A peer-to-peer discussion with the former Dean of the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.
Show notes: On this episode of Deans Counsel, moderators Ken Kring and David Ikenberry speak with Eli Jones, Professor of Marketing and Peggy Mays Eminent Scholar, and former Dean of the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.
With three Deanships to his credit (at LSU and Arkansas as well as Texas A&M) during his over 25 years in academia, plus a successful business career, Eli is more-than-qualified to speak on the topics we address in this conversation. Among them: using strategic planning to drive the enterprise and learn about your organization; the critical importance of wide-spread engagement in the process; understanding human behavior and how it leads to change; dealing with organizational change and resistance; and the importance of the dean effectively communicating a vision.
Learn more about Eli Jones: https://mays.tamu.edu/directory/ejones/
Eli Jones Bio:
Dr. Eli Jones is a Professor of Marketing, Lowry and Peggy Mays Eminent Scholar, and the former Dean of Mays Business School at his alma mater, Texas A&M University. He served as the Dean of three flagship business schools over 13 years. Dean of Mays Business School (2015-2021), Dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and holder of the Sam M. Walton Leadership Chair at the University of Arkansas (2012-2015), and as Dean of the E. J. Ourso College of Business and the E. J. Ourso Distinguished Professor of Business at Louisiana State University (2008-2012). Prior to becoming a dean, he was on the faculty at the University of Houston as an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor with tenure, Full Professor, Associate Dean for Executive Education Programs, Director of the Program for Excellence in Selling, and founding Executive Director of the Sales Excellence Institute at the University of Houston in the Bauer College of Business.
He has published sales and sales management research in top academic journals and is a co-author of three professional books, Selling ASAP: Art, Science, Agility, and Performance; Strategic Sales Leadership: Breakthrough Thinking for Breakthrough Results; and a forthcoming book, Making Differences Work. His solo-authored book, Run Toward Your Goliaths, is about his and his wife’s faith journey and is meant to encourage a new generation of leaders to persevere in spite of major obstacles. His academic publications have been cited more than 9,000 times, according to Google Scholar. He is the recipient of Excellence in Teaching awards on the university, national, and international levels having taught strategic selling, advanced professional selling, key accounts selling, sales leadership, and marketing strategy at the undergraduate, MBA levels and in executive education programs. Before becoming a professor, Jones worked in sales and sales management for three Fortune 500 global companies. He is currently on the boards of Invesco Funds, Insperity, First Financial Bank, and the American Marketing Association (AMA).
In 2016, the AMA Sales Special Interest Group awarded Dr. Jones the Lifetime Achievement Award for sustained contributions to the sales and sales management discipline. In 2021, he was honored with recognition by Savoy magazine as a “Most Influential Black Corporate Director” in business today, and the Texas A&M University Black Former Students honored him with the Aggie Impact Award for making a global impact in his community and profession. In 2022, AMA awarded Dr. Jones the prestigious AMA-Irwin-McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award for distinguished service and outstanding contributions in marketing education. In the same year, the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) awarded Dr. Jones its prestigious Distinguished Marketing Educator Award. His mission is to bridge academia and business, and, as evidence, his alma mater recognized Jones as an outstanding doctoral student alumnus in 2009 and an outstanding business alumnus in April 2022. He also is one of 12 recipients in the TAMU System to be awarded the Chancellor’s Medal for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which was presented in the Spring of 2022.
In 2009, Mays Business School and the Department of Marketing recognized Eli as an Outstanding Doctoral Alumnus. In 2016, the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) Sales Special Interest Group awarded Dr. Jones the Lifetime Achievement Award for sustained contributions to the sales and sales management discipline. Also, the Ph.D. Project inducted him into the Hall of Fame. In 2021, Savoy magazine recognized him as a “Most Influential Black Corporate Director” in business today, and the Association of Former Students’ Black Former Students honored him with the Aggie Impact Award for making a global impact in his community and profession. In 2022, AMA and the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) awarded Eli the highest awards in the discipline, the AMA-Irwin-McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award for distinguished service and outstanding contributions in marketing education, and the AMS CUTCO/Vector Distinguished Marketing Educator Award for long-term achievement in advancing the discipline through teaching, research, mentorship, and service in promoting and upholding professionalism in the marketing discipline.