According to Sanjay Ahire, there are three professions that have the potential to truly transform people’s lives at the core of their being: priests, doctors and teachers.
When Ahire was unable to overcome his aversion to cockroaches, much less human blood, he ruled out his childhood dream of entering the medical profession. His next best option landed him in a chemical engineering program in Bombay, India, where he quickly learned that he was allergic to the chemicals he was expected to work with.
But once Ahire completed his MBA and Ph.D. in operations management, drawing together his favorite aspects of business and engineering, he knew he had found his calling — and an opportunity to transform lives through the profession of teaching. As this year’s winner of the Carolina Trustees Professorship in Humanities, Social Sciences, Business and Law, with hosts of successful students and industry partners singing his praises, it’s safe to say he succeeded.
Hired at the USC Darla Moore School of Business in 2006 to replicate the successful operations and supply chain program he developed at the University of Dayton, Ahire went straight to industry leaders to learn what skills employers wanted, implementing dedicated training in problem-solving, process-oriented perspective and a mindset of improvement.
Ahire’s success isn’t just marked by his ability to land students jobs in industry — the key to a thriving operations and supply chain program is his commitment to teaching, research and service. The conventional wisdom, Ahire says, is that one can choose to be either a great researcher or a great teacher, but he disagrees. Balancing both responsibilities along with service has been time-consuming and challenging, but Ahire’s secret comes down to capitalizing on the connections between these domains.
Ahire remains involved in consulting through his work and research, which also enriches his teaching. “I get to know the challenges in operations and supply chain on a first-hand basis. That raises the quality of the research questions that I’m able to ask and answer. That clear synergy between teaching, research and service has allowed me to have a multiplicative effect of my professional efforts.”
The synergy Ahire speaks of is palpable for his students. As operations and supply chain professionals, a core competency they need is process-oriented thinking, which enables them to see processes in everything around them and engineer those processes to distribute products and provide services more efficiently. From their first classes within the program, each student has the chance to practice its principles hands-on, both within and outside of the classroom.
"I make a pact of lifelong mentorship with each of my students. I plan to continue my complete commitment to this philosophy until the last day of this noble career."
In the signature capstone course he co-developed, Ahire mentors teams of students at well-known manufacturing, retail, healthcare and other nonprofit organizations, where they are expected to help these organizations improve their mission-critical processes.
Ahire recalls two of the most meaningful capstones he worked on with students. First, there was a project for MUSC in which his team created a decision-making tool to help the hospital select the most promising cancer trials for their patients. In the second project, his team developed an optimal statewide retail donations pick-up logistics strategy enabling Harvest Hope Food Bank to distribute millions of additional meals annually to hungry residents of South Carolina.
Equipped with a strong foundation in operations and supply chain management, Ahire’s students have just what they need to complete such complex projects: a comprehensive understanding of processes and the confidence to collaborate with, learn from and help industry professionals.
Ahire’s students have executed impressive projects in large firms like Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, PricewaterhouseCoopers and UPS, and they hold prestigious jobs around the world at companies including Amazon, IBM, Meta, Coca-Cola, PwC, Space-X and Tesla. Ahire has been one of the key driving forces behind the program’s rise to the #3 Gartner Research ranking in North America.
“The success of the USC-OSC program proves that if professors kindle the passion for learning and ambition in undergraduate students and support them with appropriate processes to attain world-class capabilities, then their unprecedented career outcomes are assured,” Ahire says. “I make a pact of lifelong mentorship with each of my students. I plan to continue my complete commitment to this philosophy until the last day of this noble career.”
Sanjay Ahire dedicates this honor to his life-long friend and wife Sneha. “Without Sneha’s tremendous personal and professional sacrifices, my career achievements including this highest honor at USC would never have been possible. Our true partnership has led to these milestones.”