The Vanderbilt MBA program fared well in the 2012 “Which MBA?” rankings from The Economist:
in North America among full-time MBA programs (up one slot from last ranking)
globally among full-time MBA programs (up two slots)
globally in diversity of recruiters
globally in alumni effectiveness
globally in education experience
globally in faculty quality
globally in student assessment of career services
David Owens, Professor of the Practice of Management and Innovation, is participating in Vanderbilt’s first institution-wide foray into offering free online courses worldwide via the digital learning consortium Coursera. Owens’ course—Innovation Strategy: Managing Innovation and Creativity in Individuals, Groups, and Organizations—is one of five being offered in spring 2013.
For more information, visit vu.edu/digitallearning.
Energy always has been a bit of a mystery to me. Even though it’s such an inextricable part of my daily life, I have only the vaguest notions of how, say, electricity is produced, commoditized and then delivered to my home. In fact, I’m reminded how much I’m in the dark about energy every time that I’m, well, literally in the dark. All it takes is just a few hours without power to make me realize how little I understand it and how much I depend on it.
In the cover story, we attempt to shed some light on the broad and complex topic of energy. The story isn’t intended to be a comprehensive survey of the business or an endorsement of one fuel source over another. Rather our aim is to capture the energy sector through the prism of the Owen community—alumni working in the industry and the growing connections between their employers and the school.
In some sense, a university is as good a backdrop as any for understanding energy. At the heart of each is the idea of harnessing untapped potential. Take, for example, the rivers and lakes that feed hydroelectric plants across the U.S. In their natural state, these waterways may serve many purposes, but only when properly channeled do they generate power for the greater benefit of society. Likewise, students arrive on campus brimming with promise and ambition, but what helps them live to the fullest of their abilities is the direction they receive from faculty and others.
I’ve had the good fortune to report on this transformative process at Owen for the past five years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the process helps spark a strong current that connects everyone in this community. Call it what you will—enthusiasm, camaraderie—it’s an energy unto itself, albeit a different sort than what’s mentioned above. Yet it burns just as brightly in its own mysterious way.
Among the rewards of editing Vanderbilt Business is the privilege of being a part of this very energy. I may not fully understand where it comes from or how it connects one person to the next, but I do know that its pull makes it harder to say goodbye.
I’m sad to say this issue is my last: I’m joining the staff of Vanderbilt Magazine, and my talented colleague Nancy Wise will be the new editor. As excited as I am about this next step in my career, I’ll miss working with Owen’s faculty and staff on a regular basis. I’ll also miss not being able to bring to light more of the stories that make this school so extraordinary.
The inventor Buckminster Fuller once said, “Real wealth is ideas plus energy.” If that’s so, then there are few places as prosperous as Owen. This community has both energy and ideas in spades, and I’m the richer for having been a part of it. Thank you for making these past five years so illuminating in the fullest sense of the word.
 
|
| Yasin Alan, Assistant Professor of Management, comes to Owen from Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management, where he recently completed his doctorate. His research interests lie in the interface of operations management and corporate finance. He conducts theoretical research to study the relationship between operational decisions and financial considerations such as capital structure, growth and bankruptcy risk. He also performs empirical research to link operations to stock performance and financial distress.
Jesse Blocher, Assistant Professor of Management, joined Owen’s finance group this fall after completing his doctorate at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. His study “Contagious Collateral: A Network Analysis of Interconnected Intermediaries” (2011) won the Financial Research Association’s Michael J. Barclay Award for best solo-authored paper by a young scholar. Another paper, “The Long and the Short of It: Evidence of Year-End Price Manipulation by Short Sellers” (2011), won the BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Center at Singapore Management University Research Award. Assistant Professor of Management Tae-Youn Park, who earned his doctorate at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, joined the organization studies group at Owen this fall. His research interests include the individual and organizational consequences of compensation, and voluntary and involuntary turnover. His work has been accepted for publication in Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology and Strategic Management Journal. |
The Owen School has named Christie St-John, MA’94, PhD’99, as its new Director of Admissions, effective Oct. 1, 2012.
St-John returns to Vanderbilt from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where she served as Senior Associate Director of Admissions and Recruiting since 2004. St-John began her MBA admissions career at Vanderbilt in 1997, overseeing international recruitment.
Previously St-John held roles in marketing, as well as in oil and gas trading. A Nashville native, she holds a master’s degree and doctorate from Vanderbilt. St-John has lived abroad and traveled to 70 countries for both work and pleasure.
“We are excited to welcome Christie back to Vanderbilt,” says Dean Jim Bradford. “She combines a vast global experience with a keen understanding and appreciation of what makes a top graduate management program.”
Tami Fassinger, Chief Recruiting Officer for Owen, adds that St-John will also play a key role in the school’s larger strategy of aligning incoming student career objectives with placement results on a broad geographic scale.
“Christie’s ability to relate to our global talent pool is invaluable to where we’re going as a school. We’re glad to have her back on our team,” Fassinger says. “I hired Christie in her first tenure at Vanderbilt. We’ve missed her talent, as well as her international mindset and far-reaching network.”
St-John will handle recruiting and admissions for the full-time MBA program and one-year MS Finance program.
“Vanderbilt has seen a great deal of positive momentum in recent years,” St-John says. “I am pleased to have the opportunity to increase the school’s reach, both in the U.S. and globally.”
You probably should think twice before watching a movie with Mike Shor, Assistant Professor of Management. That is, unless you don’t mind getting nudged every time an example of game theory pops up. Game theory is a method of using mathematical analysis to choose the best available strategy.
“I can’t watch a movie without thinking through the incentives that somebody is creating for others. It drives my wife crazy,” laughs Shor.
Take, for instance, The Princess Bride. Shor points to the scene in which the hero Westley and kidnapper Vizzini match wits over a poisoned glass of wine: “It’s so much more profound than people realize. People think it’s a cute little bit, when it’s really the most excellent example of what Robert Aumann won the Nobel Prize for, which was clarifying this notion of common knowledge.”
The grumblings of his wife aside, Shor’s ability to discern game theoretic themes in the unlikeliest of places is a boon for others interested in the field. He’s amassed an impressive collection of pop culture references and other educational resources at his Web site www.gametheory.net.
“I see game theory in way too many places, but I try to bring a lot of that to the classroom so that students can appreciate it as well.”
To say that Nancy Lea Hyer is organized is an understatement. The Associate Professor of Management is well-known in Owen circles for her methodical approach to teaching, and that, not surprisingly, has led to some good-natured ribbing from her students.
She recalls the time when a group of them put on a skit that portrayed her using a flip chart to plan her family’s weekend activities. It would have been clever had it not been so close to the truth. “They thought they were doing this absolutely hysterical piece, but we really do that,” she says with a grin.
While this may seem extreme to some, it’s fair to say that she comes by it honestly. After all, she’s an expert in cellular manufacturing and project management. She figures if manufacturing can be made more efficient by improving processes, why can’t it work at home, too?
“Teaching process design and improvement has probably made me more organized than is good for a sane person, but at least I know what goes where. There’s a place for everything, and everything is in its place.”
Glance through the latest annual report for Owen, and you’ll find facts and figures that tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the school. Average GMAT score of the entering MBA class? Got it. Average years of experience? Check. Average starting salary of last year’s class? Yep, that too.
However, there’s one stat you won’t find in there, and it’s perhaps as telling as any other: the number of Owen students who find their soul mates inside the walls of Management Hall. When we decided to do a photo essay in this issue about couples who attended the school, I was surprised to learn that there are more than 200 of them. That’s almost five per year since the school first opened its doors! Even when you account for the couples who may have known each other beforehand, or those who may not have met until after graduation, it’s a remarkable number for a school of Owen’s size. In fact, when I mentioned this to a single colleague of mine at Vanderbilt, she joked that maybe she should think about applying to Owen to find a mate.
But this begs a question: Why so many? Could it be that business-minded people are better at finding love than others? If you were to ask me that question 15 years ago when I was majoring in English and cutting my teeth on the sonnets of Shakespeare, I would have scoffed at the suggestion. If anyone understands love, I would have said, it’s the poets, artists and dreamers of the world.
That, of course, was before I came to understand that there are plenty of dreamers in business, too. It was also before I figured out that a successful marriage is every bit about being practical and level-headed as it is about being daring and romantic. If you think about it, finding the right partner in life is not too unlike finding the right partner in business. Ideally you come across someone who not only complements your strengths but who is also willing to take risks on your behalf. Who better than a couple of MBAs to recognize these traits in one another?
That partly explains it, I suppose, but I think the uniqueness of Owen also plays a part. If I’ve learned one thing since taking over the helm of this magazine, it’s that Owen is inherently an intimate place. The students who graduate from the school value long-term relationships and pride themselves on being a tight-knit community. This notion started, perhaps by accident, with the small class sizes and cramped quarters during the early days of the school, but it still holds true today.
In the end, your guess is as good as mine as to why so many couples pass through the doors of Owen. Maybe it’s nothing more than a coincidence. But now that the word is out, don’t blame me if Admissions sees a spike in applicants who are single.
Every bottle of wine has a story to tell. It’s a story written as much by Mother Nature—through the soil, climate and grapes themselves—as it is by the human hand that crafts the finished product. Kimberly Jackson, MBA’01, has learned this firsthand as President of JAX Vineyards, a boutique California winery she runs with her brother, Trent.
“When people decide to buy a bottle of wine, of course they want quality, but they also want to know how the wine is made. They want names and labels that they can identify with, and it’s a very personal thing,” she says.
Bringing the JAX story to a broader audience is Jackson’s mission at the moment. So far she’s succeeded in landing distribution deals for her wine across the nation. JAX also has gotten a boost from fortuitous product placement on HBO’s hit show Entourage, as well as a recent appearance on Wine Spectator magazine’s “Ten Wineries to Watch” list.
Ask Jackson the secret to JAX’s success and she’s quick to point to the land where the cabernet grapes are grown. The property in Calistoga is home to 40-year-old vines—some of the oldest in Napa Valley. Although the vines don’t yield nearly as many grapes as younger ones do, their deep roots allow them to grow without irrigation. The resulting fruit is dense, thick-skinned and rich in flavor. “Our grapes work a little harder to survive,” as Jackson puts it.
Jackson herself knows a thing or two about working hard to survive. Starting a business from scratch has required her to wear many different hats—from marketing to forecasting to invoicing and operations—but she credits Owen with giving her the framework and confidence to succeed.
And that’s all the more reason to root for JAX Vineyards. It’s an underdog story that many can identify with. A story just waiting to be uncorked.
