Baseball agent Bo McKinnis has represented 89 major leaguers, including former Vanderbilt pitcher David Price.
In Moneyball, Michael Lewis’ bestselling book about the Oakland A’s, there is a passage in which J.P. Ricciardi, the General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, talks with an unnamed baseball agent. That agent, it turns out, is Owen alumnus James “Bo” McKinnis, the President of McKinnis Sports Management in Nashville. Unlike some in his line of work, McKinnis does not mind going unnoticed. In fact, that is exactly how he likes it.
“From day one I’ve wanted my players to be the stars. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” he explains. “When I meet folks and tell them what I do, they’re a little surprised. That just shows that I’m doing my business the right way.”
While McKinnis enjoys anonymity outside the game, his name is well-regarded within it. Over the course of his career he has represented 89 major leaguers, including David Price, the former Vanderbilt pitcher and No. 1 pick of the Tampa Bay Rays. That success, he says, can be attributed to a piece of advice that pitcher Jeff Brantley offered him when first starting out: “Don’t contact the players. If you do a good job, they will come to you.”
As counterintuitive as that sounds, the strategy has worked because, as McKinnis puts it, “The best scouts are a player’s teammates.” He adds, “That’s why I let my players bring clients to me. They know what I’m looking for and who will represent me well.”
McKinnis admits he never intended to become an agent. His very first client—a player on the Mississippi State baseball team that he helped manage as an undergrad—had to talk him into the idea. Even years later when he was at Owen, he seemed set on pursuing a career on Wall Street. The game, however, never loosened its grip on him. The skills that he honed while earning an MBA—negotiating, accounting and entrepreneurship, among others—ended up laying the foundation for what he does today.
“God gave me two loves—business and baseball—and I’ve been able to put them together,” he says. “It’s the best of both worlds.”
Virginia “Gigi” Banks Lazenby, BA’67, MBA’73, graduated from Vanderbilt with a degree in European history and fine arts—and few job prospects. When family friend Henry Hooker, BA’54, said that he would hire her as his assistant if she learned to type and take dictation, she was more than willing to oblige.
The job would turn out to be a window to some of the most exciting entrepreneurial ventures Nashville has ever seen. In the late ’60s Hooker helped launch the ill-fated Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken restaurant chain. He also helped found Hospital Corporation of America, which is today the largest private provider of health care facilities in the world.
As Lazenby witnessed these ventures take shape, her interest in business grew. At Hooker’s encouragement she decided to enroll at the Owen School. “What I really learned at Owen was the ability to work with people and deal with them,” she says. “There’s a lot more to running a business than crunching numbers.”
After graduation she joined up again with Hooker, who was then in the oil business. It was in this industry that Lazenby found her calling, and she struck out on her own in 1988 to form Bretagne LLC, an oil and gas explor-ation and production company with 40 employees in Eastern Kentucky.
As CEO Lazenby has successfully navigated the ups and downs of the oil and gas business for two decades. She also has served on the board of directors of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and on the National Petroleum Council. She credits her husband, Ted Lazenby, BA’54, former President of National Life & Accident Insurance Co. and Founder of Southlife Holding Co., with urging her to become involved in industry associations.
She may have come a long way since those days of few job prospects, but Lazenby has not forgotten the lessons she learned. For today’s students who find themselves in a similar position, she offers this advice: “Don’t worry so much about where your job is or how much you’ll be paid. Just find a job and do it well. Appreciate all the people you work with, and go from there.”
Twenty years can create some distance between a university and one of its graduates. Not so for Kevin Kaseff. A member of the Class of 1989, Kaseff fondly recalls both the friends he made at Owen and his academic experience. “I loved the school and the experience,” he says. “I’ve maintained those friendships the past 20 years.”
Even though Owen offered no real estate courses at the time, Kaseff credits the school with putting him on the fast track in his real estate career. Today he is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Titan Real Estate Investment Group Inc., a national commercial real estate investment firm with offices both in Southern California and on the East Coast.
“My career success can be directly attributed to my time at Owen,” he says. “I chose to pursue an MBA because I had reached a point where I felt I was stagnating in my career, and I wanted new challenges.”
The contrast between his studies at Owen and his work in Los Angeles—one of the nation’s most dynamic real estate markets—provides the businessman with an interesting perspective.
“My view of the financial world was a 45-degree angle, and I wanted the full 180-degree perspective,” he recalls of his academic career. “And clearly, Owen did that for me. Investing in real estate is about making long-term bets. These are not liquid assets, so having an MBA and knowledge of the financial markets, operations, accounting and human resources is critical.”
A native of the San Francisco area, Kaseff says he is moderately familiar with the Middle Tennessee commercial real estate market. “We recently sold several apartment complexes in the Nashville area,” he says. “Nashville is a strong warehouse distribution market but a relatively small office market.”
The broader issues and trends facing the commercial real estate industry, Kaseff says, are those most businesses must address: re-duced demand and a lack of credit. As to Titan specifically, the company is stable. “We are fortunate during this capital markets meltdown that our properties are well-leased,” Kaseff says. “We have avoided using high leverage and have been fairly conservative in our underwriting.”
Kaseff foresees a redefining of an industry that has taken a bruising with the country’s economic slump. “As we come out of this recession,” he says, “there will be more of an emphasis on knowing real estate operations from leasing and management and less on pure financial engineering.”
As for Owen and its own long-term bet in a real estate program, Kaseff is optimistic. “There are only a few graduate business programs around the country that have a real estate focus,” he says. “I believe that Owen can compete to attract students with this emphasis. We need more Owen alums in our industry.”
Like information and technology, marketing is undergoing a continuing revolution. The needs and interests of consumers and corporations are evolving, and the means of informing them about products and services are changing dramatically.
Owen has met this revolution with one of its own. The school’s marketing department is essentially a new entity, bridging the gap between the quantitative and behavioral, presenting a cutting-edge synthesis to a new generation of students. As those students apply classroom lessons, and as alumni meet the business world’s present-day challenges, this energized Owen team is helping to reinvent marketing in a digital age and bolster the school’s reputation on the national and international scene.
Guiding Text
Dawn Iacobucci
If one person could be said to embody the transition from the foundational strengths of 20th century marketing to the new realities of the 21st, it would be Dawn Iacobucci, E. Bronson Ingram Professor in Marketing. Highly awarded for her work at Kellogg and then Wharton, she is a widely regarded expert on networks and quantitative psychological research who has published in the top journals and worked alongside marketing luminaries Philip Kotler and Gil Churchill.
If there is a guiding text for Owen’s marketing revolution, it may well be her new book, MM: Marketing Management. Practical, colorful and highly accessible, it is an introduction that brings nuance and application to the basics, swapping the stodgy for the downright sexy. It is—in layout, design, writing style, even price—the perfect example of what modern marketing can and must be. In taking for granted global business and the digital age, the book is as cutting-edge as her work and as the department’s faculty and direction—both of which she leads with what Dean Bradford calls “a commitment to a shared vision of elevating our standard in the eyes of the university, the academy and the business community.”
Iacobucci says, “Our faculty is comprised of extremely talented marketing people who genuinely care about the student experience. We are devoted to building Owen and taking care of the students. We’re looking to get the word out that, with the people and programs we have in place, our marketing MBA students are among the best anywhere.”
Consumer Behavior
From left, Steve Posavac, Jennifer Escalas and Steve Hoeffler
One of the clearest proofs of Owen’s ability to draw top talent and foster in it both vision and cohesion lies in the behavioral side of its marketing department. The teamwork is epitomized in the Consumer Behavior class taught by Jennifer Escalas, Steve Hoeffler and Steve Posavac, along with Dawn Iacobucci.
“Consumer behavior is the foundation for managerial judgment in marketing,” Posavac says. “Each of us carved out a quarter of the class in line with our unique specialties.”
Escalas, Associate Professor in Marketing, who runs a company with her husband making and marketing customized swimsuits, is an expert on brands, identification and culture. Hoeffler, Associate Professor in Marketing, has a background in consulting for P&G and IBM, and research interests that include consumer behavior and radically new products. Posavac, E. Bronson Ingram Associate Professor in Marketing, who previously taught and served as Associate Dean at the University of Rochester, cites a long-term interest in “how managers use what we know about people to make better decisions.”
The application of their varied research interests to their individual classroom work gives students a broad knowledge of technique and application. Their investment in the Owen community does the rest.
“We get to know students on a one-to-one basis,” says Hoeffler, “so we can work from what they’re interested in and where they’re going.”
As for the bottom line, Escalas says, “Hire the best faculty members you can, teach both the basics and the cutting-edge aspects of the field, give students some immersion in the real world, and you’ll do well.”
Quantitative Approach
From left, Mark Ratchford and Jeff Dotson
Jeff Dotson and Mark Ratchford, both Assistant Professors of Marketing, are the department’s young guns on the quantitative side. Dotson says he was drawn by the fact that Owen has an environment where people enjoy working together and get along. Ratchford heard good things about Owen from Steve Posavac, whom he had met while at the University of Rochester.
Dotson’s work employs statistical techniques in marketing. “Companies are drowning in data but starving for knowledge,” he says. “Being able to take information and turn it into actionable insights is a huge challenge, and anyone who does analytical marketing is really in demand now.”
Ratchford’s work “has to do with how people relate to one another with social networks, with the interactions among companies and people,” particularly the way companies form coalitions and achieve synergy in developing products. He is teaching courses on new products and marketing strategy this year.
Both are pleased with the department’s approach and their roles within it.
“This is an amazing group in the sense that everyone is new,” Dotson says. “It’s really unusual for a marketing department.”
Ratchford adds, “I think even among the quantitative types, the kind of work Jeff and I are doing is a bit unique. My work uses cooperative game theory, which nobody in marketing does. I kind of knew that only places with more of a cutting-edge vision would be interested in me.”
Iacobucci agrees on both counts. She describes both as “nice guys who are super-smart,” adding, “Since we’re a small group, it would have been safer just to go traditional, but that would be boring, no?”
Resume Building
From left, Shashi Shanbhag, Cara Tragseiler, Patrick Phillippi, Phoebe Zhang and Allison Earnhart
Five Owen marketing students took their classroom knowledge into the business world last semester in a pilot program that brought the immersion concept to the department. Phoebe Zhang, Cara Tragseiler, Shashi Shanbhag, Patrick Phillippi and Allison Earnhart, all MBA candidates for 2010, spent 11 weeks together under Yvonne Martin-Kidd, Executive Director of Marketing & Communications and Adjunct Professor of Marketing. Together they served as a consulting team on a rebranding and marketing project for a worldwide telecommunications software firm.
“I probably learned more about marketing and brand management from that one project than from any single class I’ll take,” Phillippi says.
The Brand Group met weekly with Martin-Kidd, who Zhang says, “gave us the tools and great advice, drawing on her marketing background, and then she let us run with it.”
Phillippi adds, “The great thing about Owen, is that it’s a small school so you know everyone, but people have worked in all kinds of industries.”
Following interviews with senior management, employees and customers, the team made recommendations for everything from logo redesign to improved product bundling. “We couldn’t have asked for a better demonstration of the strength of Owen students,” Shanbhag says, “or our ability to do the job of high-priced consultants.”
All are excited about the future of such ventures. “This pilot program was a great addition to the marketing curriculum,” Tragseiler says. “I was excited to see they’re planning to expand the Brand Group into a Capstone project and to add a Brand Week between mods 1 and 2.”
Earnhart, who, with her colleagues, represents the face of the department’s continuing revolution, adds, “The marketing curriculum is definitely taking huge steps forward.”
Investment Opportunities
From left, Gil Fuqua, BA’73, MBA’75, Dru Anderson, BA’80, EMBA’89, and Pat Watson, EMBA’83
It may specialize in investor relations, but as a firm in the business of presenting other companies, Corporate Communications Inc. is a hub of strategic marketing. In producing, among other things, quarterly and annual reports for a variety of small- and mid-cap publicly held companies, it makes financial data useful to investors, analysts, the press and public. Doing so draws heavily on what Gil Fuqua calls the cross-training he and fellow Senior Vice Presidents Dru Anderson and Pat Watson received at Owen.
“We are in the communications business,” Fuqua says, “but what we do is largely based on a thorough and relatable understanding of a company’s financial picture. Our Owen training in finance and accounting provided the right base of knowledge.”
“We always say we are marketing companies as investment opportunities to a Wall Street audience,” Anderson says.
As in so many firms, theirs is a mixture of business basics and ever-changing technology. “The information we deliver to the market is the same as it was 25 years ago,” Watson says. “The real difference is that instead of faxing or mailing it to a couple of hundred people, you’re posting it online to countless people, and it’s almost instantaneous.”
All have kept a close watch on Owen’s continuing transformation. “I’m very positive about the changes Owen has made in its marketing department,” Fuqua says. “What has too often been left out and what Owen is addressing is that once you’ve got the information, how you communicate it is just as important. Owen students learn both skills.”
Patients’ Needs
Jill Austin, MBA’88
The marketing challenges Jill Austin, the Chief Marketing Officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and her team faced with the $64 million rollout of Vanderbilt Health at One Hundred Oaks were both sweeping and intricate. They had to (1) reassure neighbors, (2) form alliances with physicians, the city and merchants, (3) inform the media, and (4) bring patients to 22 planned clinics and additional offices.
Their playbook contained everything from community meetings to Twitter, reflecting the desire of the VUMC marketing team “to communicate with people in all the ways they want to be communicated with,” Austin says.
The marketing process has been as much about listening as speaking. “One of my favorite quotes was from a focus group on our Web site: ‘Please make this more about us than about you,’ which is so great,” she says. “That became a philosophy that pervades our work.”
Cyril Stewart, the Senior Director of Facility Resource Strategy and Management at VUMC, says, “I think that Jill’s careful crafting of the One Hundred Oaks focus group sessions is what turned the tide on the project.” Austin, however, is quick to share the credit, saying, “We couldn’t do what we do in marketing if it weren’t for our colleagues in other areas, including news and public affairs, community outreach and physician liaison service. We are all part of the communications channel.”
And for Austin, the end is clear. “It’s not about selling us,” she says. “It’s about understanding the needs of our patients, families and neighbors, and then working to best serve those needs.”
Some small-business owners in need of accounting help to balance their books and guide them out of a financial black hole are renting CFOs rather than hiring them. The strategy comes at a time when the deep recession has forced small companies to look for money-saving alternatives that can yield good returns yet avoid substantial overhead costs. Germain Böer, Professor of Accounting and Director of the Owen Entrepreneurship Center, says business owners often want such a service when their company’s finances are getting more complex and need someone with more financial expertise.
The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 22
How to Manage Your Negotiating Team
Ray Friedman, Brownlee O. Currey Professor of Management, co-authored an article in the Harvard Business Review that discusses how negotiating teams frequently sabotage their own efforts. Friedman argues that a team must first negotiate internally to align its members’ interests and develop a disciplined bargaining strategy.
Harvard Business Review, Sept. 9
Disappearing Foreign MBAs
International applications were down at business schools across the country this year, challenging admissions officers to meet diversity goals and posing questions for the future. John Roeder, Director of Admissions, says the Owen School plans to do more international outreach this fall than ever before. Owen is unusual in that it had a banner year attracting international students. Roeder expects international enrollment to hit 26 percent this year, up 6 percentage points over last year.
BusinessWeek, Aug. 5
Lagging Health Care
A roundup of notable papers and articles includes a brief review of “Why Does the Quality of Health Care Continue to Lag? Insights from Management Research” co-authored by Rangaraj Ramanujam, Associate Professor of Management, and published in Academy of Management Perspectives.
The Economist, June 30
Painful Payments
Covering the estimated 46 million people nationwide without medical insurance won’t come cheap. One recent analysis puts the cost at $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Larry Van Horn, Associate Professor of Health Care Management, says taxing all health care benefits would save the government about $250 billion a year. “Just as importantly, it will result in changes to the design of health plans and reduction in demand for health care services,” he says. “At the end of the day, we can’t afford what we’re consuming now, so we need to consume less.”
The Tennessean, June 15
Antitrust Showdown
A merger between concert promoters Ticketmaster and Live Nation awaits approval by federal antitrust regulators. Critics say the merger could lead to a monopoly within the entertainment industry; proponents say it would enable greater efficiencies. What’s there to like about this merger? The combined company will effectively cut out middlemen, such as independent concert promoters, business managers, lawyers, agents and venue owners who want a piece of the pie, and allow artists to deliver services “quicker, faster, better and cheaper” to their fans, says Luke Froeb, William C. Oehmig Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise.
Time, June 10
An Uncertain Future
Individual investors are rapidly losing sources of analysis and advice, as money set aside for independent research dries up and Wall Street firms slash budgets. “When [people] have to start paying for equity research, [they] could come to the conclusion it’s not worth all that much to them at the margins,” says Craig Lewis, Madison S. Wigginton Professor of Management in Finance.
Ilabaca serves as the Executive Director of Premios Fox Sports, a pan-regional, Spanish-language sports awards program.
Not long after starting in the media business in 2002, Patrick Ilabaca found out just how creative he was expected to be. As a new Marketing and Communications Manager at Fox Sports International (FSI)—a Los Angeles-based sports programming company owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation—he was caught off guard when his boss walked in one day and placed a blank piece of paper on his desk.
When Ilabaca asked what it was, his boss replied, “That’s going to be an awards show.” FSI was looking to create a pan-regional, Spanish-language program in the same vein as the ESPYs, the annual sports awards event broadcast by ESPN. Ilabaca was charged with the task.
Given the circumstances, it would be forgivable if Ilabaca had thrown in the towel before even getting started. He had no media experience, after all, and there were no guidelines to follow. When Ilabaca asked his boss a series of follow-up questions, he got the same response each time: “That’s your job to figure out.” He literally was starting from square one.
Ilabaca, however, was not that easily deterred. Drawing upon the skills he had learned at Owen, he researched the market and assembled a detailed business plan and PowerPoint presentation—the “whole nine yards” as he puts it. If anything, he probably overdid it. “After the presentation they told me, ‘Next time just make it a nice memo,’” he laughs. The business plan and presentation had their intended effect, though. FSI gave his idea the greenlight, and the show soon became a reality.
When Ilabaca came on board at FSI, the company had just merged with private equity firm HM Capital Partners to form Fox Pan American Sports (FPAS)—the leading Spanish language sports pay-TV business serving North, South and Central America. Premios Fox Sports, as the awards show is called, has since become an integral part of FPAS’s programming.
Now in its seventh year, the show is watched by millions of viewers throughout the Western Hemisphere, and Ilabaca, the Vice President of Event Marketing & Business Development for FPAS, continues to play a role in its success, serving as the Executive Director.
Rolling up his sleeves
If ever there were an industry made for Ilabaca, it is the one he is in now. The son of Chilean immigrants, he has had an interest in international business—particularly within the Spanish-speaking world—ever since graduating from Vanderbilt with a bachelor’s degree in economics and Spanish in 1997. He also is an avid fan of tennis, soccer, golf and baseball—sports that are the bedrock of FPAS’s three television channels.
Yet if someone had told Ilabaca in early 2002 that he would soon work for an international sports media company, he probably would not have believed it. At the time he was paying the rent by cleaning out a storage facility on UCLA’s campus in Los Angeles—about as far removed from his dream job as he could get.
How Ilabaca went from earning an MBA to earning barely more than minimum wage is a story in itself. Much of it can be explained as simple bad luck. When he graduated from Owen with a concentration in marketing and e-commerce in 2001, he faced a tough job market. The dot-com bubble had just burst, and Internet startups were disappearing fast. Then came 9/11. Ilabaca happened to be just outside of New York City interviewing for a job when the Twin Towers were attacked. The interview was cut short, and Ilabaca was left stranded in Bridgewater, N.J. “I had no idea what I was going to do at that point. Nothing was panning out,” he says.
Ilabaca’s luck, however, soon took a turn for the better. After moving to Los Angeles, where his sister was living, he got lost on UCLA’s campus and stumbled upon the office of the Southern California Tennis Association (SCTA). Ilabaca introduced himself to the Executive Director and explained that he was looking for employment. The Executive Director, in turn, told him about the tennis stadium storage facility and offered him minimum wage plus a dollar to organize it.
“My ego definitely came into play. I said to myself, ‘What am I doing here? I went to Vanderbilt, I have an MBA, and I’m fluent in Spanish,’” he says. “But I took the job and literally rolled up my sleeves and cleaned it.”
As unglamorous as the job was, it did give him an opportunity to network within the SCTA and learn in advance about any job openings. It also gave Ilabaca the chance to familiarize himself with the organization’s outdated Web site and put together a compelling argument for improving it. When a low-level position opened up at the SCTA, he seized the opportunity to make his case. “They told me I was overqualified at the interview, but I gave them my analysis of the Web site anyway. It turns out that USTA headquarters was interested in revamping each regional Web site, so they hired me for a completely different position,” he says.
Soon after he took the job, fate smiled on Ilabaca once again. While working on the Web site, he saw a list of sponsors for an ATP-sanctioned tennis tournament that the SCTA was hosting. One in particular piqued his interest—Fox Sports International. Ilabaca had a connection to Raúl de Quesada, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at FSI, through a family friend, but it had never materialized beyond an initial phone call several months back. When he asked the Director of Marketing at the SCTA if she knew de Quesada, she told him that indeed she did and that she would be happy to pass along his resume.
During the tennis tournament he met with de Quesada and learned that a marketing position had just opened up at FSI. Ilabaca remembers thinking, “That’s my job,” when he heard the details. The two talked the following week, and de Quesada invited him in for a formal interview. Despite Ilabaca’s lack of experience, de Quesada decided to take a chance and hire him. A year after graduating from Owen, Ilabaca finally had the job he had been looking for. “I was very fortunate to get it, especially since the HR department at FSI wanted someone with more of a media background, but that made me all the more determined to prove myself,” he says.
A few weeks later when de Quesada put that blank piece of paper on his desk, the newly hired Ilabaca would have an opportunity to do just that.
The most of every opportunity
It is fitting that Ilabaca and Premios Fox Sports, the project he was tasked with developing, have enjoyed similar trajectories of success. As the show has grown in stature over the past seven years, so too has Ilabaca’s career. Aside from the third year, when FPAS decided to move Premios Fox Sports’ executive position to Miami, he has been responsible for the planning and production of every show. Ilabaca was offered the chance to move to Miami and remain in charge, but he declined. His presence was sorely missed at that show, and FPAS approached him again about moving East and resuming his responsibilities. This time he agreed, but only after they granted him VP status and expanded his role within the company.
“I love being in Miami. In California I always felt like I was trying to catch up with our offices on the East Coast and Buenos Aires, which at certain times of the year is six hours ahead,” he says. “Being on the East Coast, I feel like I’m the one setting the pace.”
Ilabaca’s broader role within the organization has allowed him to be involved in business development and rebranding efforts. “I always find new projects. That’s what’s so wonderful about media. It’s always changing,” he says. In 2008–2009 Ilabaca oversaw the launch of the new on-air, off-air and online image packages for each of FPAS’s three television channels: Fox Sports en Español, which serves the U.S. Hispanic market, and the two Fox Sports Latin America channels that serve Mexico, Central and South America. The three channels have more than 26 million subscribers combined.
Premios Fox Sports, however, continues to be Ilabaca’s primary focus. “I’m proud that it remains the only awards show of its kind. There are no other programs around that specifically recognize and celebrate the achievements of Latino athletes the way we do,” he says. The show comprises several different categories that honor Latino athletes in soccer, baseball, tennis, basketball, boxing and motor sports. Each year the scope of the show grows, and new wrinkles are added. In 2008 Premios Fox Sports was held outside the United States for the first time—both in Mexico City and Buenos Aires within a three-week period. This December the show will be produced at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Fla.
Yet as the spotlight grows, Ilabaca is careful not to be blinded by it. He has not forgotten how far he has come and what got him there.
“I have an MBA, but it wasn’t beneath me to clean out a storage facility. No matter how entitled you may feel because of your degree or your past experience, you sometimes have to assume a lesser role,” he says. “From there you just have to make the most of every opportunity.”
Professor Germain Böer and I have much in common. We both arrived at Owen in the same year, we both have practiced accounting, and we both are serial entrepreneurs. This last item is a shared passion of ours. Whether starting his own business before coming to Owen or launching the Center for Entrepreneurship at the school, Germain has always been a champion for those interested in taking a different career path and pursuing the challenge of being an entrepreneur.
Not only have his efforts created careers for Owen students, their startups have created hundreds of jobs for others. Many Owen students and alumni have benefited from the education and experience Germain has provided for the past 30 years. I continue to benefit from Germain’s expertise, and I hear firsthand from students about the impact he continues to have, especially from the students he refers to me for advice on being an entrepreneur.
Hall
For all that Germain has given to Owen, it is time for the Owen community to give something back. I am leading fundraising efforts to endow the Germain Böer Seed Scholarship in Entrepreneurship. The inclusion of the word “seed” in the name is important. Most entrepreneurs receive seed funding to launch their ventures. It is up to them to take that seed funding and create enough value to raise the next round of funding. This scholarship, I hope, will provide the seed funding to launch the career of the next Owen entrepreneur. Please join me in making a contribution.
Our goal is to raise enough funds to generate an annual scholarship grant of $5,000 to an Owen student interested in entrepreneurship. While a $100,000 bequest has already been committed, the scholarship requires a minimum of $100,000 in outright gifts to become active. To date, we have more than $33,000 in outright gifts pledged. Ideally we would like the scholarship fund to grow through continued contributions and earnings so we can increase the scholarship grant or provide more seed scholarships to Owen students.
The giving levels listed below are already in existence through the Owen Circle, but gifts of all sizes are welcome. Your gift can be in many forms, including cash, securities and planned gifts. There are also ways to honor the legacy of your name within the named scholarship for Germain Böer. If you’d like to make a larger named gift, please contact Marshall Turnbull, Director of Alumni Relations, at (615) 322-9997 or marshall.turnbull@vanderbilt.edu.
The Owen Circle Levels of Giving $25,000 + — Cornelius Vanderbilt Level $10,000–$24,999 — Chancellor’s Council $5,000–$9,999 — Dean’s List $1,000–$4,999 — Owen Associates
I hope that you will choose to unite with me so that the legacy of Germain’s impact may continue. Thank you for considering this opportunity.
When a homegrown politician dies suddenly, local companies show the loss of a valuable connection immediately in their share prices, according to research from the Owen School.
Stock prices for companies located where a politician lived or was born declined by an average of nearly 2 percent when the connection was abruptly severed, translating into millions of dollars in lost shareholder equity, says study co-author David Parsley, E. Bronson Ingram Professor in Economics and Finance.
Such connected companies also tended to see a substantial drop in key performance figures. For example, sales growth for the companies studied averaged just over 12 percent during the year prior to a politician’s death but dropped to less than 6 percent afterwards.
Parsley’s study has found that politically connected firms realize many benefits from their relationships with lawmakers. These include preferential treatment by government-owned agencies or access to credit, relaxed regulatory oversight or stiffer regulatory oversight for rivals, lighter taxation policies, and a greater likelihood of government bail-outs in the event of financial distress.
“Losing these benefits when a politician suddenly dies clearly has a significant economic impact on the companies and raises serious questions about the broader impact of these connections on long-term economic growth,” Parsley says.
The unexpected death of a politician yielded a greater drop (by more than 1 percent) in stock price for family-dominated public companies, which, as prior research indicates, tend to be more poorly managed with less stringent corporate governance, making them likely to rely more heavily on the value of a political connection. Among other key findings:
Larger companies generally saw less impact, possibly due to a tendency to diversify their political connections.
Companies with higher market-to-book ratios fell by a greater amount (by about half a percent), consistent with the view that connected companies trade at higher prices.
The negative impact on stock prices increased by as much as 4 percent for firms in industries in which the politician had direct influence.
Companies in countries identified as more corrupt by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index took a bigger hit (up to 1.7 percent), presumably due to the greater likelihood of corporate connivance with politicians.
Companies in democratic countries dropped more (by over 3 percent) than the overall average, which Parsley attributes to generally greater levels of corporate transparency.
On an unconditional basis (before controlling for other factors), the largest stock declines occurred in companies based in Pakistan and Zimbabwe (more than 10 percent, though there were only a few companies impacted), where previous research shows that ties to an influential politician are worth as much as 10 percent of firm value.
The study examined 122 sudden deaths of politicians from around the world since 1973, for which the politician’s city of birth or residence could be identified, and then analyzed the performance of more than 8,000 publicly traded companies based in those cities at the time of death. Only politicians who died unexpectedly—from heart attack, stroke, suicide, assassination or accidents that resulted in death within 24 hours—were included, since financial markets likely anticipated and accounted for deaths from a longer-term chronic illness, such as cancer.
A politician’s city of birth or residence is a novel but logical base for determining corporate political connections, Parsley says. “Politicians systematically favor local enterprises due to their need for election funding, to stimulate job creation, links with family and friends, and a host of other issues,” he explains. “Quantifying the value of such political connections has been hard to pinpoint, but our analysis provides perhaps the clearest picture yet of just how much these connections are worth for shareholders.”
The study, “Sudden Deaths: Taking Stock of Geographic Ties,” appeared in the June issue of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. It was written with Professor Mara Faccio of Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management, and partially funded by the Owen School’s Financial Markets Research Center.
Presiding over a multibillion-dollar spy satellite program for the U.S. government is difficult enough without having to endure the strain of shrinking budgets, engineering problems, schedule delays and balkanized customer relationships. However, those are exactly the problems that our team, the Space Systems Group at the National Reconnaissance Office, faced in 2006. They are also the reason why we sought the expertise of the Vanderbilt Executive Development Institute at the Owen School.
The three-day Executive Leadership course led by Dick Daft, Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Professor of Management, was the catalyst for an astonishing transformation in the culture and productivity of our team of roughly 250 government and contractor personnel. Daft reinforced a simple yet profound leadership principle: Leaders must connect teams to an ideal. In our case that meant delivering perfect reconnaissance systems to protect those serving in the military and the intelligence community.
Although working on a spy satellite program has exciting moments, the enterprise shares similar challenges to busi-nesses across the country. Our group was an acquisition organization sequestered in a comfortable office park in Northern Virginia. It was easy for employees to forget their customers and slip into the daily grind of a federal bureaucracy, keeping busy with staff meetings, budget battles and paperwork.
Daft
We combated this complacency by putting our vision statement—“We understand and appreciate the greater mission”—at the forefront of everything we did. This statement galvanized our team of engineers, program managers, financial analysts, contract specialists and technical advisors. It connected us to our customers—the men and women in harm’s way—and to the intelligence imperative of the Global War on Terror. Over the next two years we blitzed our group, and anyone else who would listen, with our vision.
More important, though, we lived this vision as well. We took our team on an overnight trip to the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower, one of the ships we were entrusted to protect. It was a rare and riveting experience for the engineers, comptrollers and security specialists to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the 3,000 crew members for a 9/11 commemoration ceremony rededicating us to the mission. In the following months we also visited the submarine USS Boise and invited Iraq War veterans to speak to our group about the challenges and spirit of America’s fighting forces.
The effects of our efforts were transformative. The vision statement helped us eliminate competition for limited budget and human capital resources by clarifying our priorities and acquisition plan. With a defined strategy we obtained resounding support from congressional oversight committees and unprecedented plus-ups in our appropriations. We also set a baseline for new programs and delivered a perfect satellite to orbit.
There is compelling quantitative evidence to back up this transformation. In 2007 our group participated in a team climate survey, which used data from three decades and 2 million respondents to define performance benchmarks for high-performing teams. Our team had participated in the same survey in 2000 and 2004 with fairly good results, showing that we had begun to eliminate negative behaviors such as competitiveness and power struggles. The 2007 data, however, surprised everyone. In 27 of 35 categories our team surpassed the benchmarks for A+ organizations.
In fact the data was so remarkable that the survey results were run again to be sure there was no error. The scope and magnitude of climate change was unprecedented. The Space Systems Group had connected to the greater mission and raised the bar for effective and successful organizations.
In a series of return visits to the Owen School, we have provided a living case study that shows how to manage a remarkable organizational transformation despite challenges and setbacks that erode the confidence of most teams. We did it by applying the fundamental lessons of leadership taught by Professor Daft, and our story is not only practical, but inspirational for anyone who wants to “be the change” they wish to see in the world.
Numerous experts and laymen alike expect the Chinese to realign their business operations, financial behavior and cultural ways to resemble those of the West. This attitude is quietly resented by the striving Chinese. It is also dead wrong. The Chinese want to become Westerners as much as Westerners want to become Chinese.
Now that Western companies, capital flows and business cultures have helped revolutionize China, it is China’s turn to revolutionize us. High-roller Chinese procurement delegations are flying around the world, signing billion-dollar contracts and purchasing energy resources, raw materials, technologies, intellectual property rights, real estate, and private and public companies. The Chinese have plenty of money to spend on smart acquisitions.
With Chinese ownership comes the increased influence of Chinese business culture. A growing number of businesses in the United States and Europe are subject to direct Chinese management decisions made in the towers of Shanghai and Beijing instead of New York and London. This is why we need to take the dragon by its horns and be proactive in understanding the ways and perspectives of our friends in China. Western business models will not apply in China as efficiently as some may think.
The business culture in China today is an unprecedented mix of traditional customs—hierarchical behavior, close family relationships and established power networks—and new Western concepts. Some of these new concepts include:
unforeseen collective acceptance and support for getting wealthy
Over 1.3 billion Chinese citizens are more or less free to chase their material dreams as they see fit. The success of many encourages others to work hard, creating significant macroeconomic growth.
unprecedented urbanization
According to the McKinsey Global Institute (Shanghai), 350 million rural Chinese will move to cities during the next 15 years, creating new jobs, spending power and huge demand for infrastructure and other support systems.
new flexibility in attitudes
Different opinions and perspectives are more welcome today. New ideas are subject to constructive curiosity, instead of immediate rejection.
ferocious striving for better living standards
Our Chinese friends are setting up new businesses, educating themselves and their children, looking for tools to get ahead in life, and creating huge economic value driving forces.
proactive internationalization and global networking
Chinese delegations around the world are even more common these days than the Japanese delegations were after World War II. China sells itself in many clever ways and is eager to establish friendly trading relationships all around the world.
Despite many problems in their society, like human rights violations, environmental issues and widespread poverty, the Chinese have been quick to develop innovative solutions to many other challenges. It is mind-blowing to consider what they have achieved in only the last fifteen years, even if it has been partly accomplished with foreign advice and capital.
Like it or not, the Chinese economy will probably grow quickly over the next three decades, creating future shocks in every industry. Those of us who take a proactive role in understanding China will have a better chance to emerge as winners in this new economic era. Those who resent change, on the other hand, will be left behind. The West must leap out of its comfort zone, embrace this situation and join—not fight—the economic evolution.
Schorr is planning to launch the Vanderbilt Center for Business & Society, which will promote corporate responsibility, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.
Jim Schorr’s first year as an MBA student was a transformative one. He had enrolled at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University expecting to pursue a career in international business, but a class called Business & Its Environment and guest lectures by a couple of dynamic social entrepreneurs—Ben Cohen, Co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, and Anita Roddick, Founder of the Body Shop—pointed him in a new direction.
“The combination of the class and those guest speakers introduced me to the idea that business could be a powerful force for social impact and injected a greater sense of purpose into my career path,” says Schorr, Clinical Professor of Management.
This newfound inspiration led Schorr to co-found Students for Responsible Business, which later evolved into Net Impact, an international nonprofit organization that educates and equips students to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world through business. Owen hosted Net Impact’s annual conference in 2007, attracting more than 1,800 MBAs from all over the world. Schorr continues to play a key role in the organization’s success, serving as Board Chair.
At Owen, Schorr is working toward launching the Vanderbilt Center for Business & Society, which echoes his previous work at University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Responsible Business. The objective of the center is to enrich the student experience by developing courses, programs, events and other content in three areas: corporate responsibility, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.
“My role here is to build on what Jim Bradford, Bart Victor and others have been doing at Owen for years,” Schorr says. “As enthusiastic as I am about this new initiative, I know that it wouldn’t be possible without their groundwork.”
In a matter of 10 days in October 2008, Iceland’s banking system completely collapsed, sending a shock wave through the small island country in the North Atlantic. Yet as fast as the collapse occurred, it should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Its origins were a long time in the making.
Once regarded as a model of economic success, Iceland suffered a complete banking collapse in October 2008.
There is no simple way to explain the Icelandic banking collapse, but a good starting point is the country’s long-standing support of free trade. Iceland’s economy has always been export-driven, and as such, the government there has promoted free international trade for quite some time. Iceland became a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1970 and a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1994. The EEA allows EFTA countries, like Iceland, to participate in the European single market without joining the European Union.
One of Iceland’s obligations in becoming a member of the EEA was to relinquish state ownership of its banks—no small task as the state owned and controlled two-thirds of the banking sector. The timing of this bank privatization, however, was unfortunate. In the wake of 9/11 and the uncertain financial markets that followed, international banks were not about to invest in state-owned banks in little Iceland. Instead of turning to these international banks, as originally planned, the government decided to sell the stakes to Icelandic investors. In late 2002 and early 2003, controlling interests in two major commercial banks were sold to two groups of Icelandic investors.
In 2002 the size of the Icelandic banking system was less than Iceland’s GDP. By 2008, shortly before the collapse, it had grown to 12 times the country’s GDP.
These transactions would turn out to be a big mistake because the investors had no background in banking and finance. They were simply investors—and speculative ones at that. They soon turned the former state banks, which for some reason still enjoyed strong ratings from the major rating agencies, into their own private financing and co-investing vehicles.
The 9/11 tragedy would continue to impact the Icelandic banking sector even further. The Federal Reserve of the United States and other central banks had responded to the crisis and uncertainties by driving interest rates down to their lowest level in a century and printing money to stave off recession. The Fed was very successful—too successful, many would argue—as the easing policies following 9/11 paved the way for the housing bubble and subsequent liquidity crisis in capital markets that still haunts us.
The Icelandic banks, meanwhile, were rated as if they were still backed by the government, and cheap money was flowing all around. Big banks, like Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and many others, were practically begging the Icelandic banks and their owners to borrow money. In 2002 the size of the Icelandic banking system was less than Iceland’s GDP. By 2008, shortly before the collapse, it had grown to 12 times the country’s GDP.
In the years leading up to 2008, Icelandic banks opened offices and branches abroad. London, Luxembourg, Geneva, New York, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen—in fact, the whole world—became their playground. The banks acquired banks in other countries and funded acquisitions for Icelandic and international companies, mainly on “High Street” in the United Kingdom (or “Main Street,” as it is known in the United States), but also in Scandinavia and elsewhere. Due to the ready availability of funds there was an equity price bubble in the making on High Street, and Icelandic investors often turned out to be the highest bidders. This scenario was fine as long as the bubble lasted, but once the bubble started leaking air, it turned out to be a curse.
Funding of the Icelandic banks was thin and highly dependent on wholesale. As a result, two of the banks introduced online deposit accounts in major markets (the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany and elsewhere) and were very successful in attracting depositors. Landsbanki operated its Icesave accounts in branches in the U.K. and the Netherlands, while Kaupthing Bank operated its Edge accounts in the U.K. through a subsidiary.
The distinction between branches and subsidiaries became very important in the aftermath of the banking collapse, as subsidiaries are regulated by the host country and thus covered by deposit insurance schemes in the host country. Branches, however, are regulated by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) and covered by the Icelandic deposit insurance scheme. The cost of the Icesave deposit insurance alone could end up bankrupting the Icelandic state, as cost per capita could reach $20,000.
Glitnir, the third bank, did not introduce deposit accounts internationally. This meant that Glitnir felt the liquidity squeeze in international capital markets much sooner than the others. Glitnir was facing a refinancing of almost $1 billion in mid-October 2008. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008, confidence in financial markets evaporated. Banks stopped doing business with other banks as one could not be certain whether the counterparty would still be around the next day, let alone a month later.
At the end of September, Glitnir went to the Icelandic Central Bank and asked for a loan to cover the refinancing. The Central Bank—against the warning of the whole banking sector, economists and others—refused the loan and recommended instead that the Icelandic government put up the money in exchange for a 75 percent equity stake in Glitnir. The government went with the Central Bank’s recommendation.
There was a problem, however, with this approach. Each share of Glitnir stock, which on Friday, Sept. 26, had been trading at ISK 15.5, was valued at approximately ISK 2, thereby destroying any pricing built into the Icelandic stock market. This move put the pricing of other banks listed on the exchange in jeopardy. Also, to make matters worse, the owners of Glitnir had a billion-dollar loan from Landsbanki secured with their Glitnir stock.
The Glitnir nationalization was announced on Monday, Sept. 29. Immediately the rating agencies downgraded all Icelandic banks and Icelandic sovereign debt as well. In the early hours of Oct. 9, Kaupthing Bank became the last of the large Icelandic commercial banks to fall. The banking system officially had collapsed.
Trying to salvage what they could, the Icelandic government and parliament passed an emergency law, which gave the FSA unprecedented powers to take over and manage Icelandic financial institutions. The British government responded by invoking the anti-terrorism legislation from 2001 to freeze all assets of Landsbanki in the U.K.
The U.K. authorities also used their powers to bring down Singer & Friedlander, Kaupthing Bank’s subsidiary in the U.K., with brute force. This move guaranteed the fall of Kaupthing and was, in the eyes of many, a low blow by the British. On that very same day the British government announced a rescue package for U.K. banks—that is, all banks other than the one owned by an Icelandic bank.
The Icelandic Central Bank failed miserably in maintaining a responsible and stabilizing monetary policy. It brought interest rates up to 15.5 percent in a fight against imaginary inflation. This policy drove up the value of Iceland’s króna, the world’s smallest floating currency, and created an opportunity for carry trade, wherein investors borrowed in low interest rate currencies and invested in króna. This further drove up the value of the króna, resulting in a huge trade imbalance, which in the end caused the króna to collapse even before the banks.
When the monetary policy of the Central Bank is viewed in context, it is difficult not to put the brunt of the blame for the meltdown squarely in the lap of its directors. In fact, chances are anyone could have done better than they did. But, of course, the Central Bank was working under adverse conditions at the time, and it would be unfair to say that one group was more at fault than any other. In reality there was no single, simple reason for the collapse. It was the result of a confluence of unfortunate decisions and circumstances—ones that Icelanders hope will never be duplicated again.
Willis has studied the effect of investor sophistication in interpreting analysts’ stock recommendations, among other topics.
If accounting is the language of business, then it might come as a surprise just how much is lost in translation from one country to the next. For years countries have been following their own reporting standards, making it difficult for accountants and investors in one part of the world to understand the financial statements of companies in another.
All of that is changing, though. There is a movement underway called the Global Convergence of Accounting Standards, which aims to unify reporting standards under one set of rules—the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Richard Willis, Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker Jr. Associate Professor of Accounting, is making sure that his students are prepared for these coming changes.
“It’s an interesting time to be in this field,” Willis says. “I see accountants becoming more mobile geographically. To think that we can teach someone the principles of accounting here at Owen, and then that person can practice elsewhere in the world is really exciting.”
Since companies are afforded more discretion under IFRS, Willis expects there to be a rise in accounting scandals—and, consequently, an increased need for capable ac-countants. “Accounting discretion helps managers provide information to investors in the most meaningful way, but the flip side is that managers can misuse discretion to obscure the truth,” he says. “Auditing and enforcement will continue to play an important role, and I expect accountants to be even more in demand.”
McSurdy earned his Executive MBA while working at Oasis Center, a nonprofit that helps Nashville youth overcome challenges such as homelessness, violence and depression.
When I first learned about the possibility of earning a sponsorship to the Vanderbilt Executive MBA program, I was intrigued. The Owen School and the Center for Nonprofit Management in Nashville had just launched an initiative offering full tuition for one nonprofit executive a year. As Vice President for Programs at Oasis Center—a nonprofit that helps Nashville youth overcome challenges such as homelessness, violence and depression—I was eligible for the sponsorship but wondered whether I’d be a better administrator with those letters following my name. I already had a graduate degree and was doing just fine, I thought. However, my wife—an MBA herself—and my boss both encouraged me to give it a shot.
I took the first step and completed the online application. I then had a follow-up interview with Tami Fassinger, Associate Dean of Executive Education at Owen. Although Tami was charming, she was not one to sugarcoat the process. I quickly realized that if I were going to make even a halfhearted attempt at this, I actually would have to study for the GMAT—something I hadn’t done since taking the GRE years before when No. 2 pencils were still used.
I always introduced myself as the “nonprofit guy” somehow separating myself from the “real” businesspeople. Now I know I am a real businessperson. I’m just in a different kind of business.
—Michael McSurdy
I started giving up my evenings and weekends to pour over The Official Guide for GMAT Review. I also attended an open house for nonprofit candidates and then ventured into the deep waters at a preview day for general candidates—people with “real” business experience. It was a little intimidating, but I left feeling confident that I could succeed at Owen. I went back to my studies, and finally the day of the test arrived. Then came the waiting.
Several weeks later I received a call from Tami saying I had been accepted to the Executive MBA program. It was a great feeling to know that I had made the cut, but for me that was not enough. I had to get the sponsorship before I could even consider attending Owen. Unlike other students I would not see large raises in my future even with an MBA, and my employer had no funds to offset the expense of my tuition. Finally in May 2007 I got another call from Tami. I had been awarded the sponsorship! I accepted, of course, and soon hit the ground running.
The first hurdle, called Math Camp, came during the middle of that summer. Designed as a refresher course for those of us who were a little rusty with basic computations, Math Camp was a sobering prelude to first semester. I started to wonder what I had committed myself to, but with the gracious support and guidance of Rita Sowell, the instructor, I made it through.
From Math Camp it was on to the Week-in-Residence at New Harmony, Ind., where I was introduced to my group—Jason Gunderson, Jarod Scott, Navin Karwande and Kenn Gindin (all EMBA’09)—four classmates who would be my lifelines, my colleagues and my friends over the next two years (and beyond). New Harmony also marked the beginning of the first semester, which placed an emphasis on quantitative coursework.
That first semester I spent night after precious night trying to bend my mind around stats, economics, finance and accounting. For someone used to offering support to others, I was unaccustomed to relying continually on the assistance of the members of my group and Isaac Rogers, BA’02, MBA’08, a gifted stats tutor. I began to wonder if I’d ever get past the first semester. And of course I did.
During the second semester I found the qualitative classes to be more in my comfort zone. I was able to offer the members of my group a little wisdom, and I felt like I was carrying my weight more than I had before. The coursework was tiring nonetheless, and by the end of two semesters, I wondered if May would ever arrive. And of course it did.
Over the summer I reconnected with my family and dug back into work. There was no Math Camp or Week-in-Residence in New Harmony to worry about. I only had to look forward to the second year, which I anticipated with much less trepidation as I knew what to expect. Just like the summer before, I wondered if fall would ever come. And of course it did.
Upon returning to Owen as a second-year student, I found myself giving advice to Mark McCaw, the new recipient of the Executive MBA/Center for Nonprofit Management sponsorship. “You will get through this,” I told him. Meanwhile I was as busy as ever. My strategy and finance classes were all-consuming, and the changing economy and a relocation for Oasis Center were making my job more demanding. At this point, though, I had my feet solidly beneath me. Somehow I had survived accounting, economics, finance and statistics, and was actually putting what I had learned to work. In my third finance class it became clear that concepts and theory were of greater importance to me, and I was able to track what we were discussing and actively participate. Had I actually learned something about finance?
This third semester was also the proving ground for my group. By this point we had formed a good team. Each member knew the others’ strengths and needs, and we respected and supported each other. We began to think ahead to our strategy project in semester four. We had moved from focusing on our classes to focusing on how we could use the total of what we had learned to accomplish a more complex goal—creating a viable strategy for a real company. At times my group and I wondered if we would get it all done. And of course we did.
During the final semester everything really came together. Each of my classes relied on what I had learned in all the others. The whole was becoming greater than the sum of its parts. The journey ended with a successful strategy presentation and the international residency, and much celebration. That final semester is still a blur.
Since receiving my diploma from Dean Bradford under the tent on Magnolia Lawn, I have had some time to think and reflect, and I have even used a few things I learned at Owen—like strategies for depreciation and maximizing human capital. Who knew this stuff was really applicable to the nonprofit world? After four semesters and some reflection, I realize I made the right decision to pursue an MBA. Up to this point I always introduced myself as the “nonprofit guy” somehow separating myself from the “real” businesspeople. Now I know I am a real businessperson. I’m just in a different kind of business.
As I look back with great pride and accomplishment, I am immensely grateful. I am grateful for my classmates who grew with me and supported my growth. I am thankful for the staff and professors who saw the potential in me. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my employer, staff and board who have all supported me and cheered me on through the past two years. And I appreciate so much the great opportunity that Owen and the Center for Nonprofit Management gave me in awarding me the sponsorship.
Lastly and most important, this journey was made all the richer because of my family. To my wife, Cecily, and my children, Michael, Harriet and Eloise, I say thank you. I appreciate so much the sacrifices you have made and the love and support you have given me over the past two years.
Contributors—Scott Addison, Ólafur Arnarson (MBA’96), Saul Bromberger, Nelson Bryan (BA’73), Daniel Dubois, Suzanne Feinstein, Juliane Gallina, Steve Green, Eric Hall (MBA’78), Sandra Hoover, Jack Ilmonen (MBA’03), Jennifer Johnston, Luke Lukenbill, Jenny Mandeville, Michael McSurdy (EMBA’09), Jan Read, John Russell, Rob Simbeck, William Williams, Amy Wolf
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Presiding over a multibillion-dollar spy satellite program for the U.S. government is difficult enough without having to endure the strain of shrinking budgets, engineering problems, schedule delays and balkanized customer relationships. However, those are exactly the problems that our team, the Space Systems Group at the National Reconnaissance Office, faced in 2006. They are also the reason why we sought the expertise of the Vanderbilt Executive Development Institute at the Owen School.
Numerous experts and laymen alike expect the Chinese to realign their business operations, financial behavior and cultural ways to resemble those of the West. This attitude is quietly resented by the striving Chinese. It is also dead wrong. The Chinese want to become Westerners as much as Westerners want to become Chinese.
