Emory Business Magazine Fall 2018

A M A G A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S O F E M O R Y U N I V E R S I T Y ’ S G O I Z U E TA B U S I N E S S S C H O O L

EMORY b u s i n e s s FALL 2018

Think you don’t need scholarly RESEARCH to run a BUSINESS?

THINK again

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CONNECTING SCHOLARLY RESEARCH AND BUSINESS Faculty thought leadership is more accessible and necessary than ever

FEATURE 14

Beyond ROI: Why business can benefit from the wealth of research academics provide

work they are undertaking

business FALL 2018 On cover: Getty Images

emory | business

BUZZ

Allison Gilmore shepherds doctoral students as well as the program efforts.

Now there’s a fund named for her.

conte

23 What’s on tap? Five Goizueta faculty share the scholarly

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30

Network: Michael Summers 13MBA: on hip hop and revitalizing a brand

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COFF EE WITH As the registrar’s office female trio prepare to retire, they swap stories and strategies

ents 6

13

Coffee With: Gonzalo Maturana

Goizueta’s new look

26

Wes Longhofer’s research path

34

Alumna writes new book

goizueta buzz

your network

+ plus

2 NEW BOARD MEMBER Dean Erika James joins SurveryMonkey board

28 J AMES MINNICK 99EVMBA On leadership and lofty goals

24 KNOWLEDGE CREATION

7

INCOMING TALENT

New faculty abound

32 JULIE NEMIROVSKY O6BBA On seeing life and work through a global lens

35 CLASS NOTES New alumni board members

8 CLOSER LOOK

BBA Program looks toward the future

Examining the drivers of social change

33 D ELTA LEADERSHIP COACHING FELLOWS Chase Callaway 20EvMBA

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We’re Turning 100...and You’re Invited In 2019, Emory will celebrate 100 years of business education. An occasion this big can’t be contained in a day, so we invite you to help us mark the occasion as we party all month long AND on the road with our 100th Anniversary Birthday Parties Around The World. Gather with your Goizueta community at one of more than 20 domestic and international venues and help us ring in our Centennial right!

100TH ANNIVERSARY BIRTHDAY PARTIES AROUND THE WORLD DOMESTIC PARTIES

JAN 31 Alpharetta GA Atlanta GA Boston MA Chicago IL Dallas TX Houston TX Los Angeles CA Miami FL

New York City NY Palo Alto CA San Francisco CA Seattle WA Washington DC

ON-CAMPUS PARTY

FEB 21 Emory University — Goizueta Business School: Jenkins Courtyard

INTERNATIONAL PARTIES

FEB 28 Beijing China Shanghai China Delhi India Tokyo Japan London England Medellín Colombia Mumbai India Seoul Korea

For more, visit goizuetabeyond.com/events

business Chief Growth Officer Angela Lee Bostick 04MBA Senior Communications Manager J. Mike Moore Managing Editor Nicole Golston

Homecoming 2018 This year’s homecoming celebration included a return of the ever-popular Back to School academic sessions, which feature faculty discussions of relevant business topics, and the launch of Books, Brews & BBQ. Alumni, faculty and staff authors showcased their talent at a book fair, conveniently located next to Southern delicacies offered by Community Q BBQ. An all-alumni lawn party, annual homecoming and family weekend 5K, and a golf tournament rounded out the weekend. To read more and see lots of cool photos, visit emory.biz/homecoming.

Other online features WEB

100 Years. 100 Stories.

GoizuetaBeyond.com Atlanta natives and prominent Emory donors Solon P. Patterson 57BBA 58MBA and his wife of nearly six decades, Marianna Reynolds Patterson 61C, live by the simple idea that “to whom much is given, much is required.” But it all started with a boy meeting a girl. Read their story and those of other alumni at Goizuetabeyond.com.

WEB Know Your Network Get to know your Goizueta alumni in an ongoing series called Know Your Network on EmoryBusiness.com. Each month two alumni share fun facts and insights into their lives. In November, check out Jorge Luciani 94MBA, associate director, Procurement Category Management at Kite Pharma.

Discover what’s on his playlist and who inspires him most. For more, visit emory.biz/KnowYourNetwork.

Find us:  @EmoryGoizueta  goizueta.emory.edu/Facebook  emory.biz/LinkedIn  youtube.com/EmoryGoizueta

Art Direction Plus One Media Lead Photographer Allison Shirreffs Class Notes Carol Lindsey Lead Proofreader and Buzz Editor Breckyn Wood

Photographers Tony Benner Ann Borden Kay Hinton Joanne McRae Bryan Meltz Tiffany Powell Susan Stava Pete Winkel Contributors Andrea King Collier Áine Doris Grace Easton Alex Gambon Michelle Hiskey Kaylyssa Hughes Hallie Mather Patty Pohuski Jessica Rios Emily Sewell Allison Shirreffs Myra A. Thomas For online extras and archived editions, visit emory.biz/magazine.

EMORY BUSINESS

is published twice a year by Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and is distributed free to all alumni and other friends of the business school.

Emory University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097; 404-679-4501) to award degrees at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels.

Send letters to the editor and other correspondence to Nicole Golston, Managing Editor, Goizueta Business School, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 or GBSmag@emory.edu or call 404.727.3434. © 2018 Goizueta Business School, Emory University. All Rights Reserved.

Articles may be reprinted in full or in part if source is acknowledged.

For online extras and archived editions, visit emory.biz/magazine.

Emory University is dedicated to providing equal opportunities and equal access to all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, gender, genetic information, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and veteran’s status. Emory University does not discriminate in admissions, educational programs, or employment on the basis of any factor stated above or prohibited under applicable law. Students, faculty, and staff are assured of participation in University programs and in the use of facilities without such discrimination. Emory University complies with Executive Order 11246, as amended, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Vietnam Era Veteran’s Readjustment Assistance Act, and applicable executive orders, state and federal regulations regarding nondiscrimination, equal opportunity and affirmative action. Emory University is committed to achieving a diverse workforce through application of its affirmative action, equal opportunity and non-discrimination policy in all aspects of employment including recruitment, hiring, promotions, transfers, discipline, terminations, wage and salary administration, benefits, and training. Inquiries regarding this policy should be directed to the Emory University Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, 201 Dowman Drive, Administration Bldg., Atlanta, GA 30322. Telephone 404.727.9867 (V) 404.712.2049 (TDD).

fall | 2018

PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF AND TAKE YOUR EDUCATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL.

Whether you want to continue your own development through learning new business content or share Goizueta Business School with your team, Emory Executive Education is your connection.

We offer non-degree short courses and certificate programs featuring Goizueta’s faculty and cutting-edge thought leadership.

Emory Executive Education is ranked #5 among US business schools for its faculty and quality of teaching.

—Financial Times 2018 Executive Education Custom Programme Rankings

Visit us at WorkSmarter.org/EmoryBiz for more information.

Dear alumni and friends, I

’ve spent my career in academia focusing on a variety of topics, from crisis leadership, to diversity, to the way organizations handle accusations of discrimination and sexual harassment.

By training, I’m a psychologist, but my passion lies in helping businesses improve. I do this, in large part, with the support of decades of research — from my own efforts and those of countless colleagues.

I believe in the power of academic research and its role in effecting change in business. So, of course, the topic of this edition of Emory Business struck a chord.

Researchers in higher education work in a unique space. We expect and value peer review. We take the time to double-check our numbers and re-evaluate our findings. It can take years for a paper to make it into a scholarly journal. This is by design. However, the results of our work can often be applied immediately to improve the workweek of managers and employees alike.

It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of the workday. We face this even in academia. But I’m proud of the increased research output of our faculty and the renewed focus on work that marries the world of scholarly research with direct applicability.

This calendar year alone, our faculty have appeared in more than 1,200 pieces of popular media, including newspapers, magazines, blogs, radio interviews and television segments. We are actively sharing our expertise and informed opinions on topics that affect business — now.

This all fits nicely with the vision for our school as we near a 100th anniversary celebration. You will see more execution of the “Goizueta Beyond” campaign in the coming weeks and months, with an emphasis on doing more to take business to the next level.

Today’s business environment needs fresh ideas, inspired talent and a renewed commitment to creating lasting value. Meaningful research is an important way to answer the call for the next big idea and further align business with society. In the process, we unlock a collective ability to innovate in the most important ways.

I hope you enjoy this issue and learn more about the intersection of academia and industry.

Warm Regards,

Erika H. James John H. Harland Dean, Goizueta Business School Professor of Organization & Management erika.james@emory.edu @erikahjames

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Goizueta BUZZ Dean James joins SurveyMonkey board of directors This summer Dean Erika James joined the board of directors for SurveyMonkey, a leading global provider of survey software products. James has paved the way for women in leadership both in education and in corporate America. The first African American woman to be appointed dean of a top-25 business school, she has been instrumental in starting various executive education programs, including the Women’s Leadership Program at the Darden Graduate School of Business. James has consulted with multiple Fortune 500 companies.

“As an educator with a passion for helping students and businesses thrive, I’m excited about the strength of SurveyMonkey’s mission to power the curious,” said James. “My life’s work is helping women reach leadership positions, and I am impressed by SurveyMonkey’s dedication to creating a diverse and inclusive environment.”

With the addition of James, the SurveyMonkey board now has an equal representation of women and men.

“Erika is a dynamic leader in the education sector, where we have a large customer footprint and a great growth opportunity. She also brings a wealth of domain expertise in survey methodology, organizational psychology and driving accountable leadership,” said SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie 99JD/MBA. “I’m thrilled to work with Erika and excited to see the impact of her contribution.”

MSBA program has banner first year The new Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) program at Goizueta had a successful year, first by securing a partnership with FedEx and then by hosting its first Business Analytics Conference.

The dynamic duo of FedEx and Goizueta will partner on initiatives including recruiting access, data for student projects, conferences and a named scholarship.

“Continuous innovation has always fueled FedEx, and that includes a strong focus on the business use of analytics,” said Donald Comer, staff vice president of operations analysis for FedEx. “We’re proud to team up with Emory University and to be an early supporter of the MSBA program.”

At the Goizueta Business Analytics Conference, keynote speaker Khalifeh Al Jadda, formerly lead data scientist at CareerBuilder and now senior manager for data science at The Home Depot, spoke to a full crowd made up of eager MSBA students on the edge of graduation, seasoned analytics professionals and several Goizueta faculty and staff.

“Data is the new oil,” Al Jadda said. “Companies that own data today and know how to utilize their data build a lot of data products that bring millions, if not billions, of dollars in revenue.”

Attendees also enjoyed talks from leaders representing Microsoft Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Uber, LinkedIn and more.

Ramnath Chellappa, associate professor of information systems & operations management and the associate dean and academic director of the MSBA Program, says the program is unique in many ways.

“What makes our program special is that we pay faithful attention not only to the data science but also the technology component. In fact, one portion of our curriculum is run on Amazon Web Services (AWS),” said Chellappa. “Our goal is to create business data scientists.”

2 emory | business

The Class of 2019, the second cohort, is well underway with a class profile that includes 44 new students, nearly half of which are women.

Fourteen percent of the class are domestic, and the remaining students herald from eight countries. This population tends to be younger, with ages ranging from 21 to 33, and they average three years of work experience with a mean GMAT of 724.

Goizueta BUZZ Alumni panel explores ways to increase female leaders Communication and perception might be the two most important factors that determine whether a woman is promoted or not.

These themes continued to bubble to the top during a recent alumni panel discussion hosted by the Emory Alumni Association and the Emory Office of Corporate Relations. The event, “Maintaining Momentum Supporting Female Leaders on Their Journey to the Top,” featured alumni offering insight and strategies on how to reach the C-suite.

“Don’t wait until you are 100 percent confident you can do it to say, ‘I got this,’” she said. “Be courageous: ask for the hard feedback and for the next role or raise.”

For more, visit emory.biz/FemaleLeaders.

“There is almost a double standard, where some men feel if a woman is up for leadership roles, ‘She’s got to be ready,’ but with men they look at potential,” said panelist Andrew Davis 08WEMBA, who at the time of the event was global chief diversity and inclusion officer at The Coca-Cola Company. “On the flipside, women tend to not raise their hands for promotion unless they do feel ready — like 80 percent ready — while men will do it at 20 to 40 percent readiness and will say, ‘Hey, c’mon, just put me in the job.’”

Shelli Willis 89JD, senior vice president and deputy general counsel for SunTrust Bank, reiterated the need for women to advocate for themselves and to cultivate courage.

Alumni panelists from left, moderator Dana Brownlee 98EvMBA, Andrew Davis 08WEMBA, Shelli Willis 89JD, Miriam Pechar 99MBA and Robert Cahn 83JD/MBA.

Microbusiness support organizations convene at Goizueta for colloquium The second annual Microbusiness Support Colloquium, presented by Northern Trust, brought together twenty microentrepreneur support organizations from twelve states to Goizueta to discuss data, leading practices and new collective efforts that will help more microbusinesses start, grow and succeed in underserved communities.

Atlanta Beer Boutique, Cherokee Moon Mixology, Purple Corkscrew Wine Shop & Tasting Room, Stop Think Chew, Chicomecóatl and Marddy’s.

In addition to peer organization discussions, the colloquium included two interactive panels featuring policy and research experts — both critical drivers within the microbusiness ecosystem.

Solana Rice of Prosperity Now and William Lambe of Enterprise Community Partners discussed top policy issues, such as Opportunity Zones (a program to encourage long-term investments in low-income urban and rural communities) and wealth-building tools. Chris Wheat of JPMorgan Chase and Francois Neville of McMaster University shared insights from recent academic studies and talked about potential new research on cooperative models and speed to capital access.

Lastly, Goizueta celebrated microbusinesses with a reception and meal made by Atlanta-area food entrepreneurs

Professor Peter Roberts, center aisle, welcomes organizers to the microbusiness event.

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Goizueta BUZZ Princeton Review Ranks Emory Happy students enjoy a high quality of life, and Emory University captured first place in Princeton Review’s annual quality of life rankings, published in their 2019 list “The 384 Best Colleges.” The rankings are based on a nationwide student survey, and factors rated for the quality of life category included dorm comfort, food quality, student friendliness and interaction, diversity, administrator availability, community relations, location, safety and beauty. Emory also ranked highly for classroom experience (#19), science lab facilities (#20) and health services (#20).

New Fund for Business Doctoral Education The Laney Graduate School and Goizueta have recently established the Allison Gilmore Fund for Business Doctoral Education. Gilmore, director of admissions and student services at Goizueta, has worked tirelessly with doctoral candidates at Emory for over a decade, providing guidance and encouragement for students and alumni from the uncertain days of recruitment to graduation and beyond.

A veteran of improvisational

#1 QUALITY OF LIFE

comedy, Gilmore uses her intrepid stage presence and business acumen to train students in the art of intuitive and spontaneous thinking. Her close work with students has established lasting friendships, and those relationships have been a source of strength for her — and for them. The fund, which has an initial fundraising goal of $100,000, honors Gilmore and all she does to champion and support her students. Its purpose will be to provide needed funds to doctoral students who are seeking additional support for their research, or to offer financial assistance during critical times of their degree program.

“It has been a pleasure working for a decade or more with our doctoral students. Since this is a five-year program, I get to know them on a deep and meaningful level. And

#9 COLLEGE DORMS

I have a tremendous sense of pride when I see them achieve their goals of becoming scholars and landing faculty positions at business schools around the globe,” she said. “Navigating the program doesn’t come without its challenges, though — both personally and financially — which is why this new fund will be so instrumental in helping those students who might be struggling without this support.” — BW To add your own donation to the fund, please visit

4 emory | business

emory.edu/give.

Goizueta BUZZ Fall kickoff events focus on women The third annual #GoizuetaENGAGE Conference this October gathered businesses in support of women’s equality and advancement in the workplace while also featuring panels, workshops and speakers.

LinkedIn, Amazon and Invesco served as sponsors.

Highlights of the program included opening speaker Xia Liu 98MBA, EVP and CFO of Georgia Power, and a luncheon discussion between Dean Erika James and Scott Pioli, assistant general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, which focused on the critical need for male advocacy to achieve equality for women.

Faculty talks rounded out the day and included Emily Bianchi, associate professor of organization & management, and Molly Epstein, professor in the practice of organization & management, who presented on consumer behavior in gift-giving and Jill Perry-Smith, professor of organization & management, who spoke about creative collaboration and the art of teamwork.

Also held in October was “Beyond Barriers: Creating the Courage to Act,” the theme of this year’s Executive Women of Goizueta (EWG) Conference. Participants used the hashtag #EWGCourageToAct to mark the group’s fifteenth anniversary celebration, which brought together powerful career women from diverse fields to discuss breaking through personal, professional and political barriers. In addition to influential speakers who shared a passion for advancing women in the workplace, the keynote speaker was Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments. — JR For more, visit emory.biz/GoizuetaEngage.

Arts Management Trek in NYC Undergraduate students at Goizueta along with arts majors in Emory College were treated to an insider’s tour of New York City’s art scene earlier this year, during the first Arts Management Trek to the Big Apple.

The trek is part of the four-year-old Arts Management concentration, which allows students majoring in dance, music, theater and arts history, as well as BBA students who are passionate about those areas, to deepen their perspective and competencies at the intersection of the arts and business.

“The goal of the trek was to provide insights, networking and inspiration to Emory students as they consider arts-related careers,” said Andrea Hershatter, senior associate dean of the BBA program, co-director of the concentration and founder of the trek.

Thanks to a robust alumni network and university connections, students met with Nathan Meeks 07BBA, owner of Gigzolo, a company that connects artists and entertainers to event professionals, and toured the Lincoln Center, meeting John Casavant 10BBA, director of performance marketing.

Kelli Cross 10BBA, assistant vice president, preferred programme manager at Sotheby’s, arranged a visit for the students that included Orly Brooker 16BBA, who works in fine jewels. The group went on to visit with representatives from American Ballet Theatre; MOMA; HBO, where Brandt Haynes 01C is senior vice president in marketing; and Sony Music, where Tara Master 01BBA Students gain insights during a meeting at Lincoln Center. is associate director at Legacy Recordings.

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Goizueta BUZZ Dean’s #MatchME campaign nets over $34,000; aids business development Thanks to a matching gift challenge by Goizueta’s Dean Erika James to spur contributions, the Start:ME Accelerator Program is off to a rousing start. The summer fundraising effort, called the Dean’s #MatchME Campaign, matched donations of $17,305, bringing the total raised to $34,610, which will support last year’s cohort of participating small businesses and broaden alumni efforts to support more than 150 small businesses across metro Atlanta.

Start:ME is an intensive, 14-session accelerator program for promising local small businesses. Emory’s Goizueta Business School partners with East Lake Foundation, Friends of Refugees, FCS and Purpose Built Schools of Atlanta to deliver the program to talented entrepreneurs who live in, work in and/or provide valuable products and services to our Atlanta community. For more on the program and ways to mentor and support the 2019 cohort, visit www.startmeatl.org.

Fresh design facilitates collaboration

Auditorium 6 emory | business

Pictured above, Dean James presented the school’s match investment of $17,305 to Start:ME Program Director Brian Goebel 09MBA. The dean’s challenge matched all gifts to the program dollar-for-dollar.

Goizueta is getting a new look! Renovations began last winter to more efficiently use the building’s space and to infuse the school with a fresh, modern design.

Changes will continue into this year to update classrooms and provide more open spaces for groups to meet and work together.

“Over the past year, we have made significant investments in our facilities in order to accommodate our growth and to create a welcoming physical space that promotes collaboration,” said Belva White 08WEMBA, chief business, analytics and operations officer. “These investments also help to ensure that we continue to attract and retain the best faculty, student and staff talent. I am thrilled at the enhancements we continue to make to our facilities, and I hope they will inspire us all to do our best work.”

BBA Lounge

Goizueta BUZZ Doctoral alumni gain tenure Five Goizueta doctoral alumni recently became tenured professors, an achievement that showcases their dedication to academic pursuits.

David Kryscynski 11PhD received tenure at Brigham Young University, where he is an associate professor of strategy in the department of management. Byoung-Hyoun Hwang 09PhD is now an associate professor of finance at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Maria Vulcheva 05MBA 11PhD is now an associate professor in the School of Accounting, College of Business at Florida International University. Jane Thayer 08PhD received tenure from the University of Virginia, where she is an associate professor of commerce and accounting, while Seoyoung Kim 09PhD, who was the first female finance doctoral student at Goizueta, is now an associate professor of finance and business analytics at Santa Clara University.

Achieving tenure is a major milestone for researchers.

“Universities award tenure to those faculty members who have made significant contributions to the academic environment and are expected to continue to do so for years to come,” said Kathryn Kadous, Schaefer Chaired Professor of Accounting at Goizueta. “We are proud of our excellent PhD graduates, and we are gratified that they are playing such an important role in the education of new generations of students.” — KH

New Faculty A new crop of professors has arrived this fall, commending the culture of inclusion, diversity and collaboration on campus and eager to work with Goizueta’s friendly students and the collegial, highly esteemed faculty. We welcome them to the Goizueta family.

Allison Kays, assistant professor in the practice of accounting Allison Kays holds a BS and an MS in accounting from the University of Florida, as well as a PhD in accounting from the University of Southern California (2018). Prior to earning her PhD, Professor Kays worked as a tax accountant for Ernst & Young in Atlanta. She remains an active CPA in Georgia. Professor Kays’ primary research interests are the efficiency and effectiveness of tax authority policies as well as the effects of such policies on business decisions.

Omar Rodriguez-Vila 12PhD, associate professor in the practice of marketing Prior to joining Goizueta, Omar Rodriguez-Vila was a faculty member at the Scheller College of Business of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Professor Rodriguez-Vila’s primary scholarly focus is on two areas transforming the practice of marketing. First, he is studying how firms are evolving their marketing capabilities in order to compete in technology-led market environments. Second, he studies how environmental and social sustainability considerations are changing the nature of marketing activities. Prior to his career in academia, Professor Rodriguez-Vila held leadership positions in marketing at The Coca-Cola Company.

Justin Short, assistant professor of accounting Justin Short completed his PhD in accounting at the University of Tennessee in 2018. As a licensed CPA in Tennessee, Professor Short held positions at Ernst & Young in its Nashville office prior to joining the Emory faculty. He primarily focuses his scholarship on corporate governance and auditing.

Kendra Taylor, adjunct assistant professor of information systems & operations management Kendra Taylor holds a PhD in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech and has held positions at AECOM, CH2M Hill and Booz Allen Hamilton. Most recently, Professor Taylor worked as president and CEO of KEYfficiencies Inc., a consulting firm that guides its clients to increased efficiency in operations and decision strategy using key principles of industrial and systems engineering. Her primary scholarly focus is in the area of community-based operations research.

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Goizueta BUZZ Spotlight on SE@G summer interns Each summer, SE@G co-invests with social enterprise partners to provide stipend funding that creates opportunities for MBA students to work with social enterprises as interns. Here are three of those interns who worked in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Nairobi this summer.

Rhushi Bhadkamkar 19MBA was an REDF Farber Fellow at Chrysalis in Los Angeles this summer. Chrysalis is a nonprofit that helps homeless and lowincome individuals on the path to selfsufficiency through employment search and retention resources. Chrysalis has plans to expand outside of L.A. County, and Bhadkamkar helped them understand the technology, business and financial needs for that expansion. He says one main thing he learned is that “there are multiple ways to measure impact, and it can vary based on the division in a nonprofit. Tailoring the impact metric is important to show the value of a particular enterprise.”

Alanna Shuh 19MBA spent the summer at Good Measure Meals (GMM) in Atlanta, helping the company transition from a subscription and catering model to selling their ready-to-eat meals in micromarkets.

“GMM funds about one-third of all Open Hand meals — a sister nonprofit program,” said Shuh. “Through social enterprise, Open Hand can provide more medically tailored meals to seniors and those that suffer from chronic disease and rely less on grants and philanthropy.”

Hannah Wilson 18MBA/MPH traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to intern for Sanergy, which makes safe and affordable sanitation options for communities across Africa. Wilson helped the company manage and analyze data on new products, including an in-home toilet offering and a pit latrine emptying service, to be able to reach more of the market with affordable sanitation. About her experience, Wilson said, “In this role with Sanergy, I learned to focus on transferring my knowledge and skills to my coworkers, which allowed my contributions during the three-month internship to be much more permanent for the organization.”

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BBA Program gets a closer look The BBA Program is undergoing a comprehensive faculty-led review to ensure that Goizueta’s undergraduate students are best prepared for the organizational and social challenges of the 2020s.

Goizueta’s Education Committee, currently led by Peter Topping, professor in the practice of organization & management, serves as the vehicle for ensuring program quality and vitality. The BBA review began last fall to delve into all of the academic aspects of the program.

“This deep dive looks at the curriculum, including prerequisite courses, as well as the cocurricular activities that contribute to the academic health of the program,” Topping explained. “The undergraduate program is our most complicated one because we don’t control the entire student experience. We work in partnership with Emory and Oxford Colleges, as well as Emory University Admissions and Career Management.”

Tasked by Dean Erika James to ensure the program is distinctive and focused on the future, the committee has collected and analyzed data from a variety of sources, including an external audit conducted by representatives from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley and Cornell University; interviews with Emory University representatives, faculty and students; and survey results of BBA alumni who graduated from 2013 to 2017.

Among the questions the committee is assessing are: • What are the national and regional trends regarding interest among college-bound students in obtaining an undergraduate business degree?

• How can we best integrate the BBA students’ experiences at Goizueta with their coursework at Emory or Oxford Colleges?

• What should a BBA program of this next decade look like?

The committee will submit a report on the current state of the program, and any short-term fixes that don’t require significant curricular changes will be implemented right away. Then, in the spring, they will task a smaller faculty group to consider a full redesign of the entire curriculum.

What will not change, Topping stressed, is the current standard of providing undergraduates with a solid and integrated liberal arts business education. “We are fortunate to be part of a fabulous major research university that has a strong liberal arts foundation,” he said. “Ideally we want a double helix of liberal arts and business throughout the entire experience.” — NG To read the full story, visit emory.biz/closerlook.

Goizueta BUZZ Celebrating Jag Sheth at 80 There is something about the ease with which Jagdish Sheth engages an audience that makes him a consummate lecturer and teacher. The chaired professor of marketing enjoys nothing more than posing questions to a room full of students, drawing out their potential by encouraging them to participate as he connects the dots between the products and services they use or know and an array of factors that impact industry.

On a sunny day in early September, Sheth had an extra reason to smile. He turned 80 on September 3 and hasn’t missed a beat. With nothing more than a soft voice, smiles and a few trademarked PowerPoint slides, Sheth soon has the 40 BBA students discussing the current state of the auto and aircraft industries. During class, Sheth noted that technology has made it possible for four players to coexist, but this is often a temporary occurrence: the Rule of Three prevails in all industries.

The author of more than 30 books and hundreds of journal articles, Sheth’s journey from India to the U.S. and then international acclaim is one of humble beginnings and a thirst for knowledge. His passion for education, his global perspective and his sense of humor make him highly relatable in any setting, especially the classroom.

“In my class, the message is there are no wrong answers, because it isn’t a formula. It is your perspective, your view, and so long as you can back it up by logic and evidence, your answer is as good as anybody’s.” — Jagdish Sheth “I like that the information we learn is actually applied and not just theory,” noted Annie Kuo 20BBA, of Sheth’s class. “Every other week we do a case study and have to examine how different companies respond. I like that it’s real life.”

It’s his experience and global perspective that keep students engaged. Sheth teaches two sections of Seminar on Global Marketing, one to MBAs and another to undergraduates. In the BBA class, he has many students with origins outside the U.S., and he makes a point to incorporate the industries and cultural norms of those students’ countries into the class discussion.

“I know many of the Indian students because my wife, Madhu, and I host a welcome reception for incoming freshmen and their parents every year,” Sheth said. This academic school year, Emory welcomed 53 new students from India. Along with the Office of Global Strategic Initiatives and Emory College administration and development officers, the Sheths help alleviate the anxiety many parents feel having their children living 8,000 miles from home.

Ultimately, Sheth’s longevity in the classroom is due to his joy of learning, especially from his students.

Faculty promotions and chairs Congratulations to the faculty who have received promotions.

Emily Bianchi, associate professor of organization & management Allison Burdette, professor in the practice of business law Mike Lewis, professor of marketing Jill Perry-Smith, professor of organization & management Usha Rackliffe, associate professor in the practice of accounting Eve Rosenzweig, professor of information systems & operations management Lori Sullivan, lecturer and assistant director of the Robson Program for Business, Public Policy and Government Peter Topping, professor in the practice of organization & management In addition, two faculty members received endowed chair appointments in recognition of their outstanding contributions to their field and Goizueta.

Kristy Towry is now the John M. and Lucy Cook Chair.

Anandhi Bharadwaj is the Roberto C. Goizueta Chair in Electronic Commerce.

“During our active class discussions of a case, sometimes a student presents an interesting idea, and I think, ‘Maybe I need to do a little more research. Fascinating, I never thought like that.’” — NG

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COFFEE WITH...

EACH ISSUE, WE SELECT FACULTY OR STAFF MEMBERS, CURRENT OR RETIRED, TO “HAVE COFFEE WITH.” THE OBJECTIVE IS TO GATHER INSIGHTS AND PERSPECTIVE ON A TOPIC OF INTEREST TO ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF EMORY UNIVERSITY’S GOIZUETA BUSINESS SCHOOL. IF YOU HAVE A FAVORITE FACULTY OR STAFF MEMBER YOU WOULD LIKE TO “HAVE COFFEE WITH,” PLEASE SEND YOUR SUGGESTION TO GBSMAG@EMORY.EDU.

10 emory | business

#MeetGoizueta

Goizueta’s reliable registrar’s team For decades, every student has passed their scrutiny — and received their support

Annabella Yumul, Nancy Kratzer and Debbie Ashtiani pretty much function as Goizueta Business School’s operating system.

As the entire staff of the registrar’s office, they regulate every student’s experience. They handle the schedule, enrollment caps, registration, drop/add, withdrawals, enrollment reports, grade posting, honors reports, and continuance and accreditation fulfillment for new majors and programs. They ensure that every course needed to graduate has been taken, and each diploma goes through them.

The trio represents Goizueta across campus, too.

They’ve always worked closely with Emory College and Oxford College, where undergraduate business students get their start; as advanced dual degrees became more common, they helped Goizueta efficiently link with programs in law, medicine, theology, physical therapy and public health.

Now after almost three decades of shepherding students into the real world, they’re shuttering their Emory careers. In December, Yumul (associate director of registrar services, originally from the Philippines) will be the first to retire, followed by Kratzer (business analyst, from Michigan) in early 2020. Ashtiani (director of registrar services, from South Georgia) retires two months after that. fall | 2018 11

every expected graduation date must be correct, and we notify students of missing requirements. Grateful students bring us cookies, and Debbie gets flowers all the time.

Ashtiani: We do get thanked for going above and beyond, but we’re really not allowed to not go above and beyond. We cooperate to be more productive. At commencement, we feel great accomplishment because we helped students get there.

Yumul: It’s contagious seeing everyone so happy at graduation. It always makes me cry!

EB: Over the years, what moments stood out?

If they left at one time, exiting together from their office on the fourth floor of the East Wing, Emory would be hard-pressed to make the school year go smoothly for each business student.

Advance notice gives them time to familiarize codirector Marvell Nesmith with Goizueta’s unique complexities. Nesmith has substantial experience in student enrollment management, having worked in Emory’s Schools of Medicine and Law. He will manage the registrar’s office after the transition.

The three gathered recently to talk about their teamwork at Goizueta and the heart of their success: accountability, communication and resourcefulness.

EB: Technology makes you anonymous to many students today.

Is that disconnect one of the biggest changes you’ve observed at Goizueta?

Kratzer: When I started in the late 80s, we were in the Rich Building, and we were so small that everyone knew each other.

The registrar, Dot Smith, used a typewriter and kept important information on index cards. All registration was manual, and we used to sit in the gym at a table to register students. Now we have far fewer students even lining up at our office, because everything is web-based.

Yumul: We used to have drop/add where students camped out at 3 a.m., and we would give out numbers, and only two to three staff processed changes for this big bunch of students. Seeing them and talking to them really keeps you young. I love hearing the lingos change in each generation, and how they can translate using their phones.

Yumul: My first day at Emory, in 1985, I had never heard a Southern drawl. I kept saying, “Sorry, I beg your pardon … .”

People thought I was deaf.

Ashtiani: We never met Mr. Goizueta. However, we saw Mrs. Goizueta at every graduation. She was always excited to be there.

As the number of students grew, we had to start asking the students in the line up to shake her hands gently. There were a lot of happy handshakes!

Kratzer: I can remember 9/11 as clear as yesterday. Goizueta had alumni and parents who worked in the World Trade Center. We ended up in case rooms, watching the news, in the auditorium, wanting to be with each other.

EB: What does retirement look like?

Yumul: I’ll visit the Philippines in January and then Singapore. I’ll probably volunteer at my church.

Kratzer: I’ll continue volunteering at the Fox Theatre, which I’ve done since 2010. I saw Prince the week before he died, and I just saw Hamilton three times, and the Lion King. I also will definitely be involved with pet rescue; my little cockapoo, Rosie, is a rescue.

I want to go to northern Michigan for part of the year, and I’ve started to learn guitar.

Ashtiani: I’m selling my house and getting a condo, and I want to do some traveling. I love to go to museums and art festivals. After some time off, I plan on working two days a week doing something fun.

EB: Marvell, what has been the biggest thing you’ve learned from these ladies so far?

Nesmith: Having been part of the Emory family on and off for Ashtiani: Technology has made everything more efficient and the past 11 years, I am having an amazing amount of fun this time easier for students and us. It’s probably better now for everyone, around. These ladies are lighthearted and joyful, and they show but the only time I see a lot of other Goizueta staff is at a staff lunme every day how not to take things too seriously. I’ve been back at Rail is one of many ways supply chains are built. cheon. The size of the school and number of students are just too now since January 2018, and they are sharing with me all of Here, Osadchiy stands in front of Hulsey Yard, Emory a big for us to see everyone.rail yard of the CSX railroad, stretching nearlythe secrets that come with running an office as complex as this one. one mile along theinborder of the Old Fourth Ward, EB: Your team was among Emory leaders how you customized EB: What’s your advice to Marvell Nesmith, already in training to Inman Park, Cabbagetown, and Reynoldstown software and used it to keep track of student progress to graduadirect the registrar’s office? neighborhoods of Atlanta. tion; degree audits were manual before. Tell us about that.

Kratzer: Enjoy it. Emory’s people and culture are great.

Kratzer: We were one of the first Emory schools to figure this Ashtiani: Update procedures. Always look for ways to save time. out, and it took a long time. I manage the registration for underYumul: Be flexible, because things are going to change. graduates — about 400 graduating each year, and 800 to 900 at — Michelle Hiskey any time. Annabella manages this for the MBAs. Every semester,

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#MeetGoizueta

COFFEE WITH...

Gonzalo Maturana

Gonzalo Maturana is interested in your house—how you decided to buy it, what a lender may have told you (or not), what influenced you to refinance and how accountable financial institutions are for your loan.

You may have read about his research in Bloomberg or VICE, or heard about it on NPR. As an assistant professor of finance since 2015, Maturana is known for discoveries of practical value to consumers, employers and financial institutions.

misleading investors about mortgaged-back securities; their executives continue to make salaries commensurate with industry peers.

“The fines are not enough to create the personal accountability to prevent another crisis like this,” Maturana said.

“I wanted to do work that mattered to people, to have a positive impact on society,” he said. “That motivated my research in ethics and fraud. Transparency and accountability are key for our economic system to work, and that’s what we didn’t see during the financial crisis.”

The 2015 movie The Big Short “gave a pretty clear picture in general of what was going on,” Maturana noted. “The registration documents for these mortgage-backed products didn’t reflect the risk. When securities are opaque, due diligence is difficult. Financial complexity can facilitate bad practices, and the spillover effect is people losing their houses and jobs, which ultimately impacts families.”

A decade ago, as U.S. banks were trying to sell mortgage-backed securities to global partners, Maturana was a restless portfolio manager of an international equity fund in Chile. As his firm weathered the Great Recession, Maturana considered ways of helping improve the financial system through research, policy and teaching.

Maturana liked the entrepreneurship of academia, managing his time to maximize his productivity. He came to the U.S. in 2010 to study at the University of Texas, and his first doctoral research project detailed how mortgage originators’ and mortgage-backed security underwriters’ widespread misinformation worsened the real estate bust. This paper, co-authored with his advisor, John Griffin, won the award for the best paper published by The Review of Financial Studies in 2016.

Maturana’s related research has shown the value of incentivizing banks to provide mortgage assistance to homeowners. He also studied financial institutions that paid significant federal fines for

Maturana’s current research uses public schools in Texas as a laboratory and shows that work colleagues influence your mortgage refinancing decision. When one teacher in the sample group refinanced, teachers on the same schedule were more likely to refinance, and these additional refinances were beneficial on average. In related research, Maturana also discovered that when a teacher goes through bankruptcy, their students’ test scores lag. “Financial distress affects productivity,” he said.

Off campus, Maturana and wife Bernardita are raising three children, aged 2 to 7. Naturally, Maturana carefully studied the data before buying their home near Emory.

“I was very upfront with the loan officer,” he said. “I want all the information to make an informed decision.” — Michelle Hiskey

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FEATURE

Think you don’t need scholarly RESEARCH to run a BUSINESS? 14 emory | business

THINK again

By Myra Thomas and Nicole Golston

It’s not every day a research paper sparks a stock sell-off on Wall Street.

The reverberations began shortly after Daniel McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing, and his co-author Peter Fader, a professor of marketing at Wharton, published a journal article exploring the valuation of two e-commerce companies, Wayfair and Overstock.com. Using a methodology they named “customer-based cor-

$69 to acquire each new customer

poration valuation,” or CBCV, the

but earns only $59 after that ac-

researchers produced valuations

quisition. Overstock, in contrast,

on contractual and non-contrac-

earned a profit of about $10 for

tual companies based on customer

each newly acquired customer.

value. This method is particularly

The upshot? The researchers

useful for companies that rely

estimated Wayfair’s stock was

heavily on returning customers or

overvalued by 84 percent, while

subscription models.

Overstock was undervalued by 11

McCarthy and Fader used CBCV

percent.

to conclude Wayfair spends about

But it didn’t end there.

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FEATURE

“It’s a wholly different way of looking at the valuation process,” McCarthy said. “At the same time, because it just makes sense that the up-front cost and ongoing benefit of acquiring customers affects valuation, this work has struck a chord with the financial community.”

“A famous short-seller began to tweet about the article, and Wayfair’s stock price fell about 9 percent in a day,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy was featured on the CNBC show Mad Money, and soon his article and its implications were being mentioned in a number of leading media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal.

The article, or more accurately the valuation process described in the article, continues to receive attention because of its impact on business.

McCarthy’s CBCV framework sheds light on a very difficult problem — how do you quantify the incremental cost and value of acquiring and retaining customers at direct-to-consumer businesses?

Further, how do these factors affect the financial valuation of the

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business? These questions aren’t asked by researchers with views of the campus quad. They are asked daily by men and women with views of earnings reports, investor portfolios and the world’s largest stock exchanges.

“It’s a wholly different way of looking at the valuation process,” McCarthy said. “At the same time, because it just makes sense that the up-front cost and ongoing benefit of acquiring customers affects valuation, this work has struck a chord with the financial community.”

Researching the new economy Customer loyalty and retention is another area where McCarthy has used his methodology to enlighten businesses. He studied the unique

world of delivery meal kit companies like Blue Apron to assess in more detail how long customers remained with the brand.

Meal kits were a $5 billion business in 2017 and are projected to grow at a 20 percent annual rate in the years to come. Competition in this direct-to-consumer industry is fierce.

Using publicly disclosed SEC data, McCarthy found customer retention numbers shockingly low. For example, in April, the proportion of customers remaining six months after signing up is just 28 percent at Blue Apron and 17 percent at HelloFresh. Consumers tend to cycle through meal kit providers as they offer promotional deals for new customers, so spending too much to acquire new customers may be a loss-making strategy for

the company. By using sophisticated predictive modeling, McCarthy generated a forecast of what customers do after they are acquired.

He used this to calculate how much these firms should spend to acquire new customers.

“Luckily, direct-to-consumer subscription businesses are fastidious in their collection of customer data, and that’s what initially pulled me into researching them,” he said.

Not only is McCarthy’s methodology shaking up the way investors value private and public firms, but his research is knocking down the barriers between marketing and finance.

“This work opens the communication channels between the marketing departments and the finance departments — the CFO, CMO and CEO — and shows them how all the actions marketers take, how customers are treated, will actually affect the stock price of firms,” he said.

McCarthy is pleased by the response to his research and, in fact, wants it to have practical applications. He co-founded Theta Equity Partners to apply customerbased corporate valuations to private equity firms, venture capitalists and hedge funds.

Sheth’s groundbreaking theory of generalists and specialists in the world of corporate competitors, and how companies caught in the middle were unlikely to survive, set the stage for a number of corporate mergers. This research has also been used in antitrust lawsuits related to M&As. A subsequent book, The Rule of Three: Surviving and Thriving in Competitive Markets, brought the theory to a wider audience.

Sheth’s research into client loyalty and the book Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Develop Breakthrough Relationships helped to shape how financial planners, wealth managers, lawyers and accountants establish themselves as trusted advisors.

“When there’s a surplus of human capital, it’s important to understand how to transform from an expert-for-hire to a trusted advisor, because expertise can be sourced from Google,” he said.

Sheth’s theory of buyer behav-

ior ushered in a new (and more nuanced) approach to consumer psychology and marketing for companies across the globe by providing an understanding of why consumers become brand loyal.

Today, firms face tremendous difficulties gaining and retaining customers in an increasingly competitive, global and dynamic business environment. Clearly, consumer psychology is something businesses need at the forefront of strategy, but hitting the mark with a consumer is so often like aiming at a moving target.

That’s where the seasoned researcher steps in. “In a rapidlychanging environment, business leaders can’t always anticipate what will happen next,” Sheth said.

Geopolitics and cultural influence can change how a company makes and markets its clothing or the type of car it chooses to advertise or import, he said. Immigration can impact the need for a different type of product or service.

“In addition to having perspective from academia, I will actually have some tangible examples and realworld experience to draw from,” he said.

The rule of three If anyone understands the impact of a theory that changes behavior and shapes corporate strategy and policy, it’s Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Chair in Marketing.

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FEATURE

“Businesses have to be prepared to improvise and adapt to the needs of the customer,” he added.

For example, Sheth notes how salsa supplanted ketchup as the most popular condiment in the U.S. He attributes that shift to the influence of a growing Hispanic population and an adaptation of traditional American tastes.

According to Sheth, academics also need to adapt to stay connected

to the issues that are most pressing to society. He admits academic study used to be a much more detached process, but now there is a dialogue between academics and industry leaders, leading to innovative research that provides timely solutions to policy makers. His latest research? How differences in climate determine cultural differences in food, shelter and clothing as well as traits such as punctuality and uncertainty avoidance.

Roadblocks to innovation Another example of a researcher with influence beyond the scholarly journals can be found in Anandhi Bharadwaj, Roberto C. Goizueta Chair in Electronic Commerce. She’s written extensively on digital business strategy, intellectual property rights and health information technology. Her latest work examines how shareholders — always a focus of publicly traded firms — can negatively impact innovation.

“Shareholders are often blinded by their short-term financial interests, keeping some businesses stuck with outdated technologies,” she said.

The article attracted the attention of Harvard Business Review and was published on the site in August under the title, “When Companies Want to Innovate, but Investors Won’t Let Them.”

As one of the most popular business publications in the world, Harvard Business Review made the work mainstream.

In the study, Bharadwaj and co-authors completed a sweeping study of U.S. companies, including GE and Tesla, to better understand investors who value a company for its immediate profits versus its potential for future growth after an investment in digital technology.

Established and high-profit businesses suffered lower stock market valuations for this sort of innovation, while growth companies were rewarded by the market for the same sort of technology initiative.

According to the article, “Despite healthy profits and publicly committing to and investing billions of dollars in technologies similar to those pioneered by Tesla, both GM and Ford have struggled mightily to ignite investor enthusiasm for their stocks.”

Bharadwaj proposed a number of solutions for high-profit businesses facing the issue, including a more strategic use of communications to

18 emory | business

help investors understand the digital transformation.

Such action can be taken quickly and with confidence thanks to one of the age-old elements of academic research: time.

Researchers provide businesses with sometimes painstaking collections and reviews of data, then add a healthy dose of carefully considered conclusions. In Bharadwaj’s study on investors and innovation, for example, 24 years’ worth of data was examined (from 1984 to 2008).

“The data collection in this case was a huge step, as the study uses information from the early 1980s, and we needed to access and merge data from a variety of sources, such as the Google Patent Database and financial and stock price databases from multiple sources,” she said.

A lengthy and elaborate peer-review process for scholarly journals, while not for immediate gratification, also helps validate the findings. Other timely research gets disseminated to the popular press, into a published book or in a class syllabus. Once that happens, a professor’s work can have a far-reaching effect on business and public policy.

Productivity, motivation and the knowledge worker Important as investors may be, companies have many inputs to success, and human capital can be one of the most valuable. Yet corporations struggle to retain the most skilled employees.

The U.S. Department of Labor

recently reported the number of employees who voluntarily left a job hit a 17-year high. Recent data also shows an increasing dissatisfaction with work. According to the 2017 Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, “85 percent of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work.”

Conventional wisdom — and recent research — suggest a motivated and well-trained employee is less likely to abandon ship.

Kristy Towry, vice dean for faculty and research, John M. and Lucy Cook Chair and professor of accounting, concentrates her research on managerial accounting, or the use of accounting information to make managerial decisions. She focuses on managerial control systems, including financial

incentives. Her research uses experimental methods, utilizing theories from the worlds of economics, psychology and other social sciences to provide a window into complex managerial problems.

Keeping employees motivated and well trained often requires a better understanding of management control systems — the various tools used to ensure the organization is effectively pursuing its strategy.

“With a well-designed control system, employees are able to learn over time what behaviors and actions will lead to the best outcomes, benefiting the organization and its employees,” Towry said.

Managers hear quite a bit about experiential learning in business schools, but Towry said

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FEATURE

incentive methods induce greater effort.”

Managers empowered with such information can make better decisions, make sure employees are satisfied and help ensure a healthy workforce.

While Towry’s research is certainly cutting-edge, the potential business applications remain at the heart of the work.

Erika James, John H. Harland Dean and professor of organization & management, views such a link between academia and industry as a symbiotic relationship.

“More research with direct applications is one way to ensure the relationships between business and higher education remain strong and mutually beneficial.” — Erika James

20 emory | business

“vicarious learning” — learning by watching coworkers — offers even more opportunities to gain knowledge. When employees are able to observe the successes and failures of coworkers, they process the information in a more holistic manner. Towry’s research is helping organizations think about the best ways for employees to share their “war stories” with coworkers instead of placing employees in the spotlight for their mistakes.

The next phase of her research deals with the physical responses resulting from employees putting effort into work.

“We are learning to measure effort levels using physiological responses, such as pupil dilation,” she said. “If we can measure effort in the laboratory, then we can start examining directly how different

Since assuming the role of dean in 2014, her drive to collaborate with industry has provided the business school with a way to showcase its research talent.

“It’s always been important to have a strong relationship between business and business schools,” she said. “However, as the world evolves, there needs to be a way to move education and innovation beyond and think about how schools can help drive change in a way that positively impacts the future.

“More research with direct applications is one way to ensure the relationships between business and higher education remain strong and mutually beneficial.”

Investigating patient outcomes Recent research by Diwas KC, associate professor of information systems & operations management, has direct applications to an industry in much need of innovation and hope for the future: healthcare.

“Many of the issues in the industry seemed like operations management problems,” he said.

The American Hospital Association found hospitals are closing at a rate of about 30 a year. Rural hospitals are particularly at risk. From 2010 to the beginning of August 2018, the National Rural Health Association found that 87 rural hospitals shut down. While technology has helped to transform and streamline some parts of healthcare, it alone cannot be the saving grace.

“Operations management research,” said KC, “provides a way to correct inefficiencies and, in turn, improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.”

According to KC, it takes time to figure out the many hurdles to surmount in a complex system deeply entrenched in doing things a set way. One of the major challenges hospitals face is readmissions.

“When people are likely to bounce back and be readmitted for surgical complications, care becomes much more expensive,” the researcher said.

In one stream of KC’s research, he found readmitted patients would often stay three times longer than the original stay. The reasons for readmission are multifold, of course. Hospital closures are putting increasing pressure on the remaining ones, resulting in increased bed occupancy rates. The rush to get patients out of the ICU, to a hospital room and out the door sometimes leads to readmission for complications.

His research came up with a solution.

Instead of taking a patient from the intensive care unit to a hospital room, he proposed creating a less-costly intermediate care unit.

The patient could leave the ICU and transition to this “step-down unit” and not be rushed into a hospital room. There would be fewer medical professionals needed in the stepdown unit, but a full-time attending physician would still be on staff. KC saw his idea implemented at a large teaching hospital on the East Coast

in 2009 and 2010. The step-down unit led to fewer bounce backs and the ability for more capacity in the ICU, improving patient care and, ultimately, saving money for the hospital.

Pinning down the cost of care Steven Culler takes a more crossdisciplinary approach when it comes to healthcare research and its day-to-day applicability. As an associate professor in health policy and management at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and an adjunct associate professor of finance at Goizueta, he has a unique vantage point when it comes to the study of hospital inefficiencies and patient care.

“No one would suggest scrimping on patient care to save costs,

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FEATURE

but there are areas for analysis in operations management that might suggest a better pattern of care for hospitals to follow,” Culler said.

One of his most important findings comes with pinning down the total cost of care. He looked specifically at knee surgeries and cardiac procedures as examples.

By using Medicare data, Culler and his co-researchers were able to track a sampling of patients through the course of their care, from admittance through surgery, as well as readmission for adverse occurrences or additional episodes of care.

“The system is so siloed that few know how many different places

of care patients accessed or how much it all costs,” he said.

The researchers traced post-acute hospital care, such as admittance to skilled nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities, which are often left out of the cost equation for a typical treatment episode.

“We have to focus on the additional resources used to treat adverse events that occurred during the procedure, and we need to ask ourselves, ‘How much are complications from surgery hurting patient care and inflating healthcare costs, and what are the alternatives if we wait to offer this care when a patient may be more stable and able to tolerate surgery?’”

Culler says academia is uniquely qualified to provide such insight — a deep dive into the utilization of healthcare resources provided by many different stakeholders. That knowledge translates into innovation, which can be applied to shareholder value, the new economy, marketing strategy or employee learning.

And it is, of course, in innovation that business makes a lasting impact on society.

Some research is empirical in nature, confirming and reassessing conclusions, while other projects strike out onto new paths of thought and ideas. It is in the combination that faculty research has its greatest effect.

“It’s not the individual paper or book, but the body of literature that emerges, which prompts the change in thinking,” Towry said.

According to Sheth, the business world is much more receptive of academic research, especially as more companies rely on data mining and algorithms to target customers, better understand employees and assess operations.

In the case of McCarthy’s valuation model, it also affects the bottom line.

“There’s simply too much data mining without an understanding of the relevance to the policy maker,” Sheth said.

22 emory | business

Ongoing research at Goizueta Business today is ripe with challenges, problems and opportunities. Researchers at Emory’s Goizueta Business School continue to delve into a variety of topics, from hiring bias to accounting methods, gathering data and confirming or creating new approaches to current or emerging issues.

Below is a sampling of ongoing research at Goizueta. Inquiry is a time-consuming process, and through detailed research, observations and responses to critiques, these works will continue to evolve.

The term “social TV” is used to describe social content sharing and interaction around television or online TV shows — a kind of real-time combination of TV and social networking. Social TV can boost engagement with TV shows themselves, but what about advertisements? Emory’s David Schweidel, professor of marketing, has found a causal link between program-related chatter and an uptick in online sales for retailers advertising their content during those programs. And that’s not all. The more affective the advert — the funnier or more emotional it is — the greater the increase in online shopping activity. Food for thought for advertisers.  Meanwhile, new research from Gregory Waymire, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Accounting, and colleagues asks whether financial reporting has a role to play in improving ethics and creating wealth for investors at the same time. Through a series of experiments, he finds that it does. And this is because reporting activates a moral response in managers — a kind of “conscience” — that makes it more likely that they will plow resources back into the company and share the gains with investors, solely because the numbers are reported to investors, regardless of the content of the numbers.  For most startups, scaling up is a kind of organizational adolescence. To outsiders, scaling is a positive sign — a transition to growth and maturity. But for firms themselves, the growing pains can limit the gains. Demetrius Lewis, assistant professor of organization & management, and colleagues have analyzed the tradeoffs between growth and increased organizational complexity and their effect on performance and the career trajectories of key decision makers. For firms, he has found that problems with scaling can occur as firms manage a growing diversity of stakeholders with often conflicting needs — it’s easy to become distracted by trying to “do too much.” Firms that manage the scaling process successfully, on the other hand, are those whose decision makers know how to focus when appropriate and pivot when necessary. For individuals, his research sheds light on when the “right” time is to join a startup — and how startups and new hires can partner together in the most effective way possible.

Hiring, or hiring bias, is also the focus of new research from Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, and Melissa Williams, associate professor of organization & management. Interested in how different types of stigma — marginalized political views, for instance, or physical disabilities — influence hiring behaviors and outcomes, the duo and colleagues looked at data from the 1950s Hollywood blacklist of film artists (such as actors and directors) suspected as communists. Under the blacklist, these artists were not being hired by studios, but as the stigma of the blacklist started to fade, their careers began to bounce back. Surprisingly, the same didn’t hold true for associated artists — actors and others who had merely worked on a film with a blacklisted artist remained stigmatized by association. The same phenomenon was observed by the researchers in a hiring experiment involving physical disability. As stigma fades, there is a period of time where, ironically, it is worse to be an associate than it is to actually have a stigma. There are important implications here for firms looking to implement fair and equitable hiring procedures. Biases can spread — and further than we might imagine. — Áine Doris

fall| 2018 23

KNOWLEDGE CREATION Trading regularity and fund performance

Do funds make more when they trade more regularly? Yes, says research by Jeffrey A. Busse, associate professor of finance, but it depends on the size Jeffrey A. Busse of the fund. Busse and co-authors Lin Tong (Gabelli, Fordham), Qung Tong (Renmin, China) and Zhe Zhang (Singapore Management University) analyzed institutional trade data across an 11-year sample period to 2009. They found that on average, institutions that trade regularly positively outperform others, generating returns positive enough to offset transaction costs. For these funds, the researchers found that regular trading yields positive returns from contrarian trades — e.g., purchasing recent losing stocks — and when trading immediately prior to a company’s earnings announcements. It’s all not good news, however, as larger funds can see their performance dampened by higher costs.

That said, Busse and his co-authors suggest that the strategies of funds that trade regularly can outperform low-cost passive strategies. Review of Financial Studies (2016)

Learning from inventory availability information: evidence from field experiments on Amazon

Many online retailers share on-screen, real-time information about stock availability as a mechanism to encourage customers through the sales funnel. But do these cues to “buy now or risk disappointment” actually achieve their goals? New research by Ruomeng Cui, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, Dennis Zhang (Olin) and Achal Bassambo (Kellogg) would suggest they do. The researchers tracked data across more than 23,500 transactions on Amazon.com where “inventory messages” are routinely highlighted to

24 emory | business

customers viewing products. They also ran two randomized field experiments, tweaking inventory information across a subset of Amazon’s so-called lightning deals to assess its impact on consumer behavior.

Their analysis shows that where stock decreases are flagged to the buyer, there is a concomitant uptick in sales — and it happens fast. When customers see real-time purchases increase by 10%, Cui et al. found, there is a 2.08% increase in cart add-ins.

And they happen within the next hour. Cui, Zhang and Bassambo also found a causal link between product characteristics — things like discounts and peer ratings — and customer perceptions. While deep or excessive discounts created negative feelings about a product, strong user ratings build feelings of affinity and may boost sales. Management Science (2018)

An empirical analysis of intellectual property rights sharing in software development outsourcing Companies outsourcing their software development frequently run into serious issues with vendor organizations. It’s common for client companies to share highly sensitive data, such as pricing analytics and business practices, with these vendors. However, while intellectual assets are nominally protected by intellectual property rights, in reality these rights are often shared with the vendor companies, opening a door to ex post opportunism on the part of the vendors. New research by Anandhi Bharadwaj, Roberto C. Goizueta Chair in Electronic Commerce, and coauthors Yuanyuan Chen (Singapore) and Khim-Yong Goh (Singapore) suggests that companies can mitigate this risk by modularizing software development. By analyzing 171 of these contracts, Bharadwaj et al. were able to establish how specific attributes and each party’s bargaining power impacted the allocation of intellectual property rights. Among their principle findings, it seems that vendors are more likely to win rights over intellectual assets when they use their own proprietary software,

By Áine Doris

when the tasks themselves are more complex and when they are contracted to develop new software. Conversely, client companies exert greater control when they want to customize existing software and when the projects themselves are conducted across blocks or modules of work. For senior managers in client firms, the key implications are that sharing intellectual property (IP) rights with vendors can be used as an incentive to protect non-contractible investments and to safeguard their firm’s assets from ex post opportunism.

When and how to use IP rights sharing will depend, however, on the relative bargaining position of vendors, the complexity of the projects and the specificity of the underlying investments. MIS Quarterly (2017)

From creativity to innovation: the social network drivers of the four phases of the idea journey

There is growing interest among researchers in the way that social networks influence creativity and innovation. Do gamechanging ideas Jill Perry-Smith emerge from solitude, or is creative output driven by the cut and thrust of social interaction with others? For many academics working in this complex space, the jury is still out. In new research, Jill Perry-Smith, professor of organization & management, and co-author Pier Vittorio Mannucci (LBS) seek to shed light on how successful creative ideas are formed. Drawing on existing literature, Perry-Smith and Mannucci conceptualize “four phases of the journey of an idea”: generation, elaboration, championing and implementation. Collaboration with a heterogeneous network, they argue, is key to keeping this journey moving forward, although this does depend on the kind of interaction individual creators have at different stages. Affirmation and support are important in the face of rejection, but criticism or disagreement might help refine thinking and concepts at later phases of the journey. Future research, say PerrySmith and Mannucci, will help determine precisely how and when different models

Goizueta faculty, using rigorous methodologies, focus on researching important problems that affect the practice of business. The following is a sample of recently created new knowledge. To learn more, please visit goizueta.emory.edu/faculty.

of collaboration can spur the innovation process. Academy of Management Review (2017)

Opportunities for innovation in social media analytics

Firms have traditionally viewed social media as a channel to reach their customers. David A. Schweidel, professor of marketing, and co-author Wendy Moe (Smith) argue that while this promotional use of social media is important, usergenerated data is a vastly underexploited resource that has still-unlocked potential for proactive marketers. In a new paper, Schweidel and Moe acknowledge the challenges organizations continue to face in converting social media data into structured, actionable insights that map to marketing problems. However, they argue that the rewards of doing so can apply to a range of marketing activities, from brand tracking and management to building social profiles for customer targeting. Schweidel and Moe conclude that the potential for social media analytics as a tool for marketing, together with the general availability and volume of consumer-generated social media activity, make this a fertile space for further research in consumer insight.

Journal of Product Innovation Management (2017)

The moderating role of performance measurement system sophistication on the relationships between value drivers and performance

Despite high adoption rates, employee performance measurement systems like the “balanced scorecard” have divided the academic community.

Karl Schuhmacher Responding to calls for more work in this field, research by Karl Schuhmacher, assistant professor of accounting, and co-authors Tony Dávila (IESE), Raúl Barroso (IESEG), Michael Burkert (Friborg) and Daniel Oyon

#GoizuetaKnows

(Lausanne) used survey data from more than 300 manufacturing firms to examine how performance measurement systems affect the relationships between value drivers like efficiency and employee commitment on performance outcomes, such as customer satisfaction and financial performance. The researchers argue that it all comes down to how complex the performance measurement system itself is. While sophisticated systems positively affect relatively complex relationships (e.g., between employee commitment and market performance), they negatively impact “simpler” relationships (e.g., between organizational efficiency and financial performance). This is likely because more sophisticated performance measurement systems draw managers’ attention from simple to more complex relationships between value drivers and performance outcomes. Schuhmacher and his co-authors argue that their findings have direct relevance for decision makers, helping them unpack the pros and cons of sophisticated performance measurement systems. Future research is needed, however, to build a detailed understanding of the kinds of processes that sophisticated performance measurement systems entail for organizations. Comptabilité - Contrôle Audit (2016)

Sexual aggression when power is new: effects of acute high power on chronically low-power individuals

Building on existing research that links sexual aggression to “expressions of power,” a study by Melissa Williams, associate professor of organization & Melissa Williams management, tests the hypothesis that it is the sudden accession to positions of power that drives certain men to harass women. Williams and co-authors Deborah H. Gruenfeld (Stanford) and Lucia Guillory (Head of People at Patreon) conducted a set of five surveys and lab experiments with volunteers to determine whether behaviors change when men with “chronic low power” — the level of power they feel they exert every day — are given “acute high power.”

They find that low-power men given a highpower role display increased sexually harassing behavior. They are also the group that exhibits the most aggression when “rejected” by an attractive woman. Williams et al. conclude that when people see themselves as being denied power, for whatever reason, they have a greater desire to feel powerful — and are more likely to use sexual aggression as a means of feeling powerful.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2017)

Competing on social purpose

Brands today are better poised to win customers if they can transcend purely functional benefits and embed a social purpose into their product offering. This is the idea at the center of a Harvard Business Review article by Omar Rodriguez-Vila 12PhD, associate professor in the practice of marketing, and coauthor Sundar Bharadwaj (Terry, Georgia).

But while taking a visible social stand can boost business outcomes and positively impact society, unless they are scrupulously managed, these initiatives also have the potential to harm reputation and alienate investors. Rodriguez-Vila and Bharadwaj analyzed a range of social-purpose brand program models. They also collaborated directly with a dozen well-known companies to design specific social initiatives.

Drawing on this research and experience, they have put together a framework called “competing on social purpose.” The framework sets out a number of key dimensions and insights for firms to help them decide if and how they should successfully integrate a social purpose to their brand. Importantly, it tethers social aspirations to strategic business objectives — an approach that simultaneously mitigates the risks of negative public associations and stakeholder intolerance. The growing goal for firms today, conclude Rodriguez-Vila and Bharadwaj, is to design ways by which they can create value for customers, for shareholders and for society at large. Their article offers some clues on how to do it well.

Harvard Business Review (2017)

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KNOWLEDGE CREATION Wes Longhofer wants to know how and why people come together to effect social change.

A sociologist by vocation and training, the Goizueta assistant professor of organization & management is fascinated by the dynamics at play when civic groups form. He wants to unlock the puzzles within these organizations and measure how effective they are in achieving their goals.

While these kinds of questions have long absorbed sociologists, there’s a new and growing imperative in business education to look at the drivers of social change and understand the mechanisms of social impact — an increasing affinity, says Longhofer, between what sociology does and what business schools want to do.

“Business schools have been bringing in different disciplinary backgrounds over the last decade to drive a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of social problems and the role that business can play in effecting social change. If you look at the intersection of social entrepreneurship, you’ll find business acumen and business principles being deployed to help drive policy change, tackle environmental issues and improve communities.”

Longhofer’s research explores organizational emergence: how NGOs, lobbies and civic and volunteer associations come into existence. He also looks at what he calls “organizational consequences” — the potential of these groups to drive change and, in particular, the impact they can have on policy change and implementation.

Much of his work is focused on climate change. And his approach is very much that of a sociologist.

“To frame a problem effectively, it helps to understand it from a broader social, historical and cross-national perspective. With climate change, we take power plants as the unit of analysis because they are the primary organizations driving carbon pollution, and we try to understand what motivates them.”

Scholar Spotlight: Wes Longhofer by Áine Doris

26 emory | business

Over the last few years, Longhofer and his colleagues have compiled a massive data set that covers every power plant in the world. His studies reveal that up to 50 percent of the total energy-related carbon pollution in many countries around the world can be attributed to a small subset of “dirty” plants. And the implications for policy makers and lobby groups are significant.

“Instead of setting general targets for the entire energy sector in each country, what this suggests is that we also need policy instruments to target the hyperpolluters — those big or older power plants that account for the lion’s share of the emissions.”

KNOWLEDGE CREATION #GoizuetaKnows Another stream of his research explores how organizations respond to change as communities become more diverse and income inequality increases. A recent paper looks at the 2017 UNICEF Trick-or-Treat fundraising initiative in the U.S. Longhofer and his fellow professors of organization & management Peter Roberts and Giacomo Negro found that public schools, far more than churches or clubs, were effective in collecting money during these changes.

“What this tells us is that more homogenous groups like churches don’t keep pace with societal change. In contrast, public schools reflect their changing communities. And they’re incredibly important organizations because they serve as community mobilizers and not simply education providers. As societies change, schools change with them, helping to weather some of the adverse effects of change and ensure that everyone is thriving.”

Recently named one of Poets & Quants’ “40 under 40” and the recipient of a clutch of prestigious academic awards, Longhofer is as ambitious in his research output as he is prolific.

He currently has two book projects in process. The first combines his research on the distribution of carbon pollution across the world’s power plants with his study on how energy efficiency links to greater demand and, ultimately, higher levels of pollution — what he calls the “unintended consequences” of cleaner energy.

The second project will examine what happens to the nonprofits and social enterprises that high school students found once they matriculate into college.

Inspiration for this stems from Longhofer’s interactions with Emory students, many of who come to him with questions about social enterprises they have started or want to start.

“A lot of my students in the business school started a nonprofit or NGO while in high school. They’re highly entrepreneurial — they really want to go out there and do something. Unpacking the biographies of some of these students helps us understand this ‘NGO moment’ and tells us something about this generation that I find really exciting.”

Being a sociologist in a business school has not only enriched Longhofer’s research, he said, it has also affected his outlook.

“The interdisciplinary context is very rich. And with things like social enterprise, you’re talking about social impact, which is my field of expertise, so it’s on me and other sociologists to be at the table looking at this new phenomenon. Then there’s the sociological mindset, where the world can become a very sad place very quickly. You see how things are broken and how solutions are hard to find. Being in the business school makes you realize that it’s hard, but it’s not impossible.”

GO BEYOND THE MAGAZINE » The latest news and updates » Relevant faculty research » Exclusive event coverage

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NETWORK

Jim Minnick: On leadership and lofty goals It’s been a busy year for Jim Minnick 99EvMBA. In August, the Atlanta Business Chronicle named him one of Atlanta’s most admired CEOs. Minnick is the CEO and cofounder of eVestment, an industry-leading content and analytics provider that facilitates institutional investment decisions.

In March, the company was listed on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Best Places to Work list, and a few months earlier, Minnick and partners sold eVestment to Nasdaq for $705 million, with the rights to run the company as a separate entity.

#GoizuetaAlumni 28 emory | business

Amidst all of this excitement, Minnick remains steadfast and appreciative. He’s a believer in setting lofty goals and speaks of team, collaboration and “the organization.”

When the company’s four founders, Minnick and his wife, Karen, Matt Crisp and Heath Wilson, rang the closing bell of Nasdaq, he spoke of family. “I want to say how excited we are to be a part of the Nasdaq family and to also say how incredibly thankful we are to everyone for all the amazing support along the way.”

Recently, Emory Business caught up with Minnick and delved deeper into the awards, his decision to sell and what keeps him and his team a growing force in data analytics.

EB: Congratulations on being selected one of Atlanta’s most admired CEOs for 2018! Clearly, having an outside entity identify you as one of the most admired CEOs is an honor, but what do you consider your greatest strength as a leader and manager?

Minnick: The feedback I hear most often is that I have a strong ability to relate to others, which translates into a broader understanding of where people are coming from, what they are actually trying to say and why they feel it is

important. I would attribute that ability to relate to different people to the numerous and diverse environments I experienced growing up as we moved around a lot.

EB: You’ve embarked on a new relationship with Nasdaq but have worked with three partners since the company’s inception. How have you made it work?

Minnick: I can’t tell if we are unique in our partnership, but it’s been great. One of the partners is my wife, and we have been married for 22 years now. The other two gentlemen and I worked together in our prior life, and they are my best friends. But what we all appreciated about working together is the work ethic. There was a tremendous amount of trust we had in one another even from day one. We always knew that we were going to outwork any problem. And even now, I think we can look back and say that approach was one of the big drivers of success. Also, we did not spend a lot of time thinking about reporting structure or titles.

We have always been involved collectively and collaboratively in making decisions. We’ve been intentional about remaining friends and continue to do things outside of work. In fact, we have a “No Work” policy when we go to lunch, so we can talk about other things besides the decisions that have to be made.

EB: When you started eVestment, did you consider Goizueta a resource to help you formulate the business?

Minnick: Yes. I was working on the business plan even before I graduated from business school. So there were conversations with professors, from putting together a business plan to finding software to help me along the way. Since the entire graduate school experience was so fresh, it was ingrained in everything we were doing. It made a huge difference. What the business school gave me was the perspective that there is an entire science to running a business, whether it’s finance, or operations, or efficiencies. In a wellperforming company, someone has to think about all of those things.

Ultimately, the business plan we created was a great example of thinking about the business from all aspects, and as we got further into the planning, we had already decided how we would handle these different aspects, so it wasn’t just a product idea. From that standpoint, the school was absolutely instrumental in how we thought about the business. — Nicole Golston For the full interview, visit emory.biz/JimMinnick.

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NETWORK

Michael Summers: On hip hop and revitalizing a brand

#GoizuetaAlumni 30 emory | business

Michael Summers 13MBA is a multilayered person. On one hand, he leads the digital marketing efforts for Listerine, Johnson & Johnson’s second-largest U.S. consumer brand. On the other hand, he loves to rock a party as a high-paid DJ. Add in being born biracial in Mississippi and attending Morehouse for undergrad, and you’ve just tapped the surface.

Recently, Summers shared his insights on social media, branding, music and grad school with Emory Business.

EB: As the capabilities of digital grow, how is it impacting your job as a brand manager?

Summers: From their social media feed to their shopping experiences to the advertisements they receive — today’s consumers expect personalization. They desire a unique message catered specifically to them.

E-commerce has created an endless shelf of competing products, particularly in the beauty and healthcare space where I work. Large brands can no longer depend on limited store shelf space as a tactic to block out competition. Plus, companies now have a lower barrier to entry and can provide more niche products to meet consumers’ specific needs. As a brand manager, I have to anticipate and plan for these facts.

EB: Marketers now have access to lots of analytics; how do you navigate this influx of information?

Summers: Analytical rigor is an extremely important part of the story, but in some ways this can also handicap us when we don’t understand how to rise above the numbers. The analytics will always help to inform strategic business decisions, but the qualitative side shouldn’t be undervalued either. We need to keep asking ourselves the basic questions: Does this proposal or course of action make sense? Does it look right?

Does it feel right? We need to be able to use instinct to guide decision-making as well.

A simple example would be influencer marketing. I’ve seen influencers who look amazing on a PowerPoint slide, with a huge following and great engagement rate. However, if you take a moment to look under the hood and actually read the comments of their followers — you may see an extremely negative sentiment for that influencer. No matter what the analytics tell me, I find it hard to believe that a person like that can help me influence others.

turntables and then worked to get my own spot on Jackson, Mississippi’s HOT 97 radio station. After graduating high school, I moved to Atlanta with hopes of growing my music career, while getting a degree from Morehouse. Very quickly, I found myself as the most active DJ in the Atlanta collegiate scene, touring with Lil Wayne and nationally distributing my own mixtapes.

EB: Yet you walked away from music after graduation, then went to work at AT&T for two years. Why “pull the cord”?

Summers: I always had a desire to bring a certain level of business acumen and rigor to the entertainment industry.

Somewhere along that path, I found myself in love with what I was doing in marketing products and chose not to return to the music business.

EB: After working for only two years, you joined the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management and decided to come to Goizueta. How was the experience?

Summers: What I learned about myself at Emory was just how important it was to surround myself with the right people, and how that meant more to me than anything. I was young and there were a lot of things I still wanted to learn.

I knew that I needed to be surrounded by people who were willing to share their knowledge and were as invested in my success as they were invested in their own success.

EB: Since graduating from Emory, you’ve worked your way up at J&J from associate brand manager to your current role as digital lead for Listerine. Why marketing?

EB: You were quite the influencer as a DJ in undergrad, founding Yellow Apple, a social and music entertainment business specializing in event planning, marketing and promotions. How did that come about?

Summers: The thing that makes me love music is the same thing that makes me love marketing. There’s something about tapping into an inner emotion and making people act on that feeling. When DJing, I’m in front of a crowd of thousands of strangers, and I somehow have the power to tell them to raise their right hand, and they all raise their right hand. I’m able to evoke every emotion from fun to love on that dance floor. That is the experience I am looking to replicate in every marketing execution. — Nicole Golston

Summers: It sort of grew organically out of my natural passion for music. As a teenager I finally discovered my love for

To hear more of Summers’ thoughts and experiences, check out his new podcast, Marketing Misfits, on iTunes or Spotify.

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NETWORK

Julie Nemirovsky: On seeing life and work through a global lens Julie Nemirovsky 06BBA understands the value of reaching beyond one’s comfort zone in studies, career and life. The Maryland native, who was born to Russian immigrants, has lived in London, England, for four years working as a strategic account executive for Salesforce, the customer service platform.

Always thirsting for adventure, Nemirovsky got her first taste of international experience when she came to Goizueta.

“Andrea Hershatter, senior associate dean of undergraduate education, helped me push the envelope,” she said. “I told her I wanted to study in Prague, and she helped make it happen and guided my area of study.” In her junior year, Nemirovsky spent six months studying at the University of Economics in Prague. “It was really interesting to learn about post-communist management styles and how communism influenced the mindset of Eastern Europeans,” she said. “And from a personal perspective, it was amazing to explore the region my family was from.”

After graduation, she received the Maslin Enrichment Fund Scholarship from Emory University and travelled to Israel to work with Russian immigrants in Yokneam Megiddo (outside of Haifa) and later studied religion and philosophy in Jerusalem. A return to the United States a year later brought with it a job in global sales at IBM in New York. Nemirovsky plunged into the sales aspect of IBM’s financial services sector with increasing responsibility for managing clients across insurance, healthcare and financial services, with selling responsibility over IBM’s portfolio. As a client executive, she managed a cross-functional global team to strategize and present IBM’s portfolio of solutions to clients, earning herself high honors as a strategic seller.

Nemirovsky is a firm believer in the value of sales experience. “What I realized is that sales is relationships with people, and it’s everything we do in every aspect of life — creating a vision and point of view,” she added. “My international experience gave me a different perspective and helped me unite global teams at IBM.” When offered an opportunity to move to England, she didn’t hesitate.

An account executive role at Salesforce soon followed. “The years I spent at Goizueta gave me a platform and the confidence to take on new things,” Nemirovsky said. “Moving countries, companies, sectors and even operation systems were huge shifts, but the global perspective and views on the world made it an incredible, life-changing experience.”

Her studies didn’t stop at Goizueta either. Nemirovsky’s love of global business led her to pursue an executive MBA from the London School of Business, where she graduated in 2017 with high honors.

#GoizuetaAlumni 32 emory | business

A recent promotion at Salesforce to regional vice president working across multiple sectors has brought her back to the U.S., but it’s offered her the best of both worlds: working in New York with a global mindset. As to her ability to welcome change, Nemirovsky’s philosophy is simple: Life is short — seize the day and take advantage of the opportunities that lie before you. — Andrea King Collier

Delta Leadership Coaching Fellows Program The Delta Leadership Coaching Fellows Program (LCF) is helping Goizueta students’ careers take flight. Through world-class lectures, professional executive coaching and hands-on leadership opportunities, fellows experience an immersive approach to leadership. The program, which fulltime or evening MBA students have to apply for, includes two distinct experiential learning opportunities: the first involves self-reflection and sessions with an executive coach, while the second sees fellows coaching the incoming class of first-year MBAs.

Chase Callaway: On coaching and authenticity

Emory Business spoke with Chase Callaway 20EvMBA, a senior consultant at FTI Consulting who is in his second year of the program, to hear his perspective on this unique opportunity.

Q: What have you learned about yourself in the process that was inhibiting you from being an effective leader?

The LCF program opened my eyes to the importance of healthy, constructive conflict within effective teams.

Prior to the program, I felt what I thought was a natural aversion to conflict within my teams. I have since learned how critical it is to build an environment of trust right off the bat that will lead to the best outcomes, not the outcomes that result from false consensus or being afraid to disagree with one another.

Q: Tell us about your coach.

My executive coach, Laurie Waller, has a background in management consulting and now coaches on a full-time basis. Laurie has been an incredibly perceptive and encouraging mentor throughout the LCF process. The insights she provided on the importance of authenticity, versatility and self-awareness as a leader have truly changed the lens through which I view the coaching process.

Q: You are now coaching first-years; how is that?

It’s an incredibly effective way of bringing the lectures and readings to life. There is no way to replicate the complications inherent in leading teams. In allowing LCFs to get their hands dirty in a low-risk environment, the program is able to drive home the ideas explored in class.

Q: Is there something you learned about yourself or a technique/tool that you are able to apply at your current job?

I have been able to identify and mitigate the common dysfunctions preventing most teams from becoming “highperforming.” It is vital to transition behavioral and team dynamic observations early on in a project into actionable steps to prevent a dysfunction from becoming problematic.

Q: Would you recommend the program to other students as it continues to evolve?

I would absolutely recommend the LCF program to any student looking to jumpstart their development and effectiveness as a leader or just as a member of any team. There are few, if any, opportunities in the working environment to practice these skills with so little risk and an executive coach providing help and insight throughout the learning process. ­— Breckyn Wood

The Delta Leadership Coaching Fellows Program provides leadership learning opportunities for second-year and evening MBA students to understand, practice and enhance their skills of providing team and individual feedback. Students are trained to be peer coaches for first-year MBA students.

For more information on the Delta LCF Program, contact Associate Dean Ken Keen at Ken.Keen@emory.edu. To view photos of the new Delta Leadership Hub, visit emory.biz/delta.

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GOIZUETA CLASS NOTES

#GoizuetaKudos

CLASS CLOSE-UP: Lynn Robinson 60BBA When Lynn Robinson applied to colleges in the mid-1950s, she looked for a school where she could earn a business degree. Having grown up in the South, Robinson included Emory University in her college search. But at that time, Emory’s College of Business didn’t accept women. So she found a school that did — the University of Wisconsin, Madison — and made the trek up north. During her second year in Madison, Emory’s College of Business changed its admissions policy, and Robinson transferred to Emory as a junior. Of the approximately 200 students enrolled in the business school, Robinson was one of five women.

She earned a BBA with a concentration in finance and landed a young executive management role at Macy’s in New York City. While she described the men in management as “initially only somewhat welcoming,” she gave her Macy’s male bosses credit. “After all,” said Robinson, “it was men who hired me.”

Robinson returned to her home state of Alabama and married. While pregnant with her first child, she decided to pursue a PhD in marketing at the University of Alabama’s business school. (Along the way, she earned her MBA.) Robinson was one of only two women in the school’s PhD program and the only female in the marketing doctoral program. Once she entered the ranks of academia, it wasn’t only the gender gap Robinson needed to navigate, it was prevailing attitudes. When she was a graduate fellow at the University of Alabama, a department chairman and member of her dissertation committee passed her in the hallway, “patted me on the rear,” Robinson recalled, and asked her why she wasn’t at home with her baby. “I thought, ‘It’s just the era he grew up in,’” she said. “You can get your back up and be unproductive, or you can hunker down and work with people — and have a great time.”

Which is what Robinson did. She went on to become a department chair at the University of South Alabama and director of the school’s MBA program — all while busy with two children. “I didn’t do it alone,” Robinson said.

34 emory | business

Her parents lived in Mobile, and Robinson sometimes shared childcare responsibilities with friends. During this time, Robinson was asked to interview at a woman’s college in Colorado to become dean of one of the nation’s first female business schools. It was a tempting offer, but she declined the interview.

“Where would I get help? What might be the adjustment pressures on my husband and children?” she asked. As Robinson put it, her “friends and family and infrastructure” were all in Mobile.

Married for 55 years to her husband, John, Robinson recently had her 80th birthday. In addition to her academic career, she had her own management consulting business and served on the boards of numerous nonprofits. She is a professor emerita at the University of South Alabama.

Though not a “Near-Deather,” she maintains membership in the International Association of Near Death Studies (IANDS) and has taught a not-for-credit course featuring near-death experiences and related occurrences. After a nursing school dean asked her to create a near-death experience–themed online course, she was told that her business degrees didn’t qualify her to teach a nursing course.

She decided, instead, to turn the research she’d gathered into a book, one that took a path of its own. Loving to the End … and On: A Guide to the Impossibly Possible is described on its back cover as a “compelling mix of personal narrative and forthright reporting on end-of-life care and mis-care.” Robinson hopes the book will be of service and help others. “This book is mostly about the opportunity to love more deeply during terminal care and beyond,” she said.

As she has throughout much of her life, Robinson embraces the now. She hired a publicist to help promote her book, has a website (www.lynnbrobinson.com) and enjoys occasionally checking the analytics of her book sales on Amazon.com.

When reflecting on her life, Robinson downplays talk of being a trailblazer. She wanted a career in business and figured out a way to make it happen. “There were situations I found distasteful,” she said. “But I stayed in there and did what I could to get rid of the causes of distaste. I had fun, and I still do.” — Allison Shirreffs

GOIZUETA CLASS NOTES Alumni Board welcomes five new members The Goizueta Alumni Board is growing stronger with the addition of five new members. Their backgrounds span industries, bringing with them a wealth of experience to enhance the strategic initiatives already underway, including Goizueta@Work and alumni recognition.

Joining the board are Ainsley TeGrotenhuis 05MBA, Graham Jaenicke 14MBA, Ted Kim 97BBA, Jason Harlow 10BBA 14MBA and Jodi Harvey 03MBA. Each brings an energy and vitality to the board.

For TeGrotenhuis, who leads Facebook’s media partnerships marketing team, the impetus to join is to broaden the network to include companies on the West Coast, including in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her husband (Christian Detlefsen 04MBA) and two children. “I’m particularly passionate about getting the non-ATLers re-engaged in the community and finding us opportunities to participate from afar,” said TeGrotenhuis.

After a morning of meetings, members of the alumni board enjoy the game at the Atlanta Alumni Summer Mixer at SunTrust Park.

then lead efforts to boost recruitment to Houston for current students and recent alums.”

Jaenicke is director of strategic planning for SnapAV, a consumer electronics company. Of his role, he said, “I joined the board to find other ways to stay involved and give back to the community that did so much for me.”

Kim echoes TeGrotenhuis’ desire to expand the network beyond Atlanta. “There is a huge opportunity for alums to Transformative. That is what Jodi Harvey felt about her benefit from the Goizueta community, whether it be career MBA, and she hopes to support and initiate similarly innetworking, social activities, recruitdepth experiences as a board meming current students, etc.,” said Kim. As ber. “I am pleased to be leading the part of the Alumni Recognition ComGoizueta@Work initiative this Other members include: mittee, “I want to promote the many year, a program that helps foster wonderful things our alumni have alumni communities at compaStuart Bracken 07MBA achieved throughout the year.” nies where a large concentration of graduates work,” noted Harvey, Jeff Davis 10MBA Having graduated from Goizueta twice, who works as a director of sales at Harlow makes no secret of his admiraCrowne Media Family Networks.

Kelly Fierro 07MBA tion for an Emory education. He likes “We have more than 25 organizaEric Freedman 00BBA the fundraising aspect of the board — tions currently participating and each member donates annually — and are planning to expand geographiMonika Hudson 09EMBA the opportunity to share the educacally, so it is an exciting time to be tional benefits with his fellow Texans.

Matt Long 04BBA 12MBA involved.”

“As I look at Goizueta and the footprint Max Mayblum 16BBA in Houston, I feel we can do better.

The group’s executive commitAs the fourth largest city in the U.S., tee for 2018–2019 is Aditya Rao Patrick McBride 14BBA with major oil, technology and health11MBA, president; Deborah Brian Moore 07EvMBA care companies, we should have more Perantoni 00EvMBA, vice presialumni at these companies, and they dent; Jonathan Keen 11MBA, Jason Payton 12EvMBA should be active,” said Harlow, who past president; and Leslie MarshCary Smith-Marchi 16EvMBA is senior finance manager at Hewlett burn 10MBA/MPH, secretary.

Packard Enterprise. “I want to imple—Nicole Golston and Kaylyssa David Tuder 06BBA ment strategies to reclaim current Hughes Houston Goizueta alumni first, and

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PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS 1960s

Sig Moseley 66OX 68BBA of Smyrna, GA, received the InnoVenture Lifetime Achievement Award at the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s inaugural event.

1970s

Horace J. Johnson 77OX 79BBA of Covington, GA, was the guest of honor at the Sixth Annual Black History Scholarship Gala.

1980s

Steven Friedman 82BBA of Short Hills, NJ, was named in the 2018 Who’s Who Legal: Labour, Employment & Benefits guide. Steven is an attorney with Littler Mendelson.

For real-time updates, tweet your news and celebrations to our social media hub, The Social Index, using the hashtag #GoizuetaKudos.

Randhir Vieira 01MBA of Campbell, CA, is vice president and head of product at Headspace Inc. Mark Root 03BBA of San Francisco, CA, is managing director at HFF, a provider of capital markets and brokerage services to owners of commercial real estate.

Nsombi Ricketts 06MBA of Chicago, IL, is the inaugural vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at Pratt Institute.

Harold Yellin 82MBA/JD of Savannah, GA, is among The Best Lawyers in America 2019. Harold specializes in land use and real estate law with HunterMacLean.

David Zanca 82MBA of Memphis, TN, published a book, Engaging Your Team: Lessons for Servant Leadership.

Jack Tillman 06EvMBA of Atlanta, GA, is vice president, chief of real estate at Piedmont Healthcare Inc.

Ninfa Saunders 84WEMBA of Macon, GA, was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market 2018 by CEO Connection. Ninfa is president and CEO of Navicent Health.

Jingzhi Dai 06OX 09BBA of New York, NY, was featured in the Oxford Alumni Voices Poster Project.

1990s

Luis Avila-Marco 98MBA is senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at Cox Enterprises.

Roger Barnette 98MBA of Atlanta, GA, is CEO of MessageGears, which was named to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2018 Best Places to Work.

Christopher Burger 96OX 98BBA of Peachtree City, GA, was featured in the Oxford Alumni Voices Poster Project.

2000s

Travis Dommert 00MBA of Alpharetta, GA, is senior vice president, talent development at Jackson Healthcare.

Aaron Frank 00MBA of Roswell, GA, is director of strategic pricing at King & Spalding.

Vivek Garipalli 00BBA of New York, NY, was interviewed for the Sequoia Weekly Newsletter in July 2018. Vivek is the founder of Clover Health.

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2010s

Mercedes Soria 11MEMBA of Mountain View, CA, was featured in Diversity in Action magazine.

Mercedes is vice president of software engineering at Knightscope Inc.

Margot Pagan 13BBA of New York, NY, is email marketing manager for Teach for America.

Martha Monterroso 13OX 15BBA of Decatur, GA, was featured in the Oxford Alumni Voices Poster Project.

Stephanie Espy 18MBA of Atlanta, GA, received the Phyllis Scott Buford Young Visionary Award.

Chebon Ryan 18BBA of Atlanta, GA, received the J. William Fulbright Award and will serve as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Germany.

Gurbani Singh 18BBA of Atlanta, GA, is the first recipient of the Faraaz Hossain Core Values Award. Established in memory of Goizueta’s Faraaz Hossain 15OX 18BBA, the award recognizes individuals who have shown exceptional courage and empathy.

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS Atlanta city government benefits from alumni leadership The city of Atlanta is tapping Goizueta alumni for their leadership skills and ability to manage complex problems.

First, Dan Gordon 99C 05MBA (pictured right) served the city as the chief operating officer from 2015 to earlier this year.

Then this summer, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms named Jon Keen 11MBA (pictured left) as the city’s new deputy chief operating officer. The two alums missed working together by a few months, but in a recent meeting on campus had much to chat about.

The commute was easier for Dan, who returned to Emory in June to serve as vice president of community partnerships and chief community engagement officer. In this capacity, he works closely with Emory President Claire Sterk and Christopher Augostini, executive VP of business and administration at Emory, to form strategic partnerships and to expand the school’s connectivity internally and across all sectors in Atlanta and the region. During his time with the city, Dan played a pivotal role in a number of high-profile projects, including the annexation of Emory University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

As part of the mayor’s executive leadership team, Jon has responsibility for defining and leading strategic priorities and operational improvement across a portfolio of city agencies. He is a veteran of the United States Army and formerly worked with Deloitte Consulting in their strategy and operations practice.

Making connections This summer, the MBA Program office hosted its annual alumni and intern engagement event in three cities on the same night: Atlanta, New York City and San Francisco. The goal is to connect students interning in those cities with new alumni (less than five years) who live, work or do business in those cities.

Left, Louis Wolff 19MBA, Missy Goss 19MBA and Rene Meza 18MBA, an investment banking associate at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Texas.

Right, from left, 19MBAs Jennifer Yeaw, Rob von Althann, Taylor Prewitt, Parker Plunkett and Kelly Kretschmar, along with Corey Dortch, senior director, student life and engagement.

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PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENTS 2000s 2010s

Andrew Berman 07BBA of New York, NY, married Elyse Feldman on July 7, 2018, at the Mansion at Natirar in Gladstone, NJ. Kemal Parlar 11EvMBA, wife Velda and big sister Sila of Atlanta, GA, welcomed daughter Eda on July 10, 2018.

Imran Manji 12BBA and Bismah Rahmat 13BBA of Valhalla, NY, were married August 11, 2018, at the Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta.

Chris Maser 14MBA and Chip Short 14MBA were married April 7, 2018, in Atlanta, GA. Chris is a vice president in the investment banking group at Sandler O’Neill. Chip is an asset manager at Atlantic Pacific Real Estate Group.

Naomi Johnson 15MBA and Darrell Singleterry 15MBA of Decatur, GA, were married on November 18, 2017.

Kate Steele Geerlings 09C 16EvMBA and Jacob Geerlings 09C of Peachtree Corners, GA, welcomed daughter Joanna Elizabeth in January 2018.

Adam Parker 17MBA and Addy Rothman of Atlanta, GA, were married on May 5, 2018. Numerous Goizueta classmates attended the ceremony. Jane Cole 17MBA served as a reader. (From L to R: Derek Sierra 17MBA, Chris Chang 17MBA, Scott Dykstra 17MBA, Donnell McGhee 17MBA, Kyle Moffatt 17MBA, Addy Parker, Adam Parker 17MBA, Jane Cole 17MBA, Nic Howe 18MBA, Corey Dortch, MBA Program Office).

Abigail Horn 15BBA of New York, NY, married Michael Spencer on June 9 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. Abigail is a risk assurance senior associate at PwC.

STAY CONNECTED THROUGH EMORY BUSINESS MAGAZINE Keep your fellow Goizueta alumni up-to-date in multiple ways.

Stay connected in our database by updating your profile, and send details and your photos to GmagClassNotes@emory.edu for consideration in our publication.* Goizueta’s nearly 20,000 alumni look forward to hearing your good news! * Please note that submissions may be used in our print and online publications. Goizueta Business School assumes no liability for unauthorized use of submitted materials. Please don’t forget to let us know which smile goes with which name.

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GOIZUETA CLASS NOTES

Goizueta Opening Pitch and Alumni Event

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GOIZUETA CLASS NOTES In Memoriam John A. Moore 49BBA of Gainesville, GA Howard Fritz 51BBA of London, England Richard M. Tindall 51BBA of Lawrenceville, GA George L. Alexander 53BBA of Atlanta, GA Joseph “Martin” Turbidy 55MBA of Sea Island, GA Harvey L. Wilson 54OX 56BBA of Eatonton, GA William W. Byram Jr. 59BBA of Americus, GA Arthur H. Hale Jr. 59BBA of Cape Coral, FL Chester B. Weil 59BBA of Valrico, FL James R. Harris 63BBA of Auburn, AL George W. Doster 66OX 68BBA of Monroe, GA Thomas F. Dougherty 68MBA of Cleveland, OH Virginia Eng 68BBA of Apache Junction, AZ Illges “Lily” Starbuck Faron 68BBA of Arlington, TX Louis C. Gaboriault 68MBA of Attleboro, MA J. Baird Lefter 68BBA of St. Petersburg, FL Herman D. Stowe 71BBA 74MBA of Belmont, NC James “Jim” Edwards, Jr. 72MBA of Atlanta, GA Kathy Balch Simmons 78BBA of Atlanta, GA Robert G. Comeau 79C 81MBA of McLean, VA Catherine Denny Bowyer 95MBA of Glenview, IL Reggie Bradford 99MBA of London, England Paul M. Davis III 87MR 00WEMBA of Atlanta, GA Robert L. Watson Jr. 01BBA of Palm Beach Gardens, FL Rodrigo Castillo 08BBA of Mableton, GA

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Start:ME AT EMORY’S GOIZUETA BUSINESS SCHOOL, WE BELIEVE THAT SMALL BUSINESSES MAKE A BIG IMPACT IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS. More than 9 out of 10 U.S. businesses are small, generating 32 million jobs and $4.87 trillion annually.

Start:ME is an intensive accelerator program for promising local small businesses. During the program, and beyond, we connect entrepreneurs to the knowledge, networks, and capital necessary to build and grow businesses.

YOU CAN BUILD BUSINESS AND NEIGHBORHOOD VITALITY

VOLUNTEER

Share your business talents as a Start:ME mentor

INVEST

Donate financial resources to help support and expand our reach

SUPPORT

Buy local small businesses’ products and services

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS A TEAM SPORT The Goizueta Business School partners with a team of trusted nonprofit partners.

TOGETHER WE’VE HAD AN IMPACT OF:

158 VENTURES SERVED

80+

VOLUNTEER MENTORS ENGAGED

39

VENTURES PEER-SELECTED TO RECEIVE CAPITAL

GET INVOLVED AT EMORY.BIZ/STARTME

$4.6M

COMBINED ANNUAL REVENUES

230

JOBS CREATED OR RETAINED

Goizueta Business School 1300 Clifton Road Emory University Atlanta, Georgia 30322

SAVE THE DATE:

HOMECOMING WEEKEND AND CENTENNIAL GALA CELEBRATION 2019 will mark 100 years of business education for Emory University. A milestone this big deserves a weekend just as epic, so make plans to join us for our Homecoming Weekend and Centennial Gala Celebration.

GALA CELEBRATION Attend Goizueta’s black-tie affair to remember as we flashback over 100 years and toast to 100 more!

OCT 26, 2019

HOMECOMING WEEKEND Welcoming back all Goizueta alumni to share in this special weekend of learning, networking and reconnecting.

OCT 25-26, 2019 Questions on Centennial Gala Celebration? Contact Julie Barefoot:

JULIE.BAREFOOT@EMORY.EDU