B-School Bulletin: What Happens After You Hit 'Submit' On Your App

Conference To Examine The Role Of Design In Business

News from Yale SOM

“Business leaders and students will join practitioners and students of the art of design at Edward P. Evans Hall in November to explore the role of design in business.

“The conference, titled ‘The Design of Business/The Business of Design’ and presented by the design website Design Observer and the professional association AIGA, will take place on November 2 and 3. The event will convene corporate leaders and designers to discuss the core values and best practices that support design-led business, as well as the impact that design has on business practices and processes.

“’Our goal is to examine design as a humanist discipline, as a management discipline, and as a catalyst in business,’ says Jessica Helfand, lecturer in design and management and a founder of Design Observer.”

Why China’s Economic Troubles Run Deep

News from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

“China’s GDP growth slowing to 6.5% in this year’s third quarter has raised questions over the role of excessive debt within the country, the impact of its trade war with the U.S., and the general trajectory of the Xi Jinping regime that is seen to be moving away from reforms toward stronger state control of the economy. Chinese leaders have sought to reassure investors that the country’s underlying fundamentals continue to be strong. However, experts at Wharton and Stanford University stress that problems such as China’s debt load run deep and pose a significant threat to the country’s economy.

“Marshall Meyer, Wharton emeritus professor of management, said that more than China’s GDP growth statistic of 6.5%, or the trade war with the U.S., his concern is about ‘the underlying currents in the Chinese economy.’ Senior Chinese government officials are correct in describing the impact of the trade war as mainly psychological, he noted. As it happens, China’s vice premier Liu He told the state news agency Xinhua last week: ‘The Sino-U.S. economic and trade frictions have also impacted the stock market, but frankly speaking, the psychological effect is bigger than the actual impact.’”

Sandra E. Peterson. Cornell photo

Hatfield Fellow To Address Economics, Empathy In Leadership

News from Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management

“Sandra E. Peterson ’80 will speak on ‘Reconstructing Leadership: Why Economics and Empathy Matter in Equal Measure,’ Thursday, Nov. 1, at 4:30 p.m. in Alice Statler Auditorium as Cornell’s 36th Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in Economic Education.

“Leaders today are under intense pressure to produce results while advances in science, technology and connectivity disrupt ways of doing business. In her talk, Peterson will address why business acumen is only part of being a successful leader in today’s global environment.

“Peterson, a graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, is the former group worldwide chair for Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest healthcare company. Previously she was chairman and CEO of Bayer CropScience AG in Germany, CEO of Bayer Medical Care and president of Bayer HealthCare AG’s Diabetes Care Division. She has held leadership roles at Medco Health Solutions (previously Merck-Medco), Nabisco, Whirlpool Corp. and McKinsey & Co.”

Vanderbilt photo

Students Reflect On The 2018 National Black MBA Association Conference

News from Vanderbilt Owen

“The National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) hosted its first career conference in 1979, and the event has been a mainstay of MBA recruiting ever since. While the NBMBAA is primarily dedicated to supporting black professionals in the business world, the conference is open to attendees of all backgrounds, and Vanderbilt Business coordinates a trip for a large group of students every fall. At the conference, students learn about companies and sponsors, network with recruiters, and even interview for internships and jobs on the ground.

“This year’s conference was held from September 25 to 29 in Detroit, Michigan, and two of Owen’s attendees — Shaurya Bajpai and Laura Maguire — share their thoughts on the experience below in their own words.”

How The U.S. Can Rebuild Its Capacity To Innovate

News from HBS

“Many U.S. firms have long had a simple mantra: ‘Invent here, manufacture there.’ But, increasingly, those same companies are now choosing to invent as well as manufacture abroad. From automotive to semiconductors to pharma to clean energy, America’s innovation centers have shifted east, offering growing evidence that the U.S. has lost what Harvard Business School’s Willy Shih calls the ‘industrial commons’: indispensable production skills and capabilities. It’s not just that virtually all consumer electronics are designed and made overseas. It’s that the U.S. has lost the underlying capacity to make products like flat-panel displays, cell phones, and laptops; nearly half of the foreign R&D centers established in China now belong to U.S.-based companies.

“This isn’t just a lesson for the United States. It’s a lesson for countries around the world: Once manufacturing bids farewell, engineering and production know-how depart as well, and innovation activities eventually follow. We can trace how this happened in the U.S. by looking back to the original offshoring frenzy which started with consumer electronics in the 1960s. The invention of modern transistors, the adoption of standardized shipping containers, and the advent of low-cost assembly lines in East Asia lowered costs and created larger markets for televisions and radios, setting the stage for an Asian manufacturing powerhouse. By the time that substantial U.S. federal research investments enabled the invention of the magnetic storage drive, lithium-ion batteries, and liquid crystal display technologies that paved the way for the next generation of consumer electronics in the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. had already ceded electronics manufacturing to Asia.”