A peer-to-peer discussion with the Albert O. Nicholas Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business.

🎙️Picking up on a previous conversation from 2023, Dean’s Counsel panelists Ken Kring, Jim Ellis and Dave Ikenberry, dive deeper into opportunities and benefits that expanding external relations has for business schools with Dean Vallabh Sambamurthy of the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin.  

Now in his second term, Vallabh discusses how developing the school’s engagement with industry is top of the school’s agenda. Parent engagement is just one method he is exploring for its potential opportunities and connections to corporations it can bring to the Wisconsin School—and in turn, how the school can benefit parents’ respective industries. Listen in as Sambamurthy provides practical examples from his own strategies that listeners can apply in their respective units. 

Looking ahead, Sambamurthy shares how a study commissioned through Deloitte has helped the business school increase its understanding of what value universities and business schools can provide corporations.  Among other topics shared in this conversation, Sambamurthy focuses on the future of sponsored research, upskilling of talent and experiential learning. He also digs into the ways he sees research simultaneously benefitting both faculty and corporations in real time. 

“In other words, as a business school, what we do should be as relevant as it is rigorous: that a lot of the knowledge and skills we create in our curriculum, or research ideas we get, should and could emerge from what are the challenges facing industry,” said Sambamurthy. 

If you’re an academic leader curious about how to open new pathways for early career faculty or re-thinking your approach to external engagement, this is one episode not to be missed.  

Listen to the full conversation here:

Photos courtesy of Wisconsin

Read more about Vallabh Sambamurthy here.