With the release of the 2013 Best Graduate Schools rankings, many programs see their academic stock change considerably. These 10 business schools made some of the biggest jumps in the rankings from last year to this year. Schools are listed in order of their overall increase in the rankings.

Here is a link to the slideshow featuring the top 8 graduate business schools on the rise: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/slideshows/business-schools-on-the-rise/4

Among full-time MBA programs nationwide, the Fox School, at No. 52, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School are the only business schools in Greater Philadelphia ranked in the 2013 edition of Best Graduate Schools by U.S. News Media Group. U.S. News surveyed 441 graduate business programs overall.

Fox’s Part-time Professional MBA again ranked as the region’s top program, at No. 47 out of the 326 part-time programs nationwide.

In specialty rankings, Fox graduate programs offered by the Department of Management Information Systems (MIS) were ranked No. 22 in the country, based on a peer assessment of deans and directors of accredited master’s programs. This follows a September 2011 U.S. News ranking that placed Fox’s undergraduate MIS program at No. 18 in the nation.

“Our students expect curriculum innovation, premier faculty, experiential learning and more from one of the nation’s top public-urban business schools,” Dean M. Moshe Porat said. “These rankings recognize that we are delivering on our pledge to make a Fox degree more valuable than ever.”

Fox’s MIS Department offers multiple programs for graduate study, including an MBA concentration in Information Technology Management and a new Master of Science in Information Technology Auditing and Cyber-Security (ITACS). The ITACS program culminates in a capstone that prepares students for the Certified Information Systems Auditor exam, a credential with rapidly expanding career options for IT auditors.

In addition, the Master of Science in Health Informatics, jointly offered by the Fox School and Temple’s College of Health Professions and Social Work, is an applied graduate degree that focuses on the design, development and implementation of electronic health record systems.

U.S. News’s rankings, released March 13, included new methodology for part-time MBA programs, which are ranked according to peer assessment, average GMAT score, average undergraduate GPA, work experience, and the percentage of a business school’s Fall 2011 MBA enrollment that is part time.

In addition to the Full-time and Part-time Professional MBA programs, Fox offers a one-year, tri-continent International MBA and top-ranked Executive MBA and Online MBA programs.

To learn more about the graduate programs at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, visit www.fox.temple.edu/grad.

The 2013 edition of Best Graduate Schools is available at www.usnews.com/grad.

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This fall a team of EMC students will help the Australia-based company Ceebron develop a market entry strategy for a potential United States debut.

“Our ability to provide professional-grade consulting services, such as a U.S. market entry plan, at an attractive price point makes needed research and advice available to the small- and medium-size companies usually coming here for the first time,” said James Hutchin, an EMC clinical professor.

Ceebron is the company behind the one-of-a-kind Smart-Trace Cold Chain Monitoring System, which allows users to track the temperature of sensitive food as it is shipped across long distances. This automated technology helps ensure food safety compliance and protects food and pharmaceuticals from spoiling.

This is not the first time EMC students have worked with international clients. During the past 10 years, EMC has partnered with more than 60 foreign businesses.

The program’s global approach began in Israel through a partnership with Ben-Gurion University. Since then, EMC students have worked with companies in England, Ireland, Japan, Belgium, India, France, Russia and Scotland. With its first Australian partnership, EMC is working toward its goal of making one-third of its projects international.

“Almost all of the international projects have been market entry in some way or another,” said TL Hill, EMC managing director. “And within that we’ve got a strong technology, high-tech bent.”

EMC students have developed market entry assessments and plans for companies such as UK-based firm Martec, French-based Senoble and India-based Jindal Iron & Steel. The students have produced market strategies, sustainability projects, and assessments of market opportunities for products like centrifuge components and HR management technology.

The EMC team will work with Ceebron as it explores bringing the company’s cold chain technology to the U.S. market. Students will consider who will purchase it, who will install it and how everyone from local politicians to the Food and Drug Administration might be involved.

“For the students, they really are like an extension, or U.S. office, of the company they’re working for,” Hill said. “They move from student workers with little question marks by their names to trusted partners. The transition is easier in overseas projects because they are being more needed, more depended on.”

Through such international partnerships EMC students learn how to read and respond to political and cultural cues, “the small p’s and small c’s,” that are involved with international, interpersonal relationships and power dynamics, Hill said.

As with many past EMC partnerships, this collaboration could help Ceebron expand from a small market into the larger U.S. one.

“From EMC’s perspective, it’s a country that is very confident, that’s full of sophisticated businesses but that still has a small market,” Hill said.

With Ceebron in particular, the high levels of expertise on both sides of the partnership are encouraging. In the U.S., the EMC students will be advised by a clinical professor who is an expert in packaging and chilled supply chains – everything from flowers from Latin America, to seafood, to pharmaceuticals. In Australia, Ceebron is led by an owner/investor with a successful career in a large food company.

“When we enter a new country it’s exciting,” Hill said. “And this one seems particularly exciting because it seems the stars are aligning with client needs and our needs as we look to expand our international exposure.”

The annual ranking recognizes the top 100 full-time MBA programs worldwide according to student responses. This year, The Economist’s methodology weighed new career opportunities (35 percent) with personal development/educational experience (35 percent), salary increases (20 percent) and networking opportunities (10 percent).

The Fox School is ranked No. 43 in the U.S., an increase from No. 49 in 2010. “The figures we collate are a mixture of hard data, such as salary and faculty qualifications, and the subjective marks given by the school’s students, such as a rating of their school’s facilities,” according to the magazine.

“The Fox School is based in Philadelphia and connected to the world. This ranking continues to demonstrate our global influence on business education,” Dean M. Moshe Porat said. “It shows prospective students that Fox is a premier choice for an outstanding education while delivering on our promise to alumni that a Fox degree is more valuable than ever.”

Fox’s Full-time MBA – one of five MBA programs the school offers – is designed for professionals with three to six years of work experience who are seeking career mobility and enhancement. The two-year program features individualized leadership development plans and opportunities to concentrate in a specialization.

This year, more than 95 percent of Fox MBA students received jobs within three months of graduation. Fox’s Center for Student Professional Development oversees internship and job placement for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Recent innovations to the Fox MBA include required workshop-based training in the principles, methods and techniques of innovation and design, as well as a new Leadership, Ethics and Professional Development Practicum. The practicum starts with a leadership retreat and continues through the length of the program with integrated academic content, required professional development and student leadership experience, and a detailed Global, Integrated Business Leadership simulation.

Fox MBAs finish their program with the signature Enterprise Management Consulting (EMC) Practice, a consulting practicum course that pairs teams of MBA students with project managers to help industry clients solve strategic challenges.

Five Fox School MBA students took on a unique study abroad experience in January by traveling to New Delhi and Mumbai, India, for 11 days to participate in trade negotiations and one-on-one matchmaking meetings between Indian and U.S. businesses. The trip was made possible in large part to significant support from Temple’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).

As part of the Export for Scholars Program, a partnership between the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia (WTCGP) and Temple CIBER, the graduate students acted as consultants faced with the real-world business, cultural and political challenges that exist in international markets.

“We are proud of our partnership with the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia,” said Dr. Arvind V. Phatak, executive director of Temple CIBER. “The Export for Scholars Program provides our MBA students the opportunity to work as consultants with companies in the Philadelphia area, and to experience how international business processes and negotiations are actually transacted with a potential partner in India. Most importantly, our students learn by “being there” how cultural, economic and political factors play a crucial role in how business is conducted in a host country.”

“Our MBA students served as international consultants, conducting foreign market-entry research for local small- and medium-sized enterprises participating on the India Trade Mission. The experience provided immeasurable benefits for both groups,” said Kim Cahill, director of Temple CIBER. “This initiative assists Temple CIBER’s mandate to enhance the global competence of our students as well as increase U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace.”

Two months before arriving in India, students paired with WTCGP clients and accompanied trade specialists on company visits to understand their clients’ products or services as well as the objectives for participating in the trade mission.

Although students conducted market research relevant to industry demands within the country before traveling to India, the real lessons were picked up along the way.

“Some of my best learning occurred during the cab rides between business meetings, when I got to hear an American business owner discuss his impressions of potential partners and opportunities,” said MBA student Andrew Martel, who worked with Ultraflex Systems, Inc.

The successful trade mission opened the doors to collaboration with a leading Indian physician to study the use of Ultraflex technology on children with cerebral palsy. The company plans to return in June to solidify business relationships.

“This was my sixth visit to India, and it was probably my favorite and most memorable one,” said MBA student Prashant Kher. “I have been to India numerous times before to see family and tour, but I have never seen the business side of India, so this was an eye-opening experience to me as well.”

MBA student Thomas Allen, who worked with Mike Peasley of Senior Living International, was surprised at cultural differences that would not necessarily present a problem in the U.S. For example, Indian seniors were hesitant to live in close proximity with seniors of different religious faiths or even different dietary requirements.

“The mission to India provided a great opportunity for Senior Living International to be matched with potential partners in India and begin productive conversations regarding the mutual benefit of working together to provide high-quality housing, care and services for seniors in India,” Peasley said.

In addition to lessons in business, the students were awakened to how Indian society operates on a daily basis.

“We hear all the time that the U.S. is a cultural melting pot, but my experience tells me that India as well is a country of human diversity,” Martel said. “There are so many languages spoken and religious traditions followed, that in some ways it is unreal that they all exist in such proximity to each other and with relative harmony.”

Art Hochner, associate professor in Fox’s Department of Human Resource Management, was selected and funded by Temple CIBER to oversee the academic components of the program and to accompany the students to India.

“The mission was a very valuable experience for the students and the businesses,” he said, adding that he will bring examples from U.S.-Indian negotiations into his classroom. “The WTCGP and the in-country partners did a fantastic job of arranging everything.”

With the continued success of Export for Scholars, WTCGP and Temple CIBER are considering Brazil, Singapore and Vietnam as possible locations for future programs.

–  Julie Achilles

Batina Lewis lives at 18th and Diamond streets and works at a bank in Center City. The 29-year-old wants to attend more cultural exhibits and sporting events, but she doesn’t want to travel across town to do it.

Lewis — a character created by a group of Temple students — is fictional, but her problem is real. So is the effort to solve it.

Ninety students in 15 teams, representing six schools and colleges at Temple, recently participated in the inaugural North Broadband Design Challenge to create innovative solutions to local issues such as this.

The competition, co-hosted by the Fox School of Business’ Center for Design+Innovation and the city of Philadelphia, sought to combine the brainpower at Temple’s Broad Street campuses with technological resources to transform ideas into action. The purposely open-ended challenge — to design something environmentally responsible, economically sustainable and humanly satisfying — produced promising results.

The winning team, full-time MBAs representing the student group Net Impact, created a hair salon-based automated banking system to combine the comfort and pervasiveness of salons with the long-term benefits of financial institutions over check-cashing storefronts.

The idea arose after two days of shoe-leather research, including walks along North Broad Street and resident interviews, and nearly a full day of a structured exercises and activities to promote team-based collaboration.

“It distinguishes the university a lot,” winning team member Ann Dubensky said of the challenge’s emphasis on metro engagement. “It makes it a genuine experience. We’re not just here to be here. We actually interact with the community and want to help it.”

And vice versa. On March 14, the first day of the four-day competition, city officials, community leaders and business executives visited Main Campus to describe issues and advise students. Competition judges ranged from city Deputy Cultural Officer Moira Baylson to local pastor Taehoo Lee, and Mayor Michael Nutter spoke on the final day of Fox’s DESIGNweek.

The two winning teams were awarded cash prizes — $1,000 for first and $500 for second — and opportunities for their ideas to be aired with city officials.

“It’s more than just the academic and the abstract,” said the Center for Design+Innovation’s James Moustafellos, who oversaw the competition with Oxford University’s Lucy Kimbell. “It’s about immersing yourself in the real world, with real-world people and real-world issues. The teams that won really understood that.”

To competition judge Christopher Wink, CLA ’08 and co-founder of technology news site Technically Philly, Temple is at its best when its students are off-campus and involved in communities.

“Action is a virtue, and the Design Challenge is a way to bring action, entrepreneurship, community involvement and collaboration together,” he said.

Junior entrepreneurship major Salima Cunningham, a native of Germantown and a member of the second-place team, said she typically feels more comfortable working alone instead of in groups. But during the design challenge, “everybody had something important that they wanted to contribute.”

“From start to finish, it was a collaborative effort,” she said.

Cunningham’s team, a mix of business undergraduates and a geography and urban studies major, devised an open-source web portal for university and community members to share news and events. As an extension of the proposed portal, smart-phone users could utilize an application, a la Google Goggles, to snap photos of Temple buildings to download information about them, such as upcoming events.

Just what Batina Lewis could use.

– Brandon Lausch

With a mission to transform ideas into actions, the Center for Design+Innovation at the Fox School of Business has launched with an ambitious agenda to include design in the MBA curriculum, organize a forthcoming inciteXchange conference and DESIGNweek, and offer executive education programs.

In addition, the center is pursuing interdisciplinary research projects while drawing on the power of premier faculty throughout Temple University, including those in business, computer and information sciences, design, electrical engineering, biology and urban geography.

The Fox School and its Institute for Business and Information Technology support the Center for Design+Innovation, which is affiliated with Fox’s Management Information Systems (MIS) Department. MIS Associate Professor Youngjin Yoo – who was recently ranked No. 1 worldwide for research output in top academic journals in 2010 – directs the center. James Moustafellos, an entrepreneur and Princeton-educated architect who joined the MIS Department in Fall 2010, is the center’s associate director.

“Design is all about creating options – and opportunity. The Center for Design+Innovation is an opportunity for our students to reshape their thinking, learn new skills and distinguish themselves in their careers,” Dean M. Moshe Porat said. “This center further demonstrates why Fox is internationally recognized for innovative curriculum and transformative research.”

This summer, Fox’s MBA Essentials orientation will include intensive, workshop-based training in the principles, methods and techniques of design. Course offerings through the center – which also include electives – will explore much more than physical blueprints. In line with the center’s views on design as a core strategy, students will use design approaches as a lens to address challenges throughout business. These trainable skills – not intrinsic traits – can be applied to everything from branding and logos to organizational structures and human resources, Yoo said.

“We are not looking for the lone genius who is totally creative,” he added. “We are looking for how a group of ordinary people can harness each individual’s ability in the process of creating something new.”

Modern business problems are so complex that individual-focused solutions often don’t suffice, Yoo and Moustafellos said. By combining management and design skills, business leaders can create space for organized, collaborative efforts that can be applied to function, aesthetics, production, marketing and a host of other areas.

“We’re not looking at design simply as formal qualities or the making of something,” Moustafellos said. “We’re looking at it more broadly as a way of thinking, as a way of working, as a way of looking at ideas. It’s systems, it’s strategies, and it has applications in so many of the fields here. The end product isn’t the entity itself. It’s more about the process of implementation.”

This month, the center plans to formally introduce itself – in a big way. An inaugural DESIGNweek, scheduled for March 14 through March 18, includes a design challenge called North Broadband. The challenge seeks ideas to leverage Temple’s campuses, partnerships and related technological assets along North Broad Street to prototype a vibrant, entrepreneurial ecosystem where people can develop new products and services to meet local needs through the use of digital technology. Interdisciplinary student teams from different schools at Temple will participate in the competition.

On the final day of DESIGNweek, a roster of international leaders in design, innovation, management and technology will gather for inciteXchange, a series of rapid-fire individual presentations, coordinated dialogues and moderated panel discussions in the theme of “Boundaries: Re-imagined, Re-shaped, and Re-defined.”

Participants are expected to include Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, DesignPhiladelphia Founding Director Hilary Jay, Electronic Ink CEO Harold Hambrose, celebrated chef Shola Olunloyo, and IBM Vice President Lee Green, who oversees brand experience and strategic design.

For more information on the Center for Design+Innovation, visit http://design.temple.edu.

–Brandon Lausch

Nearly 40 Fox School of Business students recently spent a day engaged in community service with Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia. But no one touched a hammer.

Through a unique partnership, Fox School students crafted business plans and presented recommendations for a Philadelphia ReStore, a Habitat for Humanity outlet that would sell donated building materials at reduced prices.

Fox’s Enterprise Management Consulting Practice (EMC), a required capstone consulting experience, led the business-plan-in-a-day program to show its second-year MBA students what they can expect during the balance of the EMC course. A small group of undergraduate honors students also participated.

The Sept. 14 event carried with it make-or-break stakes. The students, broken into two teams, were tasked with organizing their research, conducting industry and market analysis, and developing strategic positioning and value propositions.

Clinical faculty, outside experts and Habitat representatives from three local ReStores guided the students, who examined marketing, operations, human resources and financials. At the end of the day, they made professional-grade presentations to Habitat representatives and other business executives.

Frank Monaghan, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia, said the students will help the nonprofit provide detailed documentation for Habitat officials to approach foundations and lenders for funding. Habitat will also present the students’ suggestions to its Board of Directors.

“We’re going to have a lot more documentation, and when it comes from a reputable institution like Temple, it’s going to mean a lot more,” Monaghan said.

The students’ conclusion: go for it. The increasingly popular ReStores typically diversify and strengthen income streams. There are more than 650 ReStores operating successfully nationwide, and 100 more are expected to open in the next year.

Through monthly yard sales, and with little marketing, Philadelphia’s Habitat has already netted $20,000 through its small ReStore on 19th and Berks streets, just blocks from Temple’s Main Campus.

For Habitat, an economically sustainable ReStore would serve many goals, including saving usable building supplies and home furnishings from landfills, reaching underserved market segments with affordable goods, providing additional volunteer opportunities and making more money to build more homes.

EMC Managing Director TL Hill and Clinical Professor James Hutchin said the students concluded that Philadelphia’s ReStore would break even in a year and could pay back, if needed, the money raised to launch the venture within three years. During a five-year period, Hutchin estimated, Habitat could build at least 10 houses that otherwise wouldn’t have been built.

Throughout the day, Hutchin said he saw in students “exceptional team skills and quiet competency.”

“A lot of it has to do with the attention they’re giving to working together,” Hill added.

Amid towers of empty pizza boxes and rows of Box of Joe coffee containers, students debated partnership opportunities, inventory software and whether a ReStore receptionist would be overworked. Later, they analyzed everything from the cost of making a sign to the color choice for PowerPoint slides.

“The hardest process is understanding the problem,” MBA student Andrew Martel said. “The biggest difference between class and the real world is that the problems aren’t clearly laid out for you. You have to fall back on the class experiences to get through. When we sat down six hours ago, we didn’t know where to start.”

But Habitat representatives know where students using their expertise for social good should end.

“I would love, in 10 years, for them to be driving in the area, with their kids in the car going to soccer practice, seeing three or four ReStores that we have and saying to their kids, ‘I started that,’” Monaghan said.

– Brandon Lausch

A complete list of the Forbes rankings can be found at  www.forbes.com/bschools.