Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they select a business school, but the educational experience is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Kevin Lane Keller from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Tuck states on its site that Kevin Lane Keller (“Strategic Brand Management”) is known as one of the foremost experts on branding, and Keller has served as a brand consultant for some of the world’s most recognizable companies, including Coca-Cola, MTV and Procter & Gamble. A recent graduate told mbaMission, “It is cool to hear his experiences from different companies he’s worked in.” Another alumnus added, “He is very approachable and in touch with students. He likes to get feedback from students in terms of what they experienced during internships or jobs.” As for Keller’s teaching style, another alumnus explained, “He is more of a lecturer than a class participation professor.” And a second-year student we interviewed described him as “straight out of the West Coast—very laid-back. He’s known as a cool professor, and a brilliant one.”
For the final project (which accounts for 40% of a student’s final grade) in Keller’s “Strategic Brand Management” course, students form a “brand management team” with three to four of their classmates to conduct a brand audit, which involves analyzing a brand of the team’s choosing and preparing a subsequent report and presentation to be made to the class. One alumnus told mbaMission, “I really enjoyed the brand audit project because you get to pick a brand that interests you and then learn all about it. It was a lot of fun and also challenging.” Remarked a second year we interviewed, “That he is such a top guy in his field but still teaches one of the core classes is something that is very special about Tuck.”
For more information about the Tuck and 15 other top-ranked MBA schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.