Business part of the conversation in forming MSU’s strategic plan 

For the Missouri State University strategic plan, released yesterday, community members, including business leaders, were part of the conversation. 

Some 500 stakeholders offered feedback through listening sessions, workshops and surveys, according to a news release from MSU. 

In an interview, President Richard “Biff” Williams said meeting the needs of area businesses is a driver of the plan. 

“It was clear that businesses want to be intimately involved with our university,” he said. “That was a thing that came out from our town hall meetings – how can we better indicate what it is that we need as businesses so that the university can shape its plan around addressing those needs?” 

The plan identifies five goals, and throughout, business and economic development serve as a touchpoint, according to Williams. The goals are enumerated along with desired outcomes and strategies to reach them: 

• Goal 1: Academic opportunities and innovation
• Goal 2: Community partnerships and economic development
• Goal 3: Institution of choice for students and employees
• Goal 4: Student and alumni experience
• Goal 5: Branding and identity

Williams said tying the curriculum to careers and addressing workforce shortages is front of mind for MSU. 

Williams is planning what he calls a road show that will feature him and Brad Bodenhausen, vice president for community and global partnerships. The idea, Williams said, is to visit businesses with a 10-minute presentation followed by a discussion of how MSU can better serve them. 

“The university exists for the community; the community exists for the university,” he said. “We’re going to try to bridge those gaps and make sure that when our students are academically prepared, they’re actually prepared for the workforce.” 

Bob Helm, president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, said workforce is a perpetual topic of conversation in the chamber and in the larger community. 

“I definitely see MSU as important – they’re probably a key player in that piece,” Helm said. 

He added that MSU's undergraduate and graduate degree programs are important to the workforce picture. As an example, he noted, Williams has invited The Network, the chamber’s organization for businesspeople under the age of 40, to be active on the campus in its effort to attract workforce members. 

“A lot of kids come to school here and go back home, but we’re trying to figure out how to keep them here,” Helm said. “He’s allowed us on campus to highlight that.” 

Career readiness 
The centrality of career preparation does not take away from the university’s function as a center for ideas and the growth of knowledge, according to Williams. 

“Because we’re looking at careers doesn’t mean that we’re getting rid of the arts or getting rid of humanities,” he said. “If you look at the workforce today, you need critical thinkers; you need communicators; you need people that are collaborators. A lot of humanities and the arts really help that.” 

The goal, Williams said, is to make sure that MSU graduates are ready for many careers. 

“As an institution of higher learning, we need to consistently look at what’s our why?” he said. “Our why is to serve our students so that they can get a degree so they can create a great life, career, home life and be productive citizens in the community. And that goes right along with our public affairs mission.” 

The new strategic plan puts public affairs front and center, Williams said, and that’s something that arose in the feedback that went into the plan. Public affairs is largely about finding a way to contribute as a productive member of the communities they belong to. 

“Our community recognized it as a strength,” he said. “They really thought that one of our differentiators was our public affairs mission.” 

That mission was adopted in 1995 as a mandate from the Missouri legislature, and its three pillars – ethical leadership, cultural competence and community engagement – were identified in 2008. 

“It was the consensus of the group that these should be our values,” Williams said. 

He added that under the strategic plan, every dean and every department chair should be able to talk about public affairs and how that concept is helping them to craft majors and impact students. 

Innovation 
The goal of academic opportunities and innovation includes the strategy of fostering increased research activity. Similarly, the goal of community partnerships and economic development seeks to strengthen and expand partnerships and projects with industry and the community, in part by supporting technology, commercialization and entrepreneurship. 

In short, the plan looks to jumpstart creativity and the spirit of innovation, according to Williams. 

“We know that this generation are entrepreneurs by spirit,” he said. “They like to be creative. They like to build. They’re not shy. They are willing to work hard, but they also want opportunities to network.” 

So do environments like Brick City, a center for learning, collaboration and professional development, and partnerships like MSU’s agreement with University of Missouri-Kansas City for pharmacy education. So do MSU’s IDEA Commons and Efactory, which put the university ahead of most universities by turbocharging innovation, according to Williams. 

“We need to do more of that,” said Williams. “We need to have more of our professors over there and give them an opportunity to create businesses with students and to be creative and to understand the entrepreneurial model.” 

He added that it is important to know the economic goals of the Springfield area to provide opportunities for people to create their own businesses. 

“Our alumni are amazing. We need to connect them,” he said. “This is an asset not only to the university but the community, and I think we need to put it on steroids.” 

Licensing and patenting should be priorities, according to Williams. 

“Students have great ideas, but sometimes they don’t know how to go about developing them,” he said. “We want the Efactory and the IDEA Commons to be a place where they can take a good idea and have a mentor help them make that idea become a reality – whether it’s a good idea or a bad one.” 

He said at his previous institution, Utah Tech University, this was a focus. 

“At my last institution, there were so many patents that the U.S. patent office actually created a field office in the library,” he said.  

But MSU has more of the infrastructure of innovation than any university he has seen, he said. 

“I would love to see our students be able to come here, have a great idea, develop that idea and create a business out of it,” he said. 

Helm agreed that invention is important to foster. 

“You never want to squash creativity and open thinking,” he said, noting many innovations are born in basements and garages. “I love that people are willing to take a chance like that with an idea.” 

A high percentage of inventions and startups are destined to fail, Helm said, but some make it. 

“We need it as a society and a country – people who are willing to take a chance on something that just might work,” he said.