Taking Care of (Small) Business
When Suzanne Dombrowski enrolled in the Stevens School of Business online MBA program to improve her skillset, event planning was not on the list.
Inspired by her experience at the program’s unique immersion weekend, Suzanne planned, organized and executed the recent Emerging Technology Leadership Forum, which featured Stevens faculty and other experts discussing artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented and virtual reality and the Internet of Things (IoT).
“What we have to offer here at Stevens is a testament to the school,” she said. “The school provided me with enough information that I want to put that out there, and there are some people who don't have access to that information.”
With more than 20 years of experience in the financial industry, Suzanne decided to pursue an MBA to grow professionally. The program hasn’t just helped her learn, it has given her the confidence and knowledge to create something of her own.
“I felt the need to reskill myself,” she said. “I looked around at different schools, and my husband, who is a Stevens graduate, said to me, ‘Go to Stevens.’ I applied, I'm here and it's the best thing I think I did.”
The program’s cohort model, the opportunity to work alongside other full-time professionals and the curriculum have all contributed to her success. Each class allowed her to discover new concepts and subjects, including operations and supply chain management, and the integration of AI into the curriculum has vastly improved her research capabilities from an early career experience pulling articles out of physical magazines.
“I have to honestly say that I take a little piece of something with me from every class, from the leadership classes to the decision making to operations management, which is something that after 20-odd years in the financial industry, I’ve never even thought about,” she said. “It was really great getting at least that introduction to operations management because I didn’t know where that supply chain information came from or how that process worked.”
The online MBA program’s immersion weekend, which brings online students to the Stevens campus for in-person sessions, was a turning point for Suzanne. The weekend featured a session on the future of work that explored how AI and other emerging technologies are reshaping industries.
“It was like information overload, but it was great because this was stuff that I had a clue about but didn’t have all the information on,” she recalled. “It was about AI and all the emerging technologies, and what the future of work is going to look like and how different it will be moving forward.”
Beyond the classroom sessions, immersion weekend gave Suzanne the chance to connect face-to-face with classmates and professors she had only known through a screen. The weekend included a networking event with the dean, faculty and fellow students.
“I loved immersion weekend,” she said. “We created friendships over that weekend that were just forming over the year before. The networking is key. It’s the chatting when you’re in a room with people sitting over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee that you can’t do during class.”
One insight from that weekend stuck with Suzanne in particular. While large corporations were actively adopting AI and emerging technologies, small businesses were being left behind. As a small business owner herself, with a father and sister who are also entrepreneurs, the gap felt personal. She decided to do something about it, organizing the Emerging Technology Leadership Forum at Stevens to bring those conversations directly to the small business community.
“Small business is really the backbone of America,” she said. “They either find it too expensive or too scary. I want to ensure that small businesses don’t feel that way and can implement this.”
To build the event, Suzanne joined the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce, attended their breakfast meetings and built interest in the forum from the ground up. She assembled a panel that blended academia and industry, recruiting Stevens faculty alongside business professionals with hands-on experience in AI and blockchain.
Her goal for the forum was to put people at ease. She wanted attendees to walk away understanding that technologies like AI, IoT and blockchain are tools to be embraced, not feared, and to leave with a clear next step for their own businesses.
“Pick a form of technology that’s going to work for your business and learn about it,” she advised. “Read about it. Find out how it’s going to help. These things are out there. They’re not going away, and we have to adjust to working with them.”
The forum was just the beginning. Suzanne recently launched her own consulting business, helping companies understand and adopt AI and other technologies. It’s a path that grew directly from the skills, knowledge and confidence she gained in the business analytics and intelligence concentration.
“I’m going to go out there and make my own way,” she said. “I can do this by consulting, going out to help people and seeing what they want to learn about AI or whatever works for their company.”
