There is nothing like the rush of a live event—the anticipation, the exhilaration, the moment that everyone has been waiting for…which only builds as the band hits the stage or the team races onto the field. Just ask Michelle Wang 13BBA, director of strategy for Ticketmaster, a division of Live Nation Entertainment. Wang and the strategy team work behind the scenes to tackle problems and identify areas of strategic growth and partnership for the rapidly evolving live entertainment landscape.

“The internal strategy group within the business addresses high-level strategic problems like how we can move unsold inventory or leverage strategic partnerships” Wang said. “Think of management consulting, with our clients being senior leaders from different departments within the organization.”

Earlier this year Wang shared her success story and experiences as a speaker at the 2019 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference. She spoke to graduating business school students about her journey in live entertainment and how to break into the industry. While she acknowledged that there is the obvious role of networking and knowing the right people, she truly emphasized the importance of grit and hard work, something she learned at a young age from her parents.

Wang grew up in Atlanta with immigrant parents of Chinese descent. Her father,  a doctor, holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D., and in their household nothing less than perfection was acceptable. Family is without a doubt the most important part of Wang’s life. When she was young, her parents told her about the sacrifices they made coming to the U.S. from China and building a new life here, a story that Wang holds near and dear to her heart. “My parents taught me to embrace hard work and challenges,” Wang said. “And to have grit and a pride in my work, not stopping until a job was complete or a problem solved.”

During the summer of her freshman year, Wang studied abroad in her parents’ native Beijing, to learn the language and culture of her ancestors. After entering the business school as a sophomore, Wang interned with GE Capital for the summer and into her junior year. In addition to juggling the rigors of business school and work, she was the teaching assistant for Chip Frame (Professor in Marketing) and for Sandy Jap (the Sarah Beth Brown Professor of Marketing). Wang also was a very active member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and served as president of the nonprofit organization Global Business Brigades, leading a group of 25 Emory students on a trip to Panama to bring micro-economic business practices to the native Kuna population.

The summer of her junior year, Wang took an internship with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where she began her journey in consulting. Upon graduation, she accepted a job with Deloitte Consulting in their Strategy and Operations practice, and the rest is history.

“I knew that going into consulting would be akin to giving up my life as I knew it, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to get what you want,” Wang said. “I always knew that although painful in the short term, the skill set and foundational business skills I would develop would be more than worth it in the long run.”

Wang made the best of the consulting lifestyle, enjoying all the perks that came with the fast-paced lifestyle. “I had some interesting projects and met some interesting people, but equally important I was a Delta Diamond Medallion member and used my hard-earned points to take numerous luxury vacations!”

After developing the core consulting skill set, Wang began looking for a new opportunity that provided better work-life balance in an industry that she was passionate about. She connected with Jared Horvitz 12BBA, now a product marketing manager at Facebook, who suggested she backfill his role at Ticketmaster when he headed off to business school at Wharton.

When she met with Horvitz and the team−all ex-consultants−she was exceedingly impressed by the caliber of talent and passion and she eagerly took the position. In the nearly four years she’s been there, her understanding of the industry has blossomed and thinking strategically flows over into her personal life.

“As I think of where my journey will take me over the next three to five years, I’ve constantly battled with the decision of whether to pursue my MBA. It’s a natural next step, and all my friends are doing it,” Wang noted. “However, during my time here at Ticketmaster, I’ve been exposed to such successful people with such varied backgrounds, that I’ve finally realized that I don’t necessarily need to be on the pre-defined path that a lot of my friends and peers are on—my eyes have been opened to the incredible opportunity at this amazing company.”

She’s also decided to put down roots and used her savings to purchase a home in Los Angeles. “I am on a unique path at Ticketmaster and I want to see where it will take me,” Wang said.

And as for the company’s products and offerings, Wang sees a deep value in bringing people joy and togetherness through live entertainment.

“We work in live entertainment, which means we are in the business of building real life human connection and emotion—something that is rare in today’s modern world,” she said. “We are changing the way people connect with their favorite artists, teams, and each other. We’re not just a ticketing and technology platform, we’re the dedicated people who work to enrich lives one amazing live experience at a time. We are fans and we come to work every day to bring that emotion and energy to other fans around the world because live only happens once.”

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Fey outlines the ways for any professional to amp up their communication skills in her new book, IMPROVe Your Communication: 52 Tips for Accelerating Your Performance, Positioning, and Perception. After almost thirty years climbing the corporate ladder working as a sales and marketing executive for The Coca-Cola Company, Fey branched out eight years ago to apply her corporate knowledge by advising C-suite executives and other professionals.

Fey has also tried her hand at improv comedy and standup, doing a number of sets in comedy clubs across Atlanta. Her book makes it clear that those improv skills and humor can certainly serve executives well, helping to pull listeners into a conversation and making the speaker more memorable. The 52-page book is short and sweet, she said, designed to sit open and be used as a reference. Fey described it as “fluff-free,” which is certainly good for professionals who find themselves pressed for time. “People like that I am very direct and that I add in a bit of humor. People are responding to it, and the time value equation is really the big thing.”

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She began her career as a consultant with NIIT, a global technology consulting and outsourcing firm, before pursuing a Ph.D. in management information systems at Texas A&M University—a move that eventually led her to Goizueta Business School and the Goizueta Endowed Chair in Electronic Commerce, which she currently holds.

Bharadwaj’s research explores the organizational impacts of information technology, digital innovation and the business value of IT. An extraordinarily prolific researcher, since 1990 she has published more than 70 papers. In 2018 Bharadwaj was awarded the INFORMS ISS Distinguished Fellow Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution and intellectual stewardship in the field of information systems. Starting in 2020, she will serve as vice dean of faculty and research at Goizueta.

EB: How did you become interested in researching information systems, and how would you characterize the focus of your research?

Bharadwaj: I started my career in India when computerization was just starting to take hold. This was an exciting time, as organizations were beginning to see the potential in automating their processes. Making the switch from industry into academia, I was energized by the same optimism about the potential of technology to impact business, but I wanted to dig deeper into the kinds of applications and implementation challenges that organizations were experiencing.

Doing my Ph.D. in the ’90s, I became engaged in a larger conversation around the productivity benefits of information systems. Corporations had been making sizable investments in hardware and software, including training, but were yet to see the payoff in the form of productivity gains. It was a puzzle for academics and economists that struck a chord with me. What I’d seen at a micro level in a few organizations I’d worked with seemed to be playing out on a macro level—that it takes years before you see the benefits of your investment because of the kinds of learning curves, the new skills and processes and the cultural recalibration that have to happen before you can truly leverage new technologies.

This became a question of interest to me that has underscored my research ever since: What’s behind this time lag in the productivity benefits of technology? And why do some companies do it better than others? Over time it has led me to reframe the research—to shift the focus from the economic and productivity gains per se to the kinds of technical and organizational capabilities that companies need to build to extract the business value of IT systems.

EB: What kinds of key insights has your research generated?

Bharadwaj: I have found that there is an almost universal complexity that organizations have to grapple with when introducing technology at scale. And it’s pan-industrial.

A good example is the U.S. healthcare industry. A whole decade after the introduction of the Affordable Health Care Act of 2008, hospitals are still struggling to implement a unified view of patient care. And their challenges are not that different from the challenges experienced by companies back in the early ’90s. From the organizational perspective, you’re looking at a set of almost immutable challenges that span every sector: change management, inertia, even active resistance to new ways of doing things.

Then you have to factor in the speed of innovation with new and emerging technologies and the adoption and adaptation processes that organizations have to go through before the benefits kick in—often the technologies have to be recalibrated to meet business needs. Some industries and some organizations tend to be faster and better at introducing and leveraging new technologies.

EB: What does your research tell you about this? What makes some firms more agile in adopting and adapting to new technologies?

Bharadwaj: I’ve published papers on what distinguishes agility. One of the key factors we’ve found that determine the pace and success of technology management is the role of the senior leadership, not only in being alert to new opportunities created by technological changes, but also having the commitment to follow through with the change management efforts.

A common mistake that leaders make is assuming that their role ends when they make the investment decisions. There’s an assumption that middle management will drive implementation and that change will automatically ripple through the organization. Added to that, there’s a frequent lack of foresight about the training that employees need—that and an inability to manage the fear people might feel about losing their jobs to automation or outsourcing. These are really big organizational challenges, and senior management can’t afford to take their eye off the ball.

Agile leaders are those who have a vision—a vision of how technology is going to impact their industry so that they aren’t caught flat-footed and unable to adjust when things reach a tipping point. They also have a vision of how technology will impact their firm. Agility comes when you have leaders who have this sense-making perspective and the operational capacity to absorb change and work with it.

EB: You take up your new role as dean of faculty and research in 2020. What are your thoughts on the role of research? How important is it to research technology and its impact?

Bharadwaj: I am excited to start in this new role, and it is an honor to work with such a talented group of faculty engaged in creative research and teaching. Research is fundamental to what we do as scholars and educators. Research is how new knowledge gets created, which then finds its way into classrooms through lectures and teaching materials.

As business school faculty, it is important for us to stay abreast of technological changes and understand their impact on organizations and society at large. Engaging with these themes, unearthing patterns and gaining insight informs what happens in the classroom and how we educate our students.

So there is a lot of synergy between what we research and what we then take into the classrooms to educate the next generation of managers and leaders.

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Let them go?

With human capital, the rule is to not only attract the best talent but to retain it, right? Not necessarily, says research by David Tan 09PhD. Tan, who is associate professor of management at the University of Washington (Foster), and coauthor Christopher I. Rider from the University of Michigan (Ross) have put an intriguing hypothesis to the test: can a firm gain status when employees leave for high-status competitors? Their findings suggest that it can. They analyzed data from the 200 highest-grossing law firms in the U.S. between 2004 and 2013 and found that while losing employees can detrimentally affect productivity, it can also signal to prospective employees that your firm is a stepping stone for career-enhancing opportunities. In other words, it might make you more attractive to ambitious and high-value new recruits. The research represents a dramatic departure from prevailing thinking on what Tan calls the “retention imperative” in strategic human capital management, and it sheds light on an interesting new channel through which losing employees might actually improve a firm’s competitiveness in the labor market. The question to employers and HR managers is, under the right circumstances, mightn’t it be better to let them go? Strategic Management Journal (2017)

The democratization of investment research

To function well, financial markets need to provide high-quality information to a broad base of investors. Without it, pricing securities gets difficult, and markets can end up stagnating. At the same time, information with high investment value tends to be costly to produce, which has left individuals at a perennial disadvantage relative to institutional investors. To counter this, new platforms are emerging that leverage social media–style technology to share, exchange and curate high-value investment research to all investors. But are individuals actually reading and benefiting from the research provided by these new platforms? A forthcoming study by Russell E. Jame 10PhD at the University of Kentucky (Gatton) suggests they do. Together with colleagues from Gatton and the University of Texas at Dallas and Goizueta’s T. Clifton Green, Jame has tested retail investors’ response to popular investor site Seeking Alpha. He finds that there’s a sharp increase in retail trading in the 30-minute period following an article being published on the site. And on the days articles are published, the relation between retail order flow and future returns increases threefold. This all points to Seeking Alpha helping retail trading engage in more informed trading. (Working Paper)

Too good to hire 

In an increasingly competitive labor market, having a killer résumé should position you favorably with potential employers. But a new paper by Adina Sterling 11PhD, associate professor of organizational behavior and sociology at Stanford Graduate School of Business, asks whether highly capable candidates aren’t being penalized in the hiring process by managers who have concerns about their future commitment to a firm. Together with colleagues from Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon, Sterling ran a series of four experiments with U.S. hiring managers to test the idea that candidates with stand-out credentials might be perceived as prioritizing their personal and professional development over a commitment to a specific employer. And her findings suggest that managers do indeed see highly capable candidates as having lower levels of organizational interest. Critically, because these candidates are perceived as having more external job options, they are also seen as a higher flight risk than less able individuals. Penalizing high-caliber talent in this way, warns Sterling, carries the risk of lower market mobility for the most able, while simultaneously threatening long-term competitive advantage for firms: a zero-sum game scenario that should be addressed, she argues, by a “more systematic relationship” between ability signals and negative screening decisions on the part of hiring managers. She and her coauthors also urge highly capable candidates to do more to convey personal interest and commitment at the hiring stage and to leverage human networks over platforms for referrals that may help circumvent the issue.  Administrative Science Quarterly (2019)

How do adopters transition between incumbent and new channels?

When people or organizations adopt a new channel, such as a mobile shopping app or an online learning system, what happens to their use of the incumbent channel, e.g., a physical store or classroom? Do they phase out their use of the incumbent channel, do they use both channels indefinitely or do they revert back to the incumbent channel? These are the kinds of questions that intrigue managers who introduce new channels and are tasked with determining whether—or how much—to continue supporting existing channels. And they are the questions at the heart of new research by Eric Overby 07PhD, associate professor at Georgia Tech (Scheller). Overby and Sam Ransbotham of Boston College analyzed transaction data reflecting how used car dealers used a new electronic purchasing channel and the incumbent physical purchasing channel over a six-year period. They found that dealers who adopted the electronic channel at similar times followed dramatically different patterns of channel use: some quickly abandoned the physical channel (replacement), others used both channels (extension) and others reverted back to the physical channel (discontinuance). According to Overby, “This allows us to extend the traditional adopter categories of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. For example, we found that some innovators are replacers, others are extenders and others are discontinuers.” Overby and Ransbotham also find that the longer someone has used the channels, the more likely they are to be an extender vs. a replacer. Overby and Ransbotham arrange their findings into a framework that gives managers new tools to understand why people and organizations follow one pattern of channel use over another and to develop intervention strategies to drive optimal use. MIS Quarterly (2019)

Close experience with potential sanctions and fraud deterrence

Every year, companies and investors lose approximately $1 trillion to workplace fraud in the U.S. Understanding how effective regulation is in punishing offenders and (more importantly) deterring future fraud is critical both from a societal and economic perspective. W. P. Carey School of Business’ Roger White 17PhD and Hankamer School of Business’ Melanie Millar 16PhD have just published research that looks at the efficacy of sanctions on perpetrators using a novel lens: New York City taxicabs. Rate-code fraud—charging an out-of-town rate for local rides—is fairly prevalent among drivers, and it’s estimated around 10% of drivers commit this type of fraud multiple times per week, amounting to a cost to riders of more than $8 million per year. Using GPS field data from NYC taxicabs paired with data from taxi court, the regulator’s enforcement mechanism, White and Millar, along with Jeremy Douthit from Eller, have analyzed the deterrent effect of potential sanctions. Surprisingly, the researchers find that taxi drivers who have been found guilty in the past are more likely to commit fraud than drivers who have no experience of the court. The authors put this down to a complex psychological phenomenon called “affective forecasting”—the typical habit of overestimating the effect a negative outcome will have on us. Drivers who have been found guilty of fraud don’t use affective forecasting, as they’ve already experienced the sanction, which is likely to have a less negative impact than they imagined. This suggests that the sanction will be a weaker deterrent for rate-code fraud for drivers who have been previously found guilty than for those without direct experience with the sanction. Food for thought for policy makers, says White, as the threat of enforcement can be more effective at deterring future fraud than the actual enforcement itself. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (forthcoming 2020)

Demutualized stock exchanges

When a private, member-owned company (a cooperative or a mutual life insurance company, say) is publicly listed and becomes a joint-stock company, the process is known as demutualization. For some time, demutualized stock exchanges have fallen under scrutiny from regulators, multiple market participants and the academic community because the change in operating structure within these newly listed firms is thought to incur a decline in regulatory oversight. A new paper by Carey School of Business’ Maria Rykaczewski 13PhD and colleagues from Arizona State and Florida International Universities finds that for these firms, liquidity improves post-demutualization. But this is likely due to a decline in the reporting quality, which in turn points to a decline in regulatory function of demutualized stock exchanges. Rykaczewski’s research draws a sample of firms traded on 14 stock exchanges that demutualized in the period 1999–2008 and a control group of firms traded on 17 stock exchanges that did not demutualize or demutualized de jure (without actually changing their ownership structure). The findings give substance to concerns about self-regulatory behaviors of the U.S. demutualized stock exchanges, which critics deem to be at odds with their for-profit orientation and precariously close to monopolistic in nature. Rykaczewski and her coauthors quote Securities and Exchange Commissioner Robert Jackson, who warned in 2018 that while for-profit businesses in America can be sued when they are found responsible for causing harm, U.S. stock exchanges assert that they are “immune from liability on the theory that they are acting as regulators rather than profit-makers.” (Working Paper)

Measuring the impact of product placement

We’ve all seen the messages on favorite TV programs or films containing product placement. As a marketing technique, product placement is gaining traction. But is it effective? New research from the Kelley School of Business’ Beth Fossen 16PhD and Goizueta’s David Schweidel, professor of marketing, suggests it is. Fossen and Schweidel looked at data from just short of 3,000 product placements for 99 brands on U.S. television from fall 2015 to determine the impact on social media activity and website traffic for featured brands. They found that while product placement did lead to an increase in traffic and social “heat” in general, the effect was particularly noticeable with verbal placement as opposed to visual. The researchers put this down to greater plot integration—with actors required to say the name of the product, rather than it simply appearing in the background of a scene. That being said, while product placement offers an alternative channel to help marketers reach consumers who have become inured to traditional advertising, Fossen and Schweidel warn of unintended consequences should placement interfere with plot or feel out of place; this, they say, can distract, irritate or create negative associations for the viewer. Marketing Science (2019)

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This rich culture continues today.

As Dean Erika James stands at her desk surrounded by technology her predecessors would most certainly envy, she’s mindful that the challenges and goals for the future are in some ways similar to those that have come before.

James is one of many deans to lead Goizueta Business School since 1919, each leaving a noticeable thread in the school’s fabric. The priorities and visions of each administration have been reflected in updates to curriculum, research focus and building aesthetics. James looks to do the same while also keeping the school agile in the face of increasing change. Many, of course, consider this a requirement as the business world faces more complex problems on a global scale.

“Business is changing rapidly,” James said. “How organizations are structured, the technologies they use, where and how they do business and the skills they need to succeed are all changing. That means business schools, as a conduit to business, have to change as well. We hear a lot about the competition for talent. That’s because the people skills and capabilities have not kept pace with the speed with which business is able to operate. There is also, in some cases, misalignment between what current and future generations of professionals are looking for and the structures and goals of the organizations that are seeking talent. Business schools have a responsibility to try to realign the two, and doing so requires educating both employers and students.”

This must occur in a context of great challenges for business schools, including declining enrollment numbers and rising costs. Additionally, business must increasingly understand—and embrace—the changing needs and desires of students. Schools, and the business community, must foster diversity of background, culture and thought.

Research—the backbone of higher education—must ground itself in theory and applicability, thus bridging a gap between the academy and industry. James believes Goizueta is well positioned to address these areas in the coming years thanks, in part, to its commitment to serving the community and improving society.

Industry Has Taken Notice

In August, the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executives from America’s top companies, released a new “Statement of Purpose of a Corporation.” The document, signed by 181 CEOs, presented a stark contrast to previous work. It spoke to a new trend in business, one in which leaders are committing their companies to benefitting multiple stakeholders not just shareholders. This includes customers, employees, suppliers and communities.

Goizueta is ahead of the curve as evidenced by its centennial campaign that calls on businesses and business education to “go beyond” the status quo and focus more on the greater good.

“I was gratified to read the CEO statement and to see the support,” James said. “I think we have been on that trend in the business community because we have some very astute senior executives and CEOs who understand the value and role of business in society. And because, from the ground up, we have employee bases that are asking their companies to have a more impactful role in society.”

James, John H. Harland Dean and professor of organization & management, said business schools play an important role in advancing this vision. Entrusted with the future workforce, schools give students the tools to hone and refine skills and ideas to change not only how organizations operate but how they support a broad spectrum of stakeholders and the communities in which they operate.

Voting with Their Feet

The views expressed by the Business Roundtable come as no surprise to James and others at the forefront of business education. But they did shake the bedrock of a long history in management education.

The statement of purpose marks a departure from the Milton Friedman Doctrine.

“The Friedman doctrine has influenced all aspects of business since it was first published in 1970, from how corporations operate and compensate executives, to how we teach management in business schools,” said Brian Mitchell 00EvMBA/MPH, associate dean of Goizueta’s full-time MBA program and head of the school’s global programming and initiatives. “The singular focus on shareholder value has also led to a wide range of outcomes for businesses and society, including vast wealth creation as well as some infamous ethical failings.”

Today, students at all levels exhibit a deep interest in social enterprise and justice.

“Students are helping shape the future at schools because they have expectations about what they want from their educational experience and what they want from their professional experience,” James said. “They’re voting with their feet. If they don’t find a school they feel engages their interests, they will seek alternatives. And I think the same is true with their employers. If they don’t find companies that are aligned with their interests, they will seek alternative forms of employment.”

For example, Social Enterprise @ Goizueta supports classes with titles like “Business and Society” and reaches close to 300 students each year in curricular and co-curricular activities. The center also supports Start:ME Atlanta, a business accelerator program that, to date, has helped more than 200 small businesses succeed and pour resources back into the community. Start:ME Atlanta was recently recognized as a 2019 Lighting the Way grant recipient by the SunTrust Foundation.

Service and Responsibility

Of course, service to the community should not be limited to schools. James and many others believe in a growing sense of responsibility streaming out of the boardroom and into society at large (the multi-stakeholder effect from the Business Roundtable).

“I feel a growing sense of conscious capitalism in the world today,” James said. “Our students demand we pay attention to more than the bottom line. They want this in their lives, and it is something we are uniquely suited to bring out in them through our social enterprise, leadership and other programming and ultimately, through the heart of our community.”

But devotion to a learning community is also an integral part of the educational experience, something James and others in the school say should continually be leveraged.

To earn a certificate of advanced leadership in the MBA program, for example, students must complete a capstone course, finish military-inspired leadership training at Fort Benning, go through multiple reviews and serve as Delta Air Lines Leadership Coaching Fellows or “peer coaches” to new students.

“Traditionally, the rationale for fostering community in business schools is not only because students derive enormous value from the power of the networks they build but also because a significant portion of their learning is based on peer-to-peer interactions,” said Andrea Hershatter, senior lecturer in organization & management and senior associate dean of undergraduate education. “In professional environments, managerial effectiveness is in large part based on the ability to pull together organizational resources, communicate and work across boundaries and identify opportunities to create synergy. Thus, curricular opportunities that allow students to experience the power of working within and across groups is extraordinarily useful. Additionally, community-based learning fosters an appreciation for diverse viewpoints and serves as a means for developing nuanced, contextual perspectives in decision-making.”

Students want a clear path to their goals, which likely won’t fit in a syllabus full of lectures and theory. For this reason, Nicola Barrett, Goizueta’s chief corporate learning officer, refers to “learning journeys” rather than curricula or programs. Corporations contract with Goizueta for custom programming for their employees (a growing business), and degree-seeking students want more than boxes to check.

“We’ve moved from just-in-case learning to just-in-time contextual learning,” Barrett said.

Strength in Diversity

Goizueta is a diverse community that offers students opportunities to immerse themselves in different cultures multiple times during their education. Close to a quarter of BBA students will study abroad at some point during their career at Goizueta. Additionally, MBA students receive instruction on language, history and other cultural aspects through partner programs in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences.

Future generations will live in more diverse communities and encounter a wider range of perspectives and ideas.

“Ultimately, exposure to society, history and language is to help students show up with a level of empathy when visiting a new country,” Mitchell said in a previous interview with Emory Business. “When you show up with that increased level of empathy, it helps your learning, understanding, appreciation and ability to lead in that context. Instead of just showing up and going 100 miles an hour, you enter with an appreciation for how this environment came to be: from the political, historical and societal aspects.”

James sees work to be done in increasing the proportion of domestic minority and female students. One strategy is recruiting more diverse faculty. In recent years, the number of total faculty has grown along with the number of female instructors and researchers.

Since James’ arrival, nearly half of the 34 faculty members hired have been women.

“We have focused our efforts to attract and retain a diverse faculty and have had particular success with regard to female faculty,” said Kristy Towry, vice dean for faculty and research and John and Lucy Cook Professor of Accounting. “The more diversity you can bring in, the better the thinking gets, the better the problem solving gets. It just elevates everybody. This is crucial as we seek to build a faculty that reflects the diversity in our various stakeholders, including our students and the business community we serve.”

And Goizueta is a leader in the space.

A report last year from Poets & Quants indicated that, among U.S. universities on the Financial Times list of the top 50 business schools, Goizueta had the highest percentage of female faculty: 33 percent. Most notably, the school’s pre-tenured faculty was 46 percent female. Towry said women currently make up 34 percent of the school’s faculty. Currently, half of Goizueta’s pre-tenured faculty, those focusing heavily on research, are women.

“I think we’re intentional about identifying talent and opening doors to places that we potentially would not have considered,” James said. “You have to educate decision makers on what excellence looks like and where it can be found. And when you do that, you expose yourself to diversity in all of its types.”

This includes diversity of student goals. Goizueta offers degree programs for undergraduates and graduate programs for full-time and working professional students. Recognizing growth in career interest and student demand, in 2017 the school started a graduate program in business analytics. Another area of growth is non-degree offerings through Emory Executive Education, Goizueta’s arm for custom corporate programming and open enrollment for working professionals.

Executive Education offers a breadth of topics and delivery methods. “We’ve got to be able to meet learners where they are,” Barrett said. “So, if that’s in their office, if that’s on their smartphone, if that’s in person … I think those flexible modes of delivery are going to do well. But doing it in a way that is still about the learner and not losing the intimate learning environment, that is what our faculty do so effectively.” Barrett does not rule out future use of holograms and artificial intelligence to maintain levels of interaction sometimes lost in distance learning. She, and others in leadership, speak often of the Goizueta community and how it must continue to be a source of strength and pride regardless of external changes and challenges.

“I think we should also be thinking about, right from the start, what people need at different points in their career,” Barrett said.

The Business Value of Research

Meeting the needs of mid-career professionals comes in various forms. Partnerships with industry are one way faculty at Goizueta source valuable data for research but also the information to guide the creation of curricula and coursework. As business education enters a new era with up to four generations in the workplace simultaneously (Boomers and Generations X, Y and Z), understanding the dynamics of the office is increasingly important and valuable to both the researcher and the practitioner. To accomplish this, multiple faculty members at Goizueta conduct behavioral research to complement other cutting-edge methods involving data.

“Professional schools like ours are in a unique position,” Towry said. “Because the things that make for good academic research are not the things that necessarily make for good practical applications. For the academy, what we’re trying to do is very precise and theoretically grounded. It’s a balancing act, but I think the trend is definitely moving to that symbiotic relationship between the academy and industry. We’re bringing in faculty who know how to speak to both.”

Towry says faculty members, in increasing numbers, collaborate around new technologies and trends. Faculty learn from each other, melding the academic tradition with real-world experience.

Veteran professors have long incorporated wisdom from the real world into the classroom. Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Chair and Professor in Organization & Management and senior associate dean for strategic initiatives, says such methods will increase in higher education for added relevance in research and in the classroom. “There’s no better way to get to what’s important,” he said, “than interacting with executives.”

He envisions more researchers using organization data, like that captured by human resources departments, over the next decade. This comes as a benefit to students, who learn every day from professors charged with being on the forefront of new technology, new practice and new theories.

“As we think about the future of management education, it’s really important to combine grounding in traditional business functions and paradigms with future-facing skills,” Hershatter said. “In addition to changes that are driven by technology, increasingly complex, multilayer business issues will require new ways of analyzing, operating and structuring. Because many of our faculty members are engaged in groundbreaking research that informs practice, they are able to endow our students with insights and methodologies that will enable them to evolve along with the organizations they will lead.”

A Community that Goes Beyond

Indeed, Dean James continues to strategize with business leaders and educators for the benefit of students and to propel the school forward.

“Business education is at a crossroads, and Goizueta will be a leader thanks to its focus on building a community of influencers and valuable professional networks,” noted James.

These elements, along with a strong alumni base and committed individuals, will ensure Goizueta is not only meeting the needs of students and industry but encouraging world-changers to carry a sense of community and social-mindedness into their work and beyond.

“We will remain relevant and sought after by students and faculty because of our ability to deliver an excellent educational experience and research environment while, obviously, keeping that community focus first and foremost,” she emphasized. “We will build upon our past and welcome the changes that inevitably lie in store for our future.” 

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For nearly 20 years, Livingston has worked to recruit MBA students to Emory’s Goizueta Business School. She’s traveled the world recruiting potential students for the full-time program and even encouraged her husband, Kevin Livingston 04EMBA, to enroll. Today, she’s senior director of admissions and leads the evaluation and yield team. This reorganization of duties in the MBA Admissions Office is one of many changes she’s experienced over the years.

This fall, Livingston swapped seats and agreed to be the one interviewed. Her perspective typifies Emory’s business school: agile, reflective and ready for the future.

EB: As we celebrate the school’s centennial, would you share some of the changes you’ve seen in admissions?

Livingston: A couple of things stand out. First, we’re completely paperless now. I remember way back when, I’d be taking stacks of files home to read, and we had a large workroom that held all our file cabinets. Now, everything is paperless. This was a huge change. Second, every year I feel the recruiting process starts earlier and earlier. When I first started, October was the prime time to participate in MBA fairs, and recruiting would start then as well. Then the recruiting timeline moved to September, then August, and now it starts in July, even before the incoming two-years start classes.

EB: Why do you think this is?

Livingston: Students want to start the process earlier and are eager to engage with the schools. It’s a competitive environment, so schools want to start the process earlier as well.

EB: You’ve interviewed hundreds of students over the years, especially in your new role. Why is this part of the admissions process so important?

Livingston: We find the interview so critical because it gets us beyond the person on paper. By having a 30- to 40-minute conversation with someone, you really get the sense of whether they’ve done their research. Have they thought about the value of the degree and how it will help them achieve their goals? Would I want this person on my team? Are they going to give back to the community? And are they going to come here and take on a leadership role? That’s the expectation, as there are so many leadership opportunities in the program.

EB: How does it feel holding someone’s destiny in your hands?

Livingston: Knowing this decision can impact the direction of someone’s life and career is impactful and very rewarding. That’s why when I’m talking to candidates, I use my psychology background and will often counsel them if the school isn’t the right fit, offer them advice on other programs and options or urge them to reapply. We want to set expectations so that they are prepared and not disappointed once they get here.

EB: Would you speak briefly about your role with the Forté  Foundation?

Livingston: The growth of women in leadership, here at Goizueta and at Emory, is so exciting and exemplifies the goals of the Forté  Foundation, which is to increase the number of women in business. Forté’s alliance links talented women, influential companies, leading universities and business schools, and pioneering donors. Together these important players commit to advancing women in business.

I’ve been involved with the organization since Goizueta became a member about 15 years ago. I served on the board a few years back, and now I am a member of the advisory council. Advisory council members offer input on the organization’s strategy, programming and projects. They will come to us and say, “Hey, we are thinking about this,” or “What route do you think we should go?” 

EB: Your daughter, Sarah, is a competitive swimmer and a junior in high school. As she begins looking at colleges, how does it feel to be on the other side of the admissions process?

Livingston: Thankfully, Emory is on her short list! Naturally, I am urging her to at least minor in business. I’d love for Sarah and my younger son, Robert, to major in business, because I really believe in the skills that you learn and that the degree will set you up for success.

EB: As we look to the future of Goizueta, what’s in store for you?

Livingston: I kind of live in the moment. I’m part of a great team in the admissions office and in the school overall, and I’m still learning. I don’t know what my next move will be, but I really love what I am doing now.—Nicole Golston

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EB: Congratulations on your new position. As head of admissions for undergraduates, would you share some of your goals for this position?

Gibbons: Thank you! I’m excited to be in a position where I get to champion a program that I know can be transformative for students. I want to guide every student with aspirations of studying and working in business to see the Goizueta BBA program as the place that will challenge them to grow intellectually and give them the tools to develop professionally. The BBA curriculum coupled with the exploration of the liberal arts in Emory College can be a great fit for so many students with a wide range of interests and future goals. I want that message to be clear so none miss out on what Goizueta has to offer.

EB: What’s the biggest change you’ve observed in students’ expectations in the last three to five years?

Gibbons: I am consistently amazed by the students that come through our door. They are so talented and committed to putting their best efforts into pursuing their goals. That commitment comes with a tremendous amount of pressure that they put on themselves. Through social media, they have incredible networks, but they also see every time someone else achieves something they aspire to obtain, and that can be hard. We see both sides of that in the BBA program: the achievement and the self-doubt and fear.

EB: The business school began as a program for undergraduates, adding the MBA degree later. As the BBA program undergoes its annual curriculum review, what excites you about its future?

Gibbons: While the formal curricular review hasn’t concluded, I do know that one thing won’t change—we will continue to embrace academic rigor and will enter the next 100 years with excellence. Part of the process is to look critically at the curriculum to make sure we are not only providing relevant knowledge and skills but are also considering what businesses and organizations will need in the future. One certainty is that future business leaders need to have a strong appetite for data analytics, so we will make sure this has the appropriate space in our curriculum.

As for the process,  I love that it is focused on the student voice. We have involved students in the process and are truly listening to what students say they want and need. I’m excited to be a part of a program that won’t allow itself to get too comfortable; both programmatically and in partnership with the faculty, we are constantly evaluating how we can do more for our students.

EB: You noted that students interested in the business school are identified early and that outreach, like visiting residence halls for cookie chats and sharing information about the program, occurs throughout their freshman year. For those Emory students who are not accepted into the program, how do you handle that?

Gibbons: Typically, when a student is denied admission, it comes down to their ability to manage the academic rigor required for the BBA program. Working with a student who isn’t prepared for the program is challenging, but it’s our responsibility—no matter how badly the student wants to be at Goizueta—to make sure they’re going to graduate from this institution. Academics are first. If it doesn’t feel like it’s the right fit from an academic standpoint, we don’t want to lead them down a path that they’re not going to be successful in. Since we have the opportunity to spend so much time with the students during these first two semesters, it’s really not a surprise to a student if they’re not admitted. There would have been an ongoing conversation about, “This is where you’re at. This is where I think you need to be. Here are some ways you can get some resources to help you get there.” However, students who aren’t in the BBA program still have the opportunity to take some business classes and engage in the business community at Emory through clubs and organizations.

EB: What would people be surprised to learn about you?

Gibbons: While I often share this fun fact, many are surprised to learn I spent eighth through twelfth grade living in South Korea. My dad is a career Army officer, and we were stationed there for six years. It was an amazing and transformative part of my life.

EB: When you are not at work, what do you do for fun?

Gibbons: Away from work, I love spending time with my husband, Marc, and family. I married into a die-hard, 56-year season ticket holding Cleveland Browns football family, so the fall is spent wearing orange and brown and yelling at the TV. For the first time in many years, we may get to cheer more than we grimace and shout.

EB: Finally, of all the moments of working with students, what’s your favorite?

Gibbons: At Goizueta, few moments match our BBA Ceremony as we lead into graduation weekend. Celebrating all of the honors and successes the students have earned is magical.—Nicole Golston

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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 fund began in 2014 with $25,000. By 2019 it had increased nearly tenfold from donations and returns on real estate deals, and it keeps going up. The board has also burgeoned to 38 members, including BBA, MBA and law students. Roy Black, a professor in the practice of real estate and director of the real estate program, said, “We opened the Fund Board to law students this fall because the documents we review for potential investment have a substantial amount of legal terms and information. We have nine teams analyzing investment deals and one team researching the effect of a possible recession on our investment strategy.”

The fund has two goals: provide students an educational experience of managing real money and ultimately act as an endowment fund for the real estate program.

The student board meets six times each semester, and after they’re divided into teams, each team presents results of analysis before an investment decision is made. The fund invests in Reg. D private real estate syndications in the fall semester and publicly-traded REIT (real estate investment trust) stocks in the spring semester.

In October, students heard a pitch from alum Eric Freedman 00BBA (pictured) of Coastline Capital Partners, a California-based firm that is inviting investment in a current project.

Such experience provides a serious leg up in the job market.

Preston Stevens 15MBA worked with the fund while at Goizueta. He called the fund “a great hands-on learning experience” that prepared him for his current career as a CFA and senior underwriter at Freddie Mac in Washington, D.C.

Alumni interested in presenting projects for fund consideration should contact Roy Black at rblack2@emory.edu.

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“We are thrilled to have a set of very diverse Goizueta alumni join our second EiR cohort,” says Amelia Pane Schaffner, director of entrepreneurship. “They each have tremendous experience and skill sets, on both the entrepreneur and investor side, which are areas our students have equal interest in. The EiRs are also important advisors to us, providing a sounding board for how to grow our initiatives and best help our community of entrepreneurs, as well as keeping us well connected in the ecosystem.”

New Entrepreneurs in Residence Cohort

Sig Mosley 66Ox 68BBA is the managing partner of Mosley Ventures, a venture fund investing in early-stage technology start-ups in the Southeast. He also serves on the board of directors of several private companies and has received numerous honors for his work.

Roger Barnette 98MBA is CEO of MessageGears, an email marketing software company whose clients include Expedia, Booking.com and Geico. Prior to MessageGears, Barnette was president of IgnitionOne, a company formerly named SearchIgnite, which he founded. He grew that business into one of the world’s largest digital media platforms. 

Michael Cohn 05MBA is an entrepreneur, early-stage technology investor and former managing director of Techstars Atlanta. He was the co-founder of Cloud Sherpas; the fast-growth cloud advisory and technology services firm was acquired by Accenture in 2015. Since then, Cohn has shifted his focus to supporting aspiring entrepreneurs as a mentor and investor to dozens of start-ups and founders.

Gardiner Garrard 99MBA is the cofounder and managing partner of TTV Capital. He has more than 19 years of venture capital experience and is recognized by Institutional Investor as one of the top investors in fintech. While at Emory, he was awarded the Art Dietz Faculty Award for Excellence in Finance. 

Kanchana Raman 12MEMBA has launched several companies over the past 23 years. In 1996, she founded Avion Systems and built an organization with extensive knowledge of the ICT industry. In 2003, she formed ASI in India, and in 2014 she formed Avion Networks Inc., a joint venture with Tech Mahindra.

Louise Wasilewski 13EMBA is CEO and cofounder of Acivilate, a social enterprise providing rehabilitation software to criminal justice agencies. She has spent 25 years in technology innovation, introducing streaming TV and operating secure cloud-based services.

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The program marks an increased commitment on Goizueta’s part to draw from the skill set of current employees to fill positions. In the few months of implementation, four staff members have been promoted—Jackie Conner, formerly director of academic affairs and instructional design, is now associate dean of Executive MBA Programs; Corey Dortch, formerly senior director of Full-Time MBA Programs, is now associate dean of the Evening MBA Program; Nicole Hitpas, formerly director of program marketing, is now chief marketing and communications officer; and Marvell Nesmith, formerly head of the registrar’s office, is now director of academic affairs and instructional design. 

“This initiative is already showing outstanding gains,” said Alicia Sierra, director of human resources and diversity at Goizueta. “Although we are in the first phase of this important project, it is already showing positive results by allowing us to maximize the talent and skills of employees who are already here and contributing to Emory. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

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Goizueta Business School welcomed new full-time faculty members in Fall 2019, including:

William Mann
Assistant Professor of Finance

William Mann completed his Ph.D. in finance at the University of Pennsylvania in 2014, and he served as an assistant professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Mann’s research is
mostly empirical and focuses on corporate and household finance. His research is forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics.

Catarina Fernandes
Assistant Professor of Organization & Management

Catarina Fernandes completed her Ph.D. in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, where she also earned her MBA. She studies how status hierarchies affect both individual and team level outcomes. Before starting at Goizueta, Fernandes held positions in general management consulting and human capital consulting in both Europe and the United States. She will be teaching negotiations in both the BBA and MBA programs.

Wenjun “Wen” Gu
Associate Professor in the Practice of  Information Systems & Operations Management

Wenjun Gu completed his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and worked for six years as a clinical assistant professor at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business. Gu’s specializations are in quality management, operations management, supply chain management and quantitative analysis. His articles have been published in the International Journal of Services and Operations Management and the Industrial Engineering Journal.

Ren Li
Postdoctoral Fellow, O&M

Ren Li completed her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. Her primary research focus is on the range of personal and contextual factors influencing behavior and behavior change in different cultures. Her work has been published in top academic outlets, including Psychological Science and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

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