James (Jay) Dial

Dr. Jay Dial is Professor Emeritus - Clinical in the Management & Human Resources Department.  He earned the Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Teaching, Ohio State’s highest honor granted for teaching and has been admitted to the University Academy of Teaching, and also received the College’s highest teaching award, the Daniel Westerbeck Pace Setters Award for Graduate Teaching.

Dial was the first person hired as a clinical faculty at Fisher and also the first promoted to Full Professor - Clinical. He taught at least one course to every single student in any of Fisher’s MBA programs from 2002 until his retirement in 2021. Dial earned 26 graduate teaching awards chosen by graduating students including the Outstanding Professor Award in every program in which he worked, encompassing the Full-time, Working Professional, Executive MBA and Bright MBA Programs. Professor Dial primarily taught strategy as well as microeconomics and leadership courses.  His Intopia strategy elective course, using a global strategy simulation, was one of the most popular electives at Fisher for many years.

He was a regular contributor to Fisher’s custom executive programs and also worked in executive programs at Cornell University and Tulane University, training senior executives from many Fortune 100 companies.  He continues to consult to a broad variety of clients, primarily on strategy issues.

He published scholarly articles in various journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Financial Economics and Journal of Management. Professor Dial is the author of numerous Harvard Business School teaching cases and also conducts seminars throughout the world for business school faculty on teaching with the case method.

Professor Dial holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree in General Management from Harvard University and has an MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in Business Policy, Finance and Marketing.  He is a summa cum laude graduate of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA where he majored in Marketing and, upon graduation, was named the University Outstanding Scholar.  He previously served on the faculties of Case Western Reserve University and Texas A&M University.

Dial also worked as a management consultant with Deloitte & Touche (now Deloitte Consulting) in Boston, focusing on corporate finance and corporate strategy issues.  Jay lives in Upper Arlington, OH with his wife Aparna who is Senior Director for Sustainability programs at The Ohio State University and Wexner Medical Center, and son Bennett, daughter Annika and Australian Labradoodle Augie.

Areas of Expertise

• Competitive Strategy
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Strategy
• Case Method Teaching