Turning Ocean Garbage Into Helpful Prosthetics, and More – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
How “Speed Factories” Help Companies Adapt to Capricious Consumers – Kellogg Insight
In a new study co-authored by Northwestern Kellogg Professor of Managerial Economics and Operations Jan Van Mieghem, Vlerick Business School’s Robert Boute, and Cardiff Business School’s Stephen Disney, the trio survey the return on investment for “speed factories” or local-market facilities “designed to quickly pump out products with shorter life cycles and less predictable demand.”
In the e-commerce age, speed factories are in high demand for manufacturers of realms of sneakers and sports apparel where they “offer fast turnaround to meet demand [for] custom-made products for very small local markets.”
Van Mieghem writes, “Amazon and fast-fashion trends mean that companies have had to increase their speed from product design to delivering that product to customers. If things must happen in days or weeks rather than months, you can’t be doing that from somewhere in Asia.”
The catch is that production costs are often extremely high. However, the trio found that speed factories are “worthwhile, despite their cost, and are best used as part of a portfolio of on and offshore production.”
Van Mieghem adds, “It’s about maintaining the flexibility to bring certain products in and move others out of a speed factory as needed.”
You can read more about the trio’s research here.
Anacortes Couple Turns Ocean Plastics into Prosthetics – K5 News
Gies College of Business Online MBA (iMBA) student and Anacortes, Washington resident Chris Moriarty and his wife Laura co-created the nonprofit Million Waves Project, which “takes littered plastics from the beaches for use in the creation of prosthetics.”
According to a recent profile on Seattle’s K5 News, “It takes just 15 plastic bottles, $45, and two-and-a-half days to make one hand. The couple uses open source software, a company that processes the plastic into filament and a 3-D printer.
In the K5 profile, Chris said, “We thought, wouldn’t it make a lot of sense to take something deplorable in one sense and something heartbreaking in another, put them together and see what we could do.”
Laura adds, “It is daunting. Life is daunting. But like we tell our kids, that doesn’t mean you don’t move forward and try.”
Taking Stock of Market Uncertainty – Quinlan School of Business Stories
The Loyola University Quinlan School of Business blog recently profiled Assistant professor Hae mi Choi, Ph.D. about her research on how macroeconomics and market uncertainty influence financial analysts’ incentives over time.
Professor Choi explained that “financial analysts’ incentives and their forecasting performances are affected by market uncertainty, [which is] when investors have difficulty assessing the current and future market conditions because there is a lot of volatility within the market.”
Choi explains the value of her research to Quinlan students:
“If you want to be a good investor, you need to not only understand what’s going on within a firm, but also the macroeconomic conditions and the stock market conditions in general. Understanding how other investors in the stock market process information and how financial markets function is fundamental, as it impacts the wealth of us all.”
You can read the full interview here.
Northwestern Kellogg Names Kathleen Hagerty Interim Dean
Following last year’s surprising announcement that Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management dean Sally Blount will step down from her role, provost Jonathan Holloway has announced that Kathleen Hagerty will serve as the interim dean while the school continues its search for a long-term replacement.
Blount, one of the only female deans to ever lead an M7 business school, has left behind an extraordinary legacy of fundraising and academic development. Her replacement certainly has big shoes to fill.
Holloway believes that Hagerty will do an excellent job in her new position as interim dean. “I am confident that Kathleen will provide a seamless transition when dean Blount steps down later this summer and until we conclude our search,” Holloway said.
Both Hagerty’s record of service and pedigree—including a Berkeley Haas MBA and a Stanford Ph.D.—may prove that the confidence is not misplaced.
Kellogg’s New Interim Dean Kathleen Hagerty
Hagerty has been with Northwestern Kellogg in a teaching or leadership position for more than 30 years. She currently holds the First Chicago Professorship in Finance, and her research focuses on the micro-structure of securities markets, disclosure regulation, insider trader regulation, and the efficacy of self-regulatory organizations. Hagerty’s research has been published in various books as well as in prestigious finance journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Financial Intermediation.
Hagerty currently serves as the senior associate dean of faculty and research at Kellogg, a position she previously held from 2010 to 2015. She also has occupied various other leadership positions during her time at Northwestern, including two terms as chair of the finance department and a two-year term as faculty director of Kellogg’s Ph.D. programs.
Hagerty has also gained a reputation as an excellent scholar and respected faculty leader who can attract and retain world-class academic talent in an extremely competitive market. In addition, she has contributed immensely to the development of various academic programs for both graduate and undergraduate students at Kellogg.
Hagerty shared her thoughts about being appointed interim dean:
“I’m honored to assume this role and add to the myriad accomplishments of the Kellogg team under Dean Blount’s leadership. I look forward to partnering with faculty colleagues, as well as our staff, students, alumni and broader community, to create knowledge and educate the next generation of business leaders.”
Blount, who officially steps down on August 31, is quite happy with the announcement of Hagerty as the interim dean, describing her as a valuable member of the Kellogg community.
“As a long-time member of the Kellogg faculty, no one knows the school better or has a stronger commitment to our mission than Kathleen,” Blount remarked.
She continued, “She is a deep believer in business education and a highly effective leader. I’m confident that she will maintain Kellogg’s upward trajectory and ensure continuity of everything we love about Kellogg.”
After she completes her term as interim dean, Hagerty will move into the Northwestern University Office of the Provost and serve as associate provost for faculty. In this new role, she will support about 3,700 faculty members as well as develop and execute the strategic vision of faculty.
Given her knowledge of the Kellogg community and its various members, Hagerty will be able to continue the work that dean Blount has done over the past seven years and create a rock solid foundation for the next dean, whenever they may arrive. Stay tuned with Clear Admit as the search for the next Northwestern Kellogg dean continues.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
Jeff Sessions Learns Lessons from Notre Dame, and More – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
Stop Flailing and Start Delivering – Kellogg Insights
Of the “five common issues that impede career progress” Northwestern Kellogg clinical professor of innovation and entrepreneurship Carter Cast writes about in his new book, The Right (and Wrong) Stuff: How Brilliant Careers Are Made—and Unmade, the one issue that people most frequently self-identify is struggling to keep up.
Cast writes, “Careers can derail when people don’t deliver on promises. This can be a real problem because fellow workers start to distance themselves when they think you can’t be counted on.”
Cast offers five suggestions for how to “get organized and get ahead.”
1) Be Clear on What’s Expected of You
“Being clear with your boss on what success looks like is really important for setting expectations and ensuring you’re aligned. What are your goals and objectives for the year? What are the key initiatives that map to those objectives? What are the timelines for those initiatives, and what sort of resources will you need?”
2) Understand Your Organization’s Workflow Process
Cast says creative types tend to “overpromise and underdeliver” because “their eyes are typically bigger than their stomachs.” To these folks, Cast says, “Decide which tasks will really move the needle for your organization, and focus on those first. You can’t treat every message in your inbox equally.”
3) Be Intentional about Prioritizing Your Work
Cast suggests “breaking your day into segments and tackling challenging work during times when you are sharpest and most productive.” For instance, if your brain is most active between six and ten in the morning, for instance, that may not be the best time to respond to noncritical emails.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Kellogg Admissions Director Shares Insights on 2019 MBA Application
4) Learn How to Say “No”
Cast writes that people-pleasers “tend to take on more than they should—their default response is, “yes, why not?” But learning when to say “no,” and learning to do it tactfully, is critical for preserving valuable time and energy.”
5) Look for Opportunities to Delegate
Cast says, “We tend to think the best person to perform a given task is ourselves. In many cases, you have to learn to let go a bit. Things won’t go exactly the way you’d like, but you have to move forward and avoid needless distractions.”
You can check out the full article here.
Larry Gies Urges 2018 Graduates to “Find Your Way” – Gies School of Business Blog
Madison Industries founder, president, and CEO Larry Gies used his speech at Gies’ recent Convocation ceremony, which honored the “1,824 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree recipients,” as an opportunity to inspire graduates to spend time pinpointing their passion for what they do—or their “why.”
Gies, who donated $150 million to the University of Illinois last year, thus, changing the name of the business school in his honor, explains, “Knowing your why is critical. It is the ability to connect the dots between what you’re doing each and every day and a higher purpose. Our why is what drives us, inspires others around us, and allows us to persevere during those difficult moments. To put it simply, when you find your why, you love what you do.”
Gies adds, “I was forty-five before I found my why.”
Find out more about Gies’ speech here.
I’m a Biblical Scholar. It’s Clear That Jeff Sessions Needs a Bible Lesson – Mendoza Ideas & News
Notre Dame Mendoza business ethics professor and former Jesuit priest Joseph Holt contributed an op-ed to a recent issue of Fortune in which he took Attorney General Jeff Sessions to task for his “use of scripture to defend the Trump administration’s immigration policies.”
Professor Holt writes, “Sessions is pursuing justice understood as the strict and impartial application of the law. That shriveled understanding of justice is captured in the statement by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: ‘In the United States, if you break the law, you go to jail and you’re separated from your family.’
He adds, “From that viewpoint justice and mercy are opposed, because mercy could impede the administration of strict justice. But tzedek [the Hebrew word for “justice”] and its derivative tzedakah (which is a commandment to give as an act of social justice), mean justice and mercy working in unison.”
You can read the full article here.
Empathy and Power, According to Northwestern Research – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
How Much Empathy Do You Feel When Powerful People Suffer? – Kellogg Insight
Northwestern Kellogg assistant professor of management and organizations Nour Kteily recently co-authored new research with Cornell University assistant professor Brian Lucas that explores how much empathy people experience when the factory floor worker suffers a pay cut compared to when the executive’s six-figure salary gets lobbed off.
Kteily writes, “The prevailing view has been that anti-egalitarians do not have it in them to empathize, and egalitarians are empathetic toward everyone.
Kteily’s research found that “when people read about victims with lower social status, egalitarians consistently expressed more empathy than people with anti-egalitarian views did. But when they read about victims with a higher socioeconomic standing, the opposite occurred. Participants who strongly favored a social hierarchy expressed more concern for victims like the wealthy executive than the egalitarians did.”
You can read the full article here.
Friend or Foe? Notre Dame Conference Explores Ethical Considerations of AI – Mendoza Ideas & News
Notre Dame University’s Mendoza College of Business recently announced “Artificial Intelligence and Business Ethics: Friends or Foes,” a fall 2018 conference sponsored by the Chase Manhattan Lecture Series, that “will explore the ethical issues arising from the use of AI in business and larger culture.”
Associate teaching professor in Mendoza’s IT, Analytics, and Operations Department Timothy Carone, who organized the conference, writes:
“The reason AI is so important is that it can make and implement decisions that heretofore were the purview of humans only. Over time, these decisions set up a pattern and it is this pattern we call ‘ethical behavior.’ We have only begun to explore the ethical implications to businesses of using AI to replace human decision-making and understand how to manage the new risks that come with this transformation.”
Featured speakers include:
- Daniel Fagella, the founder of daily newsletter TechEmergence, which serves as an industry source for business applications of AI.
- Martin Fiore, EY Americas Tax Talent leader who has explored the implications of AI in the tax, audit and talent acquisition areas.
- Otto Berkes, the chief technology officer for CA Technologies, one of the largest independent system software companies in the world.
- Ryan Welsh, founder and CEO of Kyndi, a venture-backed software company that is changing the paradigm of machine intelligence and how it’s used to solve some of the world’s hardest problems.
You can read the full article from Mendoza here.
Alan Dershowitz Shares His View on Key Legal and Ethical Issues – Gies College of Business News
High-profile lawyer and frequent contributor on FOX News and CNN, Alan Dershowitz, whose distinguished career in law has encompassed high-profile celebrity clients like Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, and O.J. Simpson, visited the University of Illinois this past April.
Controversial lawyer and political personality Alan Dershowitz recently spoke at the University of Illinois / Photo via NYT
Dershowitz used his lecture as an opportunity to “discuss and to answer questions about freedom of speech, professional ethics, attorney-client privilege, and a range of other topics,” such as “media issues, attorney-client privilege, conflict of interest, and comparative ethics” with students from the Gies College of Business and the U-IL College of Law.
“Ethics are very situational. As lawyers, we’ve all be told things by our clients that we can’t sleep at night keeping as secrets. You feel you have to tell somebody. And you can’t. I can’t tell my wife or my children. You go to the grave with these secrets. And if you don’t want to do that, you can’t become a very good lawyer.”
You can read the full article here.
How To Get a Job with Google
As one of the most recognizable and powerful tech companies in world, Google has always prioritized bringing in fresh, new talent and hiring the best and brightest MBAs to help lead the next era of innovation at the company. Continue reading…
MBAs Hold High Expectations for B-School Admissions Process, Survey Finds
According to the 2018 MBA Applicant Survey conducted by the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), MBA applicants expect a lot from business schools as they make their way through the admissions process. Not only do they want the schools themselves to be more transparent—including providing status updates, feedback, and earlier wait list decisions—they also want more consultant advice and interaction.
“More transparency in terms of the status of the application will be appreciated,” wrote one survey respondent. “Leading schools like [schools] were notoriously quiet about the application for more than 5 weeks.”
Even applicants whose bids for admission were unsuccessful want more from schools. “Feedback at some point would be fantastic,” wrote one. “At least some indication of what portion of an application was below expectation would be helpful even just for personal development.”
The latest annual AIGAC survey drew almost 2,000 responses from applicants to more than two dozen leading business schools. Results were released as part of the admissions consultant group’s annual conference, which took place last week at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Where Do MBA Applicants Look for Admissions Information?
According to the survey results, school websites are a primary source of information for 80 percent of applicants. After school websites, online information sessions, student and alumni referrals, and admissions teams are where applicants are most likely to turn. In terms of what they are looking for, applicants are most eager for information that helps them set expectations for the admissions process, but finding it isn’t always easy. As one survey respondent said, “[School]’s application process was steeped in mystery.”
Outside of school resources, students look to social media, online communities/forums, MBA rankings, and then family/friends/work colleagues. They also look to the blogs and websites of admissions consultants as well as printed viewbooks and brochures. And many applicants look in as many places as possible to find the information they crave.
“Videos, interviews, and current or alumni experiences are very valuable,” wrote one survey respondent. Another underscored the importance of school websites being “very easy to navigate.” Online seminars that only reiterate information available on the schools’ websites are less valuable, shared another.
In the social media sphere, more applicants look to LinkedIn for information than any other channel, followed by YouTube and Facebook. Quora follows, trailed by Instagram and Twitter.
Schools That Get to Know MBA Applicants Best
Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, UVA’s Darden School of Business, and Dartmouth’s Tuck School scored the highest marks in terms of how well they get to know applicants as part of the admissions process. Notably, some of the most highly ranked business schools fell short in this regard, with Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School bringing up the rear. As one candidate explained, “Though I fell in love with [school] during my campus visit, I felt that their application process was very impersonal, and I didn’t feel like I had enough of an opportunity to show the school who I was with a video and a [short essay] …”
Why the MBA? Why a Particular School?
The survey also sought to understand what most motivates applicants to apply to MBA programs in general. More than half—57 percent—seek to acquire new information, skills, and knowledge. Forty-nine percent, meanwhile, want access to job prospects. And 48 percent are seeking a stronger network or to advance their careers.
As for the top factors influencing which schools applicants choose to target, reputation reigns supreme, cited by 66 percent of applicants surveyed. School rank was a top factor for 61 percent, and school culture, for 53 percent.
To learn more about the survey results and to read more personal responses from applicants, consult the full survey here.
