The DM Cohort – Reflections on the 4th Residency Session

With the first semester now over, I thought I would reflect upon the non-academic part of the Doctor of Management experience. I had come into the program not knowing exactly how the transition from work to academia would take. Everything I read and everyone I talked with provided me with knowledge but since I did not have the experience of a doctorate program under my belt, there was no ability for me to absorb what I was reading and hearing prior to the start of the program. This phenomenon is called “absorptive capacity,” the ability a person has of internalizing something new is dependent upon prior experience that lets one grab the newness and make it concrete. I would say that our cohort had little to no absorptive capacity as to accurately predicting and planning for the nature and extent of the workload. My comment is not limited to the quantity of the workload, no, what I am saying is the lack of an initial absorptive capacity to accommodate the shift in orientation from a practitioner to a scholar.

For me, the first semester was mostly adapting to the workload and the shift in orientation. What I had not initially focused on, but later in the semester did, was finding the time and the desire to get to know my cohort peers.

It is amazing how stereotyping or quick, initial assessments get in the way of how we see people. That limitation really hit home for me during the semester. But I learned a lot about many of my cohort peers and now see them in a human way, much more tactile and dynamic than at the start. I guess that is a natural enough evolution one goes through in personal relationships but in a group, that progression often takes a long time. In the cohort, opportunities for understanding each other are sped up and my eyes have really been awakened.

One of my favorite Star Trek – The Next Generation episodes is when Picard and an alien (a commander of a ship like Picard) are unwillingly placed on a deserted planet by an “advanced” civilization to test these two individuals. They spoke different languages, of course, but haven’t you always seen an entertainment show where everyone speaks and converses on the same language (either English or subtitled to a language)? This episode attempted to be more realistic. Meaning was transmitted back and forth between Picard and the alien in English (so the audience could understand the words) but the structure of the words spoken by the alien was like a Thomas Pynchon novel. The alien spoke in metaphors from the history of his world. These metaphors produced inferences for the alien about what he and Picard should or should not do but Picard had no idea about how the inferences connected to reality. This created a tremendous amount of a different type of phenomenon, “uncertainty absorption” for Picard, he had no idea what the alien meant through the stories told because the alien did not provide the data at the level Picard needed to understand. Picard therefore had to fill in, or absorb, a lack of understanding with guesses.

The alien kept telling Picard that “your eyes are not wide open” meaning Picard did not understand. Eventually through experimentation in interpretation, Picard eventually built a small vocabulary to understand the metaphors; he discovered the primer that allowed him to understand meaning. Finally, Picard’s “eyes were wide open,” as the alien said to Picard, like my eyes have become.

Adrian “Zeke” Wolfberg, DM Class of 2013

DM Alumni Reflections on the DM Experience [Part 3 of DM Alumni Study]

When we asked alumni to look back on their time in the DM program, we received a wide range of responses, but inevitably their reflections took them back to the relationships they formed in the program – the relationships with the members of their cohorts and with faculty.

The cohort, in particular, received a good deal of attention in the interviews. The quality and diversity of backgrounds of the members of the cohort struck many immediately upon entering the program:  

“What makes the case program what it is, is the quality of the cohort. When I was first introduced I was amazed at the quality of the person that was there.”

This was the group that DM alumni spent three years and hundreds of hours of discussion.  Relationships that were formed were strong, and a number of alumni credited the support from members of their cohort was critical to their completion of the program.

“The high point is the quality of the faculty and the peer group ? interesting people, hard?working, smart… I believe I learned as much or more from the peer group as I did from the profs.. .”

It is clear from the interviews that the quality of the faculty is critical to the DM experience. Faculty were praised for empowering and challenging the students and for opening their intellectual horizons.

“The instructors and teachers were committed and excited. Not what others have experienced with other schools ? lack of energy and such. I never experienced that in the program. I like the commitment… all of the instructors did a super job and the administrators were always available. They were all there to help you get through the program.”

In addition to the cohort and the faculty, the curriculum was also generally well-received.  The first year is particularly important because it excited and stimulated DM alumni in a way that is completely new to them. Many reported that the first year was one of the most intellectually expansive points of their lives. In the words of one alum:

“Year one was absolutely amazing … the intellectual stimulation was extraordinary. Like I’ve died and gone to heaven…  The first year was an intellectual high?point.”

Although the first year packed quite an impact on the alumni, many appreciated the expansive, cross-disciplinary elements of overall program.  The appreciated being “knocked” out of their “comfort zones.”

“Most of us were disciplinarily thinking and [the curriculum] forced you to walk through an entire environment that was replete with all of the subjects but that you could not afford to dally on any one subject for too long. Each one of those things left a mark so that I could remember where they were and go back to them."

Of course, there was a constant tension between the stimulation and the workload. DM alumni indicated that the DM program was an unbelievably busy period in their lives, and that they were not necessarily prepared for the scholarly workload. As one alumnus indicated “It was extremely stressful because all of us had full time jobs.” Some came expecting a similar workload to their masters experiences and they were surprised with the amount of work the program required.

“The Case program challenged us to work hard and work well. It wasn’t there to weed us out, but was not soft…. That’s the hallmark of a quality academic program. I was treated as a serious person.”

Nicholas Berente is a former faculty member of the doctorate of management program (now an Assistant Professor with the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia).  Dr. Berente interviewed alumni from the first decade of the DM program.  This blog is the third of five parts based on those interviews. Part 1 addressed why DM alumni decide to pursue a doctorate and part 2 summarized their reasons for choosing the Case program. Subsequent blogs will address: (part 4) the impact of the program on their thinking and (part 5) the impact of the program on their careers.

Aubrey Webson: Empowering the Blind through the Africa Forum

More than 20 million people in Africa are blind or partially sighted and in need of assistance, yet they often have nowhere to turn. Dr. Aubrey Webson (DM 2002) is changing that. He is actively focusing on putting the institutions in place to address the needs of Africa and to empower individuals.

One way that Dr. Webson advocates for the blind in Africa is through IDP’s “Africa Forum” that he founded. The Africa Forum is the only continent-wide conference on blindness. It meets every-other year since 2003 and has been attracting 400-500 attendees. The next Africa Forum is scheduled to take place at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration on July 3-8, 2011.  (See:http://www.perkins.org/idp/africa-forum/).

Dr. Aubrey Webson has recently been appointed as the Director of Perkins International, where he is responsible for strategy and operations of the organization and its work with partners in 65 countries. He formerly held executive positions with Sight Savers International, Helen Keller International, and the Caribbean Council for the Blind.  He has also served as Adjunct Professor or guest lectured at Wheelock College, East Nazarene College, Boston University, Boston College, the University of South Africa, the University of Vender, and the Uganda College of Special Education.  In addition to the Doctorate of Management studies, Dr. Webson received bachelors and masters degrees in non-profit management (as well as a graduate certificate in organizational development) from the New School of Research in New York.  He has also studied criminal law and business management at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.

Why do DM Students Choose Case? [Part 2 of DM Alumni Study]

As part of our five-part series of blogs based on interviews with alumni from first decade of the Weatherhead DM program, this blog summarizes some of the reasons those alumni gave for choosing Case.

Of course, there was no single factor that alumni offered for their decision to join the Weatherhead DM program.  Alumni typically offered a combination of reasons. First and foremost in many of the interviews, however, was the point that the school is accredited with a strong reputation – it was imperative for many alumni that they attend a rigorous and well-respected program. Because Weatherhead’s was the pioneering program of its kind in the U.S., many business school deans from around the country were familiar with the Weatherhead program, understood its distinctive merits, and recommended the program.

A number of alumni insisted that it be a quality program with a good reputation. One indicated that she did not want to “buy” a degree, but instead earn it. Many alumni insisted that they chose it because the program was truly rigorous and intellectually challenging. Some contrasted the Weatherhead program to “light” executive programs that abound:

“I chose Case because of the reputation. Other programs were “degree mills.” I wanted some cache, if you will.” (GB)

Another reason many chose Case was because of the practical, cross-disciplinary focus. As one executive alumnus indicated, “I never made a monodisciplinary decision in my life.” (KR) The Weatherhead DM program is intentionally cross-disciplinary and crafted for executives with a great deal of experience. The curriculum is not an extension of MBA education, per se, but rather a mind-opening integrative experience intended to inform practice. One alumni commented on how he almost gave up looking for a practice-focused doctorate until he heard about the Weatherhead program:

“All schools were focused on problem of theory ? not practice! I spoke with several universities and almost gave up and my last call was [a prestigious Southeastern university] and the assistant director said he came from Weatherhead… then I called a retired executive vice president about Weatherhead and he said that it is the “Mecca of applied research studies.”(EA)

Further, many indicated that the quality of both the Case faculty and the quality of the members of previous cohorts were testaments to the strength of the program.

Beyond the rigor, reputation, and cross-disciplinary, practical nature of the DM program, many indicated that key reasons they chose Case included the combination of three practical factors: (1) it enabled them to continue working full-time; (2) they could complete the program in 3 years; and (3) it was conveniently located. Each of these were particularly important, because most DM alumni indicated that preserving time was critically important to their busy and accomplished lives. The Case program provided a unique way for these alumni to continue accomplish something special while at the same time balancing the many priorities that they juggle in their daily lives.

Nicholas Berente is a former faculty member of the doctorate of management program (now an Assistant Professor with the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia).  Dr. Berente interviewed alumni from the first decade of the DM program.  This blog is the second of five parts based on those interviews. Part 1 addressed why DM alumni decide to pursue a doctorate. Subsequent blogs will address: (part 3) their reflections about the program, (part 4) the impact of the program on their thinking, and (part 5) the impact of the program on their careers.

Matt Gymer: Innovating the Future of Healthcare

North Carolina’s Novant Health, one of the country’s leading integrated health networks, recently tapped Dr. Matthew Gymer (DM 2007) to be its Corporate Director of Innovation.  In this role, Dr. Gymer is charged with finding new ways to innovate around established medical practices, with the goal of providing “ the most remarkable patient experience, in every dimension, every time.”

To do this, Dr. Gymer is building cross-disciplinary labs where a variety of diverse health care stakeholders can convene and explore patient care and innovation.  Novant Innovation Labs bring together a variety of disciplines in addition to medical experts and patients, including architects, artists, psychologists, marketing specialists, equipment manufacturers, and software developers.  According to Dr. Gymer, “for most healthcare organizations and particularly those associated with the research universities, innovation in healthcare is mostly around the transfer of intellectual property (IP). At Novant, our innovation model extends best practices beyond IP, to include innovation around patient care and business processes that support our clinical work. Coordination of health care and delivery across the patient care continuum is the basis of our innovation model.” By “patient continuum,” Dr. Gymer is referring to the different levels of medical attention people need over the course of their lives, including acute episodic care, regularly planned visits, wellness, preventative medicine, and self directed care. Novant Innovation Labs rely on design methodology to bring many elements of business process change to the coordination of care delivery. The labs are also engaging in organizational development to enable transformation.

Dr. Gymer believes many of the ideas that he was exposed to during the DM program are directly applicable to his work.  In particular, he uses many of the principles of “appreciative inquiry” (developed at Weatherhead) in his organizational development practices.  He is hoping to host an appreciative inquiry summit in the future to innovate around patient care.

In a broader sense, Dr. Gymer indicates that his DM training have enabled him to tackle such a complex endeavor. “It is more than just an educational experience, it changes the way you view the world, and the way you compose your professional and personal life. You learn the value of ‘reframing’ problems... The quantitative and qualitative skills and tools that we learn are invaluable to problem solving in a rapidly changing global economy.”  These skills are particularly important to Dr. Gymer’s work: “It really works. As a practitioner and leader, bringing scholarly rigor to transformation activities is a competitive advantage as we design a sustainable innovation practice.”

Dr. Gymer entered the DM program as a university financial executive, and since graduating the program has worked as an executive for a large bank and as an independent consultant to companies and government agencies. In addition to his DM degree, Dr. Gymer holds a Bachelor of Arts from The College of Wooster, Masters of Arts from Harvard University, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.

Getting Situated: Thoughts after the 3rd Residency Session

The comedian, Steven Colbert, has a segment on his comedy show called “Word of the Day.” I would like to talk about a few words that came up this session that really had an impact for me.

The Doctor of Management program places an emphasis during the first semester on getting one’s research question in focus. As my topic has moved from very broad and integrative to something narrow and manageable, all of us have been advised that when we tell the story of our research interest we need to “situate the research within the academic literature.”

I know what all the words mean in this phrase except for “situate” within the context of this phrase. Situate has a physical dimensionality to it. “My chair” is situated amongst all the other chairs in the classroom such that it is close to the front of the room. So, how are ideas situated? I recall during the first two sessions of the program of the need to situate our idea within the research literature but until this third session I really had no concrete idea what “situate” meant in the academic sense.

Our research methods professor, Tony Lingham, asked us to describe our research topic in a few sentences. He then replayed our topic back to us but in a way that showed explicitly how the specific topic was embedded within a larger, simpler set of concepts and how, in kind of a story-telling fashion, one moves from framing a broad category and eventually drilling down to the specific issue of one’s interest. This may seem obvious to me now but it was anything but obvious until Tony turned our language into academic language.

Another word or phrase is “tipping point.” In the mainstream literature, we have read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point. Our theory professor, Richard Boyatzis, uses tipping point as an element within his Intentional Change Theory, a theory about sustaining change at any level of human organization. One of the key issues is how one moves from a negative to a positive emotional orientation. This is where tipping point is situated. I finally understood the mechanics of tipping points in Richard’s context: to move from a highly charged emotional state (or any heavily committed state whether technology or intellectual or emotional) the leverage to make that move has to be something neutral, not highly charged in either direction and something that people can use to swing in the opposite direction.

Lastly, another word is “democracy.” Our culture and world politics professor, Eileen Doherty, asked the class to reflect on the readings for the 3^rd session. Our team came up with a very interesting observation: people from different countries have different perspectives of what democracy means. This observation served as an exemplar for other concepts, that everything political or cultural is relative depending on the context of situation, that is, how the issue like democracy is situated within the broader set of complex historical and present conditions.

And like Steven Colbert says, “situated,” and that’s the “word of the day.”

Adrian (Zeke) Wolfberg
DM Class of 2013
23 Oct 2010

Why do DM Students Pursue a Doctorate? [Part 1 of DM Alumni Study]

People who apply to the DM program are already accomplished individuals. They are typically highly-educated executives who have achieved a great deal in life. The typical DM candidate is already employed, has many career options, and is financially stable. So we asked them – why did you decide to pursue a doctorate at this point in your life?

Responses varied widely.  Some were in it to pursue the credential, others for a challenge. Some pursued a doctorate in order to transition to academia, others to research something that would inform their practice. Alumni typically had many reasons for pursuing the program.

The biggest reason that many DM alumni had for pursuing a doctorate at this stage of their lives involved the “credential” itself. But the credential meant different things for different people.  Of course, some wanted to teach at a university, and for others it was a lifelong dream to get the credential – in some cases because a parent had a doctorate, or they left a PhD program unfinished at some previous point in life. But others dealt with doctors or scientists every day, and these folks felt that a doctorate credential would give them more credibility. Consultants saw the credential as a differentiator. In one noteworthy example, a successful alumni was attempting to encourage young African Americans to pursue continuing education, and realized that he should be a better role model and pursue an advanced degree himself:

“Here I am promoting education for young people and I need to promote my own education myself… as I was giving speeches… I recognized that I want to go beyond the masters… ”(HA)

Although some emphasized the credential, others emphasized the substance of the program in a variety of ways - including using the program as a means for obtaining in-depth knowledge or expertise in a particular topic. A good number of DMers had a very specific thing that they wanted to study and saw the program as a way to properly study or learn about the domain.  To become a “thought leader” (GM) in a particular subject.  In the words of one alumnus:

“I had a question that was making me itch and had to find a way to scratch it. I wanted to give structure and language to the process of generating answers to my questions” (TC)

Not all alumni were so specific in the reasons to pursue a doctorate, but instead as an opportunity for personal enrichment. These alumni saw doctoral studies as an open-ended means of transition or as a way to broaden their intellectual horizons. Some were dissatisfied with the intellectual challenge or heft of previous studies, others saw it as an opportunity to continue studies they found enjoyable; to continue on a course of “lifelong learning.” Perhaps one alum captured this view best when she said

“I wanted to shake up my own marbles.”

Nicholas Berente is a former faculty member of the doctorate of management program (now an Assistant Professor with the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia).  Dr. Berente interviewed alumni from the first decade of the DM program.  This blog is the first of five parts based on those interviews. Subsequent blogs will address: (part 2) why they chose the Weatherhead DM program, (part 3) their reflections about the program, (part 4) the impact of the program on their thinking, and (part 5) the impact of the program on their careers.

Baptism by Fire: Reflections of a DM Presenter at AoM

"Your dependent variables make no sense," he said.  

"Excuse me?" I asked, pivoting to look at the older gentleman who challenged the model I had just drawn on a makeshift board. Knowing that I couldn't count on a whiteboard or a projector, I had hand-carried to Montreal large sheets from a Post-it Easel Pad, together with colored markers, so that I could draw my model as I described my work and bring it to life.  

"Your dependent variables are arbitrary.  They represent accounting concepts and aren't very good measures of performance."  He spoke with firmness and certainty, with the confidence of someone who had no doubt of the veracity of his perspective.

The room was quiet.  There were at least 75 people, in a room arranged to create a makeshift circle at the center, and I had just presented my quantitative research on leadership's impact on innovation as measured by financial performance.  Truth be told, I was quite proud of having collected very robust financial statistics on a wide array of public companies as my dependent variables. I was baffled by this response.

I took a moment to pause and collect my thoughts when another person interjected, defending my choice of revenue growth and EBITDA growth as a measure of performance.  And soon, the voices bounced back and forth.  My model and my research was, for the next few minutes, the topic of vigorous debate on the measurement of performance and the proper outcomes of innovative behavior.  

After the session was over, several people sought me out and we continued a discussion of my work, where I intended to take it next and how it was connected to other research in the field.  My challenger came over to introduce himself, and to give me some more thoughts and some reactions.  I still disagreed with his assertion, but we had a good conversation, and he ended by giving me excellent advice on the development of variables in a well-drafted paper.  

"As a journal editor, I can tell you that we send papers back if they aren't extraordinarily well defended.  So I encourage you to take my advice.  By the way, I really like the first part of your model. You are on to something very interesting."  With that, he left.

All the while, a colleague from the DM program was standing nearby, incensed on my behalf that this man had, in essence, picked a fight with me about my hard work, and in a room full of strangers! 

But frankly, despite my concern at the essence of his comments, I was surprisingly exhilarated.  My research struck a chord with enough people that a meaty and interesting conversation ensued from my presentation.  Having just attended a symposium on a related topic presented by the known scholars in the field, my work excited as strong a response as theirs!  How best to feel like you've arrived than to have your work discussed and debated - even deflated!  

In my career, I've presented to lawyers and to for-profit and non-profit executives, to family members and to strangers, to friends, to colleagues and to children.  So, in theory, presenting at AOM should be "just another" chance to talk to a group.  But it's different.  Both highly structured and completely unstructured, AOM is like nothing I've ever encountered before.  In my experience (I've presented twice now - my qualitative paper in 2009 and my quantitative paper in 2010), no two presentations are the same, so to be prepared is to be willing to simply go with the flow.  And the responses are all over the map - from enthusiastic interest to arms-crossed disdain.   But perhaps the most intriguing aspect for me was listening to and watching other papers being presented, many from long-time and well-known scholars, and knowing that my work could go toe-to-toe with theirs.  This is the beauty of the DM and its ability to take a group of willing practitioners and afford them a language and a methodology to pave the way to enter that formidable process known as AOM.  

So who was that man?  When I shared the experience with Kalle Lyytinen, Director of the DM Program, he laughed.  He knew exactly who the person was: a known luminary in the management field, the senior editor of a distinguished A-level journal.  And furthermore, Kalle wasn't worried in the slightest that he hadn't liked my dependent variables - he was impressed that he had liked the other parts of my model!  

"Well," said Kalle, "it's time to write this paper up and send it to his journal!"

Presenting at AOM is not for the faint of heart.  It's as crowded and nutty as one might imagine of a conference with over 10,000 attendees.  But amidst the crowds of students and newcomers, there are deeply experienced and seasoned scholars, whose lives have been dedicated to the study and dissemination of social phenomena, large and small.  And for a brief few minutes, although I had no idea who he was, one of them was discussing my work. 

Ann Kowal Smith, DM Class of 2010

Residency 2 - The Train Has Left the Station

At the close of my second residency as a student in the Doctorate of Management program, just three weeks since the first, I barely see the person I was then. The train has left the station. Bon voyage, I say to myself!

 So what is different? For one, my language is changing. Now, I can see what a theory looks like and understand its value. A simple statement perhaps yet now I know how to find them. They are gold.

 I feel like a gardener at harvest time, perhaps in the spirit of Andy Van de Ven's Engaged Scholarship. Every conversation with faculty and upper class students is a "listen for" precious theories about the world that these colleagues find dear to their hearts that might be relevant to my research topic, asking who is that researcher who developed the theory and what is the title of their work. Everything I read, same thing.

For another, my cohort class, my peers who are on the same train, is helping me feel at home with being myself and I am learning how to appreciate them as they go through their journey. I am coming to believe that we are providing each other a psychologically safe space as we venture into new territory.

To the group of students from the non-profit/public sector, our gathering continues to feel special to me. Our language and values are a bit different than for-profit management and this venue provides me with additional touch points with experienced gardeners in the program.

 All the support staff from the computer technicians, to the library staff, and the program staff seem to cater to every need as if they can anticipate and respond in the subtlest of ways, like what I would image it would be like riding in the train's first-class cabin. I greatly appreciate their service.

 The train has indeed left the station.

Adrian (Zeke) Wolfberg, D.M. Class of 2013, 11 September 2010

Adrian (Zeke) Wolfberg is a Supervisory Intelligence Officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C. He is interested in exploring what creates the underlying orientation (the propensity) in the individual mental and organizational collective consciousness that allows us to be responsive to situations, make shifts to see things differently, to synthesize, to be mindful of what is going on.

Thomas Garvey, DM Class of 2000, named Director at Baldwin-Wallace College

A press release was sent out on September 3, 2010 regarding Tom Garvey's new position at Baldwin-Wallace College.  Tom is an alumnus of the DM Program, Class of 2000.  His research in the DM Program focused on issues around parental choice of elementary schools within the Cleveland Catholic Diocese and how those choices affect the financial policies of diocesan schools.   His complete thesis is available online from Digital Case, Case Western Reserve's online repository at

  http://digitalcase.case.edu:9000/fedora/get/ksl:weaedm08/weaedm08.pdf

Below is the press release from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.

Thomas Garvey, CPA, DM, of Westlake has been named Director of the Accounting MBA Program for Baldwin-Wallace College. 

Garvey will oversee the recruitment and enrollment of students into the accounting program and will work with area businesses and accounting firms to create internship and employment opportunities for them.  In addition, he will work with faculty to review and assess the accounting curriculum.

 "Tom brings over 30 years of experience to B-W in the healthcare and insurance industries, as well as prior experience in teaching accounting at the college level," said Peter Kelly, chair for the Division of Business Administration.  "He has impressive work experience that includes serving as an auditor at Arthur Young & Co. and has held senior-level executive positions at Willis of Ohio, Inc., and Immediate Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.

 Garvey earned his undergraduate degree and MBA from Cleveland State University.  He earned a doctorate in management from Case Western Reserve University.

His professional memberships include the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants.  He is a volunteer for the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges and a member of Wyse Advertising, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan Investment Advisory Board.

Garvey succeeds Roger Grugle, who retired in June after 23 years at B-W.

Baldwin-Wallace, founded in 1845, was one of the first colleges to admit students without regard to race or gender. An independent, coeducational college of 4,500 students, B-W offers coursework in the liberal arts tradition with over 50 academic programs. Located in Berea, 12 miles from downtown Cleveland, B-W offers students the cultural, educational and business advantages of a major metropolitan area.

Eric Woychik Finds Enron’s Trading Practices Result from too Much Market Certainty

According to the classic view of market competition, if all participants in the market had perfect information, prices would naturally be forced downward by those market participants. However, Enron traders and their ilk had virtually perfect information about their market and about the actions of other traders.  The result was collusion, gaming, and artificially inflated market prices.  In many ways, what happened was the opposite of what was supposed to happen according to the classical view.

In an extraordinary example of practitioner scholarship, Eric Woychik (DM 2006) drew upon the work of Nobel Laureate Robert Aumann in his analysis of Enron's trading practices.  In his analysis, Dr. Woychik combined quantitative and qualitative forms of data analysis which included previously unreleased internal documents and emails.  His overarching finding is that it is precisely because of the widespread, near-perfect information available to traders that tacit collusion and market gaming occurred to artificially drive up prices.  Dr. Woychik argues that solutions that introduce greater uncertainty to the trading environment - such as strategies to reflect actual demand - would do more to drive down costs than perfect information or unwieldy levels of oversight.

Dr. Woychik has been actively involved with the electric industry for over three decades and has published research in each of those decades about trading practices.  He is currently exploring electric industry reform policies, including future electric industry policies and regulation, particularly to enable clean energy and smart grid resources to be used comparably with traditional fossil energy sources.  He is contributing to a forthcoming book, Smart Grids: Infrastructure, Technology, and Solutions, Stuart Borlase, Editor (CRC Press), and is an ongoing speaker, expert witness, and conference participant.

Dr. Woychik is Managing Director, Strategy Practice, and Electric Industry Lead for Black & Veatch Corporation's Management Consulting Division. He was previously Vice President and Senior Director of Development for Comverge, Inc., and for many years was the President and founder of Strategy Integration, LLC.  Over the last 30 years he has working with a wide variety of stakeholder interests in 20 countries and for more than 50 utilities in North America on electricity markets, regulation, and demand-side technologies. In addition to his DM from Weatherhead, Dr. Woychik holds a B.S. in Environmental Planning and Policy Analysis from U.C. Davis, and an M.S. in Economics from New Mexico State University.

First Residency Reflections of a First Year DM Student

I have begun the journey to earn a Doctorate of Management at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management and have just completed my first residency in Cleveland, Ohio.  It is difficult to find the words to express myself. If I were a poet I would be able to convey the range and intensity of my observations and feelings. Because I am not a poet I need to borrow a metaphor to convey what I feel.

I read a science fiction story by Ray Bradbury a long time ago and have seen the movie many times.  The story, called Fahrenheit 451, is about a society that bans books; no one is allowed to read.  I ask you not to dwell on the literalness or darkness of the story, that's not the point I am trying to share.

At the very end of the movie the protagonist - Montag - has gone through a journey from darkness into light. By creating this dichotomy Bradbury is able to set up Montag's explosive discovery of freedom. This feeling of exhilaration is beyond his expectations. He feels at home ready to carry on a tradition of passionate intellectual pursuit with those around him. It is a full and unexpected breath of fresh air.

 Adrian (Zeke) Wolfberg

D.M. Class of 2013

 Cleveland, Ohio

21 August 2010

Kalle Lyytinen enthusiastic about DM presentations at AoM 2010

 I just returned from the 2010 Academy of Management (AoM) Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada. The Weatherhead School of Management's Doctor of Management (DM) alumni and students overall had 17 paper presentations and won 3 best paper awards in three different divisions. Their presentations were well received and deemed both rigorous and relevant--demonstrating that students of the DM Program span the boundaries of practice and academia and engage in management-related practitioner scholarship that is theory driven, uses  rigorous and credible research methods, and is at the same time well anchored to the problems and realities of management.  One of the best and most rewarding experiences for DM faculty who attended the meeting was the pride, confidence and enthusiasm that our students showed when they interacted with other management scholars and participated eagerly in the debates in symposia, paper sessions and design workshops at AoM.

 The AoM Meeting included a couple of sessions that dealt with the status and challenges in doctoral education--some of them directly addressing the issues of educating "practitioner scholars" in "executive doctoral" programs, or other various programs that are specifically targeted to executives who wish to go  beyond their Master's education to receive a terminal degree.  Representatives from top tier schools, including some deans and faculty, criticized these programs, claiming a lack of rigor and academic quality.  When enlightened about the research intensity, relevance, and quality of the DM Program, and when informed about the high number of papers presented at this year's Meeting by DM students and alumni (17 papers accepted leading to an acceptance rate of c.a. 90% within the DM Program), they expressed incredible surprise at this remarkable achievement. Their reaction is important because it shows that, although recognition of the DM Program is gaining ground, the Program continues to be an "unknown gem" in many areas of the academic world.  We have to effectively promote the Program more broadly so that the "big school" deans and faculty will appreciate the DM Program and the impressive contribution of wisdom and expertise our alumni and students make to the academy.

 As Director, I am taking steps to actively engage in getting the word out about our "unknown gem." I do hope that our alumni and current students will do the same. Comments, such as those I pointed out from deans and faculty at the Meeting, illustrate that often simple stereotypical assessments of executive doctoral programs are made.  A common thought is that all of these programs are the same, as if all MBA programs or MD programs are alike. With this in mind, we need to spread the word to both the worlds of academia and practice that the DM Program is not only rigorous and challenging, but that it also meets all the criteria of a high-quality doctoral program focusing on research and the generation of new knowledge that matters in management.

 I look forward to hearing comments from DM Program alumni and students about their experiences at AoM this year, your experience in the Program, and your ideas about the status and marketing of our program.

Kalle Lyytinen

Director, DM Program

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.

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.

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

On April 9^th and 10^th 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

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

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.

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

The DM class of 2010 represents the 13^th 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

Rob Hilton Advising U.S. Policy on Low-Income Long-Term Care

Rob Hilton (DM 2005) was one of thirty thought leaders invited to Washington D.C. in May in an effort to tackle the tough problem of how to best care for low-income seniors over the long term. The American Association for Housing and Services for Aging (AAHSA), together with the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Health and Human Services (HUD), convened the first "Affordable Senior Housing with Services Summit" to strategize about a policy framework for affordable human housing for low-income seniors.

Dr. Hilton is President and CEO of the MacGregor Foundation (http://mcgregorfoundation.org/), and he was invited to this exclusive summit primarily because of some pioneering research his organization originated and supported on the topic.  According to Dr. Hilton, it was the DM program that opened his eyes to the power of such research as a guide to practice, and inspired him to invest in the research project. 

Dr. Hilton was a banking executive before transitioning to the field of non-profit long-term care.  He joined the EDM program as a way to gain a broad expertise in this domain and focused his research on long-term care.  According to Dr. Hilton: "The value of the actual research I did has proven itself again and again.  In part due to my understanding of senior housing from the point of view of seniors... I have been able to anticipate trends in needs of aging seniors."  Further, the program enabled him to handle complex information in his field: "I can pick up any academic article and understand it...  I'm not intimidated by the tidal wave of information I'm exposed to."

Dr. Rob Hilton spent 27 years in the banking industry before joining MacGregor, most recently as the head of Key Bank's Global Treasury Management Group.  Dr. Hilton holds a BA in American Studies and Architecture from Wesleyan University and an MBA in International Finance from the University of Chicago.  He also sits on the Alumni Advisory Board for the DM program.

Stephan Liozu Studies the Disconnect between Research and Practice of Value-Based Pricing Orientations

There are three common orientations for setting prices: cost-based, competition-based, or value-based. Academics have long extolled the virtues of value-based pricing, but practitioners continue to focus primarily on cost or competition based practices.  There is a major disconnect here.  Industrial pricing is a ‘problem of practice' desperate for the help of a practioner-scholar.

Enter Stephan Liozu (DM 2012).  Through his work with theWeatherhead DM program, Stephan is investigating why this disconnect between research and practice exists and what it means, and he's starting to get some answers.  Liouzu indicates that the adoption of value-based pricing is not as straightforward in practice as one might think.  A shift to value-based pricing is often challenging for organizations to implement, in part due to the limits of human interpretation.  Value-related issues are "difficult to define, conceptualize and measure" and the adoption of value-based pricing requires more than just a simple decision on the part of a manger, but often "requires an organizational transformation." 

Stephan was a keynote speaker for the Professional Pricing Society's Annual Pricing Conference in Chicago on May 7, 2010. His one-hour presentation "Pricing Orientation in Business Markets: Gap between Theory and Practice" focused on the problem of practice in the area of the adoption of value-based pricing in small and medium industrial firms. This work was based on his first-year work in the DM program.

According to Stephan, "I came in the program with some basic idea of what my research interest was. The first year of the program was a challenging and rich journey... The DM program is intellectually powerful and enriching from the get go. A year into the program, I realize how much I have accomplished with the support from great advisors and faculty. Presenting my first paper in Chicago in May 2010 as a practitioner scholar confirmed the novelty and relevance of my research project. This program has awakened my interest in academic research that is grounded in practice and interdisciplinary in nature."

Stephan is President & CEO of Ardex / W.W. Henry Company, a manufacturer of high performance building products. Stephan has masters degrees from Institut d'Administration des Entreprises and Cleveland State University, and has also completed Harvard Business School's General Management Training Program. He is a visiting professor with the Unversite Toulouse, where he teaches international business-to-business pricing strategies.