|
C&F
hosted AACSB Conference
By Irene Burgo
Dr. Mohammad Najdawi, senior associate dean, professor
and director of Graduate Business Programs in the College of Commerce
and Finance, organized and hosted the AACSB International Conference on
Distance Learning held last June 1 to 3 in Bartley Hall.
More than 100 deans, associate deans, faculty and administrators from
universities in this country and abroad attended the three-day event.
“Having this conference at Villanova is a great recognition by AACSB
of C&F’s leading role among business schools who have implemented
information education in business education,” said Najdawi.
The agenda for each day included multiple sessions on various topics of
information technology beginning at 8:45 a.m. The presentations began
on June 2, with Plenary Session I, titled “Distance Learning from
Today to Tomorrow,” which was delivered by Darcy W. Hardy, assistant
vice chancellor of UT TeleCampus, of The University of Texas System. The
other topics addressed included “Infrastructure and the Chancellor
said, ‘Let There Be Distance…” delivered by Gail S.M.
Evans, executive director, Distance Education, and professor, College
of Business, University of Houston-Downtown; “Developing Course
Content,” offered by Paul C. O’Callaghan, director, iMBA Program,
School of Management, Syracuse University, and Steve Salik, technology
support analyst, senior, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State
University. The numerous other topics covered addressed Comparative Course
Software, Surviving the Digital Revolution, and Tailoring Courses to Student
Learning Style, among many others.
Najdawi served as moderator for the session on “Effective Teaching
at a Distance,” in which several Villanova faculty members participated,
including: Michael W. Carroll, professor of law; Stephen Fugale, chief
information officer for the University; Joan Lesovitz, assistant director
of instructional technology; Daniel McGee, director of instructional technology;
and Elaine Webster, professor of statistics in C&F.
A banquet for the attendees was held on June 2 at the Villanova Conference
Center. Larry Weinbach, chairman, president and CEO of Unisys Corp. since
1987, was the keynote speaker. Weinbach, who is credited with initiating
dramatic change at Unisys and redefining the company’s position
in the marketplace, spoke on “The IT Revolution Makes a Pit-Stop.”
One of his biggest accomplishments in transforming Unisys was setting
the corporation on an aggressive course to reduce it’s debt by $1
billion before 2000. He articulated the strategic direction of the company
as being services driven and technology enabled. He explained how he accomplished
his goals through a series of actions, including launching a provocative
advertising campaign based upon that positioning which significantly increased
the company’s visibility and brand recognition. Weinbach cited how
in June 2002, Unisys rolled out the second phase of the market positioning
with a new advertising campaign that emphasized the importance of execution
in the marketplace. He chose a new tag line for this campaign, “Imagine
it. Done.”
In his talk, Weinbach addressed the pitfalls of information technology
in regard to tech spending, how tech companies have dealt with stock market
losses and recovered. He discussed the effect of Y2K, the explosion of
the Internet, specifically how companies purchased front-end web sites
without having adequate technical support and an inadequate strategic
plan to sustain and direct the “over-exuberance” of the e-business
their web sites attracted via the Internet. In summarizing the futility
of operating or planning without solid direction backed by solid research,
he quoted H. L. Mencken: “The most costly of all follies is to believe
passionately in the palpably not true.” Weinbach offered solutions
for the problems quoted and cited Unisys’ successful methods of
operation, relating that Unisys had identified “Absolute Integrity”
as their operating principle. He explained how according to the Unisys
example, executive sessions of the board of trustees were conducted effectively
without the presence of the CEO. Weinbach’s leadership also set
the company on an aggressive course to become an employer of choice through
a series of actions, such as re-establishing employee benefits programs,
and launching Unisys University, the company’s advanced development
and culture-building organization. He detailed how the company conducted
annual evaluations of the CEO in writing, and maintained an ethics program
for more than a decade. In conclusion, he identified the signs of recovery
from debt, indicating how the pendulum needs to move in order to solve
real business problems.
|
|
