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School of Business statement discussed at national seminar
February 24, 2005 | |||||
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KOKOMO, Ind.---The value statement of the IU Kokomo School of Business was studied as an exemplary document during a January Strategic Management Seminar offered by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). "It is an excellent statement that will provide a good model," wrote seminar facilitator Milton Blood, in notifying Dean Niranjan Pati, Ph.D., that IU Kokomo's statement was one of five selected for seminar discussion. The value statement was developed as part of the strategic planning process the School of Business launched in fall 2003. Initially developed by Professor of Management Thomas von der Embse, Ph.D., the statement outlines nine core values of the school's operations, such as collegiality, integrity, and stewardship. (The statement appears at http://www.iuk.edu/business.) "The compliment from Dr. Blood means a lot as he has managed AACSB's accreditation services since 1983," Pati said. "In addition, he was the prime architect of the new AACSB standards." Also in January, the AACSB International---e-NEWSLINE carried a "Dean's Corner" column written by Pati, in which he described how the School of Business has made strategic planning "a key weapon" for moving forward in times of declining university revenues. Schools of business face a seemingly endless list of challenging requirements, Pati wrote: ". . . [T]o introduce new programs, layer in new technologies, enhance faculty support, improve the quality of existing programs, improve access to programs, add fee-generating "entrepreneurial" programs, partner in consortium programs, phase out non-viable programs, bolster extramural and private funding streams, enhance graduation speed, improve student services, and increase the school's visibility." Using the time-honored business strategy of assessing SWOTs---Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats---the IU Kokomo School of Business has been able to plan its future, Pati wrote. That plan includes ideas for engaging internal and external constituents "to develop goals, objectives, action plans, and time lines---and then pegging players to each action plan," he stated. Pati suggested that schools rely on outside consultants or unaffiliated advisors to facilitate conversations among constituents in an unbiased way. "At our institution, it has been very gratifying to see how facilitated-brainstorming sessions generate unrestrained ideas, and how a normally quiet faculty comes out of its collective shell to take full advantage of a chance to contribute," he wrote. The complete column appears at http://www.aacsb.edu/publications/enewsline.
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