MED Colleagues, you are most welcome to tune in to this web-event. (Joan Weiner and David Fearon)
OBTS Teaching Society for Management Educators
Announces a new (free) OBTS Webshop:
On Creating a Lean Growth Machine
with
Gregory Babe
President and CEO of
Bayer Corporation and Bayer Material Science LLC
Friday, 11 November 2011
2:30 – 3:30 p.m. EST (-5 GMT)
http://obts.org/content/webinar
Harvard Business Review features the viewpoints of leading managerial leaders in a segment called How I did it. Our OBTS Webinar guest Gregory S. Babe wrote the story for the July-August 2011 edition - the title of which is used for this OBTS Webinar. HBR highlights the idea: "When Greg Babe, the CEO of Bayer MaterialScience North America, was blindsided by a global executive committee proposal that his headquarters be shut down, he turned the blow into an opportunity to completely reshape his company."
Reinvention watchwords simplify, standardize, automate were distilled from a penetrating search for levers to change performance that would not open trapdoors for Bayer Material Science North America. Instead, they placed their faith in their US-based leaders and workforce as a source of executable ideas for growth, rather than deep cost cutting. Babe writes, "...navigating the complexities of the highly matrixed global organization while driving a fastpaced program with dozens of decisions each week was an exhilarating challenge. Even more valuable, I think, is that many of our reinvented processes and the tools we developed, which were so foreign at the time to our whole business, have become commonplace at BMS around the world. Notouch orders are widespread, for example. Simplify, standardize, automate" is a phrase everyone uses now. That speaks volumes about that thumbsup moment in 2007."
Management educators need to know about these reinvented procedures and tools. We need to teach our learners from the direct experience of those who manage to achieve growth in times marked by a miasma of cutting. We can help our students and readers understand the difference and challenges faced by business leaders of American companies reporting to global corporations based in other countries like Bayer Material Science, a division of the chemical and health care giant Bayer AG.
To prepare, read this remarkable HBR feature online On Creating A Lean Growth Machine (HBR reprint r1107a). Invite your colleagues and your students to join you in a lively conversation with one of our brightest young CEO's.
And a note about Greg Babe – He joined Bayer in 1976 as an intern in the Polyurethanes Group and has held management positions of increasing responsibility. He was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Bayer Corporation and Senior Bayer Representative for the United States and Canada in October 2008. Greg is responsible for the North American activities of the worldwide Bayer Group, an international health care, nutrition and innovative materials group based in Leverkusen, Germany. In addition, he is the President and CEO of Bayer MaterialScience LLC – a position he has held since July 2004. Previously, Mr. Babe served as president and CEO of Bayer Corporate and Business Services LLC (BCBS) where he was responsible for providing expertise and support in engineering, information systems, procurement, materials management, human resources, financial, accounting and other business services to Bayer Corporation and its affiliates.
The OBTS Webshop Series connects prominent management scholars and practitioners with colleagues in a technology-mediated format that can serve many purposes. Not only will we learn more about their work and have the opportunity to discuss issues, we also may make new connections among our colleagues that can lead to future study groups, research initiatives and other professional development activities. In planning the series, we thought that not only learning more about what people do would be important but also how they view the challenges for the future. We are very pleased that Greg Babe will be working with us. And conversations can continue at OBTC 2012 at Brock University. Our theme is sustainability. The call for papers will appear shortly.
Please plan on joining us on Friday, 11 November, 2:30 – 3:30 P.M. EST. To pre-register for this new Webshop, please sign-up at: http://obts.org/content/webinar. A reminder and link to the webinar access will be sent to you.
Webinar Moderator David Fearon, fearon@ccsu.edu, 860 832-3280
Webinar Series Coordinator Joan Weiner, weinerjl@drexel.edu, 215 895-1797.
The OBTS webshop connection is co-sponsored by Drexel University's Lebow College of Business, Center for Teaching Excellence