BS Management News 

Two weeks before Kristen DeTienne moved into her new home, she called the phone company to pre-install a new phone line. The company didn't come through and she had to live for weeks without a phone. "The organization later faced a class-action lawsuit, and I got a rebate check as part of the settlement," said DeTienne, a Brigham Young University professor of organizational leadership and strategy in the Marriott School of Management. "Customer service problems can be very expensive for companies, and a lot of times they don't think about the long-term costs and the loss of loyalty issues they create."

Scott M. Smith, James Passey Professor of Marketing and director of the BYU Institute of Marketing, has been selected as a 2006-2007 Fulbright Scholar to Moldova. The Fulbright Scholar program is sponsoring Smith to develop a marketing and entrepreneurship curriculum in the small, former Soviet-block country.

KAM Accelerometer, Inc., a company touting an electronic personal fitness device that measures expended kinetic energy, walked away — make that ran away — with first place at Brigham Young University’s annual Business Plan Competition. A panel of business and venture capital professionals awarded KAM $50,000 in cash and in-kind services for the March 31 victory.

Brigham Young University's business and law schools are among the top 50 in the United States, reports U.S. News & World Report in its "America's Best Graduate Schools" issue, on sale Monday, April 3. Other BYU graduate programs and specialties rank in the top 100 in their categories. The J. Reuben Clark Law School is ranked 34th, and the Marriott School of Management is also ranked 34th.

More than $100,000 in cash and business services are up for grabs Friday as judges pick the most promising new enterprises at Brigham Young University’s Business Plan Competition. The final event, where one of three final teams will walk away with the grand prize valued at $50,000, will take place at 2 p.m. in room 140 of BYU’s Joseph Smith Building.

Who picks up the tab when you go to lunch with a billionaire? Warren Buffett, the world’s second-richest man, treated 22 BYU students to lunch and a 90-minute Q&A session in Omaha, Neb. The students, enrolled in investment classes, and their professors from the Marriott School of Management, jumped at the invitation to meet with Buffett — arguably the world’s greatest investor.

Officials from BYU’s Marriott School of Management announce the naming of the Global Management Center for former Eastman Kodak Company CEO. The late Kay Whitmore, who worked for Kodak for 36 years and led the company for three, was known for his business acumen and integrity. He was supported in his rise to CEO by his wife of 48 years, Yvonne.

A face-off between academics and chief financial officers may not sound like the most electrifying of showdowns, but a new Brigham Young University study that pits generally accepted theories against real-world behavior has important implications for investors considering companies' initial public offerings.

The Marriott School of Management jumped four spots in the 2006 Financial Times rankings of the top 100 global MBA programs. The London-based paper ranked Brigham Young University’s Marriott School in the top 50 for the second consecutive year. The school, which ranked 45th overall and 27th in the United States, was also listed among the top ten programs for accountancy and the highest percentage salary increase of North American schools.

National best-selling author Stephen R. Covey will address Brigham Young University students Jan. 23 at a lecture hosted by the Marriott School’s Business Strategy Club and the Marriott Undergraduate Student Association. Dr. Covey, named in Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Americans, will speak on leadership as a choice and not a position.

“Buongiorno principessa” may help you get a date, but it probably won’t help you get a job. Taking one of 11 business language classes might. Not only does BYU have one of the most bilingual campuses in the country, it also offers an excellent selection of business language courses (Bus M 596R). These courses add a business dimension to a student’s existing language skills.

At a time when public confidence in business is at a low ebb, Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management has released a new book that shows integrity and success are not contradictory in the business world but complementary. Featuring compelling speeches at BYU by top CEOs and educators, the book, “Business with Integrity,” inspires readers to keep the bottom line in proper perspective and conduct business with honesty and character.

All employees live with the reality that annoying coworkers, unrealistic quotas or a difficult boss may someday spark a search for different employment; but what could cause your boss to go looking for a new job, creating uncertainty for you? A new study by John Bingham, assistant professor of organizational leadership and strategy at Brigham Young University, found that executives don't mind pressure to perform, as long as they are given freedom to achieve the high standards.

The Marriott Undergraduate Student Association at Brigham Young University, in conjunction with Dillard’s, invites students to its first annual case competition Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. in room 251 of the Tanner Building. The case competition will give business students experience problem-solving an international strategy situation taken from a real-world example.

The fall eBusiness Day, themed "eGlobal: Connect Locally, Act Globally," will demonstrate how the world is being connected through technology. The event will be held on Friday, Nov. 11, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the second floor atrium and in room 251 of the Tanner Building. Two keynote speakers, Paul Allen and Josh James, will elaborate on how people and organizations around the world are connecting via technology and the Internet. Allen will be speaking on "Approaching Omniscience — Access to all Information and to all the People in the World" at 9 a.m. "You can learn anything and meet anyone using the power of technology," Allen says.

The 2006 edition of The Princeton Review’s “Best 237 Business Schools” named BYU’s Marriott School the nation’s “Most Family-Friendly” business school. “This should come as no surprise,” says Jim Stice, MBA director. “Since our goals and objectives of the MBA program are aligned with those of the Church, it is our responsibility and commitment to be family-friendly.” The “Most Family-Friendly” ranking is based on a student assessment of: how happy married students are, how helpful the school is to students with children and how much the school does for the spouses of students.

Google’s announcement last week that it has earmarked $265 million of the money raised in its public stock offering for charity resurrects a long-standing debate over whether or not companies should be involved in philanthropic efforts. And although detractors contend that money spent on charity should go back into shareholders’ pockets, a new study in the “Academy of Management Review” by a Brigham Young University business professor argues that a track record of corporate giving protects a company much like an insurance policy, adding to overall value and shielding shareholders’ investment in the event of misfortune.

The Marriott School Web Analytics Competition, hosted by the Rollins Center for eBusiness, is looking for an innovative student team. Past eBusiness competitions have challenged student teams to design Web sites or come up with creative solutions to improve existing sites. This semester the eBusiness Center has teamed with Omniture to present a new competition allowing anyone with critical thinking skills to compete.

Securing thousands of dollars in capital for a new business and preparing a term paper for an English 315 class is multitasking on another level. For those over achievers who juggle starting a business venture while in college, the Center for Entrepreneurship has a proposition for you. BYU’s 14th annual Student Entrepreneur of the Year competition will offer winners more than $40,000 in cash and in-kind services from supporters of the Center for Entrepreneurship. Winners walk away with capital and resources to start their businesses.