Tuck in the News

The news items in this section represent a small portion of Tuck's recent media coverage. For more information on Tuck in the news or to receive the Tuck Media Update via email, please contact:

Office of Public Relations
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
100 Tuck Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
603-646-2733

5/30/09
HUFFINGTON POST
Professor Leonard Greenhalgh co-writes an op-ed with Reverend Jesse Jackson, urging that an end to worker job loss should be the first priority of the economic stimulus plan. "As we confront the global economic crisis, it's time to challenge the short-sighted economic 'global sourcing' strategies that have decimated our manufacturing base and sent millions of Americans, who had well-paying, middle class jobs, to the unemployment lines," they write. Jackson and Greenhalgh give three suggestions on what must be done, including to prioritize job retention by saving workers who currently have jobs and creating new green jobs for the future.

5/23/09
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (HONG KONG)
Chung Tak-wai T'05 worked at Lehman Brothers when the company filed for bankruptcy, and he says that his MBA experience was a key to helping him handle the situation. Living in Tuck's close-knit community, his many study group sessions, and working on case studies enhanced his problem-solving and communication skills and helped him feel prepared for real-life challenges. Chung also leveraged the strength of Tuck's alumni network to find a new job. "Tuck alumni are everywhere in the world....To be able to just call them up and to have your calls returned, that's tremendous."

5/18/09
BUSINESSWEEK
Professors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble write their first in a series of innovation op-eds for the business website. They state that failures of risk management that led to the financial crisis have produced three lessons, including: good risk management spreads risk; bad risk management concentrates it. "Allowing just a few financial firms to carry so much of the risk in the broad decline in the national real estate market was foolish," the authors say. They also argue that the risk-management industry can be fixed by innovative solutions, and for that we need the full passion and unbridled optimism of our business leaders.

5/7/09
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Dean Matthew Slaughter writes the op-ed “What is an 'American' Car?" in response to President Obama's statements about the auto industry last month. Slaughter argues that because of the economic principle of comparative advantage, the U.S. cannot excel in every industry. He questions what makes a car American, suggesting that it could be a car made in the U.S. by a foreign company. "The broad goal of American economic policy should be to help all companies operating in the U.S. create and maintain good jobs at good wages. Translating this goal into solid public policy means rethinking recent sound bites, however," he says.

5/1/09
CFO
The magazine explores benefits and disadvantages of the switch to electronic medical records (EMRs). Hospitals and doctor's offices have a financial incentive to transfer to EMRs, including an increase in Medicare and Medicaid payments as a result of the stimulus bill and a decrease in malpractice insurance premiums. But EMRs are not necessarily more secure than paper files. Identity theft and inadvertent disclosures of sensitive medical data are concerns, says Professor M. Eric Johnson. Using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, Johnson was able to retrieve medical data on thousands of patients. "Once we opened that digital door, and a hard drive was exposed, we found all kinds of frightening things coming out of the health-care system," he says.

5/13/09
FORBES.COM
The article "B-School Deans in the Hot Seat" features Tuck's Paul Danos. The longest serving of the current B-school deans, Danos has been through several business cycles, and he puts the current crisis in perspective: "A dean must keep the fundamental momentum going, no matter what the current state of the economy," he says.

4/30/09
NHPR: WORD OF MOUTH
Rebecca Joffrey T'97, co-director of career development, and Nick Riolo T'09 talk about the variety of job prospects for Tuck students this year. Joffrey says students are not giving up on initial career goals. Instead, students are broadening the sectors they would normally look to for jobs. Riolo believes his peers are not only thinking about where they want to be next year but also about where they want to be in the next 10 years and looking for jobs that have growth opportunities.

4/24/09
ECONOMIST (UK)
Professor Anant Sundaram's class focusing on climate change is featured in an article about business school updates. The course, "Business and Climate Change," is Sundaram's brainchild and the first course of its kind for a business school. Sundaram says that rather than acting as a constraint on companies, a warming planet could be a huge business opportunity. "The implications are enormous. Massive wealth will be created by companies that get in front of this issue and lost by those that do not."

4/21/09
FINANCIAL TIMES (UK)
Professors Vijay Govindarajan and Anant Sundaram speak out in an op-ed and state that it is time to re-examine the relationship between companies and capital markets. "Chief executives should decouple their long-run strategies from the short-run vagaries of financial markets," they write. The authors suggest companies do this by taking any or all of six actions, which include reducing dependence on external capital, rethinking compensation, and investing and acquiring countercyclically. "By being counter-cyclical in investing and acquiring, not only are assets likely to be cheaper but screening mechanisms are also more disciplined and the requirements for a business case more uncompromising."

4/16/09
PBS NEWS HOUR with JIM LEHRER
Amid news of recently rising foreclosure rates, Professor John Vogel examines the state of the housing market and the prospects for the government's mortgage relief plan. Vogel says the recent increase in foreclosure rates is the result of unemployment and economic problems. "Another part of the problem is the end of the moratorium, so banks have started foreclosing again."

4/15/09
FINANCIAL TIMES (UK)
In his second MBA diary entry, Thomas Park T'10 reflects on his first year at Tuck. Five words he uses to describe what his time at Tuck has been like are "play hard, work even harder." Park discusses the time-consuming recruitment process and all the extra attention those in the career development office are giving students. Park is confident Tuck will not be too far from the 100 percent employment rate it achieved last year as long as students are flexible and ready to pursue opportunities that they didn't think of before. "We are taught that successful leadership is not only about adapting to changing circumstances but also finding ways to emerge stronger," he says.

3/26/09
THE NEW YORK TIMES DEALBOOK
Professor Colin Blaydon offers his view on what's ahead for the private equity industry and whether more firms might go public. Blaydon posits, "All private equity firms, whether public or private, face the same daunting but promise-filled agenda for the next several years: 1) find and make new investments in what will be an attractive valuation environment, while 2) simultaneously getting value out of the investments made during the inflated valuation environment of 2005 to 2007."

3/20/09
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Independent Street blog features Professor Kusum Ailawadi's research about Wal-Mart's effect on mom-and-pop stores. Ailawadi found that stores trying to be similar to the retail giant do not gain an advantage. She advocates that it is better for small businesses to differentiate themselves from Wal-Mart and provides tips on ways to do so. Ailawadi's Wal-Mart study received international coverage.

3/19/09
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Experts warn that employers who downsize their severance packages may hurt their chances of recruiting top talent when the economy turns around. Smaller severance policies may also mar a company's image among surviving workers, says Professor Leonard Greenhalgh. "If surviving employees don't feel that their company is committed to their economic well-being, they will view the relationship as more transactional," he states. "When a better offer comes, they will take it."

03/18/09
BUSINESSWEEK
As Tata Motors unveils its commercial version of the Nano microcar, the $2,500 "people's car," innovation experts contemplate what Tata's Nano can teach Detroit. According to Professor Vijay Govindarajan, "Great companies are built on creating new markets, not increasing market share in existing ones," and this is what the Indian company is doing with the Nano. Govindarajan lists 10 lessons for Detroit, including these: U.S. automakers should focus less on incremental improvements to existing cars, think more broadly about new market opportunities, and understand their customers.

3/15/09
WTOP.COM 103.5 FM
Dean Robert Hansen speaks on the Washington D.C. radio station about why he is against the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA) in the new stimulus bill. He says the EAWA will make the U.S. economy less competitive because financial institutions will be limited in finding the best workers.

3/24/09
THE ECONOMIST (UK)
The article "Managers do the daftest things" uses Professor
Sydney Finkelstein's findings from his new book, Think Again, to
critique company leaders who have made poor choices. The story focuses on Finkelstein's pronouncement that a decision is
susceptible to a range of psychological biases that can trip up even experienced executives, and lists several safeguards for companies to stop the biases from causing calamities.

3/16/09
FINANCIAL TIMES (UK)
An alliance of large U.S. companies recently fought back against
the tide of protectionism among politicians and the public by sharing Dean Matthew Slaughter's study on the role multinationals play in the U.S. economy. Slaughter found that U.S.-based parent companies of multinationals account for nearly a quarter of the country's private-sector economy, about a third of its capital investment, and three-quarters of all research and development. "The idea that limiting the ability of multinationals to expand abroad would create more jobs in the U.S. is just wrong," he says.

3/13/09
TELEGRAPH (UK)
In an amendment to the stimulus bill, any recipient of
money through the Troubled Asset Relief Program that has
recently laid off staff is prohibited from hiring foreign staff who require visas. Business school deans said the new rules were vague and likely to be interpreted in the most conservative way by banks anxious not to antagonize U.S. politicians. Dean Paul Danos voices called it a flawed piece of legislation that was
rooted in a different era when companies did not operate on a global basis.

3/11/09
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Deans Paul Danos, Matthew Slaughter, and Robert Hansen address the effects of the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA) on business schools in their op-ed "It's a Terrible Time to Reject Skilled Workers." They cite two major consequences of EAWA: fewer foreign-born students will enroll because they cannot legally work in the U.S. after receiving their degrees and a poorer classroom environment caused by a reverse brain-drain.

3/05/09
BUSINESSWEEK
For many MBA students, spring break is a chance to visit another country and learn something about the global economy that can't be learned in a classroom. Tuck's Lisa Miller, associate director of the Center for International Business, talks about leading a group of sudents to China. The reason students chose this trip during break, Miller says, is because "they all believe China will be practical to their business lives."

3/02/09
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The article "Dangers of Clinging to Solutions of the Past" reveals how experience can work against a company. Professor Vijay Govindarajan started studying work experience 25 years ago by looking at companies such as Sears, Roebuck & Co., and Encyclopedia Britannica. He surmises that some managers are so set in past ways they are unable to cope with new situations. "Experience becomes a liability in times of change."

2/28/09
ASSOCIATED PRESS
After the government announced it would invest in Citigroup again, analysts debated whether Citi should continue to sell pieces of the company. Professor Dennis Logue says that there is internal resistance to further breaking up the company, but Citigroup could easily sell off more assets and still be a worldwide institution. "You can be a global bank without having all the moving parts that Citi has," Logue states.

2/20/09
FORTUNE
The magazine's online column Ask Annie looks into the effects of being laid off on a prospective student's application. "There is no stigma attached," says Dawna Clarke, director of admissions. "We're seeing really good applications from former investment bankers." She feels that applicants from Wall Street firms are somewhat pre-screened for Tuck because of the traditionally stringent hiring and training standards within those companies.

2/23/09
ITALIA OGGI (ITALY)
The prominent newspaper profiles Luciano Dolgetta T'09 and focuses on why he chose to take his MBA education abroad. Dolgetta decided the best way to advance his career was to get an MBA, and attending Tuck will help him achieve the international career he wants.

2/6/09
BCC: THE WORLD (UK)
More bad news was announced for the auto industry, but this time it came from Russian, British, and Japanese companies. Even Toyota, the largest carmaker in the world, is suffering from plummeting sales, and the company's president is worried that countries' increasing protectionist drifts will affect sales even more. Dean Matt Slaughter warns of the negative effects from a proliferation of these policies as well. Slaughter says that while they may be small today, protectionist policies could lead to much larger changes tomorrow.

2/6/09
YAHOO TECH TICKER
Professor Sydney Finkelstein, author of Think Again, discusses financial decisions by Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis.

1/22/09
FINANCIAL TIMES (UK)
Professor Espen Eckbo explores the Scandinavian financial crisis
of the early 1990s in his op-ed "Scandinavia: Failed banks,
state control and a rapid recovery."

1/19/09
BUSINESSWEEK
At one time, business schools "greened" their MBA curriculums in response to a new wave of students for whom sustainability was more than just a catchphrase. Today, business schools continue to ramp up their efforts for green curricula for a new reason—sustainability represents a growing industry that more students are drawn to. Pat Palmiotto, director of Tuck's Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship, says the integration of sustainability issues into existing courses is important, but so is adding new programs and courses that focus solely on green issues, as Tuck has done, so students can dig deeper.

1/12/09
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Professor Kenneth French answers questions about his recent paper, "The Cost of Active Investing." French details how much the typical investor squanders by trying to beat the market: an average annual return of 0.67 percentage points.

12/15/08
WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
Executive education programs at top business schools are changing to meet the needs of their clients. Programs need to reflect the immediate realities of the business world and provide greater customization for companies involved. Tuck's approach to customization flows from its deliberate decision to run a small, selective business school. "We focus on close work with faculty," says Clark Callahan, executive director of executive education.

12/09/08
BLOOMBERG
This month, the CEOs of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae testified before a Congressional committee about their part in the mortgage crisis and tried make Congress take a portion of the blame. The executives said Congress pressured the companies to finance lower-income borrowers while regulators did little to curb the impending risk. Professor John Vogel's take on the matter is that the companies' dual mandates are a larger issue. "There was a bigger problem than the regulator, and it was the inherent conflict in the governance structure," Vogel says. "They were trying to appease their shareholders and trying to serve their mission." Vogel also shared his expertise about Freddie and Fannie on Bloomberg Radio.

12/01/08
CFO MAGAZINE
In the past, companies lacked a precise, uniform means to evaluate how energy usage affects their bottom line. To combat this problem, Professor Anant Sundaram and the Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship developed the fossil-fuel beta (FFβ) metric to estimate the exposure of a company's market returns to changes in fossil-fuel prices. If a company has a positive beta, it suggests that it is less susceptible to fossil-fuel price volatility, while a negative beta means the company is more vulnerable to rising fuel prices. "It is not good or bad, per se, to have a positive or negative FFβ," Sundaram says. "But it may be strategically sensible for a company to decouple its core business from fossil-fuel prices in the long run by gravitating to a zero beta."

11/18/08
NHPR: EXCHANGE
Professor John Vogel discussed the bailout in relation to subprime mortgages and housing foreclosures. He suggested ways to revise the July housing bill to make it more effective in addressing the issues plaguing the economy.

11/17/08
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Citigroup recently announced it was cutting more than 50,000 jobs in an effort to curb costs at a time when the bank is suffering financially. Citi has long been criticized for being too sprawling and difficult to manage and is trying to address that concern by selling off parts of the business. Professor Robert Howell was tapped to discuss Citi's restructuring possibilities. The article was picked up by numerous publications worldwide.

11/09/08
BUSINESS STANDARD (INDIA)
As companies around the world are being affected by the financial crisis, companies are looking for leadership advice on how to react to current events. Less concerned with growth, leaders in Indian companies are focusing on surviving the short-term circumstances and inspiring their employees. "In everyone's life, three or four times one is asked to do extraordinary things. Self-confident leaders have the ability to rise to such special occasions," Professor Vijay Govindarajan said. "We have one such special occasion today which will sort out the great leaders from the mediocre ones."

10/23/08
FOX BUSINESS
Dean Paul Danos speaks about recent economic issues during his appearance on the cable news network. Danos tackles topics such as why the markets did not self regulate and whether or not free markets are dead following the government's intervention. "Business management is here to stay," Danos says in response to the effect current events will have on business schools. "Tuck has been a business school for 108 years through all kinds of depressions and recessions, and we're going to continue."

10/14/08
ABC NEWS
After the banking industry's collapse, analysts speculate the U.S. auto industry will be the next to falter. Experts say part of what's hurting auto manufactures is the credit crunch—fewer consumers are able to get loans for cars. Professor Richard D'Aveni suggests one bigger problem for the auto industry is labor contracts. "American automakers should be making cars wherever it's economically rational, and it's not economically rational to make all your cars in the U.S.," he says.

10/13/08
TIMES OF INDIA (INDIA)
Nitin Duggal T'07 reflects on his choice to attend Tuck and what he has gained from his experiences. One of the reasons Duggal singled out the school was because of its close-knit community. "The Tuck community, which comprises its faculty, staff, and student body, is so vibrant that it gets ingrained in your daily life during the two years," Duggal says. "For me, the experience was undoubtedly the best part of my life."

10/03/08
CNBC: SQUAWK BOX
Professor Matthew Slaughter discussed the revamped bailout bill and the effects of not implementing it. Slaughter says that passing the bill will be one piece in restoring confidence and lending in the capital markets. If the bill is not adopted, it could
lead to a sharp downturn in both the U.S. and global economies,
he says. WSJ Radio, Bloomberg Radio, Fox Business News,
and Bloomberg News also tapped Slaughter for his expertise.

9/26/08
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
The nightly news hour twice sought Dean Robert Hansen's expertise on the $700 billion bailout plan. Hansen described the word bailout as misleading. In reality it is a purchase and resale, and the government could potentially break even or perhaps make money. Hansen's opinion on the economic plan was in high demand this past week by other major outlets, including Forbes, The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, U.S. News & World Report, and Fox News.

9/22/08
FORBES
Professor Eric Johnson explores the security issues emerging for companies as more millennials enter the workforce. Instead of preventing employee access to Facebook, Johnson suggests that CIOs clarity how to use it and how not to. "One of the things we learned is that the best way to manage information risk is to have educated risk-takers," he proposes. Johnson also weighs in on the negatives of changing passwords frequently and corporate security in the next five years.

9/01/08
DIRECTORSHIP
Professor Sydney Finkelstein discusses what executives and board members can learn from other people's mistakes. Finkelstein mentions some of the main reasons executives fail and the warning signs companies should be aware of. While executives can't always predict what is going to happen, in the 51 companies Finkelstein studied for Why Smart Executives Fail, he found commonalities. "In virtually every instance, senior decision makers, and sometimes even board members, had the data, they knew what was going on around them, and they ignored it."

9/17/08
FINANCIAL TIMES (UK)
Thomas Park T'10 reflects on his life before Tuck and why he chose the school over other top business schools. Park, originally a lawyer who focused on international criminal prosecution, says Tuck differentiated itself in two ways. Tuck's focus on general management education and faculty interaction with students was one deciding factor. "Second, it was the nature of the school's community that ultimately won me over," he says in his first MBA journal for the newspaper. "It has been two weeks and I can already see why the student body is so close knit."

9/01/08
BLACK ENTERPRISE
Professor Ella Bell speaks about ASCENT: Leading Multicultural
Women to the Top. Bell, who developed the program to prepare women in the workplace for leadership positions, notes that ASCENT helps companies harness the characteristics that women bring to the table. "ASCENT teaches the women not to lose their voice and helps their companies learn to capitalize on their uniqueness. Our goal is to give women strategies to bring their chair up to the table," she says.

8/22/08
BLOOMBERG
Lone Star Funds is racing against other companies, such as Apollo Global Management LLC and KKR, to take advantage of the credit crunch triggered by last year's record defaults of subprime mortgages and to purchase distressed funds. Since the beginning of 2008, Lone Star has made more than $10 billion in deals, a marked difference from its activities last year. Professor Colin Blaydon compares today's market for private equity firms with the market in the 1990s.

8/8/08
NBC: THE TODAY SHOW
On opening day of the Olymic Games, Professor Andrew Bernard appeared on the Today Show and revealed his long-awaited olympic medal counts predictions. Bernard predicts medal totals using economics and statistics—with no knowledge of individual sports or athletes. His formula uses four factors, including each country's available resources, population, per-capita income, and share of medals won in the last summer games. Bernard’s predictions were 96 percent accurate for both the Sydney and Athens games.

8/8/08
NPR: MORNING EDITION
On opening day of the Beijing Olympics, NPR's Renee Montagne spoke with Professor Andrew Bernard about his medal count predictions.

8/04/08
ADVERTISING AGE
In a tight economy, companies that cut marketing budgets to
increase cash flow may be doing themselves more harm than good. Bennigan's Steak & Ale and Sharper Image recently filed for bankruptcy after dramatically decreasing media spending. While there is not a strict cause-and-effect relationship, Professor Kevin Lane Keller says there seems to be a pattern. "As long as the economic conditions stay tough, you're going to see companies that cut back and some that will potentially pay the price," Keller says. "It comes down to a very fundamental philosophical issue of advertising as an expense or investment."

8/01/08
BLACK ENTERPRISE
The magazine seeks out minority entrepreneurs who
attended the 2008 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference in
Charlotte, North Carolina, to learn what they took away from the convention. The Benjamins, who own a company that provides numerous services to large corporations, say the boot camp session led by Tuck's Professor Leonard Greenhalgh was the highlight of the two-day event. Greenhalgh's session focused on where business owners are in the value chain and how to strategically grow a business.

7/15/08
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Though the criminal investigation into stock options tampering is finished, Steve Job's legal woes could be far from over. A shareholder lawsuit filed against Apple and Jobs for defrauding investors in backdating practices could force Apple to pay millions in penalties. "Shareholders need to be careful with these kinds of lawsuits," says Professor B. Espen Eckbo, director of Tuck's Lindenauer Center for Corporate Governance. "Part of the cost may be a very expensive reduction in the reputation of the firm—one that goes way beyond that issue that's prompting the suit itself." The article ran in such publications as BusinessWeek, Forbes, and The Globe & Mail.

7/14/08
BUSINESSWEEK
In a video interview, Dean Paul Danos talked about the new Tuck 2012 initiative. One feature of the initiative is to increase the number of faculty while maintaining the number of students, enabling small research-to-practice seminars. Danos also spoke about Tuck's unique career development and explained why the school has decided not to open global campuses. "Our basic philosophy is we are going to make the campus experience the best we can, give the students the most exposure to great faculty that we possibly can, and most importantly, make sure that the population is such that they can learn from each other in teams," he says.

7/2/08
CONDÉ NAST PORTFOLIO
Nowadays, it seems like reality TV killed drama series. However, some branding specialists disagree and say that actually dramas are the most profitable genre for networks. For example, franchise shows like Law & Order and CSI keep TV audiences loyal to networks. Professor Kevin Lane Keller says, "By extending the brand, networks can get [the audience] to consume more and more TV," which indicates networks should create franchises out of other popular shows.