2003-04 ANNUAL REPORT

CREATING AND DISSEMINATING LEADING-EDGE KNOWLEDGE.

ACCOUNTING & INFORMATION SYSTEMS

NEW COMMUNICATION CENTER BUILDS STUDENT
CONFIDENCE, PROFESSIONALISM

As the accounting profession has become increasingly complex, good communication and presentation skills have become invaluable to accountants’ career success. Recognizing this, the Broad School has introduced the new Ernst & Young Center for Accounting Business Communication to help students in the Master of Science in Accounting degree program prepare for leadership roles.

A portion of the funding for the new center resulted from a gift designated by key partners of Ernst & Young who are graduates of the Broad School. Ernst & Young Foundation is supplementing the gift through its matching contribution program.

The Center is modeled after the more familiar writing/communication centers or labs that exist in many other colleges and universities around the country. However, the Broad School Center is distinctive in that it is discipline-specific, with a focus on developing both written and oral communication skills.

The Center develops best practices guidance for writing and presentations, tutors students as they prepare written reports, tapes and reviews student presentations and provides grading support for faculty assigning written projects and formal presentations in the classroom. The Center offers:

• One-on-one and small group consultations, during which consultants are available to videotape practice presentations as well as provide feedback on both written and oral assignments;
• Access to equipment — TVs, VCRs, an LCD projector and computers with PowerPoint — and a collection of resources (books, handouts, videotapes, and equipment) that address a variety of topics ranging from public speaking anxiety to constructing an effective e-mail message.

The director of the Center, Jennifer Butler Ellis, PhD, specializes in organizational and interpersonal communication. She has done research in employee-employer psychological contracts and memorable messages in both the interpersonal and organizational context.

NEW ‘DIGITAL ENTERPRISE’ CENTER FORMED

Michigan State University recently announced that it will provide initial funding for a new research center to be established at the Broad School. The Center for Leadership of the Digital Enterprise will study how firms can creatively – and successfully – combine information technologies (IT) with business processes and strategies.

According to the center’s executive director, Vallabh Sambamurthy, the Eli Broad Professor of Information Technology, the question of IT’s role in a company’s success has recently taken on new urgency. “During the past five to eight years,” said Sambamurthy, “there has been convincing evidence that information technologies have contributed to consumer welfare and firm productivity. However, in many firms, there is a significant anxiety about how to sustain business innovation through IT.”

Sambamurthy said that he and his colleagues hope to help academics and executives understand how to create and lead an effective “digital enterprise;” that is, a firm that generates superior performance and competitive advantage by integrating the best practices in IT management throughout its operations. “We hope the new center will emerge as a premier source of research and insights about how firms can embrace the transformation to a digital enterprise, as we generate related economic, strategic, managerial and organizational knowledge.”

Several key Broad School faculty will be integrally involved in the center: From the Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department, The Eli Broad University Professor of Business Roger Calantone and The John H. McConnell Chair in Business Administration David J. Closs; and from the Accounting and Information Systems Department, Professor Brian Pentland and Associate Professor Cheri Speier. The center will be directed by Frederick Rodammer, Supply Chain Management Professor of Practice.