Auburn Business @ 50 Strategic Plan

The first dean of Auburn’s College of Business, Dr. O.D. “Jack” Turner, would likely not recognize the College of Business today. Founded in 1967 with 13 faculty and a few hundred students, Auburn’s College of Business has come a long way. The COB now houses almost 4,000 students, 75 tenure track faculty, 12 undergraduate programs, five masters programs, and one PhD program.

In the past 45 years, the COB has produced more than 36,000 graduates and, according to numerous rankings of its undergraduate and masters programs, finds itself among the nation’s best colleges of business. Our rapidly approaching 50th birthday provides a great opportunity to reflect on our legacy and our future – what do we want the college to look like at 50 and beyond? What path do we want to be on at 50? Subsequently, this strategic planning process prepares us for Auburn Business @ 50.

The Strategic Plan is one of four documents comprising the current set of strategic planning documents. In this document, the Mission, Vision, and Strategic Goals are presented and discussed, along with the process used to construct all the strategic planning documents.

Accompanying volumes to the Strategic Plan include: (1) Situational Analysis – 2011; a document providing an in‐depth analysis of our current state; (2) Action Plan for Auburn Business @ 50; a document providing the detail behind achieving our goals set forth in the Strategic Plan; and (3) Roadmap – Auburn Business @ 50; a monograph on the process of becoming a great business school. We invite you to peruse the accompanying volumes.

Overall, the strategic planning process documents are meant to be living planning guides to shepherd annual College decisions towards long term strategic success. Annually, the
action items, owners, timelines, and metrics will be evaluated and potentially modified or deleted to keep us on the proper path. Annual review of our action items will measure progress and highlight where corrective action is needed. The strategic plan is not static. It will be modified when needed as we achieve our goals or discover that our goals should be
modified or redirected.

The strategic planning documents are the result of a collaborative effort of many different stakeholder groups, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and AU administration, among others. We welcome your feedback on our plan and our implementation thereof.