Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Karie Willyerd’s Book on How Millenials are Transforming the Workplace

By 2014, according to Karie Willyerd (DM 2003), 47% of workforce will be comprised of "millenials" (those people born after 1979) and their presence will dramatically revolutionize the workplace. They have grown up with the Internet and are accustomed to using a particular set of tools and come to the workforce with a particular set of expectations. 
Those organizations that understand this shift will prosper, and Dr. Willyerd (with her co-author Jeanne Meister) detail many of the ways that globalization, changes in demographics, and the explosion of social media are transforming the workplace in their new book : The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today(http://www.the2020workplace.com/). 
The book is based off of their research into 300 organizations, which involved surveying over 2,200 professionals and 50 in-depth case studies.  The book follows up their successful Harvard Business Review article (http://hbr.org/product/leadership-the-next-generation-hbr-spotlight-artic/an/12914-PDF-ENG?Ntt=willyard). The book is enjoying tremendous success - already in its second printing only months after its release.
According to Dr. Willyerd, the DM program was essential preparation for this book - not only by its focus on research methods, but also because of the way it transformed her thinking: "The DM program changed the way I think.  It opened me up to the macroshifts; to step back and understand the impact of globalization.  That's just a different level of thinking... I think fundamentally I wouldn't have conceived of the book without having that personal thinking journey."
Dr. Karie Willyerd has held executive positions with Lockheed Martin, H.J. Heinz, and Sun Microsystems, among other organizations, and is now the CEO of Jambok, an on-line learning environment for small to medium sized businesses.  She holds a bachelor's from Texas Christian University and, master's degree in instructional and performance technology from Boise State University.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Ron Fountain Named MetroHealth System Board Chair

Ron Fountain (DM 1999) has recently been appointed the Chair of the MetroHealth System Board of Trustees for a term that runs through 2013. The MetroHealth System is among the nation's largest public medical institutions and one of the largest healthcare providers in Ohio.  Dr. Fountain has served on the board since 1997.
Dr. Fountain completed the DM program in the early years of the program - as part of the second cohort - and he believes the program enabled him to "think at a far bigger level."  According to Dr. Fountain, the DM program was "the most profound intellectual learning experience that I've had.  It focuses on practice, it focuses on the creative side of practice... It's not that I know a lot more, I probably do, it's that I ask better questions today. It has provided me with a new way of thinking ... it was freeing and liberating and quite amazing." 
Dr. Ronald Fountain was formerly the Dean of the School of Business at Walsh University. Prior to that he was a senior executive for a variety of organizations, most recently as the managing partner and co-founder of Capital Acceleration Partners, LLC; a value creating business investment firm located in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Fountain's experience includes many years as a commercial banker, an investor-relations executive, and as an executive officer in an investment management firm. In addition, he served as the CFO of two large public companies and was a Principal in a turnaround management-consulting firm. In addition to his DM degree, Dr. Fountain earned an MBA from Case's Weatherhead School in 1983.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Videos from DM Alumni Week: Design, Complex Systems, Sustainability and a Variety of Practitioner-Scholar Presentations

On April 9th and 10th the Weatherhead Doctor of Management program hosted an Alumni Weekend and videos of the presentations from that event are now available on the following YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E833EB249DF928D9
Among the videos on this channel, Weatherhead's own Richard Buchanan leads a thought-provoking discussion about designing.  Dr. Buchanan is one of the thought leaders in the field of design, who has joined the Weathehead School of Management in an effort to lead the convergence of managerial and design perspectives in organizations and in society in general. (See "The Convergence of Management and Design" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpKJSvKrk7o .)
In another presentation, award winning Case Medical School professor, David C. Aron, discusses a particular view of the world rooted in "complexity theory." He presents complexity theory in an altogether approachable manner and argues that this view is a useful way to think about issues relating to contemporary complex systems, such as the health care system. Dr. Aron addresses a variety of examples from health care, including AIDS and diabetes, as well as other fields. (See "systems Thinking, Complexity Theory and Management" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqWJPSpWGyg.)
Roger Saillant is the recently-appointed director of  Weatherhead's Fowler Center for Sustainable Value, and has been referred to as the "LeBron James of Sustainability."  He leads a discussion on environmental sustainability, and indicates that while many contemporary sustainability commentators preach gloom and doom, the way toward progress involves positive thinking and empowered action. (See "Finding our Chon" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocp8NmTFbHk .)
Other videos include presentations by DM students and recent graduates:
- Bernard Bailey (DM 2011), "Board Level Strategic Decision-Making: Process characteristics and Context" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHyALgcuM4Y
- Ron Eastburn (DM 2011), "Post-Decision Surprise: How Bankers Manage the Unexpected"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lz9BV0kKb0
- Amol Kharabe (DM 2011), "Enterprise Information Systems and organizational Agility"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0sBaCqoZcQ
- Will Oliver (DM 2010), "Impact of Microfinance on the Socioeconomic Status of the Poor"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AIDiioRqIY
- Kathleen Roche (DM 2011), "Managing the Mission Through Times of Adversity"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44smfGsKuhU
- Sridhar Seshadri (DM 2010),   "Developing Contextual Ambidexterity in Academic Medical Centers" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmiZxbj6S0
- Ann Kowal Smith (DM 2010), "Where and How of Exploration and Exploitation"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0svgIdJEgKQ

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Jimmy Schwarzkopf Shows how ‘Entrepreneurs in Residence’ can Lower VC Transaction Costs for Seed Funding

Venture capitalists (VCs) and entrepreneurs need each other, but many promising companies go unfunded when they otherwise might have succeeded with just a bit of early-stage "seed" funding.  It is simply cost prohibitive for VCs to identify and manage investments in too many small early-stage investments.  According to Dr. Jimmy Schwarzkopf (DM 2007), this is one of the reasons why seed investments make up only 4% of total VC investments in the U.S.
In Israel, however, where there is a common practice of interning "entrepreneurs in residence," VCs spend double that amount - 8% of total investments - in seed funding.  In a recent paper published byVenture Capital,  Dr. Schwarzkopf and his co-authors study draw upon the notion of "transaction costs" from economic theory and describe how entrepreneurs in residence reduce transaction costs associated with seed investment for VC organizations.  They do this in a number of ways, including by attracting high quality opportunities, reducing deal selection costs, and reducing contracting costs.
According to Dr. Schwarzkopf, the Case DM program trained him "to put a little discipline in [his] research."  Dr. Schwarzkopf was already an international thought leader in information technology before joining the program in 2004 - he is one of the world's foremost experts on the Israeli IT industry.  He indicated that he joined the program because it offered a level of quality that he did not find in other programs: "there are a lot of PhD programs where you buy the degree, I couldn't do that... I liked the three paper format.  It gives you the tools you need to understand and do good research."
Dr. Jimmy Schwarzkopf is Research Fellow and Managing Partner for STKI (http://www.stki.info/), a consulting firm specializing in IT market research and strategy analysis. He has worked for a variety of IT organizations for more than 30 years, including META Group, Digital Equipment, and Andersen Consulting.  He has also founded several IT startups and attained the rank of Major in the Israel Defense Force.  Dr. Schwarzkopf received Bachelor's and Master's degrees in systems engineering from the University of Central Florida and a Master's in systems science from Carnegie Mellon University ("all but dissertation" in the CMU PhD program).
The article is titled "How entrepreneurs-in-residence increase seed investment rates," and was published in Volume 12 (January 2010) of Venture Capital:http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a918228843&db=all

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Zara Larsen Hosts Radio Program about Leading Change

Zara Larsen (DM 2007) is all about change. Personally her career path has involved a good deal of change - she started as an engineer, became an executive, and is now a radio talk show host and consultant.  As an executive, she has led major change efforts for a number of global organizations, and she is deeply interested in the way that leading change efforts changes the leader.  Her research, consulting practice, and Tucson radio program all focus on issues around leading change.
The radio program, "Circles of Change: Where Your Path is Created by Walking on It," is in its third season - running every Saturday 9-11:00 a.m. PST (12:00-2:00 EST)  on 104.1 FM "The Truth", Tucson News Talk FM, and simultaneously webcast on www.1041thetruth.com. She brings on a variety of guests, including authors, executives, political figures, and an assortment of thought leaders and change agents to discuss change.  During every interview she asks "How have you changed by leading change?"  Over the years she has completed almost 200 shows and over 250 segments are available on the show's website: http://www.thelarsengroup.com/home.html.
The DM program was instrumental in her choice to pursue the radio show. According to Dr. Larsen, she intentionally joined the program as a means by which she planned to change her life: "I needed to shake up my own marbles ... Deliberately knowing I wanted not just to transition but to transform and I didn't know what I would become at the end of the program." Although she was accepted into a number of top doctoral programs, she chose the Case program primarily because of the outstanding faculty, the cohort-based learning experience and the strength of her fellow students.  According to Dr. Larsen, the key value of the program is "to learn how to reflect." Overall, the impact on her thinking is "huge, but it is hard to articulate it all... it takes a couple of years to see what you have become and are becoming."
Dr. Zara Larsen is President of the Larsen Group, and has formerly held executive positions with Raytheon, Hamilton Sundstrand, Pratt & Whitney, and United Technologies, among others. In addition to her DM degree, Dr. Larsen holds a Bachelors in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, a Masters in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, and a Masters in management from Stanford University (Sloane Fellow).  Her research in the DM program focused on the social capital of leaders and the impact on large-scale change.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Beyond the MBA: 15 Years of Weatherhead's Trailblazing DM Program

The DM class of 2010 represents the 13th cohort of DM graduates; the total number of alumni now exceeds 160. What started as an innovative educational experiment back in 1995 has proved to be a sustainable success.
I truly believe the DM Program, now with an associated PhD option, represents the future of doctoral education in management. It addresses the need for management education beyond the MBA: a doctoral degree designed for the practicing executive rather than for the aspiring academic. It has been a surprise to us on the faculty that in spite of the program design, more than half of our graduates have ended up with various types of academic appointment. That outcome demonstrates that practically oriented scholarship is valued not only in the world of management practice but also in academia.
As the saying goes, "there is nothing more practical than good theory." The fact that the DM Program has had more student papers presented at the Academy of  Management than any other doctoral program in the world during the last few years speaks volumes. It reflects positively upon the caliber and capabilities of our students, upon the value of truly transdisciplinary education and research that is rooted in problems of practice  rather than academic disciplines, and upon the quality, relevance and rigor of the instruction provided. This is practitioner scholarship at its best.
Bo Carlsson, Professor of Economics at Weatherhead, is the former director of the DM Program