Willamette University

Faculty Directory

Paul R. Newman

Paul R. Newman

Message

Increasingly businesses are evolving from simple U.S. based local regional or national enterprises, to ones with global extent. The evolutionary path has followed a path from simple outsourcing of procurement and manufacturing to take advantage of lower costs, to much more complex tasks involving "open innovation" where enterprises seek the best most competitive solutions to product development no matter where they exist. This oftentimes puts the organization in the extremely difficult situation of having to manage extended development projects, with contributors in different countries scattered around the world, with different languages, cultures and time zones. The pursuit of managing innovation in such as setting is challenging, often requiring new ways of thinking, organizational processes, and interactive dynamics. Success here requires one to realize that "The winner is not always the one that is the best at thinking up new ideas, but more often it is the one that is the best at choosing amongst options and integrating them." We explore both the academic concepts of international management of ideas and products, as well as some of the practical aspects of bringing ideas to market in a global setting.

Biography

Dr. Newman has over 22 years of senior management experience in high-technology companies such as Rockwell International Corporation, JBL Professional and Electro Scientific Industries. His educational background in solid-state physics has enabled him to make a number of significant technical contributions to these companies as evidenced by his 43 technical publications and 4 US patents. Over the years, his technical career evolved into one of positions of increasing management responsibility, strategic planning, and finally responsibility at the executive level. At Rockwell, Dr. Newman was promoted from Member of the Technical Staff to Group Manager, to Principal Scientist where he functioned as an internal consultant connecting the resources of the Corporate R&D Lab to the needs of the Operating Divisions. At JBL Professional, Dr. Newman was Vice President of R&D, and was responsible for launching over 30 new products, reducing product development cycle time and improving overall product quality. He was the Director of Applied Technology for Electro Scientific Industries; a position that gave him responsibility for planning both long and short term strategic R&D for the company.

Currently Dr. Newman is President of Cooper Mountain Research, Inc., an independent consulting firm focused on the strategic management of science and technology. He has taught for the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the Maastricht School of Management, the Oregon Graduate School of Science & Technology at the Oregon Health & Sciences University and the Engineering and Technology Management Department at Portland State University. He has taught business courses overseas in China, Korea and Vietnam. Dr. Newman obtained his BS degree in physics from Antioch College, his Doctorate in physics from Michigan State University, and did Post Doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania's Laboratory for the Research on the Structure of Matter.

Education

  • Ph.D., Michigan State University
  • B.S., Antioch College

Areas of Instruction

Global Management & Innovation

Selected Publications and Presentations

Book Chapter:
Tugrul U Daim, Paul Newman, Hithem Sughi, and Eyad Bakhsh, (2011). "Technology Selection for Solar Power Generation in the Middle East: Case of Saudi Arabia," forthcoming in Handbook of Research on Solar Energy Systems and Technologies, IGI Global.

Presentation:
M. Tenant & P.R. Newman (2011). "Effective Transitions from the 'Fuzzy Front End' to 'Product,'" PICMET, Portland, Oregon.