September 18–19
The Robson Program for Business, Public Policy, and Government Annual Conference

The annual conference sponsored by the Robson Program for Business, Public Policy, and Government featured diverse speakers from the public, civic and government sectors. The overarching theme was resilience, ranging from personal resilience with Medal of Honor recipient Jack Jacobs, to the resilience of the animal kingdom in the face of global climate change with Dr. Jane Goodall.

November 1
Emory MAC Conference

The Emory Marketing Analytics Conference, a dynamic one-day conference focused on the latest trends in data-driven approaches to marketing, is designed for industry and academic marketing thought leaders charged with spearheading marketing analytics research as well as driving analytical marketing transformation and innovation. Alum Scott Doyne 03MBA, senior vice president of data strategy and insights at Turner Sports, and former Goizueta professor Manish Tripathi, senior manager of analytics at Amazon, were among the leading business analysts at this year’s conference.

November 7–9
Inside Goizueta

Inside Goizueta is a three-day diversity conference where participants have the opportunity to witness the energy, supportive culture and intense academic environment that distinguishes Goizueta’s MBA programs from others. The conference featured a series of discussion panels and information sessions where prospective students could connect with current students, alumni and administrators. Prospective students also attended real and mock class sessions.

November 15
Executive Women of Goizueta

The theme of this year’s Executive Women of Goizueta conference was “Purpose, Passion & Profit: Driving Performance with Intent.” Attendees were encouraged to harness their passion and the perspectives of executive peers and apply them with intention. By focusing on purpose and passion, women in business can craft a holistic approach to elevate their leadership, career, spirit and, ultimately, results.

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The continual evolution of the analytics landscape made for new discourse through panel discussions and speaker presentations at the 7th annual Emory Marketing Analytics Center (EmoryMAC) Conference.

Below is a summary of the day’s events.

Marketing analytics powered by data fusion and machine learning

Wes Chaar, senior vice president of analytics, data and decision sciences at Time Warner, kicked off the first session by discussing marketing analytics being powered by data fusion and machine learning.

“If you look at the history of data fusion, it actually started in engineering,” Chaar said. “The idea of data fusion is when you have a couple of sensors, for example, and you’re measuring a particular process, they’re not necessarily measuring the same thing. They could be measuring different things about that same process.”

Chaar and his team work under the strategy sector of Turner Broadcasting System, a division of Time Warner, and focus on projects that are impactful on a global scale.

His message focused on the launch, evolution, success and future Turner has with two audience-targeting concepts called TargetingNow and AudienceNow. Both of which run on the primary model of what Turner calls Competitive Audience Estimation, a model that uses data to target efficiently and effectively across various TV channels.

The line of best-fit: hiring for marketing analytics

Founder of Logosphere, Julia Andrle, spoke with Ramesh Sundaram, senior analytics director at Moxie, Chirag Tasker, managing partner at TrendScend Marketing, and Manish Tripathi, senior manager of analytics at Amazon Web Services, on the hiring process for marketing analytics, including the challenges companies may face, as well as what candidates are looking for when applying to jobs.

How marketing analytics is evolving

Bill Franks, chief analytics officer at the International Institute for Analytics, led a keynote discussion on how marketing analytics are evolving and how companies have had to rethink their marketing strategies.

[Read more from Franks’ keynote presentation]

“What’s happening now is the idea of using the connected products and analytics to really customize things for customers and make it better all around,” Franks said.

Open source analytics

Greg Pharo, the global director of media analytics and advertising research at the Coca-Cola Company, led a dialogue on the emergence and staying power of open source analytics in marketing with Brian Backer, director of digital technology and analytics at UPS, and Damon Samuel, VP of marketing analytics and insights at Vantedge Group. 

Practice meets academia: how industry and universities can collaborate

Presenters Mike Lewis, associate professor of marketing at Goizueta, and Manish Tripathi, senior manager of analytics at Amazon Web Services and former Goizueta professor, took a more collaborative approach with their discussion on the potential for collaboration between industry and universities. Lewis and Tripathi previously taught classes together and actively engaged to develop projects with the local community and students.

One partnership they highlighted was their work in brand equity with the Atlanta United, which originated in a sports marketing course and a marketing analytics consultancy course.

Based on the research, they were able to take that material to the classroom in a sports analytics class where they looked at personnel analytics and used it as a vehicle to teach R, an open source programming language.

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Sanjay Velappan arrived at this information and created a path to generate data, in part, because he’s a huge sports fan. He started by following the recent negotiations between the Seattle Seahawks and quarterback Russell Wilson.

“It got me thinking, ‘What do actual GMs focus on when they go to negotiation tables with these quarterbacks?,’” he said. “How are they giving him this much money; what are they actually valuing you at?”

With some assistance from Goizueta’s Manish Tripathi, an Assistant Professor in the Practice of Marketing, Velappan examined the value of quarterbacks from the perspective of a general manager negotiating a signing bonus. Because that’s the only money that’s truly guaranteed, Velappan decided his research would look at the true value of a quarterback at the time of signing. While the work was not done for a class project or academic grade, the effort by Velappan did not surprise Tripathi, who himself has taken an analytical approach to professional sports teams on subjects like how to generate higher attendance.

It was Velappan’s idea, but Tripathi said, “I helped him operationalize the problem, and provided model feedback.”

After Tripathi tweeted the research, a San Francisco 49ers salary cap analyst applauded the work and reminded Velappan there are multiple sections to a quarterback’s contract beyond the signing bonus. And, while front office personnel examine this in detail, it’s also valuable to the other side of the negotiating table.

“I think this research may be more beneficial for agents who are looking for a myriad of ways to argue for [quarterback] guaranteed money,” Tripathi said.

Velappan began with 30 variables related to on-the-field performance, but settled on key statistics such as fourth-quarter touchdowns, age, “ACT plays” where a quarterback makes a key contribution and interceptions. A human element entered the research when Velappan noted that — at the negotiating table — GMs tend to remember plays late in the game that help determine the outcome.

“So fourth-quarter touchdowns tend to be the most memorable plays,” he said. “Those tend to show how clutch the quarterback is or how well they perform under pressure. So it showed a really strong relationship between the value of the quarterback and how many fourth-quarter touchdowns they threw.”

Being a cut-throat league, conventional wisdom would normally mean that increasing age would be a negative. But Velappan found that GMs valued longevity and rewarded players who stayed in the league more than four years.

Along with the research that matched Griffin’s projected value, Velappan also found Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins did not have enough career data to warrant a long-term contract. That was also validated when the Washington front office gave Cousins a franchise tag, which delays the team’s long-term decision by locking the player into what is — in essence — a one-year deal.

“It feels good to know that another person, especially someone from an analytics background, seems to be using the same type of variable that I was using,” Velappan said.

Velappan’s next interest is looking at off-the-field information like social media presence and jersey sales to determine how it affects a player’s value.

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The undead enliven Leo Burnett’s cheeky cinematic spot for Brooks, in which zombies invade a town and head straight for the sneaker aisle. Donning Brooks shoes, they go for a dawn (of the dead) run and undergo an amazing change that illustrates the tagline, “Running makes you feel alive.” In the spot, Brooks attempted to portray the transformative power of the product, but not everyone approves of how they brought the message to life. “While zombies do resonate with this generation, the commercial seems inadequate in linking core millennial values with the product,” said Manish Tripathi, co-director of the Marketing Analytics Center at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.

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Louisville and SMU ended the year ranked 16th and 24th, respectively, in The Associated Press rankings. Both teams likely would have qualified for March Madness and might have made deep runs.

The NCAA distributes the roughly $200 million basketball fund to conferences partially based on their teams’ postseason performances in a rolling six-year period. For every March Madness game played, excluding the championship game, the NCAA awards a “unit,” which is worth about $260,000 this year.

“The biggest short-term impact is forgoing the revenue the conferences would have received if they played in the postseason,” said Manish Tripathi, an Emory University marketing professor who studies sports.

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Denver, which has won two Super Bowls and appeared in another championship only two years ago, ranks 11th.

The size of Carolina’s television market may limit the club’s financial ceiling, but a Super Bowl sets the team up for a long-term financial boost, said Manish Tripathi, a marketing professor at Emory University who studies sports marketing.

“Even just winning one can really drive your loyalty over time. Winning is certainly a driver of financial success,” he said.

Tripathi highlighted the dominant runs enjoyed by the 49ers, Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, among other clubs, that inspired long-term brand loyalty.

Read more on CNBC.com.

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The judges were serial entrepreneur Charlie Goetz, senior lecturer in organization & management and distinguished lecturer, entrepreneurship; Klaas Baks, associate professor in the practice of finance and executive director, Center For Alternative Investments; and Manish Tripathi, assistant professor in the practice of marketing.

Although every student received feedback and input, five pitches survived the scrutiny, with their student creators taking top honors. They are:  Andrew Callahan 16MBA and Mo Zhang 16MBA, creators of PumpHop; Bryan Spencer 17EvMBA, creator of Chefter; Raj Nathan 15EMBA, creator of Intaase; Josh Silcox 16EvMBA, creator of Steazy and Company; and Katie Hull 16MBA, creator of SmallBatch. As winners, they each receive a desk in Goizueta’s suite in the Atlanta Tech Village, which offers free workshops and exceptional networking opportunities. Plus, law firm Foley and Lardner LLP will provide a complimentary startup package, which includes IP legal consulting.

Just like the show, the pressure was intense. “They asked very pointed questions about my business model and why the customer would buy this service,” Nathan says. “They appreciated the idea but still came forward with very good feedback on how I could make it more viable.” Nathan’s Intaase, which stands for Interviews as a Service, seeks to shorten recruiting cycles and reduce hiring effort in the tech industry by providing technical screenings of candidates within 24 hours. The win has helped springboard his process of developing a minimal viable product, which has already attracted a few customers.

In the future, Goetz hopes to expand the panel of judges to include guest experts from other parts of the university and skilled individuals working in the field.

Undergraduates got a similar experience during last spring’s inaugural Emory Entrepreneurship Summit. It culminated in a pitch competition judged by the alumni speakers, with $8,500 in cash prizes distributed to the winning teams. First prize went to Denver Rayburn 14BBA and David Zander 15BBA, whose app allows users to locate a small group of friends for a limited time. Second place went to Emory College student and Shark Tank-funded BZBox entrepreneur Kaeya Majmundar 15C for a tank top that that zips out to become a tote bag. These two top teams also received multimedia technology prizes donated by Goizueta alumni-founded Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest independent student film festival.

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Manish Tripathi, a marketing professor at Emory University, says the level of scrutiny is lower around sponsorship deals because they’re an afterthought to the public compared to the stadium deals themselves. “The sticker shock is going to come from the larger number,” Tripathi says. “Once that fight is done, people care less, and are either excited or resigned that the stadium is coming.” For Atlanta’s professional sports franchises, the decision to stay quiet on flagship sponsorship deals is likely the path of least resistance, even if it’s the path that is least transparent. – See more at: http://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/why-wont-the-falcons-and-braves-reveal-their-stadium-sponsorship-costs/#sthash.aqrJWJtt.dpuf

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Goizueta’s long history of exposing young scholars to business education got a boost this summer when it embarked on a partnership with LEAD (LEADership, Education and Development), an international, cross-sector collaborative of top U.S. corporations, government agencies, higher education and non-profit partnerships focused on developing high potential, diverse youth into high achievers and responsible leaders.

Its track record is stellar. Launched in 1980, 99.9 percent of LEAD graduates have completed college.

So when Larry Drake, President & CEO, LEAD, reached out to Goizueta Business School Dean Erika James about teaming up to launch LEAD’s first global institute, she jumped at the chance. James, who taught in the LEAD Program while at the University of Virginia and at Michigan, was “eager to move forward with the initiative,” said Alicia Sierra, Sr. Manager of HR and Diversity, Goizueta Business School.

The LEAD Global Institute was spearheaded by Manish Tripathi, assistant professor in the practice of marketing, and Earl Hill, senior lecturer in organization and management. Various Goizueta faculty created the curriculum, and a number of Goizueta staff and faculty volunteers also participated. Designed to give students academic and practical exposure to business and opportunities for critical thinking, the two-week program also gave students the chance to build relationships with fellow students, faculty and executives.

The majority of the 24 students were Hispanic and African American and based in the U.S. Four students were from Finland and two were from Puerto Rico.

[pullquote]

“I was blown away by the students in the LEAD program. Their ability to think critically, their confidence, and their work ethic was top notch for students at any level, let alone high school. I was also really happy to see how eager the entire Goizueta community was to work with the LEAD program.” – Manish Tripathi, Goizueta Business School[/pullquote]

As part of the program, students visited The Coca-Cola Company, where they engaged in group discussions with Lauventria Robinson, Coca-Cola’s Vice President of Multicultural Marketing. They also visited Delta Airlines, where they met with Maurese Jenkins, Program Manager, Global Diversity. They also toured the Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Georgia Aquarium, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, and Turner Field, where they watched the Atlanta Braves take on the Chicago Cubs.

But the majority of the student’s time was spent in the classroom.

“Our faculty was very generous in volunteering their time to conduct seminars with the students,” said Tripathi. In addition to the curriculum, over the course of the two-week period, students prepared business plans, which they presented on the final day of the program.

Drake was on hand for the presentation.

Tripathi considers the inaugural year a success and fully expects the partnership to continue.

“I was blown away by the students in the LEAD program,” he said. “Their ability to think critically, their confidence, and their work ethic was top notch for students at any level, let alone high school. I was also really happy to see how eager the entire Goizueta community was to work with the LEAD program.”

– Allison Shirreffs

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