Faculty: Dr. Erik Taylor

Professor Erik C. Taylor doesn’t just read the newspaper — he turns it into a dynamic teaching moment.

“On a classroom day for me, the first thing I do to prepare for class is read the newspaper,” said Taylor, associate professor of management in East Carolina University’s College of Business and research fellow for the Bureau of Business Research (BBR).

“Every day something has happened from the business world,” he said. “I have a lot of flexibility built into my class schedule, other than project or test days, so most days are designed such that we can completely jettison whatever we were scheduled to do and talk about interest rates or earnings reports that are coming out. I really like to bring this to the classroom, and I really love it when students bring in things that they have seen.”

To Taylor, that is what makes his strategic management capstone class “fresh and interesting for everyone.”

“Strategic management is the science of good strategic decision making,” he said. “Because we’re talking about the entire business process and because we’re talking about strategic decision making, the entire business world is our laboratory. It creates great real-time learning opportunities, and the students always like learning from what’s happening right now.”

Dr. Erik Taylor teaches his capstone class at ECU’s College of Business.

It’s not an easy class, but Taylor is preparing his students for their future.

“You have to use your accounting skills, your finance knowledge and your understanding of supply chains in this class,” he said. “Strategic management, at its heart, is a class designed for CEOs and business leaders. The key question of strategic management: How do we effectively lead a business for the long run? Of course, the answer to that is understand everything. When you really start breaking down strategic management and what it means to effectively lead an organization for the long run, it’s all about decision making.”

Now, going into his eighth year at ECU, Taylor admits that it was the best decision for his career.

“ECU ended up being a great place for me because it’s an environment that sponsors and supports research,” said Taylor.

“I wanted to be at a university where I was going to be empowered and encouraged to research and to pursue answers to these questions because that’s what I came to this field to do. However, I didn’t want to be at a university that wanted me to do that at the complete exclusion of other things because I also enjoy working with students, and I think that’s the more important thing we give to society.”

As a research fellow in the college’s Bureau of Business Research, Taylor also teaches through real-world discussions on applied research for North Carolina and regional businesses, specializing in research methods, economic impact studies and consulting for local organizations.

“Because the research is large, ongoing and mathematically sophisticated, I have brought it into the classroom and students are fascinated by it,” he said. “We’ll look at the North Carolina Economic Resilience Index and the counties in our region, and a student will say they’re from a specific county and I will ask them how they would start a business there — what resources would they need and what target markets would they hit?”

He also involves students in co-leading consulting projects, working alongside them while guiding and editing their contributions.

Collectively, the research conducted by Taylor and his colleagues is driving meaningful improvements in our state.

“Whether it’s understanding the economic impacts of a new business or of an investment or assessing how our communities compare and what resources we need to be stronger, everything we do is around the idea of making North Carolina a better, stronger community,” said Taylor.

Not only is Taylor conducting research, but he is also making it easier for others to understand and apply.

“We can use statistics and data to understand the state and its communities very well,” he said. “However, what I’ve learned is, that doesn’t really matter if other people don’t also understand it. It doesn’t matter how good the math is — and it needs to be good — if you can’t communicate it in an effective way, then it dies. Now, we’re looking at new ways to summarize the information, changing the way we look at the information so it’s presentable and graspable for people.”

Taylor continued to say that individuals will soon be able to look at specifics, such as health care in Pitt County and how it compares to the region or the rest of the state.

In the meantime, Taylor and a group of 18 undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to study abroad in France this spring at the Université de Tours.

While this is Taylor’s third time taking students to Europe, this year is special as he will remain in France for the rest of the semester with the goal of deepening ECU’s relationship with theirs, particularly around research partnership and collaboration.

“At the end of spring break, students will return home and I will stay on at the University of Tours for the rest of the semester and work with their faculty on research until May,” he said.

The College of Business works with the Office of Global Affairs to run a global classroom that is essentially a virtual meeting space where students from different campuses around the globe work together.

“Strengthening our partnerships with foreign universities is one of our strategic objectives both at the university level and at the College of Business,” said Taylor. “Although COVID slowed things down, we’re trying to get things back up and running, and the idea is for us to have some research collaboration. I will present various things to their faculty and they’ve asked me to spend an afternoon with their students, as well.”

“I love research, but if there’s just one student learning something that she or he can use over the course of their career, or the course of their lives — if you can just change their course for the better — that has such an impact on this world,” he said. “I think it’s easy to forget how impactful we can be. That’s where we really make a difference.”

Fast Facts

Hometown: Winston-Salem

Colleges attended and degrees: University of Mary Washington (bachelor’s in English), Radford University (master’s in English), ECU (MBA), LSU (Ph.D.)

Pirate Pride

Years working at ECU: Seven down and working on number eight

What I do at ECU: Research. Through the COB’s Bureau of Business Research, I do applied research and consulting with the state of North Carolina and regional businesses and organizations, and I do scholarly research in the areas of research methods (i.e., statistical techniques) and meso-level organizational issues (i.e., how organizations use teams effectively). I teach students the College of Business’s capstone course, Strategic Management, and I lead study abroad trips around the globe.

Research interests: My scholarly interests are in meso-level topics — those that involve more than just an individual but less than an entire organization. Typical points of interest are teams and how teams can achieve goals greater than what could be done by the sum of the team members independently, and topics involving culture and how an organization’s culture can shape collective experience within an organization.

What advice do you give to students? 1) Eat a healthy diet. 2) Exercise vigorously and often. 3) Be here now — not lost in thoughts about the past or worries and dreams of the future. Now is the only time you can act, so be here now.

Students sometimes look disappointed when my advice isn’t about working hard or investing in specific stocks, but whatever you want to do in life, you can’t do it if you’re not healthy and present. Healthy and present-minded people get stuff done, so my advice is to create the conditions that allow a person to get stuff done — be healthy and present.

Quick Quiz

What do you like to do when not working? Time with family, hiking and being outdoors, exercise, love a good book, and most importantly: soccer fan.

Last thing I watched on TV: A soccer match, of course — Sevilla hosting Barcelona. Pretty lively second half from El Blaugrana!

First job: I worked at a copy shop. I literally had a job making copies of pieces of paper. And that makes me feel old.

Guilty pleasure: I love rom-coms and Hallmark movies. Seriously. Sometimes you just want a feel-good movie, you know?