FGCU program takes pros to the top

An Executive MBA can help professionals advance to the highest rungs of the corporate ladder. Michael Zeto answers his cell phone from Las Vegas. He’s in motion on his way to a meeting with potential investors. There are car sounds, music, people talking in the background, while he explains a product that’s supposed to revolutionize advertising.

“For example, you’re in Coconut Point,

going past Grape to go to Ruth’s Chris for dinner. Grape would like to send you an offer. You hit yes and decide to go in because of the offer. And you had no intention of going to the Grape. It allows you to drive traffic that normally wouldn’t have been there.”

Mr. Zeto’s company, Proximus, based in Naples would install a small iphonesized device in stores that would in turn, broadcast coupons and advertising to the cell phones of people passing by.

DREW It could be genius or the most annoying idea ever or a little bit of both. Mr. Zeto hopes he gets the funding to prove it’s a revolutionary and lucrative marketing tool.

More than a year ago, Mr. Zeto knew he wanted to launch the project, but he wanted to make sure he had the skills to do it right. The sales team leader and project producer wanted to ensure that he understood the area of finance well.

He looked at popular Executive MBA programs in schools like Xavier, Notre Dame and the University of Kentucky. He settled with the program at FGCU.

“Some of those programs, you’re paying $90,000. I researched it, and at FGCU, the quality of the instructors was just as good. The quality of the education was just as good. You get the same program for less than $40,000,” he said.

The EMBA program is designed for working professionals, with a flexible schedule that includes lectures on Fridays or Saturdays, short lectures and a short trip to study businesses abroad. The program takes only 18 months and covers topics such as advanced marketing analysis, managerial accounting and business strategy.

WEISS “Don’t leave home without it (the program) in a professional sense,” says Dr. Allen Weiss, the President and CEO at NCH Healthcare System and one of the program’s more high-profile graduates. “I was in private practice and volunteering and running a physicians hospital organization and I didn’t have the skill set to do it. Even just getting the fluency with the terms. I decided to enroll and saw a career change,” he says.

Physicians, like Dr. Weiss, who find themselves taking on more business duties are commonly participants in the program. There are students from various industries, many of whom don’t have the advanced degrees that are often necessitated for reaching the upper echelons of management.

“We have people from their mid-20s into their 50s, the more common thing is people in their late 30s and early 40s who are moving from a specialist job to a more generalist job,” says Dr. Stephen Drew, the director of the program.

More significantly for local industry, the program helps create a local talent pool, lessening the need to import employees from other markets. “There is a skill shortage coming up because of the demographics. I think we do see that,” says Dr. Drew.

A census report from 2006 to 2008 shows that 25 percent of Lee County’s population holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. That’s about 2.5 percent below the national average of 27.4 percent. Compare that with cities like Tampa and Orlando, where more than 31 percent of the population hold degrees. There are no census figures for how many of those hold advanced degrees like an MBA.

The gap illustrates the one fault that Mr. Zeto finds with the FGCU program. “The one thing is the fact that you’re not in a major metropolitan area. The networking opportunities aren’t as good as if you were, say, in a Boston.”

Which is why, on this day, Mr. Zeto finds himself in Las Vegas.

“I swear I haven’t been to any strip clubs or pulled up to any tables. All I’ve been doing is working,” he says with an air of longing to make one believe he’s telling the truth. Mr. Zeto has pitched his product around Southwest Florida but he says that local venture capitalists don’t understand his high-tech offerings.

Fortunately, he says, the professors from his EMBA program are well connected with the world of business outside of Southwest Florida. The Internet has made it much easier to make contact with Mr. Zeto’s potential financiers throughout the country and the world, mitigating FGCU’s one drawback.

“It’s a good lifestyle choice, I’m in Naples where we have good quality of life,” he says. “I can always get on a plane and go to Vegas or California for business, then come back.” 

in the know

>> The Executive MBA program at FGCU offers concentrations in general management, healthcare management and real estate development and finance. >> The program begins again this summer. For information, call 590-7308 or e-ail emba@ fgcu.edu