News

Aug 28, 2017

The Pioneering MBAs In The Class Of 2019

T’19s Orlando Gómez, Darryn Lee and Katie Donovan are mentioned in a teaser of Poets & Quants' forthcoming “meet the class” series.

Aug 25, 2017

Customer Service Hall of Shame

In an article about companies with the most dissatisfied customers, Praveen Kopalle says cable and satellite television providers often fail to satisfy because the quality of service is not on par with what customers are paying.

Aug 23, 2017

How a Corporate Mission Can Drive Young Workers Away

Sydney Finkelstein writes that companies must craft compelling mission statements, but avoid grandiose claims they can’t back up, for risk of alienating millennials.

Aug 22, 2017

Opinion: Here’s a Way for You to Get a Better Handle on Debt

Eesha Sharma explains that one important factor shaping people’s decisions to incur debt is borrowing context, which often falls into two categories: “How to pay” decisions and “Whether to buy” decisions.

Aug 20, 2017

Why Infosys’ Next CEO Will Be More of a Backroom, Nuts-and-Bolts Guy than a Global Poster...

“Expats have an important advantage in that they are not burdened by the past; they can come up with unique solutions,” says Vijay Govindarajan in an article about leadership changes at Infosys.

Aug 20, 2017

Uber’s Next CEO Inherits a Board at War and a Combative Ex-CEO

"This type of turmoil creates uncertainty, and investors hate uncertainty," Sydney Finkelstein says of the challenges facing Uber. "This is also why venture capitalists are leading the battles here to figure out what to do and are pitted against each other because they know this thing could unravel."

Aug 17, 2017

Top US CEOs ‘Dumped’ President Trump over Virginia Remarks before He Fired Them

Vijay Govindarajan talks about President Trump’s recent clash with top CEOs. “American CEOs did the right thing by standing up against hatred, bigotry and racism,” he says.

Aug 16, 2017

Amid Racial Tension, Hyatt Pushes Understanding in New Spot

Kevin Keller opines on Hyatt Hotel’s latest advertisement which celebrates the chain’s history of inclusion. Keller says more brands are likely to push messages of unity in the coming months.

Aug 15, 2017

Who May Lose Amid the CEO Backlash and Trump? Americans.

Sydney Finkelstein says business leaders must weigh the risks of denouncing Trump or steering clear of controversy. "You can't just sit on the sidelines if you are a leader. That is an abdication of your responsibility."

Aug 15, 2017

Tesla Heads to Tuck for First Case Comp

Quotes T’18s Stephiney Foley and Alen Amini regarding the upcoming Tesla case competition at Tuck. “Tesla is one of the most innovative and disruptive companies out there. We have already seen tremendous interest from the universities we have reached out to participate,” says Foley.

Aug 15, 2017

4 CEOs Have Now Left Trump’s Business Council

Paul Argenti talks with NPR about CEOs that removed themselves from President Trump’s business council following the events in Charlottesville. Argenti explains that millennials are concerned about ethics and responsibility in ways previous generations haven’t been, and that CEOs need to heed that fact.

Aug 09, 2017

Opinion: This Is the Management Lesson the Google Memo-Writer Missed

Sydney Finkelstein pinpoints where former Google software engineer James Damore went wrong. “Was taking Google to task in the way Damore did ultimately a productive act? Did the memo recognize that successful managers look to widen talent pools, not restrict them? Did it appreciate that competitive advantage depends on people more than anything else? The answer, I would suggest, is a clear ‘no,” writes Finkelstein.

Aug 08, 2017

Bridging the Gap in Digital Product Design

Hans Brechbühl responds to survey findings of business and IT leaders that digitize physical products. Fewer than a quarter of respondents cited managing and securing customer data as a major challenge. Brechbühl says that could mean that companies don’t understand how big the issue is. “Who owns the data, and who has the right to do something with it—these are issues to resolve in addition to worrying about securing it.”

Aug 08, 2017

100 MBAs to Watch in the Class of 2017

Monique Alves T’17 and Emma He T’17 are featured on Poets & Quants “100 MBAs to Watch," a list originated from "Best & Brightest" nominations. Alves says that her favorite part about business school was learning about her classmates outside of the classroom over hockey games, small group dinners or while traveling. Emma He notes that her favorite course the was her Onsite Global Consulting project. "It gave me the opportunity to distill and contextualize all leadership lessons learnt in the classroom," she explains.

Aug 07, 2017

7 Startup Leadership Lessons from Former Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman

Leadership lessons from Gail Goodman T'87, a small business advocate, one of which is to "keep innovating." Goodman explains, "It actually starts with making sure everyone knows they're paid to think and to innovate. It all starts with an attitude: what else cool can we do?"

Aug 07, 2017

The Securities Industry Is Laughing at You

Cites comments by Kenneth French made during a recent Freakonomics podcast about Main Street investors losing money by purchasing actively managed funds. "The notion that we can all get rich by trading actively just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever," says French.

Aug 07, 2017

Monsanto Employee Emails Show Efforts to Marshal Scientists

Quotes Paul Argenti in an article about Monsanto’s efforts to marshal scientists in defense of its product and combat research at odds with its own. “The unfortunate reality is that if you are sponsoring research, you are immediately creating credibility problems,” Argenti says.

Jul 31, 2017

Is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Driving Up Consumer Debt?

Eesha Sharma discusses FOMO and borrowing to fund experiences, a focus of her recent research. "What’s really interesting is what kind of psychological process is contributing to this effect," says Sharma. "As you begin to think about an experience more and more, you think about the time, the place. The experience gets conceptualized by these contextual factors that make it really challenging to say, 'I can let go. I can pass this up.”

Jul 31, 2017

Why Relentless Curiosity Is a Must for CEOs

John Fyfe Marshall T’92 argues for business leaders to remain curious. "To thrive in a time of change, the curiosity trait is moving from anomaly to necessity. Leaders will need to shift their perspective and understand that the fundamental — in fact, the only — role of every business is not as a process to be managed or a product to be produced, but rather as a ceaseless problem-solving machine. For leaders with relentless curiosity, the opportunities are boundless," writes Marshall.

Jul 27, 2017

The Stupidest Thing You Can Do with Your Money

Kenneth French discusses stock picking and the revolution in low-cost index investing. “The notion that we can all get rich by trading actively just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Every time somebody wins, somebody loses even more,” French says. He agrees that the growing appetite for index funds does seem to have picked up speed.

Jul 27, 2017

How Recruiters Rank Business Schools

Mentions Tuck in article about recruiter rankings of business schools, based on U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey. Recruiters rank schools on a simple 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding) scale. Tuck is among the top schools with a 2018 recruiter assessment score of 4.2.

Jul 27, 2017

‘Game of Thrones’: This Computer Model Predicts Who Will Be Killed Off — or Survive

The "Fama-French Three-Factor Model" created by Kenneth French is referenced in an article about a new computer program that predicts which “Game of Thrones” characters will die. “Naturally, as all stock-market investors know, computer models are limited in their ability to understand an irrational world. Indeed the most widely followed ‘model’ for predicting stock-market returns, built by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French, is constantly being revised,” writes MarketWatch.

Jul 24, 2017

MBA Deans Share the Hardest Classes They Ever Took

Dean Matthew Slaughter reflects on his experience during “Producer and Consumer Theory” a class he took during his first year of graduate school at MIT. “My struggles that year helped build a lot of humility that (cue inspiring Tuck-mission music), over time, became confident humility and gave me a solid foundation for my future research and teaching.

Jul 24, 2017

Comic Book Success: The Rise of the Comic-Con Festival

Recent research by Eesha Sharma about discretionary spending for experiences is applied to the Comic-Con International Festival. “It's really difficult to substitute this year's comic con with next year's comic con,” quips Sharma.

Jul 12, 2017

Wal-Mart Will Punish Its Suppliers for Delivering Early

Santiago Gallino is quoted in an article about Wal-Mart’s “On-Time, In-Full’’ program which tightens the deadline for vendor deliveries through fines. “You end up in a situation of, ‘Who is to blame?” says Gallino. “It’s a tough discussion.”

Jul 12, 2017

Americans Are More Willing to Go into Debt for Experiences

Highlights new research by Eesha Sharma which finds that when consumers are deciding among optional purchases, they’re more likely to use credit to buy experiences. “We challenge the idea that people are more willing to go into debt for a longer lasting thing,” Sharma says.

Jul 06, 2017

Why It’s Not Always Good to Be Consistent

Sydney Finkelstein discusses how leaders can benefit from holding two or more opposing views at once. "It's how all of us think at times and recognizing this duality is a critical leadership skill," he says.

Jun 30, 2017

Are Central Bankers Twisted Geniuses, or Just Twisted?

Peter Fisher talks about over-interpretations by investors and misconstrued statements by policy makers. “Given the influence they have it’s hard to ignore them, but think hard about whether they’re talking to us [investors] or to each other," suggests Fisher.

Jun 30, 2017

The Magical Apple Spin-off That Almost Invented the iPhone…in 1993

Sydney Finkelstein explains how General Magic, an Apple Inc. spin-off, stacked the deck against itself. “The lesson is that who you take money from is one of the most momentous decisions you’ll ever make.”

Jun 30, 2017

Six Telltale Signs of a Toxic Boss

“Entrepreneurs who never give up any control, or fail to bring in professional managers, tend to blow up at some point,” Sydney Finkelstein opines. “Hubris never wins.”

Jun 30, 2017

Public Shaming of Big Companies Not as Big a Deal as You’d Think, but Not...

Leslie Robinson discusses a new working paper which looks at the effects of large-scale public disclosure of corporate tax information. Neither consumer sentiment nor stock price were significantly impacted by the mass public disclosure, even when it revealed that the companies were paying very little in taxes.

Jun 21, 2017

Five Leadership Habits All Great Bosses Share

Mentions Superbosses by Sydney Finkelstein in an article about tactics managers can use to help their employees grow. “Finkelstein found that the world’s most extraordinary bosses bring out untapped talents in their people,” writes Inc. “How do they this? By talking to their employees about their potential.”

Jun 21, 2017

Deans’ First Jobs: From Washing Dishes to Selling Hot Dogs

Dean Matthew Slaughter reflects on important business lessons learned during his first job at a miniature golf course. Slaughter enjoyed a front row seat to how empathetic design thinking is practiced thanks to the example of the course’s owner. “He forced us all to put on our empathy glasses,” says Slaughter.

Jun 19, 2017

Yet Another Crisis for Uber: Six Vacant Executive Jobs, and No Active CEO

“This is going to be a classic business school case study, there’s no question,” says Sydney Finkelstein of Uber’s current leadership structure.

Jun 19, 2017

The Decline of the Baronial C.E.O.

Dean Matthew Slaughter and Vijay Govindarajan discuss how the era of baronial chief executives is drawing to a close. “The C.E.O. with a big office, a tenure of 10 or 20 years, in a suit and tie, is becoming a thing of the past,” says Govindarajan.

Jun 15, 2017

Uber: 14 Bosses, One Corporate ‘Game of Thrones?’

“Having two people making joint leadership decisions is a big mistake for companies, but 14 is setting up a war for succession,” Finkelstein says, opinion on Uber’s leadership succession plans following the departure of CEO Travis Kalanick.