2024 Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors: Chris Smith, Alliance Manchester Business School

 

Chris Smith
Alliance Manchester Business School

“The palpable ‘buzz’ and the enthusiastic discussions that follow our procurement classes are testaments to the stimulating and thought-provoking environment Chris fosters. Chris both delivers theoretical and real-life content but also succeeds in making the subject matter resonate on a deeper level, sparking curiosity and encouraging further exploration among students. In my opinion, Chris has a genuine commitment to student success and played a pivotal role in creating a vibrant and supportive learning community.” – Sarah Ovenden, MBA student

Chris Smith, 37, is Associate Professor in Operations and Critical Supply Chains at Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, UK.

He studies methodologies to help managers make progress with so called “wicked problems.” He has applied these approaches in emergency and disaster management and more recently has focused on supply chain sustainability through digitalization.

His research has been published in prestigious journals in operational research and operations management such as European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society and The International Journal of Operations and Production Management.

He teaches across the entire spectrum, from undergraduate, master’s, MBA, PhD and on a range of Executive Education programs. In 2020, he was awarded Alliance Manchester Business School’s Teacher of the Year.

He is also the school’s business engagement lead, working on many school-wide and university partnerships to foster mutual value for students, researchers, staff and the organizations they work with.

BACKGROUND

At current institution since what year? 2015
Education: PhD Warwick University, UK; BSc Aston University, UK
List of MBA courses you currently teach: Operationalizing and Communicating Value, Live Business Projects

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when… I went into the PhD thinking it would kickstart a career in consulting. But I soon found that as a business school professor you could have that interaction with organisations and help make progress with their really difficult problems. In addition, you also get to stand in front of a class of over 100 people (often many more) and teach them about things that you find fascinating, and if you do your job well enough, they will find them fascinating too. That is a perfect fit for me, and I really enjoy both.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I have two strands of research, first developing can use facilitated modelling approaches to help them make process with ‘wicked problems’. Second, employing these methodologies to understand socially responsible supply chain management.

Upcoming papers explore how new methodologies are developed through Action Research Programmes. And the use of digitalization to improve socially responsible sourcing.

If I weren’t a business school professor… At the same time as being offered the opportunity to do my PhD, I was offered a job working in purchasing at Aston Martin, I’d have been working on the delivery of their then hypercar the Aston Martin One-77 which was a very tempting offer. A few of my very closest friends are still in the car industry so I can see that if I’d have gone down that route, I probably would still be working in the car industry, probably in the supply chain.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? The easy answer is to say something about being high energy in my teaching delivery, or the ability to engage learners with the material and foster discussion in class. But I think it’s a bit more nuanced than that. While both of those are true, there is also something about structuring the learning material in a way that allows that discussion and debate in class rather than just reading what the theory says off the slides. While it doesn’t suit everyone’s style to go in with high energy, everyone can be taught to structure their sessions well, it is something you can learn from others and refine over hundreds of hours in the classroom. So, thank you to Prof Ali Orwak for teaching me to structure my sessions. And to those who supported me in taking the Teaching Assistant Training role which forced me to engage more deeply in pedagogy.

One word that describes my first time teaching: Adrenaline

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: For teaching, I wish someone had told me that if you want your students to engage with you in class then different students are going to favour different methods of engagement. Make sure you don’t just rely on one way of getting them to participate. Learn to get your class to engage with you in different ways with different strategies. Different subject matters may favour different types of engagement, but just as important is how the learner favours engagement, this might be due to the educational systems they are used to, cultural backgrounds, innate learning style or confidence in the subject matter. Build in varied way to engage so the class can feel they participate in a way that works for them.

For research, that for successful papers you also need a strong story, a narrative of why what you are doing is important and how what you are doing is moving the conversation on.

Professor I most admire and why: It would be unjust to single out one person when I have been taught, mentored and inspired by many role models over my career to date. One of the great privileges of this job is the networks of fellow academics we forge and strengthen over time. I am sure the list of those who inspire me will continue to grow.

TEACHING MBA STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? First, I enjoy that MBAs also come with experience, the teaching can turn into much more of a facilitated conversation about the topics. Yes, I have to present some new materials also, but there is something about getting all the knowledge that is already in the room on the topic we are discussing and sharing it with the whole class. A lot of that knowledge can be from fellow learners.

Second, as they tend to be about the same age as me they get most of my millennial aged cultural references and jokes.

What is most challenging? When you teach something that is a context, like I do, such as supply chain management or project management, there is always going to be someone in that room who has had a 10-year career in that exact job role living and breathing the topic. There will also be some learners in the room who have never even thought about it before. So, the challenge is to develop a session where those two extremes can both feel like the session was developed for them and they can both get something meaningful out of the session.

In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Engaged

In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Disengaged

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Hopefully when assessing the quality of my grading they would use the appropriate descriptors according to the rubric, so good, very good, excellent or outstanding!

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies? I played a lot of basketball when I was younger, but have now moved into coaching. I coach my local high school’s under 14s team, and we have won the county championships three years in a row (but this is in the UK where the standard isn’t as high as other parts of the world). It is a great challenge to teach something entirely different to my day to day job. Some of the children are complete novices while some live and breath the sport.

I very much enjoy time with my family, we try to get outside, we go for walks in the woods and paddle boarding. I am also working on perfecting my homemade pizza recipe and cooking technique on the outdoor pizza oven.

How will you spend your summer? Of course, balancing the need to work and spending time with my young family. We have a few adventures planned with my family including a camping/paddle boarding trip for a few nights, plus a trip to Denmark.

Favorite place(s) to vacation: When my youngest daughter was born we managed to go to New Zealand for a few weeks. I loved the energy of the South Island, particularly Queens Town. I also went to Japan for a conference last year. I’d love to go back to both those places as a family when my children are teenagers. I think we would get a lot out of visiting them both.

Favorite book(s): As a dyslexic I never found much joy in reading for pleasure as a child. During my undergraduate I was recommended the Freakonomics series by Stephen Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. I found it really engaging and it still helps me think about how to present complex theories and models in an interesting manner. More recently I have re-read Start with Why by Simon Sinek.

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? A film I love is The Prestige. It is interesting on so many levels and deserves to be watched multiple times.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I think at heart we all still most identify with to music that was popular when we were in our late teens till mid-twenties, so anything from about 2005 till 2012.

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… Connected partnerships and ecosystems. We have a real joy at AMBS that so many companies and firms want to work with us, our researchers and our students. But I think the business schools of the future will have even more of this. Students will be increasingly engaged in helping to solve emerging real-world problems as set by companies. Universities will also more deeply engage with organisations and policy makers to solve the many mega problems that we as a society will have to face in the not too distant future.

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… investing in their staff. As someone researching the social and environmental sustainability of supply chains, I hope companies put more effort into understanding and making transparent the environmental and human costs of operating their supply chains. Consumers need to be able to make better informed decisions of what they purchase so they can be more intentional in where they spend their money.

I’m grateful for… My family and friends, and the engaged students and collaborators who make this job so enjoyable.

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