The Tuck School of Business kicked off the first portion of its four-part "Back in Business: Invest in Your Return" program on Oct. 4. Back in Business reacquaints business professionals who have taken time off from their careers with the current business environment.
The program is separated into four different "modules," two of which are held in Hanover and two that will take place in New York City. The final module will end on Dec. 3. They scheduled two of the events in New York City because it is more convenient than Hanover for many of the participants, said Anant Sundaram, one of Back in Business co-academic directors.
Back in Business is the first of several similar programs being developed by business schools around the country. Harvard Business School, Babson College and the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College unveiled similar programs, though Sundaram said that Tuck's program was the trendsetter in the group.
"It's a wide open landscape in business and education and Tuck is proud to be the first in it," he said.
Tuck's re-entry program, in particular, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, on ABC News and CNBC.
Initially, Back in Business' organizers anticipated hosting only 25 participants but the number of highly-qualified applicants led them to accept more, Sundaram said. The participants come from a variety of career backgrounds and will travel from all over the country to take part in the four-part event.
"We wound up cutting it off at 41 because we ran out of hotel rooms in Hanover," he said.
Sundaram and Constance Helfat, both professors at Tuck, devised the program after studying the phenomenon of "off-ramping" -- one of the terms used to describe when business professionals take extended amounts of time off from their careers. Sundaram and Helfat noticed that "off-ramping" disproportionately affects women because many take time off for maternity leave. Still, Back in Business is designed for both men and women who have earned an MBA.
Sundaram then began tailoring the content for the program so that it addressed the most pressing themes for people returning to the business world. The program will focus on updating participants to changes that have taken place in the business world during the past few years, including developments in the global economy and everyday technology. Sundaram also scheduled several events that will help facilitate participants' career re-entry by aiding them in "everything from how to re-write their resume to lining up interviews for them."
The four modules will include a total of roughly 55 classroom sessions, several "fireside chats" and a mandatory capstone project for each participant at the conclusion of the program, the website for the event stated.
Given the breadth of content, the organizers decided to split the program into four modules over the course of two months.
During the course of planning the event, the organizers realized that they would be able to lower the cost for attending the program from $12,000 to $6,000 per participant, thanks to generous corporate sponsorship. Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking was the lead sponsor of the program, and Lehman Brothers, Deloitte & Touche and American Express were also co-sponsors.
"We pounded the pavement for [corporate sponsorship]. It sends the signal that corporations care about this phenomenon," Sundaram said.
Sundaram said it is too soon to gauge feedback to the entire program since only one module has occurred so far. He is also unsure whether Back in Business would become an annual event, though he expressed enthusiasm for the idea.
"We certainly want it to be," he said.
