Archives for Eric Johnson

Owen Hustles into Summer Excitement

Summer has its own rhythm at Owen, but it is anything but slow. While the building falls quiet for a few days, it is not for long. Students of all ages take up residence, participating in programs that run from a few days to a few weeks. The centerpiece of summer activity at Owen is […]

Vanderbilt’s Sohr Grants Help Spark Startup Success

There are few things in business that compare to watching a passionate, smart startup completely transform an industry — or several at the same time. And given the current valuations that companies like Snapchat ($15 billion) and Uber ($41.2 billion) are fetching, it’s no wonder that business school students increasingly want a piece of the […]

Lights, Camera … Leadership

I like to say that leadership is a contact sport. To me, that means leadership requires not just theory, but also practice, something we try to instill in Owen students through things like case studies in the classroom, through club and case competition participation, and through our Leadership Development Program. However, trying to describe the […]

B-School Rankings Offer Useful Data, But Not the Whole Story

We live in a data-rich era. Facebook can say more about someone’s personality based on their likes than many trained psychologists can. Target’s data-mining software famously predicted a teenager’s pregnancy by detecting a shift in her buying habits. And the company Palantir, one of Silicon Valley’s most talked about startups, has used data linkages to […]

Publish or Perish: Finding New Models to Sustain Academic Research Journals

Disruptive change is sweeping many areas of academia. Much of that has focused on technology-enabled course delivery. But a new wave of disruptive change is also coming to the business models that support research dissemination. Academic journals may seem like arcane relics to the outside world, but they are the lifeblood for researchers across the […]

Immerse Yourself

A group of first-year Vanderbilt MBA students squeezed their way down the packed sidewalks of Wall St. The afternoon sunshine and warm autumn breeze gave the busy scene a festive feel as people poured out of tightly lined buildings. After a day touring trading floors and hearing boardroom briefings, it seemed fitting to head for […]

‘Profound Shifts’ Require a New Strategic Roadmap for Owen

It has become almost cliché to point out that the world of business — and business education — moves fast. But over the past several years, we have witnessed several rapidly developing, profound shifts that I believe will have a lasting impact on Owen’s future, as well as on the larger universe of management education. […]

The SEC Scores Big With B-School Collaborations

This afternoon at 5 p.m. Central Time, the SEC Television Network will light up cable wires throughout the country with live sports, news, and commentary. The much-anticipated launch will reach an unprecedented 91 million households! The network, in partnership with ESPN, will give sports fans 24/7 access to their favorite games and generate nearly $1 […]

Owen’s Leadership Network Comes of Age

With Owen sitting in the heart of Vanderbilt’s main campus, nestled among buildings that were constructed in the 1870s, it’s easy to forget that on an academic timeline, we are a young school. Owen, founded nearly 100 years after Vanderbilt itself, for much of its history has been the sapling surrounded by mighty oaks. But, […]

Owen’s Impact Lasts a Lifetime

May has been a month of exciting celebrations. Commencement is always one of my favorite events as we launch a new class into the business world to go do great things. We were lucky to have Eric Noll (MBA ’90) as this year’s speaker, made all the more meaningful by getting to see his daughter […]