRC Inc.,
a North Syracuse-based research and development company.

More than 30 SRC employees began taking classes toward the master of business administration at SRC, from pre-MBA foundational courses to electives and core classes.

“Recent enhancements to our leadership model are setting expectations for technical experts to have an equal understanding of what it means to run our business—what we call business acumen,” SRC officials said. “Having an MBA program on-site makes it easy and convenient for our busy professionals to participate and gain this intelligence.”

A conversation last year between college President Deborah F. Stanley and SRC President Paul G. Tremont set the program in motion.

“President Tremont reached out to us and our nationally respected MBA program among his efforts to develop SRC’s staff, build internal strength and add to the professional toolkit of SRC scientists,” Stanley said. “We were more than happy to work with him. We pride ourselves on the flexibility of our MBA programs and we moved quickly to begin offering classes at SRC.”
Last spring, the program got under way with an operations management course delivered at SRC as well as online pre-MBA classes. SRC pays employees’ tuition.

Richard Skolnik, dean of the SUNY Oswego School of Business, said cooperation between business and education brings regional gains.

“Initiatives like this help Central New York respond to a changing economy,” Skolnik said. “The SUNY Oswego-SRC collaboration is a case in point: SRC employees develop new skills and perspectives, SUNY Oswego faculty interact with talented professionals and SRC organically develops managerial and leadership potential.”

—Public Affairs

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