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SMS Teaching Initiative

It may seem difficult to believe, but with the 2009 SMS Conference in Washington D.C., the SMS Teaching Initiative will celebrate its 3rd year of programming. For many SMS members, this initiative may still represent something new and unknown. For others who have participated in one or more sessions, the initiative is familiar and hopefully helpful. We felt it would be useful to share a short history of the initiative and to share our perspective of what lies ahead.

How did the SMS Teaching Initiative begin?

The teaching initiative first took shape in discussions among SMS Executive Board members. The idea, which was to complement the research focus of the annual conferences with a focus on teaching, was launched with the 2007 SMS Conference held in San Diego. At this conference we held 4 regular program sessions and a business meeting to encourage participation in planning for the future. Our first sessions included the following: (1) Case Teaching Tips: Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, (2) Teaching Across Borders: What You Need to Know When Teaching Strategy Across International Environments, (3) Strategic Management & the B-School Curriculum: A Panel of Deans, and (4) Strategy Simulations: A Second Life Using Second Life? Attendance at the sessions was excellent, confirming a high level of interest in the teaching initiative among SMS members.

What did we learn from our early experiences?

At the 2007 SMS Conference, we collected data from attendees about their interest in the new teaching initiative. What we learned was exciting. Most members wanted to see at least the same level of activity in the future with many participants asking for an increased level. All respondents were positive about including programming on teaching in future SMS conferences. While we learned that most attendees felt teaching demonstrations were the most valuable, respondents suggested that a variety of sessions was important too. We took this useful information and used it when programming for 2008. We offered 1 pre-conference session (Using Experiential Exercises in the Strategy Classroom) and 5 regular conference sessions at SMS's meeting in Cologne: (1) Teaching Strategy in an E-Learning Environment, (2) Trends & Challenges in Building Content of the Strategy Core: Using Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Strategy, (3) Teaching Strategy in Non-Degree Executive Programs, (4) Field Studies and Case Competitions: Contemporary Pedagogies for the Strategy Course, and (5) Teaching Entrepreneurship. Again, attendance was strong with members expressing enthusiasm for the topics covered.

What does the future hold for the SMS Teaching Initiative?

As we enter Year 3 of the teaching initiative, it is important to turn our attention beyond start-up and focus on growing the initiative in a way that best serves SMS members. Our current priorities are: (i) to recruit outstanding strategy teachers to be part of the task force; (ii) to continue to offer valuable SMS sessions; and (iii) to offer input to the debate related to the content and delivery of strategy curricula. We are excited to announce the 2009 SMS Strategy Teaching Task Force Members: Idie Kesner (Co-Chair; Indiana University), Paul Friga (Co-Chair; University of North Carolina); Brian Boyd (Arizona State University), Rachel Davis (National University of Singapore Business School), Jay Dial (Ohio State University), and Kim Warren (London Business School). Our goal was to seek top strategy professors with diverse backgrounds to enhance the offerings and dialogue.

We will be working over the next few months to finalize the agenda for the teaching task force at the SMS Conference in October. Our preliminary plans include more strategy teaching best practice examples, a deep dive in real options strategy curricula, and a full-fledged debate on the relevance and usefulness of traditional strategy courses. We also seek to increase the participation of consultants and practitioners in this initiative as well.

As Co-Chairpersons, we are interested in your thoughts and ideas. If you have suggestions about how we can enhance this initiative to better serve SMS members, we hope you will write to us: Paul Friga, University of North Carolina pnf-deleteme[at]-deleteme-unc [dot] edu Idie Kesner, Indiana University ikesner-deleteme[at]-deleteme-indiana [dot] edu.