Business Sponsors
The following is a list of companies who have sponsored candidates in The Management Institute:
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Abbott Laboratories City of Salem Community Housing Partners Corp Guynn, Waddell, Carroll & Lockaby Lewis-Gale Medical Center Landis & Gyr Powers, Inc. Lanford Brothers Company, Inc. Lionberger Construction Company Maid Bess Corporation Member One Federal Credit Union |
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith P1 Technologies |
For additional information, please call (540) 375-2429 or e-mail sgibbs@roanoke.edu.
Richfield Living Teams Up with The Management Institute at Roanoke College to Sponsor Leadership Training
By C. Michael Smith
Strong leadership is the cornerstone of any successful business. Leaders motivate others and promote adaptive and useful changes in organizations that are imperative to long-term success.
Recognizing the importance of strong leaders in business, The Management Institute (TMI) at Roanoke College has been providing management and leadership training to Roanoke area businesses for over thirty years. The mission of The Management Institute is to provide the Roanoke Valley business community with the opportunity to obtain timely, informational, and practical leadership training for their key managers. This highly-rated program, held every spring on the campus of Roanoke College, has graduated hundreds of individuals who regularly exhibit and promote the fact that participation in the program has successfully expanded their leadership knowledge, skills, and potential.
Maintaining a quality program, like The Management Institute, is not without costs. The program must regularly plan for expenses such as: materials, space, catered events, technology, faculty, and other program personnel. In order to meet these expenses, and preserve the high-quality experience that the Valley has come to expect of The Management Institute, an individual’s participation in the program requires a tuition payment of $1,550 (in 2020). Tuition for the program is generally paid by the sponsoring organization, and according to the businesses who regularly send candidates to the program, the benefits of the training far exceed the cost of tuition.
However, not every Roanoke Valley organization is so fortunate as to have the ability to cover leadership training costs. Many small companies, civic organizations, and non-profits could truly benefit from the training provided by The Management Institute, but simply have no possible way to afford the program’s modest tuition.
This dilemma was recently recognized by a regular sponsor of The Management Institute, Richfield Living. For years, Richfield has regularly provided their firm’s emerging leaders with the opportunity to participate in The Management Institute. However, this year, they decided to share that opportunity with others who might not be able to afford to participate on their own. The firm’s Interim CEO, Cherie Grisso, and the Senior Director of Marketing and Philanthropy, Lisa Clause contacted The Management Institute to discuss the idea of a scholarship donation. Their thinking was that this scholarship, provided by Richfield, would pay for a Roanoke area non-profit to send an up-and-coming manager to participate in this year’s program. Everyone agreed on all sides of the discussion – the “Richfield Scholarship” was a fantastic idea!
The news of the scholarship spread quickly, and a number of candidates applied for the opportunity. After analyzing the applications, Richfield Living selected an employee of Healing Strides of Virginia, an Equine Assisted Activities and Therapy (EAAT) provider to participate in The Management Institute “on them”. As the recipient of the scholarship, the Healing Strides employee is currently an engaged and energetic participant in TMI’s 2020 program.
Like the Healing Strides manager, there are likely thousands of other individuals in the Roanoke Valley who have found themselves in leadership roles without any formal leadership training. Further, due to the nature of their organizations, they have no means of affording a quality leadership-training program like The Management Institute. Fortunately, there are firms like Richfield Living who recognize this need and desire to do something about it. Thanks to Richfield Living, at least one area non-profit, with no funds available for leadership training, has been given the opportunity to participate in one of the best leadership training programs that the Valley has to offer. Thanks Richfield.