Home » Interviews » Talking with… Nicholas Georgantzas

Talking with… Nicholas Georgantzas

Interviews | Sep 13, 2019 |

Each “Talking with…” feature helps you learn about a different Gabelli School faculty member, administrator, or staff member. This week, we’re speaking with Nicholas Georgantzas, a professor of Operations at The Gabelli School of Business.

Did you always know that you wanted to be a professor? What drew you to this field?

I had no idea I would enjoy being a professor so much. The research and publications aspects of being a professor are required endeavors and invaluable for being current in one’s field. As far as the teaching component of professorship goes, it is a great privilege to facilitate students’ self-development into capable business professionals. Goodness knows how many capable business professionals our society-specific cultures could use toward a collegially humane prosperity.

As a professor in the Operations department, what is the most rewarding part of your role?

Capable business professionals are well-rounded individuals, who grasp the need to operationalize human knowledge and wisdom that emanates from theology, philosophy and science. So, the most rewarding part of my role is facilitating their self-development into capable business professionals who continually improve their decision-making quality..

What are the new trends in the Operations field that you are interested in?

The two most exciting trends in business operations are: the promotion of individuals in business enterprises to equal partners, and the promotion of individual supplier firms to equal value-chain partners. Increasingly seen in diverse business fields, these promotions entail business governance via collegial control and responsibility, in lieu of governance under the ubiquitous, yet highly problematic in our epoch, bureaucratically hierarchized authority and power artifice, sadly a delusion of organization.

With the role that technology now plays in our lives, how do you see the classroom setting as changing in the future?

Technology is a societal human system, both statically complicated and dynamically complex. And four clearly defined component or member clusters make up each technology’s societal structure: the brainware, hardware, software and support network or net.

All four components manifest themselves in a typical business classroom. Collegially and in their entirety, the four societal structure clusters transact the purposeful defining function of business education, within three distinct spheres of functional capability: high technology, technology and sequestered technique.

And the pertinent trend in business education has been historically unidirectional. Both business enterprises and world-class educational institutions are moving away from sequestered technique, increasingly toward learner-directed learning technology and high technology.

What is one thing about being a professor that you would like students to know?

That all of us, business professors, wish to see our students excel in business. We are delighted to see that happen, as it is just about the only actual result that puts both Fordham University and us into a virtual hall of fame.

Fun questions

Favorite hobby?
I discovered how much I enjoy teaching by teaching music. So music remains one of my favorite hobbies. The last few years of my life I have been studying and playing jazz guitar.

Your ideal time of day to teach a class…
Night classes have been an ideal time in business education, as many course participants maintain a full-time job. And what is wonderful about that time is that night classes enable business experiences to be shared among course participants.

Fall or Spring semester?
I love all four seasons of the year, so no particular preference there.

The best place to travel to is…
All places that present a natural beauty and a historical interest. Note that I tend to see in æsthetics an objective ideal, beyond subjectivism.

Favorite meal of the day?
I love having brunch with family members, as well as with colleagues and friends. Unfortunately, it is mostly available on weekends.

 

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