BS Management News 

After spending a continuous 24 hours developing an international business strategy, an undergraduate team of management students from Brigham Young University placed first at the Center for International Business Education and Research Case Challenge — the BYU team beat students from other top international business programs including Università Bocconi in Italy, Instituto Tecnológico Autónoma de México in Mexico and Audencia Ecole de Management in France.

Two graduates from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management won top honors for their doctoral dissertation research at the Academy of Management’s 2007 conference in Philadelphia. Alison Mackey won the award for outstanding dissertation research in business policy and strategy for her research on the link between executive salaries and firm performance.

Brigham Young University recognized finance professor Grant R. McQueen with the Phi Kappa Phi Award and business management associate professor Keith P. Vorkink with the Young Scholar Award at the annual University Conference August 28. The Phi Kappa Phi Award is presented annually to a BYU faculty member who excels in scholarly and creative endeavors, exemplifies integrity and contributes to BYU through citizenship and service.

Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management is honoring the late Sheri Joy Bischoff, professor of organizational behavior, with a new scholarship to assist MBA candidates studying organizational behavior and human resources. Bischoff’s family, friends, former students and colleagues made contributions totaling more than $40,000 to create an endowed scholarship in her name.

The Wall Street Journal ranked Brigham Young University’s Master of Business Administration Program first in the nation among regional schools in the paper’s 2007 report of top business programs, up from third in 2006 and sixth in 2005. The Marriott School was also ranked No. 2 among the best schools for hiring graduates with strong ethical standards behind Dartmouth College.

This summer, 19 Korean executives from Hyundai Heavy Industries got a surprise crash course in American biking culture when a pack of Harley-Davidsons roared into the Marriott School of Management parking lot to enhance the visitors’ classroom studies. For 11 years HHI, the top shipbuilder in the world, has sent its managers to the Marriott School for three-months of trainings in business English, ethics, marketing and more.

Two Brigham Young University business professors explored how companies can effectively enter attractive markets dominated by entrenched rivals in a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review. For example, how could Red Bull, the soft drink that arrived in the United States in the late 1990s, capture market share that belonged to industry giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi? Although most similar market-grabbing attempts fail, David J. Bryce and Jeffrey H. Dyer identified the three strategies most commonly used by those tiny Davids who methodically slay - or at least wound - seemingly insurmountable Goliaths.

The Marriott School of Management’s accounting program ranked 3rd and its international business program ranked 19th in specialty categories in U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” survey, up from 5th and 21st respectively in 2006. “We are extremely pleased by the recognition our program receives in U.S.News & World Report,” says Kevin Stocks, director of the School of Accountancy.

The planned addition to the N. Eldon Tanner Building is officially underway after ground was broken on the campus of Brigham Young University April 25. The groundbreaking ceremony was conducted by President Cecil O. Samuelson, with Elder W. Rolfe Kerr of the Seventy and Commissioner of Church Education, presiding over activities.

When BYU junior J.T. Davis was fourteen years old and first read a book about Warren Buffett, he never imagined that one day he’d be riding in the front seat of Buffett’s Cadillac DTS. But on March 30 Davis had just that opportunity. As one of 70 BYU participants, Davis, an investment student from Plano, Texas, attended a Q&A session and lunched with the famed “Oracle of Omaha,” an opportunity Buffett has extended to 35 universities during the 2006-2007 school year.

Hosted by the Marriott School’s William G. Dyer Institute for Leading Organizational Change, the organizational behavior/human resources faculty group and Department of Organizational Leadership and Strategy presented Alison Davis-Blake, dean of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, with its 2007 Distinguished Alumni award.

A team of students from Brigham Young University took third place and won $2,000 at the international finals of the tenth annual Venture Capital Investment Competition, held April 12-14 at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Originally a wild-card entry into the tournament, BYU finished behind MIT and the University of Virginia, becoming the second wild-card team ever to place in the tournament’s top three.

Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management honored Steven R. Thorley with its 2007 Outstanding Faculty Award, the highest faculty distinction given by the school. The award was presented at a banquet March 21 where the school also recognized 11 other individuals who have made significant contributions.

Rock, paper, scissors, GO! April 6 marks the day of what a group of Brigham Young University students hope will be the largest rock, paper, scissors competition on record. The event will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. on the Deseret Towers field. Hosted by BYU’s Collegiate Entrepreneur’s Organization, the competition is open to the general public and intended to make it into the Guinness World Records.

Calle, a company that wants to be a premier brand for street soccer players, was named winner of the 2007 Business Plan Competition and accepted a $52,500 award of cash and in-kind services. Since the competition’s submission process began in November, Calle worked to stand out from almost 140 idea pitches, 43 original business plans, eight semi-finalists and finally three final teams that presented their business plans March 30.

One might not expect an American Catholic priest living in the slums of Bangkok and BYU students to have much in common. But Father Joe Maier, founder of the Human Development Foundation, and seven students enrolled in the Marriott School field studies program found common ground as they worked together to better the lives of Thai children.

Six BYU undergraduates will shortly begin new internships thanks to an unconventional internship competition sponsored last month by the Marriott School Undergraduate Management office. The competition, loosely based on the popular TV show “The Apprentice,” showcased participants’ interviewing and presenting in front of an audience.

BusinessWeek magazine ranked Brigham Young University’s undergraduate management program eighth overall and second among recruiters in the most comprehensive ranking of U.S. undergraduate business programs to date. The school was also ranked first in return on tuition for private colleges. The magazine cited the program’s ethics-based education and high-caliber recruiters as strengths.

A team of five MBA students from the Marriott School of Management won first place in the wild card round of the Venture Capital Investment Competition, held Jan. 19 at Santa Clara University in California. “It was an intense two-day competition, and we didn’t sleep much,” says Dan Hemmert, a second-year MBA student from Orem, Utah, and a member of the team. “Everybody helped out, though.

A Marriott School student majoring in finance won first place for his analysis and recommendations in the second annual In Any Case, Change competition presented by BYU’s Dyer Institute for Leading Organizational Change. The competition invited students taking organizational behavior classes to submit solutions for individually selected business cases that dealt with organizational change.