During classroom and industry-site presentations, executives from the firms share company memos and financial statements, detail management strategy and shed light on emergent business practices. It's part of the MBA program's adopt-a-course initiative, which "provides a real-time business backdrop to theories contained in a professor's notes," says marketing professor Arun Jain, whose marketing strategy course has been adopted by global toy manufacturer Fisher-Price.

As part of its role as adopter, Fisher-Price's senior vice president for worldwide marketing will on Oct. 10 give students an insider's look at the company's new-product lab, where marketing executives observe children's responses to toys.

Other companies, and courses they have adopted, are Xerox, strategic management; Price Waterhouse, financial accounting; Marine Midland, managing human resources; Lucent Technologies, management information systems; IIMAK (International Imaging Materials), corporate financial management; Westwood-Squibb, operations and service management; Blue Cross and Blue Shield, probability and statistics; and Graphic Controls, behavioral and organizational concepts.

Adopt-a-course began as a pilot program last year with two companies participating, according to Katherine Gerstle, assistant dean and administrative director of the MBA program. By next year, the school hopes that all 12 core

MBA courses will have been adopted. "Students really appreciate the life that adopt-a-course breathes into their studies and the way it helps them grasp the actual application of business theory," says Gerstle.