Idalene Kesner has been announced as the new dean of the Kelley School of Business

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:46:00 EDT

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Idalene "Idie" Kesner, an accomplished educator, administrator and leading researcher on strategic management, will head Indiana University's Kelley School of Business as its next dean, pending approval by the IU Board of Trustees.

Kesner, who becomes the first woman to lead the nationally acclaimed business school, has served as interim dean since October 2012.

Lauren Robel, IU executive vice president and provost of the Bloomington campus, announced today that she would recommend Kesner, who had been associate dean of faculty and research and the Frank P. Popoff Chair of Strategic Management, to the trustees at the board’s next meeting on June 20-21.

Kesner’s appointment comes at the end of an exhaustive national search process. She succeeds Dan Smith, who left after a successful seven-year tenure as dean to become president of the IU Foundation.

"The university conducted a thorough national search for a new dean at the Kelley School, commensurate with its reputation as one of the finest business schools in the world, and Idie Kesner was a clear and compelling choice for the role," said Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie. "Idie is an internationally recognized business scholar and a renowned teacher who has played several vital leadership roles at Kelley during her 18 years at the school.

"Many of the school's most prestigious programs, such as our full-time MBA program and department of management entrepreneurship, have Idie's clear imprint on them, and her passion for IU and the Kelley School are unmatched,” McRobbie added. “I am confident that, under her leadership, the Kelley School will build on the outstanding legacy left by former dean and current IU Foundation President Dan Smith and continue to be home to some of the finest business educators, scholars and students anywhere."

Kesner joined the Kelley School faculty in 1995, coming from a titled faculty position at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She was chairwoman of Kelley’s Full-Time MBA Program from August 2003 to August 2006, and chairwoman of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship from October 2006 to June 2009. From 1996 to 2003, she co-directed the school's Consulting Academy.

"The search committee, led by Dean Auer, was extremely diligent in identifying the best candidates," Robel said. "Faculty, staff, students, and alumni on both the Bloomington and IUPUI were involved in engaging the finalists on their vision for the school. Idie’s selection reflects her superlative capabilities and credentials, and I am delighted to pass on the committee’s recommendation to the trustees.”

A 14-member search and screen committee underwent a thorough and extensive selection process, which attracted “many dozens” of qualified candidates, said Matthew Auer, dean of the Hutton Honors College and a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and chair of the search committee.

“The pool of candidates was outstanding, which shouldn’t be surprising because Kelley’s reputation is so strong,” Auer said. “Idie Kesner is quintessentially prepared for this job. She is superbly accomplished and is going to do amazing things for Kelley.”

Kesner will lead a school now in its ninth decade that is consistently ranked highly by peer academics, corporate recruiters, business developers and national business publications such as Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the Financial Times and U.S. News & World Report. Kelley’s undergraduate program was ranked No. 1 in a Bloomberg BusinessWeek survey of corporate recruiters. Last fall, the school received three No. 1 rankings in MBA student surveys by the publication – career services, teaching quality and student satisfaction.

“Being selected as the dean of the Kelley School is an honor of a lifetime for me,” Kesner said. “As a graduate of the school, I can say with certainty that the successes I have had throughout my career are attributable to the great education and countless opportunities afforded to me by the Kelley School and its alumni network of nearly 100,000 living alums.

“The quality of the Kelley faculty and students, the support of the administration of Indiana University and the generosity of the Kelley School’s corporate partners, alumni and donors make this the top dean’s job of any business school in the nation,” she added. “I feel privileged to be stepping into the position, and I look forward to working with the faculty, students and all Kelley School partners for many years to come.”

The Kelley School offers undergraduate and graduate education programs to about 5,600 full-time students on its Bloomington campus and another 1,600 students on its Indianapolis campus. Enrollment in its Kelley Direct online MBA program – which earlier this year was ranked third by U.S. News -- also is close to 1,000 students.

Kesner received both her MBA and Ph.D. in business administration from IU; her doctorate was awarded in 1983. She also earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Southern Methodist University in 1979.

Kesner has repeatedly been recognized for her teaching, winning more than 20 teaching awards during her career. Most recently, in 2012, she won a teaching award from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, which has a joint MBA Program with the Kelley School.

She has taught in more than 100 executive programs and served as a consultant for many different national and international firms working on strategic issues. Her research has focused on the areas of corporate board of directors, chief executive succession, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions.

Smith-Daniels wraps national radio tour on "News & Views" program

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:26:00 EDT

Vicki Smith-Daniels, faculty chair of graduate business programs in medicine and professor of operations and supply chain management at the Kelley School of Business, wrapped up a two-week national radio tour April 26 with a live appearance on the “News & Views” program hosted by Ronn Allen.

Among the topics of conversation, Smith-Daniels talked about consolidation in healthcare systems and the need for doctors to get closer to their patients at a time when they have less and less time to do so. She also highlighted the six curriculum themes that will be a focus of Business of Medicine MBA program – collaboration, innovation, analytics, transformation, optimization, and sustainability.

A few excerpts from the interview:

Ron Allen: What are you hoping to prepare your doctors for, what do you want them to become?

Vicki Smith-Daniels: Doctors, just by the decisions they’re making every day, they’re making medical decisions that impact business decisions. We want those physicians to make smart business decisions. So we’re looking at practicing physicians that are out there struggling with what is happening with healthcare reform, and we’re trying to give them a set of business skills that are going to help them navigate through the changes ahead.

Allen: Will this be reducing costs and improving patient outcomes, or is it going to be cutting down on income for physicians, how will it affect that?

Smith-Daniels: You’re getting at many of the issues that we’re all talking about. Physician income is clearly out there as a question.I guess the way we tend to look at it here at the Kelley School, with the discussions with some of the doctors who are considering our MBA program, is of course they want to find a way to be able to continue their practice and continue the income they have today, and to do that they have to think about how to deliver care differently.

Allen: What is the biggest thing I can expect to come out of this when you train these physicians to operate their practices with business principles?

Smith-Daniels: One, they’re going to learn to collaborate better. They’re going to learn to handle big data and technology. They’re going to learn leadership. They’re going to learn how to get more out of the existing resources they have. And finally, they’re going to learn how to build healthcare systems that are sustainable in the long run. So we’re really looking at this MBA program from a very different lens than a traditional MBA program. We’re looking at how do we address those challenges ahead and how do we bring the intersection of business and medicine together.

To listen to the full interview, click the link below. The discussion with Smith-Daniels begins at the 48:30 mark. http://bit.ly/Ye3xL2

Vicki Smith-Daniels talks healthcare with national radio host John Loeffler

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:16:00 EDT

Vicki Smith-Daniels, faculty chair of graduate business programs in medicine and professor of operations and supply chain management at the Kelley School of Business, recently talked with national radio host John Loeffler for his weekly “Steel on Steel” broadcast. In the interview, which aired April 27, Smith-Daniels and Loeffler discussed the rapidly changing healthcare industry and how the new Business of Medicine MBA program at the school is designed to help physicians navigate that change.

“It’s difficult to take the healthcare industry and boil it down to a couple issues, but before we even got into the discussion of Obamacare there were things in our health system that were just unsustainable going forward,” Smith-Daniels said. “I think you would probably get many people to agree that the fee for service, volume-based care was going to be difficult to sustain without even bringing the Affordable Care Act into the process.

“Simply put, physicians are going to have to be doing things differently than they’ve done them in the past, and that’s what we’re trying to address at the Kelley School with our Business of Medicine MBA.”

Loeffler noted that he believes the current Affordable Care Act model is “doomed to failure.” He also stated that once Americans see what is going on in countries like Great Britain, and experience it for themselves, that an alternative privatized system would spring up.

“If the public system fails, the private system will have some incentive to do some good things,” Loeffler said.

Smith-Daniels agreed that it’s a complex environment, with many of the consequences of the Affordable Care Act yet to be realized. She also acknowledged that physicians are going to need a set of financial tools that may have previously been unnecessary.

“I think you’re correct that we have a big system out there to deal with, and it may be quite fragile,” Smith-Daniels said. “On the other hand, physicians cannot keep doing things the way they’ve done them before.

“That’s the point of our Business of Medicine MBA. We want physicians to have the tools necessary to address those questions. So they can take greater governance over the health system their involved in or just make better business decisions with their partners.”

Use the player below to listen to the full interview.

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Smith-Daniels touts Business of Medicine program on America's Work Force radio

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:07:00 EDT

Vicki Smith-Daniels, faculty chair of graduate business programs in medicine and professor of operations and supply chain management at the Kelley School of Business, joined America’s Work Force radio host Ed “Flash” Ferenc on April 16th for a discussion about healthcare. Smith-Daniels talked about making doctors better leaders, the need for innovation in today’s changing healthcare environment, and how the new Business of Medicine MBA program will help practicing physicians lead change in their organizations.

“This program is about creating physician leaders who can bring change,” Smith-Daniels said, “and that change hopefully will give better patient outcomes and give better care at lower costs.”

Ferenc noted that Cleveland is a hot-bed for healthcare in Northeast Ohio, with more than 51,000 medical professionals in the metro area.

“Cleveland has always been an innovator in many different ways,” Smith-Daniels said, “and is also bringing in new innovation today in a lot of the life science partnerships with many of those hospital systems you’ve mentioned already.”

Click the link below to be taken to Ferenc’s web site where you can hear the full interview. The discussion with Smith-Daniels starts around the 29:50 mark.

http://awfradio.com/todays-show-4-16-13/

To learn more about the Kelley Business of Medicine MBA, explore our website, where you can participate in a virtual information session, discover more about the MBA curriculum, or sign up for a personal consultation.

Five Kelley students named in the top 10 of the IUPUI Top 100, including #1 male student

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:29:00 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.— The IUPUI Alumni Council named five Kelley School of Business students among IUPUI’s top 10 juniors and seniors during the 14th annual IUPUI Top 100 Outstanding Students dinner. Jim Plew, a senior majoring in finance and international studies was named IUPUI’s most outstanding male student.

“The lessons and new perspectives born out of my many college experiences were more than enough to justify the effort I put forth, but it is a distinct honor nevertheless to be recognized for them in such a way as this,” said Plew. “I am proud to be a Kelley student and I feel privileged to represent the school among my peers across this diverse campus."

The top 10 female students include:

Daisy Pham is a Kelley senior majoring in accounting, finance and international studies with minors in economics and psychology. The vice president of Delta Sigma Pi professional business fraternity and Kelley Direct Admit mentor is a native of Columbus, Ind. During her freshman year, Pham founded the Kelley Indianapolis Cares service learning organization, which completed 400 hours of community service in its first year. Pham interned with Ernst & Young during her sophomore and junior years and accepted an offer to start at the company full time after graduation.

The top 10 male students include:

Jim Plew, an Indianapolis native, accepted a prestigious fellowship with Venture for America. Throughout his Kelley career, Plew has worked on a collaborative project with the IU School of Medicine, interned for a semester at Merrill Lynch and spent a summer studying abroad at the University of Oxford in England. In a blog post for Huffington Post, Plew says his initial goal was to become an investment banker; now he hopes to pursue a startup venture.
Cole Johnson, a senior majoring in supply chain management and international studies and minoring in labor studies, is an active member and treasurer of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Johnson also serves as IUPUI’s Alternative Breaks co-coordinator, the Leadership-to-Go coordinator for the IUPUI Leadership Consultants and the co-chair of IUPUI’s student-led food pantry initiative. He is currently the Undergraduate Student Government Exec Team treasurer.
Mitchell Gauger is a management and human resources major from Kokomo, Ind. Captain of the IUPUI diving team, the senior is also the 2013 Summit League Championship Diver of the Year, president of the Kelley Society for Human Resource Management Student Chapter as well as senator and senior class delegate to Kelley’s Student Government. Gauger is considering graduate school, law school and job offers.
Armaan Choudhary is a senior majoring in marketing and supply chain management. Originally from Chandigarh, India, Choudhary transferred to IUPUI and was recruited for the IUPUI Men’s Tennis team. He has enjoyed being an Academic All-Summit League honoree, a mentor at the Math Assistance Center as well as a Sam H. Jones scholar. After graduating from Kelley, Choudhary’s immediate career goal is to work with a sports franchise in the marketing and administration fields. Eventually, he plans to own his own business.

More than 1,000 IUPUI students applied to be named in the top 100, a record number for the campus. The Kelley School has the second highest number of students from any one school to be named in IUPUI’s top 20.

Houston radio talks Business of Medicine with Smith-Daniels

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:52:00 EDT

Vicki Smith-Daniels, faculty chair of graduate business programs in medicine and professor of operations and supply chain management at the Kelley School of Business, appeared on the “Price of Business” radio program with Houston talk show host Kevin Price. Smith-Daniels joined Price to discuss the school’s new Business of Medicine MBA for practicing physicians. She spoke on a variety of topics, including the program’s target market and how instruction will be delivered.

To learn more about the Kelley Business of Medicine MBA, read below a transcript of the interview or explore our website, where you can participate in a virtual information session, discover more about the MBA curriculum, or sign up for a personal consultation.

Kevin Price: All right, speaking of obstacles, there seems like there’s been a lot thrown up in the healthcare field today, and a person who helps individuals navigate through that is Vicki Smith-Daniels. Interesting topic here, an MBA Rx for doctors, a new hybrid program set to make 181,000 Houston healthcare employees better leaders. Vicki, welcome to the program.

Vicki Smith-Daniels: Thank you very much, Kevin.

Price: Give us a little bit of a background about yourself before we get started on your topic.

Smith-Daniels: I am the faculty chairperson for Graduate Business Programs in Medicine at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. I have been working in the healthcare area for approximately the last 10 years. I am a professor of operations and supply chain management, and I’m very excited to talk with you today about the new program that we’re launching for practicing physicians.

Price: So tell us a little bit about the program itself. Give us a little bit of an overview of it.

Smith-Daniels: This program is a hybrid program where physicians will attend courses in Indianapolis one weekend a month, and it will be complemented instruction with online. The Kelley School of Business has been an online MBA leader for the past 13 years.

Price: Wow. Who would have thought that long? That’s amazing.

Smith-Daniels: Yes, it is. The Kelley Direct program has been quite successful and we’re going to build off of that great success in launching this program to practicing physicians.

Price: So typically most of the people who will enter this, or as a prerequisite for entering it, is that you have to have medical doctor degree?

Smith-Daniels: You need to have an MD or a DO. We are targeted for mid-career physicians. Those are folks that are between 40 and 55 years of age. However, we do have current members of our inaugural cohort that are under 40 and over 55. We’re looking for physicians that are in clinical practice. We’re looking for physicians that are at this time managing service lines or taking greater governance in their health systems, in terms of making business decisions around the changes that are happening in healthcare today.

Price: So I’m reading a huge number of articles out there about medical doctors who are simply thinking about getting out of the healthcare field just because it’s becoming more and more challenging for people to make it financially successful. Is this designed to help them have more of an edge to be successful in healthcare, or do you see it possibly being used as a tool for people who want to transition out of practicing medicine but still want to be involved in healthcare?

Smith-Daniels: I think it’s both, Kevin. We are seeing from the doctors who are reaching out to us about our MBA program that they really fall into the two categories that you’ve talked about. There are doctors in clinical practice, they want to be leaders in addressing the opportunities that are ahead. They may be in private practice and have a contract with a health system, or they may be one of the new physicians that is now an employee of a health system or an Accountable Care Organization, and they really want to take it to the next level.

In addition, we are seeing physicians with tremendous clinical practice (experience). They could be involved in new medical devices, life sciences or clinical practice. And they’re actually coming to us looking for a new career, where they can move outside of clinical practice and move into the broader healthcare industry and try to impact it in new ways.

Price: Now is this entirely done online, this new MBA program?

Smith-Daniels: No.

Price: Oh, I see it’s a hybrid.

Smith-Daniels: Hybrid is a term that’s used quite frequently and it has different meanings. When we look at the time the physicians will spend in the learning experience it’s a little over 50 percent face-to-face and the rest of it is online. We are, however, moving to trying to use iPad technology (through iTunes U) for these physicians so that they’ll be able to bring learning into their day when they have some down time.

Price: Are people having to do the face-to-face in Indiana or is Indiana going to be coming to Houston? How’s that going to work?

Smith-Daniels: We are going to be having most of our weekend sessions in Indianapolis, which is a vibrant city with a lot of opportunities in the downtown area, not just for our educational experience but to participate in sports events and many other things that are going on in the downtown area.

Price: And how will they come? Will they stay for several weeks at a time? Kind of explain how that will work out.

Smith-Daniels: Basically we have already identified, for the given year, 24 residency sessions that are happening every month. So, beginning of the month they’d be in Indianapolis on a Friday and Saturday, and then they’d go back to their online instruction for about three weeks, then come back to us in Indianapolis for a face-to-face type of learning pedagogy.

Price: What kind of time frame from beginning to end do you anticipate for completing?

Smith-Daniels: We are moving these physicians through in a cohort, which means they’ll all be taking approximately the same classes together. And it will be a two-year, around the calendar experience.

Price: So in roughly two years they should be able to get it done?

Smith-Daniels: Absolutely. And we’re to make sure that within that two years they are being productive and maximizing their learning. So we’ve designed this delivery system, not only to be the traditional experience, but to be one where we can support physicians and their learning experience by providing additional services like our iPad learning experience.

Price: Very interesting. I want to encourage people to get more information about it. … Kelley MBA. That’s a great, well-known MBA. … I appreciate you being with us. I encourage people to get more information. If you’re a doctor or know a doctor who has some angst, and I don’t know a single doctor who isn’t angsted by the Obamacare program, you might want to point them in this direction. Thanks so much for being with us, doctor.

Smith-Daniels: Thank you so much, Kevin.

Professor's research looks at why CEOs cheat

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:32:00 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—When a dishonest executive fraudulently reports his or her company’s earnings, the deception is often hidden behind competitive compensation practices and complex systems- either the finances or the product itself is difficult to understand and thereby difficult to monitor. In an upcoming paper, Curtis Wesley, II, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business, examines how the effects of complex information controls affect financial reporting fraud.

“There’s a link between diversifying your company to increase profits and having a company that is so complex that there is less oversight,” said Wesley. “When there is information asymmetry—one manager knows more than anyone else—stakeholders are reliant upon that manager to be honest. The more complex the organization, the more likely bad information can be fraudulently reported.”

This concept is explored in a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Management titled “Providing CEOs with Cheating Opportunities: The Effects of Complexity-Based Information Asymmetries on Financial Reporting Fraud,” written by Wesley and co-authors Hermann Ndofor of Texas A&M University and Richard Priem of Texas Christian University. Studying reports from the Government Accountability Office, researchers compared companies suspected of fraudulent activity against others who had no such claims to see if complexity of the business or executive compensation were common factors.

“What’s motivating these executives to manage their numbers is their compensation practices and they’re able to manage their numbers because nobody knows what’s in the black box, other than the people reporting those numbers,” explained Wesley. “The other problem is that these firms are operating in complex industries with more risk and that risk is attractive because investors think the reward is going to be greater, even if they don’t know how that company is operating behind closed doors.”

This research offers lessons for both government regulators and the owners of companies that are being mismanaged.

“Essentially, if you’re an owner in the company—especially a company whose processes you might not understand—you must take a look at the numbers with a jaundiced eye,” explained Wesley. “Look at multiple reporting cycles and really understand cause and effect.”

“With respect to the government, we think that there has to be some increased oversight on companies that are in more complex operating environments or have more intangible resources whose value can be manipulated.”

Wesley says the research speaks to his interests in studying companies who are doing an honest job reporting, and understanding how managers create a win-win situation within their companies.

“I’m a firm believer that being successful is an ethical imperative,” he said. “People are depending on you as the CEO to do the right thing. You’ve been given this responsibility to be the steward of the firm with hundreds and even thousands of people depending on you to make the right decision.”

Curtis Wesley can be reached at cuwesley@indiana.edu.

Bloomberg Businessweek: From Indiana, an MBA prescribed for doctors

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:38:00 EDT

An article published by Bloomberg Businessweek details the Kelley Business of Medicine MBA program and its goal: To help doctors figure out how to curb their industry’s soaring costs.

Excerpt from Bloomberg Businessweek

“Government and employers are noticing that we can’t sustain the cost of health care,” says Vicki Smith-Daniels, faculty chair of graduate business programs in medicine at Kelley.

The idea behind the program, which starts in September, is that doctors can no longer leave the business aspect of their jobs to the finance guys while maintaining their integrity as healers. “For health care to be better, doctors must lead the change. Nobody else can,” says Anthony Sabatino, an MD who specializes in interventional spine medicine in Carmel, Ind., and plans to enroll in the program. “But we must also remain patient advocates.”

Because all the students are physicians, the entire curriculum is specific to their work. The first course of the program lays out policy changes as a result of the Affordable Care Act and the different models for delivering care. There are three required courses that will have teams of physicians competing to devise solutions for an actual problem an organization in the industry is facing.

Even MBA core courses will have a medical bent. For example, the accounting course will expose doctors to how other industries measure the cost of products and services, because most industry insiders griped that the cost of patient care is not well defined in the health-care industry, says Smith-Daniels. The goal, she adds, is to help physicians come up with plans for providing better, yet more affordable, care to patients.

To read the full article, visit the Bloomberg Businessweek website.

Poets & Quants: Kelley joins healthcare MBA market

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:36:00 EDT

An article published by Poets & Quants, a well-respected news source for graduate business school education, outlines how Kelley’s new Business of Medicine MBA program is different from other executive education programs aimed at physicians—our course delivery and specialized content.

What differentiates Kelley’s two-year program is that it aims to accommodate practicing physicians by offering half of the curriculum online—the remaining portion will be covered during in-residence weekends.

Kelley tweaked its core business classes to emphasize skills important in the healthcare industry, such as examining the real cost of patient care in its Strategic Cost Management course. The school also created brand new classes that leverage faculty expertise and address emerging healthcare issues, such as Understanding Consumer Health Behavior and Medical Technology Evaluation.

Vicki Smith-Daniels, the program’s faculty chair, says Kelley has a leg up on the competition as the first top-ranked business school to launch an online MBA program, which it started in 1999. She also points to the curriculum as a key differentiator. “Everyone is going to tell you their MBA program is unique. But if you look at our course list, you can put those line by line up against any physician MBA program, any healthcare MBA program out there, and I will tell you we are very unique,” she says.

To read the full article, visit the Poet & Quants website.

Kelley professor studies team dynamics in the ER

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:26:00 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—In an emergency room, teamwork can mean the difference between life and death. The unique dynamics among team members is what attracted Christopher O.L.H. Porter, Kelley associate professor of management and Randall L. Tobias Faculty Fellow of Leadership Excellence, to research emergency room teams at local hospitals.

“The teams in the emergency room are action teams,” says Porter, who will teach practicing physicians in Kelley’s new Business of Medicine MBA program. “You see incredible displays of leadership and teamwork in those teams on a daily basis. It has been fascinating for me to observe those teams as they work together because the stakes are different in a hospital setting. You see lots of examples of nurses jumping in to do something that they’re not formally required to do that ultimately helps a patient. The other interesting thing that happens here is there is a joint focus on performance and learning at the same time and balancing those two can be a challenge for those in leadership positions.”

Observing various emergency room shifts at local hospitals, Porter is studying how doctors, nurses and other medical staff work together in a coordinated, urgent effort.

“Many times with such teams, you have lots of people who come together quickly. They have a sense of what the problem is, but the problem changes over the course of time the team is working together,” Porter explains. “Emergency room personnel are often together for short periods of time and then they disperse. So they’ve got to learn how to get up to speed quickly. Leadership and teamwork become essential.”

In fact, leadership and teamwork are at the core of Porter’s research background. An expert in teams and team development, Porter has observed team dynamics in tactical organizations such as the U.S. Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He has studied leadership and teamwork among teams working on a tactical decision-making task designed by the Department of Defense and is currently studying teams at the United States Naval Academy.

“Tactical teams are unique because they have to make decisions and perform under time pressure and threat, using specialized expertise that has to be coordinated in such a way to help the team be effective as a unit,” he says. “People on tactical teams usually have limited information, yet they have to perform at high levels. You also see tactical teams operating in hospital settings, whether you’re talking about teams of physicians, teams of nurses or trauma teams.”

In his research, Porter will link leadership and teamwork to performance within an emergency room and validate or challenge theories he brings with him from the business world.

“During the time I’ve spent in the ER, it’s become incredibly apparent that no amount of specialized expertise will help a team be effective if that team isn’t led effectively. And that’s what we can potentially bring from the business perspective,” says Porter. “A team is a team, whether we’re talking about a top management team or a board of directors. I think there are insights that can be gained from the emergency room that can be applied to those settings.”

Likewise, Porter believes his relationship with emergency room teams will be mutually beneficial.

“There’s much to learn from seeing how the teams in medical settings operate,” he says. “Ideally, I can challenge some of the models we currently have and see to what extent they’re effective.”

To learn more about Kelley’s new Business of Medicine program, visit http://kelley.iupui.edu/degrees/medicine/.

Kelley co-sponsors whistleblowers program to bring Government Accountability speakers to campus

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:37:00 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—The Kelley School of Business, in partnership with other academic units at Indiana University, is sponsoring a collegiate tour hosted by the Government Accountability Project (GAP), which is aimed at informing university students about the accomplishments of whistleblowers. Whistleblowers are the individuals who help publicize wrongdoing while empowering citizens and promoting corporate and government accountability.

“Whistleblowers serve an important function in law and society,” said Julie Manning Magid, associate professor of business law at Kelley Indianapolis and co-author of a recent paper on retaliation related to whistleblowers. “They are the ‘insiders’ who have the best access to report wrongdoing. Such reporting can lead to a more effective system of operation by assuring that everyone plays by the same rules. Increasingly, the law relies on whistleblowers in complicated financial and regulatory systems.”

The American Whistleblower Tour: Essential Voices for Accountability will feature two speakers from GAP, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. This collegiate tour seeks to educate the public — particularly our country’s incoming workforce — about the phenomenon of whistleblowing. Visit http://www.whistleblower.org for more information.

GAP has handled some of the highest-profile whistleblower cases that have emerged in recent years, including those of the two speakers who will speak at IUPUI on Wednesday, March 27, 2013.

Kenneth Kendrick, a former assistant plant manager at Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), blew the whistle on the company's numerous public health violations. Salmonella-tainted peanut butter originating from PCA sickened hundreds of people across the United States in 2008 and 2009, resulting in several deaths. Although the widespread contamination was traced to a single plant in Georgia, it was Kendrick's whistleblowing on Good Morning America that belied PCA's defense that the batch of peanut butter from the Georgia plant was an unexpected and isolated event. See also http://everythinglubbock.com/fulltext?nxd_id=136892.

Rick Piltz is a former senior associate in the coordination office of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. In 2005, he blew the whistle on the White House’s improper editing and censorship of science program reports on global warming intended for Congress and the public. GAP, which represented Piltz, released edited reports to The New York Times that documented the actual hand-editing – by White House Counsel on Environmental Quality Chief of Staff Philip Cooney, a lawyer and former climate team leader with the American Petroleum Institute – which hoped to downplay the reality of human-driven global warming and to exaggerate scientific uncertainty. This scandal sparked a media frenzy that resulted in the resignation of Cooney, who found a job at ExxonMobil days later. Piltz lives in Washington, D.C., where he is the director and founder of Climate Science Watch, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting integrity in the government’s use of climate science.

The American Whistleblower tour will stop in Indianapolis on March 27, 2013, at 6 pm in Hine Hall (850 W. Michigan St.) on the IUPUI campus.

Financial Times: Kelley targets medics with its MBA programme

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:19:00 EDT

Kelley School of Business launches Business of Medicine MBA for physicians

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:46:00 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.– To address the leadership needs of a rapidly changing healthcare system, Indiana University Kelley School of Business in Indianapolis has launched the Business of Medicine MBA to prepare practicing physicians nationwide to assume unprecedented management roles.

The specialized two-year program will begin in September 2013, delivered as a hybrid – 50 percent online, 50 percent through weekends in residence. This approach recognizes the demands on physicians’ time. By combining residential and online experiences, students are assured the professional interaction central to a full MBA experience, while ensuring the program is accessible to physicians anywhere in the U.S. The new program will draw on Kelley’s expertise in healthcare and life sciences, lean six sigma, consumer health behavior, supply chain, teaming and leadership. It will incorporate the longstanding and considerable experience of Kelley Direct, which was started in 1999 as the first online MBA program from a top-ranked business school.

Kelley’s targeted Business of Medicine MBA recognizes the pivotal role that “physician leaders” will play in an industry grappling with historic upheaval. Challenges span the institutional spectrum, including implementing the Affordable Care Act, reducing costs while improving patient outcomes, enabling innovation under cost pressures and managing the migration of private practices into larger medical networks.

Idalene Kesner

“Our Business of Medicine MBA bridges what has been the traditional divide between management and physicians on the front lines of care,” said Idalene Kesner, interim dean of the Kelley School of Business. “With this degree, physician leaders will emerge with the full skillset to transform individual institutions, the broad healthcare field and, most important, patient outcomes.”

Business and Management Skills that Complement Medical Knowledge

Kelley’s Business of Medicine MBA was built from the ground up, pairing the essentials of business education with “reality-check” input from healthcare executives. Industry leaders cited active physician governance over business, operations and strategic direction as critical to their institutions’ long-term success. Increasingly, physician executives also are navigating the shifting boundaries among research, clinical practice, industry, government and public policy.

The Business of Medicine MBA incorporates a curriculum similar to the Kelley School’s full- and part-time programs (e.g., economics, operations, supply chain management, statistical analysis/analytics, strategy, marketing, organizational development, accounting, finance), with the addition of specialized courses and electives. The curriculum centers on six healthcare themes – collaboration, innovation, analytics, transformation, optimization and sustainability – that address new types of clinical leadership and new business models.

Even before completing this MBA, physician executives will immediately bring to their positions newly attained critical skills in healthcare and business competencies:

Critical analysis and problem solving. Applying appropriate techniques of business, drawing on major functions (e.g., finance, quantitative methods, operations) to solve complex matters in business and medical arenas.
Knowledge of the healthcare industry. Gaining deep understanding of the broad industry (e.g., funding and payment mechanisms, clinical processes, regulation) and the interdependency, integration and competition among different aspects of the sector.
Integrative and system-level perspective. Building knowledge of how external forces (e.g., economic, political, regulatory, competitive, environmental, cultural) shape management alternatives, system-level strategies and operational decisions.
Comprehensive leadership. Coalescing people, processes and resources to work together to achieve goals around performance excellence, adapting new approaches and sustaining a culture of high quality and safe care.
Team collaboration. Encouraging and managing diverse views from across different professional roles and different cultural, ethnic, economic and stakeholder groups; leading teams to effectively accomplish shared goals.
Ethical decision making. Recognizing ethical and related legal issues arising in patient-care delivery and across the industry – and formulate, articulate and defend alternative solutions.
Effective communication. Expressing ideas and facts in a variety of oral, written and visual communications.
Professional skill and personal development. Aligning personal and organizational conduct with ethical and professional standards that include responsibility to the patient, organization and community, a service orientation and commitment to lifelong learning.

Vicki Smith-Daniels

Full-time Faculty Noted for Cross-Industry Expertise, Experience Teaching Online

The new Business of Medicine MBA program will be taught by the Kelley School faculty, which is nationally recognized for functional expertise and experience across the healthcare continuum, including those from the school’s respected Center for the Business of Life Sciences. Kelley Direct, Kelley Executive Partners – the Kelley School’s executive education arm – and Kelley’s part-time MBA program are all involved. Program participants will maximize the use of mobile technology in the learning experience. Industry executives will provide complementary lectures and cases, drawing on timely situations relatable to the physician cohort’s experiences.

“We believe this MBA stands apart not only for its curriculum but also in its uniting of physicians, professors and industry executives who are dedicated to tackling thorny issues in the nation’s biggest industry,” said Vicki Smith-Daniels, professor of operations and supply chain management at Kelley and chairperson of emerging graduate programs. “We have been thoughtful and deliberate in creating this program because patients depend on us getting it right.”

Information sessions will be held during April and May; the application deadline for the first class is July 1, 2013. Complete information can be found at the Kelley Business of Medicine MBA website.

“Society as a whole will benefit from physicians who are at the top of their profession increasing their business knowledge,” said Kesner. “They will be able to influence how the industry functions and responds to future challenges and opportunities.”

Kelley Indianapolis Evening MBA program ranked 9th in the nation

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:13:00 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—In its ranking of the best graduate schools in 2014, U.S. News and World Report has named the Kelley School of Business Evening MBA program in Indianapolis ninth in the nation for part-time MBA schools.

The report ranked only the top 212 part-time MBA schools. Other Indiana schools ranked in the top 100 for part-time MBA programs include Purdue University (50) and Butler University (67).

“We are very proud to once again be listed among the top business educators in the country,” said Phil Cochran, Kelley associate dean for Indianapolis operations. “Our mission is to transform lives through business education, and it is an honor to have the efforts of our faculty, students and staff to be recognized for the impact they make on Central Indiana.”

This is the second year Kelley has maintained the ninth spot for part-time MBA programs. Using a survey of the 448 master’s programs in business accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AASCB), the part-time MBA ranking is based on five factors:

Average peer assessment score
Average GMAT and GRE scores of part-time MBA students enrolled in fall 2012
Average undergraduate GPA
Work experience
Percentage of the fall 2012 MBA enrollment that is part-time

The overall Kelley School ranking moved up one space on the top business schools list to 22nd from 23rd. In terms of specialty program rankings, the school ranked 13th for accounting, 10th for entrepreneurship and 10th for operations.

Kelley professor wins European competition with a teaching case on child labor issues in India

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:13:00 EST

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—The concept of moral values often sets the boundaries for corporate strategy. But in a teaching case submitted for a case writing competition, Charles Dhanaraj, associate professor of management and Schmenner Faculty Fellow in International Business at the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, and his co-authors illustrate how managers can and should think about using values to drive their strategy.

“My focus here is to embolden our future business leaders to engage with the social problems directly confronting their industry,” said Dhanaraj. “I emphasize the fact that high-impact corporate action often depends on leaders who are willing to think boldly and pragmatically.”

The case titled Bayer CropScience in India (A): Against Child Labor, authored by Dhanaraj along with Oana Branzei and Satyajeet Subramanian of Canada’s Western University, won the category of Indian Management Issues and Opportunities in the 2012 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition. EFMD is an international not-for-profit association whose competition attracted 200 entries from 30 countries. Educators use cases to place students in the position to think through situations that real-life businesses have faced. Dhanarj finds the Bayer case fascinating.

“It was more than creating a education tool for students,” he explained. “I learned a lot by writing this case.”

The case examines how management at the multinational firm, Bayer CropScience, addressed crisis when it found itself at the center of a child labor controversy in its hybrid cotton seed manufacturing operations in India. The paper focuses on the 2007 crisis and describes the company’s response to the crisis, including the creation of a “value-driven strategy” of communication, implementation and education.

“I encourage managers to be more sensitive of deferring issues to someone else,” Dhanaraj explained. “The fact that you cannot solve all the world’s problems should not be an excuse to run away from what you can solve."

The Bayer case examines the social and political climates, company leaders, corporate mission and legal responsibilities that were all at play during the crisis.

“Often we live in a world of denial – ignoring the problems because they are so pervasive,” Dhanaraj said. “Frequently, it is framed in such a way that makes evil look good. For example, some say about child labor, ‘Would you rather let the child starve and die rather than work and live?’ Such framing gives a cloak to the evil of child labor. Rather, framing it as, ‘Would you rather deprive this child of its future and its dreams, since you are withholding education and life from the child,’ that evokes a very different response.”

EFMD will consider Dhanaraj’s case among the other winners for the overall “Best of the Best” category awarded later this year. Dhanaraj has written over thirty cases on topics such as global strategy, alliance management and innovation. His case on Eli Lilly’s joint venture strategy in India has been one of Ivey Publishing’s top ten best-selling cases for over six years. In addition to his cases, Dhanaraj has also received several awards for his research and teaching.

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