New Executive Education Advisory Council To Provide Business Communities' Perspectives Council Provides Business Leaders a Seat at the Table By Jeanne Spreier r. David Springate is the go-to guy at The School of Management (SOM) for on-the-job education. The associate dean for Executive Education programs creates long, short, broad, narrow, degree, non-degree - you name it, he does it - opportunities for people in the workforce. Having spent 11 years developing programs, he knows that "getting people's perspectives is very important," and he long has sought counsel from many sources both in and out of academia. Last spring, Dr. Springate formalized the business community's role in the creative process with the start-up of the Executive Education Advisory Council. Leaders from a cross section of businesses in the Dallas area were invited to join, and the 37 executives from healthcare, telecommunications, government, law, retail and consumer goods concerns met for the first time in May. "Our programs are wide-ranging enough that we need an advisory council," Dr. Springate says. "We've always had a faculty committee representing the academic interests... We've always had input from School of Management program directors." It was time, he says, for the business community to get a seat at the table. Clear-channel communication Ron Robinson is the new council's chairman. He is the president and CEO of the Metroplex Technology Business Council, a professional trade association by and for high-tech companies. He foresees several benefits deriving from the new group. The council provides the business community a channel for input to leaders of the Executive Education program, Mr. Robinson observes. It also provides a means that helps SOM programs keep up with the ever-changing needs of business. The standardized venue, he says, gives both business leaders and school officials a clear method to establish and promote communication. Constant updates The School of Management has long benefited from a 50-member school-wide advisory council active in planning, promoting, recruiting, fundraising, and providing non-academic expertise to all SOM efforts. The Executive Education Advisory Council, more narrowly focused, has four interest points. Members will determine the evolving needs of the business community, recommend new Executive Education initiatives, suggest curriculum enhancements, and increase public awareness of Executive Education programs already in existence. Among businesses, one of the council's goals, as Dr. Springate outlines them, is to increase awareness of the depth of Executive Education offerings. When most people in the work world think of updating their knowledge, it's the Executive MBA (EMBA) that comes to mind. But, The School of Management offers four Executive Education degree programs - including two online, a medical management MBA partnership program with U.T. Southwestern Medical School, several non-degree certificate programs and countless custom-designed, site-specific, continuing education programs developed for corporations. "We tend to work closely with businesses out there," says Jay Phillips, director of professional development. "It's very important that we have a constant update on what is needed by the business community. ...I can't think of anything worse than an MBA going out (to find a job) and finding they're ill-prepared." Trend detectors Dr. Springate and Mr. Phillips predict the council will enhance the ability of faculty to develop informal, one-on-one relationships with business leaders that allow creative free-flowing discussions in which ideas percolate. These sorts of interactions will, Dr. Springate hopes, put UTD in the position of being ahead of the academic pack in providing relevant executive education. Casual discussions can unveil a trend before the participants even know the trend exists. "That's what we're hoping to pick up," Dr. Springate says. He says two hot topics in business schools were developed this way - the issues of entrepreneurship within the corporation and supply chain management. Quicker and more efficient access At the same time, chairman Robinson says, the council provides a forum for educators to "look at business schools around the U.S. and bring to the business community [new exec ed programs] to see if they would be a good idea [in Dallas]." His Metroplex Technology Business Council alone represents 350 companies, about 70 percent of which are outside the Telecom Corridor that neighbors the UTD campus. The Executive Education Advisory Council gives all those companies, in a manner, a voice in letting The School of Management know what's important in their daily life. "The business community is turned inward on business development, particularly in times like these," Mr. Robinson says. "When they look up, there just isn't enough time to effect changes." This council gives them "a quicker and more efficient way to access UTD," he says. To get the Executive Education Advisory Council off to a productive start, Dr. Springate and Mr. Robinson are developing a questionnaire for members. "We anticipate asking for the members' ideas of how such a committee can best help and, perhaps more importantly, what their views are on executive education today," Dr. Springate says. Growing closer, responding more nimbly The School of Management's Executive Education program, which prides itself on its nimble response to local business needs, has benefited from this sort of input before. "One example is our program in Emergency Management and Preparedness," Dr. Springate says. "The opportunity was suggested by a Federal Emergency Management Agency manager and translated into an effective program eight months later. A second example is our Project Management program. It was started six years ago when Raytheon asked about a program for technical managers. We brought one into being six months later. Normally academic programs have a longer gestation period. "The fact that we keep closer to the user or community is, of course, the secret," he says. And it's no secret the new Executive Education Advisory Council will expand those contacts exponentially. Executive Advisory Council Member Company Charlie Bahr Bahr International Rodney Carter CEC Entertainment Edward Casteel Alcatel USA Rusty Cone Alliance Systems Terry Conner Haynes and Boone, LLP Kevin Cox DFW International Airport Peter Dicksson Ericsson, Inc Charles Eisemann Investor Joe Eulberg 7-Eleven, Inc. John Fowler Gold Creek Technology Elizabeth Frank Intellectual Capital Holdings James Harvey EDS David Holmberg Cole License Brands David Johnson Business Analyst Bob Kaiser WageWorks Roman Kikta Genesis Campus Richard Kneipper Provider HealthNet Services, Inc. Joseph Lake Ambassador (Ret.) Lonnie Martin White Rock Networks Paul Mason Fujitsu Transaction Solution, Inc. Charles Matthews Texas Railroad Commission John Oehlke CocaCola North America Rob Ressler Hitachi Consulting Ron Robinson Metroplex Technology Business Council/RCC Tom Royer Christus Health Dennis Simmons SWACHA Om Singla Centrix Larry Solomon Cadbury Schweppes Frank St. Claire Anigme Richard Sunderland Airborn, Inc David Teegarden Trinity Mother Frances Health System Jim Watson STARTech Foundation Randolph Wheatley Nortel Networks Nathan White State District Judge Ken Wilcox FritoLay Linus Wright Search Executive/Educator Jim Young Teleportec