Our Favorite B-School Professors of 2015

Lisa Cavanaugh

Lisa Cavanaugh, USC (Marshall): How good of a teacher is Lisa Cavanaugh? Imagine being named the top instructor at Duke University – school-wide – as a Ph.D. student. Cavanaugh did just that – before repeating the feat at USC during his first year of teaching there. An assistant professor of marketing, Cavanaugh has emerged as a celebrity professor who has appeared on CNN, NPR, PBS, and the major networks. Inside class, students describe her as “passionate,” ‘knowledgeable,” and “friendly.” Outside of class, she is a big-time aficionado of The Princess Bride and has taught her dog over 40 tricks.

Driven to “positively impact people’s lives on a larger scale,” Cavanaugh uses her teaching to challenge students to “question their assumptions, tack big problems in both the private and public sectors, and generate creative solutions that have real impact for companies, consumers, and communities.”

Emily Bianchi, Emory University (Goizueta): Business is about psychology – perception and reaction – as much as numbers. At Goizueta, Emily Bianchi studies how economic conditions and early work experiences shape attitudes and career success over time. One key finding: The rockier the start, the humbler the employee.

Described by one student as “extremely intelligent, passionate and approachable,” Bianchi is a fan of country music, March Madness, and the mountains, despite her Harvard and Columbia Business School pedigree. According to one anonymous student, Bianchi is “one of the most positive influences at Emory.” “Simply put, Professor Bianchi is the best Professor I’ve had during my time at the business school,” this student writes. “She has an infectious enthusiasm for Organization & Management and has the ability to captivate her students with her keen insight and delightful personality. She goes out of her way to give students feedback on ways they can improve, and is always thinking of ways to improve the learning experience for her students.”

Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen

Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School: No one appreciates a contrarian. When you’re dreaming, they’re nitpicking. And when you’re drumming up enthusiasm, they’re tempering expectations. At Harvard Business School, Clayton Christensen is the resident doubting Thomas. This May, he doused ice water on the notion that the school’s vaunted HarvardX would revolutionize online education space. Rather than extol its pedagogical and technological wonder, Christensen questioned if the school had gone far enough with HarvardX, creating a high cost gambit that was vulnerable to lower price options. “I think that we’ve way overshot the needs of customers,“ Christensen is reported to have said at an April faculty meeting according to the New York Times. “I’m worried that we’re a little too technologically ambitious.”

Ah, nothing like a faculty dust up making the press. Alas, the press (including Poets&Quants) quickly seized on how Christensen’s quick-and-cheap disruption philosophy contrasted with the strategic and steady tastes of Professor Michael Porter – a strong proponent of HarvardX. In the end, there was the typical posturing and pontificating, reinforcing the collegiate maxim that ‘faculty fights are so bitter because so little is at stake.’ Still, you have to respect Christensen for contesting consensus. Is it biting the hand that feeds you? Maybe, but history often shows that bite marks are better than losing that hand altogether.

Gillian Ku

Gillian Ku, London Business School: In college, Gillian Ku became fascinated with decision-making. So it should be no shock that she loves eBay. Think of online auctions as a researcher’s playground where Ku can play puppet master. Here, she runs simulations, manipulates variables, and collect field data on how real consumers react and make choices. In doing so, she can predict behavior by knowing the stimuli behind it.

Claiming she would be a “chef or dive master” if she wasn’t teaching, Ku entered college after her sophomore year of high school. Owner of a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a master’s and Ph.D. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Ku is an acclaimed researcher whose work has been published by the Harvard Business Review and covered by outlets like CNN and Businessweek. However, it is her teaching that sets her apart, where students have described her as a “top notch” professor who is “always engaged” and has “amazing insights and a superlative lecturing style.”