Universities and colleges have collaborated with businesses in different ways. One fairly common partnership that is stipulated by AACSB is the development of business advisory councils or boards. Corporate members on such boards provide services such as curricular advice, providing internship and job opportunities, and fundraising initiatives. Such boards require a certain amount of nurturing and relationship building. Someone, usually from the university, has to take ownership of keeping the momentum going and the corporate members engaged after the board is set up. Recently, the business college at a regional Midwestern university has been tasked by the executive officers to initiate a pilot project to implement the use of Six Sigma among its faculty. A group of faculty selected by the Dean will be undergoing intensive training by a chemical company. This paper will examine the reasons for such a partnership to occur, the relevancy of Six Sigma in academia, and the benefits of implementing this philosophy at a university. Finally, the authors discuss how Six Sigma may be implemented in information systems programs.
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