Friday News Roundup – Lehigh’s New Head of Executive Education, Ethics at VT, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including the all new Wharton FinTech Center.
Lehigh Announces New Head of Executive Education – Lehigh University News
Lehigh University’s College of Business and Economics has announced the appointment of Alison McGrath Peirce as Director of the Vistex Institute of Executive Education and Leadership. Her tenure began on March 18, 2019.
At her former position at Wharton Executive Education, Peirce was responsible for launching the Advanced Management Program, as well as for forming new initiatives for executive training. She then formed Magna Learning Group, a consulting practice that worked with academic and for-profit organizations on marketing and business development strategies.
After a decade of running Magna, Peirce returned to Wharton, where she worked with Financial and Professional Services Firms to develop best practices. At Lehigh, Peirce will work to foster collaboration between faculty and practitioners in developing non-credit curriculum for companies and organizations. The work of the Vistex Institute has local, regional and national reach.
Georgette Chapman Phillips, Dean of the College of Business and Economics at Lehigh, says of Peirce’s appointment, “Alison brings a depth and breadth of experience to her role as executive director of the Vistex Institute that will take our executive education program to new heights … We are proud that our program attracted such a talented leader.”
You can read more about the new executive education appointment here.
LeBow Students Meet a PR Challenge in Marketing Competition – LeBow College of Business News
Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business recently hosted a Marketing Crisis Challenge, which presented MBA and MS student teams with a real world scenario, in which their skills for strategy and problem solving were put to the test.
The hypothetical crisis involved a scenario at Talen Energy Stadium, in which a soccer fan attempts to bring a firearm into a game. The fan is prohibited from entering and is arrested, but the stadium’s marketing team must make a public statement regarding the event. The students were challenged to assess the political risk of the statement, along with the integrity of Talen’s brand. The presentation had to be completed in eight hours.
The winning team, made up of first year MBAs, presented a solution in which the organization reiterates its prohibition of guns in the stadium without taking a specific stance on the larger issue of gun control.
Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, PA, home to the Philadelphia Union MLS franchise and the site of this year’s Lebow Market Crisis Challenge.
Marianna Tretiak, a current MBA who has a background in television and film production, was part of the winning team. She says, “Early on, we came up with a one-sentence line—‘However you feel at home, guns have no place in the stadium’—and settled on that. After that it was figuring out how best to present it.”
Judges came from a wide selection of leading organizations, including: Dan Keir, Executive Director, Consumer Marketing at Comcast; Brian Papson, Vice President of Marketing at the Philadelphia Eagles; Catherine Trefz, Director of Content Marketing at Ricoh USA, Inc.; and Jeff Haas, Director of Business Strategy at Seer Interactive all weighed in upon the teams’ approaches, and decided upon this one.
The competition was hosted by the Dornsife Office for Experiential Learning. You can learn more about the challenge here.
Pamplin to Host 28th Annual Business Ethics Symposium – Pamplin College of Business Notices & News
Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business will host the Del Alamo/Hogan Symposium on Business Ethics on April 2, 2019 at Burruss Auditorium on VT’s campus.
The Virginia Tech Burruss Auditorium, which will feature the April 2 Del Alamo/Hogan Symposium on Business Ethics.
Featured speaker Leo S. Mackay Jr., a leading executive at Lockheed Martin, will discuss the importance of business ethics at all levels of professional life. Mackay serves both as Lockheed Martin’s chief audit executive and its senior vice president of internal audit, ethics, and assurance. He also heads LM Ventures, Lockheed Martin’s venture capital fund which is valued at $200 million.
April 1 will mark the beginning of Ethics Week at Pamplin, in which faculty will integrate discussion of ethics issues into their current curriculum. The symposium is in its 28th year, and it is free and open to the public.
Click here for more on the event including registration.
Columbia Business School Professor on Great Artists and Social Networks – Columbia Business School News & Releases
Professor Paul Ingram of Columbia University Business School recently published research stating social networks have more of an impact than creativity upon how much fame a person has acquired.
Ingram collaborated with Mitali Banjeree of HEC Paris on the paper, entitled “Fame as an Illusion of Creativity: Evidence from the Pioneers of Abstract Art.” Using the examples of 90 masters of abstract art such as Pablo Picasso, Banjeree and Ingram examined the social connections that strengthened the artists’ reputations and built up their level of fame.
Among the tools used to gauge relative creativity in the study were machine learning and ‘expert measures;’ both of which could not exhibit statistical success as much as the relationships that the famous artists had with their peers. According to the study, individuals with the most diverse group of friends and connections throughout diverse industries had the highest probability of becoming famous.
According to Ingram and Banjeree’s research brief, “[this] first-of-its-kind study reveals that social networks are actually a more reliable predictor of fame—even for artists who achieved critical acclaim long before the advent of Facebook and Instagram.”
Driehaus Professor Shares Expertise on Political Marketing – DePaul News & Events
DePaul University Driehaus College of Business Marketing Professor Bruce Newman, one of the world’s foremost experts on political marketing, recently participated in a discussion regarding the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.
Newman, the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Political Marketing, is a keen observer of how politicians employ the media to convey messaging and evolving trends.
“Marketing,” Newman says, “continues to be the most important medium through which a candidate has the best chance of getting elected because of the direct channel of … communication between the candidate and receiver of that information. No longer does a candidate have to get vetted by a political party. They can communicate directly to the voter.”
Bruce Newman, DePaul University Driehaus College of Business Marketing Professor, and co-author of Brand.
The rapid growth of technology and its extreme influence upon voters is a defining topic of Newman’s work. He says, “The speed at which information is conveyed … creates a crisis management mentality were campaigns are in a constant state of crises. Voters have the ability to get across their thoughts, their feelings, their instantaneous assessments and snapshots,” which greatly influences campaign outcomes.
Professor Newman is also the co-author of Brand, which explores the shifting ways in which consumers are influenced by branding and vice versa.
Lehigh Alum Donates $5 Million to Business School
Sanjay Shah, CEO of Vistex, Inc., recently donated $5 million to Lehigh University to fund the Vistex Institute for Executive Learning and Research, three decades after he left India to attend the school.
“Lehigh was my gateway to life in the United States. Lehigh will always have a special place for me. The U.S. is my home,” Shah said.
This gift was intended to help Lehigh expand their executive education program.
“This gift is absolutely, positively transformational. The gift allows us to expand our offerings, footprint, and partner with Vistex. It is not just a gift. It is truly an intellectual partnership,” said Georgette Chapman Phillips, dean of the Lehigh College of Business and Economics.
Shah launched his software company in 1999, and gave Lehigh this donation with the hope that Vistex could offer its resources to the executive program.
Shah said, “Since we also work with some of the best known brands in the world I believe that our participation, not just in the commissioning of the institute, but as it also develops and grows, we will be able to bring our clients and their perspectives into the programs as well.”
Historically, Lehigh has not had a developed executive education program. However, in 2016, the school brought on David Welsh to design and direct an executive program.
When asked about the new program, Phillips said, “The whole idea is we want people to never stop learning and we want to be their partner from (age) 18 to 80.”
Shah’s donation will be used to erect a new building and provide a greater wealth of resources to students.
Lehigh President John D. Simon praised Shah for his generosity, saying, “With this support, Mr. Shah is embodying the coward-thinking, impact-driven ethos of Lehigh graduates by utilizing his passion for the university and for lifelong education to support future leaders.”
