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CONTACT: communications@mail.cox.smu.edu

DALLAS (SMU) - Unique to MBA Programs, Cox School of Business' Business Leadership Center (BLC) at Southern Methodist University has offered innovative leadership training programs to MBAs over the center's decade-long existence. This fall's special program at the Disney Institute in Orlando goes a step further in integrating practical experience with leadership concepts.

Beginning December 7, 54 MBA students will travel from Dallas to Orlando to spend three intensive days studying Disney leadership theories and their actual application within Epcot Center, Disney World, and MGM Studios. The Cox School is the only MBA program invited to study at the Disney Institute. This is the second year that Cox students have gone to the Disney Institute for the custom-designed program. The school is providing Cox MBAs this opportunity at no additional cost to the students except airfare.

"Visiting Disney Institute is the final capstone for SMU students before they receive their MBAs," said Larry Lynch, Disney Institute director of business development. "Whether they are entering the marketplace for the first time, or continuing their existing business career, the students will find their time at Disney Institute inspires them to reach new heights of excellence in their chosen professions."

For more than a decade, professionals around the world have come to Walt Disney World Resort to study best practices and discuss "the Disney Approach" to current business and management issues. Last year, 42 Cox MBA students had the opportunity to see how Disney leadership skills were applied in many disciplines and functions - from laundry room operations to the turn-around of Euro-Disney - and how the actual application of concepts such as creativity, team building, and service standards remained the same.

As a result of this visit, a group of students formed the Disney Task Force. The Task Force and the Disney Institute worked together to create a custom-designed program for subsequent Cox MBA visits.

"Disney is known to practice many of the tenets that leadership and service programs preach, so this is a tremendous opportunity to learn how to implement theory from the masters," said Meg Graves, Cox MBA Class 2001. "I am looking forward to seeing how the concepts we have learned throughout business school are applied in a world-class setting. The behind-the-scenes tours will enhance my own career development and provide a valuable firsthand exposure to what makes Disney so successful. It's also as a chance to bond with my classmates in a FUN setting...it is DISNEY, after all!"

Objectives for this year's group of Cox MBA students attending the Disney Institute include:

The Business Leadership Center (BLC) was created to offer MBA students practical training in critical management and leadership skills. Developed via a partnership with several major Dallas corporations, the center offers over 40 non-credit elective seminars yearly in four primary skill areas. These include communication and interpersonal skills; teamwork and team building; coaching, developing, motivation, and influencing; and career development.

The program has a physical center but is also a conceptual force permeating the entire MBA experience. It is a critical component of the Cox MBA experience. It is neither "window-dressing" nor a piecemeal program but a comprehensive approach to leadership development.

By design, all BLC programs are delivered by industry professionals, not university faculty. These "outsiders" bring real-world experiences and cases to the classroom. BLC instructors have included professionals from American Airlines, Arthur Andersen Consulting, AT&T, Delta Airlines, EDS, FedEx, Franklin Covey Co., Frito-Lay, Inc., Greyhound Lines, Inc., IBM, JC Penney, Nortel, Pearle Vision, Inc., Perot Systems Corporation, Southwestern Bell, The SABRE Group, Xerox Corporation, and Zale Corporation.