Getting to the next level
Parker Hannifin’s William G. Eline on what an MBA from Kent State University means to his career
Early in his career at Parker Hannifin, Vice President and Chief Information Officer William G. Eline saw that those at the company who were advancing into leadership positions had one common denominator: a postgraduate degree.
“I wanted to move forward as much as I could professionally,” Eline says. “I believed getting my MBA would be the best way to do so.”
Eline was looking to balance working full time during the day and going to school at night, which would require attending a college that was close. He also wanted an AACSB-accredited program. He found both at Kent State University.
Eline started his MBA degree part time in 1985 and graduated in 1988, requiring him to take summer classes in addition to traditional fall and spring semester classes.
“It took up a pretty significant portion of my personal life,” Eline says. “The courses were graduate level, so there was a lot of case work to be done outside of class and plenty of research. It was a commitment, but it was something that I knew was very valuable to my career and the return from my investment in both time and money would be invaluable.”
Having worked professionally in a number of different positions, Eline applied his undergraduate studies to the business environment. The master’s program, however, helped tie things together.
“Whether it was lessons in accounting or information systems, the master’s program took what I knew and brought it to the next level,” he says.
Eline’s classmates were also working professionals. He was surrounded by people much like him; people who had taken their undergraduate studies and applied the teachings in a professional environment. During class, they shared unique ways of confronting business challenges that he says offered another way to solve problems that he otherwise might not have considered. He was able to take what he learned the night before and apply it to a work situation the next day.
“The experience formed a foundation for my thinking going forward that I couldn’t have gotten from just reading textbooks,” Eline says. “Learning from classmates who were also professionals tied all those disciplines together and made me a lot more knowledgeable about different subject matter, which I hadn’t experienced as an undergraduate.”
By coupling his work experience with more advanced studies, Eline’s analytical capabilities became more polished and balanced.
“I had grown my ability to work within different teams covering broad topics,” he says. “I was more up to speed with what a professional business leader should be thinking about and more focused. Those all came together as result of Kent State’s MBA program.”
Eline suggests that anyone who has an interest in business, whether working for a company or starting their own, and who wants to be considered a professional in their field should invest in the next level of learning and understanding by getting their MBA.
“It separates someone that is fundamentally sound from someone that is substantially knowledgeable in the profession,” he says.
