Duke Fuqua MBAs at their orientation week
When you picture the University of Michigan and Duke University, blue probably comes to mind. It is the primary color they share. Blue symbolizes a timeless imagination and idealism, an openness that fosters trust and community. It is these blue virtues that define the Ross School of Business and the Fuqua School of Business.
There is a saying that, ‘Culture happens when the CEO leaves the room.’ Just because they depart doesn’t mean they’re not watching. Scott DeRue, for one, has been closely observing his MBAs at Ross for over a decade. Now the dean, DeRue understands that cultural vision and values go hand-in-hand with consistent practices. When he looks out at his students – sometimes from the shadows – one word comes to mind with the Ross culture: Inspired.
EXPORTING THE ROSS CULTURE TO THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
At Ross, the student mission has evolved into using business as a force for “positive impact” in the world, both economically and socially. In the process, Ross has emerged as a leader in social impact, with over 100 events, clubs, and courses devoted to this end. However, Ross students also act local as they think global. That makes it a place, DeRue observes, where students carry high aspirations. Instead of acting as individuals, they focus on supporting and elevating their classmates. In helping their peers, Ross students make an impact far beyond Ann Arbor.
Dean Scott DeRue
“We’re developing people with that character and capability to not only lead and be effective themselves, but to bring everyone along with them, which is exactly the type of leadership talent that businesses and recruiters around the world are asking for,” DeRue told Poets&Quants in a February interview. “This isn’t only the culture we want as an organization to be important, it’s also developing people who are going to go off and create the same culture in organizations that they go on to work in. That’s a real important way that business schools can influence society in a big way. That’s inspiring to me.”
At Duke, this sense of esprit de corps comes with a certain mystique: Team Fuqua. Think of it as a code that spells out expectations and guides interactions between MBA students. Far from a gimmick, Team Fuqua is an expression of the values that have long defined the Fuqua experience. It is a means of channeling energies and holding people accountable – a vision of leadership where the value of the sum eclipses the individual parts.
TEAM FUQUA PREDICATED ON BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN OTHERS
The heart of Team Fuqua is the “Paired Principles,” a framework of six values that include Authentic Engagement, Supportive Ambition, Collective Diversity, Impactful Stewardship, Loyal Community, and Uncompromising Integrity. In a nutshell, the Paired Principles demand a higher level of openness, honor, and teamwork from students. And they have molded a culture that is spurred by passion and set apart by example.
It is a difference cited by employers, says Russ Morgan, the senior associate dean for full-time programs at Fuqua. During team interviews, for example, recruiters have told Morgan that Fuqua candidates are often the ones who take the time to learn about their peers’ strengths and place them in positions to contribute. Such tendencies are why Morgan would described the foundation of the Fuqua culture as collaborative and supportive.
“Our students want to be energized by people around them,” Morgan emphasizes in a February interview with P&Q. “They are supportive in the sense that they are more than willing to help each student not only get the best out of themselves, but the best out of others. For us, Team Fuqua is a way of working that’s embedded in our culture. That’s relevant when you’re a student, but it’s exceptionally relevant after you leave here.”
ROSS AND FUQUA CULTURES CLOSELY MIRROR EACH OTHER
In any culture, the most difficult task is forging a consistency between belief and behavior. The second hardest part, of course, is sustaining buy-in and engagement. Those elements make Ross and Fuqua special. Each year, The Economist surveys current students and the most recent graduating class to score their school on culture and classmate quality. Sure enough, Ross and Fuqua have consistently ranked among the Top 10 programs in this area. On a five point scale, the schools finished at a 4.57 and a 4.54 respectively, barely a tenth of a point below U.C.-Berkeley (Haas), a principle-driven program that is the perennial favorite of surveyed students.
Ross’ Soojin Kwan
In some respects, the Ross and Fuqua cultures mirror each other. They are team-oriented and purpose-driven cohorts that are fueled by an underlying supportiveness. These cultures are hardly organic accidents, however. Instead, they are the fruits of intention, carefully built during recruiting and carefully nurtured over the two year MBA experience.
As an academic, DeRue’s research focused heavily on team dynamics and organizational fit. He believes one of Ross’ strengths is the admissions team’s ability to present school culture and identify candidates whose values are congruent with them. What kinds of students fit with the Ross culture? According to Soojin Kwon, Ross’ managing director of full-time MBA admissions, some of that comes out in the interview, which includes a timed team task coupled with a one-on-one.
25 QUESTIONS OFFERS A LOOK AT THE AUTHENTIC CANDIDATE
“We look for someone who is willing to challenge themselves,” she shared in a February Q&A with P&Q. “They take risks and support others; it’s not just me first, but all of us together can create better things. Also, we want someone who values other people and other perspectives. They work hard and drop their egos and get things done.”
Fuqua takes an entirely different path to the same destination during recruiting. The program is best known for its “25 Random Things” essay question, where students rattle off 25 facts about themselves, which can range from defining life events to unique hobbies. A deceptively simple exercise that can be torturous to introverts and over-thinkers alike, the 25 questions are a cultural gatekeeper that helps Fuqua better gauge the level of talent, diversity, and potential fit with individual candidates.
“How does diversity manifest itself if everyone is writing the same essay or there is some target for what that essay sounds like,” Morgan wonders. “The 25 questions is engineered in a way to find out who you truly are. We’re letting you put the lens on it. What do you think are the most important things to tell us about? It takes the burden off of us to ask the right question and it allows the students themselves to tell us the things that define them.”
Go to Page 3 to see student and alumni survey scores given to 25 top MBA programs on culture and classmates.
Students at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business
STUDENTS HEAVILY INVOLVED IN PICKING THE NEXT GENERATION
Beyond the 25 questions, Fuqua asks many of the same questions as Ross, shying away from the same red flags that would undermine their engagement cultures. “We ask them to project out who they are,” Morgan adds. “If they come in here and give us the best of them, how do they improve our community? One thing our admissions staff looks for is whether they take pride in joint accomplishments. What I’ve seen that’s very diagnostic is whether an individual is very self-focused and takes credit for things that were obviously done jointly. We compare that against those who talk about how empowered they were with some team accomplishment and even the role that they played on that team.”
The best cultures are transmitted from one generation to another. It informs their daily interactions and becomes a way for MBA candidates to look at the world – and themselves. That’s why Ross and Fuqua MBAs are heavily engaged in the admissions process. According to Kwon, 300 full-time MBAs are currently ambassadors for the program, a number that is buttressed by 400 alumni volunteers. In fact, 200 students and alumni are involved in interviewing and evaluating applicants at the school – a testament to the weight they carry in curating the culture.
Morgan also relies heavily on Fuqua students for interviews because they’ve lived-and-breathed Team Fuqua and understand what it takes to be successful in this environment. “Part of what we ask students to do is ask, ‘Could you imagine working with this person?’ ‘Would this person make Fuqua better?’ ‘Is the culture the right fit?’ We want to get as much information through the interview process as possible coming in. We want self-selection to play a big role for us. We want people who feel the culture resonates with them and have a desire to be here.”
SETTING THE TONE FROM THE BEGINNING
Recruiting may pinpoint potential, but the onboarding process reinforces alignment. At Fuqua, that starts with formulating the teams, which are calibrated to expose students to a rich variety of experiences and backgrounds. The concept that business is predicated on teamwork is reinforced in everything from the curriculum to coaching. At the same time, the school flips the script on the traditional view of innovation, tying it less to a ‘Eureka’ moment and more to a process of leveraging team expertise to find the best solutions.
“We consciously talk about their team efforts here and on the outside,” Morgan explains. “They should be careful not to look at it as a zero sum game. Some come into business school with the idea that it is an individual competition. We help them understand how business is done so others don’t have to lose for you to do well. This idea that you’re not focused on limiting the success of others but on getting the best out of others so that resonates and flows back to you.”
Fuqua’s Russ Morgan
The first weeks at Fuqua set the tone for the program. In July, the program kicks off with four week classes designed to lay a foundation on team-building and cultural awareness, including a Global Institutions and Environments course. Broken into 6-7 member teams, the first-years set ground rules and goals to govern their efforts in the Team Fuqua spirit. The secret, says Morgan, is that the team environment is cultivated very deliberately.
LENDING A HAND…TO YOUR RIVALS
“Part of what we are doing is bringing people together from different cultures and having them understand global context in terms institutions and environments and a global understanding of how teams work together,” Morgan states. “A signature part of that experience is an outdoor and high ropes activity that we do at Triangle Training. It is that rite of passage in their first week of class that they do as a team and a section. It really brings out the idea that you can’t go this alone. You need a team to be successful.”
At Ross, this spirit is reflected by how supportive students are of their peers. This goodwill can come as quite a surprise for those who expect a more combative atmosphere. This semester, Kwon met with a first year who was still stunned by the lengths that her peers would go to help during the recruiting process – especially since they were often competing with her for the same jobs and internships.
“She told me classmates will not only help each other prepare for these interviews,” Kwon shares, “but they’ll even share the interview questions even after they’ve already gone and they’ll share it with the next person so they can do even better. So there is this sense of camaraderie and supporting each other and lifting each other up that was shocking to many students here.”
It doesn’t stop with the recruiting process, Kwon adds. “I also see it a lot academically when students are struggling in a particular area like accounting. There will be an accountant in their class who will just help their classmates by holding extra study sessions. They’ll bring brownies and teach them what they need to do. They help each other out in all those kinds of ways.”
IMPACT DEFINES ROSS CULTURE
Impact is a cornerstone of the Ross MBA culture. Dean DeRue notes that 17% of incoming students are looking to enter the social impact space – and far more cite making a positive impact as their long-term career goal. That impact starts by students tapping into their school’s deep experiential learning roots to make an impact.
The school year opens, for example, with the Ross Impact Challenge, a week-long, team-based effort where student teams will take on community service projects in Detroit. For example, the 2019 Class worked with food-based entrepreneurs, in partnership with FoodLab Detroit, to deliver solutions that would push both economic growth and social equality. Like Fuqua’s ropes course training, the Impact Challenge is a way to reinforce the importance of teamwork early on, along with infusing Ross’ signature sensibility around service and impact.
A Michigan Ross School of Business MBA speaks with a youth at the Detroit Youth Maker Faire during the Ross Impact Challenge. Photo courtesy of Michigan’s Ross School of Business
The Ross Impact Challenge is just the tip of the iceberg, adds Kwon. “We engage in a lot of things that are impact-oriented,” she says. “Students are involved in the social venture fund, where students learn how to invest real money into organizations that have an impact focus. Or, there is the Give a Day Fund, where students give up one day of their summer internship salary to help support classmates who are working in an impact-oriented internship themselves. There is this culture of helping each other and helping others in the Ross community and a lot initiated by students.”
HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY TO BE DEAN FOR A DAY?
Service is also a critical strand in Fuqua’s cultural DNA. One of the school’s seminal events is called the MBA Games, which supports the Special Olympics of North Carolina. Currently, the MBA Games ranks as the organization’s largest annual donor, pouring over $2.5 million dollars into the cause since 1989.
How does it work? In February, the school holds a silent live auction to support the Special Olympics, with this year’s items including a signed Fender guitar from Bruce Springsteen, a dinner for 10 with Dean Bill Boulding, and the opportunity to be “Dean for a Day.” The school also hosts a basketball game in Cameron Indoor Stadium between faculty and students to raise funds. In April, the school hosts other business schools for a weekend of competition and celebrating. Together with Special Olympics athletes, schools compete in everything from tug-of-war to bean bag toss.
Sound like a blast? Just wait until you get a load of Fuqua Fridays, a much-anticipated reprieve for fun-loving Fuqua fanatics. Each Friday, the Fuqua community – students, faculty, staff, and even spouses and children – gather in the Fox Center for drinks and sometimes meals. Many times, the evening is capped off by entertainment such as Fuqua Vision, where students put on skits. Personally, Morgan looks most forward to Fuqua Idol, which traditionally takes place on the last Friday of the year.
“It’s absolutely fabulous to see how multi-dimensionally talented the students are,” he says. “To me, it is such a feel good night where all the students are rooting for all of the students. It is a way for us, internally, to celebrate. Not only do we have this academically gifted talent, but look at this person in terms of vocal performance or piano or guitar talent. The quality that you see there makes me feel like it is such a special community.”
Go to Page 3 to see student and alumni survey scores given to 25 top MBA programs on culture and classmates.
Broll at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in Durham, NC on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. (Alex Boerner)
COMING TOGETHER TO RALLY AROUND INCLUSION
Such traditions communicate more about school culture than the usual buzzwords. Take diversity. In February, Ross students join forces with faculty and staff to establish a Diversity Week, which is dedicated to championing communication and inclusion. This year’s events included everything from a “Brunch and Brainstorm” from Net Impact to Risky Business holding a “Playlist Party.”
“The goal is to recognize, embrace, and celebrate our differences and emphasize the importance of learning from each other, explains DeRue. “This year, we had students, faculty and staff come together and co-create the week and the programming. We had over 20 student clubs submit proposals for programming that could be part of the week. Together, the students, faculty and staff curated this experience. It’s remarkable to see our entire community together around the diversity that is the Michigan Ross community and how important building this inclusive culture is.”
Building this culture requires communication, opening up and starting a dialogue that softens hearts and sparks ideas. Taking a page from TedX-style talks, Ross sponsors two events, VetX and Ross Diaries. Here, students step up in front of their peers to share intimate stories about events that transformed their lives such as going off to war. This storytelling, says Kwon, really brings the Ross community closer and deepens their unity. “These events are really an opportunity for our students to connect, support and understand someone who might have had a very different experience from them.”
PREPARING TO TELL THE STORY OF A LIFETIME
Such activities have grown so popular that Ross now offers classes on how to craft and present their stories – and for good reason. It reinforces the supportiveness of the Ross culture – and prepares students for bigger presentations to come.
Ross students working up their Ross Diaries talk in Story Lab.
“We do a series of workshops where they develop storytelling skills and the confidence to tell their story,” DeRue says. “This will have benefits throughout their lives in terms of their own leadership skills and being able to tell stories in ways that will connect with, influence, and inspire people. They do all of this by getting up on stage in front of 500 of their classmates and colleagues from around the school. “It is just an illustration of how we are a community. We’re a place where all people are welcome, where there are opportunities for everyone to be authentic.”
Such events fit into Fuqua’s paired principle of Collective Diversity, which Morgan characterizes as “the idea that we’re stronger together when we take advantage of the differences we have.” This cultural guidepost has inspired Fuqua students to initiate Fuqua Listens, a safe space where students can discuss uncomfortable topics like the Charlottesville riot. In addition, students now host Fuqua Talks, whose M.O. closely follows Ross Diaries.
“It is based on the idea that we don’t necessarily engage in deep conversations about the backgrounds of students, faculty or staff members have,” Morgan says. “It is a way to bring that out so we better appreciate not just that individual – that background and diversity – but it also paves a way to say I wish I knew more about all of my classmates.”
CEMENTING CULTURAL VALUES IS A NEVER-ENDING JOB
Still, culture can be a delicate and transient by nature, particularly with an ever-changing cast of students and even faculty and administrators. How can schools better institutionalize the values that define their cultures? For one, says Fuqua’s Morgan, they can continue their diligence by regularly measuring their performance. That means being open to difficult conversations. Even more, it requires administrators to dig deeper and even look for trouble signs when they may not be readily evident.
“From orientation, we have some goals that we measure,” Morgan shares. “People will generally give you high ratings for everything that happens during orientation. So you need to get to the second layer with that.”
The Fuqua playbook also includes recognizing and rewarding students who personify the best of the school’s culture. Located five minutes from Cameron Indoor Stadium, Fuqua has a front row seat to one of the greatest team-builders of all time: Coach Mike Krzyzewski. A central tenet of Coach K is to set clear expectations early. Like any coach, Krzyzewski ties rewards such as recognition to meeting his lofty standards. Fuqua has followed suit by spotlighting students who can serve as models to their peers. Just as important, students share ownership of the selections. Such efforts send a message that reverberates loud-and-clear: We’re watching. Are you?
Mallway at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in Durham, NC on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. (Alex Boerner)
“Each term, the administration works with the MBA Student Association to identify the students who are exemplars of different elements of Team Fuqua,” Morgan notes. “There is a lot of positive reinforcement behind this and making sure everyone understands the benefits that students receive when others contribute back to it and try to pull out the strengths of others.”
SOCIETY WANTS BUSINESS TO LEAD – AND ROSS AND FUQUA ARE READY TO STEP UP
Perhaps the most overlooked part of business school culture is the surrounding community. While many Fuqua students shuffle off the northeast and west coast after their two years, Morgan believes that Durham is an unheralded source of Fuqua’s success. Established yet entrepreneurial, the city boasts a strong infrastructure and educated populace that’s supportive of the university observes Morgan.
“There’s such an intersection between what Durham is and what Duke Fuqua is. It’s reinforcing. It’s easy to live in Durham, which means you can get together with classmates. You get this benefit of a lot of connection between students – the trust that comes with spending time together. Everyone lives within this network in the community and it facilitates a lot of organic interaction. It builds this trust which leads to, “I will allow you to give me strong feedback. I understand why we are in this together.’”
This sense of togetherness is what binds the Ross and Fuqua cultures together. It is also what makes their values all the more relevant in today’s business climate. “There is this idea that business has a responsibility to contribute to society,” Morgan concludes. “That is a latent part of Team Fuqua – this idea of making the teams you’re on better and the individuals you work with better and make yourself better. Increasingly, society is looking for business to lead – that’s a key element of what we’re providing.”
DON’T MISS: BUSINESS SCHOOLS WITH THE BEST MBA CULTURES
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