Texas Executive Education News

Hear leading executives speak on current business issues. The event consists of an informal interview session followed by an open floor question and answer.

Who: Michael S. Dell, Chairman of the Board and CEO
Host: Tom Gilligan, Dean, McCombs School of Business
When: Wednesday, November 11, 2009:  5:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Where: AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, Ballroom read more…

Texas Executive Education recently hosted the Disney Institute for a one-day workshop, The Disney Keys to Excellence. The program offered a behind the scenes look at the “Disney approach” to business and management issues. The program was high-energy, entertaining and challenged participants to consider how Disney best-practices, philosophies, strategies, concepts and tactics could be applied in their organizations. Here is some Disney wisdom regarding Leadership Excellence:

As a leader, you must ask yourself: What is important to me? How do others know this?

The Story:

• Every leader is on stage and is telling a story about what he or she values.
• Since we judge ourselves by our intentions and others judge us by our behaviors, leaders must decide which values are most important to them and exemplify those values in their behavior 
• Every action sends a message.
• Through our actions we tell a story about what’s important to us.

The Vision:

• A vision is a picture of the future that is created in the imagination and motivates action.
• Leaders must take responsibility for creating and communicating a clear vision.
• Advantages of a vision: Creates a shared a meaningful purpose; Inspires passion and interest; Conveys values; and Guides decision making and strategy.

Involvement:

• Leaders must actively involve his/her team in order to achieve their vision.
• Leaders build involvement by: Transferring power and decision making authority; Providing team members with opportunities for education; Allocating the appropriate resources to allow team members to do their jobs; and Creating an environment that contributes to the sharing of information.
• Don’t work in silos—Share. Great information isn’t great unless it’s shared.

More good words to ponder from Disney:

• From Walt Disney’s brother Roy: “When values are clear, decisions are easy.”
• Regarding customer service: “Above all, you’re creating happiness.” “You make the magic!”
• There are going to be days when you have to find your own applause!
• Treat your employees like you treat your customers.

Original Post by Tracy Mueller
From McCombs TODAY blog

On Sept. 17, Texas Executive Education hosted a faculty panel addressing Strategies for Growth in Trying Times. We captured a few of the highlights on video:

What country is poised to be the next global economic powerhouse?
Senior Lecturer of Management John Doggett spoke about the future of the global marketplace. “We in this country right now are undergoing a navel-gazing exercise of amazing proportions,” he said. “We’re moving into a time where more and more economic activity is going on outside of the United States.” He added “Whether you’re small, medium or large, you’re going to face more competition from countries that you never thought of as competitors.” Doggett said in the next 15-20 years, China will be the largest economy in the world, and India will be “neck and neck” with the U.S. for the second largest economy.

read more…

Chantal Delys, Assistant Dean, welcomes Executive MBA students from Mainz University

Texas Executive Education, in  partnership with Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, hosted a Leadership in a Global Environment program for Mainz executive MBA students. This year’s program, September 21-25, was the 7^th anniversary of the partnership between Mainz and Texas Executive Education. The students represented a variety of German and international firms such as Lufthansa, General Motors Europe, ImClone and Intervet Innovation GmbH.

This year’s program focused on leading-edge leadership, the emergence of global markets, the current U.S. economy and communication practices. McCombs and university professors John Daly, Michael Brandl, John Doggett, John Burrows and Doug Dierking taught in the program.

“I was truly impressed by the passion, engagement and energy of my students,” says Professor Doggett. “They didn’t just sit back and listen.  They were on the edge of their seats asking smart, tough and wonderful questions.  I love working with students who have a thirst for knowledge and the students from Mainz are off the charts . . . in a good way.”

The group visited Dell and Whole Foods, where industry speakers provided insights into doing business in the U.S. The Mainz group had an opportunity to meet and network with their McCombs Executive MBA counterparts during a reception that was held at the AT&T Conference Center. And to enhance the classroom experience and learn about Austin culture, the students took a Lake Austin cruise and enjoyed barbeque at the County Line on the Lake.

Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz was founded in 1477 and is one of the oldest and largest universities in Germany.

UPDATE (9.30.2009): Podcasts for the event are now available.from the interview.

Smith on Leadership.mp3 (1m24s, 1.4MB)
Smith recommends taking on the tough tasks to stand out among others and to hone leadership skills.

Smith on Constructive Confrontation.mp3 (2m4s, 1.4MB)
Smith talks about the concept of constructive confrontation, which goes back to Intel founder Andy Grove’s days.

For more interview highlights and audio transcripts, go to McCombs Today.

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Who: Stacy Smith, CFO, Intel
Host: Eric Hirst, associate dean, MBA Program
When: Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009  5:30-6:30 p.m.
Where: UT Campus, Will C. Hogg 1.120

Stacy J. Smith is vice president of finance and enterprise services and the chief financial officer (CFO) for Intel Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for leading the worldwide finance organization and overseeing operational finance, accounting and reporting, tax, treasury, internal audit and investor relations.

Smith joined Intel in 1988 and has held positions in finance, sales and marketing and information technology. Most recently he held the position of chief information officer, where he was responsible for Intel’s Information Technology Group. He has also held the position of general manager of Intel Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) where he was responsible for Intel product sales and marketing in the EMEA region. He became vice president of sales and marketing in 2002. Over the years, he has held finance positions in various divisions, components manufacturing, systems manufacturing, and sales and marketing. He has been located with Intel in the US, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Smith earned his MBA in Finance from McCombs in 1988.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jeffrey Siegel with the Undergraduate Business Council.

Our 2nd Annual Open House and Symposium last Thursday, September 17th catered to pack and diverse crowd that consisted of corporate officers, small business owners and professionals attracted to the panel discussions on business growth and how to build brand share overseas. Dave Wenger, director of communications for the McCombs School, blogged from the event, which featured panel discussions from McCombs faculty and industry experts.

A few highlights:

• On National Instruments’ long-term approach to business: “Traditionally we’ve had a lot of cash on hand, and were criticized by some on Wall Street for doing that,” said John Hanks, VP of industrial embedded marketing. “I can tell you that cash has been very helpful now.”
• “Feed the pipeline with interns and new hires, even in tough times. Identify the leaders of tomorrow, you can’t put that on idle just because times are tough.” -Advice on how to manage growth in a down economy from Emerson Process Management Chairman John Berra.
• “Recession can be a time of opportunity. Think about growing brands, channels and markets. There are supply side efficiencies, costs go down, so it is a time to think about investing.” -Associate Professor of Marketing Raji Srinivasan.
• “Regardless of where it comes from you will be facing new competitors from overseas. In the next 20 years China will be the largest economy in the world. India will be neck-and-neck with the U.S. for number two economy.” -Management Senior Lecturer John Doggett, on the changing global marketplace.

I’d like to thank those in attendance and invite you to share your thoughts in our comments section. And for those who missed this event, we have a full review of the discussions,  visit Dave’s blog IDUniversity.