Prospective Benefits Far Outweigh Risks
“The challenge for every organization is having enough talent to bring to bear to address that organization’s mission,” Nelson says. “When you are ambitious, you have a lot you want to do.” The integration of the schools promises to be greater than the sum of its parts, he argues. Cornell’s College of Business will boast the third-largest faculty of any business school—behind only Harvard Business School and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School—and will be fourth overall in size.
“From a faculty perspective, that makes it easier to attract and retain top scholars in given fields,” Nelson notes, adding that individual professors will be able to more easily leverage what they teach across students at all three individual schools. Coordinating the three schools also expands the number of courses students can choose from and increases opportunities to develop new courses.
Cornell University Provost Michael Kotlikoff, for his part, has argued that the integration also presents exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary programs to emerge thanks to the schools’ collective expertise in finance, technology, sustainability, hospitality, agriculture and food security.
Not only that, students will have much greater access to all that’s happening in the different schools in terms of information, centers and institutes. “It turns out various centers and institutes have separately been addressing some of the same important themes—now they can be addressed more effectively by scaling them up,” Nelson says. Entrepreneurship, emerging markets and sustainability, for example, have been points of focus at each school. By uniting as the College of Business, the separate initiatives can be ramped up and offer more seamless opportunities to students.
The potential benefits are also significant on the recruiting and career services side, Nelson notes. “Previously we could have the same large company accessed by three different schools in three different ways,” he says. “That lack of coordination can be inconvenient for the employer.” Through the College of Business, employers will now get to understand the different facets of Cornell in a coordinated fashion. “I think we will be able to attract recruiters we couldn’t attract before because previously they saw these opportunities as splintered.”
Of course, another major benefit of business school is the network it offers. “Our students and our alumni are now part of a bigger family—which means more events around the world and more alumni to draw on as they go through their careers,” says Nelson. “The fact that we are now the College of Business as opposed to just Johnson is huge.”
Accounting + Psychology = Dean?
Nelson, whose decades of research and teaching have focused on accounting and psychology, concedes that he will greatly miss being in the classroom. “That’s the tough part of becoming dean,” he says with a chuckle. “I am going to fight to occasionally insert myself into the classroom—I just can’t bring myself to give that up completely,” he adds. But he also looks forward to learning about the broader student body and bringing some of the skills he used as a teacher to bear in the role of dean.
His particular combination of disciplines, he believes, will prove relevant in his new role. As far as accounting is concerned, understanding the numbers behind the operations of a business school is obviously critical, as is communication. “Transparency, clarity, freedom from bias—these are all important for us in the College of Business,” he says. He also brings his accountant’s healthy concern about unintended consequences. “In accounting, you can pass some new standard only to have something you never saw coming happen,” he says. In his work as dean, as he thinks about changes or new initiatives, he will be careful to consider potential consequences in an effort to ensure that all actions are making change for the better.
From the perspective of psychology, Nelson views encouraging people as vitally important. “Walking around and interacting with this community and offering encouragement is a really important part of my job,” he says. “One of the unique things about Johnson is the esprit de corps and the willingness that we have to pull together.”
Nelson—together with counterparts Ed McLaughlin, interim dean of the Dyson School; Kate Walsh, interim dean of the Hotel School; and College of Business Dean Dutta—is entering what Dutta has termed “a new era of business education” at Cornell. “Everyone in the leadership group has the right attitude,” Nelson says. “Everyone is excited about it and working together, so it’s not competitive, it’s collaborative.”
Among the next steps? Launching an integrated admissions portal, cross-listing courses to increase access for students across partner schools and coordinating career services. This month, a brand study is scheduled to be launched, and an advisory council will be set up in the fall.
Johnson is also poised to double its square footage over the next year between its campuses in Ithaca and Cornell Tech in New York City, with a future campus on Roosevelt Island opening in the fall of 2017. “It is great to step into a role where you are at a great school—it’s even better when you’ve been set up with a lot of capabilities to take it forward,” Nelson says.
Learn more about the new Cornell College of Business.
