Olin Business School

Entrepreneurs dedicated to helping empower and build strong communities have reached the final stage of the annual business plan competition sponsored by the YouthBridge Foundation and the Skandalaris Center at WUSTL. The seven finalists have presented their business plans to the judges who will award $155,000 in seed money to the winners. The award ceremony takes place April 13 after a keynote speech by Kevin Salwen who has just published a book about his family’s experience with selling their home, living with less and giving back to their community.

Crackerjacks, hot dogs and sports management – it’s all part of the spring season – semester – at Olin Business School. With an all-star list of guest speakers, students explore the business side of professional sports. It’s easy to keep your head in the game when top executives and media pros are sharing their expertise and experience from the wide world of sports.

Being named the Wells Fargo Advisors visiting lecturer in entrepreneurship at the Olin Business School and Skandalaris Center is a homecoming of sorts for Robert E. Wilson III, JD. The international investment banker, lawyer and entrepreneur grew up in St. Louis but now calls Rio de Janeiro home. He is on campus April 5-16 and will return again in the fall.

Imagine a 2010 remake of the movie “The Graduate”.Instead of advising the young grad to pursue a career in “plastics” today’s version would advocate, “operations”.It’s the buzzword for the 21st century and the key to running every successful business. Olin Business School faculty and a group of St. Louis business leaders dedicated to improving operations management have formed a new association to promote innovation, collaboration and performance through operational excellence. 

As an engineer, Anne Marie Knott, PhD, saw a need for research that could help firms make better research and development (R&D) decisions. Now Knott, associate professor of strategy at Olin Business School, studies how companies can improve their R&D effectiveness.

The social media giant Twitter began five years ago this month. While millions of people are using it to let their friends know about good places to go for lunch and what their kids are up to, it’s impact on business may be just beginning.

Recent earthquakes have rocked the Chilean wine industry, spilling millions of gallons of stored vintages throughout the region.  A study tour from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis will visit Chilean vineyards, wineries and exporters next week for a first-hand look at the industry and how it has been affected by the quakes.

“What goes down, must come up,” says Olin Business School’s Sam Chun. He will share tips on how businesses can prepare for economic recovery at the next “Thought Leadership Series” discussion in Kansas City, Mo.

Washington University in St. Louis has more than 12,000 students, 4,500-plus faculty and staff and only 5,168 parking spaces on its Danforth Campus.Students at the Olin Business School saw this problem as a real world business case and decided to tackle it head-on with a competition to inspire innovative solutions to the campus parking challenge with an emphasis on keeping it green. 

Before athletes grabbed the limelight at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Olin MBA student Shaun Hudson found glory in hot wings at the “OLINpics” Feb. 11 in the Knight Center. The OLINpics continue at 5 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 18, at Brandt’s Cafe in the University City Loop with an Olympic trivia contest.