The University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business offers an innovative course called Business on the Frontlines, taught by Viva Bartkus, an associate professor of business management. The goal for the 19 MBA students participating in this course? To explore business in a real life context in countries trying to rebuild their economies after a war or violent conflict.

The two components of the course, first taught in spring 2009, are a classroom segment where students study developmental economies and topics related to peace-through-commerce efforts, and a field visit to explore in detail the activities and impact of local and international business in post-war reconstruction societies.

In mid-December, the students split into three teams and traveled to Lebanon, Kenya and Uganda.

“I had hoped that the students would do a deep-dive into Lebanon, learning as much as they could in advance, and then use the time in the country to meet a rich cross-section of people, and to dig even deeper,” said Edward Conlon, management professor and associate dean of the Mendoza College, who accompanied the Lebanon team (see his commentary here).

“And I think this plan worked beautifully.  In just a week or so, the students have been able to ask very nuanced and well-informed questions of bankers, business people and political leaders that enable them to see both the opportunities and challenges faced by business in Lebanon and, indeed, the country as a whole.”

The teams that traveled to Kenya and Uganda witnessed entrepreneurial efforts ranging from farming to tourism possibilities. In the process, the MBAs learned about microfinance and the work being done by various churches to start and support businesses. After talking with business leaders in the small town of Migori, the Kenyan team gave the leaders some time to turn the tables and ask about them about their lives.

“Everyone had only one question:  ‘What advice can you guys as business students give me to help me improve my business?’” said MBA candidate Garrett Busch. “It isn’t just the business owners either.  The whole country is just dying to learn more. They are so hungry for it, but their potential is just being handcuffed because of the lack of development and the government corruption.”

Photos and blog entries about the current students’ trip can be found at: http://businessonthefrontlines.blogspot.com/

source: Mendoza College of Business

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Professors Tim Calkins and Derek Rucker of the Kellogg School of Management are gearing up for the school’s sixth annual examination of Super Bowl commercials, known as the Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review.

Rucker, associate professor of marketing and the Richard M. Clewett Research Professor, and Calkins, clinical professor of marketing, will serve as non-biased resources for students as they evaluate the advertisements in real time.

Known as the world’s top business school for marketing, Kellogg’s marketing faculty and members of the Kellogg Marketing Club will convene in Evanston, Ill. on February 7, 2010, to watch the event, rate the advertisers using a set of academic criteria known as ADPLAN and produce a final ranking of the most – and least – successful advertisers.

ADPLAN is an acronym for Attention, Distinction, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification and Net equity.

Students judge the advertisements based on their potential to drive sales, favorably impact companies’ bottom lines and improve brand awareness, as opposed to evaluating the commercials according to their popularity. They will address questions such as:

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As more and more business schools begin accepting both the GRE and GMAT for admission, applicants are stumped as to which test to take.  Francesca Di Meglio looks at the factors that go into this decision in a recent article for BusinessWeek.

After analyzing performance, post-MBA plans, demographics and the like, Di Meglio concludes that when you apply to business school may play a larger determining role than other factors.

If you plan to apply in a few years, by then the GRE and GMAT may be on more even footing with admissions committees. If, however, your answer is this year or next, then the GMAT is almost certainly the best choice.

“It is considered by many to be a rigorous, well-respected exam that provides a clear link between achievement on the test and success in business school, something the GRE can’t claim, at least not yet,” Di Meglio writes.

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Dean Rich Lyons from the Haas School at UC Berkeley shared his excitement about the way things are going these days in a video recently posted on YouTube.

Despite the budget squeeze in the state of California, Lyons says the Haas School has been building a more robust financial model for at least 15 years now, which has allowed it to make some of the investments that are generating a lot of excitement for 2010.

In this short video, Lyons focuses on three areas–hiring new faculty, ongoing faculty excellence, strategic program investments–he feels put Haas at the top of the heap.

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