Dr. Laurie Ziegler Named to Who's Who By Kristen Hurst School of Management faculty member Laurie L. Ziegler, Ph.D., is among nine UTD professors featured in the seventh annual edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers. Dr. Ziegler teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in organizational behavior as well as a graduate-level course in conflict and negotiation, leadership, social psychology of business and human resource management. The biennial Who's Who publication pays tribute to America's most-respected teachers. Teachers are selected by the more than 890,000 students listed in Who's Who Among American High School Students and The National Dean's List. The students are given the opportunity to nominate one teacher who has been most influential during their academic career. "My inclusion...is wonderful public recognition for me and for UTD," says Dr. Ziegler, who began teaching in 1988 after earning a master's degree in human resources and who joined the UTD faculty in 1993, the same year she earned her Ph.D. in business administration. A former associate dean for undergraduate studies in 1994, she was named School of Management Teacher of the Year. "I feel honored," she continued. "The Who's Who recognition helps to highlight that The School of Management is not only a nationally recognized research institution but [also] a place where students will receive an excellent education in a caring environment." Although Dr. Ziegler's classes are diverse in age, ethnicity and learning techniques, she tries to reach every student by staying current with young America's culture, bringing humor into the classroom and using as many different media as possible, including music or movies, to illustrate key concepts. "My greatest thrill as a teacher comes from the private recognition I receive from my students when they take the time to call, e-mail or write to me once they have completed my course or matriculated from UTD," Dr. Ziegler says. GLEMBA Director Recounts SOM Online Successes at Conferences Anne Ferrante, Ph.D., director of The School of Management's Global Leadership Executive MBA (GLEMBA) Program, participated in panel presentations about online learning at two prominent national management conferences last summer. In June, Dr. Ferrante led "Tailoring Courses to Student Learning Styles" at the Distance Learning Conference of the AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Organized in 1916, the AACSB International is a not-for-profit corporation devoted to the promotion and improvement of higher education in business administration and management; it has long been a top accrediting agency for bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting. In August, Dr. Ferrante was part of a panel called "Democratization of Education: E-Learning in a Knowledge Economy," that addressed online learning at the annual meeting in Seattle of the Academy of Management, a leading professional association for management scholars. Both organizations chose UTD's School of Management to participate, along with other long-standing bricks-and-mortar schools that now offer online delivery models. The School of Management is a member of two highly selective online learning consortiums, the Sloan Consortium and the Online University Consortium. "The UTD School of Management is accredited and offers high-quality programs with an effective use of online best practices," Dr. Ferrante says. "Online learning is still a relatively new phenomenon. We have been recognized for this, [whereas] some schools have tried and failed at this." Dr. Ferrante's contributions to the conferences were based on the GLEMBA Program's seven years of experience in online learning. "We have found one of the most critical success factors is to obtain a good fit between student profiles, learning outcomes, and the appropriate mix of academic and student interaction," she says. The GLEMBA Program features classes organized as cohorts, team-based learning, a blended on-campus/online learning model, and the use of interactive online technologies and teleconferencing. Dr. Ferrante points out that these features "are the key building blocks for an optimum teaching and learning experience for executive MBA students." "Flexibility matters," Dr. Ferrante says. If it were not for programs such as GLEMBA, "many working managers and professionals - because of work commitments, travel, or the need or desire for work and family balance - would be unable to pursue graduate education." In GLEMBA, Dr. Ferrante says, the effective use of technology to deliver a high-quality degree "makes the virtually impossible, possible virtually." Her presentation at the Academy of Management meeting also highlighted GLEMBA's development and effective use of virtual learning teams, an integral component in the program's learning design. Double Research Accolades Acclaim Professor Bass Acclaimed UTD marketing and economics expert Dr. Frank Bass has recently earned two top honors nationally recognizing his research contributions. In August, he was awarded the prestigious Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award for 2003 at an American Marketing Association (AMA) conference in Los Angeles. In May, the influential journal Management Science listed a research paper by Professor Bass among the top five most-cited papers published in its 50-year history. The Parlin Award, one of the oldest and most distinguished awards in marketing research, honors persons who have made outstanding contributions to the field. Recipients are either distinguished academics or practitioners who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and sustained impact on advancing the marketing research profession over an extended period. "It is fitting that Dr. Bass receive this singular honor that recognizes his leadership and contributions in the field of marketing science," Dr. Hasan Pirkul, dean of the UTD School of Management, said of the Parlin Award. "The fact that this is the second major recognition he has received in as many months is yet another indication of the major contributions he has made in his field." Professor Bass is the creator of the Bass Model, a mathematical model used to predict the sales and life cycles of various consumer products, including color television sets in the 1960s, wireless telephones and disposable diapers in the 1980s and, more recently, digital satellite radio. The model has earned him international recognition. It was the paper that Professor Bass wrote in 1969 introducing the Bass Model that Management Science named as the fifth most-cited on its list. Professor Bass's research was the only marketing paper in the journal's list of top 10 papers. The frequency with which academic papers are cited is one indication of the degree of influence the work has among scholars and other experts. "Receiving such recognition from a leading research journal like Management Science is both a high honor for Professor Bass and a strong indicator of the strength and quality of The School of Management faculty and the importance of the research they pursue," Dean Pirkul noted. Professor Bass received his Parlin Award in ceremonies at the AMA's Marketing Research Conference in Los Angeles on August 15. Founded as a memorial to Mr. Parlin, a pioneer of marketing research, the award was established in 1945 by the Philadelphia Chapter of the AMA and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in association with the Curtis Publishing Company. Professor Bass earned a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. The Eugene McDermott University of Texas System Professor of Management and director of The School of Management's doctoral programs, he is a leading operations research theoretician and practitioner. He has won numerous awards, including the Richard D. Irwin/American Marketing Association Distinguished Marketing Educator Award in 1990. Additionally, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) has created an award in his name, the Frank M. Bass Dissertation Paper Award, and he won an INFORMS Fellows Award in 2002. The Management Science rankings came less than six months after the magazine ORMS Today ranked the UTD School of Management sixth worldwide in research productivity in operations management and information systems from 1996 to 2002 (See "Significant Strides," MANAGEMENT Volume 6, No. 2, Spring 2003, 2-3.) ORMS Today is the membership publication of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences, the premier academic society for management science. SOM Staffer Receives UTD Employee Award Gayle Holt, the administrative services officer who works in The School of Management's office of budget and financial affairs, has received a Celebrate Achievement: Reward Excellence (CARE) Award from the UTD Staff Council. In receiving the award, Ms. Holt was praised for her consistent cheerfulness, "even though the challenges she faces are often less than cheerful." She was also lauded for her "wonderful professional attitude." Award recipients were honored in ceremonies in June. They received a certificate and an engraved clock to commemorate their contributions to the university. The award is given to a maximum of six employees twice each year by the council and is approved by UTD President Franklyn Jenifer to honor outstanding staff members. Professor Zhiang Lin Co-Authors Book on Stress-Resistant Organizations A new book co-authored by School of Management Associate Professor Zhiang "John" Lin, Ph.D., provides a scientific approach, based on computer modeling, to address issues of crisis management. Dr. Lin co-authored the 211-page research work, Designing Stress Resistant Organizations: Computational Theorizing and Crisis Applications, with Kathleen Carley of the Institute for Software Research International, School of Computer Science, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Professor Lin explains that computational organization theory is a relatively new and fast-growing discipline that utilizes computer modeling techniques (such as computer simulation) to extend or develop organizational and management theories. "The motivation for this book is closely related to our desire to provide a scientific, organizational-design approach toward a major issue in management: How can organizations maintain good performance even under crisis situations?" says Professor Lin, who teaches organization, strategy and international management classes at UTD. "This is an important research question, as today's organizations face increasingly complex and critical task situations." Dr. Lin and Dr. Carley's book is the third volume in the Information and Organization Design Series. Series editors Richard M. Burton of Duke University and Borge Obel, SDU-Odense University, Denmark, say that "Lin and Carley have made an important contribution along a number of dimensions that enhance our understanding of information and organizational design." Leadership Center at UTD Event Draws Dallas Area Execs A Leadership Center at UTD event drew Dallas area executives to hear an address by Texas Capital Bancshares Bank CEO and Chairman Jody Grant (1). UTD President Dr. Franklyn Jenifer (2, left) was among attendees as were philanthropist Mrs. Margaret McDermott (3, left) and Teleportec President Jim Young (3, right). UTD Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. Hobson Wildenthal (4, center) joined Mrs. McDermott in welcoming Mr. Grant to the Eugene McDermott Library's McDermott Suite, where the event was held. Attendees included Barbara Curry, TXU Energy senior vice president (5, left), and Claire Lewis-Martin, Alliant Marketing Solutions president and CEO (5, right). Leadership Center Director Jerry Hoag (6, left) greeted Dallas Morning News business columnist Bob Miller (6, right). Dean Pirkul Named GDAACC "Educator of the Year" School of Management Dean Hasan Pirkul was named "Educator of the Year" by the Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce (GDAACC) at award ceremonies August 13 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dallas. Dean Pirkul's award was among several given by the GDAACC to honor notable accomplishments by Dallas area Asian American entrepreneurs, businesses, community volunteers and educators. Pictured below, from left, are Amir Rupani, GDAACC vice chairman and chairman of the awards banquet; Vanessa Castagna, chairman and CEO of J.C. Penney Stores, Catalog and Internet, who was keynote speaker at the event; Dean Pirkul, and Anant Jain, GDAACC chairman-elect. SOM Students Place Third in Business-Simulation Competition Working as a team, two recent School of Management graduates, Mike Zaccarella and T.J. Brennan, took third place in a national business simulation competition last spring sponsored by Management Simulations, Inc. The Illinois-based company creates computer-based business simulations to emulate real-world situations. As part of Assistant Professor Steve Phelan's Social and Political Environment of Business class, students used the company's Foundation business game to create a hands-on environment in which teams acted as an executive committee responsible for running an electronic sensor company. Both Mr. Zaccarella and Mr. Brennan, who graduated in May, were business administration majors with concentrations in management information systems. They had met in a marketing class and gotten to know each other through several classes they shared. Along with other classmates, the two teamed up for Professor Phelan's in-class game. After their group finished fourth among 27 teams, the two decided to take a shot at the national Foundation Challenge, a for-rankings-only event that awarded no prize money and ran from late April to early May. The competition took place online, and 100 teams from across the country uploaded data daily. Creating a new fictional company, the SOM players made decisions about research and development, human resources, production, finance and marketing to earn a score based on the profits their decisions generated. Eight simulated years of operations took place in about a week. As market conditions shifted, the SOM duo made incremental changes to their strategy, uploading new information via the competition's website. The team finished first in the semifinals - ahead of 34 other surviving teams - and headed into the finals with their fictional company earning almost $110.5 billion in cumulative profit. "We did this kind of on a whim, and then we qualified for the finals, so we felt really good coming into that phase," says Mr. Brennan. The finals compressed eight years of management into a single day. Mr. Brennan and Mr. Zaccarella placed third, while a team from the University of New Orleans captured first and a team from Georgia Southern University won second place. "Just being in the top three was really awesome," Mr. Brennan says. "We feel quite honored to have achieved such a feat," says Mr. Zaccarella, who started a full-time job with PacifiCare, a health insurance company, in July and who is slated to return to The School of Management as a graduate student this fall. "Hopefully, we've represented the school in a nice way too." Two New Programs Aim for More International Business Development SOM's Executive and Professional Development division has started two major international management initiatives, co-sponsoring an international business development forum and launching a new series of short courses to help small- to medium-size companies develop and implement market strategies for foreign markets. Jay Phillips, director of Executive and Professional Development programs, says he expects the international business development forum to be held on a quarterly basis, with the next session due to be scheduled on the UTD campus sometime during the fall semester. SOM is sponsoring the forum in cooperation with the Metroplex Technology Business Council's International Committee. The school's new International Business Development Program (IBDP) offers the series of short courses. Course topics focus on issues ranging from creating strategic business alliances abroad to market entry strategies, distribution channel management and challenges related to international partner due diligence. IBDP manager Dr. Hans-Joachim Adler, who has more than 25 years' experience in international business development for the information technology and telecom industries, notes that the new series makes the school's international business resources available to companies that may not be large enough to have their own resources to develop markets abroad for their products. "The life cycle of products, especially technology products, has become shorter; so companies have to develop as broad a market for their product as possible in as short a time as possible. This means going international," Professor Adler says. "But often small- and medium-size companies don't have the resources and international business contacts to do that. Through our program, we can help them find contacts and develop marketing strategies in various countries." Professor Adler says companies can arrange to have IBDP short courses given at their locations. In addition, participants can arrange for follow-up coaching after they have completed course work. "The emphasis in our programs will be to teach knowledge and skills that participants can put to work immediately. It's important to have knowledge, but it has become equally important to learn how to immediately apply that knowledge," Professor Adler says. Professor Adler holds a master's degree in engineering and electronics from the University of Darmstadt, Germany, and a Ph.D. in information processing from the University of Lyon, France. Before he came to the United States, he was a professor of computer sciences at the University of Giessen-Friedberg in Germany. After he moved to Plano in 1999, he worked for a medium-size technology company as vice president of European sales and business development. Both he and Mr. Phillips are members of the Metroplex Technology Business Council's International Committee. Mr. Phillips notes that both the forum and the IBDP short-course series are geared especially for companies that manufacture products that lend themselves to international markets, such as computer and telecommunications components. "As people are seeking to expand their businesses and their markets, it's much easier for them to develop new markets, internationally, for existing products than it is to develop new products to sell domestically. [We hope] the forum and our International Business Development Program will help in these efforts." For more information on the International Business Development Forum contact Mr. Phillips at 972-883-4697 or jayphil@utdallas.edu. For more information on the IBDP, contact Professor Adler at 972-883-4695 or jadler@utdallas.edu. Marketing Professor wins Davidson Honorable Mention Nanda Kumar, assistant professor of marketing at The School of Management, and his co-authors have received an "Honorable Mention" Davidson Award for their article published in the Journal of Retailing, "Effective Category Management Depends on the Role of the Category." Kumar's co-authors are Professor Sanjay K. Dhar of the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago and Professor Stephen J. Hoch of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. The article, which appears in Volume 77, Issue 2 of 2001, investigates the relationship between stores' performance in several product categories and their marketing-mix decisions. (See www2.babson.edu/babson/BabsonHPp.nsf/Public/jorexec7. ) The journal presents the William R. Davidson Award annually to recognize the journal's leading articles in the field of retail marketing. The journal's editorial board votes to choose the winners. The authors were invited to present the paper and accept the award and an honorarium at the American Marketing Association Summer Educators' Conference in Chicago in August. SOM Offers Emergency Preparedness Certificate Program In June, The School of Management began offering a series of short courses designed to provide training in responding to disasters, including acts of terrorism. The short courses, which lead to a Certificate of Emergency Management Preparedness, are offered through the school's Executive and Professional Development division and are designed to train business and civic professionals to manage complex emergencies, from response to recovery. To earn the certificate, students are required to complete five core courses and two electives, which can be completed within a year. Core course titles range from "Fundamentals and Preparedness in Emergency Management" to "Disaster Response and Recovery," "Vulnerability Assessment and Risk Management" and "Terrorism in Emergency Management." Elective topics include "Technology in Emergency Management," "Geographical Information Systems for Emergency Management" and "Volunteer Resources and Donations Management." All classes are held on the UTD campus. The short-course series is especially designed to benefit professional emergency managers, city and county administrative staff members, civil and government attorneys, business continuity planners and risk managers, insurance brokers and those directly responsible for emergency preparedness within their organizations. Instructors include experts from local government emergency management teams, such as George Grant of the City of Richardson Emergency Management Office and C.J. Howard of the Plano Fire Department. Other instructors are experienced specialists such as James Staves, who works with the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and is director of the Forensics and Emergency Preparedness Institute at UTD, and Jack Graham, manager of rail system safety for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, along with representatives of volunteer organizations and other UTD faculty members. Cost of each course is $495. For additional information, please contact Dorothy L. Miller at 972-883-2562, or view the UTD Professional Development Web site at http://som.utdallas.edu/profdev. The school's Executive and Professional Development programs, working in partnership with public and private organizations, focus on strengthening individual and organizational effectiveness. The Professional Development division offers non-credit programs including workshops, seminars, conferences, short courses, custom-designed programs and one-on-one training. Companies can work with UTD to design custom on-site or on-campus training. Development Forum Discusses Career Strategies for Capricious Economy "Career Management Strategies in an Unpredictable Economy" was the topic of a panel discussion at The School of Management's June Professional Development Forum. The three panel members presented perspectives from the corporate sector, higher education and government in a discussion of the far-reaching impact of the current economy. The discussion touched on issues ranging from the effects on delivery of services to interactions with customers and constituents to insuring employees' continued personal growth. Ken Wilcox, a vice president and general manager for Frito-Lay Corporation; Margaret M. Wright, assistant director of human resources, City of Dallas; and Jay Phillips, director of Executive and Professional Development programs in UTD's School of Management, served as panel members. The school presents the Professional Development Forum four times each year. The forum series promotes training and development as an integral, bottom-line function in organizations and presents current trends and issues in employee training and professional development. For more information, contact Jay Phillips at 972-883-2204 or jayphil@utdallas.edu.