Strategic Planning CommitteeSubgroup 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

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

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

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

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.

Background

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”

Magnanti Report

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Subgroup: Key Actions

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Conclusion

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?

Thank you!

Questions?