INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS

‘Real world’ and ‘applied’ have been defining characteristics of Poole College’s teaching and research from the start. The engagement of active business and industry advisory boards throughout the college helps assure that our programs – from undergraduate through executive – are aligned with the needs of today’s global marketplace. Faculty connections with business and industry provide real world experiences through speakers and project-based learning. They also have led to the startup of initiatives that provide a more formal structure through which our faculty experts and researchers, companies and students connect on several levels, from custom research to student projects that apply classroom instruction to real world challenges and executive development.

Our students’ project results are reported to their sponsors in the classroom, in company board rooms, at industry partner meetings, and at the college’s annual Leadership and Innovation Showcase. These learning experiences provide meaningful results for project sponsors and help launch the careers – including entrepreneurial ventures – of our graduates.

Poole College currently has one research center and six initiatives, with one more ‘in process.’ Our Executive Programs, through our collaboratories approach to executive development, draws on faculty expertise in these and other centers and initiatives across NC State and beyond to develop and deliver programs that enable our clients to address real world challenges while learning to use new tools and apply best practices. Our Executive Programs are delivered through North Carolina State Executive Education, LLC. 

ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

• BioSciences Management Initiative | BioSci
• Center for Innovation Management Studies | CIMS
• Consumer Innovation Consortium | CIC
• Enterprise Risk Management Initiative | ERM
• Executive Programs: NC State Executive Education | NCSEE
• Supply Chain Resource Cooperative  | SCRC
• Sustainability
• The Entrepreneurship Collaborative | TEC

BIOSCIENCES MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE

Two recent reports provide evidence of the value of the biosciences industry to the North Carolina economy in general, and to the Research Triangle Park specifically, said Dr. Richard Kouri, professor of practice and director of the BioSciences Management Initiative in Poole College. He cites the report, 2012 Evidence and Opportunity: Biotechnology Impacts in North Carolina by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, and the  Life Sciences Cluster Report from Jones Lang LaSalle. Poole College's BioSci Initiative has been actively engaged with this evolving industry sector in the Triangle since 2006, when Kouri joined the college's faculty and established the initiative to support the biosciences management concentration in the college's Jenkins MBA program. Read more about the growth of biosciences management in Poole College.

CENTER FOR INNOVATION MANAGEMENT STUDIES

The Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) joined Poole College in 2000, from Lehigh University where it was founded in 1984, bringing along its database of innovation management research results conducted over nearly 30 years in partnership with industry and academic institutions. Since then, it has funded numerous research projects producing assessment tools that enable companies to gauge their readiness for innovation, as well as applications for emerging technologies, like big data analytics, in the innovation arena. Jenkins graduate students are learning to use these tools through company projects, preparing them to turn challenges into opportunities for future employers. Read more about CIMS today.

CONSUMER INNOVATION CONSORTIUM

 Poole College’s newest initiative is the Consumer Innovation Consortium (CIC), led by Dr. Stacy Wood, Langdon Professor of Marketing, executive director, and Dr. Colbey Reid, director. Launched in December 2012, CIC is building academic-corporate partnerships that deliver state-of-the-art consumer research to corporate leaders in marketing and design innovation. It also provides recruiting access to a generation of uniquely trained business graduates who combine strategic consumer behavior knowledge with the latest research and design techniques. CIC’s inaugural corporate partners are AmerisourceBergen, Bayer CropScience, Burt’s Bees, and Cotton Incorporated. Its computer-based research laboratory, located on the second floor of Nelson Hall, builds on Wood’s experience into how individuals process new product information and their emotional reactions to new innovations, trends, or customs. Her work is complemented by the expertise of Colbey Reid, who joined the college as CIC director in January 2013. Reid’s research in culture and innovation will help CIC to foster interdisciplinary alliances with the business community, especially in design and the liberal arts. Read more about this new consortium. 

STRATEGIC RISK MANAGEMENT ACROSS THE ENTERPRISE

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a major corporate governance issue and boards struggle to know what to do about it. It was in response to that need that the ERM Initiative was established in Poole College in 2004. Its mission: to provide thought-leadership about enterprise risk management, with a particular emphasis on the role of ERM in strategic planning and corporate governance.

The initiative’s affiliated faculty members have been building on that founding mission for the past eight years, providing a forum for knowledge sharing and discussion about best practices and participating in research that has led to numerous white papers, webinars, informational videos, workshops, and other resources for corporate leadership teams. The ERM team has partnered with numerous national organizations on these projects. Learn more about this initiative. 

EXECUTIVE PROGRAMS

Poole College’s Executive Programs – delivered through the North Carolina State Executive Education, LLC (NCSEE) – has seen tremendous growth in the past few years, reports Dan McGurrin, who joined the college as director in spring 2011. That was about the same time that the college announced a new business collaboratories approach to executive development, delivered through custom and consortia programs and specialized open enrollment offerings. Learn how this new approach is transforming executive development.

FUELING THE SUPPLY CHAIN TALENT PIPELINE

The Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) held its first bi-annual partners meeting in 2001, bringing together its initial four industry partners and the teams of students who reported on company-led projects completed as part of their practicum class. Since then, SCRC teams have completed nearly 500 projects, results of which are now among the resources available to SCRC partner companies through the SCRC website. The company projects enable students to apply classroom learning to real world situations, covering a wide range of supply chain and operations issues, from contract management to ‘should cost’ modeling, experience that has helped graduates compete effectively in the job market. Read about SCRC today

SUSTAINABILITY

In the past year, Scott Showalter, professor of practice in Poole College’s Department of Accounting, has worked with faculty in the college and across NC State to assess the potential for developing an initiative in sustainability. The study follows a request from Lonnie C. Poole, Jr., that a portion of his $37.5 million gift in 2010, which named Poole College, be used to focus on sustainability within the college. As founder of Waste Industries, Inc., and the Environmental Industry Association’s Research and Education Foundation, it is a topic of great importance to him and Poole College. In 2011, Showalter led both an assessment of sustainability and life cycle analysis research under way by faculty in the college and across NC State as well as a college task force that produced a 66-page Opportunities for Thought Leadership in Sustainability report.

Within Poole College, Showalter has developed 1-hour and 3-hour courses on sustainability that are being taught to graduate students. Poole College faculty members have collaborated with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences on executive programs for Bayer CropScience, and a group of six accounting professors are in an ongoing research project with Bacardi Limited that aims to develop more effective measures of its sustainability activities. An initial report on that project was featured on the cover of the December issue of the Institute of Managerial Accountants (IMA) magazine, Strategic Finance. IMA is funding this research. Activities continue with the North Carolina Business Sustainability Network and The Sustainability Consortium, and the college is recruiting a professional to lead ongoing sustainability activities. Watch for more news from Poole College as our focus on sustainability develops.

SUPPORTING AN ENTREPRENEURIAL ENVIRONMENT

The elements that evolved into The Entrepreneurship Collaborative (TEC), launched as an initiative in summer 2012, have been part of the college from its early days. The new initiative incorporates the college's HiTEC program for graduate students and the college's undergraduate entrepreneurship curriculum. Its overarching objective is to facilitate interaction between the local entrepreneurship community and Poole College’s entrepreneurship students. Read about TEC today.