Alumni & Friends : Alumni Profiles

Where Business Meets Law

Bob Lehner
BSBA General Business '95, MBA '01

“One of the classes I took was Chinese economic history, and if you’d told me then that I would ever use anything from that class in my career, I’d have thought you were crazy.”

But in fact, Bob Lehner has never forgotten how millions of Chinese villagers starved to death because a mix-up in communications had farm bosses sending all their crop yields — not just the surpluses — away for export.

The lesson: Make sure your subordinates understand not only what’s expected of them, but also the bigger picture strategy.

It’s one of the more obscure ways Bob has applied his business education to his current work as chief of police for the city of Eugene, Ore. Other examples paint a clearer connection between the worlds of business and law enforcement. “When I ask a question like, ‘What is the net present value of that system versus another’, I get blank stares from people,” he says, “but it’s a question that absolutely has to be asked if you’re going to make a good decision.”

The blank stares stem from the fact that Bob is one of very few police chiefs in the country with a business education and, even more rare, an MBA. Most police personnel simply aren’t accustomed to working with a boss who talks about “queuing theory” when analyzing 911 call centers, asks for a “cost-benefit analysis” when considering new software, and performs entrepreneurial valuations on community programs that, like early-stage ventures, have real and measurable costs but no revenue.

Bob had worked in the Tucson Police Department for more that 10 years when he earned his BSBA. Wanting to continue in that area, he considered getting an MPA but decided, instead, to earn an MBA, which he felt would give him some parallel skills but also broaden his experience and education.

“That turns out to have been a great decision,” Bob recalls, and when you understand what his typical work week involves, you understand why.

“The core of a business education — accounting, finance, and personnel management — those elements are the same whether you’re in the private sector or the public sector,” Bob says. “I deal every single day with questions of how to allocate overhead, or ‘Is it more efficient to use overtime or hire additional personnel?’ My job is to understand the broader community needs, make sure that we have the operational resources to handle demand effectively, and provide long-range goals that, over time, improve this organization just like any other. I wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective if I didn’t have a business background, particularly the MBA.”

Looking back on his Eller education, Bob identifies one thing that stands out as having had an overarching impact on his approach to work. “The Eller MBA gave me a real appreciation for a systems view,” he explains. “You could see the systems design of the program from the start – how all the classes and modules and instruction worked together – and you learned to apply that same strategy to whatever you were doing. In a high-priority operational environment, it is really easy to lose your systems view, but it’s critical that you maintain it, especially at the higher level of a police organization. That systems view, for me, has made all the difference between success and mediocrity.”