News Release
August 2004

Moravian MBA course provides European context to business process reengineering

Dr. Francesco Bof (Bocconi University, Italy) brings unique perspectives to Lehigh Valley MBA students

Bethlehem, Pa.—Moravian College is holding a special course for MBA students this summer that compares government process management used in the United States to that employed in Europe. The course is being taught by guest professor Dr. Francesco Bof from Bocconi University (SDA Bocconi) in Milan, Italy.

Bof has served on the faculty at SDA Bocconi, since 1998, where he teaches European government process management and organization, and strategic processes reengineering and POR (Public Organization Reengineering) to government and private company executives, and post-graduate students. Bof received his doctorate in Economics and Management from Parma University, Parma, Italy. He has visited the Lehigh Valley in recent years as a visiting professor in the program, "The Global Village for Future Leaders of Business and Industry" at the Iacocca Institute, Lehigh University.

In Applying Business Process Reengineering: A European Context, Professor Bof is taking the class through case studies and group work that make comparisons between European and U.S. governments’ methods for managing their activities to enhance services to their citizens. The course objective is to demonstrate how Business Process Reengineering principles, methods, and instruments, when applied to government and not-for-profit organizations as Public Organization Reengineering (POR), can increase the effectiveness of their process management and process interventions.

“In other courses we have been able to offer our students an international perspective by inviting executives from Lehigh Valley firms that are active in international markets to campus to participate in our courses, said Bill Kleintop, associate dean for business and management, Continuing and Graduate Studies. “Being able to bring Professor Bof to Moravian from Italy is that extra step we like to bring to our MBA classes at Moravian. Students will be able to interact with and learn from professor Bof who has been very active in applying business process reengineering concepts in European public, nonprofit and business organizations.”

The students taking the course work for businesses with international perspectives in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals or electronics. Students are accountants, auditors, financial professionals, engineers, librarians, and process integrators, who are taking the class for its international perspective. “A strength of the Moravian MBA is that we bring students from different sectors of our economy together into a classroom together – business with nonprofit with government with healthcare.” said Kleintop “The mix of backgrounds allows our students to study best practices from one sector and carry that learning back to their workplaces,” he added.

“Professor Bof’s experience in the nonprofit and government sectors is an ideal way to highlight best practices in business process reengineering, a discipline valued highly in business, government, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations,” Kleintop continued.