Vanderbilt Business

Author: Kara Furlong

Expanding Good
Whether engineering a nutcracker to allow Senegalese women to press and sell a highly desirable nut oil or gathering market data on the need for an inexpensive gastric cancer test in the middle of Honduras, Vanderbilt students involved in Project Pyramid have proven the viability and value of social enterprise.

Now they’re moving it to a new level.

Some of the faculty and then-students who worked on establishing the new Turner Family Center for Social Ventures met with Cal Turner Jr. to announce its launch. From left: Bart Victor, the Cal Turner Professor of Moral Leadership; Jake Hill, MBA’15; Kathleen McKissack, MEd’15; Anna Elizabeth Watt, BA’15; Cal Turner; Sarah Berhalter, MBA’15; Ellen Page, MBA’15; and Dean Eric Johnson.

The result is the Turner Family Center for Social Ventures, a new hub for coordinating social enterprise activities at Vanderbilt. The center, established with a $1.2 million gift over five years from the Cal Turner Family Foundation, seeks to go beyond the success of Project Pyramid and serve as a resource and thought leader for people from all Vanderbilt schools interested in combining revenue-generating businesses with social impact objectives.

Wish list

In spring 2014, Dean Eric Johnson asked Project Pyramid alumni to envision how the social venture curriculum, activities and resources at Owen might be expanded to maximize their impact on Vanderbilt students university wide and in the world.In response, the alumni proposed:
- Initiating local and regional projects that address poverty closer to home
- Expanding classroom offerings focused on businesses that create a positive social impact
- Increasing student opportunities to work with global organizations dedicated to finding market-based solutions for alleviating poverty
- Allowing more students to travel domestically and internationally each year to work on social ventures
They also suggested establishing an annual conference that would convene students, thought leaders and executives to share best practices and research on social enterprise, as well as adding to existing career service resources to provide additional internship and job opportunities for students across schools.

Students brainstorm programming ideas for the 2015-16 year. Grace Fletcher, who is pursuing master degrees in the graduate school and the School of Medicine, and Matt Inbusch, a second-year MBA student.

With Johnson’s blessing, the alumni shared these ideas with philanthropist and business leader Cal Turner Jr., former CEO of the Dollar General Corporation and chairman of the Cal Turner Family Foundation. Turner is committed to community development and theological education and actively supports programs at Vanderbilt including the Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership in the Professions. He’s also been an enthusiastic supporter of Project Pyramid since its start in 2006.

“Vanderbilt University is training future world leaders in business, religion, education, medicine and law,” Turner says. “Programs like Project Pyramid, and now the Turner Family Center for Social Ventures, allow them to take the knowledge and skills they’re developing in the classroom and apply them in the real world to effect positive change–especially in alleviating poverty. I am inspired by their passion for this work and gratified that this gift will help put those passions to work in sustainable ways.”

Peabody College graduate student Hattie Duplechain during a planning meeting.

Ethical awareness

This expansion of resources around social enterprise at Vanderbilt is a direct response to student demand, according to Mario Avila, MBA’12, a Project Pyramid alumnus who’s been hired as the Turner Center’s inaugural director (see sidebar).

“If you think about education as a business, then the students are the customers, and our customers are saying that this is important to them,” he says. “This push is coming from a desire among students to become good businesspeople and an awareness of how ethics should and will play into the decisions they make.”

That ethical awareness mirrors a shift taking place in the business world, says Avila, a former Owen Student Government president and founder of Contigo, a business designed to partner with companies to provide socially responsible consumer lending products.

“There’s a significant shift in the way we’re doing business, with consumers demanding transparency. They’re demanding that we focus on being good places to work, treating our employees the right way, and thinking about the good things that our profits can do,” Avila says. “The new center shows not only Mr. Turner’s excitement and investment in this area, but also that Vanderbilt is truly committed to educating students around these types of issues.”

Top photos from left: Helping construct ponds for a nonprofit’s tilapia breeding operation in Latin America; doing Mani+ field research about producing a locally sourced, peanut-based product to combat childhood malnutrition in Guatemala; and visiting Senegal to investigate more effective ways to press oil from balanite nuts.
November 24, 2015
Executive Perspective

On top of classes, course work and studying, Owen students make time to organize and attend the school’s Distinguished Speaker Series, Health Care Conference and other valuable presentations from business leaders. This year, executives shared information ranging from inclusion to leadership and branding to corporate strategy. Meet just a few of Vanderbilt’s most recent speakers.

Barry Booker, BS’89, MBA’97
Commercial and Industrial Relationship Manager
CapStar Bank

Barry Booker finds it remarkable how attitudes about diversity and inclusiveness have changed in his lifetime, but says society still has a long way to go. When he delivered the 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. seminar in January in honor of MLK Day, he told a story about his father, who owned and operated a nationally franchised service station in Franklin, Tennessee, in the 1960s and 1970s. One year, the national company held an event at nearby Brentwood Country Club for all the owner-operators, but Booker’s father couldn’t attend—the club’s policy of discrimination wouldn’t allow it. Booker recounted that he had recently spoke at that very same club before the Nashville Rotary Club as its honored guest. The occasion, he said, reminded him of how his life is different from his father’s. The former Vanderbilt basketball standout, who is also a commentator for ESPN and the SEC Network, also talked about family, education and his decision to attend Owen, supported in part by the James DeWitt Smith Scholarship for athletes who pursue graduate education at Vanderbilt.

Sandy Cochran, BE’80
President and CEO
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc.

Cracker Barrel’s Sandra Cochran focused on leadership and corporate strategy when she spoke to students last fall. Since being named to the top executive role at Cracker Barrel, she’s demonstrated both. Cochran, a Vanderbilt School of Engineering alumna, talked about growing the Cracker Barrel brand and repositioning menu items to provide healthy meal choices. Both are components of the company’s three-year strategic plan developed and led by Cochran and her team—components that are paying off for the nation’s third-largest family dining company. Sales and customer traffic are up, and revenue was $2.68 billion in 2013. Cochran has also been key in increasing the number of women on Cracker Barrel’s Board of Directors. When she assumed leadership of the company in 2011, she became the first woman to be president and CEO of a publicly traded company in Middle Tennessee.

Donald Kohn
Former Vice Chairman
U.S. Federal Reserve

Listening to Donald Kohn talk is a little like being a fly on the wall when the financial basis of the country is at stake. Kohn, a 40-year veteran of the Federal Reserve, served as vice chairman of the board for four years, working with Ben Bernanke during the financial crisis that began in 2008. Kohn was on campus in December to participate in Professor Dewey Daane’s annual seminar in monetary and fiscal policy. Before class, he spoke with Visiting Professor Edward DeMarco (left) regarding lessons from the financial crisis. Kohn explained the Fed’s unprecedented action of lowering intermediate and long-term rates by selling its short-term debt and buying long-term securities. These actions were based on previous studies and successful real-world examples, such as what had been done in Japan. The extraordinary move effectively drove down intermediate and long-term interest rates, which stabilized the economy and gave it a foundation on which to recover.

Sue Siegel
CEO
GE Ventures and healthymagination

George Barrett
Chairman and CEO
Cardinal Health

Innovation can benefit many industries, but there’s a pressing need for it in health care, according to two preeminent leaders in the field, Sue Siegel and George Barrett. The pair were keynote speakers at October’s seventh annual student-run Health Care Conference.

Siegel is a GE corporate officer as well as CEO of two of the company’s growth and innovation initiatives. GE Ventures provides expertise, capital and commercialization opportunities to entrepreneurs and startups. GE’s healthymagination is its $6 billion global commitment to provide better health care for more people at lower costs.

In those roles, Siegel oversees health care innovation and new health delivery models, among other responsibilities. She and Barrett both addressed the need for innovation in health care in areas such as consumer pricing, service delivery and targeted drug discovery.

Barrett, whose Cardinal Health provides pharmaceuticals and medical products and services to more than 100,000 locations each day, discussed how big companies can’t just talk about nurturing innovation. They must live it by “creating new soil” in which innovation can thrive.

Both speakers also highlighted the demographic challenges now starting to hit the health care system. Currently, there are 11 million 80-year-olds in the United States. With that population expected to double in 10 years, health care must adapt.

Their suggestions for innovation include increased education for and participation by consumers in health care decisions; more effective health care delivery through new business models (Siegel pointed to Uber as a company that successfully transformed existing assets—drivers and smartphones—into a business); and the simultaneous explosions of biomedical advances and digital data. Barrett said the costs for an FDA trial could decline significantly with better drug targeting, and Siegel pointed to the work Vanderbilt University Medical Center is doing in personalized medicine.

David Goldhill, president and CEO of Game Show Network and author of Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father—and How We Can Fix It, gave a third keynote, and industry professionals participated in Owen Talks—presentations on themes such as patient engagement, health care delivery and technology.

Brady Dougan
CEO
Credit Suisse

The man who led Credit Suisse successfully through the recent financial crisis had leadership advice for the Owen community during his November visit. Brady Dougan, the company’s CEO, said that it’s important to look at why people want to lead and be wary of those who seem in it for fame or power.

Good leaders seek leadership positions with the goal of making an organization and the people within it better, he said, and those they lead are savvy enough to realize when motivations are less than pure. Dougan, the first American to head Credit Suisse, spoke on a Distinguished Speakers Series panel with two of the international firm’s Atlanta managing directors, Robert Durham and Craig Savage, BS’92, MBA’98.

From left: Dean Eric Johnson, Distinguished Speaker Series board member Austin Tuell, MBA’15, Dougan, Distinguished Speaker Series board member Shannon Fugina, MBA’15, Durham and Savage

Elissa Sangster
Executive Director
Forté Foundation

When Elissa Sangster looked across the crowded room, she had reason to be pleased. More than 100 women—many of them potential MBA students—were gathered to hear her as the keynote speaker of Owen’s Women in Business Symposium in February. Sangster heads the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit consortium of universities and businesses dedicated to encouraging women to pursue business careers. Owen was invited to join Forté last fall and has committed to increasing the number of women admitted to the school. Sangster advised that schools need to focus on encouraging more women to think about business—especially undergraduates who are liberal arts or engineering majors—and the earlier, the better. The ultimate goal is to have more women in C-level careers and sitting on corporate boards, she said.

Keith Wandell
Chairman, President and CEO
Harley-Davidson Inc.

Everyone wanted to touch the bright, powerful bike that Harley-Davidson’s Keith Wandell brought to campus in December for his Distinguished Speaker presentation. That shouldn’t have come as a surprise: At 111-years-old, Harley-Davidson is one of the most iconic brands in the world. Wandell is charged with keeping the brand fresh while responding to a new global market. He says he does so by respecting the heritage of the brand and everything it stands for, while at the same time preparing Harley-Davidson for new challenges and markets. One of these emerging markets is the first generation of “urban riders”—people who are centered in urban areas and need smaller, more agile products, such as a new street bike the company has introduced, as well as LiveWire, a prototype electric bike that is still in testing. “I think it’s nothing but future opportunity for us,” he said.

To watch videos of these and other speakers who visit Owen, visit our YouTube channel.

May 25, 2015
Powerhouse of Support

Kristen Stieger works with Sara Olson. Stieger is one of approximately 20 second-year consulting students who coach fellow students.

After she earned her undergraduate degree, Cincinnati native Sarah Berhalter worked in the equestrian industry in Virginia, training horses and managing a stable. There she was surrounded by people “who were very passionate about what they did, but were at risk of failing simply because they didn’t know business,” she says.

Berhalter decided to pursue an MBA and focus on consulting so she could develop the tools to better help people do what they love.

“To me, ultimately, that’s what consulting is—working with clients and helping them face whatever challenge they’re presented with, or helping their business to grow,” she says.

Kristen Stieger’s journey followed a different path. After earning her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, she worked two years in a project management role at an energy company in her native California. “But I also wanted to explore the different opportunities that existed with an MBA,” she says. “I got interested in consulting because it’s fast-paced, uses analytical skills to solve problems, and allows you to work with clients in a variety of industries.”

Both Berhalter and Stieger are now second-year students and officers in the Owen School’s Consulting Club, a student-run organization whose mission is to help students gain a better understanding of the work culture, required skills and career opportunities available in consulting-related fields. Though the club has existed for about 20 years, it’s currently seeing a record level of participation, with more than 100 members.

“Since the economic recovery in 2011, we’ve seen an increase
in the percentage of our graduating student body go into the
consulting area.”—Emily Anderson

“Since the economic recovery in 2011, we’ve seen an increase in the percentage of our graduating student body go into the consulting area,” says Emily Anderson, MBA’99, director of internal operations and coaching for the Career Management Center. “As companies have more money for discretionary spending, they hire more consultants to do things like work on special projects, change out software systems and help develop corporate strategy.

“Consulting is also a classic MBA function,” she explains, “because it incorporates everything students are learning in the program—whether it’s marketing or finance or operations—and how they all work together to strengthen a company or provide competitive advantage.”

Perfecting the case interview

As a result of this popularity, the Consulting Club is sponsoring more activities than ever before, from facilitating networking opportunities for its members to preparing them for careers in consulting through workshops and case practice sessions.

At the start of the academic year, the club invited eight alumni from the consulting industry to campus to share their experiences and meet one-on-one with students. The group regularly co-sponsors social events with consulting firms and hosts lunch-and-learn sessions featuring guest speakers as well as faculty.

The club teams with the CMC to organize a consulting trek to Atlanta each fall for students to visit consulting firms. It also produces weekly newsletters featuring information on upcoming events, job opportunities and deadlines.

“The Consulting Club serves as a resource where students can start to get information about consulting,” says Stieger, the club’s president. “It also provides us second-years who have been through the interview and internship experience with a platform to share our knowledge with first-years.”

At the heart of the club’s efforts is preparation and practice for the case interview, a hallmark of the consulting interview process.

“A case tests your ability to take a hypothetical problem with a limited amount of information, prioritize the key elements, and organize your thinking so that you not only find a solution but communicate it effectively to the interviewer,” explains Berhalter, the club’s vice president of communications. Berhalter, who is the recipient of the Ingram Scholar Award, Virginia Banks and Fred W. Lazenby Honor Scholarship and Beta Gamma Sigma scholarship, says that in addition to being a core business skill, the ability to solve a case knowledgeably and with confidence increases one’s stock as an internship or job candidate.

Since practice makes perfect, the Consulting Club gives students many opportunities to do so. A dedicated group of first-year members holds weekly walk-in practice sessions, and about 20 second-year members make themselves available for one-on-one case prep or to discuss careers in consulting. The club also has built a robust online resource of cases and frameworks that members can access to prepare on their own.

Experience under pressure

These resources are a boon not only to club members, but to a growing number of other students for whom solving cases has become a common element of the interview process.

“Companies come into schools like Vanderbilt assuming the candidates are smart, so it’s not as much about testing raw intelligence as it is about seeing how a candidate can apply it,” Anderson says. “When they conduct a case interview, they’re getting to see in real time how a candidate can think through a problem. It gives them insight into the way a candidate acts under pressure. And it allows them to view how students are putting together all the pieces they’re learning in the MBA.”

This year, the Consulting Club has partnered with the other professional student organizations at the school to offer individualized case practice.

“When [recruiters] conduct a case interview, they’re getting to see in real time how a candidate can think through a problem.”—Emily Anderson

“Being able to organize your thoughts is critically important, not just in interviews but in any type of presentation you may have,” says Matthew McCall, a second-year student from Austin, Texas, who is president of the Owen Operations Club and a Bruce D. Henderson scholarship recipient. “The case method—those techniques that the Consulting Club has been using for years—are extremely useful. I’ve found that the first-year students I’ve spoken with this year are much more comfortable with case-type questions and have performed better in interviews on the whole.”

Anderson says her data supports this observation. Internship offers are up 8 percent from the same time last year, and these opportunities often develop into full-time positions. Berhalter will join Boston Consulting Group in Atlanta after graduation, and Stieger will go to work at Chevron in a rotational leadership development program. “Across the board, the feedback we’re getting from companies is that students are performing well in their interviews,” Anderson says.

“I think the leadership of the Consulting Club has been exceptional this year in their organization and outreach across the Owen School,” she says. “I hope this translates, and the first-years who are benefiting from it will be inspired to continue it next year.”

May 25, 2015