UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — It was a Friday morning at 7 a.m., and 15 still-tired Penn State Smeal College of Business MBA students sat alongside fellow business students from The Wharton School and Cornell University in a class on leadership and warfighting principles.
At first glance, this was not typical MBA classroom fare: “The currency and stakes of war are human lives. But it is a competition from which the principles used by a warfighter can be universally adapted,” one slide read. Nor was it a typical MBA classroom. The students were gathered in an auditorium on the United States Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va. — home of the Marine Corps Officer Candidates School — and in the midst of a 24-hour immersion program on leadership styles, culture and decision-making.
“The Marine Corps emphasizes decision-making in the face of adversity and uncertainty. Marine leaders must become comfortable with the 70 percent solution and then make adjustments as situations change,” said Erik Orient, MBA student services director and retired Marine officer. “The Quantico immersion was designed to take our students out of their comfort zones and to give them a sense of decision-making and leadership in a distinctly unfamiliar and challenging environment.”
The student contingency from Smeal arrived on base late the previous evening after a five-hour drive from the Penn State University Park campus, and despite the already-long day, the immersion activities began immediately.