Business Bulletin
As the Dean of Enderun’s College of Business and Entrepreneurship department, Dr. Edgardo Rodriguez is a busy man. He graciously took time out to sit down and chat with Paolo Kalagayan to discuss the latest developments.
The first item on the agenda was the department’s industry partnerships; as of press time, Dean Ed was actually in the process of finalizing deals with some current industry partners such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Fleischman-Hillard, Thomson Reuters, PLDT, Proctor and Gamble, and Lufthansa – as well as new ones. “Our target is to have 30 [formal industry partners] in a year, and 50 in 2 years,” he said. According to Dean Ed, these partnerships benefit the students in three ways: mentorship, internships, and jobs.
“We can provide mentors for students while they are in Enderun – real executives, not teachers, who can share their experience with students.” This is ongoing for the Entrepreneurship program, and is in the experimental stage for BSBA. He aims to formalize it further and ensure that each business student from Enderun has a mentor. “The objective would be an exchange of experience, and a demonstration of how an industry leader thinks and works,” he said.
It also has the potential to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Dean Ed envisions mentors communicating their needs to Enderun. “The school won’t just create its own programs out of thin air, but we’ll be responding to what these guys say they want. We want to produce the kinds of business leaders who are needed, so it’s a natural step over to careers.” This would then lead to internships, and eventually, jobs.
In line with this strategy of being demand-driven, the Business department is also on the verge of introducing a new major called Information and Communication Technology Management (ICT). “It won’t focus on the technical side, but rather, how to manage technology,” explained Dean Ed. He plans on introducing this new major in June.
Current BA students have something to look forward to as well. ”If you look at the population of students in Enderun, we do have this cadre of students who are really above average. These are people with a lot of intellectual energy, and we have to nourish them. The way to do that is to set them apart from the average.”
With this in mind, Dean Ed is looking to start an Honors track. “It’s an enhancement of each major; it cuts across all the programs. The student will follow the regular track, but with additional requirements. ” He envisions it as an invitational program for Dean’s Listers, scholars, and other students who have shown exceptional qualities in their first couple of years at Enderun.
Lastly, another exciting opportunity for Enderun’s students – not just those under the BA department – is the business incubator program. Tentatively slated for next June, the competition for slots will be intense, as only a select few will receive Enderun’s support. He hopes to open the program to all students, regardless of their major, as well as alumni and employees. “We want to build on Enderun’s comparative advantages by really allowing the business program to work with others. It’s really having the best of both worlds at Enderun,” he concluded. Regardless of who you are and what you want to do, the BA department has some exciting opportunities in the works.
