Demonstrating the impact of interdisciplinary collaboration, four centers of excellence housed at Fisher recently joined together to host a pair of summer workshops to explore key challenges and areas facing businesses today.

The Risk Institute, the Ohio State Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the National Center for the Middle Market and the Center for Operational Excellence conducted sessions on workforce development as well as the role big data is playing in digital disruption.

“Fisher’s outreach centers support the college mission related to teaching, research and outreach to the broader business community,” said Peter Ward, senior associate dean at Fisher. “In many cases these efforts include providing a forum for exchange among faculty, students and corporate executives. Through partnership, our centers strive to create innovations that fuel business growth. We are proud to offer these opportunities for interdisciplinary growth and discussion among our centers and with the business community.”

The two sessions brought to Ohio State leading experts from business and academia to provide a 360-degree perspective on issues that are top of mind for firms and industries across the nation and around the world. At the July 18 event — Winning the Talent War — presenters included:

• Marek Gootman, fellow, Brookings Institution
• Tony Moore, head of talent acquisition, Marathon Petroleum Corp
• Will Shepherd, director of enterprise learning and development, Wendy's Co.
• Kathy Smith, VP talent development, Nationwide
• Kelly Wilson, VP HR-talent management, Cardinal Health
• Jamie Mathews-Mead, senior director of graduate career management, Fisher

More about Winning the Talent War, courtesy of the Center for Operational Excellence's Think OpEx blog:

Winning the Talent War

The centers’ August 16 event took a deep dive into innovation, disruption and the power of data and analytics. Participating speakers included:

• Jeremy Aston, a senior director, Cisco
• Bruce Millard, vice president of Digital and Customer Innovation, Safelite
• Mark Kvamme, co-founder and partner, Drive Capital
• Dennis Hirsch, director of the Program on Data and Governance, Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law

More about Data, Analytics and Disruption courtesy of the Center for Operational Excellence's Think OpEx blog:

Data, Analytics, Risk and Disruption