Olin Business School

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.

Marketing students at Olin Business School are gearing up for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games with a series of events to educate, entertain and raise funds for an adventure camp sponsored by Variety the Children’s Charity of St. Louis. The kick-off event for “OLINpics” begins at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, in the Knight Center on the Danforth Campus. 

The Danforth Campus has more than 12,000 students, 4,500-plus faculty and staff and 5,168 parking spaces. Teams of Olin Business School students have been crunching the numbers since December in hopes of solving the campus parking challenge and winning the grand prize of $5,000 in the first Olin Sustainability Case Competition. Four teams compete in the final round Friday, Feb. 12. 

Winners of this year’s Olin Cup business competition got $75,000 to jump-start their ventures and create jobs. Ken Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center at WUSTL, announced the winners Feb. 5 at the annual award ceremony in Graham Chapel.

Given ongoing agitation by a chorus of elected officials, the stage may be set for a major overhaul, if not outright abolishment of the nation’s largest home mortgage financing operations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Radhakrishan Gopalan, who teaches finance at Olin Business School, tells Smart Money that the private market should be able meet home financing needs, in most cases.