Mission
Our mission is to prepare our students for challenging and rewarding careers, advance the boundaries of scholarly and practitioner knowledge, and enhance the economic vitality of the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan and beyond through our programs, research and community engagement.
Aspiration and vision
The Mike Ilitch School of Business aspires to establish itself as one of the top business schools in the nation as reflected in the published national rankings (e.g., Business Week, U.S. News and World Report, etc.) indicating favorable student evaluations and recruiter perceptions of the undergraduate and graduate programs, and the scholarly achievements of the faculty. The Ilitch School strives to enhance its positive reputation for contributions to knowledge development, the role it plays in the dynamic growth of the region and for becoming a school of choice.
Strategic plan
We identified five overarching goals that will move the school forward and fulfill our aspiration of being one of the top U.S. business schools.
- STUDENT SUCCESS: Develop career-ready graduates (whether at the baccalaureate, master's, or doctoral level), who are competitive in the global marketplace as a result of an educational experience combining academic excellence, real-world business experiences, and innovative technology.
- BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT: Engage with the surrounding business community to enable the Ilitch School to become a partner of choice in a multi-pronged relationship focused on collaborative research, executive education, research and development contracts, and workforce preparation.
- BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH: Encourage and enhance basic and applied research activities that result in high-impact scholarly and applied publications, funded research grants and contracts, and enhancement of the academic curriculum.
- INCREASE FUNDING SOURCES FOR RESEARCH, TEACHING AND ENGAGEMENT: Identify multiple sources of funding to support the School's ongoing research, teaching, and engagement missions and to ensure our ability to implement high-priority, continuous improvement initiatives.
- ENHANCE MIKE ILITCH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS EXTERNAL REPUTATION: Elevate the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the WSU Ilitch School's part-time M.B.A. program to the top 100 and undergraduate business programs to the top 150 by 2022.
These goals reflect an analysis of the competitive environment, current funding situation, the needs of stakeholders and AACSB International accreditation guidelines.
Complete strategic plan
Strategic Plan 2019-2022 (pdf)
Past strategic plans
