Meet our instructors – Today: Dr. José Muñoz

Dr. Muñoz, you were MBA Program Director at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California for seven years. What is your professional background and what is your expert focus?

I spent the first 35 years of my professional business career in a variety of C-level (CEO, CFO) and consulting positions in the international business area. This has allowed me to visit, conduct business, and live in 81 countries. My C-level career culminated in becoming CEO of a multi-national seafood company, which today has sales in excess of US$1 billion. I have consulted for a variety of international Fortune 1000 companies.

Now, my second career is full-time MBA-level teaching with active consulting projects as well. My teaching career is now over 15 years. I ran the MBA program at my University for 7 years, but gave that up because I wanted to teach and not administer, and the administration was pulling me out of the classroom. I have now reached the peak of the academic world having been promoted to full Professor.

My education consists of my Bachelor of Science in Finance, my Master of Business Administration in Finance, my doctorate (Doctor of Business Administration) in Accounting, and I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the USA. Because of my varied professional and educational backgrounds, I teach Managerial Accounting, Finance, International Business, and Strategy, in addition to the courses I teach at SIBE.

You have been associated with Steinbeis School of International Business and Entrepreneurship for many years. What subjects do you teach at SIBE?

So far I have taught Methods of Empirical Social Research and International Management. In addition, I have served as primary examiner (thesis adviser) for five students. All of this work has been done online.

How long have you been teaching online and what do you like about teaching online?

I have taught online for about 10 years now. Teaching online exposes me to students all over the world that I would never get to meet and get to know. For example, I have taught, and gotten to know, students from these different countries, to name a few; Germany, Lebanon, Israel, Spain, Portugal, Tajikistan, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Canada, Peru, and many parts of the USA. This is what I really like about teaching online.

Do you think it is difficult to teach online, when you cannot meet your students in person?

I don’t think it is difficult to teach online. HOWEVER, it is very different from the traditional face-to-face classroom where most faculty members start their teaching careers. As you mention, the difficult part is not being able to meet the students and interact with them face-to-face. I try to overcome this by scheduling at least 2 Skype-type sessions with each student during the course. This helps me to get to know the student individually, and helps them to get to know me. It has been an effective way of overcoming the invisible wall of online teaching.

Why would you recommend SIBE´s online programs, the dual degree M.A./MBA (USA) and the M.A. in General Management Online? What is the return on investment for our alumni and their companies?

SIBE’s online programs have many things to offer to the student. The dual degree allows the student to obtain two master’s degrees at the same time from Europe and the USA. It exposes the students to SIBE’s truly diversified international faculty. It allows the students to get to know students from all over the world and in that way to build their international networks. The SIBE alumni data clearly shows a valuable ROI for the students who successfully complete their master’s programs at SIBE.

How do you think, we prepare our students for future leadership positions?

The critical component for students learning about leadership is for them to pick the thesis topic that will meet the academic requirements of their master’s education, but just as importantly, be a significant enough project to make a difference at their place of employment. They demonstrate their leadership by taking control of this project and delivering both the academic and professional values to their university and employer.

How does this reflect in the management projects of our students? Can you give examples?

This is reflected perfectly by the thesis topics they have chosen, studied, delivered, and implemented. For example, projects I have seen include strategic expansion planning into new geographical areas, implementing a mobile banking system for micro-finance in Africa, and establishing a strategic plan for a local consulting company to become a leading company in Central Asia. You can see from the examples that these projects all require the rigid thesis academic research, but will result in significant projects that are extremely beneficial to the employer companies and that will make a difference for them.