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February 2008

Alumni Matching Gift Campaign Meets $1 Million Goal

Wisconsin alumni and friends all over the world responded to a challenge made by one of the Wisconsin Naming Partners. To help raise awareness of the need for unrestricted gifts to the school, one of the members of the Wisconsin Naming Partnership offered to match every individual gift given to one of the school’s unrestricted annual funds between October 27 and December 31, 2007, up to $1 million.

It was a high goal – in the entire year of 2006, gifts to unrestricted funds totaled just over $1 million. “Alumni recognized a terrific opportunity and stepped up to the challenge,” said Alumni Director Alisa Robertson. “In total, $1,072,853 was received, creating a record-breaking year for unrestricted gifts. “

Increasing the number of alumni who give back to the school each year continues to be a major priority. Currently, about 13% of all alumni of the Wisconsin School of Business make a gift to the school each year. The school is working to raise the participation rate to 20%, closer to that of Michigan, UCLA and Chicago GSB.

“The true strength of the Wisconsin School of Business continues to lie in the power of our many alumni,” said Dean Michael Knetter. “The result of the WNG Matching Campaign is a testament to the impact alumni can have together. The collective investment of our more than 36,000 alumni each year, combined with the resources of our naming gift, will allow us to have a more significant impact on business education.”

Wisconsin MBA Moves Up in Financial Times Ranking; Marketing Program Ranked Seventh

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business is ranked 53rd among all business schools in the United States in the newly released Financial Times rankings for full-time MBA programs. The school was ranked 57th in 2007. The Financial Times ranking also included “Top Ten” rankings of individual programs. The marketing program of the Wisconsin School of Business was ranked seventh in the category of “Top 10 Best in Marketing.”

The ranking evaluation included the class of students who entered in 2002 and graduated in 2004. Because the Wisconsin MBA program was redesigned in 2004, the current ranking does not capture the views or career progress of students who graduated from the new program.

“The Financial Times ranking has value as a relative measurement of how we compare to other business schools at a given point in time,” said Dean Michael M. Knetter. “We remain committed to improving our fundamentals and delivering outstanding educational experiences. We are confident that future rankings based on our redesigned MBA program will reflect progress in placement and student satisfaction.”

Key indicators show steady or upward trends in the full-time Wisconsin MBA program:

• Student quality as measured by average GMAT score is 656 for students who enrolled in 2007; it was 658 in 2004.
• Student satisfaction with academic program quality is at 95 percent for first-year students in the program in fall of the 2006-07 school year, compared to 88 percent in fall of 2004-05.
• Career placement is at 96 percent for the class of 2007, with an average salary of $82,000. The class of 2004 had 82 percent placement, with an average salary of $72,720.

The Financial Times’ ranking methodology includes data provided by the school and a survey of MBA/MS alumni primarily from the class of 2004, as well as data from the 2003 and 2002 classes. The ranking is based on three major categories:

• Alumni career development and salary purchasing power
• Diversity
• Research capabilities

To view the entire Financial Times report, visit:
http://www.ft.com/businesseducation/globalmba2008

Four Faculty Members Named to Professorships

Four Wisconsin School of Business faculty members were recently awarded professorships for significant contributions to their fields of research by the University Of Wisconsin Board of Regents.

Mason Carpenter was named to the newly created M. Keith Weikel Professorship in Leadership. This chair was created to promote the study and teaching of leadership at the Wisconsin School of Business. Carpenter’s research concerns corporate governance, top management teams, the strategic management of global firms, and global start-ups, and has been published in Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Management, and Human Resource Management.

Larry Hunter was named the Pyle Bascom Professorship in Leadership. Hunter’s research focuses on the effects of firms' employment practices on both individuals and organizations, and how those practices are related to choices in technology, to business strategies, and to managerial decisions, and to the influence of consultants. In recognition of work early in his career, he was named Outstanding Young Scholar by the Labor and Employment Relations Association in 2001, and he has published many articles and book chapters in the field of human resources. This professorship has been funded by Thomas Pyle, past chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Ray-O-Vac Corporation, through an endowment to the UW Foundation.

Kenneth Kavajecz was named to the Wisconsin Alumni Professorship in Investments. His research focuses on the structure of financial markets with an emphasis on liquidity provision. His academic awards include the 2000 Financial Management Association best micro-structure paper and a nomination for the Smith Breeden Prize for the Best Paper in the Journal of Finance in 2005. He has also served as a member of the Economic Advisory Board for the National Association of Securities Dealers. This endowed fund was established in 2006 by an anonymous donor to provide professorship support to a faculty member in the Finance, Investment and Banking Department of the Wisconsin School of Business.

Alex Stajkovic was named the Procter & Gamble Bascom Professorship in Total Quality. Stajkovic’s research on determining the effectiveness of different incentive motivators (money, feedback, social recognition) at work, examining the interaction effect on performance between conscious and subconscious goals and also self-efficacy, and studying the role of core confidence in work performance, work happiness, and strategic leadership decision making has led to nominations for two field-wide research awards by Academy of Management and American Psychological Association. He is one of the most frequently cited scholars in the world among his career-age peers. As a result of the close relationship that has developed between Procter & Gamble and UW-Madison Wisconsin-Madison, engineering and business alumni and Procter & Gamble have established a fund that supports two Bascom Professorships, one in the College of Engineering and the other in the business school.

Fast Company Editor Charles Fishman to Be Business Writer in Residence

Charles Fishman, award-winning investigative and magazine journalist and senior editor at Fast Company magazine, will be on campus the week of April 6-10 as the spring semester’s Business Writer in Residence. The Business Writer in Residence program is a joint effort by the Wisconsin School of Business, the School of Journalism and Mass Communications and University Communications to bring in nationally known business writers to interact with business and journalism students.

Fishman has spent the last 20 years trying to get inside, understand and explain important organizations, from NASA to Wal-Mart. His first book, “The Wal-Mart Effect” was published in 1996 and made the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek’s bestseller lists. The book was also chosen as the “best book of 2006” by The Economist, the Financial Times and the editors of Amazon.com. He won the Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business journalism, the highest honor in business journalism, in both 2005 and 2007.

Anyone interested in scheduled a meeting or an event with Fishman, should contact Communications Director Lari Fanlund lfanlund@bus.wisc.edu, 262-2401 in Marketing Services. The Business Writer in Residence program is funded by a grant from the UW Foundation.

Wisconsin Crest Installed on Grainger Hall Addition

If you’ve been too cold to walk outside of Grainger Hall recently, you may not have seen an 8-foot-tall version of the University of Wisconsin-Madison crest, which was installed on the University Avenue exterior of Grainger Hall on Jan. 31. Made from composite fiberglass, the crest weighs approximately 145 pounds and was installed as part of the $40.5 million addition to Grainger Hall.

Business Cards and Letterhead Available with New School Logo

Business cards and letterhead with the Wisconsin School of Business logo are now available.

Business cards with the Wisconsin School of Business logo, rather than the UW-Madison logo, can be ordered online at http://www.bus.wisc.edu/logo/bcards.asp. The same fund number as previously should be used in ordering. Departmental assistants, the Financial Management office or Marketing Services can provide fund information, if needed.

Units wishing to order letterhead with the new logoonly need to drop off a sample of their existing letterhead, with any changes needed marked, in the Marketing Services office, 5151 Grainger Hall. Please also indicate quantity desired. Units that will be moving with the opening of the addition to Grainger Hall are urged to keep that in mind in deciding whether to include their room numbers on letterhead.

Reminder of Payment Transaction Processing Outage

Several campus administrative systems will be off-line beginning at noon Feb. 8 and will be down for approximately 10 business days while the campus brings new computing systems online. During this outage, certain payment transaction processing will not be available. Payments not permitted during this outage will be made as soon as possible once the system is on-line again. The system should be on-line again between Feb.19 and Feb. 25.

Unavailable during shutdown:

• Invoice payments to vendors made against existing purchase orders
• Direct payments, travel reimbursements, payments to individuals, and cash advances (this applies to employees, students, vendors)
• Salary and non-salary cost transfers
• Internal billings
• Refund of receipts, vendor refunds, and revenue transactions processed after Feb. 6

Available during shutdown:

• Purchasing cards (you may continue using p-cards as normally used)
• Online ordering through MDS
  • Processing of new purchase requisitions
  • Financial information accessed through WISDM (however, there will be no updates to the information beginning Feb. 8 and until the system is back on-line)

Any pay and reimbursement requests sent to the Accounting Services after Jan. 25 will NOT be processed before the off-line date of Feb. 8. After Jan. 25, offices should continue to submit payment and reimbursement requests to the Financial Management Office as usual so they can be processed and sent to Accounting Services. This will help requests get processed as soon as possible by Accounting Services once the system is on-line again. Once the system is back on-line, however, there will likely be a delay by Accounting Services in processing requests because of the campus-wide payment backlog that will occur during the system outage.

CIBER News

The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) will help co-sponsor a lecture and discussion with Eswar Prasad, senior professor of trade policy at Cornell University, on Feb. 18 from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Pyle Center. Prasad will speak about the Chinese and Indian economies. The event is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE) and La Follette School of Public Affairs and also co-sponsored by CIBER, Global Studies, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. For more information visit http://wage.wisc.edu/events/?ID=411

CIBER is offering another Faculty Development in International Business program: European Economics in Transition: Croatia, Bulgaria and Poland from May 17-28. This FDIB program offers business faculty exciting opportunities to explore the progression of three emerging markets through a multicultural trip directed by the associate director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. UW-Madison faculty interested in participating should contact Susan Huber Miller, CIBER managing director, at shubermiller@bus.wisc.edu or 263-7682 for more information. For more information, visit the program Web site: http://www.business.pitt.edu/ibc/academics/fdib-program.php.

Also: A reminder about approaching deadlines for several grant opportunities. The CIBER Applied Funds Program deadline is March 3. CIBER typically covers airfare and in some cases registration costs for travel and conference support. Requests for the Applied Funds category should not exceed $2,000. The deadline for the CIBER Global Research/Curriculum Development Program is April 1. The maximum award is $7,500. For more details on these programs, including CIBER’s programmatic goals, award criteria, and how to complete and submit an application, please visit the CIBER Web site: http://www.bus.wisc.edu/ciber/facphd/grants.asp. Please contact CIBER Managing Director Susan Huber Miller at shubermiller@bus.wisc.edu should you have any questions.

Faculty and Staff Policy Updates

In an effort to be sure new faculty and staff have the necessary resources, please initiate the following steps when new staff members join your department or center. First, visit http://www.bus.wisc.edu/hr/joining.pdf and submit the form to Cheryl Schroud, building manager, in room 1250 as soon as you confirm their arrival. She will work on the phone and office assignment and will share the information with the TSC to arrange for access and equipment. Next, arrange for a brief meeting for the new staff member with Dean Knetter. He would like to meet new staff members and welcome them to the school. This can be arranged by either calling 265-4937, or setting up a time in the dean’s office when the new staff member meets with Human Resources.

If a faculty or staff member is leaving, please visit http://www.bus.wisc.edu/hr/departing.pdf and submit the form to Schroud in room 1250.

To initiate a search to replace or hire an employee, a temporary base adjustment or an overload request, or a request for promotion and/or title change, please send an email to hrjobs@bus.wisc.edu with a description of the search or change you would like to pursue.

Faculty and Staff news

A Chinese-language edition of Professor Dan Anderson’s book, “Corporate Survival: The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management,” has just been published. The book, originally published in 2005, examines the sustainability risks that affect businesses, the environment and society and presents guidelines for professionals in the risk management and insurance industries.

Onur Bodur has accepted the position of Visiting Professor in the Marketing Department from Jan. 11 to May 25. Bodur was most recently a visiting associate professor at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey. He has also taught at Virginia Tech, Concordia University and McGill University. Bodur earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.

Martin Eling has joined the Wisconsin School of Business as a Visiting Professor. Eling comes from the University of St. Gallen, where he was a senior research fellow and lecturer and the chair for Risk Management and Insurance Economics. Eling has also taught at the University of Münster in Germany.

Heidi Meyer has joined the business school as a lecturer. Meyer is the founder and president of The Paget Group, Inc, a marketing consulting business. She has previously worked for Kraft Foods. She has a B.S. and a MBA from UW-Madison.

Bill Patterson, LTE IS systems development services professional, has transferred from TSC to the Enterprise MBA program.

John Brancamp has accepted a position as a lecturer for the business school. Brancamp most recently worked for American Family Insurance as a product design and underwriter specialist. He has a B.A. from UW-Whitewater.

Employees of the Wisconsin School of Business who have retired or left to pursue other opportunities recently include:

Celeste Taber, university services associate 2 project appointment, Family Business Center.

Kay Bradley, university services program associate B, Undergraduate Academic Services.

Lucas Wall, associate student services coordinator, MBA Career Services.

Peggy Leister, university services program associate B, MBA Programs.

Ann Powell, academic department associate B, Marketing Department.

IN THE NEWS

People and programs of the Wisconsin School of Business have been in the news recently.

December 2007

National

The Wisconsin Naming Gift was mentioned in the New York Times article “The graffiti of the philanthropic class.” The article praised the Wisconsin Naming Partnership for its “selfless philanthropy” in donating $85 million to keep the Wisconsin name.

Alumnus John Morgridge donated $175 million to the state of Wisconsin establish the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars. The donation will create an endowment to distribute grants to low-income public school graduates. Morgridge is also a member of the Wisconsin Naming Partnership. The story was covered in a variety of media outlets, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Chicago Tribune, the Milwaukee Business Journal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Capital Times and the Wisconsin State Journal.

Regional

The Wisconsin Naming Gift was mentioned as part of one of 2007’s top business stories in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Coming in at number eight on the list was business gifts to Wisconsin colleges and universities, including the $85 million to the Wisconsin School of Business.

Dean Michael Knetter and the Wisconsin School of Business were mentioned in the Minnesota Daily article “What’s in a med school’s name? Maybe $150 mil.” The article discussed the naming rights, including the recent $85 million donation to preserve the business school’s name.

The Wisconsin Naming Gift was mentioned in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article discussing a recent donation to Marquette University by James H. Keyes. The gift established an endowed deanship to be named after the donor for no set period of time, similar to the Wisconsin School of Business.

Assistant Professor Phil Kim and the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship were featured in the Wisbusiness.com article, “Lake Resources cuts plastic bait lure waste with new polymer design.” Under the guidance of Phil Kim, the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship teamed up with Lake Resources Group to launch a new line fishing lure.

The A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research conducted the fifth annual First Business Bank Economic Survey of Dane County. The survey reports a brighter business outlook for Dane County than the rest of the country. The results were covered in Wisbusiness.com, the Wisconsin Technology Network, the Capital Times, the Wisconsin State Journal and the Capital Region Business Journal.

Professor Dan Anderson was quoted in the Milwaukee Business Journal article, “A year later.” Anderson commented on how the Falk Corp. was able to recover from a fatal explosion at a Menomonee Valley manufacturing complex.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted Assistant Professor Morris Davis in the article “Gauging a home’s worth sometimes tricky.” Davis believes home prices will be stable at best in 2008.

Local

Alumnus Ivjot Kohli was mentioned in the Wisconsin State Journal article “Breaking a sweat in a virtual world.” Kohli paired with Bruce Winkler, who owns the virtual fitness software company RA Sports.

Assistant Professor Morris Davis participated in a BusinessWatch panel focusing on the 2008 business climate. Davis commented on the prospects for the housing market in 2008.

Neil Lerner, director of the Small Business Development Center, was quoted in the BusinessWatch article, “Start-up funding.” The article focused on fundraising tips for start-up and small businesses.

The Wisconsin State Journal quoted Professor Stephen Malpezzi in the article “Mortgage pain here not as bad as elsewhere.” The article focused on the local mortgage situation compared to the national crisis.

The Capital Times mentioned Dean Mike Knetter as a possible successor to Chancellor Wiley who announced he would be stepping down in September of 2008.

Assistant Professor Morris Davis is quoted in the Wisconsin State Journal article “Local economists: Fed did right thing.” The article discussed interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in December to prevent a housing and credit crisis.

Morris Davis, assistant professor, Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, spoke before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in December. Davis predicted housing prices will either be flat or declining for three years and as a result the real gross domestic product will naturally shrink. The Capital Times covered this story.

Neeraj Arora, director of the A.C. Nielsen Center for Market Research, was quoted in the Capital Times article “A greener holiday?” Arora commented on how Al Gore helped bring global warming and sustainability into the mainstream. Holiday spending surveys indicated almost one in five consumers would purchase more eco-friendly products during the holiday season.

The Strategic Management in the Life and Engineering Sciences was mentioned in the Wisconsin State Journal article “Cell portraits – uniquely personal.” University of Wisconsin-Madison alumnus Phil Fisette creates colorful pieces of art by photographing customers own DNA. A piece of his artwork hangs in Grainger Hall.

The Wisconsin State Journal quoted Stephen Malpezzi, chairman, Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, in the article “Housing: The local market.” Malpezzi predicted Wisconsin’s strong economy would help the state resist a decline in house prices.

January 2008

National

A study co-written by Assistant Professor Morris Davis was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article “Home prices could fall 15% in rebalancing with rents.” The article states that home prices “would have to fall considerably to return to a normal relationship with rents.” The study was also mentioned in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

BizEd magazine, the magazine of AACSB, the Association to Advance the Collegiate Schools of Business, featured an article on the Wisconsin Naming Gift. The article lists all of the donors and quotes alumnus and Wisconsin Naming Partner Albert O. Nicholas.

Neil Lerner, director of the Small Business Development Center, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal. The article, “Want to sell a business? You may not be ready,” focuses on entrepreneurs and small business owners. Lerner comments on ways for small business owners to maximize profit.

MBA student Marjani Coffey wrote another article for BusinessWeek.com. In “Stress-free second year,” Coffey’ shared her thoughts as she faces her final semester in the Wisconsin MBA program.

Local

Professor Anne Miner is quoted in Corporate Report Wisconsin. The article, “Improvisation: A life-and-death tool for small business,” features Miner’s thoughts on how “improvisation” is becoming a useful tool in the business world. Miner is a leading researcher on the topic.

Alumni Jim Bradley, Joan Burke, and David Stark were all members of the In Business 2008 Executive Hall of Fame.

Executive Education’s Linda Gorchels was quoted in the Capital Times article “Brand new state.” Gorchels commented on efforts to change the image of the state of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin State Journal quoted Associate Professor Jim Seward in article “Competition has impact on TomoTherapy stock.”

The Family Business Center was mentioned in the article “One ambulance, no money and a lot of guts” in BusinessWatch magazine. The article profiles the local company Ryan Brothers Ambulance and support it received from the Family Business Center.

Associate Professor Larry Hunter was quoted in the BusinessWatch article “Boomeration: Rethinking retirement, accommodating the ‘silver tsunami.’ ” Hunter comments on the impending boomer retirement and how that may cause alternative working arrangements.

The Wisconsin State Journal quoted Morris Davis in the article “Fewer homes built in 2007.” Davis stated the decrease in home construction in Dane County follows a nation-wide trend in the housing market.

Bolz Center in Arts Administration alumni Sarah Marty and George Tzougros were quoted in an article in Isthmus. “The business of art,” on how local art groups use imagination to stay alive. The article also mentions the Bolz Center .

About the Gazette

The Gazette is published by Marketing Services for faculty and staff of the Wisconsin School of Business. Submissions for the March 1  issue of the Gazette should be sent by February 25  to Editor Lari Fanlund, lfanlund@bus.wisc.edu. The Gazette is not published in January.