President Simon addressed a group of senior executives who were on campus to attend the Executive Summit V, a signature event of the Department of Supply Chain Management in the Broad Graduate School of Management. The Summit was held at the Henry Center April 22-23.
The Executive Summit is co-directed by Ram Narasimhan, University Distinguished Professor and the John H. McConnell Professor of Business, and Joseph Sandor, the Hoagland Metzler Professor of Practice, both of the Broad business school.
The Summit is the academic equivalent of the Davos summit for heads of state. It brings senior executives from multi-national firms to the campus of MSU to discuss issues and challenges facing firms in their quest for competitive success and socially responsible growth.
This year's summit was organized around the theme: "Big Data, Big Ideas and Beyond Best Practices - Extending the frontiers of excellence in supply chain management". The senior executives who made plenary speeches on the theme at the Summit were:
- Grace Lieblein, Chief Procurement Officer, General Motors
- Amit Gupta, Principal, KPMG
- Hans Melotte, Chief Procurement Officer, Johnson & Johnson
- Ray Scott, President, Lear Seating
- John Miller, Chief Procurement Officer, Whirlpool
- Liz Door, Vice President, Whirlpool
- David Dittmann, Director, Proctor & Gamble
The summit participants were senior executives from major multinational firms such as Raytheon, General Motors, Conoco-Phillips, John Deere, Bosch, Lear Corporation, ABB, Rolls-Royce, Owens Corning, IBM, Abbot, Delphi, Northrop Grumman, Masco and others. The topics covered at the Summit, explored the role of Big Data and analytics for innovation, supplier relations management, complexity reduction and supply chain competitiveness.
President Simon, who spoke to the executives on April 23in a plenary session, highlighted the University's initiatives, leveraging the competencies of the Department of Supply Chain Management, Food Science and Criminal Justice in risk management and assurance of food supply chains as well as in other areas of innovation.
President Simon then spoke about MSU's unique approaches to educating young men and women who combine deep knowledge of their respective fields with a broad understanding of issues that face firms and our society. She stressed the importance of "T-Shaped" individuals who are best equipped to handle contemporary challenges that we face in our society.
President Simon spoke about the formative influences on MSU's undergraduates and urged the executives present to be cognizant of the promise and potential of these students to shape our future.
Following this successful event, Executive Summit VI is scheduled for October 6-7, 2015 on the theme of "Corporate Social Responsibility".