Dr. Denis Fred Simon: The Impact of Globalization on China's Technological Trajectory: Implications for the U.S.

Dr. Denis Fred Simon is the Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs of the Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce under the State University of New York in New York City. The Levin Institute is a newly created education and research institution whose mission is to prepare traditional graduate students and working professionals to work and manage effectively in the globalized economy of the 21^st century (see www.suny.edu/levin-institute). Prior to joining the Levin Institute, from July 2002-August 2004, Dr. Simon served as Dean of the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Founded in 1824, Rensselaer ranks annually among the top 50 national universities in the U.S. News & World Report, and its graduate engineering program ranks among the top schools around the world. Dr. Simon also was a member of the Lally School faculty as a tenured Full Professor of International Business Strategy and Global Technology Management. The Lally School is one of the leading teaching and research centers in the US and abroad focused on technological innovation and corporate entrepreneurship. In 2004, under Dean Simon’s leadership, the Lally School was ranked by Entrepreneur magazine among the top 15 programs in entrepreneurship in the US. In addition, he also served as a member of the Dean’s Council at Rensselaer as well as being involved in substantial fund-raising activities and representational roles for RPI in various government and non-governmental bodies, e.g. National Academy of Sciences, Council on Competitiveness, and the National Science Foundation.

In his capacity as Dean, Dr. Simon engineered a fundamental re-structuring of the overall MBA curriculum and revitalized the MBA recruiting effort. The new modular MBA curriculum reflects a distinct move away from the traditional discipline-based approach existing in most business schools toward a problem-based form of pedagogy that emphasizes experiential learning and focuses on those key tasks aspiring managers and business leaders need to accomplish to achieve commercial success (www.rpi.edu). Under Dr. Simon’s direction, the quality and quantity of MBA recruiting improved, leading to a 40+% increase in size of the MBA class for Fall 2004. He also re-energized the Lally School community, fostering higher levels of faculty involvement and engagement in all aspects of the running and operation of the school. Finally, he also helped implement a significant re-organization of the school’s administrative infrastructure, thereby improving the delivery of student services and increasing overall managerial effectiveness.

Prior to joining Rensselaer, Dr. Simon was President of Monitor Group (China). Monitor, which was founded by competitive strategy guru Dr. Michael Porter in the early 1980s, is one of the world’s leading business strategy consulting firms--with 29 offices in 24 countries and 1600+ consulting professionals. As a senior member of the Asia leadership team within Monitor Group (Asia), Dr. Simon helped drive overall business development and provided high-level management support and intellectual leadership for Monitor’s strategy engagements in China. He also was responsible for government representation as well as building the skills base and for colleague care for the members of the China consulting practice. Prior to joining Monitor, Dr. Simon was Managing Director of the Business Strategy and Architecture Innovation Center in Singapore for Scient Corporation. And, prior to his tenure at Scient, he was an Associate Partner at Andersen Consulting China, where he served as Director of the China Strategy Group. He also served as the General Manager for Andersen Consulting’s China practice in Beijing from 1998-1999.

Dr. Simon’s distinctive competence is that he is one of a select number of global management experts with dual knowledge of both business strategy & technology management and Asian business systems and cultures. Having first visited Asia in 1976 and the China mainland in 1981, Dr. Simon has developed an extensive network of professional relationships throughout business, government, and academia in the region. He has written and lectured widely regarding innovation, high technology development, foreign investment and corporate strategy in the PacRim and is frequently quoted in the Western and Asian business press regarding commercial and technology trends in China, HK and the Asia-Pacific region. Among his key publications are: Technological Innovation in China [with Detlef Rehn] (Harper Books, 1987), Science and Technology in Post-Mao China [edited with Merle Goldman] (Harvard University Press, 1989), The Emerging Technological Trajectory of the Pacific Rim (ME Sharpe, 1995), Corporate Strategies Towards the Pacific Rim (Routledge, 1996), and Techno-Security in an Age of Globalization (ME Sharpe, 1997). He currently is working on a book-length manuscript dealing with the development of the computer industry in China—1949-2004.

Dr. Simon’s achievements have been particularly notable in the context of his management consulting activities dealing with the People’s Republic of China. With Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Dr. Simon helped develop the strategy practice from its very limited beginnings into a 20+-person team of high-quality consulting professionals generating substantial engagements with both multinational firms and Chinese domestic clients. While serving as General Manager of the Beijing practice, he handled the administration, marketing and representational aspects of Andersen Consulting in China. In addition, he has conducted extensive client-related research on many of China’s key evolving industries, including electronics, telecommunications, computers, automobiles, petrochemicals, transportation, and assorted consumer products. His projects have focused on such critical strategic business problems as supply chain management, eCommerce strategy, market expansion strategy, IT strategy, R&D strategy, distribution, and joint venture operations—manufacturing, HR, and distribution. He also has performed as a consultant to numerous US government and international organizations regarding China and the economies of the Asia-Pacific region, including the Office of Technology Assessment (US Congress), National Academy of Sciences, World Bank, United Nations, US Department of Commerce, PECC and OECD.

From 1990-1995, Dr. Simon served as President of China Consulting Associates (Boston), which was one of only four foreign consulting firms approved by China’s State Council to operate as a domestically registered management consulting company in the PRC. In that capacity, he also served as President and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Shanghai Hua Mei Economic & Technology Consulting Company, Ltd., a Sino-foreign joint venture with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the Shanghai Electric Machinery Import & Export Corporation. From 1983-1995, Simon served as a private consultant to numerous Fortune Global 500 firms regarding their business entry and operations in China. His projects included market entry strategies, competitor analyses, industry analysis, joint venture partner assessment, distribution strategy, and technology transfer diagnostics. In addition, Dr. Simon has been enlisted as a keynote speaker at a large number of major business conferences, e.g. World Economic Forum, and executive education programs, e.g. IBEAR’s China Program, regarding key success factors for doing business in China.

Prior to joining the world of professional services in 1995, Dr. Simon served as professor of international business strategy and technology management at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University (1987-1995) and as the Ford International Professor of Management & Technology at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1983-1987). At the Sloan School and Fletcher School he taught courses dealing with international business and management, international technology transfer, international manufacturing, and comparative government-business relations, especially with respect to promotion of high technology industries. He received his M.A. degree in Asian Studies in 1975 and Ph.D. in Political Science in 1980 from the University of California at Berkeley (Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Robert A. Scalapino). He received his B.A. degree in Asian Studies from the State University of New York in 1974. In his academic career, he received numerous honors and grants, including significant project grants from the Ford Foundation (technological innovation in China), National Science Foundation (evolving patterns of innovation in East Asia), Hitachi Foundation (technology transfer and innovation in Asia), Xerox Foundation (technology absorption in China), and the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China(China’s policies for stimulating innovation in comparative perspective). From 1978-80, he was a visiting researcher at the East-West Center in Honolulu. In 1985, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for Hong Kong (declined). And, from 1991-92, he served as Visiting Scholar within Fujitsu Research Institute in Japan, where he worked on a project dealing with the changing patterns of Japanese manufacturing and R&D networks in China, HK and the Pacific Rim. He reads and speaks Mandarin Chinese fluently.

Throughout his professional career, Dr. Simon has been an innovator in intellectual thought and program development. He is well-known in many circles for his academic as well as corporate “entrepreneurship.” Along with his consulting experience, during his academic career at the Fletcher School, Dr. Simon served as Director of the China Executive Program (1988-90), a customized training program for mid-level Chinese managers to prepare them for long-term managerial careers in the PRC. From 1990-1993, he served as Director of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the Fletcher School/Bentley College. CIBER is a US Department of Education-sponsored research and training program designed to build closer links between the business and academic communities. Fletcher was the only non-traditional “business school” to secure a three year CIBER award. From 1989-1995, he also served as founder and Director of the Center for Technology and International Affairs at the Fletcher School; in that capacity he raised significant funds and developed multiple program activities to create a business-academic partnership to analyze the impact of high technology on regional and global economic and commercial relations. Finally, between 1990-1995, Dr. Simon was founder and Director of the Global Senior Managers Program, a customized executive training program for senior corporate officials from around the world to assist them prepare for the challenges of managing in a globalized business environment. In that capacity, Dr. Simon also taught the program components dealing with global business and technology strategy.

Dr. Simon is married to Fredda Simon and they have two children, Mitchell (19) who is a sophomore at Denison University in Ohio and Melissa (22) who graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in May 2004.