Olin Business School

The Monsanto Fund has awarded Washington University $3.7 million to develop, build and operate two custom mobile classrooms. Washington University will lead a partnership, including the St. Louis Science Center, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Saint Louis Zoo, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, to create and provide programming on the vehicles. The program will help young elementary school students develop enthusiasm for learning and doing science, through interactive experiences and exhibits.

Photo by Mary ButkusWilliam P. Bottom was installed March 9 as the first Joyce and Howard Wood Distinguished Professor in Business.

When both husband and wife hold college degrees, it is the husband’s degree — and the husband’s degree alone — that typically determines whether a “power couple” will move to another city for career purposes, suggests a new study by economists at Washington University in St. Louis. The study is bad news for young women seeking gender equity in salary and career opportunities.

There are times when bending over backwards to make customers happy won’t result in better profits; in fact, it could cause a drop in profits. Unprofitable customers show up in every industry, causing companies to reconsider the value of customer service and to even consider “firing” those customers that cause the most loss.

When a company decides to turn to a call center to handle its customer service, company heads assume that signing a contract is the best way to get the best service. Not necessarily, says Tava Olsen, associate professor of operations and manufacturing management in the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. Olsen and a colleague at the University of Toronto, found that some contracts allow call centers to meet their obligations half-way, leaving their clients — and their client’s clients — on hold.

Over a handful of classes, M.B.A. students developed programs for selling merchandise featuring National Park System logos.

A gift of $1.2 million was augmented with $300,000 from the University’s Sesquicentennial Endowed Professorship Challenge.

Photo by Mary ButkusMore than 50 students put on their best suits and tried out for the reality television show The Apprentice.

Carl Schramm, President and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, will deliver an address entitled: “Innovation: How it will impact the United States in a Global Economy” on Friday, Feb. 18, 2005.

Its first holder will be Barton H. Hamilton, professor of economics, of management and of entrepreneurship in the Olin School of Business.