Architecture Professor Scott Shall is widely known within the LTU community and his profession for pioneering efforts to address the housing shortage through the use of innovative technology, affordable materials, and industrial-scale manufacturing in home construction. With his partner, CoAD BS/MS graduate Breck Crandell, their firm has delivered dwellings that are more efficient, effective, and sustainable in neighborhoods in Michigan and Indiana.
Shall’s real driving motivation, however, is, “How can I impact people who need assistance the most?” That quest is the force behind the International Design Clinic, a multidisciplinary nonprofit organization he founded in 2006 that helps low-income community residents launch grassroots, crowd-sourced life-improvement projects. Most of these projects are constructed in a few days for under $2,000, using scavenged materials. Since 2006, IDC has completed over two dozen projects on five continents.
IDC reflects integrity and transparency, but it is still an enterprise. As a non-profit, IDC still needed the rigor of an A-to-Z business plan to operate successfully and deliver on its promises. Shall sought out CoBIT Assistant Professor Massood Omrani, Ph.D., for assistance with a strategy. In doing so, he opened the door to what may be one of LTU’s and CoBIT’s competitive advantages.
Omrani is the professor of global strategic management (GSM), a capstone class for MBA students, which teaches students how to create a plan for long-term organizational success through strategic development and an understanding of processes. Omrani says the course is nothing less than “how CoBIT helps nonprofit corporations be successful.”
Students in the course construct a strategy for an enterprise, considering not just basic factors like competition, target market, governmental impact, and costs of materials and labor, but also other case-specific issues like land, financing, energy costs, and supply chain factors. With these key points understood, a plan can be implemented. Armed and experienced with this structure, the students can now be consultants. Omrani says that companies will usually have a goal but not a developed strategy for reaching the goal.
This is what Omrani and his GSM students were able to do for Shall, a real customer. In 2024, the students helped him develop a business plan for IDC. Through this collaboration, Omrani views this course as a core competency and a competitive advantage in developing business plans for non-profit organizations. Omrani is ready to take this show on the road as a “Centrepolis” for non-profits.
Jackie LaDuke, a second-year MBA and a commercial roofing professional, is one of Omrani’s current students working with him on other projects. LaDuke says she is “lucky” to be part of the GSM class and values the real-world experience she has received in “helping somebody be successful.”
What was Professor Shall’s experience? His words tell the story.
“The International Design Clinic has always, since its inception, depended upon doing more with less—building schools out of discarded materials, developing designs from everyday resources, and finishing massive projects in only a few days and for very little money. Dr. Omrani’s work developing a strategic plan with the IDC will allow us to do this with our business—to do more with less. This will allow the IDC to raise more funds, realize more projects, and help more people for years to come.”
By: Peter Hollinshead
