Successful companies are characterized by corporate leaders who craft winning business strategies, mobilize employees to thoroughly execute these strategies and develop systems that measure the value created.

This is the collective conclusion of years of corporate strategy consulting and research conducted by Mark Frigo, DePaul University’s Eichenbaum Foundation Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Leadership, and Joel Litman, DePaul Clinical Professor of Business Strategy and director in equity research at Credit Suisse First Boston.

Yet, Frigo and Litman discovered that few business schools teach strategy, execution and valuation in an integrated way. That’s why the duo have teamed up with Keith M. Howe, the Scholl Chair in Finance at DePaul, to launch The Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.

The center offers a new MBA concentration in strategy, execution and valuation, as well as executive seminars and research into strategy that will benefit the business community.

Co-directed by Frigo and Howe, with Litman among its executives-in-residence, the center has been generating considerable buzz on campus and in corporate circles since it opened its doors July 1. Courses in the new MBA program concentration have been generating long waiting lists. And based on high attendance at past public seminars on strategy, execution and valuation presented by the center’s founders, seats are expected to fill quickly for their upcoming workshop for executives, “Strategic Financial Analysis for Effective Organizations,” at the DePaul Center Sept. 26.

Frigo and Litman, who edit a monthly column for the magazine Strategic Finance, said the center and its programs are popular because their approach differs greatly from traditional business school programs on the subject.

“Most business schools don’t teach strategy and financial analysis together, even though a solid grasp of financial analysis is key to determining what represents great strategy and executing strategy,” Frigo said. “We present a more holistic way of thinking about strategy and execution by fully integrating financial value creation into the discussion.” The fact that both he and Litman are certified public accountants – an unusual credential for teaching strategy – makes this approach even stronger, he said.

The center’s MBA and seminar programs teach the most recent strategy and execution frameworks used by top corporations, including the Balanced Scorecard, Value-Based Management, Real Options Analysis, Cash Flow Return on Investment, and Return Driven Strategy.

The latter model, Return Driven Strategy, was developed by Frigo and Litman and focuses on a set of guidelines for designing, developing and evaluating strategy to drive superior financial performance. Return Driven Strategy is explained through a framework in which the highest goals – ethically maximizing financial value, fulfilling unmet customer needs and dominating large, high-growth markets – are buttressed by a hierarchy of interrelated activities that companies must follow to become superstar financial performers.

Frigo and Litman, who have solid academic credentials and extensive strategy consulting experience with major corporations, designed the model based on years of detailed research and real-world application. The research examined the commonalities among great corporate performers over periods of 10 years or more to determine “best practice” strategies. The center also teaches Return Driven Strategy as a foundation for designing or refining Balanced Scorecard frameworks, which measure a company’s non-financial performance areas – such as customer satisfaction, internal business processes, learning and growth – as well as financial performance.

The center’s emphasis on such advanced and proven strategy frameworks are the reason it has received such a positive reception from students and the business community, said Kellstadt Dean Arthur Kraft. “DePaul has long been successful in building a well-regarded curriculum in our highly ranked MBA program,” he said. “This new center carries on that tradition by driving the leading edge of business theory and application in strategy, execution and valuation.”