Archives
September 2005
Message from acting director Cyndy Tkachuck '93: Gearing up for fall events
Autumn usually invokes memories of a changing landscape, as leaves turn to vibrant shades of red and gold. As we look ahead to a busy fall and Cornell Homecoming, which will be held on October 14-16, we take note of some other changes taking place for us, such as the Johnson School "Alumni" web site. [more]
JS holds steady in rankings
Last week two more publications released their rankings of business schools. Both publications ranked the Johnson School the same this year as they did last year. We again ranked #18 among "national" schools in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) survey, and #17 worldwide (#12 among U.S. schools) in the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) MBA rankings. These surveys use different criteria than Business Week, U.S. News, and some of the other ranking publications.
The WSJ rankings are based entirely on recruiter feedback. Read more about the Wall Street Journal rankings.
The EIU rankings are based on four categories with 20 different attributes. The four major categories weighted by importance are: recruiting success (35 percent); faculty, student and educational quality (35 percent); graduate salaries (20 percent); and alumni networks (10 percent). Read more about the Economist Intelligence Unit's rankings.
As you know, we are determined to build and sustain a world-wide reputation as a top-ten business school. Our five main initiatives—developing centers of research learning and practice; creating the faculty of the future; leading in diversity and inclusion; matching our programs to the market and extending the school into the marketplace—will continue to be our focus over the coming years as we work together to achieve our overall objective.
Annual Fund Tops $1.5 Million
Alumni giving to the Johnson School's 2004-2005 Annual Fund topped $1.5 million. The Annual Fund helps to underwrite more than 10 percent of the Johnson School's annual budget. Gifts to the Annual Fund increased by 15 percent over last year's giving as participation rate grew from 24 percent to 26 percent. According to Marybeth Tarzian, former director of the fund, donations increased because of a more consistent model of peer-to-peer solicitation program, which includes identifying, recruiting, and training a group of highly valued alumni volunteers for the Dean's Leadership Committee and for reunion.
Exploring career options
The Career Management Center conducts career programs even during the summer months, before classes begin. This summer our students benefited from the expertise and advice of over 45 alumni representing a wide variety of industries and job functions that are of the greatest interest to our incoming students. On July 23 we welcomed eight alumni to Industry Day for students in our Twelve-Month Option MBA program.
In August, over 265 members of the Class of 2007 learned about industries ranging from venture capital to investment banking and durable goods manufacturing in a daylong career exploration conference. In the morning, 23 alumni participated in panels on industry trends. Equally valuable were the afternoon panels comparing the job functions and day to day experiences of nearly 25 alumni. We greatly value the participation of our alumni and their employers in these key career development programs.
Author, author
C. Clinton Sidle, the director of the Roy H. Park Leadership Fellows Program and a leadership consultant for companies around the world, has released his first book, "The Leadership Wheel: Five Steps for Achieving Individual and Organizational Greatness." In the book, Sidle reveals how to foster and encourage leadership as a vehicle for personal and organization change. He shows how to ignite the creative and compassionate enthusiasm of individual leaders, teams and organizations in a five-step framework.
Also, Johnson School's Visiting Lecturer of Entrepreneurship John Nesheim has released his most recent book, "The Power of Unfair Advantage: How to Create It, Build It, and Use It to Maximum Effect." The book shows readers how to attain unfair advantage over competitors and to bring the pioneer spirit into the new enterprise. Nesheim is an engineer and veteran of Silicon Valley whose research has focused his research on how to do a high-tech startup.
Featured alumni
Stephen M. Smith, MBA '95, is president of Naviance LLC, the leading provider of planning, management, and advising for high schools. Smith is also a member of the adjunct faculty of Johns Hopkins University where he teaches graduate coursework in technology and business. [more]
Craig Edelman, MBA '00, began his post-Johnson School career in brand management at the Clorox Company, but resigned in 2003 to start his own company, HappyWares. [more]
Dmitrios Papaioannou, MBA '00, was promoted to executive vice president of Business Development at Civitas Consulting in Athens, Greece. [more]
Recent media hits
In this month's JS in the News you'll find Professors Robert Frank and Stuart Hart, and the Johnson School, in the New York Times, Today and Fast Company.
