Michael L. McManus, Ph.D.

I have been taught all my life, from parents to teachers to mentors, that hard work pays off in the end. I followed the advice to this day and yet I understand that there are other forces at work as well… luck, the role of others, and certain golden moments which seem to be accidents, but later appear to be gifts. I have seen highs and lows in the lives of others and in my own. I have seen how fast time can fly and why now at my stage of experience it is important to focus on what is important, where to spend my time and where it could be wasted. Some of the choices are not easy. I perceive an urgency to set forth some statements of personal mission and to get more organized than ever to align my efforts for these critical causes. While I fully intend to go for these goals with unbridled fury, I hope to pay attention, as Buckminster Fuller said, to the stuff which comes in at 90 degree angles… there will be changes and surprises which cause us to adjust, we hope!

The planet has changed lots since I finished my formal education. The world of business is literally a “world business”, or maybe the term should be a “planetary economy”. There are new problems and new planetary urgencies which now impact b-school education everywhere. The equivalent of natural disasters on the planet in the business education world is a set of man-made problems now deeply embedded in higher education worldwide: overbuilt systems in the US and in other advanced countries; digital technologies which reduce time, effort and possibly scientific rigor; non-symmetrical systems worldwide; vast audiences that are unreachable or unable to afford the cost of education. A colleague in Asia pointed out that only a very small percentage of the total will ever be able to get on airplanes and have a foreign study experience.
When a professional discipline or field implodes because of its inability to deal with world forces such as these, it falls from favor, undergoes painful transitions, and may force metamorphosis to a new or lower form of its original good self. Wall Streeters and bankers worldwide are now undergoing this massive shakeout and shakedown. Higher education across the planet may be one of the next big sectors to undergo crises never seen before. I see that my own professional efforts, activities and projects must address the larger planetary economy issues as well as immediate local efforts on a daily basis. It involves me, my leadership, my venue, which is the California International Business University (CIBU), and what I choose to do each day, week, month, and year. This urgency has led me to conclude that my energies must address general causes and some specific career actions which align with my life purpose as a global educator and creator:

Critical Relevance… the urgent need to bring critical relevance, as I know it, to the increasingly irrelevant and jaded world of b-schools so that the customers (students) can get a fair value deal now for the future value of their investment in time, effort, and money.

A Challenging Perspective… the urgent concern for the use and possible abuse of knowledge in the business and financial world… at a time in which the planet is dealing in its larger context with potentially disastrous issues of world hunger, disease, senseless wars, terrorism and out of control natural disasters and economic crises.

Programs, Priorities and Central Projects… As a professional and leader in my chosen field of business school and university level international education, I will devote my time and energy to focused areas which matter and in which I have an actual chance to make a real contribution.

1. I am a global educator… I build bridges… and impact individuals, and that has a multiplier effect
2. I create programs and central projects to effectuate global education
3. I light the fire of the entrepreneurial spirit within each student
4. I must understand deeply the cutting edge of my field to be able to speak credibly as a spokesman-leader, and so I can convey the true value of knowledge to my students
5. I will navigate my chosen institution’s (CIBU) impact and growth in its category or ranking, as an institution with correct values for the planetary economy. This will necessarily encompass the positioning of the US and California as central and vital places for the combination of study, research, and application of frontier innovation.
6. I will articulate my message to make sure that hard working, leadership seeking, achievement seeking students can avoid the pitfalls of extreme self interest, elitism, and hubris
7. I will illuminate my students and our student body about the possibility of finding a central life purpose worth everything to pursue, and provide them with my own story and insights about how one might find this…
8. I will challenge the business school community about its collective responsibility for both the proper and improper, harmful uses of financial engineering and other business school influences on our society and the greater global economy.
9. I will challenge my colleagues to do the same.
10. I will challenge my students to lead and foremost to create useful projects, and to help others to do the same.

I reserve the right to update, modify, and enrich this statement in an ongoing way. There is an enormous amount I could write and may in the future to anchor my opinions and positions in empirical data. For example, I have used the words “proper” and “abuse” in this essay, and I realize that much more should follow about what actual values might look like. In essence, this is subjective and everything starts with an opening challenge, and that is exactly what this is… subjective and very personal at heart. Just laying down what you believe and what you stand for and what you intend to do is an incredibly awesome and daunting challenge unto itself. My inspiration for this profound professional step comes from Jeffrey Bennett, Ph.D., the renowned astrophysicist. Dr. Bennett made his own personal mission statement public on his website www.jeffreybennett.com I had never seen anything quite like it. I realized upon reading it that this is a vital step in one’s own coming to terms with one’s life purpose. I encourage colleagues, students, and friends to consider taking this same step. We create our legacy with concrete actions in moments of utmost clarity and bravery. When you do this, I guarantee it’s a step of the toughest and most courageous kind.

October, 2008

I am really pleased and proud to announce the CSIM has become the California International Business University, with our new webpage: www.cibu.edu.

Why the change? We have grown up! Approaching our fifteenth year, students from 70 countries and counting, degrees at three levels (Bachelors, Masters, Doctoral), reaching depth of study and breadth of content. “ib” (international business) is the center of our name and the heart of the global economy, for which we prepare our students. We are one of America’s specialized universities, ever global in our reach and representative in our student body….located in one of the greatest places students could study….Southern California…San Diego!

Some FAQ’s au courant:

The global and US economy are intertwined and have soured. Should this be a reason to consider getting an MBA? My answer: There is more reason than ever to get the MBA degree today. The world needs increasingly astute business leaders….culturally experienced. Do not take the current market failures as a bad omen, but rather as a challenge to be one of the heroes who make good things happen in the world economy.

Business schools, a bad name? There are some, as I know from my personal experience, which are teaching and promoting the wrong stuff….degrees as cheap and fast as possible…couch-MBA orientation…wealth orientation…a test of a business school is the ratio of entrepreneurs to Wall Street and banking types that come out of its programs.

Business schools to take the hit in this economy? ….watch the big name schools, who produces the problem-leaders who disappoint, and unfolding scandals about the prestige-price ratios…

What is the biggest, baddest sign out there?…ego, reinforced by credentials, extrapolated by wealth and fame….a self-spiraling hubris that can make for a huge questioning of large versus small, famous versus modest, rich versus barely surviving. The entrepreneurs seem to be our big hope, not the Wall Streeters! And CIBU – small, holding on to the value of modesty, surviving well but far from rich, and promoting the entrepreneurial spirit that will guide the world in coming decades – intends to be a distinctive contributor to that hope!

Dr. Michael McManus

President

September 2008

CIBU has consolidated the gains from our accreditation, including changes in some administration staff, procedures, and infrastructure, notably the library resources. We had a splendid graduation this past June, 2008. I encourage you to have a look at the video of the ceremony on the website!

We are now have welcomed students from 67 countries and counting. The institution truly is one of America’s most international business schools. We look forward to a great year ahead of us with all-time enrollment increases and a significant change of name to the California International Business University….more to come on this big news!

Dr. Michael McManus

President

Our CIBU Mission Statement encapsulates a terse commitment to provide a valuable educational and professional preparation for the global business economy. We do our best to state our purpose in a few, concise words, politically-correct, timely, universal, and personal.

Lately, I have been writing on the theme of bringing a relevant personal dialog to globalism, and a sense of professional and personal psychology to the global business world.

We are in the business of bringing this message with clarity and zeal to each person in our educational community, every student in our classes, and many in or readership one person at a time.

CIBU is somewhat different. It is intimate, family, community, intense, focused. It has students from many highly different cultures and politics. All aspire to the degrees that are now globally universal and fairly similar (more similar than different) across most universities…the bachelor’s the master’s and the doctoral degrees. So what’s the quintessential ingredient that makes us different?

We differ from the basic premise of mass market higher education. We do not strive for economies of scale. We do strive for qualities of scale—small scale—we master the advantages of scale. We are not dependent on public support or funding…there are no public service mandates on us. We champion the individual, not the collective. We specialize in global teams, not cultural dominance of one style over all.

We are an American institution. We inherit the intellectual heritage of Ben Franklin, Henry Thoreau, the modest style of Abe Lincoln, the mental acuity of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. We embrace the cause of the yet-to-be-born entrepreneur hero. We will have graduates who build companies and some who build family and societal systems with integrity. We will have some who need others just to stand up. We hope we can be there to help.

Thus, the CIBU quality is one of utmost personal education. You cannot get lost in our system. You may choose to be shy, but you will have your chance to shine and be your own hero. And if you are a star, or if you want to be a star, this university will find you.

We are intensely committed to your personal journey with us. We are committed to preparing you to fly a million miles and be a global business star. We will teach you the points of the journey, the markers that we all have seen, but we want to show you how to deeply see and appreciate all the cultures and systems you will fly over at incredible heights and at incredible speeds. You will have lifetime memories that begin here. There are some that we cannot begin to understand until you begin the journey with us. They are bigger than anything you can now imagine. So, get ready, join us here at CIBU for an educational foundation for your career and the makings of the magic and miracles that only being here can bring. It will be among the best years of your life, day by day, one person at a time.

By Dr. Michael McManus, President, CIBU