Many people recognize the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University for the Weatherhead 100, a program that recognizes the best and fastest-growing companies across Northern Ohio. But it also has pioneered or advanced innovative concepts that have revolutionized leadership in businesses and communities around the world.
With its formal mission to “develop transformational ideas and outstanding leaders for the advancement of business and society,” its alums are having a profound impact on Northeast Ohio.
“Our teaching mission is to develop leaders who innovate to create sustainable value, and who are good global citizens,” says Robert E. Widing II, PhD, Albert J. Weatherhead, III Professor of Management, dean and professor of design and innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management. “There are two concepts that were either invented or hugely advanced here at Weatherhead; one is the use of design concepts in business management, the other is appreciative inquiry.”
Weatherhead is clearly far ahead of its time. It is considered a global leader in teaching design concepts in business management, with other universities following suit, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford. World-renowned architect Frank Gehry, who designed the iconic Peter B. Lewis building, cited Weatherhead and its faculty for being responsible for leading the way in adopting design practices.
In 2013, the Weatherhead School, formed a Department of Design & Innovation that embraces entrepreneurism, technology development and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The aim, says Richard Buchanan, professor of design and innovation, is to teach Weatherhead students to apply design to imagine, game-changing ideas and fresh perspectives.
With the opening of the new Department of Design & Innovation, Weatherhead became not only the first school to offer Ph.D. programs in operations research and organizational behavior, but the first to establish a design and innovation department.
The second aspect of innovation advanced at Weatherhead, the concept of appreciative inquiry, is equally important to the school’s educational mission. Appreciative inquiry is a change management tool that pulls people together to discover an organization’s strengths and focus on those strengths for the future.
“It was invented by David Cooperrider and colleagues, and was greatly advanced here,” says Widing.
Cooperrider, who is best known for his theoretical articulation of appreciative inquiry with his mentor Suresh Srivastva, also has served as an adviser to many prominent leaders in business and society. The successes of appreciative inquiry in organizations from the U.S. Navy to the United Nations to Fairmount Santrol in our own backyard, are numerous.
The use of these concepts as management tools have combined in business and civic organizations to create sustainable value. But Weatherhead also is a champion of teaching its students the need to be good global citizens.
“We like to teach each of our students to have an idea of global impact, of knowing the importance of the standards of behavior that businesses are expected to adopt and adhere to voluntarily,” says Widing.
Which includes business responsibility in four areas, including human rights, labor, anti-corruption and the environment.
“For the City of Cleveland, these have been a great vehicle for advancing a ‘green city on a blue lake,’” Widing adds.
They have also been responsible for creating a great many of our social and business leaders in Cleveland and across Northeast Ohio. Leadership Cleveland has six alumni of the Weatherhead School in its ranks. The Cleveland Leadership Center (CLC) has five alumni on its Board of Trustees, with four Weatherhead alumni and one graduate sitting on its Leadership Council. Two Weatherhead grads are in the CLC’s Bridge Builders program, while three Weatherhead alums and a student sit on the board of directors for the Greater Cleveland Partnership.
“I am very proud of the impact our faculty and students are having around the globe and here at home,” says Widing.
