Business & Entrepreneurship

You might expect that a boss who cracks jokes is healthy for the workplace, while a boss who blows his stack isn’t. As it turns out, according to Olin Business School research, the opposite might be true — depending on the circumstances.

Where machine learning meets spring planting and big data intersects with farming big and small, two Olin Business School researchers have devised a computational model so farmers and seedmakers could take the guesswork out of which particular variety of, say, soybean to plant each year.

The second annual Shakespeare at Olin event April 15 will bring together jugglers, magicians and musicians evoking the Renaissance era, along with performances of the Bard’s works by community players and a reappearance of The Dean’s Players.

Five Olin Business School students showed off their financial savvy and took first place in the “value investing” division of the prestigious Quinnipiac G.A.M.E. Forum last month in New York. 

Joyce Trimuel, EMBA ’16, has always seen her career advancement as a chance to help others. Now, as the diversity and inclusion officer for CNA, she’s making its corporate culture more inclusive.

In Chicago, Steven Collens, AB ’93, was instrumental in starting 1871 and MATTER, co-working spaces for tech and health-care startups, respectively.

Paul Pariser, AB ’76, is reshaping Manhattan with his real estate development and investment firm, Taconic Investment Partners.

George Liu, EMBA ’08, learned American management styles at the Washington University/Fudan University Executive MBA program. He was able to grow his silk exporter business as a result.

Consumers can pretty easily discern how automobile manufacturers and their suppliers make money, for example. But fewer understand how their $20 co-pay for anti-cholesterol medication gets split between the drugmaker, the insurance company and the pharmacy benefit manager. New research from Olin Business School aims to explain.

Reviewing empirical and theoretical papers in the aftermath of the 2007-09 financial crisis, Olin Business School finance expert Anjan Thakor cites a twofold finding from his study. First, U.S. and European banks need to understand that insolvency was the issue that rocked the world, not liquidity; and second, the current standards for bank capital are all wrong and require adjustment.