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Strategic Planning Committee Subgroup on Education in Business Schools Report to the INFORMS Board

Strategic Planning Committee Subgroup on Education in Business Schools Report to the INFORMS Board. Radhika Kulkarni Barry List July 30, 2009. Agenda. Subgroup Charter Background Key Actions Conclusion Questions. Subgroup Charter. Subgroup Charter.

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Strategic Planning Committee Subgroup on Education in Business Schools Report to the INFORMS Board

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  1. Strategic Planning CommitteeSubgroup on Education inBusiness SchoolsReport to the INFORMS Board Radhika Kulkarni Barry List July 30, 2009

  2. Agenda • Subgroup Charter • Background • Key Actions • Conclusion • Questions

  3. Subgroup Charter

  4. Subgroup Charter • Improve visibility and presence of operations research (management science) in business schools and other academic departments

  5. Committee • Radhika Kulkarni, chair • Cynthia Barnhart • Brenda Dietrich • Jim Dyer • Pinar Keskinocak • Don Kleinmuntz • Anne Robinson • Kalyan Singhal • Jay Swaminathan • Staff • Mark Doherty • Barry List • Gary Bennett

  6. Call to Action • This is probably the most important future-looking strategic initiative for INFORMS: • Increase the presence of Operations Research in Business Schools and other academic departments by petitioning the AACSB and kicking off a grass-roots effort

  7. Benefits • Students graduating from Business schools will understand the benefits of operations research methodologies, leading to more awareness of OR in the board room. • This in turn leads to business opportunities for consulting as well as research in the areas of operations research and management science. • Opportunities for professors in the areas of OR/MS. • Job opportunities for practitioners as well as pool of talented graduates acquainted with the discipline.

  8. Background

  9. Lilien White Paper (1993) • In 1993, TIMS President Gary Lilien delivered a white paper, MS/OR Crisis in the Business School • Polled MS/OR department chairs • “General feeling that MS/OR is under siege at business schools”

  10. Magnanti Report • In 1996, Thomas Magnanti led a Business School Education Task Force that presented a similarly alarming report

  11. Magnanti Report • Highlights: • “Since the abolition of accreditation requirements for OR/MS materials in business school curricula, the field has seen a diminution of its role in the education of future managers. • “A national survey of OR/MS teachers and structured interviews with administrators of the top MBA programs in the US both confirmed this fact. • “The causes are multiple, but prominent among them is a mismatch between traditional OR/MS course topics and the skills demanded by employers.

  12. AACSB: 1991 • Until 1991, both statistics and management science courses were explicitly required for accreditation. • In 1991, AACSB reworded the requirements as "quantitative analysis" for MBA programs and "mathematics and statistics" for undergraduate programs. • As a result, some schools dropped courses in management science, presumably because MS was only implicitly required for an MBA • and because many b-school professors and deans didn’t appreciate the impact MS has been making on businesses and organizations.

  13. AACSB 2001 • INFORMS member Kalyan Singhal, University of Baltimore, led a petition drive to have management science and statistical data analysis included in the AACSB accreditation standards. • Singhal worked closely with Yash Gupta, who sat on the AACSB committee. Gupta is now dean of the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University. • Singhal submitted the petition to a Blue Ribbon Committee of business school deans that was drafting new accreditation standards. • The committee subsequently recommended, and the Accreditation Council approved, new standards that included the coverage of the areas of MS and statistical data analysis.

  14. Today • AACSB did not place strong emphasis on the need to teach MS. • As a result, management science today remains an endangered, unappreciated subject in business school curricula.

  15. Subgroup: Key Actions

  16. Action 1: Confirm INFORMS’ long-term commitment • Confirm INFORMS’ long-term commitment to an initiative to revive MS in b-schools by • SPC and the Board endorsing such an initiative • making the initiative part of the long-term INFORMS charter • The Board identifying a board-level champion and the Executive Committee committing to the measures. • This effort must be institutionalized • there must be a permanent effort that is carried through year after year • not limited to the enthusiasm of those currently involved

  17. Action 1: Confirm INFORMS’ long-term commitment • Why: Unless this is recognized as an important initiative with support from the Board, no effort can sustain the required momentum. • If the Board decides not to endorse this initiative with a long-term commitment, the subgroup recommends that additional efforts be discontinued.

  18. Action 2: Use the terms Management Science and Business Analytics • Use the term “Management Science (Business Analytics)” when referring to the course that should be taught in business schools • AACSB uses the term management science in its discussion of MBA curriculum. • Why Business Analytics: Business Analytics resonates better than Operations Research as a subject that is relevant to solving key business problems in any industry. • The term business analytics is included in a Harvard Business Review article by Tom Davenport and in the title of his popular book, which can be useful in evangelizing to business schools. • We should link business analytics to management science so that the two terms are intertwined.

  19. What’s the best that can happen? What will happen next? What if these trends continue? Why is this happening? What actions are needed? Where exactly is the problem? How many, how often, where? What happened? 19

  20. Action 3: Campaign to Persuade AACSB • Persuade AACSB to enforce its guidelines and emphasize the need for MS/business analytics courses in b-school curricula. • Teaching MS, as discussed earlier, is in the current AACSB standards • Note: Kalyan Singh, who successfully ran the 2001 campaign, has volunteered to work on a new effort if the Board deems the campaign of high importance • Why: • Without AACSB enforcement of its own guidelines, MS/business analytics coursework will not be adopted and MBA programs will not necessarily offer quantitative courses. • MS/business analytics courses will remain optional, thus dealing a serious blow to the effort to revive them.

  21. Action 3: Campaign to Persuade AACSB • What is needed: • Pick up the baton where it was left off a few years ago. • There can be different flavors of this topic depending on the special focus. • For example, linking to "risk analysis" as an area of concern may be helpful in encouraging AACSB to emphasize the need for a business analytics course so that managers will be more savvy about the models that are used to manage risk in corporations.

  22. Action 4: Research • Grass-roots effort with targeted business schools to determine current status of courses on business analytics and create new courses. • When: Upon approval of this initiative, staff will undertake a study to determine the status of MS/business analytical courses in b-schools. • Note: research funding will be needed • Why: To establish a baseline of management science courses in business schools.

  23. Research • What is needed: • Determine inventory of business schools which teach some form of business analytics courses. • Create a repository of information on the types of courses, their benefits, etc. • Survey b-schools that offered a similar course that was discontinued to determine reasons for cancellation and potential reasons for reviving it. • Where courses do not exist, evangelize the importance of an MS/business analytics course. • Seek the cooperation of b-school deans who are INFORMS members, as well as ACORD members.

  24. Task Force • Identify an INFORMS Board sponsor to support this initiative. • Create a team/committee to follow through with this initiative. • Hopkins Business School Dean Gupta, although not currently an INFORMS member, may be persuaded to join this effort • As mentioned earlier, Kal Singhal, a friend of the dean and past leader of an INFORMS AACSB campaign, may also join • It would be beneficial to have team led by two co-chairs: one from academia and the other from industry

  25. Conclusion

  26. Conclusion • Improving the visibility and presence of management science/operations research in business schools will benefit O.R. faculty, students, and practitioners • The subgroup recommends a strong campaign supported by the Board Dare we hope? … Every organization has a Chief Analytics Officer who has an OR background?

  27. Thank you!Questions?

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