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KC Yost: Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of The Energy Pipeline Podcast. Today we'll be discussing supply chain disruptions in the oil industry. Our guest is Professor Ayman Omar, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at the Kogod School of Business and Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management at the American University in Washington DC. So welcome to The Energy Pipeline Podcast, Professor.
Ayman Omar: Thank you very much KC. Thank you so much for hosting me on this show. Very excited to be with you today and looking forward to an extended conversation on supply chain management, the oil sector disruption and what comes next.
Yost: Yeah, this is so exciting. I know nothing about this and I am just really fascinated to hear what you have to say here. But before we start talking about supply chain disruptions, let's take a few minutes to share your background with our listeners. Now, I know you got a mechanical engineering degree and I know that you got your master's MBA at UTSA, University of Texas at San Antonio. So go Roadrunners. There you go. And you got your PhD from the other UT for us Texas listeners. That's the University of Tennessee. So tell us about you.
Omar: Very excited and had a pleasure in both of the UTS, but prior to the UTS, as you mentioned, I got a mechanical engineering degree from the American University in Cairo. And then I worked in the oil sector after that for a few years working for one of the major service companies and our clients were the major oil producers.
Yost: So we're allowed to say Schlumberger.
Omar: So Schlumberger was the company I worked for as a wire line engineer. So we used to run services in the exploration phase for major clients, whether it was the Shells, BPs, the Amicos, ExoMobiles. It wasn't ExoMobile at that time, which probably dates me. But we had all of those major clients and we would be running exploration services, basically running tools down the well to figure out is there oil at what depth, at what quantities, what kind of formation and what's the best way to produce at what levels and what's expected economics of each one of those wells. So that was a little bit of my initial interaction with the oil sector. And I got very interested in that space, but wanted to move more to the operations part of the sector and decided to pursue an MBA. And during my MBA got interested in an area called supply chain management, which is basically managing the flow of products or services from a source to an end destination and back where we've got reverse supply chains, returns. We'll talk about closed loop supply chains as well. But some of those areas got very interested in it and decided to pursue that even to another level with, as you mentioned, getting a PhD from the University of Tennessee in supply chain management and joined American University at the Kogod School of Business as a faculty member teaching supply chain management at the undergraduate and graduate levels and eventually transitioned into a service role in managing all of our graduate programs at the Kogod School of Business, online programs, residential programs and exec programs. We're based, our university is based in the northwest part of DC. We've got a very senior campus and one of the areas that the School of Businesses really heavily invested in is both the sustainability for businesses. How do you make sure that your business is competitive as we move forward in how sustainability part of that equation? Sustainability is not just necessarily the environmental piece of the puzzle, but it's the economic piece. It's a social piece and we'll talk about how those things could be potential disruptors to any sector specifically within the oil sector and how as an organization, how do you manage those different pieces of the puzzle as you move along and how do you manage different stakeholders as you move along? So that's a major area where we push on in the school. It's embedded in our graduate curriculum, undergraduate curriculum and we've embedded also AI as we've been pushing since last year. We're one of the few schools that have been listed by the Wall Street Journal of Embedding AI in the curriculum as well. All of our graduate students incoming graduate students this year were required to take an AI workshop. And the goal is not to have everybody in the school be a coder or programmer. That's not where our students are they hope to be. But it's really understanding how does AI fit with what you're trying to achieve. And again, we'll get back to that during the conversation, the role of technology and how it plays different areas or different aspects of trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle.
Yost: Fascinating. So how large is the school of business?
Omar: So we're 1200 students give or take around 400 at the graduate level, 800. So mid-sized school, we've got both modalities for all of the programs and we've had that pre-COVID. So I know a lot of schools have pushed on to online programs after COVID. We've had our online programs since 2016. So way before COVID was in place and we've recognized that the future of higher ed is not necessarily in one modality, but it's a flexibility of bouncing back and forth because people want to want the convenience of remote just like what we're doing right now. We're not in a physical space next to each other. This is allows us for the convenience flexibility, but at the same time in some situations also people appreciate being physically or on campus meeting guest speakers and meeting other folks in person and having those kinds of interactions and conversations. So we've pushed to have both modalities across programs and the goal is to make sure that this is a seamless transition and it's really pick your path based on the program you're looking for. Modality comes next. It's really what program are you looking for.
Yost: I got you. I got you very, very good. So I don't know if we talked about this, but you know, I did a little stint of teaching at the University of Houston. I taught, I don't know, 15 semesters for the undergraduate school. I believe it was their senior project 4333 and basically it was case studies. You know, the Harvard case studies would come down on Southwest Airlines or AT&T or whomever and it was amazing. I always tried to put the students in groups. One finance guy, one marketing person, one accounting person, one whatever management person and tried to get that. And I found that in almost every group, every time the people would read the same case study and the finance guy would think it's a finance problem. The marketing guy would think it was a marketing problem. The accounting person would think it's an accounting problem. Does that still happen? I mean, this was 40 years ago. Does that still happen in undergraduate school? Although I know you're not into it, but just curious.
Omar: No, to a certain extent yes because it depends on your lens and depends on your comfort zone. And that's a challenge. And that's where we push students to be outside of their comfort zone because why do you tend to approach the finance piece of your finance students? That's where you're comfortable. You're not comfortable with the strength of your heart. You're not comfortable with the marketing piece. That's where you feel your strength are and this is where you want to approach it. But I think you bring up a great...But first of all, let me say that 15 semesters is not a short stint of teaching. I think you're probably faculty emeritus by now. I've gone through all of this. And I'm sure you've seen a lot over the time. And I think one of the biggest things in group projects, pushing folks outside of their comfort zone, whether it's by content or also by their interactions with different people, because that becomes the most challenging part for them as they pursue careers beyond school. It's not understanding the finance piece or the technical pieces. It's really how do you now implement this with a team? How do you implement this with your suppliers, with your customers? How do you make sure that your whole ecosystem is going at the same wavelength? And we both know probably this is the hardest thing in any organization and any job and any work. It's managing and working with people. And I think that's a big value of those kinds of groups, even with the challenges that the students see.
Yost: Communication. Communication. That was the core that I was trying to get across with trying to mix all of these people together. Teach the finance person to talk to the marketing guy and not be condescending. Respect their position and look at a problem from others' perspective. That was the goal of the exercise.
Omar: But at that point, KC, let me take this even one step further if we can, if you don't mind. Sure. Going through this because in supply chain management, one of the biggest barriers we call is the great divide. And that's exactly how people continue to behave even after school because the finance department is focused on the financial piece. The accounting department is focused on the accounting piece. The procurement department is focused on their own incentive, their own interests, their own...Not because of a personal agenda or not because they're good or bad people, but that's how the structure is based in our organization. That's how their incentives are based. And that's where you say, the keyword you mentioned is communication.