Olin Business School

November Business, Law & Economics Tip Sheet

SukhatmeA “Colloquium on Energy” lecture and panel discussion will be held on Friday, Oct. 31 from 10 am to 12 pm at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center. The symposium is part of the Washington University “Sesquicentennial Environmental Initiative” to help better understand the role that research universities can play in addressing issues related to the environment. The lecture and panel discussion is co-sponsored by the John M. Olin School of Business and the School of Engineering and Applied Science Environmental Engineering Science Program. A Keynote address on “Alternate Energy Sources: The Indian Context,” will be presented by Professor S. P. Sukhatme, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board in India and professor emeritus and former director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. A panel discussion on energy related issues will follow Professor Sukhatme’s lecture.

The grant supports a long-term investigation of the dynamics of family functioning and the well-being of children born to unmarried parents.

KouvelisThe concept of hiring another company to handle “non-core” functions has been around since companies began. But it’s only been in the last several decades that the term “outsourcing” has been coined. Selecting which functions to be outsourced is as individual as each company and the goods and services it provides. Panos Kouvelis, a professor of operations and manufacturing management at the Olin School of Business at Washington University, says that it is often argued that outsourcing helps share risks with suppliers, but new risks enter the picture. “Often difficult tasks, if not appropriately managed, can get out of control,” Kouvelis says. “However, these are the tasks in which a firm can build competency and appropriate market value.” Kouvelis explains the pros and cons of outsourcing.

Troubling new evidence on corporate governance and CEO pay.In 1980, the average CEO was paid around 40 times as much as the average worker, but the multiple is now above 400 for the largest U.S. companies. With such increases in top executive pay, including New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso’s $139.5 million retirement-pay package, an expert on executive compensation says that corporate governance practices should come under even greater scrutiny. Todd Milbourn, Ph.D., a professor of finance at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, has recently documented other troubling evidence with regard to the efficacy of corporate governance and CEO pay.

October Business, Law & Economics Tip Sheet

Forbes Magazine has ranked the M.B.A. program at the University’s Olin School of Business No. 12 among 67 U.S. business schools. The Forbes rankings measure best “return on investment” for M.B.A. graduates of the Class of 1998. For this year’s survey, Forbes sent out 18,000 questionnaires to full-time graduates of M.B.A. programs around the world. With a five-year gain of $120,000 over tuition and foregone salary, the Olin School jumped eight places, from No. 20 in Forbes’ last ranking of M.B.A. programs in 2001.

“Professor King is a consummate scholar, unprepossessing and humble, but always present to do his indispensable part,” Dean Stuart I. Greenbaum said.

Students in the inaugural Executive MBA class of a joint program between the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai, China, arrived in St. Louis on September 6 for two weeks packed with classes and celebrations. The 70 students from China completed their MBA degrees with a capstone two-week residency at the Washington University business school.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will collaborate with Assistant Professor Jeffrey T. Macher of the Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and Associate Professor Jackson A. Nickerson of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis as part of its strategic initiative to modernize the regulation of pharmaceutical manufacturing and product quality. Under the terms of the material transfer agreement with the FDA, Macher and Nickerson will conduct research and analysis to help the FDA identify the factors that predict manufacturing performance to further refine the agency’s risk-based site selection model for inspections as well as its other efforts to target identified risks to pharmaceutical quality and strengthen its pharmaceutical compliance program.