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FUQUAFOCUS
Tools for a new kind of leadership Students learn to respond to the demands of the workplace and the world. ENGAGING: Associate Professor Ashleigh Shelby Rosette's class, Women in Leadership, has proven to be a popular and timely addition to Fuqua's course catalog. Justin Cook
FUQUAupdate
Changes to Weekend Executive M.B.A. program mean greater accessibility, more students
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ore working parents and West Coast residents are applying to the Weekend Executive M.B.A. program since the in-person residency requirement has been reduced to one weekend per month, says Mohan Venkatachalam, senior associate dean for executive programs. Previously, students were required to report to Fuqua every two weeks for Friday and Saturday classes. Now, the residency is once a month on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then on Hybrid Saturday, students have the option of attending in person or virtually.
student speaks, the camera shifts so that person appears on the smaller monitor. “So the virtual student gets the experience of being physically present,” Venkatachalam says. “They get the sense of being in the class. The time they are giving on Saturday is no different than students attending physically. That way we maintain the rigorous academics of the program.” The class also has a “co-pilot” who recognizes virtual students; if they have a question or comment, the co-pilot advises the faculty member. “[Co-pilots] will put their hand up and act as a medium between virtual students and the faculty member,” Venkatachalam says. The co-pilot identifies the student, and the faculty mem“...the virtual student gets the experience of being physically present." ber acknowledges that student, who then appears on the screen. Venkatachalam credits state-of-the-art conferencing Because it enables one fewer monthly trip to the technology with making this new schedule with HyDurham campus, Hybrid Saturday alleviates a disrupbrid Saturday work. Students may participate virtually tion to students’ work schedules and makes the Weekend Executive MBA more accessible. using an electronic platform. There are two monitors “You can imagine a working parent with a young in the back of the room. On the bigger screen, the child facing the challenge of lining up child care for content streams via video, while the faculty member is two weekends every month,” he says. n teaching before students seated in the room. Anytime a 2 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu
istock
Professor Wesley Cohen recognized as Citation Laureate
New certificate program digs deeper into
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Courtesy Fuqua School of Business
esley M. Cohen, professor of economics and management and the Snow Family Professor of business administration at Fuqua, was recognized as one of 17 Citation Laureates for 2018 by Clarivate Analytics for his work on innovative labor. The honor recognized Cohen’s contribution to advancing understanding of the innovative performance of firms, industries, and nations. Cohen studies innovation and the conditions, corporate structures, and relationships that nourish innovative performance. His work helps managers and policymakers understand how best to foster innovation. The citation honors researchers whose work is deemed to be of Nobel stature in physics, chemistry, economics, physiology and medicine. n
BIG DATA
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uqua’s new certificate in Management Science and Technology Management (MSTeM) will equip students with skills in analytics and management technology, says Russ Morgan, senior associate dean for full-time programs. “We are very excited to be offering more robust programming in an area of study that is so important to business today,” Morgan says. “Every aspect of business is being enhanced by analytics in some way. People who can identify insights, explain the business implications effectively, and put action behind that information have a huge competitive advantage.” The certificate is available to current Daytime M.B.A. students and requires the completion of eight electives from a menu of qualifying classes. “Data Analytics,” and “Innovation and Cryptoventures (Use of Blockchain)” are examples of courses that are targeted to better prepare students for careers that are more analyt“We have a large ics-focused. “We have a large number of students number of students who go into technology companies, and who go into technology we want to make sure we are helping companies, and we want them prepare for positions at Amazon, to make sure we are Microsoft, or Cisco, or another tech helping them prepare firm,” Morgan says. This will be the third certificate offered for positions at Amazon, for Daytime M.B.A. students, following Microsoft, or Cisco, or certificates in Health Sector Management another tech firm.” and Financial Excellence. MSTeM qualifies for a designation as a program specializing in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), which has work implications for students who graduate with the certificate and go to work in STEM-related jobs. Homeland Security’s STEM designation for the MSTeM certificate means it allows international students three years of work authorization in the United States, compared to one year for non-STEM courses, Morgan explains. Students who are eligible receive an additional twenty-four months of Optional Practical Training (OPT). n istock DUKE MAGAZINE
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COVER STORY
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continued from page 67 . . .
A new kind of leadership
within George M.B.A. ’19 already knew a lot about leadership when he came to Fuqua. As the lead manager for the Enterprise Architecture team at Caesars Entertainment, he’d been tasked with architecting and executing technology integration solutions for one of the largest IT transformation initiatives under way in the gaming industry. But it became clear to him that his technical abilities were only a part of what he needed to move forward. As he thought through next steps, he considered what he didn’t know.
goal by constantly asking if Fuqua is meeting the needs of both sides of the market. “Fuqua has always recruited high-quality students,” he says. “But the other side of the coin is re-evaluating the skills employers are demanding. What are the unmet needs recruiters are looking for? What types of talent?” One of those needs is a demand for workers with the ability to find solutions to real-world business problems in data analytics, he says. That led to the creation of the Master of Quantitative Management (MQM) programs, which provide training in analytics and communication. Daytime M.B.A. students also have the opportunity to dive into analytics through Fuqua’s new certificate in Management Science and Technology Management (MSTeM). Companies have been slow to grasp how big data can transform their organizations, says Jeremy Petranka, the assistant dean for the Master of Quantitative Management: Business Analytics program. “There’s still a divide between the wranglers of data and the users of data,” he says. “It still feels like people are viewing analytics as an add-on tool and not as a potentially central tool to help run an organization.” These tools have been around for decades, Petranka explains. But now companies can use high-speed computers to spit out answers in an afternoon SYNERGY: Student leaders connect with their teams to create an instead of days. The ten-month MQM environment that fosters excellence. program produces graduates who know what questions to ask in order to get the answers that solve business problems. “Students are learning how to frame the question: How “As I progress through my career and specifically work do you use these tools to ask questions in each business toward becoming a leader focused on technology and innovation, I’ve had a humbling epiphany that there is a lot that domain? And how do you communicate those insights?… I need to learn,” he says. “The value is right at Fuqua with That’s the world we are in,” Petranka says. “We are not the emphasis on enabling my team to do the best work they auto mechanics. We are the racecar drivers.” can. I saw a mutual fit between Fuqua and me and being Fuqua is one of the first top business schools to have a successful.” specialized master’s focused on analytics. George is just the kind of student Fuqua Dean Bill Bould“Big data,” Petranka says, “is the wave of the future.” ing wants to attend the school—those with what he’s termed Of course, to take advantage of any program at Fuqua triple-threat leadership capability, a combination of the raw requires access to the school; already, for many students, intelligence known as IQ, emotional intelligence or EQ, and technology has brought campus closer. Still, a tweak to a decency quotient or DQ. An effective leader must have the the Weekend Executive M.B.A. program has made it even smarts, the ability to connect and relate, and an interest in more accessible. the success of the whole team. Students are now required to come to campus only once The school’s curriculum and accessibility are evolving to a month for three days, instead of twice a month for two. A reflect the skills needed in a changing society where techHybrid Saturday class is mandatory but students can attend nology is so rapidly advancing. physically or virtually. Senior Associate Dean Russ Morgan takes aim at that George, who is married with a four-year-old daughter,
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was able to attend Fuqua because of this change. He’s based in Las Vegas and it takes him a workday to travel because of the five-and-half-hour flight, along with several hours waiting in the airport. There are a lot of demands on his time, including getting his daughter to school, and his wife works full-time. “The hybrid week is a lot easier and workable in my schedule,” says thirty-six-year-old George. “My employer is highly supportive. Twice a month would be harder.” The flexibility in the schedule seems to have attracted more women to the program, as well as people who live beyond the Southeast region of the U.S. That’s important because Fuqua is also striving for more diversity and inclusion across the board in what Morgan calls both “observable and unobservable” factors.
of these questions come down to their own values. I’m giving them the motivation to reflect on those values. It’s muscle memory. If you practice flexing those muscles, it makes it easier to come to a decision when the time comes. That’s how I think about the role of my class.” Also inspiring students to reflect is a “Women in Leadership” class taught by Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, an associate professor of management and organizations and a scholar at the Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics. While the pilot course only meets once a week for six weeks, it covers a lot of terrain. The first class, “Stereotypes, Bias, and Barriers,” lays the foundation for the course’s purpose. Subsequent topics include navigating male-dominated organizations, sexual harassment and gender discrimination, and work/life balance. The class also delves into intersection-
“Where you really benefit as a team is when you are exposed to ideas, experiences, and cultures that you don’t directly know." “We want to see diversity in work experience, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, international representation from various countries, various regions of the U.S. and socioeconomics. Some of these are harder to measure,” he says. The goal isn’t just cosmetic; diversity and inclusion are key ingredients in fostering the innovative leadership Fuqua aims to cultivate. “Where you really benefit as a team is when you are exposed to ideas, experiences, and cultures that you don’t directly know,” Morgan says. “Students are not just learning from faculty and staff, they learn from their classmates.” The importance of this cross-cultural understanding can be seen in a business climate in which CEOs are expected to take positions on social and political issues in an increasingly polarized world. Professor Aaron Chatterji offers an “Advanced Corporate Strategy” class to introduce students to CEO activism and how social issues and politics affect business. Chatterji says his course is not common in business schools. He’s seen courses about non-market strategies, which cover understanding government and legal institutions and how they work, but not with a focus on politics in business. “I wanted to fill that gap. An overview of leading political issues draws implications for business and gives them practice in responding. We discuss inequality, diversity, fake news, climate change, and the #metoo movement and how it’s changing the job description for CEOs,” Chatterji says. He notes that social media often hypercharges these issues, fueling consumers to react one way or another. CEOs have to be pretty careful in taking positions, Chatterji says. Some may turn off certain customers, and others have received support. “I’m not trying to give students the answer,” he says. “A lot
ality—how women differ by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion, along with a multitude of other identities. “It brings the idea to the forefront that gender can influence the trajectory of women’s careers at different points,” Rosette says. When Rosette initially offered the class, she was expecting about twenty to twenty-five students sitting in a roundtable forum. She was surprised when more than eighty people registered. Sixty people are in the class, and several students were put on a waiting list. “This is a good problem to have,” she says. Among the students who made it in was second-year M.B.A. McKenzie Beaver, who was an associate director of client services for a consumer-insight agency before coming to Fuqua. Beaver says she immediately signed up for the class because she remembered Rosette’s energy and enthusiasm during a speech about women in leadership roles Beaver heard as a prospective student. “Her class looked at leadership from a variety of angles,” says Beaver. “It opened my eyes to the way women are often stereotyped and how we can overcome those stereotypes. If we recognize prejudice, we can fix and address the issue.” As Beaver is continuing on her path to possessing modern leadership skills, George says he’s already begun to apply what he’s been learning in the Weekend Executive program. Over the past year, he’s assisted with moving back-office systems to a leading cloud platform, delivering significant efficiencies to its financial organization, and he says he has been better able to negotiate with his peers and vendors. “So far the program has exposed me to a lot of concepts around leadership and accounting,” George says. “I’m seeing great results.” n DUKE MAGAZINE
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FUQUAFOCUS:
FAC U LT Y P R OF I L E
Associate Professor Keisha M. Cutright explores the links between personal psychology and consumer behavior.
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eisha Cutright grew up in a Southern Baptist family in Cincinnati. “I didn’t realize how religious the household was until I went to college. I didn’t think we were different than the masses,” she says. Eventually, her family’s system of beliefs would lay the foundation for the associate professor of marketing’s groundbreaking research. Cutright’s research explores the psychological drivers of consumer behavior, including religion, personal control, culture, and emotion. Her work has been published in top-tier academic journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Marketing Research, and mainstream newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal and Fast Company.
Justin Cook
Cracking codes of consumerism
another because both allow individuals to express their feelings of self-worth,” she writes in the report. In 2015, Cutright was named one of the world’s forty best business-school professors under the age of forty by the Poets and Quants news website. When the website staff asked about the professors she most admired, she praised her “very patient Ph.D. advisers at Duke: Jim Bettman and Gavan Fitzsimons.” At the time, Cutright was working as an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. She received her bachelor’s in business administration from Ohio State University and her Ph.D. in marketing from Fuqua in 2011. When she returned to Fuqua in 2016 as a faculty member, her professors became her peers. “I loved my colleagues and students at Wharton, but Fuqua has always felt like home,” she says. “We theorize that brands and religiosity may serve as “The ‘Team Fuqua’ spirit is one that resonates not only among our stusubstitutes for one another because both allow individuals dents, but also our faculty, and makes to express their feelings of self-worth.” it a really special place.” Before returning to the classroom as In her February 2018 research paper, “In God’s Hands: a faculty member, Cutright worked in brand management at How Reminders of God Dampen the Effectiveness of Fear Procter & Gamble for three years, on the Charmin brand. “I Appeals,” Cutright found that people thinking about God loved my job and coworkers, but from a marketing standpoint, aren’t as interested in products that offer precautionary benI was interested in understanding consumers’ needs beyond efits when the advertising is rooted in fear. Cutright worked particular product categories.” She’s had that interest in psychology since high school, she says. She views teaching marwith Eugenia Wu of the University of Pittsburgh. keting as understanding customers and their underlying needs. Her findings suggest marketers should think twice about She sees her research as valuable to consumers because she using fear-based advertising in highly religious areas of the examines what influences their everyday behavior. “If you are country or among people who are more likely to be religious, making decisions that are not optimal, you can change that,” as in older populations. “You could likely sell the same product, but you should use a different tactic.” she says. “My most surprising research that comes from the religion How does Cutright describe herself as a consumer? The wife realm is the more religious you are the more likely you are to and mother of three says her primary goal is to be efficient. “I buy generics,” she says. In that 2011 study, “Brands: The Opilook for the things that get the job done without a lot of work ate of the Nonreligious Masses?” she found that when you can or searching. I’m not as price-sensitive as I was before. I want express yourself through religious beliefs and positions, you to find things quickly and know they will show up reliably. I don’t need to express yourself through a brand. “We theorize do most of my shopping on Amazon. That’s my ideal place to that brands and religiosity may serve as substitutes for one get it done.” n 6 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu
FUQUAFOCUS:
A LU M N I P R OF I L E
The potential profit in people
Alumnus Oris Stuart sees the value in diversity and inclusion.
Courtesy Fuqua School of Business
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ris Stuart M.B.A. ’89 knows how to find comso much more than that. Diversity is a reflection of our experimon ground with people. ences, our upbringing, our values, our religious beliefs, and our “I firmly believe through a series of questions philosophy on life. Inclusion is the act and behavior.” you can find a significant amount of commonalStuart explains that in basketball, insiders like to say, “Diity with most people you come in contact with,” versity is who is on the team. Inclusion is who is getting in he says. “When you look at hobbies, religious beliefs, and the game.” values, there are so many more similarities between us than Earlier in his career, Stuart was a senior business manager and a strategy, operations, there are differences.” and technology consultant As executive vice pres“Diversity is who is on the team. ident and chief diversity for Deloitte, Providian, and and inclusion officer at the Inclusion is who is getting in the game.” Wingspan Technology. National Basketball AssociBut it was during his time ation, Stuart is responsible at Fuqua that Stuart gained for developing and overseeing diversity and inclusion stratethe insight and exposure that allowed him to pivot from techgies globally for the NBA, WNBA, NBA G-League, and the nology to diversity and inclusion, a growing field. NBA 2K League. “At Fuqua, I learned the foundation principles of what He provides strategic guidance, leadership, and best pracdrives businesses. I learned organizational behavior and detices on diversity and inclusion matters to the league offices velopment,” he says. “So as a diversity and inclusion leader, I and teams; leads efforts to increase the number of minority understand how you work with people and get the best out and women-owned suppliers; and drives efforts to attract, deof them in a business context. It allows me to talk to business velop, and retain diverse talent leaguewide. “Diversity is most leaders about the value of inclusion and diversity in business often associated with physical dimensions that we represent: terms.” race, ethnicity, gender, and age,” Stuart says. “But diversity is Stuart also leads the NBA’s global diversity and inclusion council to ensure engagement on the league’s diversity and inclusion strategies at all levels. He’s been with the NBA since June 2015. Before joining the NBA, he spent two years as a senior partner with Korn Ferry, one of the largest executive-search and talent-management firms, where he led its inclusion and diversity practice and served as the global consulting leader for the company’s life sciences practice. He provided organizational, strategic, and technology advisory services that helped directors, chief executives, and senior leaders address challenges in global talent. He also served as the chief executive officer for Global Novations, a preeminent diversity and inclusion consultancy and training firm. During his tenure with Global Novations, Stuart supported clients across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America; guided the expansion of the firm’s technology and consulting platforms; oversaw a tenfold increase in the firm’s size; and engineered its ultimate acquisition by Korn Ferry in 2012. “The power of diversity and the power of inclusion are to develop new approaches and new ideas,” he says, “and to break through the old and break through the mold.” n DUKE MAGAZINE
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FUQUAWOMEN ON THE RISE
1971
The FIRST FEMALE M.B.A. STUDENT matriculated
living Fuqua alumnae
ALUMNAE IN THE
C-SUITE CEO of the American Academy of Pediatrics CEO of Art.com CMO of the Graduate Management Admission Council CMO of CIGNA CFO of Merge Records CDO of Microsoft COO of the Emily Krzyzewski Family Life Center CLO of Vanguard
STUDENT MEMBERS in the Association of Women in Business
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FEMALE GRADUATES in the 2018 M.B.A., M.M.S., and M.Q.M. classes
The percentage of women in the DAYTIME M.B.A. CLASS OF 2020 (8 percentage point YOY increase)
42% 42 WOMEN’S FORTE FELLOWSHIP recipients across three M.B.A. programs in 2018-19
43%
of PROFESSIONAL DAYTIME M.B.A. STUDENT CLUB PRESIDENTS are women
Current M.B.A. Association CO-PRESIDENT
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PROGRAMS Admissions Weekend for Women Celebrates 15 years The Duke M.B.A. Weekend for Women event offers all prospective female students a unique opportunity to sample Duke in the company of other women and those who support their success.
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Inaugural Women in Leadership Course Launched in 2018 “I want to help students to better comprehend—and, most important, navigate—the barriers and obstacles that women—and men—sometimes face when they seek and occupy leadership roles.” - Ashleigh Shelby Rosette Associate Professor of Management and Organizations
STUDENT BODY
ALUMNAE
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