In each classroom in The Citadel School of Business Administration, the mission statement of the school is posted on the wall: "The mission of the School of Business Administration is to educate and develop leaders of principle to serve a global community." Following that credo is the vision, which tells the plans for the school, and offers a multi-year forecast for success that includes aspirations once these goals are attained.
After his arrival at The Citadel in 2001, Dean Earl Walker said, “It was clear to me that we needed a vision."
“I think a vision is a leader’s responsibility,” he said, so using the book Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras as a guide, Walker invited the faculty and staff to dream big during two mission retreats in Spring 2002. He wanted them to offer big ideas on what their dreams would be for the School of Business, “and, to my absolute delight, they did just that.”
Walker said he took all of the input and formulated the vision, followed by the business school aspirations. The vision was broken into two parts: the 2007 vision, and the 2017 vision. “I thought we needed a more intermediate goal, like ’07, and a longer term goal like ’17,” Walker said. “I knew that we were going to be in the process of retiring our legacy faculty and bringing in new ones, so it seemed to me that we needed a bit of a break, and then we needed a star to shoot at.”
The aspirations reflect faculty input while the vision, as a whole, was chosen by Walker. He said he tried to write out what the business school would look like, “when we achieve heaven.” The 2007 plan will deliver a school that has “diversified and upgraded its undergraduate and graduate curriculums, embedded student career visioning and planning into its curriculum, provided opportunities and incentives for faculty and student involvement in regional and global activities, integrated practitioners into all programs, added at least three new leaders-in-residence, updated its classrooms to include state-of-the-art multimedia equipment, and deployed a Center for Leadership Development that includes a student mentoring program.”
In many cases, the 2007 goals are being achieved or are coming within reach. The long-term goals will take more time, but include plans to be “recognized internationally as a business school dedicated to developing leaders and distinguished by its high quality, diverse educational and developmental programs. It will have five new chairs or professorships, extensive faculty enrichment programs, four centers to serve the Lowcountry and the nation, a Citadel Business Hall of Fame, and new, state-of-the-art facilities.”
While few of these goals will be achieved quickly and easily, all are built upon a standard of excellence promulgated by the School’s faculty and staff and propelled by student achievement.
