B-School Bulletin: Amazon & An Era's End

A panel of second-year Owen MBAs advise first-years on the healthcare recruiting process

Healthcare Symposium Gives MBAs A ‘Bootcamp’ Introduction To Industry

News from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management

“Many business students have already begun the recruiting cycle in earnest; some even know where they’ll be interning next summer. For MBA candidates interested in health care, recruiting doesn’t follow a specified schedule. In fact, when Matt Sternberg (MBA’18) left campus at the end of his first year, he didn’t even have an internship finalized.

“Sternberg, president of the Vanderbilt Business Healthcare Association, discussed his internship search with a group of first-year MBAs at the VBHA’s annual Healthcare Symposium event, held last Friday (September 15). Run by students, for students, the symposium seeks to help new MBAs understand the informal and irregular recruiting process for health care internships, as well as give them a primer on basic industry knowledge.”

The Virtuous Circle Between Financial Information And Innovation

News from INSEAD and University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

“Fundraising is critical for realizing an innovative dream and is often a difficult part of starting up new projects. The financial sector provides innovators with cash, of course, but it could also have a wider role in promoting firms’ innovative activities.

“In a recent working paper, Firm R&D and Financial Analysis: How Do They Interact?, co-authored with INSEAD Professor of Finance Joel Peress, we uncover a mutually reinforcing relationship between information collected by the financial sector about firms’ projects and their research and development (R&D) activities. We argue that, on one hand, firms innovate more when investors are better informed about the R&D pipeline. This is because, with better investor information, these firms can expect to receive more funding if their innovations prove successful. On the other hand, investors pay closer attention when firms perform more R&D because, when the risk of firms’ projects increases, allocating money to unsuccessful projects while missing out on successful ones becomes increasingly costly for investors.”

Soulmate Or Brandmate? New Study Analyzes Brand Compatibility In Relationships

News from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business

“How do you know when you’ve found ‘the one’? Is it the bubbly feeling that melts through your body when you look into their eyes? Is it your heart doing somersaults in your chest when they enter a room?

“It might actually be your mutual love of Coca-Cola.

“Researchers from the Fuqua School of Business have found that the strength of a relationship is dependent on the commercial brands that each partner prefers. Published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the study called Coke vs. Pepsi, Brand Compatibility, Relationship Power and Life Satisfaction was conducted by Fuqua professors Tanya Chartrand, Grainne Fitzsimons and Gavin Fitzsimons, along with former Fuqua Ph.D. student Danielle Brick.”

Looking For The Right Co-Founders

News from INSEAD

“Crunchbase, an online startup database, indicates that single-founder companies do at least as well as, if not better than, two-founder companies. In fact, amongst start-ups which have managed an exit (via an IPO or an acquisition), more than 50% were founded by a single individual.

“Single-founder start-ups are neither obligated to find a co-founder, nor doomed if they don’t find one. Therefore, if a co-founder has to be brought in, it must be for the right reasons.

“In my experience running a venture acceleration programme, founders often add co-founders for cosmetic effect – how they would appear in a pitch — or as zero-salary employees. Both approaches soon fail.”

Former MIT President Paul Gray Dies At 85

News from MIT Sloan

Paul Gray

“Paul Gray ’54, SM ’55, ScD ’60, a devoted leader at MIT whose lifetime career at the Institute included turns as a student, professor, dean of engineering, associate provost, chancellor, president, and MIT Corporation chair, died today at his home in Concord, Massachusetts, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 85.”

“As MIT’s 14th president, from 1980 to 1990, and in his other roles, Gray transformed the Institute through his commitment to enhancing undergraduate education and increasing the presence of women and underrepresented minorities on campus. With his wife, Priscilla King Gray, at his side, he helped guide MIT through the social change and technological transformation that marked the second half of the 20th century.”

DON’T MISS LAST WEEK’S BULLETIN

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.