Keynote Speakers

“Assessing the State-of-the-Art in SCM”   Thomas W. Speh, PhD Professor, Miami University (Ohio), USA

This session will attempt to answer the question: “Just how well are we doing in effectively implementing the supply chain management concept in business practice?” It will examine the key drivers of supply chain success, and provide examples of companies that have successfully implemented important supply chain concepts. An important aspect of the session will be to explore the difference between company effectiveness in supply chain management, and the effectiveness of a total supply chain. The session will conclude by suggesting the critical action items to be implemented to fully integrate all the organizations in a supply chain to achieve supply chain success.

Thomas W. Speh is the James Evans Rees Distinguished Professor of Distribution at The Richard T. Farmer School of Business, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Dr. Speh teaches courses in Logistics Management and Supply Chain Management. He is co-author of Business Marketing Management: A Strategic View of Industrial and Organizational Markets, 9th edition and Marketing: Best Practices, 3nd edition. He was the Director of the Warehouse Research Center at Miami University from 1986 –2000.

Dr. Speh has published numerous articles in a variety of academic and professional journals, including the Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Supply Chain Management Review, Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of Business Logistics. Dr. Speh is a frequent speaker at logistics and supply chain conferences in the US and many countries around the world. He is a member of the European Union’s Advisory Board for the Bestlog benchmarking project.

Dr. Speh was the 2003 President of the Council of Logistics Management and a past president of the Warehousing Education and Research Council. He has conducted research and consulting projects in warehousing management, supply chain relationship management, warehousing cost analysis, logistics outsourcing, and marketing strategy planning.

“Trends and Strategies in Logistics: Agenda for Logistics Management in 2010””   Prof. Dr. Ing. Frank Straube Director of Institute of Technology and Management Head of the Logistics Department, Berlin Technical University, Germany Member of Executive Board of European Logistics Association

The internationalisation of the markets, increasing competitive and cost pressure, growing quality and service expectations, the individualisation and increasingly dynamic nature of demand – these are buzzwords that have a major impact on the day-today operations and the sphere of action of today’s logistics experts. Logisticians have to make us of complex value added structures to satisfy ever-changing customer demands in an environment characterised by growing uncertainty and increasing cost pressure. This not only calls for an in-depth understanding of the workings of the market but also means that logistics managers have to take greater responsibility for the organisation and planning of all corporate processes that are of relevance for the customer’s order. The key note speech will show current and future trends and strategies in logistics management.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Straube is the Director of the Logistics Department of the Institute of Technology and Management at the Berlin University of Technology (TUB) since October 2004. In June 2005 he became the Managing Director of the Institute of Technology and Management. Furthermore he is a permanent Visiting Professor at the University of St. Gallen, Kuehne Institute for Logistics. He is Vice-President of the German logistics association 'Bundesvereinigung Logistik BVL e.V.' and member of the Board of the European Logistics Association (ELA). In the European management community, he is active as member of the board of several renowned companies. Furthermore, he serves policy makers on European level by his participation in the Advisory Board Transport to the European Commission.

Frank Straube was born in 1959. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Berlin University of Technology which he supplemented by a doctoral degree at the Logistics Department of Professor H. Baumgarten in 1987. Until 1989, Frank Straube managed the department's major industrial logistics projects. From 1990 to 2002, he was active in consultancy as the CEO of 'Zentrum für Logistik Unternehmensplanung GmbH' (Berlin - Sao Paulo - New York) and director of 'Logistik Management Consulting (LMC) GmbH'. His teaching record starts in 1993 when he became an external lecturer at the Berlin University of Technology. From 1996 to 1999 he taught international management at the University Aix-en-Provenence, since 2000 he teaches at the University Paris II and since 2001 at the University of St. Gallen. Before his call to TUB, Frank Straube was Director and Chairman of the Board of the Kuehne Institute for Logistics at the University of St. Gallen and Director of Studies of the Executive MBA course. He published extensively on the subject of logistics and is a renowned presenter on national and international conferences.

“Managing Investments in Technology:   Succeeding through Failure ”   Prof. Zahir Irani Information Systems Evaluation & Integration Group (ISEing) Head of Brunel Business School, Brunel University, Great Britain

Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) is considered a complex exercise by academics and practitioners alike. The reason for this is that there are portfolios of tangible and intangible benefits that are offered to an organization following the adoption of IT/IS, which in turn, all need managing to ensure realization. To provide managers with a critical insight into the management of new technology, this presentation uses a case study research strategy to examine the technology management experiences of a leading UK manufacturing organization during its adoption of a vendor supplied information system for supply chain management. Following the lack of attention given to human and organizational technology management factors while implementing their information system, the vendor-based information system was later abandoned and deemed a failure. In addressing those technology management factors that were later identified as important, it was found that key employees were able to overcome a number of organizational barriers, and develop and implement a bespoke information system that significantly improved the organizations competitive position. Technology management taxonomies that contributed to the failure and later successful implementation of their information system are identified and discussed. The organization's experiences in solving the problems associated with the implementation of their information system offer a learning opportunity for those companies that are seeking a competitive advantage through technology management. In extrapolating the finding, the author identifies those management factors that restricted success and then having been addressed, promoted the successful adoption of a supply chain management information system.

Professor Zahir Irani is the Dean and Head of the Business School at Brunel University (UK). Having worked for several years as a project engineer in the manufacturing sector, Professor Irani retains close links with industry, and has served as a non-executive director. He consults for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) in the UK as well as international organisations such as HSBC, Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum, DERA, BMW and Adidas. He has also taken part in UK-Government funded trade missions to the Middle-East and Gulf region. Professor Irani reviews research proposals submitted to UK funding councils, European Commission and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA.

Professor Irani leads a multi-disciplinary group of International PhD students that research information systems evaluation and application integration. He has been recognized as the Hooker Distinguished Professor at McMaster University (Canada) as well as being a Visiting Professor at the Arab Academy of Science and Technology (Egypt) and at Ahlia University (Bahrain). He is the editor-in-chief of the established Journal of Enterprise Information Management and European Editor of the Business Process Management Journal. He has co-authored teaching text-books and written almost 200 internationally refereed papers and received ANBAR citations of research excellence. He has spoken at conferences and guest seminars world wide, and is internationally known for his scholarly work in the area of information systems evaluation and application integration. Professor Irani is on the editorial-board of several journals, as well as co-and-mini-track chair to international conferences. He has edited special issue journals, and publishes his scholarly work in leading journals that include: IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Information & Management, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Management Information Systems and European Journal of Information Systems. Professor Zahir Irani has received numerous contracts, grants and awards from funding bodies that include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Royal Academy of Engineering, Australian Research Council (ARC), QinetiQ, Department of Health and European Commission.