Hildy Teegen, Dean of the Moore School of Business

MidlandsBiz:
Where were you born?  What is your educational background?  What did you do your doctoral work in?

Hildy Teegen:
I was born in Chicago, and my family moved to the Cayman Islands when I was 8.  I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Texas/Austin in Latin American studies, finance and international business.  After a short stint doing some consulting work, I came back and did a Ph.D in International Business and economic development at UT Austin. 

My first full-time teaching job was at William and Mary.  Then I joined the faculty at George Washington University and prior to leaving there to take this position as Dean of the Moore School of Business, I founded and launched a center for International Business Education and Research. 

MidlandsBiz:
As far as economic development is concerned in this state, should we pursue the more traditional economic development strategy of foreign direct investment (FDI) or one based on building up the knowledge-based economy?

Hildy Teegen:
You have to do it all.

FDI incentive packages and promotional efforts can create lasting economic impacts in a local economy that, because of the difficulty in measuring the spillover effects, are often grossly underestimated.  Michelin’s presence in Greenville, for example, has created a very robust assisted living industry. Employees who had moved there from out of state now have aging parents who want to be close to grand children. 

The critique of this model is that when you focus on manufacturing jobs, your value added is often dependent on cheap labor.  Open borders and free trade make this a very difficult model to sustain over time.

You have to do the knowledge-based model, too, and it has to be more than just investments in education.  Education investment is critical, but there are a whole series of other enabling infrastructures that have to be in place in order to create innovatory capacity.  At the Moore School of Business, we are obviously hitching our wagon to growing the economy through internal and external research, and creating a region that can become a talent magnet for labor.  

The approach for the Innovista here in Columbia really has a lot of promise.   Putting our business school alongside the scientists and the engineers makes sense because a weakness with initiatives in other regions has been the lack of commercialization channels.  That is what a business school is supposed to do!

We care a lot about this because we hope to have a brand new business school right in the middle of the Innovista. 

MidlandsBiz:
Where is the school at in terms of moving into a new building? 

Hildy Teegen:
We don’t have the funding in place yet so it’s difficult to talk about it in concrete terms, but our goal is to be in a new building within five years.  We have already done some programming work about what our needs for space will be, and we are also postponing any major capital investments in our existing facility unless they meet critical needs. 

MidlandsBiz:
What are the strengths of the Moore School? 

Hildy Teegen:
Our faculty!  We continue to be number 1 in international business because there is not another faculty in the world that could deliver on the curriculum that we have here.  We have such incredible bench strength in international business and throughout the disciplines.

MidlandsBiz:
What is your vision for the Moore School?

Hildy Teegen:
We have been working over the past year to develop a new theme that leverages our expertise on the international side.  We underwent a year-long, internal, grassroots, process and together we have determined that sustainable enterprise and development will be our new focus.  To bring these themes of international sustainability to life, we have further drilled down into four pillar areas that we will focus on – global supply chain management, management of risk and uncertainty, leveraging human talent, and commercialization and entrepreneurship.

MidlandsBiz:
Are you worried about losing focus and therefore moving away from your strength?

Hildy Teegen:
With any strategic bet you make there’s a risk.  We are not going to abandon international business, our strength there allows us to pursue sustainability in ways that most schools could not.

It’s a great fit for this business school because sustainability is truly a global issue.  In terms of doing the rigorous empirical research to be able to provide good guidance and exacting education to future business leaders about sustainable development, it’s a space that is wide open in the academic world. 

MidlandsBiz:
What weaknesses do you see for the Moore School?

Hildy Teegen:
It’s not so much a weaknesses as vulnerability.  There’s not a business school out there that doesn’t think international business is important.  There’s only one direction to go.  You either maintain, or you slip.  Our initiative into sustainability is a way to reinforce our reputation in the international area. 

The biggest weakness that we have started to address is our organizational structure.  Within our graduate division, we needed to consolidate and better integrate programs, and we also needed to revamp our external affairs: alumni relations, careers, executive education, fundraising, research, and advancement.  We are moving to a key client model so that when we deal with a company like BlueCross BlueShield we will have a better integrated look and feel across all these external functions. 

To speed up the integration process, we have hired some of the leading people in their industries.  For Executive Education, we recruited somebody from Duke; for our deputy dean position who oversees external affairs we actively sought and hired someone from Maryland was previously at Wharton. 

MidlandsBiz:
When you have change at the top of any organization, you can have a period of adjustment as everybody adjusts to the new boss, new people in new jobs, and possibly a change in culture.  How has the first year been?

Hildy Teegen:
I took over as Dean of the Business School around a year ago with a mandate of change.  I inherited a school that was sound financially, that had great teaching and research, and ready to move forward and take things to the next level. 

We had a big push to get the organizational structure right, get the new theme in place, and develop the plan.  People are still adjusting to the changes and it has been a very intense, but productive year.  We are confident that it’s the right theme and direction for the Moore School.

MidlandsBiz:
How has the economy affected the school?

Hildy Teegen:
The economy is a two-edged sword for us.  As a state-supported school, the impact is immediate – our state support has been cut.  At the same time, we are constantly faced with pressure from political constituents to keep tuition down. 

The upside in a down economy, particularly in the graduate student space is that you can gain on the recruitment of good students because people view the opportunity cost of  jumping out of jobs as being a lot lower. 

MidlandsBiz:
How has the teaching of business evolved over the past 20 years?

Hildy Teegen:
The most important trend is increasing attention to a whole range of applied learning methods such as internships and consultativ
e projects.  On the pull side, employers want our students to make the transition to the workforce more seamlessly.  On the push side, students have become experience seekers who want to work directly with outside companies on real-world business issues.  

We have created a new position called Chief Innovation and Assessment Officer in order to constantly think about new ways to implement applied education.  There is still a critical role for the more conceptual, theoretical academic work – you have to do that in order to teach students how to make decisions in an applied setting – but the trend has definitely been towards applied learning.

We are also looking to increase the number of clinical faculty – permanent faculty who have professional and executive credentials but who may not have come from an academic stream.  If you look at the faculty in any university, they have typically not been directly involved in business.  Clinical faculty members can help our students make key connections with outside businesses and bring great insight into the learning process. 

We are also trying to get our students involved at an earlier age in assisting faculty with research.  Undergrad students are now learning how to conduct research that is empirically verifiable, and publishable; typically this did not take place until students undertook a Masters or Doctorate degree.  Young students are also learning how to write technical reports to clients after their consultancy engagement. 

Service learning is another program we are increasingly involved in where students work with non-profit organizations. 

MidlandsBiz:
Does the Moore School face a strategic threat from the online business school model?

Hildy Teegen:
There is certainly growth in the internet model, but we don’t actively compete with the University of Phoenix for students looking to do an MBA.  For the moment, the market is bifurcated between the pure internet model and the more traditional business school model. 

Who knows where these models will evolve in the future.  We have to have a presence that is meaningful and that leverages our core assets, primarily our great faculty.  Still, we are looking to further develop our distance learning programs in order to expand our scope and reach into our region.  Columbia is a relatively small market in the Southeast.

MidlandsBiz:
What is your leadership style?

Hildy Teegen:
In some ways, I am an accidental leader.  Two years ago, I was a very happy faculty member, things were going great and I would have never dreamed that I would be having this conversation with you.  In business, often it’s not about absolute advantage, but rather comparative advantage.  Comparatively, my colleagues have looked to me as a leader on the administrative side and also in the area of external engagement – bringing diverse groups together around a common vision.  

We are all constrained by resources, so the name of the game in any entity these days is finding the right linkages to get the job done in ways that you couldn’t if you did it alone.  I have taught negotiations, studied relationships between business and non-governmental organizations (NGO), and written a dissertation on strategic alliances and their economic impact.  Business schools are complex organizations with many different constituents and stakeholders, but that is part of the allure, and what really inspired me to pursue this leadership role at the Moore School.

We are very privileged to be able to work in this space.  Education has a very favorable valence for most people because we are all about shaping adults who will make a difference in society.  It’s exciting to lay the groundwork for a new theme and perhaps more importantly, to be a really strong cheerleader for the business school. 

MidlandsBiz:
Has gender been an issue over your first year as head of the Moore School?

Hildy Teegen:
All of the finalists for this position had the opportunity to meet with business leaders from around the state.  The question that I posed to them was: Is South Carolina ready for a young woman to lead the business school?  Business leaders across this state have a proprietary interest in this business school in ways that I have not seen in other places.  Even if they did not graduate from here, they share the attitude that,   It’s our business school.

I have not found gender to be an issue at all.  If anything, being a woman in this role has created an advantage for me as I am still viewed somewhat as a curiosity.

Having Darla Moore as such a strong philanthropist in this state and such an integral part of this school has not only paved the way for a female Dean, but also for women in leadership roles across this state. 

MidlandsBiz:
Five years from now, how will you determine whether you have achieved your goals?

Hildy Teegen:
Do I follow the rankings?  Yes, absolutely.  Do I care about the money I raise?  Yes, absolutely.  All of those things matter. 

But the key metric for me is the ability to attract and retain the best faculty and students.  If we make that happen, we are getting everything else right. 

It’s been a foundational time for us here.  Now we have to roll up our sleeves and get to work.  The honeymoon is over; now it’s time to execute. If we execute on our ambitious plans, as I’m certain we can, we will be successful.