And there he runs…
Farrokh Safavi, a professor of business administration at Western Washington University, runs triumphantly in the 1997 Ski to Sea Race. The College of Business and Economics (CBE's) eight member team consisted of four CBE professors (Steve Henson, David Merrifield, Farrokh Safavi, Paul Storer), three students in Professor Safavi's class, and Jan Rystrom, the wife of Professor David Rystrom. Their team, humorously nicknamed "Diminishing Returns," competed fiercely with 236 other teams, but they did not win the championship. Safavi who was the captain and the coach (for this and the past three years) was not disappointed. He noted that all his team members did their best, and the loss of the first prize was only due to "externalities". He will start training for the next year's victory as soon as he recuperates from the 8.2 mile run. Good Luck!
His love for teaching
Professor Safavi has taught 16 different courses in the areas of marketing, management, finance, business statistics, and business, government, and society at Western. Recently he is focused on marketing management and international marketing management. He has developed an innovative method to teaching business statistics that involves humorous tales and uses creative workshop materials and PowerPoint presentations to convey the abstract concepts. Safavi applied his innovative method to two sections of the business statistics class which he taught in Winter, 1997, and received a very positive feedback from his students.
Safavi communicates in six languages, including French, Russian, Spanish, Persian, Arabic, and English. He delivers presentations to the faculty and students of foreign universities in a number of languages.
Safavi is the first winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award from Western. He strives to keep the momentum.
Editing through internet: Coordinating the work of 30 international scholars
Safavi is the Guest Editor for the International Edition of the Journal of Management Development (JMD). This scholarly and professional journal is published monthly in England and has a world-wide readership among corporate executives, management development consultants, government officials in charge of human resource development, and university people. The international edition is published every three years and contains articles on modern approaches to management development in various regions of the world. Safavi coordinates the research and editing work of more than 30 international scholars through his computer network. Sometimes he feels as if he is walking through a "time tunnel" when he receives e-mails dated "tomorrow" and has to respond to them "yesterday."
Visiting the World and serving the World
Safavi has an extensive background in international marketing management and international management development. He spends at least four months a year traveling to foreign countries where he observes the market dynamics and learns about country-specific methods of management training. He presents talks on modern approaches to global marketing, delivers multimedia presentations on application of advanced technology to business education, and helps foreign universities set up internet facilities for global communication. His recent experience has been with Russia and Central Asia. In Summers of 1993-96 he conducted research and collected data from more than sixty universities and management institutes in Russia, Central Asia, and other former Soviet republics. In December, 1996 he helped Volgagrad State University connect with internet for offering courses in business. This summer he has plans to visit eleven universities in Russia and Ukraine. During Fall, 1997 he will serve as a visiting professor of management at Tehran University where he will teach in their MBA and Ph.D. programs, and will complete the writing of a book on pricing policies. He is due back at Western in the first week of January, 1998.
His Scholastic Publications
Safavi's recent publications include:
"The Challenge of Management Education and Development in Kazakhstan: Opportunities and Threats in a Changing Environment" The Journal of Management Development, vol. 16, no. 3 (May 1997) pp. 167- 184.
"Winning the Battle of Corporate/Brand Images: An Image-Focused Model for Selection of Names and Logos," accepted for publication in the Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 3, No. 6 (June 1996).
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