Jones Center for BBA Education

In 2005, Ross alumnus Thomas C. Jones, BBA ’68, MBA ’71, endowed the Center for BBA Education at Ross with a $10 million gift. As a result, the Ross BBA Program is accelerating the development of action-based learning opportunities for undergraduates. Action-based learning is a distinguishing feature of our top-ranked MBA Program. In February 2009, BusinessWeek ranked the Ross BBA No. 4 in the U.S.

BBA courses that integrate action-based learning include:

• Organizations and Industries (Business Economics 480).
  BBA seniors manage a live project as the bulk of the course output, with an emphasis on the application of multidisciplinary skills. In winter 2009, students consulted with Mager Scientific, a local distributor of high-end scientific equipment to create a marketing strategy.
• Dynamic Capabilities through Corporate Development (Strategy 392).
  BBAs learn how companies build, gain, and leverage competitive advantages in constantly changing contexts. As part of a class consulting project for Whirlpool Corp., Ross BBAs visited a facility, met with Whirlpool staff, and helped develop a growth strategy for countertop microwaves.
• Projects in Healthcare (Operations and Management Science 490). BBA student teams spend may three to four hours per week in the University of Michigan Hospital and Health System to consult on such cross-departmental issues as patient admissions, bed allocations, lab testing, and physician rounding. 

In addition, thanks to the support of the Jones Center, BBA students at Ross may:

• participate in a high-caliber leadership workshop in which students are introduced to concepts typically reserved for graduate students or business executives
• study abroad at a Ross international business program for three weeks during the summer between sophomore and junior year
• Options include China, Germany, Costa Rica, and Australia
• utilize the Tozzi Finance Center, complete with all the real-time tools and data found on an actual trading floor
• win funding to start a business through the Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
• pursue the expanding area of sustainability through the Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise
• participate in national and international case competitions against other business schools
• receive training and guidance on career planning and transition to the workforce

The Jones Gift also supported the first year of the Michigan Journal of Business, an academic publication promoting undergraduate scholarship. Ross is the first business school in the U.S. to create and publish such a journal.

If you have questions about a class or activity that might benefit from funding by the Jones Center, please Scott Moore. Moore is executive director of the Jones Center. He also is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and an associate professor of business information technology.