PSU Magazine Winter 1998

"Now they're faced with having to put together information systems and learning how to deal more effectively with customers. We're trying to develop leaders who think more broadly." R oger Ahlbrandt, dean of PSU's School of Business Admini– stration, says the food industry's changes are similar to those faced by the banking and metal distribution industries in recent years. "There's rapid consolidation at both the wholesale and retail level, and that's creating an amazing amount of change," says Ahlbrandt. "This is driven in part by technology. There are many economies of scale to be gained by mergers and companies becoming larger. There's more buying power because of company size, and there's a larger base to spread your technology costs." Ahlbrandt hadn't even started at Portland State when he got wind of the avid interest among industry lead– ers to establish a food industry managemen t program at the University. Before he officially started work at PSU in August 1993, Ahlbrandt had already met monthly with industry executives such as Chuck Carlbom, retired chief executive officer of Tigard-based Western Family Foods and current CEO of United Grocers. Ahlbrandt had ample experience in setting up a program with steel industry executives while serving as associate dean of the University of Pittsburgh's Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. At the time, the steel industry was reeling from changes caused by globalization and evolving consumer markets. Says Ahlbrandt, "I understand the benefits of having universities work with industry. As a university, you have to show that you're able to listen to all their needs, then show that you can respond quickly to those needs. We worked closely with an advisory board of industry representatives from day one on this." Thanks to more than $1.2 million in challenge grants from the Meyer Memorial Trust, the program became 14 PSU MAGAZINE WINTER 1998 reality. Pledges and donations from more than 100 food industry compa– nies have already surpassed the $1 mill ion mark to meet those chal– lenges. Program director Morris and PSU officials continue to seek additional fund ing from local and national corporations and foundations to help establish more endowed professorships. certainly be offering OSU courses in Portland, so PSU students interested in the food technology side will be able to bridge the two programs together." Lakey and Pfeiffer believe other opportun ities remain untapped, and the two would like to see the PSU program draw more participants from food service, processing, and manufac– turing companies. A LOGICAL NEW VENTURE The Business School is taking its early success with the Food Industry Management Program one step further and fashioning a program around another need of the business community: Supply and Logistics Management. "Supply and logistics is all about the action part of a business," says Lee Buddress, program coordinator and assistant professor of business administra– tion. "It's about what happens after a salesperson gets an order. It's about what happens to a product or service as it is produced and delivered, and that includes purchasing, inventory control, transportation, production, and planning." The new program offers business administration students five subject tracks (including food management) toward a specialized major in supply and logistics management. Begun in fall 1997, about 30 students are currently enrolled. Like the food industry program, this program grew out of an industry advisory board working with business school faculty. It replaces and builds upon the Operations and Materials Management Program, which was cut in 1991 due to Measure 5. Higher education institutions throughout America have given little academic attention to supply and logistics management, says Buddress. "There are good academic programs at Michigan State, Arizona State, Bowling Green and Arizona State, but not many. Businesses are now under– standing how getting a grasp of supply and logistics can impact their profitability." N ew opportunities to respond to industry need keep emerging. The latest comes in the form of the Food Innovation Center, which will open near Portland's downtown water– front in late 1998 or early 1999. The center is a joint project of OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences and the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The new center will allow PSU's Food Industry Management Program to form unique ties to the program at Oregon State, says Dave Lundahl, an OSU food science and technology facu lty member. "Our program focuses on the food product itself and on ways we can improve the product from grower to consumer," says Lundahl. "We'll "There are so many support compa– nies that play a vital role in the food industry," Lakey says. "In the Northwest, there are more food processing companies than there are retailers. There are software companies that specialize in food industry tech– nology." Establishing a fu ll degree program in food industry management at PSU remains a high priority among industry executives, he says, "because that will mean more important research in this field. That also would create more public visibility about what this indus– try is all about." D (Brian White is a staff writer in PSU's Office of Public Relations.)