Robert Joss to Step Down As Dean of Stanford GSB

Case Type: operations strategy; HR, organizational behavior.
Consulting Firm: Cornerstone Research first round job interview.
Industry Coverage: education & training services; non-profit organization.

Case Interview Question #00483: Let’s imagine that you are Robert L. Joss, the Philip H. Knight Professor and the Dean of the Graduate School of Business (GSB) at Stanford University. The Stanford GSB offers a general management Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, the Sloan Master’s Program and a Ph.D. program, along with a number of joint degrees with other schools at Stanford University. The school is the number one ranked business school in the United States by U.S. News & World Report for year 2012.

After 10 years of service as the dean of Stanford GSB, you will step down at the end of the current academic year. Right now you are interviewing new deans and thinking about the kinds of candidates you want to replace you. What issues would you want them to be aware of?

Possible Answer:

This is a multi-part business strategy case, which challenges candidates to think strategically about what kinds of things a CEO of a large corporation, or in this case the dean of a prestigious business school might need to be concerned with. The interviewer should look for evidence of top-down thinking. The candidate should be able to look at a large number of issues and identify which ones would be a priority for the dean of a business school. The interviewer will look out for the small minded issues or complaining by the candidate.

Candidate: I would like the potential dean to consider some of the following issues:

• Fundraising issues, building the endowment.
• Attracting and keeping top academic talent to the faculty.
• Updating and maintaining the physical plant.
• Updating or maintaining the technology infrastructure.
• Student satisfaction levels and curriculum requirements.
• School administration issues and organization structure.
• Overall school strategic objectives and direction.

Interviewer: Good. You have now been placed on the Dean’s Committee. Pick one of the issues you talked about that you believe to be a priority and talk about how you would recommend framing the issue.

Candidate: I would like the potential dean to explore the following issue first: student satisfaction levels and curriculum requirements, because this directly impacts the business school’s ranking and therefore, the quality of students that are attracted to the school, which in turn affects the school’s competitive position among recruiting firms.

Student satisfaction levels – Are the students happy with the following:

• Faculty
• Career services
• Staff
• Facilities (student lounge, computer labs, library etc.)
• Academic competency of their peers
• Interpersonal interaction with their peers

Curriculum requirements — I would like the potential dean to explore the following:

• Is the recommended core course satisfactory?
• Are the electives meeting students’ requirements?
• Are the faculty members competent?

After exploring the above, I would expect the potential dean to recommend solutions to fix problems such as — “An inefficient bidding system for firm interviews”.

Interviewer: Great. Going one step further: you have been asked to head up a committee to create the change you just talked about. How would you go about setting up a timeline and project plan? What are some the actual steps you would take to make this change?

At this stage, the interviewer is now looking to see if the candidate can get out of the strategic clouds and get their hands around an actual strategy. The more specific the plan, the better. Don’t just repeat what you have already said, but talk about action steps, time-tables, and the structure of the team.