Helping Managers Handle the New Century.

To prepare for this new century's changes, astute managers can rely on innovative programs offered by forward thinking schools such as Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business arid Management.

Two executive degree programs at Graziadio were specifically designed to offer graduates the tools to manage in the environment of the new millennium: the Master of Science in Organization Development (MSOD), and the Master of Science in Technology Management (MSTM), both offering future-oriented specialized training.

The Graziadio School's Master of Science in Organization Development has been cited as the best-recognized master's program in organization change and development in the nation for the second straight year in OD Practitioner, the official quarterly journal of the Organization Development Network. Organization development is the applied discipline that helps managers adapt their organizations to shifts in technology, markets, and competition. Change management has been called the ultimate discipline for the twenty-first century, and is recognized as a critical competence for the growth and survival of business.

MSOD students tend to be in the middle- and upper-management ranks, between 35 and 45 years of age, seeking career advancement. A typical class is comprised of human resource executives, internal and external consultants, and managers.

Launched in 1989, Pepperdine's Master of Science in Technology Management was the first of its kind in the western United States. It enables experienced managers to strategically implement technology to improve competitiveness in the global marketplace. A key component of the program is the recognition that a company is a portfolio of technologies that provide value to the customer. Understanding the international ramifications of these insights is a major focus, and students take two international field trips to examine firsthand how companies in Europe and Asia manage technological processes and innovation.

The Graziadio School offers two other degree programs for executive-level students. The Executive MBA is designed for individuals with significant industry and management experience, while the Presidential/Key Executive MBA is exclusively geared to business leaders who operate at the senior management levels of their companies. Executive programs meet in Northern and Southern California and internationally.

The Princeton Review's 2000 edition of The Best 80 Business Schools lists The Graziadio School among the nation's most elite colleges and universities offering undergraduate and graduate-level business education. Editors wrote that Pepperdine's programs were included along with its peer business schools, "Because employers and academics regard them, widely and accurately, as top business schools." They cited The Graziadio School's "wonderful alumni network," "the conservative curriculum that prioritizes practical knowledge ahead of theory," and "excellent career development program" (alongside such peer institutions in that category as UCLA, Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Dartmouth).

Mr. George L. Graziadia, co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Imperial Bancorp, was so impressed with the quality and content of the Pepperdine business education that in 1996 he and his wife, Reva, endowed the business school. The school was named in his honor.