Olin Business School

Build-A-Bear Workshop founder and CEO, Maxine Clark, will respond to questions about entrepreneurship in today’s economy at the 5 p.m. Assembly Series talk on Thursday, February 5 in Graham Chapel. The event is co-sponsored by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Olin School of Business, as well as several organizations outside the University. Following the discussion at 6:15 p.m., Clark and Ken Harrington, the center’s managing director, will present the Olin Cup and a cash prize to the winning student team.

Mark J. Brostoff has been named associate dean and director of the Weston Career Center at Olin Business School. Brostoff, who began the position Jan. 9, is a retired commander in the U.S. Navy and earned a master’s degree in health administration from WUSTL in 1982. He graduated from Alfred University in 1980. He was […]

Locking up toxic assets in a “bad bank” may sound childish, but banking expert Stuart Greenbaum says, “by isolating impaired assets and preventing them from contaminating other bank assets, banks can concentrate on the business of making new loans.”

Olin Business School professor Jackson Nickerson says, “ChangeCasting” is the best way for presidents and CEOs to build trust, create understanding and enact change with all of their constituents and employees. Nickerson’s ChangeCasting is a new web-based approach to communication that allows executives to lead and accelerate change within their organizations. It opens up a two-way street between the corner office and employees at every level of a company.

Michael Lewis, marketing professor at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis says the Obama brand was launched by a liberal and progressive web-based ‘net roots’ movement in the primaries, moved towards the center on some issues in the general election and now must figure out how it will it will position itself to govern.

Mark J. Brostoff will join the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis as associate dean and director of the Weston Career Center effective Jan. 9, 2009. Brostoff is a retired commander in the United States Navy and a WUSTL alumnus with a master’s degree in Health Administration, earned in 1982. He graduated from Alfred University in 1980.

Hailing from Asia, Europe, South America and the St. Louis region, 112 students will graduate Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008 from the Executive MBA program at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis.

You don’t have to look far these days to find examples of corporate scandals involving fraud. A new study finds that performance-based pay is to blame for fraudulent behavior and actually motivates people to “cook the books”. Judi McLean Parks, the Reuben C. and Anne Carpenter Taylor Professor of Organizational Behavior at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of the study believes the results have implications for CEO compensation plans and the financial difficulties many companies are experiencing today. “All I have to do is look at Enron, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to know that this does happen. And now we’ve demonstrated the causal link to contingent pay.” Fraud uncovered at Fannie Mae alone from 1998-2004 has been estimated to be in excess of $10.6 billion.

Photo by Kevin LowderMore than 600 professors, students and families — a record number — gathered in the Knight Center Nov. 27 and gobbled up more than 250 pounds of turkey and all the traditional dishes from stuffing to pumpkin pie at the Olin Business School’s 14th annual Thanksgiving Dinner.

Entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in this year’s Olin Cup competition with $70,000 in seed money at stake. A record-breaking 38 teams entered the annual business formation contest operated by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Five finalists are now in the final stage of the competition which concludes with business plan presentations in January; winners will be announced Feb. 5, 2009.