Profile: Meet Professor Tim Anderson

Tim Anderson, Associate Professor
Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995
Department of Engineering & Technology Management

A recent testament to the value of Tim Anderson's research on benchmarking occurred recently when a PSU graduate student asked him for help in assisting his new employer—a bank with more than 100,000 employees—to assess the performance of their employees. Anderson and the student developed a model that the bank is now using on an ongoing basis for target setting and performance evaluation for many of its service employees.

Benchmarking is widely used by companies, but often in an anecdotal or ad hoc manner for simple performance measures. Anderson's research has come up with more sophisticated and robust ways to use benchmarking to assess the strength of both people and products in an organization. It's especially useful in companies with separate operating units. His tools can measure dozens or hundreds of operating units and compare them, allowing the company to set performance targets that accurately reflect each unit's operating circumstance.

Anderson is known internationally for his work on benchmarking. He's currently working on assessment models for technology forecasting in new product development that, in its preliminary stages, showed a 30 percent improvement over existing methods.

Originally an electrical engineer, Anderson gravitated toward engineering and technology management after working with companies such as Qwest, Honeywell, and Oki Electric. He joined the Portland State faculty in 1995.