The week of Sept. 16 was a busy one for the Fox Global MBA program and the students from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogotá who came to immerse themselves in the Temple/Philadelphia experience.
The program is designed for professionals with significant work experience who are seeking career mobility and enrichment, as well as a collaborative learning experience with a closely-knit cohort of colleagues. Temple has partnerships with universities in Beijing, China, Bogota, Colombia and Tokyo, Japan. The modular format of the Executive Program MBA curriculum also means that students have the ability to take two courses at a global partner location. For Javeriana students, this meant taking a trip to the City of Brotherly Love.
The week-long visit included four days in the classroom, sightseeing activities like a walking tour of Old City and visiting corporate headquarters in the city. Over the course of three days, the group visited Philadelphia Port Authority, Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), the Philadelphia 76ers, Comcast and Subaru.
“It has been a great experience; I really love it,” says Yaquelyn Peña Moreno. She is a director of internal audits (controller), with more than 18 years of experience in the provision of professional audit services. “Yesterday, we went to GSK and it was wonderful. The people who ran the meeting were so open with us. They told us about their careers and explained all the different perspectives of the company. I can take these lessons both in my professional career and my personal life.”
Despite their busy schedules, the cohort still had time to take in the campus and reflect on how their experiences will impact their careers at home in Colombia and beyond.
“We have been given the opportunity to understand how students of Temple live day-by-day,” says Juan Carlos Rodriguez Rozo, chief operations officer/supply chain director at Fundacion Cardioinfantil, a top hospital in Bogota. “And we are going to bring a lot of insights back to our companies. Not only about the latest trends in global management, but because we can talk to local students and people during corporate visits, we can better understand how U.S. companies are operating.”
In late 2018, 26 of China’s top business executives came together in Beijing from Shanghai, Shenzhen and other popular cities to celebrate the Fox School of Business’ first cohort of the Executive MBA program in China.
The Fox EMBA was developed for business professionals looking to expand their knowledge and enhance their careers. The program consists of market-driven courses and hands-on learning experiences delivered by world-class and award-winning business leaders and faculty members. To help support the global business community, the Fox School entered into a dual-degree partnership with Renmin University. The Beijing cohort includes students with a myriad of backgrounds, both professionally and demographically. Fox School professors based in Philadelphia travel to Beijing host one class per month at Renmin University facilities.
During their opening ceremony, Professor Jason Cheng Jiang, International EMBA program faculty assistant director, provided insight into who the Fox School is, and played a short film to introduce students to the city of Philadelphia.
The first three-day course, taught by Professor Cheng Jiang, was Statistical Analysis for Management. The professor used real-world examples and practical business problems to demystify what can be a complex, obscure topic.
When the group returned to class last month, Professor Roger Kashlak visited the group to teach Contemporary Corporate Strategy, which encouraged students to focus on interaction and discussion in the boardroom and beyond. Students were divided into presentation and discussion groups, where collaboration was key.
“The program has set up a platform for us to communicate and learn from each other,” says EMBA student Yan Cheng. “Through classroom discussions, we can share other people’s management experience. That way, everyone’s knowledge base has been enriched.”
Interested in finding out how the program can help you achieve your goals? Click here to learn more about the EMBA program.
The Fox School of Business and the School of Sport, Tourism, and Hospitality Management (STHM) honored faculty and staff members at the second-annual IMPACT Awards ceremony, held in Alter Hall May 8, 2018.
The IMPACT Awards celebrate Fox and STHM faculty and staff for their ability to collaborate effectively as groups to deliver impactful service, teaching, and research contributions.
“As our two schools continue to grow, it is increasingly more important to identify opportunities where our faculty, staff, and leaders can collaborate cross-functionally to achieve truly special outcomes,” says Dean M. Moshe Porat. “In essence, that is the function of the IMPACT Awards, and this year’s honorees met these criteria.”
Applying a peer-review approach, the IMPACT Awards call upon the Fox and STHM communities for review and evaluations of all nominees. Prizes included glass trophies, customized merchandise to commemorate the achievement, a special group experience, and financial rewards. This year, 16 groups representing the accomplishments of 70 faculty and 86 staff members earned nominations.
The winners were: The Fox Global Immersion program, the Temple University Entrepreneurship Academy (TUEA), and the Fox Center for Undergraduate Advising. Here is more on each of these exceptional groups and their achievements:
GLOBAL IMMERSION PROGRAM
Global immersions are short study trips embedded into an international business-oriented course that allow students a chance to experience global business in person rather than simply learning about it in the classroom. These Immersions expose students to the environment of business by taking them to targeted destinations that offer a robust and profound practical experience. Students engage in a number of learning opportunities, including meeting with business executives, touring factories, interacting with government officials and learning about the business environment from locals. After an immersion, students return to their coursework with a unique international perspective. The experience also allows students to develop valuable job skills—such as cultural understanding, tolerance for ambiguity, respect for diversity, adaptability, and self-confidence. Perhaps even more important, students learn about themselves—their values and ideals, limits and aspirations. This heightened self-awareness can unlock passion and creativity, inspiring a more independent, self-reliant, and self-confident student.
Representatives of the Global Immersion program include: Jeffrey Conradi, Kevin Fandl, Christine Kiely, Amy Kumpf, Lauren Letko, and Phyllis Tutora.
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACADEMY
The Temple University Entrepreneurship Academy (TUEA), embedded within Temple’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute, formed in 2015 as an initiative created in partnership with the President’s office as one of Temple University’s Six Pillars of Success. TUEA has now reached more than 2,000 students campus-wide, implemented more than a dozen programs covering entrepreneurship topics, and has awarded 12 Conwell Fellowships to faculty who are champions of entrepreneurship. TUEA has leveraged partnerships with the Intellectual Heritage GenEd program and the College of Engineering, creating customized programming for each that has led to outreach to more than 700 students. Additionally, TUEA has supported the Tyler School of Art in launching a BFA with Entrepreneurial Studies, giving Tyler students the opportunity to complement their degrees with an entrepreneurial skillset to widen their career options. TUEA has been integral to spreading the entrepreneurial spirit across campus and creating a culture in which Temple University students are empowered to be creative thinkers, problem solvers, and seekers of success.
Representatives of the Temple University Entrepreneurship Academy include: Lindsay Clark, Alan Kerzner, Robert McNamee, Erin McShea, and Ellen Weber.
CENTER FOR UNDERGRADUATE ADVISING
The Fox Center for Undergraduate Advising represents the gold standard for advising at Temple. Servicing almost 8,000 undergraduate students, Fox advisors represent both the front end of students’ introductions and orientations to campus, and the culmination of their academic experiences and clearance for graduation. Students work collaboratively with advisors to develop individual plans for academic success, fully utilize campus resources, and engage in the process of reflection/decision making promoting long-term achievement. Departments work collaboratively with advising to promote new initiatives and programs, establish trends within their major, manage registration into required classes, and increase enrollment.
Following the transition to a developmental advising structure in 2013, with targeted services based on academic standing, the office has maintained consistent high marks on Senior Satisfaction Ratings of ‘Ease of Access’ and ‘Quality of Service’. Retention results for the Fox School, now at 95 percent, consistently exceed all other programs on campus, garnering recent high praise from the Provost’s Office.
Representatives of the Fox School’s Center for Undergraduate Advising include: Harriet Butterfield, Jan Cleaver, Camille Fallon, Gavin Farber, Chuck Foster, Jake Hershman, Lisa Hodge, Jeff Hofer, Shelley Hunter, Amanda Jaxheimer, Ross Markman, Dina Maslennikova, Carli Metzler, Lauren O’Brien, Elvita Quinones, Joy Stroman, Natalie Vohra, and Julian White.
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded The World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia (WTCGP) a $1M, three-year matching grant to implement key strategies of the Greater Philadelphia Export Plan. As part of the nationwide Global Cities Initiative (GCI), supported by the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase, the plan aims to increase the number of exporting companies and accelerate regional job and revenue growth through economic exports. Specifically, the plan will build capacity among the region’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s), and bolster export growth in the Greater Philadelphia region’s health and professional services, architecture, design, engineering, and construction management companies.
Academic partnerships are key to the success of the GCI. Partners, such as Temple University’s Fox School of Business, help supply research to uncover data, trends, and analysis that directly impacts the professional and academic international business community. The end goal for such partnerships are to fuel economic growth, help companies’ increase their sales, and attract more investors in key industries for the region.
A recent study from Team Philadelphia, with Temple University leading the research and data analysis, sought to support GCI and uncover the global network analysis of the region. According to Brookings, Philadelphia ranks fifth among U.S. cities in terms of pharmaceutical exports. The region’s strengths in R&D and the innovation is needed for biotechnology, according to Dr. Ram Mudambi, professor at the Fox School, and his team. Philadelphia is higher up on the value chain, focusing in innovation rather than manufacturing. It remains a challenge for cities to learn how to balance this expertise at innovation with the desire for job creation at all levels, which would historically have been supported by manufacturing. In addition, Dr. Bertrand Guillotin, professor and academic director at the Fox School, contributed to the data collection efforts, which were crucial for the GCI’s first annual Philadelphia report.
For Pennsylvania, promoting exports from Philadelphia is a key economic development tool. It leads to job creation, higher wages, more stable companies, and a diverse market base for firms. Imports play an important role too. The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, and Ireland are key trading partners both in terms of exporting and importing, which demonstrates that Pennsylvania is part of the pharmaceutical global value chain, interacting actively with these key country partners.
Temple University’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) is currently implementing more than 70 events to improve U.S. competitiveness in the world marketplace and to produce globally competent students, faculty, and staff. Temple CIBER at the Fox School has received a grant from the Department of Education since its inception in 2002 and is one of 17 such centers in the country. The CIBER grant supports academic research for the international business community, including helping produce research that meets the needs of global business objectives.
The program recognizes these figures in its efforts to help U.S. companies connect to global markets:
- 95% of the world’s consumers live outside the U.S.
- <1% of America’s 30 million companies export
- 58% of U.S. companies that export do so to only one country
Learn more about the Fox School’s programs in International Business.
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
There has been a backlash against globalization and multinational corporations lately, but as new markets emerge, people, knowledge, capital, raw materials, finished products, services, and culture will increasingly flow across national boundaries. This flow is the essence of international business, and its success hinges on understanding the new configurations that will emerge. It is essential that we prepare for the new world order.
Why is it important to study the flow of international business? First, comprehending the nuts and bolts of how business is conducted across borders expands knowledge and skill sets. Second, knowing other languages and having overseas experience shows employers that students have an open global mindset. It differentiates them from others competing for a job. The Fox School of Business specializes in teaching the international business flow and in giving students that employment edge. For this reason and more, the Fox International Business (IB) program attracts top students from the Philadelphia region and beyond.
Students also choose the Fox School as a result of its world-leading faculty, beginning with Arvind Phatak, who studied globalization and multinationals in the 1960’s long before these words became popular. Today, Professors Mike Kotabe, Ram Mudambi, and Charles Dhanaraj are driving the Fox School’s IB program to the top. The popular press regularly cites the research output of these three scholars, and the Academy of International Business has elected them Fellows of the Academy—the highest honor that the academy can bestow.
The Fox School’s IB program is committed to providing outstanding internship and career placement help for graduates. The Fox Center for Student Professional Development (CSPD) has close contacts with many international companies and international organizations in the city, region, and beyond. IB student recruiters include GSK, Bank of America, Vanguard, Lockheed Martin, BDP International, BNP Paribas, Alibaba Group, LinkedIn Corporation, Amazon, and various U.S. and foreign government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Salaries reported by IB students cover a wide range based on specific elements (e.g., industry, cost of living, etc.) and have sometimes exceeded $100,000. On average and according to the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia’s export plan, IB jobs and export-related jobs pay 20% more.
A Brief History of IB Education at Fox
Professor Hart Walters offered the first course in International Business at the undergraduate level in 1971, and in 1984 IB became an undergraduate major. The Fox School continues to be a pioneer in developing a state-of-the-art curriculum. For example, it is a founding member of the Consortium for Undergraduate Business Education (CUIBE), a group of nationally recognized IB programs that aims to improve the way IB is taught to undergraduates.
Opportunities to Study IB at Fox
Some scholars see globalization as a continuum: companies start local, and then expand nationally, go on to become continental or regional, and then finally global; all strategy therefore has to be global in scope. Because of this, students are advised to specialize in one functional area and add IB as a second major. Fox students can also minor in IB or get specialized area certificates.
Undergraduates usually take six courses comprised of a core and a menu of electives towards the IB major. Through these courses, students learn both the analytical aspects of IB, such as accounting, economics, finance, insurance and risk, and the behavioral side of IB, such as human resources, legal, marketing, supply chains, offshoring, and strategic management. IB students are also encouraged to join the IB Student Professional Organization (SPO), the fastest growing on campus. The IB SPO hosts practitioners who share their experiences with the students. IB students also work with Temple’s Small Business Administration and the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia, advising local clients who would like to take their products or services abroad. IB students get hands on experience by helping these clients enter emerging markets or help foreign clients enter the U.S. market.
At the master’s level, the IB the concentration has remained a popular choice among students. The Fox School offers an Executive MBA in many major countries in South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Global Immersions
Temple University and the Fox School have campuses in Rome and Japan. The university has also had a presence in China through the Fox School and Temple’s Beasley School of Law. Additionally, the Fox School has agreements with many foreign schools where students can spend a semester or year. Undergraduate and graduate students have studied at many of these locations and immersed themselves in the cultures of these places.
Through the Fox PhD program, multiple students have earned a doctorate with an international business concentration. The Fox School’s IB doctoral students have won dissertation awards at the Academy of International Business Annual Meetings. Today these alums are major knowledge creators and occupy prestigious positions in major universities.
CIBER
The IB Program has also been the beneficiary of a Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) grant from the U.S. Department of Education for more than 15 years. This grant provides funding of more than $1 million every four years to selected research institutions that are on the cutting edge of finding ways to improve U.S. competitiveness and trade. Specifically, the grant requires grantee institutions to become regional and national centers for the research and teaching of critical languages, politics, economic geography, culture, laws, and trade practices vital to enhance U.S. trade. Only 17 universities currently hold this grant.
Contact Us: The Fox IB Program is strong in terms of teaching expertise, research impact, rankings, job placements, and in total provides great value for money. To learn more about the program, contact Dr. Bertrand Guillotin via email at Bertrand.Guillotin@temple.edu.
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Is working remotely in your future?
For many, it already is. A 2016 poll from Gallup found that 43 percent of Americans are working remotely at least part of the time, up from 39 percent in 2012. According to a survey at the London Global Leadership Summit, executives anticipate more than half of their employees will be remote by 2020. With a workforce less attached to a physical office, how does this affect businesses?
Dr. Ram Mudambi, professor in the Fox School, seeks to understand this question and others like it, which play at the intersection of business, geography, and technology.
To do that, he launched International Business, Economic Geography, and Innovation (iBEGIN), a now-annual conference that aims to enhance research around the knowledge economy—based on intellectual capital and human talent—that sustains international business today.
“iBEGIN is based on the idea that connectivity across space is the ‘invisible web’ that underlies all human civilization,” Mudambi explains.
This past December, Mudambi and several of his fellow Fox School faculty and doctoral students attended iBEGIN at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The conference—sponsored by the Fox School’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and the Office of Research, Doctoral Programs, and Strategic Initiatives, as well as Ca’ Foscari University—brings together experts from the fields of business, geography, and technological innovation to explore international connectedness in time, space, and economy.
“Innovation is the outcome of social interactions among people, through either organizations or personal relationships,” says Mudambi, “Studying such complex phenomena requires a holistic approach.”
This year, attendees sought to learn more about how employees who work remotely, away from their companies’ main offices or headquarters, impact how international businesses function and grow.
When remote employees spend time with their colleagues face-to-face, the parties are more likely to value their time together, increase their level of attention, and emphasize knowledge and information exchange. The conference attendees discussed how international businesses were using remote work, what forms of temporary co-location increased creative interaction and long-term relationships, and which mechanisms improved knowledge exchange.
iBEGIN expands upon the work of the CIBER, Temple University’s premiere program to promote academic research, curriculum development, and outreach programs in international business.
Funded by the Department of Education, CIBER plays a vital role in producing cutting-edge international business research, promoting international ideas within the community, and fostering worldwide learning among Temple students and faculty. As one of only 17 centers in the country, CIBER has received continuous federal funding since its inception in 2002.
Learn more about Fox School Research.
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
For some, outsourcing is a dirty word. But does it have to be?
According to Forbes, approximately 300,000 jobs are outsourced by the United States yearly. “Offshore” outsourcing, in particular, has become a widely used method in relocating office jobs to countries where labor costs are significantly lower. For example, Carrier, an Indianapolis-based HVAC company, made headlines for laying off 600 workers, sending those jobs to Mexico instead.
However, new research from the Fox School shows that choosing to outsource in a foreign country goes beyond a pros and cons list or a review of your bottom line—it is a strategic business decision.
J. Jay Choi, professor of finance, and Masaaki “Mike” Kotabe, professor of international business and marketing, embarked on a collaborative project in order to understand what motivates firms to seek options such as offshore outsourcing, in a way previous research has not.
Their paper, “Flexibility as Firm Value Drivers: Evidence from Offshore Outsourcing,” which was accepted for publication in the Global Strategy Journal, blends the researchers’ backgrounds strategy and finance to analyze outsourcing as an approach rather than a choice.
Choi and Kotabe found that firms chose to outsource in a foreign country in order to have flexibility in the face of uncertainty. An uncertain market can mean an upsurge in prices, a decline in demand, unforeseen competition, or an economic recession. Companies have to be flexible in order to adapt to these changes—which offshore outsourcing can offer.
“Our work fills an important gap demonstrating that flexibility adds value in more uncertain conditions, more so internationally than domestically,” said Kotabe. “Outsourcing provides firms the ability to adjust and evaluate their options in order to gain quality resources with limited costs.”
When firms are able to move their operations offshore, they essentially gain more freedom. Lower costs, more suppliers, and the ability to expand in more financially driven areas become widely available.
This level of flexibility is not as easily achievable when it comes to domestic operations.
However, Choi and Kotabe explain this approach may come with set-backs. “Offshoring allows firms to perform better financially, however, this relationship may be somewhat weakened by potential loss of domestic innovation and talent while dealing with foreign suppliers.”
Choi and Kotabe merged their respective disciplines in order to gain a unique perspective of outsourcing. “The key is to conduct business research as realistically as possible, so that we can provide relevant research findings to the business community,” said Choi.
The taboos that surround outsourcing may still exist, but with this new research, businesses and consumers alike can better understand when outsourcing will provide the best results.
Learn more about Fox School Research.
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
For 800,000 young immigrants, the future is uncertain.
In August, the Trump Administration rescinded the executive actions that President Obama took to protect minors who illegally immigrated to the United States, not by their own choice, but alongside their parents. Established in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy allowed young immigrants to live, work, and go to college without the fear of deportation.
The Trump Administration maintains that Obama’s actions were unconstitutional, exceeding the scope of the executive branch by effectively changing the country’s laws—a responsibility that rests solely with Congress.
Kevin Fandl, assistant professor of Legal Studies at the Fox School, studied whether that claim is true in his paper, “Presidential Power to Protect Dreamers: Abusive or Proper?” which was accepted for publication by the Yale Law & Policy Review Inter Alia.
Fandl reviewed 200 years of case laws and statutes since the founding of the United States to learn what role the president has in enforcing—or ignoring—legislation affecting young immigrants, known as “Dreamers.” His research asks the question: “Does the president have the ability to selectively choose how the law is enforced?”
The president makes an oath to uphold the laws of this country. But, Fandl says, that doesn’t mean he has unlimited capacity to enforce each and every law. The president has the power of prosecutorial discretion—the authority to choose which laws to impose and to what degree—to allocate the resources available, such as budgets or staff, in line with his Administration’s priorities.
“The government is not a business,” says Fandl. “But in this case, you have to look at it from a business perspective and say, ‘This is how we have to dedicate our resources.'”
Fandl relates it to marijuana—an illegal drug by federal law, but legalized or decriminalized in many states. By choosing to not crack down on dispensaries, administrations can reallocate those resources to other issues, like, for example, border security.
In the case of DACA, Obama chose to not enforce immigration laws against individuals brought to this country as children. Fandl says, “Interpreting how the law is enforced is not only within the power of the executive—it is a logical approach to resource management.”
As Fandl’s research of the historical precedence shows, the Trump Administration’s argument against the constitutionality of DACA is flawed. The powers of prosecutorial discretion protect the president’s ability to spend more time or money on enforcing some laws over others.
Fandl’s paper, “Presidential Power to Protect Dreamers: Abusive or Proper?” will be published online by the Yale Law & Policy Review Inter Alia in the coming weeks.
Learn more about Fox School Research.
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Temple University’s Fox School of Business has been recognized as one of the inaugural awardees of the International Insurance Society’s Global Centers of Insurance Excellence (GCIE) designation.
The Fox School became one of the first recipients of this distinguished honor at the IIS Global Insurance Forum, held July 17-20 in London. Research professor Dr. Randy Dumm attended the forum and the conferring of this distinction on behalf of Fox’s Department of Risk, Insurance and Healthcare Management.
Founded in 1965, the IIS is considered the world’s largest and most-prestigious insurance industry organization. It aims to drive industry growth by bridging insurance executives, academics, and policymakers from nearly 100 countries.
The GCIE certification program, formed this year by the IIS, recognizes only 20 universities worldwide as leading providers of risk management and insurance education, and serves to enhance their connections and reputations with the insurance industry.
Universities awarded the GCIE designation must meet or exceed criteria related to course offerings; graduate and industry employment rates; and professional involvement. Additionally, a university must demonstrate that its students are exposed to designated full-time faculty with appropriate qualifications and research expertise. GCIE designation is retained for five years and thereafter extended upon renewal.
“It is incredibly humbling to learn that the Fox School’s Risk Management and Insurance program has been chosen as one of the first colleges and universities worldwide to receive this coveted distinction,” said Dr. R.B. Drennan, Chair of Fox’s Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management department.
U.S. News & World Report has ranked the Risk Management and Insurance undergraduate program at the Fox School of Business among the top-10 programs nationally each of the last 10 years. The program dates to 1914, making it the nation’s oldest, continuously running program of its kind. Additionally, with more than 475 students, it is one of the United States’ largest-such programs.
The program is also home to the Sigma Chapter, the largest chapter of the international professional fraternity Gamma Iota Sigma. Fox’s Sigma Chapter has earned the Edison L. Bowers Award as best overall chapter in 18 of the last 24 years.
A Conscientious Drive for Excellence
May 10, 2017 //
Ford Motor Company invited Asian reporters to its China research and development facility in Nanjing for a press opportunity around the time of the 2017 Chinese New Year.
Outside of a casual conversation with David Schoch, MBA ’78, president of Ford Asia Pacific and chairman of Ford China, the attending reporters were told to bring their spouses and children and enjoy a litany of holiday-themed events on January 28.
That’s when Schoch saw a young boy off to the side, who had strayed from the other children in the room and set out to play by himself. The boy told Schoch of his affinity for trucks, at which point Schoch passed the boy a handheld display model of Ford’s latest F-150. The boy’s smile began to gleam as brightly as the gloss on his new shiny blue toy truck.
“He was over the moon,” said Schoch. “Some of my colleagues told me later that he was playing with that truck for the rest of the afternoon. We made his day and maybe someday, he’ll be a Ford customer. Or even better—a Ford employee.”
That moment exemplified Schoch’s people-focused, relationship-driven leadership style with Ford Motor Company, for which he has served in varying capacities and across six continents for the last 39 years.
Schoch, who earned his MBA from Temple University’s Fox School of Business, oversees every aspect of operations at Ford Asia Pacific, one of the world’s rising markets for automotive purchases. In his role, the 65-year-old Schoch manages Ford’s strategic initiatives in that region of the world.
But above all else, Schoch said, he values his “people-development” opportunities.
“I am a big believer in helping young leaders think through their personal leadership journeys, to arrive at what they want to accomplish in their careers,” said Schoch, a native of Wayne, Pa. “I spend a good deal of time teaching and sharing experiences within leadership-training programs.
“Like that young boy I connected with, it gives me great satisfaction, as a leader, to relate to everybody with whom I interact.”
‘Every business needs someone like Dave’
Schoch’s career with Ford took off quickly after he earned his MBA with a concentration in Finance from the Fox School in 1978. He joined the Dearborn, Mich.-based company as a financial analyst with Ford’s Cleveland Engine manufacturing facility in Brook Park, Ohio.
From there, and following a number of domestic promotions, Schoch leapt at an opportunity to work overseas. He accepted an appointment as business planning manager of Ford Europe, a role he held from 1989-1993.
Schoch credits his wife, Carol, for the encouragement to pursue international business opportunities within the company.
“I had many offers coming out of Temple, but the reputation of Ford in finance stuck out to me,” Schoch said. “My wife said, ‘The writing is on the wall. Go for it.’ I did, and it’s been a great journey. She also was instrumental when we made the decision to relocate our family overseas, and that has been another wonderful part of our lives.
“What’s interesting to me is that there’s not a week that goes by that one of my three daughters doesn’t send me a note and say, ‘Hey Dad, you’ll never guess who I talked to from Brazil.’ Or they say South Africa. Or Germany. It sure has broadened their perspectives of the world, which is much different than when I compare it against myself at their ages.”
In addition to his position in Europe, Schoch returned to Ford Europe in 2004 as CFO, and in 2009 became CFO of the Americas.
Each step, he said, has proved integral to his professional and personal development. Schoch pointed specifically to his involvement with Ford’s commitment to social initiatives. In particular, he referenced a program initiated in 1997, while he was working within Ford’s South Africa division. The program sought to educate the company’s employees on the country’s HIV/AIDS pandemic, which affected three percent of the nation’s population in 1996, but had risen to 10 percent by 1999.
Initiated by Lewis Booth, one of Schoch’s colleagues from the plant, the educational program halted production in both of Ford’s South Africa plants for a day. Booth called upon a local theater company to demonstrate the disease’s impact on a family. The company then appointed peer educators and provided access to preventative measures like prophylactics. Still operating today, the program has received nationwide acclaim in South Africa, and earned the U.S. Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence in 2002. Booth and Schoch traveled to Washington, D.C., to accept the award.
“Every business needs someone like Dave, who you know always will speak up on difficult subjects,” said Booth, who retired in April 2012 as Ford’s executive vice president and global chief financial officer. “And no one ever doubted Dave’s motives. It was always about doing the right thing for the business, the company, the employee, or whatever other subject was under discussion.”
The HIV/AIDS educational program, Schoch said, “was the a-ha moment for me in how industry should look to give back and support the community.”
Another of Schoch’s initiatives in South Africa, Booth said, involved a local preschool attached to the Ford plant in Pretoria, one of the country’s capital cities. There, Schoch often met with students and teachers, and ensured the school would receive support from Ford in the form of donations and gifts.
Along the way, Schoch did not publicize his efforts. “He never told me he did this,” Booth said. “The school told me because it was important to them.”
‘If I can give back in a small way, I can make a big difference’
In recent years, the Asia Pacific region widely has been identified as a capacious area of middle-class growth. As a result, consumers have driven the automotive market while becoming first-time car owners. What some might view as a significant challenge, in having to meet the growing demand for vehicles in this region, Schoch believes it represents an area of significant opportunity.
Schoch speaks often of opportunity with regard to his professional heights and those of others.
On a Spring 2016 visit to Philadelphia, Schoch met with students from the Fox School’s Executive MBA program. He shared insights from his international business career, and provided a glimpse into the functions of Ford’s Asia Pacific operations. Best of all, according to Schoch, he interacted with students whose career aims reminded him of his own.
“If nothing else,” he said, “I was trying to capture their imagination of what they want to be, and further indicate that if you put your mind to it, and go for it, you can reach your aspirations. The follow-up emails and questions that the students sent afterward were quite rewarding to me.”
Schoch’s connection to Fox runs deep. He has made arrangements to meet with Fox Global MBA students in May 2017, led by the Fox School director of international programs Phyllis Tutora, on one of their international immersion trips through China.
A number of Schoch’s former colleagues referred to him as a “people person.” Kiersten Robinson, a 22-year Ford employee who serves the company as its executive director of human resources, used the term “quanxi.” It’s the Chinese word for an individual who values the importance of relationships.
“He does not push people to listen to him because he is the president,” said John Cheng, Ford Asia Pacific’s director of integration. “He shows genuine respect to all, no matter which level you are.”
With Schoch at the helm since 2011, Ford Asia Pacific has more than doubled its workforce and has employed a workforce culture “that has become a competitive advantage for us,” Robinson added.
“While Dave has a lot to be proud of, his greatest contribution has been in building a strong, talented, and confident team,” Robinson said. “Dave inspires others to go beyond what they thought they were capable of, and in doing so, he inspires a sense of loyalty and purpose I have not seen from other leaders.”
As part of his style, Schoch has made a habit of routinely encouraging members of his team. He sends individual welcome letters to every new employee who joins Ford in Asia Pacific, “and we have hundreds of new employees each year,” Robinson said. Schoch also writes personal thank you and congratulatory notes to acknowledge employee promotions or significant work accomplishments.
“What I’ve learned in my career,” Schoch said, “is that you don’t always get from point A to point B. It moves around. I think I’ve taken a lesson from when Henry Ford started the company. He didn’t invent the car, but he invented the assembly line, reduced the cost to manufacture the product, and doubled employees’ salaries with the vision of creating a better world. That’s how he changed the way the world moved.
“For me, if I can give back in a small way, I can make a big difference in a lot of people’s lives.”
Booth summed up Schoch’s impact and four-decade tenure with Ford in seven words.
“It’s a better place with him here,” Booth said.
Dr. Ram Mudambi, the Frank M. Speakman Professor of Strategy at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, has been recognized for his research contribution to international entrepreneurship and innovation.
In March, Mudambi received the Schulze Award for his article, “The Spectacular Rise of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry,” which was co-authored by Dr. Kristin Brandl, of the University of Reading’s Henley Business School, and Dr. Vittoria Scalera, of the University of Amsterdam Business School. The paper demonstrates that for emerging economies to thrive, they do not necessarily require their local industries to partner with multinational giants of research and innovation.
“While most economies may benefit when local industries gain knowledge from multinationals,” Mudambi wrote, “India’s example shows that there are alternatives – but they all require strategic government investment.”
The Schulze Award recognizes the level of contribution made by an article published to the Entrepreneur and Innovation Exchange (EIX), an online resource committed to achieving marked improvement in the success rate of new business ventures. Issued annually, the Schulze Award recognizes achievements in various categories, including: theory and research; applied and practice; teaching and education; and commentaries.
The collaboration between Mudambi and his co-authors was made possible through the Fox Visiting Scholars Program. Founded in 2005 by Mudambi, the program serves as an invitation to international scholars – from doctoral candidates to full professors – to spend anywhere from a week to a year at the Fox School of Business conducting research and interacting with Fox faculty.
“It is critical for all PhD students to develop skills in pure academic research, business outreach, and policy,” Mudambi said. “The paper is a strong example of what is achievable through the Visiting Scholars Program, helping doctoral students develop as well-rounded individuals and have the ability to apply their work to real-world situations.”
Mudambi joined the Fox School’s faculty in 2000. The Perelman Senior Research Fellow, Mudambi spearheads the research initiative International Business, Economic Geography, and Innovation, dubbed iBEGIN, which studies the connections between global value chains (GVCs) and the location of economic activity. Mudambi’s peers elected him the Program Chair of the 2015 Academy of Business (AIB) annual meeting. In his role, Mudambi developed the program and arranged a prominent lineup of scholars and global business leaders for the conference, which was held in Bangalore, India.
He recently had a paper titled, “Knowledge connectivity: An agenda for innovation research in international business,” published in the Journal of International Business Studies. Co-authors of the paper include: Dr. John Cantwell, of Rutgers University; Dr. Jaeyong Song, of Seoul National University; and Fox PhD alumni Dr. Marcelo Cano-Kollmann, of the Ohio University College of Business, and Dr. Tim Swift, of Saint Joseph’s University’s Haub School of Business, co-authored the paper.