Rice launches Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy at the Jones Graduate School of Business

Rice University has launched the Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy (C-CUBES), housed within the Jones Graduate School of Business. The center is dedicated to researching, understanding and sharing customer-centered concepts and practices with for-profit and nonprofit organizations. It will serve as a hub for research scholars, business executives and nonprofit leaders to improve customer value, employee engagement and shareholder returns.

“In our mission to provide rigorous, research-backed academics and insights to our students, we are home to the best and brightest scholars. With strong relationships across key industries such as energy, health care, education and technology, C-CUBES is uniquely positioned to leverage its research advantage for the benefit of the larger community in greater Houston and beyond,” said Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez.

“This first-of-its-kind research center, offered through the business school, supports Rice’s strategic vision,” said Ramamoorthy Ramesh, executive vice president for research. “C-CUBES will amplify research at Rice focused on critical technologies such as quantitative analysis and AI.”

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Led by Vikas Mittal, the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing, the center will touch all major business disciplines — accounting, finance, operations, organizational behavior, marketing and strategy. “Customers are the primary source of cash flow for any organization,” said Mittal. “Focusing organizational strategy on customer needs not only fosters customer value and employee engagement but also enables organizations to achieve their financial and nonfinancial goals.”

The Jones Graduate School of Business is nationally recognized for faculty scholarship as well as the faculty members’ focus on the real-world applications of their research. The new center’s advisory board includes Rodriguez; Isabelle Perrigne, the Reginald Henry Hargrove Professor of Economics; and Chris Jones, CEO of Swagelok-Southeast Texas. The center’s research affiliates draw on the expertise at the business school and include professors Jaeyeon Chung, Dhruv Grewal, Alessandro Piazza, Ashwin Malshe, Sonam Singh and Michael Tsiros. Through its research, the center’s ultimate goal is to reimagine strategy planning and execution in organizations by examining, informing and improving traditional methods.