Proud Aggie parent Hallie Vanderhider says she will forever be grateful to Mays Business School and the impact it has made on the life of her sons, Michael ’09 and Matthew ’09. That gratitude led her to make a gift of $500,000 to the school, which will be matched by funds from school namesake Lowry Mays ’57 to create an endowed faculty chair in business.
Michael graduated in 2010 from the professional program in accounting and currently works for Deloitte and Touche (incidentally, the same firm where his mother began her career). He recently told Vanderhider that he felt “as prepared as anybody could be” for a career in accounting. He credits his success to the quality of the education he received at Mays.
Proud Aggie parent Hallie Vanderhider, seen here speaking to students last year, has endowed a faculty chair in business at Mays Business School.
Vanderhider, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, is president and COO of Black Stone Minerals, an oil and gas company headquartered in Houston. She says that while UT is a fine school, she believes that the experience Michael had at A&M is unparalleled at other universities. Attending A&M has made a major impact on her son’s life, says Vanderhider, who notes that the caring faculty, mentors, and friends he found here have enabled his success.
“It changed his life in a way that I didn’t anticipate. It is wonderful to see your child succeed,” she says.
With that pride there is also a note of sadness. Michael’s twin, Matthew, studied business at Blinn College with the goal of getting in to A&M after improving his grades.
“From day one he said, “I’m going to work really hard and I’m going to get into A&M.’ And he did,” says Vanderhider. By sophomore year, his 3.7 GPA was enough to make his dream a reality. Unfortunately, he passed away a few days after receiving his acceptance letter. “He never was able to attend, but that acceptance was, I think, the happiest moment of his life.”
While Michael coped with the loss of his brother, people at Mays were there to help him get through the semester. “Everyone in the business school was so good to him,” says Vanderhider. “It was like a family.”
“I will forever be grateful,” she says. “This is just one small way that I can give back.” Vanderhider intends for this gift to be only the beginning of her involvement at Mays, as she has agreed to serve on the dean’s development council and will influence the programs and people of Mays through that channel.
She wanted her financial gift to support faculty for the trickle down affect that it has. “The ability to attract and retain top faculty is what makes or breaks a school…It allows you to attract top students, because they know they are going to get a tremendous education and exposure to some of the brightest people in the country or around the world. In order for the school to maintain its standards and continue to grow, they need the opportunity to attract top talent.”
Mays Dean Jerry Strawser agrees. “Hallie Vanderhider’s most generous gift will have a significant and lasting impact on Mays,” he said. “Our faculty play such an important role in developing our students for their careers and lives and the ability to hire and retain the very best faculty is truly significant.”
Vanderhider has been with Black Stone since 2003. Previously she has held leadership roles with other energy companies as well as private equity.
On a recent visit to Mays, Michael Ramke ’92 shared business advice gleaned from years of experience in start-ups and traditional companies. Currently the CEO of Intercomp Global Services, Ramke is a venture capitalist with a passion for taking the potential of a young company and growing its value.
Intercomp Global Services CEO Michael Ramke ’92 stressed the importance of sound HR policies to Mays students: “Unless you’re running a vending machine by yourself, you’re probably relying on people.” (view more photos)
Ramke shared stories about his challenges and successes in business, including difficulties with hiring and human resource management. He recommended to students that when they are in the workforce, they give due deference to HR people. “Many business leaders, especially entrepreneurs undervalue the benefit of sound HR policies and procedures and organizational development…until they personally experiences liability or setbacks,” he said. Proper hiring and training of employees is not only beneficial, it’s essential for success. “Unless you’re running a vending machine by yourself, you’re probably relying on people.”
He shared a few other key tips with students:
Mentors matter. Look for leaders that resonate with you and learn all you can from them.
Pair strong aptitude with a positive attitude and you’ll go far.
Learn to lead. Some people are born with strong leadership skills. If you weren’t so fortunate, take the time to practice. It can be learned.
Be bold with your goals. Don’t focus on all the reasons your goal is impossible. Focus on how it could be done.
Search for your weaknesses, then hire someone who is strong in those areas to compensate.
Surround yourself with talent.
Have fun!
Ramke holds a degree in accounting from Texas A&M, which he says was the perfect underpinning for his career as an entrepreneur. He has worked internationally in a variety of fields including accounting, mobile media, and aerospace engineering. He has spoken as an industry expert in several forums, including the NATPE Conference and Exhibition in January 2006 and the DVB World Forum in March 2005. He also serves as a source for articles in leading telecommunications and technology industry publications such as Wired, Wireless Week, RCR Wireless, Laptop Magazine, EE Times and many others. He has been with Intercomp since 2007.
As a child in India in the 1950s, Indra Nooyi saw firsthand how corporations could harm a community, robbing it of resources and leaving ruin in its wake. It doesn’t have to be this way, she thought.
Fast-forward 50 years. Nooyi is now the chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, the global food and beverage company. She is also the chief architect of PepsiCo’s multi-year growth strategy, Performance with Purpose, which focuses on delivering sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and the planet.
Corporations owe “a duty of care” to every community where they have a presence, she says.
“We want to provide an environment where each person comes to the door bringing their whole self to work,” says PepsiCo chairman Indra Nooyi (right). “The only way we can do that is if we respect the whole self.” (view more photos)
“Many companies have forgotten that. They focus on the financial performance and have forgotten the fact that they owe every society that they operate in a duty of care…I felt PepsiCo could, as a company, do better by doing better for every society.”
Sounds great, but what does that actually look like? Is this another corporate social responsibility initiative that will be here today and gone with the whim of tomorrow’s CEO?
No, says Nooyi. “Being better by doing better” is the heart of PepsiCo’s culture. It encompasses every area of their organization, from procurement to HR, touching every constituent of the business: communities, individual customers, and employees.
Best of all, it’s profitable for PepsiCo and their constituents. It’s not a charitable endeavor, like many other companies’ attempts to spread wealth. Instead, it builds wealth in a sustainable cycle.
Take for example PepsiCo’s recent efforts in Peru, which will create an industry for subsistence farmers in the high Andes, growing specialty native-variety potatoes. These crops will be purchased by PepsiCo and turned into products tailored specifically to the tastes of the Peruvian customers (Lay’s Andinas and Lay’s Peruanisimas). A traditional corporate social responsibility program might see that these farmers are without adequate clothing during the harsh weather extremes and give them coats and blankets.
Nooyi says that PepsiCo’s initiative is far superior in providing the farmers with the means to buy what they need for themselves, making them independent, as well as useful to PepsiCo. “What we wanted to do was to give those people in the high Andes a sustainable way of making a living…That’s how we build a whole sustainable cycle…That’s how we do business in every country where we operate.”
Obesity: a weighty topic
The idea of sustainability also touches on PepsiCo’s response to the childhood obesity epidemic, which is not only an American problem, but one many developed and developing nations face, including Nooyi’s native India. “This is something that keeps me up at night,” she says, noting the systemic problems that come with obesity, including rising health care costs for individuals and corporations, and decreasing life expectancy rates.
Some would blame her company for making children unhealthy, but there are many factors that lead to childhood obesity, she says. It’s lifestyle, diet, stress, genetics, access to nutrition and a safe place to exercise and play. Focusing on one element of the complex equation, such as sugared beverages, does not address the entire problem, she warns—it only creates frustration and confusion.
PepsiCo chairman Indra Nooyi (right) and Mays Business School dean Jerry Strawser ’83 take part in a discussion forum about PepsiCo’s sustainability efforts, corporate culture, the U.S. obesity epidemic, global business operations, career advice for students, and more. (view more photos)
Urban planners must join the discussion, so that adequate sidewalks and playgrounds are provided for communities. Physical education must be mandated in schools. Legislation must be reformed so there are fewer government subsidies for corn production and corn syrup, and more for nutritious foods.
“If we as a country want to address obesity, we have to do it on multiple dimensions. We have to educate young people and families on how to eat right. You cannot take away personal responsibility at the end of the day. I cannot tax you or mandate what you eat; I have to educate you and let you make the right choice.” Nooyi suggests greater emphasis on childhood nutrition, including school lunches. Also, labeling of all foods (at the grocery store and at restaurants) needs to be clearer, so that consumers can make better nutritional choices. PepsiCo has already adopted better labeling.
“Obesity is a multifaceted problem, but food companies like ours can’t sit back and say “because it’s a multifaceted problem, we’re not going to do anything about it.’ We decided we’re going to do our part. Because if every company in every industry started to do its part, we could make some change.”
It’s a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity, says Nooyi. In addition to better labeling, PepsiCo is improving their product line. “We are committed to reducing calories, sugar levels, saturated fat levels, sodium levels, in all our products.” Transfats were removed from PepsiCo products four years ago.
Nooyi says that they are also aggressively shifting the portfolio away from “fun for you” items (chips and sugared soft drinks) to “better for you products” (popcorn, baked chips, and zero calorie drinks), to “good for you products” (granola bars and fruit juices). They’ve recently acquired Quaker Oats and Tropicana to that end. They are developing new products, such as drinkable oats, that are delicious, healthful, convenient, and hopefully will have the same “cool” factor for young people as a can of regular Pepsi.
“We are going to sneak goodness into you in an authentic way,” she says, noting that the drinkable oats are so tasty that people won’t realize they are wholesome. “We have to break this compromise between taste and what is good for you.”
“We’ve got a line of products coming out of our global nutrition group that are going to be awesome…We are very excited about what’s coming.”
Focus on the whole self, not the skill set
Part of Performance with Purpose is creating a great workplace for employees. Nooyi discussed the challenges of developing talent within the organization so that growth can be organic. Now that so many families have two career couples, or young people caring for aging parents, many employees are less willing to move for a job, though it would lead to their promotion—perhaps to the c-suite.
PepsiCo approaches this dilemma through “future back planning.” They examine their talent pool, looking for the leaders of the pack, who in 20 years could be the leaders of the company. Then, they interview each of these hundreds of high potential employees for several hours, asking them about their goals and ambitions within the organization, as well as their limitations (such as unwillingness to relocate) and expectations. “We’re trying to understand this person more holistically, so that we can actually develop…a career development program for them, which takes into account all of these aspects of a person.”
The goal is do what is best for the company and the individual. “If you think of employees as bodies and faces rather than emotions and what they bring with them,” then you’re missing a lot of potential, says Nooyi.
“It’s a very, very complex job, and I’m not sure we have all the answers,” she says, noting that no company is doing a great job on this front yet. It’s vital that they examine this area closely, though, as “When you do just-in-time career rotations, it’s too late.” You’ve likely missed the opportunity to fully develop that employee, and that is a loss for the company and the individual.
“We want to provide an environment where each person comes to the door bringing their whole self to work. The only way we can do that is if we respect the whole self.”
“We want to make sure our people can have a life and make a living at PepsiCo,” she says.
It all comes back to that emphasis on being good by doing good. An idea Nooyi has understood since she was that little girl in India. “We cannot deliver performance without purpose, and we cannot fund purpose without performance.”
For Josh Burkett ’10, a finance major from Mansfield, Texas, meticulous note-taking paid off outside the classroom: he recently placed second in the solo competition of the sixth annual Nationwide/Fisher Biz Quiz Competition.
Hosted by the Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business and Nationwide, the Biz Quiz tested participants’ knowledge of material in six-weeks’ worth of The Wall Street Journal. Fifty-four students from 18 prestigious colleges and universities from across the nation participated in the event, which had rounds for teams and individuals.
Finance major Josh Burkett ’10 (center) recently placed second in the solo competition of the sixth annual Nationwide/Fisher Biz Quiz Competition.
Burkett says that by the time the six-week period was over, he had amassed 77 pages of notes, studying the Journal four to five hours a day. He had his notes bound and then used them to review with teammates Benjamin Burns ’12 and Ryan Smith ’12, both accounting majors, on the trip to Ohio.
Three undergraduate students made up each team and competed in three team rounds. Nine teams advance to the semi-finals, with only the top three teams going to the finals.
The Mays team’s effort was rewarded as they made it to the semifinal round to finish in fifth place behind Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, and Emory. They came out ahead of teams from North Carolina, SMU, Notre Dame, Northwestern, and Wisconsin, among others.
Risa Meyer, an academic advisor at Mays, was the team advisor for the event. She quizzed the team members on WSJ content each week and traveled with them to Ohio for the competition. She was pleased with the outcome.
“Throughout the weekend, they were serious about the competition but also had fun,” she said. “Numerous students and advisors came up to all of us saying how they were cheering for A&M and how much fun they were to watch. It was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the students that took themselves very seriously and a testament to our students as strong competitors with great people skills.”
Burkett says the competition was “really fun, and something that I’d always wanted to do. It was a chance to shine and represent Mays Business School in the competition.”
After graduation, Burkett will return to his previous summer employer, Barclays Capital in New York, for a full-time analyst position. The competition made him appreciate all that the WSJ has to offer, he says. “In the past I might just read the front page or marketplace to see what deals were going on. I have a new respect for all of the different sections of the journal,” including stories in the personal section that relate to everyday life. By reading the entirety of the newspaper, he is well informed about the business world and able to communicate to people about a variety of current events, he says. He plans to continue reading the paper deeply, though he is taking a break from the daily exercise to focus more on preparing for the chartered financial analyst level I exam he will soon take before graduating.
The traits that set Aggies apart—excellence, integrity, leadership, loyalty, respect, and selfless service—may have something to do with why Aggies are at the head of businesses around the world that are growing strong, despite a still struggling economy. The sixth annual Aggie 100 event was held recently to recognize these leaders, whose efforts create jobs and provide essential products and services.
The Aggie 100 recognizes the fastest growing Aggie-owned or -operated businesses in the world, as gauged by the company’s compound annual growth rate over a two-year period. This year’s list was announced on Friday, October 22, at a lunch hosted by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) at Mays. The list included a variety of industries, from ophthalmology to engineering.
Members of the 2010 Aggie 100, outside Kyle Field (view more photos)
Claiming the top spot for 2010 was Tom Bieschke “95, chairman, president, CEO and founder of Caltex Energy Inc., a five-year-old oil and gas exploration and production company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The compound growth rate for Caltex for the two-year period was 224.07 percent.
Of the top 10 companies on the list, three are led by Mays graduates: David Baggett ’81, partner and founder of Houston consulting firm Opportune LLP, was fourth on the list; Mitt Salvaggio ’82, president, owner and founder of Salvaggio, Teal & Associates, an information systems company in Austin, was eighth; and Russ D. Peterson Jr., managing director, owner, and founder of iSpeak, Inc, a professional development training firm in Round Rock, was tenth.
Though he didn’t make the 2010 list, former two-time Aggie 100 honoree Greg Hall was recognized at the event for his part in the rescue of the trapped Chilean miners earlier in the month. His Houston-based company, Drillers Supply International, was responsible for developing and executing the “Plan B” attempt that was successful in the rescue of the 33 men who had been trapped half a mile underground for 69 days.
The theme for the 2010 Aggie 100 event was “the company we keep.” CNVE executive director Richard Lester, a clinical associate professor of management, told event attendees that with people like Hall in the line-up of past winners, being on the list puts them in good company.
Texas A&M University president R. Bowen Loftin ’71 speaks at the 2010 Aggie 100 Luncheon (view more photos)
In addition to the luncheon event, dozens of Aggie 100 honorees guest lectured in classes across campus, sharing their success stories and life lessons with the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Aggie 100 honorees give back in another vital way: each year, they provide funds for entrepreneurship scholarships at Mays. Several scholarship recipients spoke at the luncheon, thanking their predecessors for making their education possible. One such student was Kelly Kravitz, who recently used an Aggie 100 scholarship to participate in the Empowering Entrepreneurship in South Africa program. She and three Mays students traveled to South Africa to work with black small business owners, who are still struggling to find success in the country after apartheid. “You are supporting entrepreneurship around the world,” Kravitz told the audience.
In addition to the Aggie 100 awards, one other award was presented. The CNVE Excellence Award was given to Lenae Huebner, the former assistant director of the center who now works with a local start-up. Huebner was one of the originators of the Aggie 100 event, and organized the celebration for five years.
The breakdown
Houston accounting firm PKF Texas provided the analysis for the Aggie 100 event again this year. In addition to determining the top 100 of those that applied for the award, they also gave this overview:
In the six years of the award’s history, 347 organizations have been recognized.
Forty new companies were added to the list in 2010.
The 2010 list represents three countries and six U.S. states.
The honorees in 2010 range from class of 1956 to class of 2004.
Three of the top ten honorees are also listed in the INC 500.
Total revenues created by all of the Aggie 100 companies in the two-year period they examined is $1.34 billion.
One company has made the list all six years: MacResource in College Station. Four other companies have been on the list for five of the six years: Catapult Systems, FOBI, Liquid Frameworks, and Internet Truckstop.
On the 2010 list, there were 12 honorees named Mike or Michael.
Eleven of the 2010 honoree companies are family-owned.
About the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship
The Texas A&M Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship provides encouragement, education, networking and assistance to entrepreneurially minded students, faculty and Texas businesses. Founded in 1999, the center is part of Mays Business School’s Department of Management.
The center enhances student education through campus speakers, competitions, work experiences and financial support. The Texas A&M faculty and Office of Technology Commercialization benefit from the center’s educational programs, extensive business community network and the entrepreneurial services. The center also reaches out to the state’s business community offering educational programs, business assistance and access to university resources.
The center is supported by corporate and individual members and sponsors who believe in the value of an entrepreneurial education program and the value of Texas businesses working with Texas A&M University.
When you hear of corporate scandals, you might assume that the perpetrators of the crime were acting out of self-interest—that they cooked the books or covered up information to get rich or move up the corporate ladder. But what if there was another motivation that has nothing to do with personal gain?
A recent study from Elizabeth Umphress, associate professor of management and Mays research fellow, looks at motivations for unethical behavior that benefits the corporation (called “unethical pro-organizational behavior,” or UPB) and how it may be tied to the degree of organizational identification the individual feels.
The researchers define UPB as activity that is not specified by formal job descriptions; is either illegal or morally unacceptable to the larger community; and includes acts of commission (e.g. cooking numbers to boost analyst projections and stock values) and omission (e.g., withholding information about the hazards of a pharmaceutical product).
In three studies Umphress and colleagues conducted, the results were consistent: there was not a direct relationship between organizational identification and UPB. However, there was a relationship between the two if a third element, positive reciprocity, was involved.
Findings indicate that if an individual feels a need to reciprocate when something has been done for them, and also strongly identifies with the organization, then they are more likely to commit UPB. Employees who strongly identify with their organization feel obligated to protect and maintain their membership in the organization.
They also find that people can be primed to commit UPBs—when they showed a test group a video that enhanced their feeling of organizational identification, they were more likely to agree to UPBs (if they scored highly on measures of positive reciprocity) than those who had seen an unrelated video.
Both organizational identification and positive reciprocity are good traits for an employee to possess, says Umphress. They can make an employee more diligent, productive and loyal. Managers need to be aware, however, that they can interact in this negative way. Umphress stressed that hiring decisions need not be made on this criteria, but that managers should be aware of the degree of these traits in their employees and understand that in the right circumstance “the employee might feel compelled or feel that it’s their duty to do something unethical…to help protect the organization.”
In previous literature, researchers have focused predominately not on unethical behavior that boosted the organization, but rather behavior that harms it, such as stealing or sabotage. This study is one of the first to examine this unique relationship.
Umphress’s article, “Unethical behavior in the name of the company: the moderating effect of organizational identification and positive reciprocity beliefs on unethical pro-organizational behavior,” written with coauthors Marie Mitchell and John Bingham, appeared in Journal of Applied Psychology in 2010.
It doesn’t sound like much fun, but it does sound like a pretty good idea: Tax filing kiosks at busy retail locations.
That’s the idea Kyle Klansek ’13 entered in the Coinstar Inc. Next Big Idea contest, which asked college students from around the country to submit proposals for kiosk businesses.
Kyle Klansek ’13 had a big idea for changing how people file their taxes—one that netted him $10,000.
Klansek’s submission won the top prize of $10,000.
Not bad for an idea that was not selected by Klansek’s teammates when he presented it during a brainstorming session and that Klansek submitted individually at the last minute. “I didn’t think there was any way that it would go anywhere,” he says. “I didn’t expect it would win.”
Klansek and teammates were participating in the competition as a requirement of environmental design class at A&M, which focuses on creativity and entrepreneurship. The team collectively submitted another great idea to Coinstar—the details of which Klansek prefers remain confidential so that he can possibly pursue the business. While the idea didn’t win, Klansek says he believes it has potential.
Klansek’s “IRS kiosk’ fit Coinstar’s three criteria for a Next Big Idea winner, explained Alex Doumani, vice president of engineering at the company. “It adds good, meaningful value; the concept serves a sizeable consumer market; and it is innovative, creative and different.”
Doumani said the tax kiosk concept fits a sector with great growth potential in the category of “pop-up’ retail. These are shops, or devices, that meet a large but temporary consumer demand, and then can be broken down and put away until the next time of need. For example, each October, “there are many pop-up stores that serve a significant consumer need centered around the Halloween theme, then go away,” said Doumani. “We see that this could be the same with the IRS kiosk. It has a large potential and it serves an attractive retail market.”
Doumani didn’t provide details but the concept for the tax-filing device would be to install it at retail locations as April 15 rolls around. “Kyle showed ingenuity and ability,” said Doumani.
Doumani says the IRS kiosk could fit in the growing market for self-service applications for government services. This year, several states have received positive reviews for installing kiosks where citizens could renew their driver’s licenses and conduct other activities at motor vehicle offices. In addition, a number of libraries are installing self-service kiosks that patrons can use to check materials in or out.
Klansek, only in his second year of studies at Mays, has not yet declared a major, but says he is leaning heavily toward management with an entrepreneurship focus. He says this experience with the Coinstar competition has been a great motivator for him to start thinking of himself as an entrepreneur. He intends to invest his prize money into a new venture while he is still a student, as he’ll have greater access to resources through the Mays Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship. “Sometimes all you need is this kind of push. Winning the contest has urged me to pursue my own business,” he said.
Employee wellness programs have often been viewed as a nice extra, not a strategic imperative. But the data demonstrate otherwise, according to a team of researchers led by Leonard L. Berry of Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, Ann M. Mirabito of Baylor University and William B. Baun of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Their research shows that the return on investment on comprehensive, well-run employee wellness programs is impressive — sometimes as high as six to one.
Berry
The findings are compiled in a comprehensive piece in the December issue of Harvard Business Review titled “What’s the Hard Return on Employee Wellness Programs?” The subhead reads, “The ROI data will surprise you, and the softer evidence may inspire you.”
To achieve those kinds of results, employers cannot merely offer workers a few passes to a fitness center and nutrition information in the cafeteria, the team reports. The most successful wellness programs are supported by six essential pillars: engaged leadership at multiple levels; strategic alignment with the company’s identity and aspirations; a design that is broad in scope and high in relevance and quality; broad accessibility; internal and external partnerships; and effective communications, Berry says.
The team studied 10 organizations that have financially sound workplace wellness programs. They conducted interviews with senior executives, managers of health-related functions and focus groups of middle managers and employees — in all, about 300 people. The team found companies in a variety of industries — including Johnson & Johnson, Lowe’s, H-E-B and Healthwise — have built their employee wellness programs on all six pillars and have reaped big rewards in the form of lower costs, greater productivity and higher morale. Those benefits are not easy to achieve, and verifiable paybacks are never a certainty, but the track record inspires emulation, especially when the numbers are studied, the report states.
Behind the research are Berry, the Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence who also holds the rank of Distinguished Professor of Marketing as well as the M.B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership at Mays Business School at Texas A&M ; Mirabito, an assistant professor of marketing at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor; and Baun, manager of the wellness program at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, a director of the National Wellness Institute and a director of the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion.
Berry has spent more than 30 years studying corporate service quality, and conducted an in-depth service study of the Mayo Clinic to uncover fresh and innovative approaches to serving  patients. He also serves as a Professor of Humanities in Medicine in the College of Medicine at The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center.
In a culture that lauds the beautiful, wealthy, and entertaining, the work of scholars and educators too often goes unnoticed. To turn the spotlight on these worthy individuals, Mays Business School will present their annual Outstanding Doctoral Alumni award to two scholars whose work has had a significant impact on thousands of students as well as the marketplace.
The 2010 award recipients are Sundar Bharadwaj, professor of marketing at Goizueta Business School, Emory University; and Sandy J. Wayne, professor of management at the College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago.
This award honors doctoral graduates who have achieved significant distinction in their field and serve as role models for current students. Among the characteristics demonstrated by current and past recipients of this prestigious award are: sustained research productivity and visibility in the field; service to the profession as editor of a major scholarly journal; recipient of major awards for excellence in research, teaching and/or service; academic and administrative leadership as dean or associate dean of a business school; successful career progression at a peer or aspirant school; and holder of an endowed position.
The award presentation and a panel discussion will take place on Tuesday, November 16, from 1:30-2:45 in the Cocanougher Special Events Center in the Wehner Building.
About the recipients
Bharadwaj ’94
Sundar G. Bharadwaj
Professor of Marketing
Goizueta Business School
Emory University
With experience in a variety of positions in both academia and industry, Sundar Bharadwaj has proven his excellence in many areas of marketing. His contributions to the field have been recognized through numerous publications in well-respected journals, as well as many awards and honors.
Bharadwaj joined the Goizueta Business School, Emory University, in fall 1993 as he was finishing his PhD at Mays. His doctoral research on the core competencies of firms and brand equity was recognized by the American Marketing Association with an honorable mention nod in the 1994 John A. Howard Doctoral Dissertation Award Competition.
Ten years later, he was again recognized by the AMA with the Early Career Award, based on his productivity and impact on the field of marketing.
Bharadwaj’s research focuses on business problems relating to current and long-term returns and risks to marketing investments in brands, customers, innovation, and marketing strategy. He has published 21 articles in refereed journals and presented more than 50 papers at conferences and other scholarly forums.
He has served as both the coordinator of the marketing department and the director of the marketing doctoral program at Goizueta. He has been a visiting faculty member at the Indian School of Business, Singapore Management University, and most recently the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He currently serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science and Journal of Strategic Marketing.
He served as conference program chair of the 2009 research conference on service excellence; co-chair for the 2005 and 2007 INFORMS Marketing Science Conference; and program chair for the 2002 American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium. He has also served as a consortium faculty for the prestigious AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium in 2004, 2005 and 2009 and has been invited to serve as a consortium faculty for the 2010 event.
Bharadwaj has held brand and sales management positions in multinational corporations (such as SmithKline Beechams and AMUL) where he developed branding strategies and channel strategies for new and existing products. He has executive education and consulting experience in with U.S., European and Asian firms, including Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, KPMG, Nokia, NOL, Siemens, Rock-Tenn, Schneider Electric, Synovate, and Singhealth.
At Emory, Bharadwaj teaches at all levels, on topics ranging from marketing strategy and management, to e-marketing, He has served as chair or co-chair of six doctoral dissertation committees and as a member on three others.
• • • • •
Wayne ’87
Sandy J. Wayne ’87
Professor of Management
College of Business Administration
University of Illinois at Chicago
Sandy Wayne’s vita paints an impressive picture of an academic: widely published in top journals; frequently recognized with awards; positions of leadership at her institution as well as in professional organizations; and, perhaps most significantly, high rankings by her students in classroom evaluations. She has taught human resource management and organizational behavior concepts at all levels with great success.
In addition to her efforts at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Wayne has spent her summer term for the past six years at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as a visiting professor of management in their international summer school program.
With the exception of a yearlong hiatus, Wayne has been the director of the University of Illinois’ Center for Human Resource Management since 1996. Under her supervision, the center serves its industry partners, including Microsoft, 3M, and State Farm Insurance, with ongoing research and semi-annual symposia. For her leadership in this capacity and other service roles, Wayne was honored with the College of Business Award for Outstanding Service in 2007. She has chaired 11 doctoral dissertations, and been a committee member for eight others.
Wayne has also served in a number of leadership roles within the Academy of Management, including chair of the human resources division. She has served or is serving on the editorial boards of seven journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Management. In 2003, she was inducted as a fellow of the Society of Industrial Organizational Psychologists (SIOP). She’s been very active with the National Academy of Management and SIOP, serving on or chairing more than two dozen committees in the past two decades.
Wayne’s work has garnered nearly $300,000 in grants for topics such as employee retention, outsourcing, and teams. She has published 45 papers in academic journals, and has many other works in progress.
Recognition for her work includes the S. Rains Wallace Dissertation Award (1988); Yoder-Heneman Human Resource Management Research Award (1995); Best Applied Paper Award (2006) from the careers division of the Academy of Management; Best Paper Award (2004 and 2009) and Outstanding Faculty Paper Award (1994) from the Southern Academy of Management Association; and the Ulrich & Lake award for Excellence in HRM Scholarship (2001) for the best paper published in Human Resource Management that year.
She consults for companies such as Allstate Insurance, BMC Software, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Caterpillar, ConAgra, Motorola, UPS, and USG.
Mays was among 18 schools nationwide to host the first phase of the KPMG International Case Study Competition. Top students from campus level competitions will compete against one another at the regional level in January 2011.
Mays students, Hannah Abalos ’12, Daniel Curl ’11, Drew Robins ’12 and Meghan Williams ’12 were the campus victors and will advance to the Dallas regional competition.
The competition reflects the audit, tax and advisory firm’s commitment to educating students by bringing the profession to the classroom, says a release from KPMG.
“We were delighted that KPMG offered this meaningful experience to our business students and I was pleased that the winning team was comprised of undergraduate accounting majors,” said Accounting Department Head Jim Benjamin. “I am confident that the regional competition will be a good learning opportunity for our students.”
Twenty-four Mays students entered the competition, which took place October 15. Each four-person team was given 48-hours to form observations and recommendations on a business case study based on a real company. The teams presented their findings to a panel of judges, including KPMG Houston Tax Partner Mike Terracina, Dallas Audit Senior Manager Ryan Stewart, Houston Audit Manager Daryl Taylor and Southwest Area Director of Recruiting Sarah Jacob.
“We’re pleased that Texas A&M students embraced the challenge of solving the case study and congratulate the winners,” said Stacy Sturgeon, KPMG’s national managing partner, university relations and recruiting. “We hope that each of the students took away sharpened critical thinking, technical and team-working skills as a result of participating in the competition.”
In the upcoming regional competition, the winning Mays team will compete against teams from the University of Texas and Baylor University. The regional winner moves forward to the national competition in New York City on February 4, 2011, to compete against six other teams. The winner of the national competition will travel to Istanbul, Turkey, to compete in a three-day competition against the winning teams from more than a dozen countries.
About KPMG LLP
KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm (www.us.kpmg.com), is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International.”) KPMG International’s member firms have 140,000 professionals, including more than 7,900 partners, in 145 countries.
