Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders Today: Inside Miami’s New Business Leadership Co-Major Leadership development is often a differentiator as undergraduates progress through a program and, eventually, enter the professional realm. The ability to look beyond business fundamentals and lead teams, navigate ambiguity, and make ethical decisions in high-stakes environments can be what sets one candidate atop a stack of résumés, regardless of the industry.
Strengthening its own differentiators, the Farmer School of Business at Miami University has launched the new Business Leadership co-major, designed to bridge the disciplinary gap between industries and areas of focus by integrating core business knowledge with specialized training in ethical leadership, strategic thinking, and organizational change management.
BRIDGING THE GAP
Modern organizations require more than technical expertise. They require people who can translate knowledge into contribution and coordinate the efforts of others toward meaningful results. Increasingly, responsibility for organizational performance does not reside within a single function or title. Engineers lead projects and teams. Scientists manage resources and priorities. Community organizations must balance mission, people, and financial stewardship.
The Business Leadership co-major reflects this reality. It prepares students to contribute across organizational boundaries, to manage complexity, and to become effective stewards of organizations and society.
Integration is the secret sauce of the Business Leadership co-major. Developing leadership skills forces students to reevaluate the way they view certain industry- or field-specific issues and reach solutions that they may not have identified before. Students in the co-major develop a broad business acumen that complements their passion areas (such as engineering, healthcare, the arts) so they’re ready to operate in whatever space they’re asked to.
There’s a real call to action for undergraduate institutions to start preparing students for more than just the first few years of their careers. The average age an individual typically gets leadership development is 42-years old despite leadership being one of eight essential core competencies for career readiness. What’s more, 80% of businesses are struggling with a shortage of leadership talent, making it difficult to find and develop the leaders of tomorrow.
In short, businesses need the next generation of leadership talent and that talent pool isn’t getting the proper training until roughly 20 years after they earn their bachelor’s degrees. Organizations can’t wait much longer for the next generation of leaders to crop up, and recent graduates can’t wait until they’re midway through their career to get the proper training. That is why the Business Leadership co-major, along with business fundamentals, hones in on high-level topics like strategic decision making, leadership theory, and change management, all topics often reserved for MBA programs.
STRUCTURED WITH STAYING POWER
The Business Leadership co-major consists of 30 semester hours over two parts. Part one course requirements cover fundamental business skills and specializations while part two dives into business ethics, strategy, and several elective choices in areas like management, accounting, and entrepreneurship. All of these focus areas dig far enough into the heart of business fundamentals without overinforming and, potentially, overwhelming students before they’ve even entered the field.
The program also reflects a broader shift in industries and, in turn, business education. As stakeholder expectations rise and companies face increased visibility and scrutiny, modern leadership is focused on driving results with integrity. The program teaches students how to balance profit objectives with social responsibility.
ONE DOOR OPENS … THEN A BUNCH MORE OPEN
Traditionally, gaining a business education at a top undergraduate program like the Farmer School of Business comes with an element of exclusivity. While still true, the co-major slightly changes that dynamic by opening the door to a structured pathway for high-performing, non-business students to engage with business concepts.
Granting students the opportunity to bolster their leadership skillset and business acumen without forcing them to choose between strictly business and another major allows each area of focus to amplify the other.
As industries continue to seek out interdisciplinary leaders, the Business Leadership co-major may offer one of the most valuable degrees, or co-degrees, a student can earn.
Jenny Darroch
Jenny Darroch, Ph.D. is dean of the Farmer School of Business. She has served as the dean of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. She earned her doctorate in marketing from the University of Otago in New Zealand. She also has degrees from the University of Auckland, Massey University, and the University of Waikato,all in New Zealand, which is her native country.
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