Olin Business School

Dennis Zhang, assistant professor of operations and manufacturing management at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, has won the 2020 Olin Award for research that creates a human-focused algorithm to improve warehouse workers’ packing time while also reducing material costs.

Leadership, at its core, is about influence. In Olin Business School’s popular MBA elective “Power and Politics,” students learn how to navigate leadership positions, which necessitates building power and gaining influence in the workplace.

Two WashU alums and one current student helped take a cosmetics startup from a dream to a reality.

Panos Kouvelis, who teaches and helped to popularize the Waffle House Index regarding natural-disaster responses, says the outbreak’s impact on global supply chains promises to be two times worse than when the SARS virus emerged in 2002 in China.

Menstruation is considered taboo in Ethiopia, and girls often miss school or drop out because of their periods. Freweini Mebrahtu designed a solution — and, with support from St. Louis-based charity Dignity Period, founded by a Washington University faculty member, it has benefited nearly 800,000 girls and women. Mebrahtu was recently named CNN’s “Hero of the Year.”

Training, and retaining, tech talent is essential to St. Louis’ continued economic growth. A new partnership between Washington University in St. Louis and the nonprofit organization LaunchCode makes the transition from apprentice to full-time employee at the university easier for LaunchCode graduates.

Olusegun Obasanjo, an economic innovator in Africa and two-time leader of Nigeria, will make his first stop in the Midwest to kick off the third annual Olin Africa Business Forum at Washington University in St. Louis.

A new study that included a pair of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School, Kurt Dirks and Andrew Knight, explored what underlies an accurate sense of trust in a business organization.

While closely held ownership isn’t necessarily bad, research co-authored by a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School suggests some African firms may miss 21st century growth opportunities without the ability to raise capital through shared ownership.

Some economic observers continue to warn about signs of a potential U.S. recession. Glenn MacDonald, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, says many signs aren’t particularly reliable — but keep an eye on housing starts.