For the past five years,the Owen AdmissionsOffice has aggressivelyrecruited students

from around the globe. Our interna-tional student population has increasedfrom 16 to 30 percent during this periodand benefited the School in many ways.

Why do we consider an internation-al program worth the effort? In thewords of Thomas Friedman in his book,The Lexis and the Olive Tree, “if youcan’t see the world and you can’t seethe interactions that are shaping theworld, you surely cannot strategizeabout the world. And if you are goingto deal with a system as complex andbrutal as globalization, and prosperwithin it, you need a strategy for how to

choose prosperity for your country orcompany.” Our mission is to provide anenvironment where students from vari-ous countries and ethnic backgroundscan learn from each other and betterunderstand the complexities of theglobal economy.

Again this year, members of the Ad-missions Office traversed the world tofind bright, qualified students. ToddReale, Admissions director, and JohnHaller, associate director of Admissionsand Student Services, covered the U.S.and Canada. Miguel Bota, associate di-rector of Admissions and Marketing,spent three weeks in Latin America,participating in MBA fairs in Monter-rey and Mexico City, Caracas, SãoPaulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Li-ma, and Santiago. I crisscrossed Europe,targeting Paris, London, Madrid, Milan,Frankfurt, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague,Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Istanbul,then on to Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Singa-pore, Manila, and Bangkok.

Why do we choose some cities andnot others? We participate with 30 to40 other universities on tours focusedon prospective MBA-student markets.The tour agencies conduct research todetermine the best cities. Organizerscoordinate locations and publicity,gather information on attendees,and oftentimes make our travelarrangements too. On occasion,we may travel with a selectgroup of schools to target areasnot covered in the generaltours.

It is not easy to break into theinternational market, and to do sotakes name recognition. How do we

market the program? We advertise inkey publications, but the best way isthrough networking and personal con-tacts. We see thousands of people alongthe way. We give presentations to stu-dents at Kaplan and Princeton Reviewtesting agencies and TOEFL institutes,conduct hundreds of personal inter-views, and meet with educational advi-sors at the Institute of International Ed-ucation, the Fulbright Commission, andlocal universities.

We also call on alumni to help atthe fairs. Alumni assistance is invalu-able because they give practical advice,

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INTERNATIONALRECRUITINGB Y C H R I S T I E S T - J O H N

INTERNATIONAL FUN FACTS

■ Being agreeable and extraverted is aliability in some types of negotiation inthe U.S. But not so in Taiwan, wherewhat makes one a winner innegotiation are such unique Chinesepersonality traits as concern for socialexchange (renqing) and for “Face.”

■ The words “I take full responsibility forthe company’s problems” are merely lipservice and politeness in the U.S.; insome cultures it means, “I plan toresign.”

■ U.S. investors historically have ignoredoverseas stocks. In 2000, the U.S. stockmarket accounted for only one half ofthe world’s total stock market value, yetU.S. investors on average hold 90percent of their investments in U.S.companies.

■ The average annual country clubmembership fee in Singapore is$300,000. The average annualswimming club membership fee is$25,000.

■ The most wired nation in the world isSingapore. Virtually every home is wiredwith broadband Internet access. Theratio of PCs to students in the publicschool system is 2 to 1.

■ The State Bank of India has more than17,000 branch offices, some of whichoperate without electricity.

■ In Bangkok, the average travel timefrom the downtown business district tothe airport—a distance of 10 miles—isthree and a half hours. The expresswayis shared by motorists, bicyclists, andcattle.

■ The mean time for a passenger to exit ajet, walk through the terminal, collectluggage, pass through Customs andImmigration, and secure a taxicab atChangi International Airport inSingapore is 10 minutes.

Compiled from Owen professors’ research andpersonal experiences.

speak to students in their own language,and are proof that an MBA from Owenis a passport to success.

Alumni also spread news aboutOwen to their employers and prospec-tive students, and are contacts for ourcurrent students for job information.We hold alumni receptions and dinnerson the road, and it is gratifying to seemore and more alumni involved everyyear. The “Owen Community” is not amyth. Alumni come out in force inSouth America, Europe, and especiallyAsia. We are proud of their success andeternally grateful for their help, both

with recruiting and career ad-vice.

Recruiting globally isincreasingly competi-

tive. More U.S.schools are hittingthe road, and anumber of busi-ness schools fromAustralia, Great

Britain, Japan, andCanada are gaining

a share of the market.The tuition is generally

lower at these schools, and their pro-grams have been expanded and accred-ited by various accrediting bodies.

While the U.S. remains the topchoice for many, we must be flexibleand creative to continue to attract in-ternational students. Luckily at Owen,we are able to move quickly to meetnew challenges. We have good commu-nication among our constituents andthe support of Dean Bill Christie, thefaculty, and Chancellor Gordon Gee toimplement new ideas and programs.We are aware of the importance ofmaintaining a global academic environ-ment to form knowledgeable, far-sight-ed managers for today’s economy. Ourefforts have paid off: the London Finan-cial Times named Owen one of the top30 business schools in the world, andFrance’s leading newspaper, Le Figaro,rated Owen the 13th best school for in-ternational students. But we won’t stopthere. The next goal: being in the top10 in the world!

Christie St-John is director of InternationalRelations at the Owen School.

Our mission is to provide an

environment where students

from various countries and

ethnic backgrounds can learn

from each other and better

understand the complexities of

the global economy.

INTERNATIONALRECRUITING

Map of world,with dots showingcountries wherealumni are located.

Alumni assistance is invaluable in recruitinginternationally. Manning the booth with St-Johnin Ankara, Turkey, is Bahysayis (Temir)Firatoglu, ’99.

More and more alumni are getting involved in alumni activities overseas. Here, St-Johnrelaxes over dinner with a group of alumni in Seoul.

GLOBAL BUSINESS SS

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GLOBAL BUSINESS SS

OWEN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATESOWEN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES

In college I wanted to study overseas,but as an engineering student Ifound this nearly impossible. So

when I decided to get an MBA, Isought out schools with internationalprograms. Owen gave me the opportu-nity to study and work abroad to learnabout other cultures and business ide-ologies. These experiences equipped mewith the necessary skills to succeed inthe increasingly global marketplace.

In the summer of 2000, I participat-ed in a month-long program at Wis-senschaftliche Hochschule fur Un-ternehmensfuhrung-Otto BeisheimGraduate School (WHU-Koblenz) inKoblenz, Germany. Students from thebest business schools in the world gothere to study the changing face of in-ternational business in Europe. Ilearned the effects that the European

Union and other changes in Europe arehaving on business around the world.Following the program, I began an in-ternship at BMW in Munich.

At BMW, I developed a strategicbusiness proposal for an internal e-com-merce communications portal for BMWworldwide, headed research on the on-line auto industry in 12 global markets,and helped launch BMW sites inFrance and South Africa. I dealt withthe issues and effects of e-commerceand telecommunications in a myriad ofcountries on four continents, and trav-eled extensively throughout Europe.

At the end of the summer, I returnedto Nashville just in time to fly to Japan.I spent the next four months at the In-ternational University of Japan throughan exchange program. I took a full loadof classes, ranging from Japanese securi-

ties markets to aseminar on Japan-ese, European, andAmerican businesspractices, struc-tures, and ideals.

I thought Iknew what to expect from these ex-changes, but it was beyond imagination.Being one of about 15 percent Ameri-cans in class forced me to consider is-sues from other viewpoints. I under-stood for the first time what it means tobe a “foreigner,” something that not on-ly taught me about the business worldbut about myself. Among the greatestbenefits was first-hand exposure to howJapanese and Europeans view, define,and interact within the business world.

We often assume that business over-seas is conducted in the same manner as

Running With the Bulls B Y C H R I S N A N C R E D E

—RIS ING ALL THE T IME

in the U.S. This is a narrow view con-sidering that less than 5 percent of theworld’s consumers live in the states.Studying overseas exposes us to success-ful business methods we might not con-sider. For example, American corpora-tions cite increasing shareholder value

as the main objective. Businesses inJapan and Europe, however, often con-sider the concerns and desires of em-ployees or society to be paramount. It iscrucial to remember this alternativeparadigm when conducting business

with companies in these countries.When immersed in other cultures,

you also quickly discover how societyinfluences business. For instance, bylearning about Japan and its collectivesociety, it is easier to understand whymost business decisions are made bygroups of employees rather than oneteam leader or department head. Un-derstanding business and culture in oth-er countries is not only critical in con-ducting business in those countries butis paramount in understanding businessat home.

Not all of my education took placein a classroom or an office. Some oncein a lifetime cultural experiences in-cluded running with the bulls in Pam-plona, attending Oktoberfest in Mu-nich, visiting the World Fair inHanover, and walking on hot coals inan ancient fire walking festival inJapan. Who said a business educationisn’t supposed to be fun? Speaking of

which, I also developed many friend-ships that will last a lifetime and pro-vide an invaluable international net-work.

As the world grows smaller and in-ternational commerce becomes increas-ingly seamless, an understanding of in-ternational cultures and business prac-tices is necessary to succeed. These fun-damentals will assist me in my careerand have driven me to look for an in-ternational assignment in my currentjob search. Many Americans fail whenworking with different cultures becausethey cannot adapt. An enriching inter-national experience provides the toolsnecessary to meet challenges that lieahead in the global marketplace. I fullyexpect the experiences provided byOwen to allow me to succeed at homeor abroad.

Chris Nancrede is an ’01 graduate of theOwen School.

Nancrede Being one of about 15percent Americans in class

forced me to consider issuesfrom other viewpoints. I

understood for the first timewhat it means to be a

‘foreigner.’

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Experiencing Cultural Diversity B Y M E R I T X E L L C A N C I O

Studying abroad can be seen as apleasant experience, one full of di-version and entertainment, a

“non ending party.”And…that is not false. Exchange

programs offer a world of new experi-ences, but Owen adds the element of“family” to that list.

I wanted to study in the U.S. to ac-quire knowledge and be exposed to dif-ferent points of view. Improving myEnglish was an important but non-decisive factor. You can learn lan-guages in an academy, but to gain asense of “playing a game by another’srules,” you must travel and share yourlife with other cultures—experience

the real world outside.Why Owen? Because it has been

ranked a top 25 MBA school, and top10 in finance and in e-commerce. Andbecause of Donna Hoffman and TomNovak, founders of eLab and pioneersand professors in the analysis of con-sumer behavior in the World WideWeb. The quality of the School wasreason enough, but the environment al-so was key. There are approximately200 students per class, and 30 percourse. This allows for participation andexpression of thought. “To learn” is anunavoidable maxim. But at Owen, stu-dents and, more important, professorsand employees (among them, our

beloved Dean—“the Dean is in”)have a “propername.” Theyhave virtues anddefects, joys andpains. All are re-ally human.

My experiencewas unforgettable. We worked longhard hours, individually and in groups,but also shared many rewarding experi-ences. I had lived in a foreign countrywithout friends or family before, but asfor many students, Owen’s cultural di-versity was new to me and had a majorimpact. Group work is tricky, even

more so in a mixed cultural context, butis a necessary skill for MBAs to learn.(And in the working world, “diversity”is not only cultural, but also social andpsychological. Motivations and objec-tives are never the same things for em-ployees of a company.) Innocent cus-toms in our countries could be inter-preted as disrespectful and irreverentconduct. Tolerance is born from knowl-edge, and Owen was our referencepoint.

Professionally, Owen gave me ac-cess to a wide range of companies.Owen’s reputation opens doors foryou, but then you have to demonstrateyou have what it takes. I applied toseveral companies and got an offer.Through it all, employees and stu-

dents helped me. “Solidarity” is defi-nitely a hallmark of this School.

Personally, I learned at Owen thatyou can reach as far as you want: Strivefor your goals using your abilities andhard work. And even while the Owencommunity encouraged us to pursue ourown dreams, it never forgot the dreamsof needy people, those whose dreamsare as basic and important as a ceiling,an education, equality of opportunities,or just a little present at Christmastime. The service projects illustrate theSchool’s commitment to society. Owenshows you that time is more valuablethan money, and that sharing it withothers is the first step toward community.

I returned to Spain with more thanan academic certificate. I returned with

new friends, experiences I never willforget, and the pride of having con-tributed to life at Owen for a period oftime.

Owen is a micro system, where to in-teract is to learn to work and to live. Be-ing an Owen MBA means having spe-cialized knowledge, spirit, the ability towork hard and achieve excellent work,having optimism about the future, theability to learn from mistakes, and espe-cially having a social conscience withno color or border limitations.

OWEN—four letters that never be-fore meant so much to me.

Meritxell Cancio, supervisor for AndersenCorporate Finance in Madrid, was an ex-change student at Owen in 2000.

Cancio

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GLOBAL BUSINESS SS

W hen Hernán Cortez arrivedin Mexico, determined toconquer the Aztecan Em-

pire, he burned his fleet of ships, sig-naling to his people that no retreat waspossible.

For me, like most international stu-dents seeking an American MBA, thestory is similar: my wife and I burnedour ships by taking our savings andselling our assets—her car, my wonder-ful TV, even our bed!—and going tobusiness school. An MBA is a gamblefor all students, but we “internationals”face the additional challenge of mak-ing decisions with incomplete informa-tion about schools, city life styles, costof living, housing, transportation, andjob markets.

As with many married students, Iasked my wife to put her career onhold, leave her family and friends, andcome with me into the “unknown.”Fabiana didn’t speak English and hadno idea what she would do while I wasat school (working was not an optionbecause of immigration regulations),but she took the challenge. Spouseslike Fabiana, with their unconditionalsupport, make many internationalMBAs possible.

Far from home, seeing your cash flyout of the bank, you seriously wonder“why am I doing this?”

My first answer was, “I am here tolearn from those who write the businessbooks.” In undergraduate school, inone of the finest Argentinean schoolsof economics, I learned and interactedwith a wonderful faculty. In business,however, most of the thought leader-ship comes from the U.S. and Europe,and I knew that if I were ever going topursue an MBA, it had to be abroad.

Owen’s assets include the opportu-

nity to learn directly from thoughtleaders in such fields as online con-sumer behavior, service marketing andoperations, financial markets, e-com-merce strategy, environmental studies,micro-economics, customer satisfac-tion psychology, negotiations, andtime-based competition. And morecompelling, Owen’s small size and ex-cellent professor-to-student ratio as-sured me I would have easy access tothe faculty.

The experience exceeded my expec-tations: I found a faculty—recognizedin and out of the classroom—whoshared new, unpublished research find-ings at every class and who personally

reviewed our deliverables and providedfeedback. And to my great surprise,they engaged students in their researchand asked them to co-author papers, asBrenton, Pradeep, myself, and othersfound out.

Today, when I talk to prospectivestudents about Owen, I stress that fewschools offer this combination ofthought leadership and top faculty ac-cess. At Owen I found not only theopportunity to learn from those whowrite business books, but to write withthem.

Fabiana’s reaction was, “Ok, but isthis the only reason to be here?” At thatpoint, I answered, “I am also here tolearn from those who come from all overthe world.” No matter how much you

travel, how many languages you know,and how much you read about interna-tional affairs, if you have spent most ofyour life in a single country, you tendto develop an insular mind-set. Know-ing that I was going to be involved inglobal business for the rest of my life,the idea of studying in a differentcountry, immersed in a different cul-ture, was compelling.

When researching schools, I foundthat despite its relatively small size andodd location (Let’s be frank: Nobodycan imagine that you can “get theglobal thing” in a 500-person school inthe southeast U.S), Owen not only hasa strong international student bodywith more than 40 countries represent-ed but also a strong international fac-ulty. In this setting, I would have theopportunity to find out, for example, ifglobal consumer marketing makessense.

Again, it exceeded my expectations.Making friends and sharing classes,group discussions, and negotiationswith Germans, Brazilians, Britons, In-dians, Panamanians, Lebanese, Chi-nese, Mexicans, Japanese, Russians,Bulgarians, Ecuadorians, Francs, Thais,Belgians, Koreans, Sri Lankans—to

Learning from the Source B Y M A R C O S P E R A L T Aname just a few— provided me a per-spective of how business is thought,felt, spoken, and conducted around theworld.

When talking about Owen, I stressthat nearly 25 percent of my classeswere taught by non-American profes-sors and another 20 percent weretaught by American professors activeat teaching, consulting, and research-ing in Latin America, Europe, and theFar East. In this environment, it is dif-ficult not to “get the global thing” andunderstand—as an Owen professorsays—that all who come to Owen—Americans and non-Americans—arereally international students.

Fabiana appeared to be impressed bythis answer, but fired again: “Whatelse?” My third and final answer was, “Iam also here to learn at one of the fewschools that respected me as an individualfrom the beginning of this process.”

No matter where you are from, ap-plying to business school is a toughprocess. Admissions scrutinizes every-thing you say and write, searching forthe hint that you are “the right per-son.” “Selling” yourself to many

schools in a short time frame can makeyou feel more like an end product thana human.

When Tom Hambury (former direc-tor of Executive Education) inter-viewed me in Buenos Aires, he got theinformation he needed but alsoshowed a genuine interest in who I wasand what I was doing. After meetingadmissions staff from more than 10schools, it was the first time somebodyseemed to be listening to me and notjust the candidate. I returned homethat night in 1996 and told Fabiana: “I have met a guy from a small schoolwho treated me like no one else. Ifthey make an offer, it is going to bedifficult for me to turn it down.”

The great thing is that Tom’s atti-tude is typical among Owen staff. Irarely have found people more willingto go the extra mile to help. And be-lieve me, I asked for enough help tobecome a pain: how to make my firsttuition payment without a U.S. bankaccount, how to open a bank accountwithout a social security number, howto ask for a SSN, how to get a driver’slicense so that I can use my brand-new

bank account opened with my newSSN, etc.

When speaking to people startingthe MBA search process, I stress that afaculty can be fine, the school reputa-tion great, job offers attractive, schoolfacilities the best, but also look at howyou are treated and respected. At theend of the day, this overlooked factormakes the difference for internationalstudents and their families. And in thisarea, Owen is top.

So, now you know why Fabiana andI—like dozens of other internationalstudents—burned our ships and soldcars, houses, and even beds: to meet agreat faculty and learn from their lead-ing-edge insights; to meet wonderfulpeople from around the world and “getthe global thing;” and to come togeth-er with people who listen, support, andmake you and your family feel wel-come in a new culture and new system.And Fabiana said, “Well, it sounds goodenough then.”

Marcos Peralta, ’99, is an associate withA.T. Kearney, Inc., in Buenos Aires.

Peralta

At Owen, I found not only theopportunity to learn fromthose who write business

books, but to write with them.

A Business “Peace Corps” B Y D E B R A A S A Y

Many classmates and potentialemployers could not under-stand why I turned down

great job opportunities to volunteer fora year in a country most had neverheard of (Lithuania), and one inwhich I did not speak or understandthe language, for $200 a month. Butseven years later, that experience re-mains one of the most valuable of mylife and a perfect complement to myOwen education.

One of my goals in business school

was to learn about the global economythrough international work experience.Exchange programs offered unique cul-tural experiences but did not include awork component. I saw the MBA En-terprise Corps as the answer.

The MBA Enterprise Corps recruitsMBA graduates from top businessschools to work in developing andtransitional economies as consultantsto locally based companies. Owen hasparticipated in this program for approx-imately 10 years, with nine alumni

serving in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland,Hungary, and Moldova. Owen taughtthe business concepts (and in some cas-es, practical application of the con-cepts), while the Corps provided an av-enue to apply what we had learned.

Consistent with the transitional na-ture of Lithuania (and most countrieswith Corps volunteers), my initialplacement fell through because of abankruptcy related to the organiza-tion’s assets. The Corps arranged for asecond placement with AB STOMA,

the first privatized dental clinic anddistributor in Lithuania. There, I• consulted with the largest private

dental clinic and equipment distrib-utor in Lithuania;

• initiated international contacts anddeveloped a database of potentialpartners/investors;

• developed a relationship with theWorld Health Organization to in-troduce preventative dental care toLithuania;

• applied for additional funding tosupport the organization’s growth;and

• reached out to the local expatriatecommunity to increase awareness ofthe organization.

I also solidified skills in areas essentialto global business: effective communi-cation, cultural understanding, andleadership development.

Effective Communication: I used totake listening for granted. But whenyou live and work in a country whereEnglish is a fourth, fifth, or sixth lan-guage, active listening and comprehen-sion is key. Translation issues and cul-tural differences make effective commu-nication all the more important.

Cultural Understanding: In con-trast to the warp-like speed at whichbusiness is conducted in the U.S., myexperience overseas taught me the val-ue of patience and inquisitiveness. Iconstantly asked, “Why is this donethis way, why don’t we consider this,”often to receive the comeback, “This is

our reality.” Afteryears of communistoppression, changerepresented a sig-nificant shift forLithuania. Overtime, with a solidrationale, a pro-posed changecould become thenew reality. Andthis, I learned, isnot always bad assome ideas get lostin our fast-pacedenvironment. Wesometimes learnand accomplishmore by gettingback to basics.Cultural differ-ences can causebusiness to operatemore slowly, butthe rewards in-clude new focus,perspectives, andthoughts broughtto the workplace.

Leadership De-velopment: Thebest part of my ex-perience involvedhelping to developleadership. I wouldonly be there ayear, but I wanted my contributions tobe long-lasting. I was fortunate to workwith two “rising stars.” I introducedthem to the importance of teamworkand watched them grow and prosperduring the year.

My Corps experience empoweredme to believe that I can do almost any-thing. Day-to-day life with limited lan-guage skills was challenging, but I de-veloped friendships that will last a life-time and was able to support the posi-tive growth of a company during eco-

nomic upheaval. I am more global be-cause of this experience and appreciatediversity in the workplace, especiallycultural diversity. Owen and the Corpsopened doors to the world for me. Ilook forward to a time when my hus-band and I return overseas with ourfamily, and I can share these treasuredexperiences with them.

Debra Asay, ’95, is marketing director forDeloitte and Touche in Nashville.

Globalization—the shift towarda more integrated and interde-pendent world economy—has

introduced both business opportunityand risk. Simultaneously there are newmarkets for products and services, newopportunities to expand and reducecosts, and new competitors. Of coursethere is nothing new about uncertaintyin business. But the sheer scope of glob-alization—driven both by policy (NAFTA, and the proposed Free TradeArea of the Americas, for example) andtechnology—implies that more and

more business decisions are being im-pacted.

A specific concern might be howbest to expand into a foreign market.Options include exporting, forming analliance, or building a facility abroad.Which market is best suited for yourfirm? How is marketing different in, say,Brazil than in the U.S.? What can youexpect in terms of labor-managementrelations? What special legal hurdlesexist? Moreover, cross-border transac-tions generally involve currency con-versions. These impact more than re-

muneration and profit repatriation. Forexample, a foreign operation may ap-pear profitable simply due to a favorableexchange rate shift. How will a foreignoperation be evaluated?

Exchange rates complicate and di-rectly impact strategic business deci-sions. Indeed, they are often centerstage in setting national economic poli-cy. The launch of the euro, the recentcrisis in Ecuador (where the U.S. dollarwas adopted in September 2000), andthe persistent recession in Argentina alltestify to the importance of exchangerates for international business.

Recent research has quantified thenegative impact of exchange volatilityon international trade. Eliminating ex-change rate volatility through adoption

of a commoncurrency in-creases bilateral(country-to-country) tradeby as much as300 percent.Such numbersare astonishing.They suggestthere are a lotof opportuni-ties in the wings. My research quantifiesthe impact of exchange rates on eco-nomic integration generally. Using adatabase containing historical prices ofspecific goods from more than 100 citiesaround the world (e.g., light bulbs,onions, and tennis balls), I (and co-au-

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GLOBAL BUSINESS SS

The MBA Enterprise Corpsrecruits MBA graduates to

work in developing andtransitional economies as

consultants to locally basedcompanies.

WORLD BUSINESS OUTLOOKWORLD BUSINESS OUTLOOKALUMNI AND FACULTY OFFER TIPS AND PREDICTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Peter Addei, ’00 (Ghana), associate,Wachovia Securities, Philadelphia.“Fixed income differentiated investmentbanks have been relatively cushionedagainst the economic downturn as M&Aand equity underwriting activity has suf-fered. Clearly, the bank/brokerage modelhas made the investment banking land-scape more competitive with commercialbanks leveraging their balance sheets towin underwriting business. Long term,the goodwill accounting rule may spurmergers, as European banks seek distrib-ution channels in the United States,commercial banks acquire brokerage ca-pabilities, and brokerage firms acquirefund managers to secure annuity-like rev-enue streams. Highlights of internation-al business include the ability to impact

linkages betweenvariousmarkets/business-es in multiple re-gions. For exam-ple, a UnitedStates-locatedbanking origina-tion team that an-alyzes and presentscapital-raising al-ternatives to a Bermuda-based reinsur-ance company that funds syndicates atLloyd’s in England, which in turn pro-vides business interruption coverage tocompanies in South Africa. Challengesinclude managing conflicts of interestubiquitous in both macro and microglobal business scenarios today.”

Debra Asay and Andruis Josas, a Stoma Star employee, at aLithuanian dental trade show.

Exchange Rates and International BusinessB Y D A V I D C . P A R S L E Y

Eliminating exchange ratevolatility through adoption of a

common currency increasesbilateral trade by as much as

300 percent.

Parsley

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thor Shang-Jin Wei of the BrookingsInstitution) estimate the improvementin goods market integration resultingfrom various exchange rate stabilizationprograms adopted around the world.

We make a conceptual distinctionbetween institutional versus instrumentalstabilization of the exchange rate. Theformer refers to reducing volatilitythrough dollarization, adoption of a cur-rency board, or another common cur-rency. The latter refers to reducingvolatility through intervention in theforeign exchange market or monetarypolicies, i.e., any arrangement otherthan institutional stabilization. Institu-tionalized stabilization implies a greaterdegree of commitment and a lowerprobability of reversal in the future. Byremoving one more layer of uncertain-ty, it is conceivable that an institution-

alized stabilization can provide a greaterstimulus to goods market integrationthan merely reducing exchange ratevolatility to zero via an instrumentalstabilization.

We find that goods market integra-tion is increasing over time (about 2percent per year) and is inversely relat-ed to the distance between markets, ex-change rate variability, and tariff barri-ers. Markets farther apart, with highertariffs, and higher exchange rate vari-ability are less integrated.

In addition, institutional stabiliza-tion provides a stimulus to goods mar-ket integration that goes beyond instru-mental stabilization. The impact of theeuro on European integration is equiva-lent to reducing the tariff rate in eachcountry by 4 percentage points—not atrivial amount.

Among the institutional arrange-ments in existence, long-term currencyunions (e.g., Belgium-Luxembourg,Panama-U.S., Hong Kong-U.S.) demon-strate greater integration than more re-cent currency boards. All of them, how-ever, can improve their integration fur-ther relative to a U.S. benchmark.

All of this is good news for interna-tional business. Countries are workingto enact systems to establish and main-tain exchange rate stability. This re-search suggests that we have yet to real-ize all the gains from trade, increasedeconomic growth, and increased trans-parency that recent and future changesin technology and policy are fostering.

David C. Parsley is associate professor ofmanagement (managerial economics).

GLOBAL BUSINESS SS

Thomas Eckert, ’90,(Germany),managing di-rector, GlobalEquities,Frankfurt. “In-vestment bank-ing is goingthrough a cycli-cal downturn but will reboundshortly. When working in interna-tional business, be flexible and al-ways learning. There are new chal-lenges everyday and you never getbored. The hard part is the taxingworkload and struggle to balancework and family life. Why Owen?I chose Owen because of the rep-utation of the finance faculty, theflexible curriculum, and the small-er size of the School. At Owen, Iestablished a network of overseascontacts and a sense of global in-terrelatedness.”

The 24-Hour Work DayB Y L A R R Y J . L E B L A N C

Utilizing less expensive labor inother countries has long beencommonplace for international

organizations. However, with dramaticimprovements in global communica-tions, some firms are taking this to anew level. To decrease the cost andtime for software development, Ameri-can firms are utilizing professional pro-grammers in India, and European com-panies are using software developers inother countries as well.

Reasons include lower labor costsand a time zone difference (in the caseof the U.S. and India) of approximately12 hours. American programmers candevelop overview designs for softwaremodules during their day and thenhand them off electronically to Indianprogrammers, who write the details dur-ing their day while the U.S. program-mers sleep. The completed work is

waiting for the American counterpartsthe next morning. This process repeatsuntil the project is finished. Rapid andinexpensive data communications isthe key enabler for this type of “follow-the-sun” operations.

Other countries, including Barbados,Ireland, Israel, Hungary, Malaysia,Mexico, and the Philippines, now arecompeting with India, offering low-cost, high-skilled programmers. Inmany cases, labor costs are six timescheaper. Some foreign programmers al-so are more productive than Americanor European ones. Low-tech firms suchas Citibank, Holiday Inn, Liberty Mu-tual Insurance, and GE Capital, as wellas high-tech Boeing and IBM havebenefited from overseas software devel-opment. For U.S. firms desiring low-cost professional programmers who cancommunicate during the American day,

Barbados offers the advantage of beingonly one hour ahead of Eastern Stan-dard Time.

As with software development, thelead-time to develop new products alsocan be vastly reduced by sharing theworkload among corporate locations invarious countries across multiple timezones. Firms have already been usingelectronic communication among geo-graphically separate domestic teams inconcurrent engineering product de-signs. The next step, which is startingto be implemented, is for employees inone corporate office to work on the de-sign, and at the end of the day electron-ically hand off the design to workers inanother time zone, who continue towork until their workday is over. In

principle, the design can then be hand-ed off to yet another corporate office,where work continues. The design isthen returned to the original office.This creates the potential for 24-hourworkdays, drastically reducing time-to-market for new products. This also en-sures multi-cultural input to theprocess, another significant advantage.Some predict that working around theclock will soon not be simply a compet-itive advantage, but a prerequisite forsurvival against global competition.

A vice president of product technol-ogy at one worldwide manufacturingcompany sums it up: “We’d like to cutour development time by two-thirds.To do that means having people work-ing in Europe. As the sun sets there, de-velopment begins in the U.S. When

the sun dips here, Asiacomes on line. As Asiagoes to sleep, Europe be-gins again.”

An obvious alternativeto the 24-hour workday isa second work shift in thehome country. This avoidsoverhead costs associatedwith a second team in an-other country. However, itis hard to find competentprofessionals willing towork during the evening.If you find people to work,they demand a premiumsalary. Furthermore, thisapproach lacks the multi-cultural input essential forglobal products.

There are potentialproblems with the 24-hourdesign system across multi-ple continents. As infor-mation is transferredacross global boundaries,companies must protectproprietary design data by storing it insecure databases. Design information isa valuable asset that can be critical forthe company’s long-term success. Thereis also potential for miscommunicationamong team members who rarely if evermeet in person. Cultural differences al-so can become a major frustration dur-ing international collaboration. For ex-ample, employees may differ in respectfor hierarchical structure. Western cul-tures place greater emphasis on equalityand interact accordingly. Conflicts be-tween high-context and low-contextcommunication styles also occur. Asiancultures traditionally utilize high con-text communication, with much of themeaning conveyed implicitly. This im-plicit communication is difficult forWesterners to interpret, and may becompletely obscured in electronic com-munications.

Managers of virtual teams are chal-lenged to use technology in the bestway to create a sense of collaborationamong teams. Teleconferencing, video-conferencing, e-mail, data sharing, Webcasts for mass audience viewing, andbulletin boards are all important tech-nologies, but managers must also decidewhen to have face-to-face meetings.Team facilitators must provide specificobjectives to prevent remote teammembers from going off on tangents.While 24-hour workdays can result intremendous decreases in lead-time insuch areas as software and new productdevelopment, it should be recognizedthat a higher level of management in-volvement is required to avoid inherentproblems.

Larry J. LeBlanc is professor ofmanagement (operations).

Some predict that workingaround the clock will soon not

be simply a competitiveadvantage, but a prerequisite

for survival against globalcompetition.

LeBlanc

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W hile it may sound like thetitle of a Twilight Zoneepisode, “the team that

isn’t” describes a trend among today’sglobal businesses—using teams thatdon’t actually meet, at least not face-to-face. Focused on information-process-ing and decision-making tasks, thesevirtual teams transcend time and geog-raphy by using cyberspace as the modeof interaction.

Many managers think that a “goodworking relationship” requires plenty ofhands-on contact, but several com-pelling factors are causing businesses to

reconsider reliance on face-to-facemeetings. The proliferation of comput-er-mediated-communication (CMC)technologies makes the creation of vir-tual teams relatively straightforwardand inexpensive. Most personal com-puters come packaged with stable, se-cure, serviceable, and free applicationssuch as NetMeeting and Instant-Mes-senger, allowing team members to sharedocuments and to initiate impromptuvideoconferences and chat sessionswith surprising quality and ease. Andfor many teams, whose communicationsprimarily take place via email, virtualmeetings can represent an increase inspontaneous informal interaction with-out the overhead that comes with ar-ranging and hosting formal meetings.

Particularly in global companies,economics drive the adoption of virtualtechnologies. For businesses with officesand clients across the globe, travel costspresent a substantial barrier to bringing

people together. Teams understand thevalue of insights and innovations de-rived from working “around the table,”but resulting costs in travel, lodging, ef-ficiency, and lifestyle make routine useof such meetings unappealing.

There are significant benefits to us-ing virtual teams, but care should betaken about when and how to usethem. Research suggests that virtualteams are best for identifying and ex-plicitly sharing unique knowledge (forbrainstorming or teams looking for a“right answer”), but face-to-face teamsare better for tasks involving tacit, sub-jective, or difficult to express issues.Face-to-face teams also are more effec-tive for tasks that require members’“buy-in” for ultimate success. Other de-termining factors include task-type,group size, team culture, and require-ments for speed, trust, cohesion, andcommitment.

Best performance can be achieved byhybrid teams, which learn the advan-tages of each interaction technologyand appropriate ways to use them.

David A. Owens is clinical assistant pro-fessor of management (entrepreneurship).

3 8 OWEN @Vanderbilt 3 9S U M M E R 2 0 0 2

Aneta Marcheva Key, ’99, (Bulgar-ia), engagement manager, McKin-sey & Co., San Francisco (currentlyon assignment in Australia).“Management consulting is flexibleand relatively immune to economiccycles. With the general downturn,consultancies will shift their focus,e.g., from developing expansionarystrategies to helping companies im-prove profitability. To be successfulin global business, be culturally sen-sitive to your business counterparts.Be versed in global affairs. Knowyour geography. Always smile—whata universal way to establish a con-nection to another human being!Why Owen? I wanted to attend a

school with astrong financeprogram, an em-phasis on emerg-ing technologies,and a diverse stu-dent body withat least 25 per-cent internation-al students, so Owen was a naturalchoice. Owen also supports stronginternational candidates and makesit possible for them to attend. Whilethere, I gained an appreciation ofvarious cultures and ‘national per-sonalities,’ and a source of stories Ican use as ice breakers with peoplefrom around the world.”

The Team That Isn’tB Y D A V I D A . O W E N S

Particularly in globalcompanies, economics drive

the adoption of virtualtechnologies.

Owens

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T he Internet, almost from incep-tion, had the potential to trans-form global communication.

With near instantaneous informationtransmission capabilities, it is now pos-sible to achieve 24/7 manufacturingand service worldwide at unprecedent-ed volumes.

Prior to the pervasive use of the In-

ternet, Eastman Kodak, for example,completed its single-use camera inrecord time by using advanced telecom-munication capabilities. Design engi-neers worked on the prototype for 8hours in Rochester, New York, andthen transmitted the design to Japan.At the end of the Japanese workday,the design went to Europe. When theRochester design engineers began work,the design was downloaded from Eu-rope. In this way, Kodak designed a rad-ically new product in only 18 monthsby working 24/7 worldwide.

With the Internet, such communica-tion extends beyond “traditional” se-quential 24/7 through simultaneous col-laborative design environments thattranscend national boundaries. Currentcollaborative design technologies allowdesign engineers in multiple locationsto use virtual reality technologies to“walk-through” designs and make jointdesign decisions. This technologyshould dramatically reduce develop-

ment time while increasing quality.The Internet and communication

technologies also change the generaldynamics of the global make/buy deci-sion. Harvey Seegers, CEO of GE Glob-al eXchange Services (GXS), during histalk at Owen, discussed how the com-pany extended its engineering teamsbeyond the U.S. to Ireland, the U.K.,

India, and the Philippines. For GXS,this global perspective extends to elec-tronic commerce service centers in theU.S., The Netherlands, and HongKong.

Another point raised by Seegers isthat while business-to-consumer (B2C)e-commerce may generate inches in thepopular press, it is the more traditional

Gerd (Gary) Kommer, ’93, (Ger-many), head of project and financeteam, HVB Group (HypoVereins-bank AG—third largest bank in Eu-rope), Johannesburg.“Project finance as a specific financ-ing technique for large industrial orinfrastructure investments has agrand future. Several ‘mega trends’support this view: governments’ cashcrunch, companies’ desire to man-age their involvement in major pro-jects in terms of risk allocation andbook equity return more efficiently,higher possible leverage in project fi-nancings, large unmet infrastructureneeds in the emerging markets,

among others.Working in glob-al business doesnot automaticallyfurther your ca-reer. But you willmost likely benefita great deal per-sonally—livingand workingabroad expands your mind. When Iam old, I want to look back on a lifein which I saw different places, peo-ples, and cultures. Experiencing onlyone culture over my lifetime to mewould be disappointing.”

Globalization of e-CommerceB Y D A V I D M . D I L T S

While B2C e-commerce maygenerate inches in the popularpress, it is the more traditionalB2B where the greatest volume

of worldwide e-commerce istaking place.

GLOBAL BUSINESS SS

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In today’s electronic and globalworld, intercultural contact,whether face-to-face or virtual, is a

fact of life in most organizations. Asgeneral manager of marketing for aninternational integrated steel manufac-turing company, I literally perform in-tercultural communication everyminute, even every second: Talkingwith our Japanese CEO to create mar-keting strategy to supply galvanizedsteel products to American automotivecompanies, negotiating with Mexicantraders to export Hot Rolled steel prod-ucts to South American constructioncompanies, and exploring new businessopportunities with Japanese traders tosell our sound dampening laminatedsteel sheets to German automotivecompanies through American ownedsteel sheet processors. No single busi-

ness transaction resides within a singlecultural boundary.

Although my situation is extreme,such contact is not unusual in today’sinterlinked world. Nearly everyoneworks with coworkers, customers, sup-pliers, consultants, and others from dif-ferent cultural backgrounds, and doingso effectively is crucial to an organiza-tion.

Business people talk about the im-portance of intercultural communica-tion, but many, particularly in thestates, do not truly understand culture.They don’t know how culture operates,how it helps shape attitudes, and ulti-

mately how it determines behavior. Bynot understanding what culture is orhow it works, they cannot really knowhow cultural differences can be prob-lematic in the workplace.

There is no doubt that English is rec-ognized as a de facto international busi-ness language because of the rapidspread of Internet/e-mail communica-tion. Therefore, you find a great num-ber of “English dialects” around theworld. (e.g. “Japanglish: English spokenby native Japanese. Major characteris-tic: there is no clear distinction in pro-nunciation between “R” and “L”, “B”and “V”.) As you begin doing businessin the global arena, you will likely en-counter heavy accents in cross-culturalsettings. What should you do if you findit difficult to communicate with peoplewho speak different English dialects?Hiring an interpreter is not the best so-lution. The important thing is to listencarefully, talk slowly, avoid jargon, andbe patient in order to foster mutual trustand understanding of the underlyingcultural differences. Exploring culturaldifferences is time consuming butworthwhile if you want to be an activeplayer in today’s global business world.

Most of us want to communicate ef-fectively but do not have a keen appre-ciation of barriers, particularly “noise,”which is interference between the mes-sage sender and receiver, and providesan opportunity for something to gowrong. In global business, cultural dif-ferences can be the most serious noisefactor, and competent internationalmanagers need to be aware of differ-ences and know how to cope. Noisecan’t always be overcome, but justknowing that it exists can improvecommunication flow. Mutual under-standing of one another’s cultural back-

grounds is key to successful intercultur-al communication.

The difficult part is you cannot gainknowledge of other cultures from booksor videos. You must experience culturesfirsthand in order to gain an under-standing effective enough for the busi-ness world.

Owen students don’t need to spenda lot of money visiting foreign coun-tries to study different cultures. Theypaid that price in tuition to the OwenSchool. I recruit international studentsand know Owen has top-notch stu-dents from all over the world. The stu-dents have within their reach a valu-able asset for acquiring skills to dealwith different cultures—each other.

Heiki Miki, ’96, is general manager/mar-keting and planning for National SteelCorporation.

4 0 OWEN @Vanderbilt 4 1S U M M E R 2 0 0 2

business-to-business (B2B) where thegreatest volume of worldwide e-com-merce is taking place. For example,GXS has more than 100,000 tradingpartners in 58 countries, with 1 billionannual transactions accounting for $1trillion in goods and services.

Such volume dwarfs all the most pop-ular B2C sites. eMarketer, the Internetmarketing firm, estimated B2C dollarvolume at $53 billion worldwide in 2001

but B2B dollar volume at $449 billion(http://line56.com/articles/NewsID=3345). While B2B metrics varywidely, from estimates at $245 billion byU.K.-based firm Ovum to $5.2 trillion byComputer Economics, there is no ques-tion that B2B dominates the economicsof value in the Internet realm.

Then why do B2C sites get the ma-jority of the press? One reason could bethat they generate far more “hits” thando B2B sites. Nielsen/NetRatings inMay 2001 estimated that eBay.com andAmazon.com had about 14 millionunique visitors each, far more than thenearest B2B, UPS.com, at 2.8 million.Interestingly, when the metric changedto the amount of online revenue gener-ated, B2B sites dominate withIntel.com at $23.8 million, nearly 11times that of Amazon.com at $2.18 mil-lion. But these numbers are only for do-mestic Internet.

Globally, communication on the In-ternet also underwent a significantchange in 2000, when the number of

international electronic mailboxes ex-ceeded the number in the U.S. Thistrend of higher international growthrates extended to the latest figure of on-line users, where Canada and the U.S.were 35.2 percent of the worldwide to-tal of 513.41 million (NUA Internet,August 2001).

Clearly, the Internet, while not “bornglobal,” has “gone global” and this glob-alization will continue to have an everincreasing impact on successful basicbusiness models. The impact can be asbeneficial as the ability to perform 24/7global design or as restrictive as the EUruling in February that Internet firmsselling in the EU must collect value-added tax (VAT) regardless of theirphysical location. Only time will tellwhich business models will be the mostsuccessful in this ever evolving environ-ment.

David M. Dilts is professor ofmanagement (operations) and professor ofmanagement of technology.

GLOBAL BUSINESS SS

Charlie Scragg, ’01, (England), associate, Lehman Brothers,Bangkok.“My group structures financialproducts around real estate-basedprojects and has found consider-able opportunity in Asia’s eco-nomic turmoil. While the U.S. ap-pears to be recovering from its re-cent slowdown, Asia still hasdeep-rooted problems to addressto ensure a sustainable recov-ery. One of these problems isworking out the large volume ofnon-performing loans held by do-mestic banks, and is my currentfocus at Lehman. To prepare forthe global economy, try to workor at least travel abroad. It is diffi-cult to get an appreciation for themany different cultures and busi-ness practices if you never set footoutside your home country. Mysolution was showing up in HongKong as a 23-year old backpackerand taking my first job working ina bar. Why Owen? I wanted tostudy in the states to learn theU.S. approach to business and fi-nance. Owen’s smaller programprovided the perfect environmentfor this, with the right mix of out-standing faculty and gifted, butmore important, friendly studentbody.

Intercultural CommunicationB Y H E I K I M I K I

Miki

Mutual understanding of one

another’s cultural backgrounds

is key to successful intercultural

communication.

Lara Schalken, ’97, (USA), formerdirector of Asia/Pacific market de-velopment, E.Solutions, EDS, (nowliving in The Netherlands).“Asia/Pacific lags behind the U.S.and Europe in terms of e-businesspenetration, which presents oppor-tunities. Australia and New Zealandlead the region in innovation. Chinais the largest untapped market but,along with ASEAN countries, isworking to create the largest tradingblock in the world. Japan is ripe withopportunities—many Japanese com-panies still rely on paper-drivenprocesses in day-to-day business,and e-business solutions can ad-dress these challenges. As an Ameri-can living abroad, I am constantlyreminded that Europeans tend to

know more about the U.S. than weknow about Europe or the rest ofthe world. Travel abroad, learn aforeign language, and take the op-portunity to work overseas with yourcompany. It will expand your view ofthe world and help you to see solu-tions from other perspectives.”

T he most valuable resources inany company are the human re-sources.

Most of you probably agree with this,so I will focus on the challenge of maxi-mizing the human resources in yourglobal organization into a force thatothers admire but fail to copy. Mostcompanies do not know how to do thiswithin their home countries, let aloneacross borders.

What should you consider? The oldsaying “think globally, act locally” ap-plies here. Although your companymay compete in a global economy, takecare to “meet your employees wherethey are.”

While most corporations recognizemarket differences in compensation andbenefits, they often do not for such ar-eas as communications to employees,performance review systems, recogni-tion programs, and culture change ini-tiatives. As a leader, your challenge isto create an environment where thespirit of the global corporate cultureand policies guides local action whilekeeping methods of implementationflexible.

Successful maximization of humanresources begins person to person. Re-gardless of location, employees general-ly want the same basic things. Be aware,however, that basic wants may be thesame, but they manifest themselves dif-

ferently in different locations. Employ-ee wants include, but are not limited to,safety, respect, fair treatment, andrecognition for a job well done. There isalso an unspoken want that is key to agreat organization and is hard to copy.Most employees want a commitmentthat if they do their best for you, youwill do your best for them. This doesn’tmean employees get everything theywant. It does mean that they trust you

to do your best to find a win-win situa-tion for them and your business. Pay at-tention to these things daily, and insistthat others in your organization do so aswell.

Lastly, if you undertake an interna-tional assignment, use your functionaland leadership expertise to teach em-ployees in your host organization, butalso remember to learn from your newenvironment and work partners. Learn

International Human ResourcesB Y R E N E E F R A N K L I N

FranklinAlthough your company may

compete in a global economy,

take care to meet your

employees where they are.

4 2 OWEN @Vanderbilt 4 3S U M M E R 2 0 0 2

GLOBAL BUSINESS SS

Roland Seidel, ’96, (Germany),management consultant, Arthur D.Little, Munich, Germany, (recentlyon leave to travel around theworld).“Management consulting is comingout of the growth stage and willstagnate. Strong competition basedon cost management and reputationwill dominate the market. Expectmergers and acquisitions and shake-out. In preparing for internationalbusiness, learn at least one (bettertwo) foreign languages in additionto management skills. Learn socialskills (human resource manage-

ment) but bewell preparedin such classicfields as orga-nization andcost manage-ment. I haveworkedthroughoutEurope, inAsia, and theMiddle East, and learned about dif-ferent cultures and markets. This isvaluable experience for working witha global company, but you can loseyour roots!”

Gantiah Wuryandani, ’93, (Indonesia), economist, Bankof Indonesia, Jakarta.“As globalization has devel-oped, international economyhas become integrated, makingevery country easily affected byother countries’ economic situa-tions. The financial crises sincethe ’90s prove the process ofeconomic integration. Withrapid development in high tech-nology, information andtelecommunication have be-come cheaper and readily avail-able, driving the borderless andtimeless international transac-tions that bring increased risk.Increased risk means increasedcompetition and challenges. Inorder to survive, those whowork in the global economyneed to be prepared for changethat can arise in minutes.”

the language of your host country. Evenif you do not become fluent, under-standing the language is part of “meet-ing employees where they are.”

Someone once said, “If you wanteverything to be like it is at home, thenstay at home.” This applies not only toindividuals, but organizations as well. Ihope you and your organization accept

the challenge to “meet employeeswhere they are,” and create an environ-ment around the world that deliversawesome business results and has every-one wondering how you did it.

Renee Franklin, ’89, is director of humanresources for Ford of Mexico.

Tim Hough, ’95, (USA), director,business development, Asia/Pacific,Retek, Tokyo.“I am establishing Retek’s Japansubsidiary and developing the go-to-market strategy. Competition isubiquitous—but some competitorspoised to dominate the market seg-ment only two years ago are nowout of business. The speed ofchange is remarkable; the message is‘simply evolve or die.’ To best pre-

pare for the years ahead, considerentering the global market. The U.S.is only about 29 percent of GlobalGDP. If you limit your business deal-ings to less than 30 percent of themarket, ultimately you will be over-taken by those competing on a glob-al scale. Highlights of internationalbusiness: the food, the energy, theculture, being the only non-Chineseperson in a city of 800,000.”

Owen, the Law School, and Col-lege of Arts and Science are co-hosting the European UnionStudies Association 8th BiennialInternational Conference inNashville March 27-29. For moreinformation on the conference,email eusa@pitt.edu or visit theWebsite: http://www.eustudies.org.

Bruce Barry, associate profes-sor, presented an invited paperon the role of emotion in nego-tiation at a conference on cul-ture and negotiation at North-western University, and dis-cussed his work on negotiatorattitudes toward the use of un-ethical tactics in a talk at theDepartment of Psychology atthe University of Virginia. A pa-per (with Ph.D. student IngridFulmer) on “Effects of comput-er-mediated communicationtechnology on social influencein organizations” was presentedat the annual meeting of the In-ternational Association for

Conflict Management in Cergy,France, and he chaired a re-search incubator workshop on“Conflict and New Media” atthe annual meeting of theAcademy of Management inWashington, D.C. Barry re-ceived a secondary faculty ap-pointment in Vanderbilt’s De-partment of Sociology.

Joseph D. Blackburn Jr., JamesA. Speyer Professor of Produc-tion Management, gave an in-vited talk on “UnderstandingDrivers of Productivity in Soft-ware Development” to the Re-search in Information Systems

Excellence Workshop at IN-SEAD in Fontainebleau, France.He also presented a talk on“Valuing Time in Make to StockManufacturing” at the InformsConference in Miami.

Mark Cohen, professor, hostedan executive managementworkshop on “Corporate Envi-ronmental and SustainabilityReporting: A New Look for theInformation Age.” He chairedconference sessions on “TheImpact of New Digital Tech-nologies on Information Regu-lation” at Wharton, and “Capi-tal Markets and EnvironmentalPerformance” in Laguna Beach,California. Recent articles in-clude “Information as a PolicyInstrument in Protecting theEnvironment: What Have WeLearned?” in Environmental Law

Reporter, and “Does the Mar-ket Value Environmental Per-formance?” in Review of Eco-nomics and Statistics. He servedas visiting professor of crimi-nal justice economics at theUniversity of York (UK), wherehe worked with the Centre forCriminal Justice Economicsand Psychology.

Bruce Cooil, associate profes-sor, co-authored a paper (withSajeev Varki and Roland T.Rust) that was a finalist for the2001 Paul E. Green Award,presented by the Journal of Mar-keting Research to the paper that“shows or demonstrates themost potential to contributesignificantly to the practice ofmarketing research.” The pa-per also received the 2001Donald R. Lehmann Award

facultyNEWS

OWEN @Vanderbilt 4 5

Contrary to what some companies believe, failures withcustomers cannot always be repaired, says Ruth

Bolton, a marketing professor who joined Owen in January.“First impressions are difficult to change, and the

chance of salvaging a mistake made early with a customeris small—even if it is an excellent company,” she says.

Bolton’s information comes from her research in whichshe tracks individual customers “to see how closely theirbehavior reflects their opinions and experiences with acompany over time.”

She began her academic career by analyzing customerbehavior from supermarket optical scanning equipment,later transferring her expertise to GTE’s customer satisfac-tion and quality program as a member of its technical staff.The Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. graduate returned to academiaand focused on linking customer satisfaction measures andoperational measures to revenue streams. She most recent-ly served as the Ruby K. Powell Professor of Marketing atthe University of Oklahoma.

Now she willbe helping Owenmake good firstimpressionsthrough her high-ly visible positionas editor of theJournal of Market-ing, a leadingpublication bythe AmericanMarketing Associ-ation for scholarsand practitioners.Bolton will serveas editor for threeyears, during whichtime Owen will pro-vide support services. (Website: mba.vanderbilt.edu/jm)

What emerging topics are sure to get ink? Marketingmetrics; synchronization of multiple, complementary chan-nels within and across organizations; the role of technologyin how markets function and evolve; and global marketingchallenges, she predicts, red pen in hand. —Beth Matter

MAKING FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT

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STARTING THINGS

Bruce Lynskey, ’85, is always trying to start something. Chief mar-keting officer for a number of successful high-tech start-ups, and

occasional angel investor, Lynskey is now at Owen as a clinical assis-tant professor working with Professor Germain Böer and DavidOwens, clinical assistant professor, to accelerate Owen’s entrepre-neurial activities.

In his new and unexpected role (“I never dreamed I would be teach-ing.”), he brings practical experience to the classroom and spends timeconnecting Owen to the local business community. He has garnered anumber of advisory board seats with Nashville companies—both start-ups and established companies—that keep him abreast of businessneeds and apprised of opportunities for student projects at these com-panies. “Students working on these projects say it is one of the mostvaluable parts of their education,” Lynskey says. “The businesses alsobenefit because they get top caliber talent for free.”

Companies he helped found and their products include WellfleetCommunications (bought by Bay Networks and acquired by Nortel),routers and switches; Top Layer Networks, Layer 7 switching technol-ogy for intrusion detection; Kaon Interactive, 3D Web animation soft-ware; and Vigilant Networks, embedded network monitoring technol-ogy products.

His special sauce for start-up success: a blend of unreasonable am-bition, aggressiveness, a natural talent for getting things done (“meet-ings are the death of a start-up”), and the right corporate culture. “Theright culture can’t be manufactured; it just happens,” he says. “Anddon’t underestimate the role of luck and timing in the success of acompany.” —Beth Matter

Lynskey

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from the American MarketingAssociation.

Ray Friedman, associate pro-fessor, launched his world-wide, Web-based negotiationresearch project (Seehttp://vanderbilt.edu/negotiationfor more information and toparticipate). He also has sev-eral new working papers onminority employee networkgroups, and one accepted forpublication, “Managing Diver-sity and Second-Order Con-flict,” in International Journal ofConflict Management.

Luke Froeb, associate profes-sor, gave a talk last year to theFTC on “Quantitative Benefit-

Cost Analysis of Mergers,”and presented a paper (withVanderbilt math professorsSteven Tschantz and PhilipCrooke) at the Miami IN-FORMS sessions on Second-Price Auctions with Power-Re-lated Distributions.

Amar Gande, assistant pro-fessor, discussed a researchpaper, “Strategic DecisionMaking of the Firm UnderAsymmetric Information,” atthe 12th annual conferenceon Financial Economics andAccounting at Rutgers Univer-sity. Gande (with David Pars-ley) co-authored a paper on“News Spillovers in the Sover-eign Debt Market,” examining

transmission of news events(specifically sovereign creditrating changes) concerningone country on sovereignbonds of other countries.

Debra Jeter, associate profes-sor, co-authored a paper(with Paul Chaney and L.Shivakumar) that was present-ed at the AAA meeting in At-lanta last year, and also at theAsia-Pacific Conference on In-ternational Accounting in Riode Janeiro. Another paper,“The Information Content ofRestructuring Charges: A Con-textual Analysis” (with Chaneyand Chris Hogan) was pre-sented at the first annualHawaii Conference on Busi-

ness. Jeter has been reap-pointed to the editorial advi-sory and review board of Ac-counting Review.

Piyush Kumar, assistant pro-fessor, presented the paper“The Drivers of Customer andCorporate Profitability: Mod-eling, Analyzing, Measuring,and Managing the Causal Re-lationships” at the AnnualFrontiers in Services Confer-ence at the University of Mary-land. He has been appointedto the editorial review boardof Journal of Service Research.

Ronald Masulis, Frank K.Houston Professor of Finance,co-authored a paper, “Does

Bolton begins a three-year term as editor

of the Journal of Marketing.

Igor Ansoff, the first dean of theGraduate School of Manage-

ment—which later became the OwenGraduate School of Management—died July 14 in San Diego, Califor-nia, from complications from pneu-monia. He was 84.

Ansoff also served as foundingdean and professor of managementfrom 1968 to 1973 and was the Dis-tinguished Justin Potter Professor ofFree American Enterprise from 1973to 1976.

“The School owes a deep debt ofgratitude to Dean Ansoff and hiscourage in building the School fromthe ground up,” says Dean BillChristie. “I hope he was gratified bythe School’s success over the pastdecades.”

Ansoff retired two years ago as adistinguished professor, emeritus,from the U.S. International Universi-ty in San Diego, where he taught for17 years.

Ansoff was born in Vladivostock,Russia, and immigrated to the U.S.with his family. After graduating

high school,he studied atthe StevensInstitute ofTechnologywhere heearned a mas-ter of sciencein “Dynamics

of Rigid Bodies.” He later studied atBrown University where he receiveda doctorate in applied mathematicsand joined UCLA in the senior exec-utive program. During World War IIand into 1946, he was a member ofthe U.S. Naval Reserve, and an in-structor in physics at the U.S. NavalAcademy.

To honor his body of work, theprestigious “Igor Ansoff Award” wasestablished by Coopers and Ly-brand in 1981 in The Netherlands.It is given for research and manage-ment in the study of strategic plan-ning and management. The JapanStrategic Management Society alsoestablished an annual award in hisname. Vanderbilt established an An-

soff MBA Scholarship.Fluent in Russian, French, and

German, Ansoff received many in-ternational honors, including beingnamed fellow of the InternationalAcademy of Management and Hon-orary Chairman of the StrategicManagement Society of Japan,where he received five honorary doc-torates. He also was decorated bynumerous other respected organiza-tions, including the Helsinki Schoolof Academica in Finland; AcademiaItaliana di Economia Aziendale inItaly; the University of Bath in theUnited Kingdom, and the Manches-ter Business School.

A celebration of Ansoff’s life washeld August 31 at San Diego’sScripps Ranch Library. He is sur-vived by his wife, Dorothy, andsons, Peter, Rick, and Chris. Thefamily asks that contributions besent in his memory to The Ansoff In-stitute, 2166 Lemon Avenue, Escon-dido, California, 92029.

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ANSOFF, OWEN’S FIRST DEAN, REMEMBERED

Market Structure Affect HowQuickly Stock Prices React toNews?” accepted for publica-tion in the Journal of Financialand Quantitative Analysis. Ma-sulis served as a discussant atthe Corporate Governance inthe Banking and Financial Ser-vices Industries symposium,sponsored by the Federal Re-serve Bank of New York, Jour-nal of Financial Intermediation,and New York University. Dur-ing spring, he was a visitingfaculty member at Dart-mouth.

Neta Moye, assistant profes-sor, served on the panel forthe “Genetic Testing of Hyper-susceptible Workers” discus-sion hosted by Vanderbilt’sCal Turner Program for MoralLeadership. She delivered aninvited presentation on “YourNext Employee” at the EthicsOfficers Association AnnualConference, and delivered an-other invited talk on “Motivat-ing Employees to Share Knowl-edge” at the Air Force Acquisi-tion’s Work Culture Transfor-mation board meeting.

David Parsley, associate pro-fessor, last year served as a re-search fellow at the HongKong Monetary Authority,where among other thingsw hestudied the effects of currencypegs and unions on overalleconomic integration. He pre-sented his findings to the HKMA and Bank for Interna-tional Settlements.

Gary Scudder, professor,taught the course “Technolo-gy in the Corporate Strategy”at the University of Bordeaux

in France last year as part oftheir Semester in English. Stu-dents were from France,Japan, Korea, United States,New Zealand, England, Ger-many, and Sweden.

Fred Talbott, clinical profes-sor/management communica-tions, shared news media rela-tions and crisis communica-tion advice last year with mu-sic industry and entertainmentattorneys at ASCAP, hosted bythe Tennessee Bar Association.

facultyNEWS

REUNION SCRAPBOOK ’01

OWEN @Vanderbilt 4 7

WHEN MBAs COME BACK TOCAMPUS, HAVING FUN IS THEBOTTOM LINE

Great company and great food were the order of the

day when classes ending in 1 and 6 reunited last fall

during Homecoming weekend. Alumni enjoyed a

cocktail reception, class parties, a game day brunch, and most

of all, seeing each other again. PHOTOS BY PEYTON HOGE AND WOODIE KNIGHT

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25th25th“After 25 years,life is beautiful,and we all hadour second startat GSM.” —Marc Fortune,chair.

Reminiscing about classes in the funeral home raisedthe spirits of those from EMBA 1981. From left: TurneyStevens, Dean Sam Richmond, John Wilkinson, HenryLodge, Roger Bowman, and Julia Howell. RogerBowman and C. Turney Stevens, chairs.

The Class of 1986 speaks for itself.From left: David Jones, DavidHornsby, Tom Rose. DavidHornsby, chair.

The EMBA 1991 party was a great time, even without a hot tub on a trailer.From left, back: Ray Bowling, Ned Horton, Warren Runion, Louis Buck,Frank Grant, John Abbott; seated: Tracy Grant, Catherine Holsen, NancyAbbott. Nancy Abbott, chair.

Angie Brittain and Sara Gates, inset, recall finance pro-fessor Bill Christie, now dean, walking into class wearinga T-shirt with the words “You don’t know me—FederalWitness Protection Program,” after his breakthroughresearch paper on Nasdaq pricing caused a media frenzyin 1994; Sonia Parechanian, Professor Dewey Daane, andLiz Shults enjoy dinner at the Belle Meade Country Club.Sara Gates and Liz Shults, co-chairs.

A different perspective

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Chancellor Gee mingledwith alumni during the

cocktail party.

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Dean Bill Christie withSam and Evelyn

Richmond.

4 9OWEN @Vanderbilt

Paul Chaney, associate professor of management (ac-counting), in February, led Alumni and Development’sfirst Brown Bag Chat, which focused on the Enron cri-sis. More than 20 alumni participated. A full transcriptof the discussion can be found on the Owen YahooClub site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/owengsm.

Dean Bill Christie, right, thanks Robert Falk, E’80, left, for the outstanding alumni reception he held athis home in Nashville in March. For a complete listing of all of the alumni receptions in various cities,check Owen’s alumni Website.

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Members of the Owen Alumni Board met with students last year and explained theimportance of student and alumni involvement in advancement of the School. From left,back: Don Townswick,’92, Jeff Kudlata, E’96, Brent Turner, ’99, Steve Summers, ’99;front: Sara Gates,’96, Renee Franklin, ’89, Jack Driscoll, ’00.

An MBA is a long-term invest-ment, but students reap manybenefits before graduation,

alumni board members told students ata session on alumni life last year.

Students have the advantage ofOwen’s small size and excellentstudent/faculty ratio (10:1), whichprovides a superb learning and socialenvironment. Students also can tap theglobal alumni network that is ready andwilling to provide job information andcontacts, board members added.

But with these advantages, comeresponsibilities to make Owen an evenbetter school for future generations.Alumni can help advance the Schoolin such ways as donating money,

recommending and mentoring students,and providing jobs.

“Because of our small alumni base, itis even more critical that our alumnicontribute than it is for alumni at someother schools,” said Jeff Kudlata, E’96,practice leader/leadership for VerizonCommunications.

Students can adopt the alumnimind-set early and assist in such ways aspromoting the School to prospectivestudents and helping to collect alumniemail addresses, used to keep alumniinformed of activities at the School.

The result of combined student andalumni effort is a greater school and ap-preciated Owen degrees, board mem-bers echoed.

MAXIMIZING Your Owen Experience

Join us for Reunion 2002(October 25-26), sure to be an extraVU-ganza! Activities will include a home-coming parade, tailgate party, and foot-ball game; educational events; dinnerand dancing; and even more Vanderbiltmemories. Check your mailbox and theOwen alumni Website for more infor-mation and updates. If you would liketo help plan your class event, contactMercy Eyadiel, director of alumni pro-grams, at mercy.eyadiel@owen.vanderbilt.edu or (615) 322-6468.

SCHEDULEFriday, October 25Alumni Board Meeting8:30-11:30 a.m.Owen School

Registration10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.Owen south side lobby

Entrepreneurship ConferenceFree admission for the first 30 alumniSchedule of speakers and topicshttp://mba.vanderbilt.edu/oec.

View VU- Owen Cyber Café (demon-stration of wireless technology and tourof Owen’s latest renovations.)Coffee and desserts served1-4 p.m., Owen south side lobby

Cocktail Reception with Dean BillChristie6:30-8 p.m., Owen lobby

Saturday, October 26Registration8:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.Rob Roy Purdy Field(25th Ave. So. at Capers Ave.)

Chancellor’s Address9:30-10:30 a.m., Student RecreationCenter Gym

Homecoming Brunch10:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Rob Roy Purdy Field Tailgate Party11 a.m.-1 p.m., Jess Neely Dr./Stadium

Homecoming GameConnecticut vs. Vanderbilt1 p.m., Stadium

All Owen Alumni Dinner/Dance7 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. (Dancing—9 p.m.)Owen lobby

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Helping students to find jobs in this tough economic time ispriority #1 for the Alumni Board. Last year, students packedFlynn Auditorium at the Law School to hear Owen alumni offercareer advice. Ron Ford, E’92, past president (top photo), andDon Townswick, ’92, vice president, were two alumni boardmembers leading informational sessions.

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It’s not a job everyone would want,since September 11 when flying

the friendly skies turned potentiallydeadly. But W. Douglas Parker stillloves his work. As chairman, presi-dent, and CEO of America West,the nation’s eighth largest airline,the buck stops at his door at thecompany’s headquarters in Phoenix,Arizona.

Although he had worked in theairlines since graduating from Owenin 1986, he had held the position ofchairman and CEO of AmericaWest for barely a week whenairplanes hit the Pentagon, WorldTrade Center, and a field inPennsylvania in September. Parkeradmits it was “baptism by fire.”The entire fleet was grounded fortwo to three days. Bookingsplummeted; refund requestsskyrocketed. A financing deal fellthrough. Never could Parker havedreamed he’d shortly be among theairline executives testifying beforethe House TransportationCommittee, “We need governmentassistance, and we need it quickly.”In the week after the attacks, airtraffic decreased 60 percent in ayear already down by 10 percent. “Itwas devastating, to say the least,”recalls Parker.

“We all had to make decisionswe had never made before anddidn’t like making,” he says. Morethan 100,000 people were laid offindustry-wide. America Westreduced their workforce by 2000from a total of 14,000. Parker askedthe board of directors to forgo all of

his compensationthrough year-end.

During this time,airline executivesalso worked withthe FAA, which inturn worked withthe FBI, toscrutinize passengerlists and identifythose who shouldnot be allowed onairplanes.

Time and eventsblurred together,preventing Parkerfrom attending hislively 15-year Owenreunion last year,something heregrets. ThroughOwen teamwork, hebecame part of acontingent of 10-15friends who remainclose to this day.

Following graduation, he startedas an entry-level analyst forAmerican Airlines. After five jobs infour years with American, Parkermoved to Northwest Airlines asdirector of finance. “American was awell-run airline, and at the time,Northwest needed help,” Parker says.

He left Northwest Airlines fouryears later, in 1995, for anotherairline in flux. America West hadjust emerged from bankruptcy, andhe took over as CFO. In early 2000he became president.

“It’s a very competitive,fascinating, high profile industry

that has constant change. No onefunction dominates—they’re allintertwined. There’s finance, asairlines are heavily capitalized;marketing, because we’re a servicebusiness; operations as complex asyou can imagine; and maintenance,which is basically a manufacturingfunction. It keeps me interested.”

Parker seems to thrive flyinghigh, where the air is thin. “Wehave one great team. I have theluxury of running a company in anindustry I love.” And despite thepressures of keeping the jumbo jetssafely flying, “I can’t complain.”—Carol Wissmann

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FORD:

Follow your heart. You will feel pressure to conformand achieve what others perceive to be success. Dowhat you love, regardless of what others think. Challenge the notion that people act rationally. Tomake complex situations understandable, theorists willask you to assume that people act rationally. Theydon’t. Take advantage of Vanderbilt. Attend concerts andevents on campus outside of Owen. Make friends withVanderbilt’s award-winning faculty. Learn who thealumni are in your target city and get to know them.Develop yourself beyond the classroom. Read.Consume current events. Keep physically fit. Learn tocommunicate: The number two complaint of recruitersis MBAs’ inability to articulate. Learn to play wellwith other children: The number one complaint ofrecruiters is MBAs’ inability to work well with others.Understand the big picture. Owen is a wonderfulinstitution, but you can make it even better by being agood alumnus.

GATES:On being a good alumnus:Help Owen when asked. This certainly includes givingfinancial support to Owen. But there are other ways tohelp: Attend receptions for potential students in yourcity and be an ambassador for Owen. Stay connectedwith the School, and grow your network by attendingalumni events. When a student calls to ask for careeradvice, take their call and do your best to help them.Recognize ways to help Owen even when not asked.Encourage talented professionals headed for an MBAprogram to consider Owen. A reference from asuccessful alum is a powerful recommendation.Take advantage of the tremendous Owen andVanderbilt resources available to you. Leverage theCenter for Entrepreneurship. Call the CareerManagement Center or a faculty member when youneed student help on a project. Use the WalkerLibrary for a research project.Strive to embody this behavior now, and make it ahabit, because as a student you are already part of theVanderbilt and Owen family

Ron Ford, E’92, past president of the Owen Alumni Association and president ofMedia Arts Group, Inc.; and Sara Gates, ’96, secretary of the alumni associationand director of product strategy and marketing for Waveset Technologies, offeredtips last year to first-year students on how to be successful students and alumni:

Success at Owen and Beyond

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E. Renee Franklin, ’89(President)Ford Motor Co.

Donald E. Townswick, ’92(Vice-President)Aeltus Investment Management

Sara K. Gates, ’96(Secretary)Waveset Technologies

Dr. Ron Ford, E’92(Ex-Officio)Media Arts Group, Inc.

Jeffrey J. Kudlata, E’96(Alumni Connectivity Chair)Verizon Communications

Steven Summers, ’99(Student Life Chair)Deloitte Consulting

Kevin Crumbo, E’96(Development Co-Chair)

Stephen S. Mathews, ’74(Development Co-Chair)

Nancy Abbott, E’91GE Capital

F. Norfleet Abston, ’89Old Waverly Investments LLC

Ed Adlam, E’00Spinnaker, LLC

Todd Barth, JD/MBA’88Bowers Properties, Inc.

Allen Brown, ’78Metro Bank

Norman A. Carl, E’83Carl Realty Advisors

Janet Carr, E’98RR Donnelley & Sons

Virginia Carter, ’02

Joe Chatman, ’01FedEx

Elizabeth Clarke, ’92Business Development Solu-tions

Kemp Conrad, E’02Accuship, Inc.

West Cook, E’01Cook & Company

John Crowther, E’92Diebold, Inc.

Cotter Cunningham, ’91Bankrate, Inc.

Rush Dickson III, ’78Metro Marketing

Jack Driscoll, ’00GE Financial

Marc Fortune, ’76Century II Staffing, Inc.

Robert E. Henry, E’95American Endoscopy Services,Inc.

Timothy W. Hough, ’95Retek

Ann Kloeppel, ’96

Bruce J. Lynskey, ’85Owen Graduate School ofManagement

Geoffrey P. Mavar, ’90Green Square Capital Manage-ment

Heiki Miki, ’96National Steel Corporation

Nedda Pollack, E’84AmSouth Bank

Steve Riddell, ’95Gulfstream Asset Management

Craig Savage, ’98Goldman Sachs & Co.

Jackie Shrago, ’75Think-Link-Learning

David Stringfield, ’95The Staubach Company

Anne Taylor, E’84Centennial Inc.

Mark Tillinger, ’82Accenture

Brenton R. Turner, ’99Avenue A

R. Keith Turnipseed, ’86Chatham Partners

J. Smoke Wallin, ’93eSkye Solutions, Inc.

Chris Ward, ’02

Leo Whitt, E’95Jay Alix & Associates

Bradford J. Williams, JD/MBA’94Goldman Sachs& Co.

Kimberly G. Windrow, E’99The MONY Group

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2002-2003

OWEN ALUMNIASSOCIATION

Bill and Kelly Christie, center, metwith more than 45 alumni and friendsof the University, several from Owen,at a reception during the recent alumnitrip to Paris.

Chancellor Gordon Gee connected with more than 100 Vanderbiltalumni and friends, including these young alumni at a dinner,during an alumni trip to the United Kingdom. PHOTOS BY JEN HOWE

Vanderbilt is growing its international network by

● building stronger connections with Van-derbilt’s international alumni, parents,and friends throughout the world

● identifying new opportunities for interna-tional collaboration, learning, and sup-port and

● strengthening the international reputa-tion of the institution.

If you are interested in the University’s inter-national activities and initiatives plannedfor your region of the world, contact the

Office of International AdvancementVanderbilt University2014 Broadway, Suite 350Nashville, TN 37203

Jennifer Howe, director615.322.6200jen.howe@vanderbilt.edu

Keep Up With Global Events—Be a part of Vanderbilt’s expanding international team!

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GOT CONNECTIVITY?

If not, we need your email address today! Reconnect to the Owen School

through your email address and watch your network expand. You’ll receive news

about Owen and updates on alumni activities in your city. Log onto the Owen

Website at mba.vanderbilt.edu and click on alumni directory to update your

records. Include the essentials: job title, home and work addresses, email ad-

dress, and news you may want to share with classmates.

DON’T BE LEFT OUT OF THE LOOP!

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITYOwen Graduate School of ManagementVU Station B 3577032301 Vanderbilt PlaceNashville, TN 37235-7703

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Non-profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDNashville, TNPermit No. 1460

Does your business need direction inthese challenging times?

Help your colleagues and your business get their bearings byrecommending Vanderbilt’s Executive MBA and ExecutiveEducation Programs. Our custom-designed programs have beeninstrumental in helping select companies and organizationsovercome obstacles and achieve strategic goals.

The Owen Graduate School of Management is aninternationally ranked provider of leading-edge businessproblem-solving and planning. The most recent Business Weeksurvey of executive MBA programs ranked Vanderbilt the 17thmost prestigious institution in the world.

For more information, contact Martin Rapisarda, associate dean forExecutive Education, (615) 322-3120; martin.rapisarda@owen.vanderbilt.edu

Or visit the Website: http://mba.vanderbilt.edu/execprog/customized_programs.cfm

THE OWEN GRADUATE SCHOOL of MANAGEMENTA Publication of