PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT INROADS IN EDUCATION

I just had a chance to read David Giannetto’s article, Method or Madness? Initiating a Transition To Make BPM Last, in the December issue of BPM Magazine. It resonated with me on so many points and levels that I wanted to comment.

One item that struck me was David’s point that BPM has not "implanted" yet in academia — particularly since I was reading the article on a plane to Singapore on my way to teach a one-week executive MBA course on EPM [enterprise performance management]. I am part of Oracle's EPM business group, and one of my roles is to drive programs that expose performance management concepts and solutions to business school faculty. This initiative is part of a larger thought leadership effort to seed BPM/EPM into business school programs and to get EPM/BPM accepted as a management methodology. We have developed an MBA-level course with a full-blown syllabus, reading materials, and teaching resources. We go out of our way to make sure that the course is not an Oracle sales pitch; the content is very much at a concept level, positioning EPM as a management practice. It’s been delivered at schools such as ITAM in Mexico, the Bordeaux Business School (BEM) in France, and SP Jain Center of Management in Dubai and now Singapore. I just presented the course and curriculum at the pre-ICIS Workshop on Technology and Information Systems (WITS 08) that focused on updating MIS curriculum in December, and we are talking with several schools in the U.S. about adopting all or some parts of the course content. I will be delivering a session on the importance of performance management in "uncertain times" at the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) annual conference in April.

David’s points on the need to expose more folks to BPM, the naming issues with EPM/BPM/CPM, the importance of establishing BPM as a management methodology, etc. are absolutely right on. In my class this week, I had students from firms such as Phillips, Chevron, Barclays, and Schering-Plough. It is great to see them "get" the value proposition that an enterprise approach to performance management can bring. — Mark Conway, Director, Alliance for Performance Leadership, Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Global Business Unit