News Releases

Business concepts prepare U.S. Army colonels to lead thousands

Monday, February 8, 2010

BY WAYNE LARSON

"Being able to rub shoulders with these people who are genuinely real heroes is amazing," said KU School of Business Lecturer Tom Jindra when reflecting on his recent work with active U.S. Army colonels in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The School has begun a pilot program which will run through2010. Army colonels, who have been newly assigned to manage brigades of three-to-five thousand soldiers, will learn strategic planning business models in the new program.

The colonels are hand-picked by their superiors to participate in the School's week-long Command Team Development Program-Brigade. In that time, colonels learn business-world models they can apply to strategically managing the soldiers they lead.

Colonel Christopher Carlile was one of the program's first participants in mid-January, and he believes in the program's importance. "This program is what future senior leaders of the U.S. Army need to affect the change needed to continue the strength our country depends upon," Carlile said.

Jindra, who is the program's director, said the colonels placed a high value on learning strategic planning models outside of their normal world of experiences in the military. "They discovered there are a lot of models that are used in the business world that can be applied to the military world."

The program uses experiential learning techniques to illustrate how business concepts can be used in military management situations. The colonels are able to see how strategic business planning works during on-site visits to local companies that have world-wide reach. The colonels also make a stop at the University's Lawrence campus.

"One of the big highlights of the program is the day they spend at the University for a day of academic work," Jindra said. Though he said the colonels have earned their degrees from lots of different universities, "when they leave I think they are in-part Jayhawks."

The School of Business aims to continue helping U.S. Army colonels become Jayhawks with this unique program, and their prior success working with the military proves that is likely. The School's most recent, and first initiative with the U.S. Army, a master's degree program with a concentration in supply chain management, has more than doubled its enrollment since its launch in August 2008.

School of Business Dean Bill Fuerst said, "We have great appreciation in the School for the dedication of our Armed Forces. The officers in this program will go on to hold increasingly important leadership positions in the military and, presumably, in the business world after they leave the military. The School is proud to help further develop the strategic and leadership abilities required of them in their future executive positions. In addition, we have helped forge a stronger connection between KU and the Armed Forces."