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A New Strategic Direction for the Notre Dame MBA

Nick Berente and Gianna Bern

Nick Berente and Gianna Bern

Monday, 15 September 2025

 

This fall, the Mendoza College of Business released a new strategic plan for the Notre Dame MBA program. The plan is designed to strengthen the MBA program. It reflects months of work by a faculty and staff task force, supported by the University’s Institutional Research, Innovation, and Strategy (IRIS) team.

The task force began with a thorough analysis of the MBA landscape and of Notre Dame’s position within it. They found that while most MBA programs look similar, students tend to choose programs based on rankings, career placements, location and scholarships. Notre Dame benefits from its Catholic mission, our alumni network and strong brand, but lags in areas such as employer relations and fundraising when compared to top-ranked peers.

Employer and student feedback provided additional insight. Employers emphasized that internships are the single most important factor in securing full-time offers. Students praised faculty and the program’s collaborative culture, but voiced concerns about limited access to alumni networks and inconsistent communication.

The conclusion: The Notre Dame MBA has strong assets to build upon and clear opportunities for improvement.

The plan identifies four overarching goals:

  1. Career Outcomes: Better prepare students and connect them with premier employers.
  2. Curriculum: Deliver a rigorous and integrated curriculum that develops ethical, impactful leaders.
  3. Admissions: Attract and enroll high-potential students who embody Notre Dame’s values.
  4. Branding: Sharpen and communicate the distinctiveness of the Notre Dame MBA.

Several initiatives are already underway to advance these goals:

  • Employer and Alumni Relations: Building a dedicated employer relations team charged with strengthening recruiting pipelines and investing in alumni relations, including piloting an “executive in residence” program for student mentorship.
  • Career Preparation: Expanding the curriculum, case interview prep and peer mentoring to help students succeed in the competitive internship process.
  • Curriculum Enhancements: Adding training in communication and executive presence, as well as multiple courses on artificial intelligence, alongside enhanced experiential opportunities such as consulting projects and global immersions.
  • Purposeful Admissions: Using data-driven insights to recruit strong candidates, with targeted outreach to groups that have a natural affinity to our mission.
  • Brand Differentiation: Refining messaging, expanding digital presence and highlighting the strengths of our community and mission.

As Dean Cremers noted in charging the task force, the objective is simple but profound: to foster excellence throughout the MBA program. The strategic plan gives us a clear path forward, grounded in research and animated by the values that define Notre Dame.

For faculty and staff, this is an invitation to be part of the journey. Whether by mentoring students, contributing to curriculum innovation or helping to tell the Notre Dame MBA story, our collective efforts will ensure that the program stands apart for its mission-driven approach to business education.

Together, we can help the Notre Dame MBA fully live up to its promise: transforming the lives of our students and, through them, making a lasting impact on the world.

Many colleagues devoted considerable time and energy to creating this strategic plan. We want to thank the members of the MBA Task Force: Seth Berry, Patty Brady, John Busenbark, Vamsi Kanuri, Rob Kelly, Jessica Watkins, Katie Wowak and Rafael Zambrana. We also want to thank the Notre Dame IRIS team of David Bailey, Lissa Bill, Theo Helm and Connor O’Rear.

In Notre Dame,

Nick and Gianna

Nick Berente
Sr. Association Dean for Academic Programs

Gianna Bern
Associate Dean for MBA Programs

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Construction Updates

Mendoza Facilities

Building the Good in Business

Construction Updates

Thermostat Updates in Northwest Wing – This Week

This week, crews will be updating the thermostats in each room of the northwest wing of Mendoza. They will make every effort to complete the work while spaces are unoccupied, and the process should be brief.

We appreciate your flexibility during this time. If a crew arrives while you're unavailable or cannot be disturbed, feel free to kindly ask them to return at a later time.

Thank you for your cooperation!

 

Mendoza’s construction projects are reaching the goal line in time for the fall semester!

  • Trading Room: The stock tickers and the video wall are running. Final touches are being put on the furnishings.

  • Jordan Auditorium: The new LCD video board is completely installed, with adjustments being made to the audio system.

  • Bathrooms on the lower level and second floor: These will be open by August 18.

  • Mendoza Behavioral Lab: The lab is ready for research!

  • Mahaffey Business Library: The library’s move to the Technology and Collaboration Corridor in the lower level is nearly finished, with technology being installed for the Bloomberg terminals and other resources.

  • Classrooms: The renovation of rooms 160 and 161 is completed; rooms 122 and 133 will be finished by the start of the semester.

The North Addition construction is on schedule for its planned opening next fall. Banners are being installed on the construction fencing next week. Check them out to spot some familiar Mendoza faces!

 

Email questions or concerns to mendoza-fixit-list@nd.edu.

January 13, 2025
More Construction Updates

MCOB Updates

Wall Street Journal Subscription Update

Collections Update from the Mahaffey Business Library

We now have direct access to the Wall Street Journal

If you are already personally subscribed to the Wall Street Journal already. Do 2 things:
1. Cancel your current subscription
Please email AcademicSupport@dowjones.com or call 1-800-JOURNAL to cancel. When
requesting an account cancellation, indicate that your University has partnered with WSJ to
provide complimentary memberships to students, faculty, and staff.
2. Go to WSJ.com/ND and do a one-time account creation.

If you are not personally subscribed to the Wall Street Journal. Do 1 thing:
1. Go to WSJ.com/ND and do a one-time account creation

Our Capital IQ access policy has changed and can now be accessed by the following methods.
1. Access Capital IQ at the following link with your netID and password.
2. Alternatively, access as a clickable icon in okta.nd.ed

Please reach out to Ask a Business Librarian if the sign-in gives you an error or the Okta icon does not
appear

Accounts from the previous policy will still work for a brief migration grace period. Eventually, these
accounts will become inaccessible requiring all users to access via the new policy. Our Business Library Databases Page also maintains active links to each of these resources in addition to many others.

October 10, 2022
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Mendoza IT

Tech Tips

Google Scholar

Citation analysis is being monitored more in the academic profession as a measure of impact. By creating a Google Scholar Profile (leave it public, which is the default) you can increase the accessibility of your research and have immediate access to h-statistics and other impact metrics.

February 3, 2020
ND Google Shortcuts

Did you know there are shortcuts to log in to your ND Gmail and other Google services? If you visit google.nd.edu you are taken directly to Google Drive, or to the login page if you are not already logged in. You can also skip logging in to insideND or visiting gmail.com by going directly to gmail.nd.edu for Gmail. You can also go directly to Google Calendar by visiting gcalendar.nd.edu.

February 3, 2020
Manage When Participants Join Zoom

If you enable Waiting Room in your Zoom settings, you can manage when new attendees are able to join a meeting from the list of Participants. When these tools are enabled, the option to allow attendees to join the meeting before the host arrives is automatically disabled.

February 3, 2020
Window Snapping

In Windows, you can drag a window to the left or right edge of your screen to make it fill one half of the screen, or drag to the top of the screen to maximize the window. View two windows side by side quickly and easily. You can also press the Windows key + left or right arrow to make the active window fill the left or right side of the screen.

Minimize All Windows

Sometimes you have a bunch of applications running, and you want it all to go away so you can get to the desktop. Simply pressing Windows key + D will minimize everything you have up, which will save you some time pressing the minimize button for each window. To bring everything back, press the Windows key + D again to restore your windows. 

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