Mission Statement SOMA focuses on the management disciplines of supply chain management, strategic planning, business development and corporate operations. SOMA provides opportunities for students to connect with world class organizations such as Disney, Mattel, UTi Worldwide, Davita and Anheuser Busch, including opportunities to interact with high-profile corporate officers and develops students with well-rounded toolsets for use in the challenging global economy.

Goals

Since its inception in 1992, SOMA has existed to translate educational learning into real-world experiential knowledge in the areas of supply chain management, strategic planning, business development and corporate operations. Within these job functions, SOMA provides a variety of industry touch-points to its nearly 200 active members through its programs and events. SOMA conducts career nights, days-on-the-job, educational “101 series”, speaker series and alumni mixers to expose students to corporate executives and to familiarize students with the essential tools needed to solve complex issues.

History of SOMA

1985 - The Faculty at the Decisions, Operations and Technology Management Area started the Operations Technology Management Association for interested students to increase their breadth in these areas. Please visit the retro OTMA website, and see for yourself how things were in 1995, when internet was new and there were just a couple of club websites at Anderson.

1999 - Operations Technology Management Association was renamed as Operations Management Association.

2002 - Operations Management Association was rebranded, redefined and restructured to cover other niche areas to meet the market needs of the changing economy, under the presidency of Shiladitya Niyogi. The new name “Strategic Operations Management Association” (SOMA), reflected SOMA’s new scope involving three main areas namely Strategic Planning, Business Development and Corporate Operations.