geraldrwagner.com

The Best Course Of My College Career

Goal: The goal of this project is to give students an opportunity to experience real world consulting with sophisticated Decision Support tools. It is expected that 5 or more Universities will be added to the list of users each year. Since availability in the fall of 2008 the course (or variation) is now offered at LaSalle University, Rutgers, Oklahoma State, University of Dayton, Louisiana Tech, ESCEM in France, and Paderborn in Germany. All materials including software are free for students and faculty. Within 2 years a textbook will be published in collaboration with Dr. Paul Gray who is also one of the DSS Pioneers and is on the faculty at Claremont. Within this 2 year period Professors will begin to be present related papers at professional conferences. At ICDSS in conjunction with AMCIS, one session will feature a student project at Louisiana Tech that used the course materials and software. Their project was building a simulator to evaluate bailout scenarios for the big 3 auto manufacturers. ICDSS is the International Conference on Decision Support Systems.

I developed and for three semesters have offered a course entitled Applied Consulting Using Simulation Modeling and Visualization. Students can register for BSAD 8916-003, ECON 8916-003, MGMT 4000-003, ISQA 400-004, ISQA 4000-09, or ISQA 8080-003. It is typical that students volunteer comments saying that it was the best course of their college career. Work is underway for this course to be adopted at Universities around the world.

This course is more work for students than traditional courses but the rewards are also greater as evidenced by student feedback. The course also involves more Professor time including recruiting clients months in advance of the course beginning. There is substantial mentoring and advising of students during the semester. The semester often involves late evening meetings with students with assistance ranging from problem formulation to rehearsing their final presentations. This is not a cookie cutter course. This is not a course for Professors who prefer to stand up and lecture the same material semester after semester. But the time and effort is worth it if a Professor wants their students to have life changing learning.

How the Course Works

The students build real financial simulation models for real clients with real problems. They do this in teams of 4 or 5 students depending upon the number of students enrolled. Enrollment is usually about 20 students and is a mix of graduate and undergraduate students from across campus although most are business majors including MBA's. Clients are about 50% non profit and 50% for profit organizations. The class meets on Fridays from 12 noon to 3:00 p.m.

A client project ends with students presenting recommendations to their client in a board room environment. The client selects a winning team which gets an automatic A+. Other teams are also graded by the client. Client presentations accounts for 50% of their final grade. Other pieces that make up a final grade are a written report for each client for 30 %, an exam on the Planners Lab software for 10%, and a research project and presentation on effective presentations for 10%.

I have been fortunate to have an abundance of clients to work with. I feel certain that the same would be true in most cities. Well in advance of the beginning of the semester I interview prospects and select those that have needs aligned with goals of the class. Alignment means projects that deal with strategic decision making, are sufficiently challenging, can be finished in 5 weeks, and the client is sincerely committed to be engaged with the students for 5 weeks.

The semester begins with my teaching the Planners Lab software. Thereafter they learn the software by actual practice supported with online materials. Next the students do a research project on effective presentations that is followed by team presentations of how to deliver effective presentations. Then the first client meets with the class to give a briefing about their organization and present their problem/opportunity. This is followed by them meeting with the class for about one hour each Friday before the final presentations. Students send questions to the client via email each week and the client comes prepared to answer these questions on Friday. After a final presentation, the process starts over with the next client. Team makeup is changed at the same time by random drawings.

A Partial List of Past Clients

Below is a partial list of past clients. Final reports are available where allowed by the client. If you want one or more let me know at grwagner@mail.unomaha.edu. Each person that sees the examples is amazed at the professionalism. They are well beyond what would be expected for University classes.

• Open Door Mission - determine what services and levels of services to provide in a new building to be constructed.
• Lutheran Family Services - determine the optimal mix of projects in their portfolio.
• TD Ameritrade - acquisition of another company.
• Camp Fire USA - determine strategic direction for the organization including services to be provided and resource requirements.
• Drew Health Center - determine optimal location for satellite facilities and services to be provided along with resource requirements.
• MarketSphere - merger with a software company.
• Alegent Health - opening of operations in other cities.

Advanced Course

Students from the above course are now asking for a follow up course. That might begin this summer term of 2009. Up to 10 students will be admitted. The format will be somewhat different than the first course.

One large organization will be selected to work with the students. From within that organization the client will agree for the students to work with the senior executives in Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, and Technology and also with the COO/President and the CEO.

Class periods will again be on Fridays from 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. Students will interview one executive on a Friday. The goal is to identify"pains" that the executive is experiencing that might be relieved with a computer based decision support system. During the week that follows the students develop one or more prototype models and come to the next Friday prepared to present their results. The executive grades the teams based upon value contributed. On that same time the students interview the next executive and the process starts over. In a 6 week period of time the task is to have a portfolio of prototype models for each of the functional areas.

A Client for the Fall Semester, 2009

The Nebraska Humane Society is a private nonprofit 501(c) (3) corporation governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. As a non-profit corporation they rely heavily on private donations. The Shelter receives funding for animal control services from the cities that contract for those services. They also generate income through an adoption program, Dog Daycare, Manners 'N More Obedience Classes, Camp Kindness, and Rainbow Bridge Cremation Services. All fees for those programs go back into the shelter to provide sanctuary for the thousands of animals that come through their doors each year. With community support they are able to go a step farther and provide emergency medical care, spaying or neutering and microchipping for all adoptees, in addition to feeding and housing them comfortably until they find permanent homes.

They own 100,000 square feet of building space and substantial land for parking, dog runs, and other uses. The annual budget is $8.2 million. Four ancillary businesses have annual revenue of about $130,000. Those ancillary businesses are a gift shop,"behavioral training","cremation", and "doggie day care". These businesses are in line with the NHS mission and provide a modest, though important, revenue stream.

The organization is diversified, substantial, sophisticated, and progressive. However as with all organizations they must continually invent, re-invent, and grow or else they will decline in stature. They have substantial momentum and now is the time to prepare for growth in the future in ways that best fulfill the organizations purposes.

The class project is to build a simulation model for the entire Nebraska Humane Society organization that answers strategic questions such as - What are alternative and best uses for the empty building space? What are alternative and best alliances with other businesses? What are alternative and best organizational policies? What are alternative and best strategies for the four ancillary businesses? What are alternative and best additional services? What are alternative and best tools for raising public awareness?

The final board presentation will be in collaboration with the organization member(s) to whom the model is handed over for on-going decision support.

Example Poster for Advisors

Each semester prior to registration for next semester's classes, a flyer is provided to curriculum advisors in the Business College, the College of Information Science and Technology, and the College of Public Administration. Below is an example which was for the spring semester of 2009. These are mounted on foam boards that are self standing. The attached example also gives statistics for student evaluations of the course. Coincidently, Tadd Wood the student quoted on the flyer appeared in an Omaha World Herald newspaper article about 2 months after he finished the course. The story was about his new entrepreneurial company.

Terradata University Network

The software and teaching materials are all available through the Terradata University Network (TUN). Thousands of professors and students worldwide have access to the TUN and its contents for no charge. Following is the landing page for the site.

Separate Course Web Site

In addition to the Terradata University Network, teaching materials and software are also available at a site specifically for the course. Following is the home page for the site. The software and materials are available to all students and faculty for free.