Harvard Talks Managing Disorganized Employees, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
How to Manage Someone Who Is Totally Disorganized – Harvard Business Review
Disorganized employees can be wellsprings of frustration, but there are ways to help them better understand how disorderly tendencies impact others.
Harvard Business School‘s Rebecca Knight recently discussed strategies in HBR, addressing root behavior causes and ultimately develop better systems to manage workloads.
“’Is this person’s approach creating negative outcomes, or is it just a style difference?’ If your report indicates ‘disorganized but otherwise reliable, you may have to back off.'”
Rosie Perez (not the actor), Lead Financial Officer of Global Consumer Business Planning and Analytics at American Express, adds, “It takes a lot of time to change ingrained behavior, but it can be addressed. Most importantly, as leaders, it is our job to help coach our colleagues [with] constructive and pointed feedback.”
You can read more about the research here.
Bye-Bye Ivory Tower: Innovation Needs an Ecosystem to Thrive by Tracy Mayor – MIT Sloan Ideas Made to Matter
Innovation is not exclusively indigenous to Silicon Valley. We continue to see exciting developments in London, Tel Aviv, New York, Boston, China, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. However, despite the benefits of globalization, the world of innovation is not wholly flat.
New MIT Sloan research has determined that there are geographic hotspots, or “innovation ecosystems,” where ideas move more easily from inception to impact.
Phil Budden, a Senior Lecturer Specializing in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, notes how the traditional “triple helix” that has long driven innovation—university, government, and corporations—is now joined by two additional players: entrepreneurs and risk capital.
“It’s so important to have innovation-driven entrepreneurs involved. They’re producing the companies of the future. You can’t just have today’s companies [in an ecosystem], you need to have those leaders who are going to produce future companies.”
Fiona Murray, Associate Dean for Innovation, urges corporations to take advantage of startups and entrepreneurs to help experiment on their behalf.
“What these startups tend to do very well is define, order, and test their assumptions through a series of what we call ‘innovation loops. So, one of the benefits of going from a purely internal research and development process to working externally is that you can really rely on the universities and startups in an ecosystem to do that experimentation for you.”
You can read more about global innovation here and watch the recent discussion below.
Joy Field Garners Top Award from Decision Sciences Institute by William Bole – Carroll School News
BC Carroll School of Management Associate Professor of Operations Management Joy Field has received the highest honor bestowed by the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), a global society of more than 1,800 scholars dedicated to fostering knowledge for better managerial decisions.
Field was named the 2018 co-recipient of the Dennis E. Grawoig Distinguished Service Award, named for a founder of the 50-year-old Institute. The other recipient was Morgan Swink of Texas Christian University.
DSI President Johnny Rungtusanatham of Ohio State University asserts, “This is a highly competitive distinction awarded to those who have made a continual impact on the Institute and the disciplines it serves.”
Field reflected on her two decades of involvement with the Institute. “DSI has been a major contributor to all aspects of my professional development—publishing, teaching, and service—and I am delighted to have been chosen to receive this award from among the many colleagues who have also contributed so much to DSI.”
Find out more about the recent award here.
HBS Reviews Elon Musk’s Compensation Plan, and More – Boston News
In case you missed it, let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
Elon Musk’s Unusual Compensation Plan Isn’t Really About Compensation at All – Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business School faculty member George Serafeim, the Jakurski Family associate professor of business administration, recently published his insight into the compensation package Tesla shareholders awarded CEO Elon Musk this year—“likely the largest compensation package ever awarded to a CEO.”
Serafeim argues that the design of the compensation plan and its announcement were about “signaling a credible commitment to Tesla’s purpose: to become a clean energy giant that helps address climate change by transforming mobility. To get there, Musk needs not only the normal sort of investor confidence, but also for investors to buy into his radical vision for the company.”
Serafeim further explains:
“Musk’s compensation plan, with its ambitious targets for market capitalization, focuses the mind on exactly this vision. For Tesla to reach a $650 billion valuation by 2028, the market will have to shift dramatically, with electric vehicles becoming the overwhelming percentage of all new sales. That would boost Tesla revenues from both vehicles and batteries. Such a future would also likely require that Tesla’s autonomous pilot technology becomes state-of-the-art, allowing it to be used safely and widely in Tesla vehicles but also potentially through licensing by other players.”
You can read more about Serafeim’s insight here.
Finance by Day, Pro Soccer by Night – Carroll School of Management News
The Boston College Carroll SOM recently profiled Issey Maholo ’07, a polymath who spends his days as VP of prime brokerage for J.P. Morgan and his nights as goalie for the Hong Kong Football Club.
Maholo, a native of Tokyo born to a Congolese father and Japanese mother, writes, “There will be plenty of excuses you can make in life as to why you should stop doing what you love to do.” He also notes the parallels between his vocation and avocation, particularly when it comes to teamwork:
“One person can shape a game, but usually not a whole season. It’s the same in finance—someone can bring in a big mandate, but you all have to pull together to become the top bank in Asia.”
You can read more about Maholo here.
The Quest for Error-Free Care – Sawyer Business School Blog
The Suffolk University Sawyer Business School recently hosted a panel discussion sponsored by the Suffolk University Chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), which touched upon “trends in the industry, patient safety, how the patient experience has improved over the decades, job-hunting advice, and many other subjects.”
The talk featured three Boston health care leaders: Lahey Hospital and Medical Center Chief Quality and Safety Officer Dr. Judith Melin; Mass General Hospital Associate chief quality & safety officer Mary Cramer; and Professor Elizabeth Turner, a nurse-attorney whose practice focuses on health care law.
Professor Mona Al-Amin, faculty adviser to the IHI group, writes, “The importance of this event was that students learned about quality improvement in healthcare organizations. They also got to ask questions about the field. And they got to learn about career choices and what skills they might need.”
You can read all the takeaways from the discussion here.
MBA Battle: BU Questrom v. BC Carroll
Boston College and Boston University are two of the metro’s most popular and recognizable schools. But for two schools with a lot in common, BU and BC don’t seem to like each other much. Continue reading…
Sawyer Announces High School Summer Program, US News Rankings and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
New Summer Program for High School Juniors and Seniors – Sawyer Business Blog
The Suffolk University Sawyer Business School recently announced the launch of its Stepping Stone program, which gives 11th and 12th-graders the opportunity to study with faculty, work in Sawyer’s Trading Room, Center for Entrepreneurship, or Innovation Lab, work on projects or visits to companies.
Sawyer’s director of honors programs Kim Larkin writes:
“This is a great opportunity for high school students to study at one of the area’s top business schools. Whether they’re interested in finance, international business, leadership, sports marketing, or entrepreneurship, students will discover the program is a great first step into the world of business and a wonderful way to experience campus life before they go to college.”
The program is slated to run July 9-20, 2018.
Learn more about the program here.
MIT Sloan Tops U.S. News List for Production/Operations, Information Systems – MIT Sloan Newsroom
The MIT Sloan School of Management revealed its impressive showings in last week’s U.S. News & World Report 2019 graduate school rankings. The school, which made its usual top five appearance among full-time MBA programs, came out on top in the production/operations and information systems MBA specialties.
MIT Sloan maintained its “respective second and third place rankings for supply chain/logistics and entrepreneurship specialties.” In addition, Sloan boasted an outstanding average starting salary of $148,000 for its 2017 MBA class, as well as one of the highest post-graduation employment rates at over 84 percent.
Read more about Sloan’s U.S. News accolades here.
Carroll School Surges to #25 in New Part-Time MBA Rankings – Carroll School of Management Blog
It was clearly a good week for Boston MBAs in the rankings last week as U.S. News & World Report ranked BC’s Carroll School of Management’s part-time MBA 25th—an unprecedented 21-spot climb from last year—and 48th on the full-time MBA list.
Andy Boynton, the John and Linda Powers Family Dean at Carroll, explains that the school’s online course offerings and “increased focus on part-time MBA students has led to substantial curricular changes, including a stronger emphasis on skills such as data analytics, which are heavily in demand by employers. We’re building a program around the needs of these students, with much greater flexibility in our offerings.”
Learn more about Carroll’s part-time MBA here.
BC Talks About the Wealth Divide, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
The Wealth Divide – Boston College Magazine
With the wealth gap in the United States wider than at any point since the Great Depression, the discussion about income inequality has been hitting closer and closer to home for many. The ever-reaching effects of inequality can start right at the beginning of someone’s life, according to research from Boston College Carroll School of Management assistant professor Sean Martin.
Martin’s 2016 research in The Academy of Management Journal explores the link between social class and leadership. Entitled “Echoes of Our Upbringing,” Martin and his coauthors, University of Toronto’s Stéphane Côté and West Point’s Todd Woodruff, uncovered “connections between how much money leaders grew up with, their narcissism, and negative reviews from their subordinates” among 299 recent West Point graduates,” according to Boston College Magazine.
“To the extent that people grow up wealthy, they’re more likely to exhibit narcissistic tendencies, and narcissistic tendencies lead people to engage in fewer leadership behaviors that we would consider prototypical and more effective. And as a result, their performance suffers.”
“My own understanding is that we’re kind of in some real trouble here.” – Carroll Assistant Professor Sean Martin on the current state of income inequality.
You can read more about the study and Martin’s experience from living in his car, to earning his Ph.D. at Cornell here.
What Opening a Nonprofit Grocery Taught the Former President of Trader Joe’s – MIT Sloan Newsroom
As part of MIT’s recent Sustainability Summit, Trader Joe’s president Doug Rauch discussed how his new venture, Daily Table, attempts to tackle “food insecurity” and still keep prices low by sourcing “its food from farmers, factories, and supermarkets, through donations of excess food, ‘imperfect’ food, and reduced purchase prices.” Rauch shared some of the lessons he gleaned after receiving community feedback on his new enterprise:
“I’m told over and over again, how good they feel: I’m providing this for my family. I can now finally come in, buy the foods I’m supposed to be eating, I feel good about what we’re feeding our families. It is so fundamental to the human need we all have, which is for respect for dignity.”
Learn more about Rauch’s plans for Daily Table here.
Those Taxing New Tax Laws – Sawyer Business School Blog
The Suffolk University Sawyer Business School recently published an interview with professor of taxation Michaele Morrow, Ph.D., CPA, who offered a nuanced analysis of the changes people can expect as a result of the recent tax reforms. She writes:
“Congress is only focused on short-term effects. In fact, the tax cuts for individuals are scheduled to expire in seven years, so this isn’t true reform. First, Congress limited the dollar amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted to $10,000. At the same time, Congress increased the standard deduction to $12,000 for a single person and $24,000 for a married couple. Essentially, this means that fewer people will have expenses that exceed those standard deduction amounts, so many more will itemize.”
You can read more about Morrow’s take on the new U.S. tax reforms here.
How Boston Business Schools Help Low-Income MBA Applicants
Anyone planning on earning a postgraduate business degree knows that MBA programs cost a lot of money. In the Boston metro, where the cost of living is already high, the annual cost of an MBA program can reach upward of $100,000 … Ouch! Continue reading…
