New Centers of Relevance

Research and responsiveness move ahead in double time as SOM opens the
Center for Intelligent Supply Networks (C4ISN) and the Institute for
Excellence in Corporate Governance (IECG).

By Jeanne Spreier


Two new centers within The School of Management will strive to intertwine
the academic resources of The University of Texas at Dallas with the needs
of local and regional corporations. UTD's faculty and students get
face-to-face contact with the business community, and the corporate world
gains access to some of the best business management research taking place
nationwide.


C4ISN: Supply chain management has the ring of an arcane discipline, yet
its practitioners reach into every nook and cranny of business and
commerce. Their challenge is to make sure goods and services are available
when needed, with neither a shortage looming nor a surplus present.
Neither condition is good business; both cost suppliers and consumers.

Dr. Suresh Sethi saw that within the SOM's Operations Management area
research was perking along. But critical topics involving supply chain
dynamics needed to be plumbed. He and SOM Dean Hasan Pirkul agreed a
center would help UTD and the community. 

Dean Pirkul assigned Dr. Divakar Rajamani to establish the Center for
Intelligent Supply Networks (C4ISN). "Dallas is a great place to be," Dr.
Rajamani says. "In addition to improving the business process, many
[supply chain] solutions are technical solutions that rely on
considerations of software as well as hardware." The Dallas area is a
premier spot for software development.


Benefits all around

Syed Kamal, president and CEO of Gillani, Inc., a Richardson-based
software provider, saw immediately the value of partnering with the
center. Gillani's donation of a supply chain software package provides
students training on software used in major corporations. At the same
time, C4ISN's capstone project pairs students and industry, giving Gillani
access to bright young minds to help with short-term projects. "We wanted
a way to work with a local university," Mr. Kamal says, citing two
immediate benefits - a way to give back to the community and a way to
garner visibility for his corporation's name and product.

MindFlow Technologies also saw benefits to donating software and funds.
Srini Krishnaswamy, MindFlow's vice president-consulting, says students
will learn strategic sourcing best practices with his company's software
so that when they enter the workforce, they will be better prepared to
determine how to best attain efficiencies in purchasing and supply
processes.

C4ISN will benefit those who attend seminars as well as those who avail
themselves of the expertise of center faculty. Faculty experts, assisted
by graduate students, will develop supply chain research projects.
Graduate students also will benefit from opportunities to meet with
potential employers and work on real-life issues. 



Research with real-life data

Tom Holmen, Ericsson's vice president for operations development, says the
center fits neatly with one recent initiative. "I have been leading a
change management program to change supply processes worldwide and in the
U.S.," he says. "The center and what I have been doing relate directly."
Mr. Holmen says he can give SOM researchers "real-life data that UTD could
use to prove or disprove theories." But also, he anticipates, it will be
nice to see if what Ericsson does based on practical needs melds with
business theory.

Mr. Holmen hopes to be able to offer SOM students a place to test their
classroom expertise in the working environment of Ericsson through C4ISN. 

Many supply chain issues are pertinent in the Dallas area, Professor Sethi
says, including forecasting air cargo demands. It's just one topic upon
which he anticipates staff and students working.

Over the long term, Dr. Sethi, the Ashbel Smith Professor of Operations
Management, says he hopes to develop the existing concentration in supply
chain management into a full master's degree program. 


IECG: "It became apparent we have a problem. ... a corporate governance
problem. We've had a number of debacles with respect to listed companies,
such as Enron and Global Crossing," says Dr. Constantine Konstans,
director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance. "At the
heart of it was that corporate boards for many years have been the drawing
rooms where good ol' boys got together."

 Dr. Konstans, professor of accounting and information management, says
the new institute will provide programs "germane to corporate governance
... using a multidisciplinary thrust." Lots of such issues are swirling
around boardrooms these days, especially as new legislation, such as the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act, is approved. 

 IECG will address those issues in a series of one-day conferences. Each
eight-hour conference day will be preceded by a dinner the night before
that features a speaker who can lend expert insights on corporate
governance issues, Professor Konstans explains.

Supporting the IECG are three groups: UTD faculty; strategic partners,
which are companies that will provide speakers and specific expertise to
the IECG (see New Institute's Corporate Partners on page 14); and
corporate sponsors, which will advise UTD on the nature and scope of
programs and will suggest relevant topics. These corporations will provide
what Dr. Konstans calls a "reality check" of the IECG's work.


"Grounded in the realities of the marketplace' 

Skip Moore, a partner with Deloitte & Touche in the firm's Dallas office,
says his firm found appealing the marriage of academics, service providers
and large corporations (see Deloitte & Touche Joins SOM in New Institute
on page 16). IECG, he says,  is "particularly powerful and unique in the
marketplace."

 "As a firm, we were especially attracted to the IECG concept because of
the practical approach UTD plans to take and the fact that its programs
will be grounded in the realities of the marketplace," Mr. Moore says.
Deloitte & Touche is a strategic partner with the IECG. "UTD faculty and
management have been highly receptive to feedback provided by the
strategic partners and the marketplace in general." His firm was also
attracted to participate with IECG because of "the substantial research
capabilities that UTD has to offer," he says,


Professional development and research opportunities 

The IECG will serve multiple purposes, Dr. Konstans says. It will offer
professional development to those who serve in the world of corporate
governance, whether on a board or in an advisory capacity. IECG also will
generate real-life research opportunities for UTD professors as they
discover issues that drive discussions in America's boardrooms. And
finally, recurring themes will be transformed into student courses,
impacting the internal curriculum of the SOM.