Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com April 27, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 13 >> EDUCATION Y O U R R E G I O N A L R E S O U R C E F O R B U Y I N G O R S E L L I N G A B U S I N E S S Don't miss this annual directory of area professionals who specialize in Business Buy/Sell transactions. If you are a professional who has expertise in this area you'll want to be part of this special keep-around issue! Issue date: June 8, 2015 Ad & article deadline: May 8, 2015 Annual Business Buy Sell Directory & Resource Guide 2015 • Expert advice for business buyers and sellers • Profiles of area BUY/SELL professionals • Additional resources Y O U R R E S O U R C E F O R B U Y I N G O R S E L L I N G A B U S I N E S S ANNUAL DIRECTORY & RESOURCE GUIDE – 2015 Call Bonnie Leroux today to book your space! 508-755-8004 x 228 or email at bleroux@wbjournal.com low students who did the same thing. More than two decades after earning her MBA, Parsons said she still regu- larly uses specific skills in statistics and quantitative analysis. Just as important, she said, the program helped her learn leadership skills and practice working with oth- ers in effective ways. "It makes you understand that you're not always right and there are other ways to get things done," she said. "I always think you should open your ears more than you open your mouth, and I think you learn that it grad school, too." Of course, with any degree, the value lies not just in what a program teaches but in what it conveys to employers and potential employers. Parsons said that, everything else being equal, she'd always choose a job candidate with an MBA over one with- out, simply because going through a program reflects ambition and com- mitment. In her own experience, she said, that was especially true in her pre-banking career when she worked in health care, where many profession- als have an "alphabet soup" of profes- sional degrees. "I think in the hospital environ- ment, they valued the letters much more," she said. "It's almost like you have to prove that you can play in the same playing field with the brilliant people you're working with." Medicine to management Even for medical professionals who already have prestigious medical cre- dentials, an MBA can help ease the transition to a leadership role. Two UMass officials, Chair of Surgery Demetrius Litwin and Senior Vice President Jay Cyr, both said get- ting the degree after years working in the hospital system helped them think about health care issues in terms of financial and management, as well as health, outcomes. Litwin, who had been a practicing surgeon for 15 years before getting his MBA, said he believes medical profes- sionals should step up as hospital leaders, and they need training for that. "As surgeons, we're trained to be leaders in the operating room, but we're not trained to be leaders outside of the operating room," he said. Cyr, who started his career as a nurse in the intensive care unit, said he got his MBA from Nichols College in 1995 — a time when few health care professionals were seeking the degree. At that time, he said, some people "thought I was being blasphemous, that I would talk about critical care and costs in the same sentence." But with the question of how to get optimal health outcomes at the lowest cost now a priority at hospitals and in public policy, Cyr said his focus on the subject has proved valuable. And he said new professionals now have more options than he did in training to address these issues, including many MBA programs focused on health care. Tuition help from employers The value of MBAs to C entral Mass achus etts employers is obvious from how many of them pay for all or part of the cost of a degree for current employees. Hopkinton-based data stor- age giant EMC, for example, pays employees up to $50,000 over the course of their tenures with the com- pany to cover tuition, according to Lauri Tenney, the company's director of benefits and programs. In 2013, Tenney said, the company had almost 1,000 employees enrolled in MBA programs. "In many career paths it's good to have," she said. Tenney said EMC recently started offering a new benefit related to edu- cational opportunities: a consultation service that helps employees figure out how different degrees or certificates might help them achieve their career goals. The Hanover Insurance Group of Worcester also provides tuition reim- bursement and other educational ben- efits. Nancy Persson, vice president for talent management, said in an email that the company finds strong MBA programs "can help individuals devel- op a well-rounded understanding of how businesses work." Persson said MBA specializations that are particularly valuable in the insurance field include finance, accounting and investments, market- ing, and communications. For candidates who have a good sense of where they're going in their careers, she said, an MBA program offers both a solid foundation in the business world and strong expertise in their specific field. "MBA programs today help indi- viduals develop a broader business sense and many skills that will enable them to succeed in business and that are highly valued by employers," she said. Q Part-time programs a good option for workers who want to move up >> Continued from Page 12 Brad Metzger, chief human resources officer at UMass Memorial Health Care, praises the versatility and real-world emphasis of the MBA degree.

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