Business & Entrepreneurship

Nestlé Purina’s latest commercial for its Beneful dog food, aimed directly at canines by using high-frequency noises inaudible to humans, should serve to increase the bond owners feel with their pets, says a marketing expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Law students have a new opportunity to learn firsthand about the practice of business associations and regulation in the nation’s largest city through Washington University in St. Louis School of Law’s New York City Regulatory & Business Externship. Offered for the first time this fall, the semester-long clinical experience includes a variety of legal externship opportunities, including those with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, New York City Department of Finance, Standard & Poor’s/McGraw Hill, Securities and Exchange Commission, New York Attorney General’s Office, Anheuser-Busch’s New York headquarters and the New York City Law Department. 

Washington University in St. Louis is among five finalists for the MBA Roundtable Innovator Award Program, which is designed to recognize and promote educational initiatives that advance innovation in MBA education and acknowledge institutions that are driving change in the field.

Andreas Schloenhardt, PhD, associate dean and associate professor of law at the University of Queensland (UQ) TC Beirne School of Law, presents “Be Careful What You Pay For: Trafficking in Persons in Australia,” on Oct. 7, in Anheuser-Busch Hall. Schloenhardt’s lecture was part of a visit to the law school by a delegation from UQ’s TC Beirne School of Law.

Interest in social entrepreneurship — using innovation and enterprise to address social problems — has exploded, but training has always been from a business perspective. This fall, the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis will be home to the first social entrepreneurship program based in a social work setting.

The Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center was feted for its 10th anniversary Oct. 5 with a celebration in the building’s Anheuser-Busch Dining Room.

First-year MBA student Katie Coco (center) packs energy bars into a care package during the Olin Cares kickoff event Oct. 1 in Simon Hall. More than 40 Olin Business School students assembled care packages for service men and women overseas and for children with cancer. Olin Cares is the school’s graduate volunteer organization that sponsors several community service projects throughout the year.

Bank of America’s plan to begin charging customers $5 a month for using its debit card has been met with resistance from citizens and members of Congress alike. In fact, there is some reputational capitol at risk as a result of this kind of charge, says a banking expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Privacy lawsuits in the United States usually seek damages for revealing embarrassing but true facts by the media— the so-called “disclosure tort” — but this is a “poor vehicle for grappling with the problems of privacy and reputation in the digital age,” says Neil M. Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. “The disclosure tort has never really worked successfully,” he says. “It’s largely unconstitutional.” Richards notes that there are two existing privacy law concepts that may be good supplements or even replacements to the disclosure tort.

President Barack Obama is calling for a more modernized and concentrated hiring process in the federal government as more of its workers retire. While the government attracts many excellent candidates, the recruitment process remains bureaucratic, cumbersome and complex, leading many talented workers to be turned away. “The federal government is facing a war for talent and its competitors are winning,” says Jackson A. Nickerson, PhD, professor of strategy at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.