An Innovative Introduction to Business Course: Marketing the Skills That Marketing Majors (and Others) As Business Majors Will Need for Success

Abstract

When students graduate with a marketing degree or another business degree, it is hoped that they have acquired a set of knowledge and skills, learned in the business program, that will enable them to be productive employees. However, business people have voiced concerns about the skill levels of marketing and business graduates. This paper presents a marketing approach to the freshmen level Introduction to Business Course. The marketing goals are many, but can broadly be classified into 1) instilling the idea that students are business majors (not accounting or marketing majors, for example) and 2) delineating what requisite skills students will need in order to become marketable career candidates and productive employees. The course is described. Student reactions to the course are presented. The paper concludes with some discussion of the reasoning that went into the creation of the course.