A Focus and A Quick Summary - Spring 2008 Quarterly

Today firms are either competing in a global marketplace or servicing a consumer base that is becoming increasingly global. Technologies enable firms to move both their capital and knowledge assets to places all around the world as they serve global consumers and work with global partners. While tangible capital assets can be moved or acquired relatively quickly to gain access to materials needed to produce goods or services in this global market, it is often the work-force that ultimately determines a firm's success. In other words, employees have to work with others around the globe and interact virtually or face-to-face to formulate strategies, develop policies, and execute operations.

This poses two great challenges for the firms:

1. Firms have to continue to make structural changes within their organization and train their current employees at all levels to operate in this globally competitive environment.
2. They need to look ahead and help train future work-force that can effectively operate in this environment.

• The Institution section discusses our recent trip in May to nine universities in China and a university in Taiwan, and a framework we developed to address both our research and education.
• Our faculty interacts with many universities around the globe (27 in 14 different countries) and visiting scholars come here to do research and teach. Refer to both the Facultyand Research sections for a summary.
• Our plans include the establishment of a global interaction room to support virtual interaction with students across the globe on special projects, and our on-going efforts through internships, hope to support experiential learning with global teams. See the Curriculum and Student sections.
• Lastly, refer to the Outreach section as we discuss challenges of working in a global market place and look to shared learning as we address many of these challenges.