Business Matters Online Special Section

“The UT College of Business Administration is known for its ability to bring the business community into the classroom as well as for bringing UT students into the business community,” notes UT COBA Dean Dr. Thomas Gutteridge. “‘Developing lifelong leaders for the world of business’ is our central mission.

“In addition, the COBA mission states our intent of enhancing the world of business and serving as a resource for economic development. More businesses are recognizing the high-quality resources that can be found here. They turn to us for help with issues in human resources, marketing, process improvement, leadership development, information systems, supply chain management and other needs, and we become members of their work team as well.”

Focal Point To make it easier for businesses to connect with UT resources, COBA established the Executive Center for Global Competitiveness (ECGC) in 2005.

“My mission is to work with business and industry to develop lifetime relationships,” explains Carrie Herr, Director, ECGC. “I listen to their strategic goals and objectives. Where appropriate, we form partnerships utilizing the resources and services of the College of Business to assist them with their competitive issues. We utilize both faculty and adjunct faculty experts to provide the best of both worlds.

“Successful partnerships have a positive impact on the performance, productivity and talent management of an organization, affecting their ability to maintain their competitive edge. More successful companies within our region result in a stronger economic community. The partnerships benefit everyone, the community, its professionals, the College, and our students.

“In addition, we strive to be the umbrella under which professionals get together and share information,” Herr says, explaining that informational forums are often the starting points for some business relationships.

“We bring like groups together, such as architectural, engineering and construction or financial executives, to create forums for them to discuss pertinent issues. A recent example was the Asia Business Forum where community organizations shared information about expanding their businesses in the Asian market. The forums are COBA’s gift to the business community.

“I love the ability to meet business leaders, professionals and executives from all walks of life, to learn from them, to bring resources to the table and to assist them with their needs. However, COBA’s greatest reward is witnessing improvements and growth within our partnering companies and the regional economy.”

Results Some business leaders see the results from their relationship with the Executive Center for Global Competitiveness, and they are happy to talk about it.

“Perhaps our greatest challenge over the past five years has been succession planning, followed by multi-office communications and worksharing,” says Tony Damon, CEO, SSOE, Inc. “Through UT’s Executive Center for Global Competitiveness, we have made great strides in developing our next generation of leaders, while simultaneously introducing geographically diverse staff and engaging them to address issues related to working successfully together across great distances. We can, at least in part, measure the success in our relationship with ECGC by our revenue and job growth.”

Don Warner, VP/Corporate Director of Quality and Training, SSOE, Inc., concurs. “The ECGC has provided consulting, training and development content to help us make advances in our leadership development off erings to SSOE staff . Without the ECGC’s help, we could not have made the progress we have. Our current and emerging leadership is much better prepared to lead SSOE going forward than it was 5 years ago.”

Another company that has experienced benefits from its relationship with the ECGC is becoming one of this region’s most visible international success stories: First Solar.

“The ECGC has been invaluable to First Solar as we have expanded our global footprint,” observes Carol Campbell, VP for Human Resources at First Solar. “When we started manufacturing production in Germany, we partnered with the ECGC to provide German language lessons for our US associates traveling to Germany. When we decided to build a factory in Malaysia, we again partnered with the COBA and ECGC to provide cross-cultural training for our Malaysian associates who traveled to our Perrysburg site and for the Perrysburg associates who trained them.”

Other Resources Center for Family Business: Through forums, roundtable discussions, networking, access to innovative learning tools and more, family business owners can become more competitive.

Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Businesses can obtain assistance for strategic planning, developing a business plan, Web marketing, market research and more.

Executive MBA: Designed to give even the busiest person an achievable, high quality MBA program, it provides a real-world education that can be applied immediately in the workplace.

Professional MBA: Lets working professionals complete the program after work, at their own pace, in as little as 12 courses or one year.

Institute for Supply Chain Management and Information Assurance: Works with businesses to address global trade and information security issues.

International Business Institute: Strengthens the global competitiveness of Great Lakes firms through development of an internationally experienced workforce and assisting with international contacts, market research, consulting services, foreign languages, culture training and more.

Access to student interns: COBA works closely with companies to match their needs for highly motivated and skilled business professionals with undergraduate and graduate students; 85% of COBA’s undergraduates complete one or more internships. Feedback from companies shows these interns and graduate assistants are also a source of future permanent hires.

Savage & Associates Complex for Business Learning and Engagement: With an estimated Fall 2009 completion date, this 54,000 sq. ft. building will provide a high-tech arena for both student learning and business interaction with COBA resources. Features will include action learning labs, video conferencing and distance learning capabilities and much more.

Join the Team “It is easy in turbulent economic times to focus on the negative, to believe that all one can do is wait to see what happens,” Gutteridge said. “But pacesetting Northwest Ohio businesses of all sizes are working with the knowledgeable and experienced faculty at The University of Toledo College of Business Administration to be ever more successful, ever more competitive in this global economy.”

For more information, contact Carrie Herr at the Executive Center for Global Competitiveness at 419.724.2591 or Dean Thomas Gutteridge at 419.530.4612, or visit www.business.utoledo.edu.

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