Newest Johnson institutes provide platform for connecting students and distinguished alumni

Members of Johnson’s Advisory Council discuss emerging markets and entrepreneurship and how they critically inform Johnson’s modern MBA

Sept. 30: Sage Hall

During back-to-back panel sessions, members of Johnson’s Advisory Council (AC) spoke to and answered questions about the Emerging Markets Institute (EMI)and Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute (EII) at Johnson.  The panels were designed to provide students insights into specific AC members’ unique experience within the topical areas covered by the schools newest institutes.

Hernan Saenz, MBA ’98, MIL ’98, Nell Cady-Kruse, BS ’84, MBA ’85, and Bob Staley, BS ’57, BME ’58, MBA ’59, featured a rich discussion about topics including: China’s world position and need to become an consumer economy in order to retain its strength and the decisions corporations much make such as whether to put a physical stake in the local ground (in addition to tapping emerging markets as importers) and how they must carefully balance uncertainty fears with potential opportunity when considering entering a developing market.

Entrepreneurship then took over and to an equally packed house spoke of the relevance of EII and the study and meaning of entrepreneurship at Johnson.  AC members Jeff Parker, BS ’65, MEng ’66, MBA ’70, Doug Brent, MBA ’86 and Jim Hauslein, BS ’81, MBA ’84, discussed the cycle of the entrepreneurial culture in America; how it began out of necessity, shifted to ‘by choice’ and is now, given the soft economy, taking another trip back to necessity. The panel also spoke to the need to seize the moment and not wait for perfect conditions to launch.  The panelists all agreed that succesful entrepreneurs need to allow the customer to get involved as quickly as possible and inform development as an integral innovator rather than keeping an idea ‘baking’ within a corporate team.

Both institute panels were very well attended by Johnson students whose interests and career goals have and will continue to serve a vital role in the growth and shaping of all four Institutes and Centers of Excellence at Johnson.  In addition to EMI and EII, the school is also home to the Parker Center for Investment Research and the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise.