On Campus
The corporate dean
In April 2007, Michael Cooper was named dean of the Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick, following a 25-year career as a senior executive in international market research, marketing services, management consulting, and the technology sector. Cooper brings a broad array of real-world experiences – as a corporate manager, an entrepreneur, and an investor – to his new post. As the longtime chair and CEO of Princeton-based Opinion Research Corporation, he led a management buyout of the global market research company, repositioned it, and took it public. He later founded Cooper Interests LLC and spent nearly a decade investing private equity in early and mid-stage companies. Cooper has stepped into his leadership role at Rutgers Business School at a pivotal time, as the school undertakes a major expansion of its facilities and academic programs in New Jersey and abroad. Looking back on his first year, he spoke with FOCUS about the business school’s core assets and his plans for strengthening and developing them.
How did the offer to lead a business school appeal to your entrepreneurial instincts? What was particularly compelling about Rutgers?
I like and am good at growing organizations – to take things that should be recognized and to make sure they are recognized. I did a lot of research on several business schools, including Rutgers, and in the end I was positively impressed by the quality of the faculty here and by what we are capable of doing. But I felt it was being kept as something of a “secret” – that the farther away you got from New Jersey, the more highly both the university and the business school were thought of. Rutgers actually is one of the top research universities in the world. I was absolutely convinced that the business school, with support and capital, was poised to become a top ten business school and recognized as such.
What were your goals for the first year?
When I came here, Newark and New Brunswick operated as separate entities, with separate deans. We are now one school and require professors and facilities to expand to both campuses. There were no graduate business programs in New Brunswick, and for undergraduates on that campus, there was only a two-year program restricted to upperclassmen. I initiated a four-year undergraduate program and received 11,000 applications the first year. That said to me that in New Jersey, the number of students who want to attend the business school is closer to 40,000 – if we advertise it. During my first year, we spent more on branding and marketing the school – with posters and banners, for example, in places like Penn Station and the NASDAQ building in New York City and the Prudential Center in Newark.
We committed to build a new business school building in Newark and a new building and center for business and professional studies on the Livingston campus, and along with that expansion, we are promising very high standards because the demand is so high. We also appointed new directors for our MBA programs, whose primary directive is to grow those programs with distinction.
How do you differentiate Rutgers from other established business schools in the region, and what would you describe as its market niche?
We need to specialize in the areas we’re good at. We won’t be known primarily as a finance school or a banking school, although those graduates are in demand and well placed. The identity of this business school is business-and-science, and we are known for specializing in the application of business in fields like pharmaceuticals, technology, and engineering. We have joint programs with the School of Pharmacy and the School of Engineering, for example. We have one of the few MBA degree programs in pharmaceutical management. No other major business school is positioned this way, and I feel it’s incredibly needed and timely.
There is another area in which we truly stand out. One of the main attributes companies look for is diversity. It used to be just a word, a ratio, but the business world now recognizes the power of different ways of thinking and approaching situations that result from different cultural learning. When you put a kid from Venezuela with a kid from the streets of New York City, you come up with powerful, innovative ideas that win in the marketplace. And the diversity of the students here is off the charts. Rutgers has been ranked number one for diversity (by U.S. News & World Report) for the past 12 years.
Describe the business school’s relationship with the business community and the importance you place on corporate partnerships?
I look at it this way: What is it that we have that companies need, but don’t have? For us, it’s a matter of taking our asset base to the corporate community and building bridges, in part by providing the programs they need. Accounting, for example, is the number one need around the world. We offer a master’s degree program in accounting in China. Supply chain management is another absolutely unmet need that we provide. Expertise in this area is in enormous demand.
Building these relationships is one of my major jobs. I spend 50 percent of my time off campus meeting with the heads of major companies in New Jersey, New York, and elsewhere. Companies in turn participate in the business school by contributing to internships, scholarships, and capital funds for buildings.
What role will the business school’s recently launched Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development play in the city of Newark?
We are working with Mayor Cory Booker’s office and outside investors to create a 24/7 University Heights section of Newark. We want to make it a destination that will attract young people to come, and we’re starting with investments in businesses such as a wine bar and a coffee house. The university will have an investment stake in these businesses. The city government is also providing capital and is making parcels of land and buildings available.
We’ve recruited people such as Jeffrey Robinson, an assistant professor of management and global business who specializes in urban revitalization. We want our students and professors to use the city as a living laboratory, to test their research and theories in a real-world situation. Our MBA students will do the due diligence on the investments. In general, I want the business school to place a greater emphasis on practical experience.
How is the business school preparing its students to negotiate the turmoil in the financial sector and the broader economic downturn?
We’re being quite proactive. Some students who would have looked at jobs in investment banking, for example, are already being directed toward management consulting. In the current economic environment, companies are looking for innovation and new ways of approaching their markets and we provide that. With our strength in areas like pharmaceutical management, we are creating job opportunities for our graduates. We expect our students to fare well in this job market, because we’ve prepared them to provide what companies are looking for.