We're working with the company to learn about their issues, their problems and their ways of doing things. Then we design a curriculum that helps address where they have needs.

This is a chance for our faculty to get deeply involved in the company and see what they teach in the classroom applied to actual problems.

Our executive MBA program in Dallas began as a training program at Texas Instruments.

In one company I looked at, printing problems would be solved by the receptionist. If it was too complicated for her, she would just ring up the company that sold it – IT staff would probably have done exactly the same.

Wal-Mart's cautious comments are warranted. Even though its problems are not company-specific, it does bode badly for the profits and sales across the retail chain in the back half of the year.

not plausible unless the company has problems operating, which doesn't appear to be the case at this point.