February 10, 2005

 

From the Dean’s Desk

To the Owen Community,

As I read over this issue of Inside Owen, I’m reminded of Dr. Seuss’s book, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! However, in this instance, it’s more like The People You’ll Meet! Our issue is filled with spotlights and stories on the diverse and talented people who comprise the Owen community. Some of them you may be meeting for the first time, some you may already know as a classmate or friend. Here's a preview:

Jim Bradford, Acting Dean
Owen Graduate School of Management

  • Meet several distinguished alumni and even a parent—executives of Coca-Cola, Hallmark, and Research in Motion (makers of Blackberry), among others—who gave generously of their time by coming back to campus and offering their experiences and insights to students during this year’s incredibly productive Marketing Camp.
     
  • Get to know Shih-Ping (Nancy) Wang (MBA Class of ’05) who, on her own initiative, spearheaded a university-wide effort to develop a Chinese name for Vanderbilt.
     
  • Enjoy a chuckle from Anya Mrkrtchyan’s (MBA Class of ’06) performance in front of Professor Talbott’s stand-up comedy class.
     
  • You’ll meet Ha Nguyen (MBA Class of ’05), who is looking forward to taking best practices in American banking with her when she returns home to Vietnam after graduation this Spring.
     
  • Read about Carin Barth (MBA ’86), recently named by President Bush to be CFO of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
     
  • And, in honor of Valentine’s Day, you’ll meet Nicole Ballard and John Ford (both MBA Class of ’05) and learn about how finding true love and trying to negotiate post-graduate career options in the same city add just a bit of complexity to MBA life.

Oh, and this letter wouldn’t be complete without sharing with you a couple of the other highlights from this year.

  • Our Employment figures continue to grow stronger. During the past three years, we’ve seen the percentage of our graduates employed three months post-graduation move from 65% to 92%. Already, the Class of ‘05 seems to be getting many multiple job offers with great firms.
     
  • We’ve gotten some great press recently—a significant increase in our ranking in Financial Times (#31 global/#21 in US/Top 10 program in Finance); in addition, Business 2.0 touted Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management as one of the reasons why Nashville is such a “hot market”.
     
  • Much of the new marketing we’ve been doing for the school appears to be paying off—we are seeing inquiries and applications for all of our programs increase.
     
  • The Owen Annual Fund goal for FY2005 (ending June 2005) is 17% alumni participation and $674,388. Through December 2004, 10% of alumni have contributed to the Annual Fund contributing to the total of $337,760.  Thank you to those who have already contributed to the Annual Fund this year!
     
  • The MS Finance is getting off to a strong start. Launched earlier this year, it has already received a healthy number of applications.
     
  • The MBA Curriculum Committee has presented their first pass at an enhanced curriculum, adding some differentiating, unique changes to the MBA program. Owen faculty should see the final presentation this month.
     
  • The Health Care MBA curriculum is nearly complete. Those who have had a sneak preview of the proposed program are quite enthused about its competitive advantages. It will now go through industry and student input and will then be ready for faculty consideration.
     
  • The Alumni Board is at work on an alumni connectivity plan including the start of a “class agent” program. We value our alumni very much — for your gifts, yes, but equally as highly for the mentoring, advice, and expertise you offer the school and our students. We very much want you to call this place “home” and be part of the active Owen community.

I hope you enjoy reading about the wonderful members of our community in this issue as much as I have.  I’m proud to be part of this community and this team.  Thank you for making this place what it is.

Enjoy!


 


Introducing 'The Academic Center of Virtue' to 2 Billion People

Thanks to Nancy Wang, Fandebao may someday be a household name in China.

After she was accepted at Owen, Wang Shih-Ping (Nancy Wang, MBA ’05) was comparing notes with a friend pursuing a degree at the University of Southern California when she made an unsettling discovery. Although Vanderbilt had a superior ranking, the University of Southern California was better known in China and Taiwan.

Wang, a native of Taiwan who earned her graduate degree in public relations at Michigan State University, quickly discovered one possible reason: there is no standard translation of Vanderbilt University’s name in Mandarin Chinese. A Google search revealed more than a dozen different translations.


Nancy Wang (MBA '05)

“In some cases, Vanderbilt’s name was translated in two different ways in the same article—even the same paragraph,” Wang says. “Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more than 1.3 billion people worldwide (21% of the world’s population), and Vanderbilt needs a Chinese name.”

To make matters worse, some translations were unflattering. “Chinese is a syllabic, tonal language,” Wang says. “SINA.com, the largest web portal into China, was translating Vanderbilt as Fan-hit-Bill University.”

For Wang, this was a call to action. “I understand the power of a name,” she says. “If Microsoft had a dozen different names, it wouldn’t be successful. And other major universities were known by the same set of characters.” With the permission of the university, she decided to take on the challenge of identifying a standard set of Mandarin Chinese characters to represent Vanderbilt.

In order to search for the recommendations, Wang consulted with Chinese-Speaking students, faculty, and staff at Vanderbilt, including those who are from China, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States.

“When you translate English into Chinese, you have to decide whether a phonetic match is preferable to rich text meaning,” she explains. Harvard, for example, uses the two characters Ha-fu, which translates as “happy Buddha,” providing a positive image. She also recommended that Vanderbilt use shorter characters, as Chinese names are typically composed of two to three characters and other top schools were keeping syllables to a minimum.

The three characters she ultimately recommended, which sound as “Fandebao,” translate roughly as “the academic center of virtue.”

In late January, Wang received approval from the university for the proposed new name. “I believe the decision is a milestone for Vanderbilt,” Wang says, “because having a single name will not only increase our visibility, but also enhance our reputation among more than a billion Chinese-speaking people around the globe.”

The next step will be to register the name with the education ministries in Taiwan—and to work with a Chinese representative of Vanderbilt to register the name with the Chinese Education Ministry.

Over Spring Break, Wang will accompany a delegation from Owen to China to help raise awareness about the school. Helping their cause, they’ll be equipped with boxes of “Fandebao” t-shirts and hats.

The items will make no mention of “Commodores.” One name at a time is enough.
 

Fred's Comedy Club

Owen Prof’s Innovative Assignments Produce Stronger Presentation Skills—and Belly Laughs

“I’m going to tell you the story of a tragedy in my life,” begins Anya Mrkrtchyan with a smile. Suddenly, she has the attention of the room full of fellow MBA students. “It’s the story of how I came to Owen."

“He said, ‘Do you remember when we met seven years ago?” 

“Of course.’ I was thinking, ‘How sweet. Who says men are too rational and not sentimental?’

“’Remember how your father made us get married when he found out about our relationship, or else I’d go to jail?’

“’Yes, honey, I remember.’

“’Well,’ he said, ‘today is the day I’d have gotten out of prison.’”

The room erupts in laughter at the punch line no one seemed to have seen coming. “After we got divorced,” Anya continues after a pause, “I came to school here.”

For this one day, and for the first time in her life, Anya has become a stand-up comedian. Her two-minute monologue is a requirement for Professor Fred Talbott’s class in business communication.

“I want our MBA students to be master speakers,” Talbott explains.  “After all, when they graduate from Owen, they will literally be paid to speak.”

Talbott’s emphasis on verbal presentation skills is intended to turn what is traditionally a weakness for business executives into a strength. During the module, students must deliver three business speeches to practice and refine their skills.

But none of that quite prepares them for the grand finale: a stand-up comedy routine, under a bright light, in front of their peers, with no script, no podium, no prop but a hand-held microphone, for a minimum of two minutes.

To create a nightclub atmosphere for what he bills as the Owen Comedy Showcase, Talbott dims all the lights in the room except for one directly above the makeshift stage. Just as in a nightclub, the professor provides an introduction for each fledgling comedian: “All right, everybody, let’s give it up! He’s a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo… Rodney… MU-ñoz!” Between performances, just as in a club, music blares from a speaker. Today, Talbott has chosen the Talking Heads’ “Life During War”: “This ain’t no party; this ain’t no disco; this ain’t no foolin’ around.”

There’s a method behind this apparent madness. Comedy, explains Talbott, “is the most difficult speech there is. Everything—timing, audience rapport, storytelling, energy, advocacy, tone, projection—all must be perfect. And the pressure is enormous. The students know they are expected to be funny.”

For the uninitiated, two minutes of stand-up can seem like an eternity. “When I first opened the syllabus,” Anya Mkrtchyan recalls, I thought, ‘No, this is impossible. I can make the usual presentations about serious things, but comedy is too challenging. But, closer to the end of the course, after I had made other presentations and received encouraging feedback, the last assignment didn’t seem so bad.”

Talbott’s assignment produced a broad range of responses. Some students, mimicking stand-up comics they’ve seen on TV, offered observations about American life. One proposed installing odor-eaters at airport security checkpoints where travelers remove their shoes. One told stories of his rural hometown: “Where I come from, girls take their chewing tobacco out when they kiss you.” Some were funnier than others.

But all take away lessons from delivering a stand-up routine.

“I’m glad we did it because it allowed us to overcome one more challenge,” Mkrtchyan says. “Also, for me as an international student, this was one more way of learning about other students and their culture.”

The exercise teaches them to summon all their courage and creativity and wit, and focus on an outcome,” notes Talbott. “It teaches them the value of audience rapport and to learn to laugh at themselves. And it gives them enormous confidence. The reputation of Owen students—and I hear this from consulting, financial services, and so many other industries—is they are the best MBA speakers in the nation.”

 

Hello, Mudda. Hello, Fadda.  Here I Am at…Marketing Camp.

Owen Students Return Early from Break for Three Days of Insights from Top Professionals

By Brian Douglas MBA ‘05 

Marketing and Operations joined forces during the holiday break to provide Owen students with an array of wisdom from the front lines of the business world.

Drawing on alumni and the school’s extensive network—and a lot of work from John Hamilton of the Career Management Center—an impressive array of speakers spoke to the Marketing and Operations Camp about a number of topics timely to the two disciplines.

The event, in its second year, grew into a combined effort after starting as a marketing-only affair. Here are some highlights from the presentations heard by those who came back to school early to attend the three-day event.

“Defining and Managing Customer Expectations”
Larry Conlee, COO, Research in Motion (makers of Blackberry)
Larry Conlee (father of current Owen student Kyle Conlee) spoke of the company’s original guerilla marketing strategy for Blackberry. RIM targeted CEOs first, trying for a top-down approach. It worked—but it also created a new challenge. “CEOs’ service expectations are set pretty high,” Conlee said. Fortunately, RIM recognized the implications of its strategy and was prepared to deliver on the high level of service it promised.

“The Nextel/NASCAR Relationship”
Sean McCloskey, Senior Manager of Sports Marketing, Nextel
Sean McCloskey shared his tale of how Nextel replaced NASCAR’s 33-year title sponsor, Winston. “We could have [sponsored] just a team, but at the end of the day it didn’t feel justified,” McCloskey said. “Forty-three teams start a race. You’d just be one of those. Being the title sponsor gave us all the teams and all the tracks, too.”

McCloskey said he believed NASCAR chose Nextel over other suitors because of the technological image it brought along. Nextel loved the imagery of speed racing brought, one that fits well with the “Done” campaign that emphasizes Nextel’s rapid service. And, of course, Nextel coveted NASCAR fans, who are three-times more likely to purchase a sponsor’s products than fans of other sports.

“Marketing in the NFL”
 Ralph Ockenfels, Director of Marketing, Tennessee Titans
The camp headed downtown for a tour of the Coliseum and a discussion of how marketing works in the NFL. The questions on most campers’ minds revolved around how to market a product with a quality you cannot control: wins and losses. The Titans finished on the down side of that ledger this year (5-11). But Ockenfels explained there are ways to hedge against bad seasons. “Winning is a catalyst for sales,” he said. “That’s why we always try to do multi-year deals. You’d go crazy trying to renegotiate with 60 different sponsors each season.”

“Trials and Tribulations of New Product Development”
 Yvonne Martin-Kidd, Executive Director, Marketing and Communications, Owen Graduate School of Management
Owen’s own brand manager once worked for Lawry’s Foods (a division of Lipton and Unilever). There, she was part of a team tasked with inventing a new dipping sauce for chicken that was doomed to failure in the market despite strong evidence that suggested it would succeed. From this experience, Martin-Kidd developed Five Immutable Laws of Marketing:

1.    You will fail (It shouldn’t stop you.)
2.    Things rarely go like the textbook says they will
3.    The consumer doesn’t think like you
4.    Research is great—when you ask all the right questions
5.    It ain’t over ‘til the pocketbook sings and the cash register rings


“Change is Certain, Progress Is Not”
Bill Levisay, Senior VP Consumer and Alliance Marketing, Coca-Cola
Bill Levisay (MBA ’85) said he took away a lot of wisdom from his time at Owen. Nothing, however, stuck with Levisay more than a professor’s advice on how to handle a tough question for which he didn’t know the answer. “He said, ‘If there’s anything you need to remember from business school, it’s these seven words: ‘I don’t know, but I’ll find out.’”

In 15 years at Coke, Levisay has found out a lot about the nature of change in business. Mostly he learned that it’s inevitable, and that being on the forefront of that change makes a company successful. He stressed global thinking as imperative and talked about the evolution of consumers that now have very diverse habits and shopping options. He developed a formula that helps him deal with change: (Outside Focus + Nervous Itch) x Consumer Needs = Progress

“Learn a lot broadly,” Levisay advised, “because business is very challenging and comes at you from all angles.”

“Shoebox Cards Product Re-launch”
 Kimberley Newton, Senior Product Manager, Hallmark Cards
 Kimberley Newton (MBA ’96) found a lot wrong with the Shoebox line when she was put in charge of reviving it. Shoebox had originated to meet the need for a cheaper card that still carried the Hallmark name. After initial success, however, things declined rapidly. Shoebox turned into a line of cards that were “crude, really not funny, and had narrow appeal,” said Newton. “Some had been on the shelves for 40 months.”

She changed the creative strategy, even including some non-humor cards. Nearly 80 percent of the cards were redesigned. Since women buy most cards, more feminine colors were added. The new positioning was “exclusive.”

A turnaround in sales followed the changes Newton implemented. “We found that we had a bunch of brand believers. Even though they thought the cards were bad, they still thought of the overall brand as positive. They forgive you for your transgressions.”

“Marketing and Promotions in the Retail Environment”
 Jeffrey Buntin, Sr., Chairman and CEO, The Buntin Group
 “Retailers have taken brand management away from manufacturers, and they are smarter across the board,” Buntin told the campers. Bar code shifted retail to new levels, and technology on the horizon will soon “make bar codes look like Ned in the first reader.” A good brand manager must consider a product’s message carefully and continue to consider the full, integrated marketing mix. Buntin stresses to clients that they should think about two factors of their brand: What and Why.

“We think about brands—good ones, anyway—as almost having human qualities,” Buntin said. “We understand that brands, behind the scenes, are associated with human traits.”

“Pushing the Numbers: Financial Metrics in Marketing”
 David Rados, Professor (Emeritus) of Marketing, Owen Graduate School of Management
Through a case and work with Professor Rados’ book Pushing the Numbers, students investigated the methods marketers use to make sense out of budgeting. He stressed knowing more about the amount you need to sell to make profits over forecasting, mainly because forecasts are subject to change without notice. “Knowing a break-even point is more valuable because forecasting is so hard,” Rados said, “but don’t tell the finance people.”

 

Love and Business

 Owen Couples Juggle Not Just Studies But Career Plans

Nicole Ballard and John Ford met at orientation 18 months ago, just before they began their respective MBA coursework.

By the second or third week, they were dating—though Nicole remembers that John “was kind of aloof at first.”

In August, they decided to get married.

They’re in good company. More times than not, the graduating MBA class includes at least one couple who met and married or became engaged during their time at Vanderbilt.

Nicole Ballard (MBA '05)
and John Ford (MBA '05)

And, like many of those couples, John and Nicole faced an even bigger question than the color of the bridesmaids’ dresses: whose career, if necessary, would receive second priority when it came to job offers and geographical location?

Different Owen couples resolve that question in different ways. Some work in separate cities and see each other on weekends. Some limit their choices to a city where both partners can find work.

Thanks to careful planning, and a little luck, Nicole and John enjoyed the best of both worlds.

Last summer, John interned with Mattel in Southern California and received a job offer. Three weeks later, says Nicole, he proposed.

“We knew he had the California opportunity,” she says, “but we kept shopping for offers for both of us in the same city. We had a few potential interviews in Louisville and Atlanta, but neither panned out for both of us.”

So they put their heads together and made a decision. The career of John, who had worked in finance and accounting in Boston prior to coming to Owen, would receive first priority.

“He was going to be the career changer, going into brand management and marketing,” says Nicole, “while I was going to be on the same career path as before, in supply chain management and procurement. Since companies often wait to do just-in-time hires for my field, we put a little more weight on John’s. We also knew that we were going to start a family in the next five or six years; we’d have to factor that in.”

As luck would have it, however, Nicole received an offer from Accenture, which offered her geographical flexibility. “I asked about California,” she says, “and the next day they told me I could be based in their Los Angeles office.”

For Nicole, consulting is a “great fit,” even though the new job will probably mean travel four to five days per week. For John, working at Mattel will be “everything I wanted to do. I’ll be working with toys,” he says, “just like the movie ‘Big.’ It’s a very youthful, energetic culture, versus something cut-throat and excruciatingly competitive.” And it’s right on the beach—a nice, warm alternative to the Northeast where he grew up and worked before. “All things considered,” he says, “we made out like bandits.”

The couple seems to have everything planned out—except their wedding.

“We haven’t set the date yet,” Nicole says. “First we thought we’d wait till we found jobs. Then we decided to wait until we accepted jobs. Now we’ve decided to wait until we know our start dates.”

As of now, she says, “we think we’ll opt to do a destination wedding this summer, since we won’t have as much time to travel together after we start. Then we’ll have some smaller receptions for family and friends.”

Just one question remained for John to answer: “Were you really aloof?”

“I was definitely aloof,” he acknowledges. “Nicole is right about that. She’s right on just about everything.”

Perhaps that answer only goes to show yet again that Owen students are quick studies. He hasn’t even reached the altar, and already he knows one of the secrets of marital bliss.


 

Owen in the News...

  •  OWEN RISES IN FINANCIAL TIMES RANKINGS: On January 24, 2005, the MBA rankings released by Financial Times ranked Owen #31 among business schools worldwide — jumping up 13 points from #44 in 2004— and #21 among schools in the United States. Owen is also among top 10 schools for “Best in Finance” and “North American Salary % Increase”.
     

  •  CLASS ACTS 2004: Senior Associate Dean MARK COHEN was introduced in a Money magazine article as one of 12 unsung people who “did right by you” in 2004. The annual section titled “Class Acts and Crass Acts” cites Prof. Cohen’s analysis on racial bias in the amount of the markups in auto lending. He is recognized as a “Class Act” for “fighting for fairness in auto lending.” Prof. Cohen analyzed more than 1.5 million GMAC loans and found out that black borrowers paid an average of $362 more in total extra interest than whites with similar credit.
     

  •  ECONOMISTS SURVEYED: “U.S. Economy Expected to Perform Well In 2005”, according to a Wall Street Journal article this month. Prof. DEWEY DAANE, however, is one of the surveyed economists who showed concern for the U.S. financial position in 2005. Prof. Daane commented, "Our financial system is unstable.” He worries that unstable financial systems could cause foreign central banks to become unwilling to hold U.S. dollars, just like in 1960s and early 1970s, which could cause turmoil.
     

  • PROFESSOR STOLL ON INVESTMENTS:

    • HCA decided to allow employees and its executives to cash in certain stock options earlier than was originally scheduled. Prof. HANS STOLL commented on the new accounting standards in a Tennessean article on HCA’s decision on stock options. ''It's overdue and it's time. Silicon Valley is going to be upset, but I think this is the right thing to do. I think lots of firms are reconsidering the generosity with which they make option grants," he said.
       

    • Despite the vogue of trading commodity futures as investment vehicles, it can be a risky prospect. In an article published by the St. Paul Pioneer Press titled ‘Making Money by the Ton’, Prof. HANS STOLL commented, "If you don't know anything about commodities investing, you're no better off than throwing dice or playing blackjack." "The reason that commodity trading tends to be riskier is people trade on margin. Relative to the money you put up, the price fluctuations can be fairly large. And the fact that you're trading on margin can make it quite volatile."
       

  • PROFESSOR KUMAR IN THE NEWS:

    •  Professor PIYUSH KUMAR had the opportunity to comment on the Tennessee lottery’s holiday marketing efforts in several media outlets recently. The lottery tried to make its first Christmas a successful one by marketing instant game tickets as gifts. Prof. Kumar commented in the publication Commercial Appeal that the strategy of the Tennessee lottery to market instant games as a gift works because the tickets could grow in value and are like a free trial offer to the recipient. “It's a little better than giving a Christmas card, but they're priced about the same. You may be giving a gift for a dollar, but in your own mind you could be giving away potentially $300, $500 or even $1 million.” Kumar’s comments also appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel and in The Tennessean.
       

    • On a completely different subject, Prof. KUMAR was also interviewed on National Public Radio’s program ‘MarketWatch’ discussing the decline in dollar store sales this year.
       

  • LUXURY MARKETING TO YOUNG CONSUMERS: Prof. JACQUELINE CONARD’s comments on retailers’ strategy on the luxury market and young consumers’ shopping styles have been quoted in several publications, including the Los Angeles Times. “Retailers know that if they can develop brand loyalty in shoppers early, the 'lifetime payoff is tremendous'. “For younger consumers, their experience with the product is incredibly important, thus spending a lot for a special designer purse or a great pair of designer jeans can be rationalized because they will wear them often."
     

  • INCREASE FUNDS FOR INTERVENTION PROGRAMS: The St. Paul Pioneer Press used research by Senior Associate Dean MARK COHEN in an editorial on the need for intervention programs in prisons. Cohen’s research estimated that each youngster saved from a life of crime saves taxpayers $1.7 million to $2.3 million.
     

  • In an article reporting the victory of Radnor High School in the American High School Internet Mathematics Competition (AHSIMC), BRADLEY METROCK, second-year Owen student, was introduced as the founder of this first competitive high-school academic event to rely on the use of the Internet. "AHSIMC is an example of how technology helps level the playing field between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' of our educational system," Bradley says. "Because the AHSIMC is completely free to students, teachers and their schools, all of our nation's children can access the elite world of competitive mathematics through the internet."
     

  • “HOLIDAY SHOPPERS ENCOUNTER GLITCHES AT AMAZON.COM”: In a Reuters news release Prof. DONNA HOFFMAN pointed out that "there have been a number of glitches" at Amazon.com this year. “Amazon is considered the gold standard in the industry. The concern is that if they're having problems, then what does that mean for the rest of the industry?” Hoffman also noted that even if Amazon shoppers have encountered technical problems, most of them would be likely to come back to the site and complete their shopping after the glitches are resolved.
     

  • An article in the Wall Street Journal College Journal titled “Consulting Firms Court New MBA Recruits” features the job search experience of JAY VANDENBERG, an Owen second-year student. The same article also quoted Assistant Dean of Admission and Career Management MELINDA ALLEN on consulting firm recruiting: "The [consulting] firms haven't been visible on campus and students have been pursuing corporate jobs."
     

  • In the Commercial Appeal article “Bredesen Doing Ok So Far”, Professor BRUCE BARRY accused Governor Bredesen of acting more as a caretaker rather than as a reformer. In that editorial, Prof. Barry commented, "Some people see it as stable mediocrity, with no hope of improvement. That's not leadership. That's stewardship."
     

  • Congratulations! VANDERBILT BUSINESS MAGAZINE recently won two Awards of Excellence in the recent CASE District III Advancement Awards Program in the Alumni Magazine category and the Magazine Publishing Improvement category.

 

Your Tax Dollars at Work

As HUD CFO, Owen Alum Carin Barth is managing some of those dollars, and she talks about the weight of responsibility.


Carin Barth (MBA '86)

 Carin Barth (’86) admits that she’s finding the pace of commuting from her home in Houston to Washington, D.C., where she serves as CFO of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (better known as HUD), a little daunting. “I take work everywhere I go, and make the most out of my travel time each week,” she says. “I’m not one to waste time.”

That’s an understatement. Carin and her husband, attorney Todd Barth (JD/MBA ’88), met at Owen in the mid-1980s.  They were accustomed to juggling the demands of two high-powered careers and their family responsibilities – the Barths have three children – before Carin accepted President Bush’s nomination to the position at HUD.

The job’s heavy demands of time, energy and expertise come at a cost. The average term for a CFO at HUD is a little over 14 months. During her time as HUD CFO, Carin has a straightforward goal: “I want to leave this agency in better condition than when I got here,” she says.

Carin, who went straight to Owen after graduating summa cum laude from the University of Alabama with a degree in economics, acknowledges that working in the public sector has been completely different from her previous position as president of LB Capital, Inc., a private equity organization that acquires existing businesses. At LB Capital, she spent many hours conducting due diligence to prior to making equity investments in businesses ranging from manufacturing to retail operations. She also serves on the board of directors of Southwest Bank of Texas, heading the Trust Committee and as a member of the Audit committee.

At HUD, her typical workday involves one meeting after another. “You are constantly up on the Hill, working with Congress to understand what they want out of the agency as well as working with the Office of Management and Budgets to implement President Bush’s housing agenda,” Carin explains. “My job also involves working with Congress to assure them that HUD’s programs and initiatives are run in a fiscally responsible manner, as well as to justify and monitor the agency’s budget and strategic plans. And the fact that I am a presidential appointee affects my interactions with Congress, the Office of Management and Budget and other groups I work with.”

In addition to facing the learning curve common to anyone moving from the private to the public sector – “I do a tremendous amount of reading,” she laughs – accepting the HUD appointment also meant accepting a significant pay cut. “I think everyone should do a stint in public service, and I didn’t go up there for the money,” she says. “I had expressed interested in doing something under the Republican administration, and that interest took on a life of its own.”

Carin characterizes the appointment process as a very unusual job interview. “Since it’s a presidential appointment, I had to first have a hearing with the Senate banking committee and then be confirmed by the full Senate,” she says. She received a recess appointment by the President in August after a hold was placed on her nomination and was finally confirmed by the full Senate in November. “From start to finish, the approval process took more than eight months,” she says.

Because her position is appointed by the President, Carin recognizes that she faces an unusual human resource challenge by coming into a leadership position that changes frequently, supported by employees who may spend an entire career at HUD. “Presidential appointees come and go, and the career government employees usually do not change positions as often,” she says. “The biggest challenge there is how to get buy-in from your employees. You have to come in with an open mind, find people who really understand how the agency works, and built a trust level. The individuals who report directly to me are really solid businesspeople who bring a lot of expertise to the job. Most of these people are making big sacrifices for the sake of public service.”


Vietnam Means Business

Owen Student Ha Nguyen Hopes to Put Finance and Entrepreneurial Acumen to Work in Her Native Country



Ha Nguyen (MBA '05)

Mention “Vietnam” and “market economy” together, and a slightly perplexed look will come over the faces of most Americans. They associate Vietnam with agrarian communism and state-run enterprises, not with an economic model like China’s.

Ha Nguyen is here, literally, to help change that view.

The second-year MBA student, a banker from Ho Chi Minh City, looks forward to returning to her bustling country of 81 million people—and attracting more foreign investment capital to follow her.

Contrary to a popular perception in the U.S., Vietnam, like China, is open for business with a market economy that remains communist in name only.

“There are lots of young entrepreneurs with interesting ideas, but they don’t have adequate sources of capital,” says Ha, who served as Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City chapter of the Young Entrepreneur Association of Vietnam. “That creates a challenge but also a good opportunity.”

Ha, who had made two business trips to the U.S. previously, had never heard of Vanderbilt when she learned she would be coming to Owen. She headed the Hanoi office of Eastern Asia Commercial Bank, overseeing three sub-branches and 53 employees, when she received notification from the U.S. State Department that she had won a Fulbright Scholarship to study in an American MBA program—and that, based on a variety of criteria, she had been chosen for Vanderbilt.

“Other Fulbright scholars had been here in the 1980s, so I was able to talk with them, and they told me Owen was a very good school,” says Ha, who is concentrating on Finance.

She’s uncertain where she wants to work when she returns to Vietnam. But her aim is to be involved with private equity and venture capital. Toward that end, she has been busy networking with the Tennessee Banking Association and other businesspeople in this country—including her Owen MBA colleagues. With help from Professor Germain Böer, she has also been in contact with Owen alumni.

Another aspiration, she says, is to help set up something similar to the Small Business Administration in Vietnam. “We need many more small- and medium-sized enterprises,” Ha maintains. To garner ideas, she already has visited the SBA’s office in Tennessee and its headquarters in Washington.

Vietnam doesn’t yet rank among the “Asian Tigers” when it comes to economic output. But with a GDP that’s growing by 7% annually, the country is gaining ground fast.

“Singapore and Taiwan are the biggest investors in Vietnam so far,” Ha says. “But American investment has started to grow.”

And if Ha Nguyen has anything to do with it, that trend will continue.

 
Vanderbilt MBA students get an opportunity to meet Warren Buffet at the Berkshire Hathaway headquarters in Omaha January 28th.  Pictured left to right: Alex Tolbert (MBA/JD '06), Richard Wright (MBA '05), Steve Wright (MBA '05), Warren Buffet, Todd Koretzky (MBA/JD '06), Eric Billings (MBA '05) and Jason Neff (MBA '05)
Team Brazil wins the Western Hemisphere award at the Global Food Fest sponsored by the Global Business Club.
The Cayenne Cowboys (Patrick Cowhard, Adam Schlesinger, James Sater, and Jesse Keaveny all MBA '06) were the chili champions at the  Owen Entrepreneurship Association Chili Cook Off held January 20th.
Marketing Madness swept through Owen on February 3rd.  The Sonic team gets ready for competition. (Jennifer Slade, Denise Lockhart, Heather Vaughn, Kelly Sherman and Shelley Elifson all MBA '05)

We love referrals! Do you know...

...someone who is thinking about a full-time MBA? Click here to make a referral!

...someone who is thinking about an Executive MBA? Click here to make a referral!

...a college undergraduate or recent graduate who is motivated and eager to be challenged?  Accelerator – Vanderbilt Summer Business Institute is now accepting applications for our program May 28-June 25, 2005.  Click here for more information.


Owen takes flight!
Watch for our new Owen advertisement in the February issue of Southwest Airlines Spirit In-Flight magazine.  If you are traveling through the Nashville International Airport, you may also see the ad in various concourses.  The new Owen ad features two recent Owen MBA graduates, Geetha Ramachandran and Ricardo Carrion. Click here to view the ad.

Help Owen students support the local community.
The community service club at Owen, 100% Owen, will host a Silent Auction event on April 7th to raise funds supporting the Boys and Girls Club of Middle Tennessee.  Please join us in achieving our auction goal of $7200 by donating an item to our Silent Auction or by contributing cash for our overall donation. For more information on the event or to make a donation please contact Lee Ann Karr at LeeAnn.Karr.2006@owen.vanderbilt.edu or visit our website.

New Executive Programs Marketing Materials are available.
Check out the new redesigned 2005-2006 EMBA View book and Executive Development Institute brochure!

Annual Fund Update
Annual Fund gifts support Owen strategically, providing student scholarships, faculty support and competitive opportunities like the Masters of Science in Finance degree program and Accelerator—VU undergraduate summer business institute. Your gift significantly impacts the direction of Owen today. If you haven’t had a chance to participate this year, you can do so online at www.owen.vanderbilt.edu/invest, or contact our Annual Fund director, Matt Eads, by calling 615-322-6476, or via email matt.eads@vanderbilt.edu.



 

February 15
EMBA Information Session
Louisville, KY

Hyatt Regency 6:00-7:30 PM.
Information Sessions include a short presentation on the EMBA Program, comments on the program by recent graduates and a question-answer period. For more information click here or call (615) 322-3120.
 

February 18 & 19
Discover Weekend, MBA Admissions

Prospective students are invited to hear from distinguished faculty, current students and the administration about the program and the exciting future of our school!
For more information, click here.
 

February 28-March 2
Executive Leadership

In this three-day program taught by Professor Dick Daft, let your leadership abilities set the pace for others, transform your organization, and drive a high-performance culture of productivity, support, teamwork, and trust.  For more information click here.


March 3
Owen Alumni First Thursdays
Louisville, KY

Red Star at Fourth Street Live 7:00-9:00 PM
Social/networking event for Owen alumni in the Louisville area.
 RSVP to alum@owen.vanderbilt.edu

 

March 8
EMBA Information Session
Nashville, TN

Management Hall 6:00-7:30 PM.
Information Sessions include a short presentation on the EMBA Program, comments on the program by recent graduates and a question-answer period. For more information click here or call (615) 322-3120.

 

March 21-22
Innovation Strategy

In this two-day program, Professor David Owens enables participants to better understand how individual, group, organizational, and technical forces interact in ways that can enhance or stifle the care, the feeding, and the implementation of new ideas. Based on the frameworks of organizational behavior and technology management, Professor Owens shows why the best practices of routinely innovative organizations are so successful. For more information click here.

 

March 29
EMBA Information Session
Knoxville, TN

Radisson Summit Hill 6:00-7:30 PM
Information Sessions include a short presentation on the EMBA Program, comments on the program by recent graduates and a question-answer period. For more information click here or call (615) 322-3120.

 

March 30
EMBA Information Session
Chattanooga, TN

The Chattanoogan 6:00-7:30 PM.
Information Sessions include a short presentation on the EMBA Program, comments on the program by recent graduates and a question-answer period. For more information click here or call (615) 322-3120.

 

April 7
Owen Alumni First Thursdays
Louisville, KY

Porcini's on Frankfort Avenue 7:00-9:00pm
Social/networking event for Owen alumni in the Louisville area.
RSVP to alum@owen.vanderbilt.edu

 

April 8-9
Welcome Weekend, MBA Admissions

Welcome Weekend is an “invitation-only” event for candidates who already have accepted our offer of admission; it is also for those who have been admitted and are making a final decision. The weekend includes a welcome reception, faculty presentations, panel discussions, a career management workshop, a discussion of financial aid and transitional issues, campus tours, an optional personal meeting with an admissions officer, and a student-guided tour of Nashville’s great nightlife. Free time is available for recreation, sightseeing, and house hunting.  During Welcome Weekend, Vanderbilt invites spouses and significant others—important members of the Owen community—to attend special activities and participate in other weekend events.

 

April 9
EMBA Preview Day
Nashville, TN

Management Hall 8:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Executive MBA Class Pre-VU Days are designed to give potential students a greater insight into the EMBA program. Attendees will experience a day in the EMBA classroom, including class simulation and lectures given by EMBA faculty. They will also receive a tour of the facility and have the opportunity to talk with current EMBA students, alumni, and faculty at a catered lunch.  Click here for more information
 

May 13
Commencement

 
 October 14-15
Homecoming and Reunion Weekend

Mark your calendars now for Homecoming and Reunion 2005!  Please contact Mercy Eyadiel, Director of Alumni Programs, mercy.eyadiel@vanderbilt.edu  if you are interested in helping with reunion planning.