For his last episode as host of the podcast before transitioning the hosting duties, Matt sits down with incoming interim dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, Brent Williams, to discuss the future of the Walton College and Brent's experience that has prepared him for this role. They begin the episode with Brent discussing his broad range of experiences at the Walton College and Matt and Brent's relationship for 20+ years that began with Brent as a Walton College student. They then move into a discussion around the future of the Walton College and what Brent's focus will be. Brent hopes to instill in students at the College a mindset of solving business problems at the intersection of technology, data, people and processes to prepare them for the future. Brent also shares details of the Walton College's strategic plan that was recently revised with an emphasis on developing the student experience, growing graduate programs, and increasing research impact. He also discusses the College's connectivity throughout the state of Arkansas, our unique connection with industry and how the optimism in Northwest Arkansas acts as a tailwind for the College.

When our students are solving business

problems, they're managing their leading, they're solving

business problems. They're trying to innovate within a

company. I think they've got to do that at an intersection of,

of technology, data, people and process.

Excellence, professionalism, innovation, and

collegiality. These are the values the Sam M. Walton College

of Business explores in education, business, and the

lives of people we meet every day. I'm Matt Waller, Dean of

the Walton College, and welcome to the be epic podcast. I have

with me today, Brent Williams, who is the interim dean of the

Sam M. Walton College of Business. And he has been with

the University of Arkansas for many years. He actually got his

master's degree from the University of Arkansas, in

logistics and supply chain. And then he got his PhD in 2008,

from the University of Arkansas, and then he went to TCU, Texas

Christian school, university, which is the Neeley School of

Business. And then he was at Auburn University. And then he

came here to the Walton College once again, back in 2011. He has

also served as chair of the department of supply chain

management, he served as interim Chair of the Department of

Marketing, Associate Dean, and now interim dean. So Brent from

being a master student to a PhD student to lots of different

administrative positions and faculty positions, including in

two different departments. And then associate dean, you've had

a wide range of responsibilities in your, in your career here. So

you're, you're you're very well prepared to be interim dean. But

thank you for letting me interview you.

Well, thanks for having me. And a lot of that

opportunity to get a real broad set of experiences is due to

you. You've always allowed me the ability to try new things

and and be a part of the new initiatives that we're taking on

so you deserve most of the credit for that.

Well, I have to say, I always look for people

who are high performers and have lots of ability and deliver. And

you have done that the entire time I've known you going back

20 years.

I know.

Can you believe it? No, I remember clearly still to

this day, when you and Jennifer came to my office considering

getting a master's degree.

And and and you still let me in after that after

that conversation.

That was really it was it was clear to me that you

would be a great choice. I I actually was already thinking at

that point. I think I even told Suzanne, afterwards that I

thought you would be a good professor so.

Well, you are right, that, you know, it's kind

of rare, particularly in one institution, I have, you know,

been at a couple of other institutions. But to get to be a

student, to be a faculty member, to be a department chair, to be

Associate Dean, senior associate dean and now interim dean.

That's, that's pretty rare to get to see an organization from

that many dimensions.

Yeah. And, of course, working together over

the years. I mean, I have brought you into my most

strategic endeavors everywhere. I mean, even when you were a

student, and we worked on the big project with General Mills

and Walmart, you were the one really doing the work and from

the very beginning,

Well, I've I've loved those challenges, but it's

been particularly fun to work with you. And in some ways this

change is going to be a really big change for probably both of

us. We've worked very, very closely together for 20 years.

Absolutely. Well, and you also have helped a lot

with the accreditation of the college, the strategic planning.

You've led these things, but you've also taken leadership

roles in the founding of the McMillon Innovation Studio. And

if you're listening, you don't know what that is. You should

look it up. It's an amazing offering that we have. We also

have Walton College at 2nd and Main in downtown Little Rock

where we offer exec ed. You headed that up. And you've done

many other things but in addition to that, You've been a

great researcher, you've published in top journals like

Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Pperations

Management, Production Operations Management, Decision

Sciences, and other top journals in our field. So again, you've

done so much to prepare you for this, that most Dean's, in my

opinion, and I'm aware of Dean's getting positions all the time,

haven't had the breadth of experiences you've had, and are

successful researchers, because you can find some that have a

lot of experience broadly. But they're not great researchers or

vice versa, you've been able to do both, and we need that in a

You know, I think that one reason, there's a

leader.

couple of reasons for that, I think one of having great co

authors and an excellent network. And, and we've got a

we've got a track record of great PhD students coming

through the department of Supply Chain Management, you know,

that, and, you know, being able to work with PhD students, even

as a department chair or an Associate Dean, or in your case,

Dean, you know, that gives you the ability to really stay

engaged. But also and you you taught me this, you it was maybe

inadvertently, but you taught it to me, you taught me that

working with industry and research could create synergies.

And sometimes that gets missed in our industry, right? We did

lots of projects, starting when I was a master student,

particularly when I was a doctoral student, and since

then, with industry partners that that I think, created

thought leadership, I think it it helped our partners improve

their businesses, and we've published them. And you know, I

don't know, I think that's been that's been probably the secret

sauce, probably for both of us as researchers.

Definitely I, you know, I always part of the

reason I've always had that orientation is that, you know,

in academics, we're supposed to be building theory, a lot of

times when people hear theory, they think that means something

that's not relevant, but it really means an ability to

explain, describe, and predict, whatever the phenomena is, could

be forecasting could be supply chain design, it could be

marketing, whatever it is, theory is actually good theory

is helpful. I think the challenge is so much theory

tends to be built in a vacuum. Whereas what we're trying to do

is to be engaged with the real world, and solve real problems

and develop theory, in areas that are where it's really

needed to solve problems.

I couldn't agree more. You know, and, Matt, I

believe, I think you believe the same. We have a lot of

advantages as the Walton College of Business, but maybe the most,

you know, our best competitive advantage is our connection to

industry. And, you know, there's some universities and business

schools in bigger markets than we're in. But the connectivity

of business in this community and the openness to collaborate,

is a real advantage.

It is. It's unusual. I had a dean at a

really high, highly ranked business school that isn't close

to a lot of business. They're close to some big cities. But

you know, he told me, If you all could just have our buildings,

and we could have your connections to industry. And I

thought, wow, I would rather have my connections to industry

That's exactly right.

It not only helps us do a better job in research,

but it also helps us do a better job of teaching. And it helps us

do a better job of placing students in great jobs.

I couldn't agree more. And again, synergies

amongst those things, but as you know, you know, critical to our

mission is, is transforming lives. You know, we say in our

vision statement, we're a catalyst for transforming lives.

We, we don't say that we do it alone, right? I mean, that

catalyst word is something I've been thinking a lot about

lately. You know, and we, we create the platform for it to

happen. But you know, faculty and industry partners are a

really, really key part of that equation.

You know, Brent, I want to shift gears here and

look ahead a little bit. And people always say, as long as

I've been around, the world is changing. Business is changing,

and it's changing faster than it used to be. And so you could

say, well, then, people always think that whatever stage

they're in. And I won't belabor the point. But there's lots of

evidence that the rate of change has been steadily increasing

since the Industrial revolution. And you know, many people think

we're entering into a another industrial revolution because of

certain technologies that are being created. These changes

create a new situation. And I think as a business school, I

know you have been giving this a lot of thought, you've been

thinking about, how should a business school change in light

of the changes that we're seeing in the economy? Would you mind

speaking to that a little bit?

Yeah, as you as you know, I agree completely

right, that we are entering into a new phase of change, even more

rapid, rapid change. And, you know, if I just stop and pause

on students, and how do we prepare them? I guess that's

really what's on my mind is not only how do we prepare them for

the first job, but how do we really prepare them to succeed

in the long run? And I believe, as we as we think about our

roles in that, I think that I think currently and particularly

in the future, when our students are solving business problems,

oh, I would say, you know, they're managing their leading,

they're solving business problems. They're trying to

innovate within a company. I think they've got to do that at

an intersection of, of technology, data, people and

process, you know, and I think maybe it hasn't been that long

ago that we our mindset. And I think it's mindset that's going

to be critical for our students. But I think, you know, you could

think about solving business problems at the intersection

often of process and people. But we know today that you have to

intersect with that technology and data. And and oh, yeah, by

the way, I don't think you can think about solving a business

problem purely with technology and data absent of people and

process. And so I think it's really teaching students to

lead, manage, and solve problems at that intersection is what's

going to be so critical. And, you know, I don't know that that

means that we can teach them every emerging technology, but

we have, they have to have a mindset, you know, to where they

get exposure with us. They understand how it's being

applied. And then they have the curiosity to go learn and apply

in new ways that either they've not seen or really haven't even

been invented yet. And then as leaders of people, and most of

our students will lead people in some way, shape or form. I think

they've then got to think about how do they bring people

alongside that change, you know, and help the people harmonize

with the technology in a way that that improves the life of

that person and improves the overall profitability of the

organization.

You know, Brent, your point is so spot on, you

know, and sometimes you see business schools saying, well,

we don't want to teach current technology, because it's going

to go away. But I've always thought, well, no, you do

because that technology might go away. But the ability to learn a

new technology and then apply it to a new problem is valuable.

Yeah. I was telling this story yesterday,

that before I started the master's program, I don't know

if you remember this. I'm sure I went through a university

orientation. I don't exactly remember that. What I do

remember, is you making sure that I went and spent time at

Walmart, learning the processes and technology. I shadowed

basically, and that technology is not used anymore. Was that

valuable for 20 years for me? Yes. Right. Because I started to

see how the technology the people and the process, were

interacting with one another. So I think I think that's a flawed

way of thinking of just because the technology, maybe it doesn't

stick or maybe it ends up getting applied in ways that we

don't think it's going to be applied today. Again, I think

it's about that mindset, you know, have at that intersection.

Well, you know, when you went and I remember

when when I asked you to go to Walmart and spend time in

replenishment. At that time, we were doing research on

replenishment, I had been doing research on it as well. And I

had the benefit of all, I had been in so many situations where

I had actually been involved with a company touching the

technology, trying to figure out how to improve what they're

doing. And so when you spent time at Walmart in

replenishment, it is true, you were exposed to a technology

that isn't being used now. I would argue it probably is one

of the best technologies still out there for for replenishment.

And, you know, one good thing about learning a new technology

like that, and seeing how people interact with it, I remember,

one of the things you learn from it again, this is over this is

20 years ago about but was that the users, this is an important

point, many of the users of that great technology for

replenishment forecasting didn't because they in some cases, they

really understood the theory of inventory management forecasts

are they could play well. But there were some people in any

organization that's using replenishment and forecasting

technology, they don't understand the theory behind it.

And as a result, they're kind of like a mindless, they'll say,

Oh, if I change this variable, maybe if I increase the time

between replenishments, we'll have fewer stockouts. And it's

true. But you don't want to increase safety stock that way,

which is essentially what it's doing, it's forcing safety

stock, but then it's throwing off all kinds of other

variables. And so if you really understand the theory, think,

okay, I could have more inventory in between

replenishments, that'll increase my fill rate through for the

year, or I can increase my safety stock where I could make

the lead times shorter, or I could in the real world, not in

a system. But I remember you really understood that after

having gone through that, that process. Whereas, you know, and

I think that then as the benefit to us as professors, is it helps

motivate us to teach this material, because we realize,

oh, they really need to understand this, because you see

people misapplying these ideas in practice so often.

Yes. And I think that when you think about our

student experience, this why I think, you know, I think our

College of Business, at least I'm going to speak for, I think

creates tremendous value. Now, I think that students can some get

more value out of that opportunity in the other. But

when I think about the real sweet spot, you know, I think

about a student who is getting the most out of the classroom,

you know and hey, some of those concepts may have held true for

decades.

Yeah,

You know, and then take that into a work

environment. And more and more we find our students are working

while they're in school, which I encourage and I know you do,

too. We want them in internships, we want them in co

ops. But really what we want is the ability to take what's being

learned and apply it and understand it in application,

whether that application succeeds or fails, and then

bring that back into the classroom in a way that informs

the learning. And now you have a loop that is really, really

meaningful. And so I think I learned that not only in that

experience, but I learned it doing internships, and I've

learned it throughout my life in terms of learn, apply, learn,

apply. And I think it's just a really important part of the

experience that our students have the ability to access.

Well, you know, the other thing that's interesting

that I think sometimes people don't think about, but when

you've got a Dean, who not only has been involved in the school,

but he's been involved in industry. I mean, you know,

executives, all these companies around here are the suppliers,

the big three, Big Four, counting them ArcBest and

others. I mean, that helps glue, bring the glue to the school if

you were if you didn't have that experience, you wouldn't even

know necessarily what the size of the opportunity was in terms

of internships. I know internships are really important

to you.

They are they are and that's something that

has grown and developed for me over time. And I think I think

it's, I think it's the experience of teaching, engaging

with students, mentoring them. But then being out in industry,

you know, every single week in some way, shape or form, both of

us have been, you know, you get to see, you get to see those in

industry talking about, you know, the contribution that

those students can make. You know, and I'll say, my, my time

at the Walton College, it has allowed me to work with all the

companies here in Northwest Arkansas, the large companies,

and you're right, we've got relationships with all of them.

When I think back to our decision to found Walton College

at 2nd and main, in Little Rock. This was a great experience for

me, I'm from Arkansas, I grew up in Arkansas. And you know, so

it's probably something I wanted to do intrinsically, I think I

was intrinsically motivated by it. I think the benefit that I

don't know, that I anticipated, was the ability to now have

those relationships in Central Arkansas and throughout the

state. So, you know, you think about the Stephens organization

in Little Rock that has been so meaningful to this state,

Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, the hospital systems, you know,

I could keep going on and on. But that's really important. And

then, you know, what, there's some great businesses

particularly agriculturally focused in the Delta of

Arkansas, and, you know, I want our students connected to all of

that in some way, shape, or form. And I think work

experiences and internships is if, if, if an executive asked

me, how can I help the Walton College, there's lots of ways,

but probably my first ask is going to be hire an intern.

I agree with you. And, you know, if you have kids

that are in college, or going to be in college soon, you have

this feeling, I mean, what parent doesn't want their kid in

great internships. Right? And I, I was just, I was just talking

to a parent who has a kid at not not in the Walton College, but

at a another SEC business school. And she was relating to

me, because they also have a kid here, the difference in terms of

the ability to get great internships with unbelievable

companies, or even an internship with a early stage company,

because we have the venture intern program, if you're

listening to this, and you know, someone that might be

interested, you can look that up the venture intern program,

which I love, because, I mean, it's wonderful. If you can get

an experience with an early stage company and a big company.

Absolutely.

And I remember back to the Little Rock thing,

something that needs to be said is I was trying to figure out

where to put my effort geographically because I can't

remember how this happened. But somehow I realized, the Walton

College is doing great in Northwest Arkansas, but we need

to venture outside of Arkansas. And you actually were the one

that said I would really focus on Central Arkansas to start

with and I thought, well, that would be great. But how? And

then of course, I had that meeting with Warren Stephens.

And he really opened the opportunity for us to do that.

He did. He truly did. I think he saw an

opportunity for us, you were willing to take the risk and say

yes, and and then I was in a position to be able to help make

it happen.

Yeah.

And, and that, if you recall, it started with

building relationships. And, you know, in doing that, you know, I

think we've gotten more of our students hired.

Yes.

I know, we've succeeded in executive

education, which which is our main focus there. We are

providing noncredit education and working directly customizing

programs with companies using the expertise in the Walton

College. And and I know it's worked, because we increasingly

engage with organizations that I actually probably never would

have thought possible. Many of them are our state, governmental

organizations that we've had a chance to assist, which makes

our state better off but also, you know, many, many companies

there but it does all come back to building those relationships

and and Mr. Stephens was was truly the one that made that

happen.

You know, and I remember early on, we got a new

client in Little Rock a big one and I was talking, I can't

remember who I was talking to. But one of the executives,

you'll know this story, maybe you were there. And I said, how

did you find out about us? And they said that they were just

walking down the street and saw Walton College, the 2nd and main

and thought, what is this? I don't remember if they went in,

or they Googled it, but somehow they found out about it, that

led to one of our biggest clients.

That's exactly right. You know, so I think

it's, I think, you know, and for us, it's probably a lesson for

us as administrators and leaders of colleges. I mean, it is very,

very important to be present, you know, throughout our state

and engaged with business. Because you just never know what

opportunity that that's going to lead to.

You really don't. And that gets to another point.

You know, we've talked about technology and the future, but

you, you've been leading our strategic planning, development

and would you mind speaking to that a little bit, just in terms

of how you went about it? And then what we're going to be

doing in the future?

Yeah, absolutely. We did revise our

strategic plan, about a little over a year ago. And, you know,

we decided too that we thought the best thing to do to move

forward was to develop a stakeholder focused plan, that

was really relatively short term in nature. And so, you know, in

doing that, we really looked at key stakeholders, our students,

our faculty, our business and alumni partners, and then

society at large, and, and, and identified with, with a fairly

extensive group of faculty and staff that were served as

conduits to all the departments and units of like, what were

really some important things that we could accomplish, that

would, that would make the Walton College even more

valuable to our stakeholders. And those, as you will know,

right, those stakeholders abroad, you know, it's our

faculty and staff, it's our students, it's our parents, it's

our alumni. And it's the businesses throughout the state.

And, you know, it's the state of Arkansas. So there's a broad set

of stakeholders that we serve. And, you know, I think, Matt, as

we go into, as we go into next year, there's really a few

things that were from that strategic plan that we're really

going to focus on, over the next year. And we've already talked

about one of those. And it's, it's, it's that student

experience in making sure that, that internships and work

opportunities and experiential learning opportunities are there

for our students that complement what's happening in the

classroom, you know, it, those things complement each other. So

when you got a wonderful faculty, like we have, and then

and then you have these experiences, I really think you

truly create value for students and families. And then, you

know, I really want us to be able to build on the platform

that I feel like you've established and that's our

graduate programs, as you know, well, know, you you made this

happen. We've been able to stand up many masters programs that

are specialized, and that provide working professionals

with skills they need, whether that be in analytics, supply

chain marketing, coming up soon product innovation, and that

goes alongside an amazing Executive MBA program that is

remarkably healthy, that serves professionals, not only in

Northwest Arkansas, our state and actually beyond that, and

our full time MBA program. I just, I think in our graduate

programs, we have the opportunity now to take that

platform and grow it and share it with more people. And I

think, particularly, you know, you go back to the rate of

change in business. I think these master's programs offer a

wonderful opportunity for professional that it may have

been a while, you know, so since they've been in college, they're

probably learning all on their own along the way. A graduate

program can accelerate that learning. And so that's really

important. I think a third thing that's really important for us

is to grow our research impact um and I didn't necessarily say

grow you know, our research, I really think that research is

the core of who we are as, as faculty members. And you know,

there's ways we can share that. And you mentioned theory

building. And that is remarkably important. And that's why we

publish in academic journals. It's why we want that work to be

cited and be built upon. And we are knowledge builders, as

faculty. But there's other ways to let that research have an

impact. And I'm thinking about this, now, you've done all of

these. And so have I, you know, our faculty are a tremendous

resource to businesses in our area for consulting when needed

if they need specific expertise. We've talked about executive

education, you know, executive education really can't happen

without the deep expertise in the college. So you're actually

utilizing the research as the base that creates expertise that

now gets shared through consulting, executive education,

through our publishing, through funded research projects with

companies. So I think just continuing to broaden the

research impact, those are the three things that I think are

really important for us right now.

Well, you know, Brent, you're taking over

leadership of college at a time when Northwest Arkansas is

booming. Business here is succeeding in many, many

different ways, many, many different ways. And a time when

the population is growing. It's hard to buy house here, it's

hard to build a house here. But people are optimistic here. You

know, you compare it to so many places, I go in the United

States, you know, and a lot of places you go, people don't feel

an identity with the place they live. Here they do. And, but the

level of optimism out there, shocks me. And that's something

you can't conjure up. What do you think about that, and how

that affects the college?

I think it's a tailwind for us. I really do. I

agree with you. I couldn't agree more, that there is an optimism

here. You know, and, and there's a pride here. And, and I think

that's true about Northwest Arkansas and our state, you

know, and we benefit, there's absolutely no doubt that, you

know, we've talked about all the things we try to do. But the

community and the state around us is a tailwind. And this place

is growing. And it's increasingly a wonderful place,

not only to work, but to live, you know, the amount of outdoor

recreation opportunities that exist. My, you know, a few miles

from in where any of us where we live, and actually right outside

this building, there's a mountain biking trail, right?

And that, that we can hop on and ride the Greenway is literally

steps from here that we could ride 40 miles, if we want to,

and there's opportunities to climb and paddle, and all of

those things. And, you know, I believe that people want to be a

part of this place. And I think that that's part of success in

attracting great faculty and staff. People increasingly,

know, this is a wonderful place to live and be and then, you

know, young people and their families realize this is a great

place to spend your college career. So it you know, we,

Matt, I feel like the Walton College is tremendously

fortunate to be a part of this region and state.

Well, you know, and you, I've talked about all the

things you've done in Northwest Arkansas, in college and Little

Rock, but you grew up in Newport. And you went to Lyon

College, in Arkansas. So really your experience and preparation

for leading the college in the state. You know, there could be

other people prepared, but you're prepared in this state,

you know, this state. And I know that I mean, I'm not from here.

I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, moved here from

Michigan and lived in Pennsylvania before that. And

you still know more about the state of Arkansas than I do. And

I've lived here for 30 years. And I love it. I mean, it's

wonderful. But I know you've got ideas about how to even reach

out to the rest of the state, not just and you've already been

doing. You've already been engaged in it. Would you mind

speaking to that a bit?

Yeah, I think I think you're right. You know,

I'm fortunate to be from here. I love it. You know, I grew up in

a small town in East Arkansas in an area that, you know,

Northwest Arkansas is beautiful. In my opinion, you know, that

area of Arkansas has its own has its own unique beauties. And,

you know, the economy there is quite different, you know, and

the areas like, like agriculture and the steel industry that's

emerging in Northeast Arkansas, you know, are vibrant, and you

have the forestry industry in, in South Arkansas. So, you know,

I think there's ways for us to increasingly connect to those

industries. And, you know, the fortunate thing for us, you

know, we talked about the tailwinds of Northwest Arkansas

and our state, our alumni are truly a tailwind as well.

Yes.

They care.

They do

They care about the success of this institution.

They care about the success University of Arkansas, and I

think ultimately, they care about our students success. And

I think the connectivity of this state is pretty rare. You know,

the ability for you, Matt, as having been the dean of the

Walton College for eight years, to probably reach any person in

this state so easily is is a really rare thing. And so I hope

to be able to capitalize on those relationships as well.

Absolutely. Well, Brent, thank you for all your

service to the college over the past, I was gonna say years, but

it's been longer than that, because you've really been here

for 20 years. It's things you did, even as a student,

contributed to where we are today and the successes we've

had. But thank you for all you've done, and I look forward

to serving as a professor under your leadership.

You've been a huge reason for any success I've

had. So thank you, Matt.

On behalf of the Sam M Walton College of

Business, I want to thank everyone for spending time with

us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe

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