Skip to Content

Stanford GSB News

 
  • Email
  • Print
  • Share

News, Ideas, People

A digest of the latest news from the Stanford Graduate School of Business

 
photo of Darrell Duffie The Failure Mechanics of Dealer Banks

Prof. Darrel Duffie offers lessons from the financial crisis, and how banks that are major dealers in securities and derivatives can quickly unravel as their counterparts and customers rush for the exits.

The Right Decisions Aren't Always Easy, Says Avon's Jung

Andrea Jung stuck with a company she loved. Today, she's turning heads, as Avon's CEO. The firm is a success story in a brutal economic climate.

Photo of Heidi RoizenNetworking Is More Than Lots of Names, Says Heidi Roizen

Networking is more than having a hefty collection of business cards and attending A-list parties. Heidi Roizen has been a Silicon Valley CEO, a venture capitalist, and a corporate board member but “the homework never ends,” she told students.

 
Read about alumni in the news

 

 

Recent Speakers

ohoto of esther koch, MBA '79Successful Aging (video)

How age presents itself in your life is really up to you. Successful aging isn't predetermined by your genes or just something that happens to you. Gerontologist and aging expert Esther Koch, MBA '79, discusses the success factors for aging and how to apply them to your life.

photo of william Browder, MBA '89Don’t Invest in Russia Today, Warns Bill Browder

Hermitage Capital Management went from $25 million to $4 billion by investing in undervalued Russian companies. Today its founder, Bill Browder, MBA '89, says anyone investing in Russia long term "is out of their mind."

Culture and People Made the Difference Says Kovacevich

Success in the business world is less about brains and more about developing people, Richard Kovacevich, MBA '67, chairman of Wells Fargo, told a View from the Top audience.

Credit Card Pioneer Fairbank Recalls the Early Days

As founder of Capital One Financial Corp., Richard Fairbank revolutionized the credit card industry with teaser rates and zero-balance transfers. But in the beginning he recalls, he had "no money, no experience, and no ideas."

photo of william F. Sharpe Nobel Laureate Sharpe: There Are No Shortcuts in Investing

Although Nobel Laureate William F. Sharpe didn't give listeners any new advice about how to weather the current financial crisis and fill the holes in their portfolios, he did explain during a speech on the Stanford University campus how futile it is to read sure-thing investing books or watch the latest financial guru to find easy answers.

September 11 Attacks Changed FBI Focus

Today the Federal Bureau of Investigation is more focused on counterterrorism around the world than on racking up big numbers of arrests FBI Director Robert Mueller told a student audience.

YouTube: Stanford Graduate School of Business:view recent speakers and events

At the Business School

photo of Chris Bradford, MBA '05 and Acha Leke, MS '96, MS '99, PhD '99,An Academy for All Africa

Troubled by the fact that an estimated 20,000 educated professionals leave Africa every year, Fred Swaniker, MBA '04 Chris Bradford, MBA '05 founded the African Leadership Academy in Johannsburg, a secondary school they hope will help change the face of the continent.

photo of Oliver Williamson Oliver Williamson,
MBA '60, Shares Nobel Economics Prize

UC Berkeley Professor Oliver Williamson, a 1960 MBA alumnus of the Stanford GSB, shares the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics with Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University.

Five Tenure-Track Professors Added to Business Faculty

Five new academics joined the Graduate School of Business faculty this fall. They are Charles I. Jones, Charles M.C. Lee, Steven Callander, John-Paul Ferguson, and Ali Yurukoglu.

Chair Established to Honor Professor Van Horne

Alumni and friends of Professor James C. Van Horne have established an endowed chair in his honor.

Welcome the Class of 2011

The 385 members of the MBA Class of 2011 hold passports from 54 different countries and came from 57 different industries.

People

Stanford Business magazine

photo of Huggy RaoMarket Rebels

Social activists are key players in the creative destruction and rebuilding of markets, says Professor Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao. From the latest issue of Stanford Business magazine.

photo of Sarah SouleSocial Movements

Research by Sarah Soule and her colleagues shows that movements like the unsuccessful pro-ERA drive of the 1970s can create change, but timing is key.


red bullet Read Stanford Business magazine online
 


 

New Research

photo of Harikesh NairEliminating Sales Quotas May Stimulate Profits

Eliminating sales quotas boosts company profits says Professor Harikesh Nair. In one case, the new sales compensation plan without quotas resulted in a 9% improvement in overall revenues, which translates to about $1 million of incremental revenues per month.

photo of Stefan ReichelsteinCost of Reducing CO2 Emissions Could Plunge

The financial impact of regulating coal-fired power plants that produce carbon dioxide emissions under a cap-and-trade system will be much less than previously projected according to research by Stanford Business School Professor Stefan Reichelstein and doctoral student Ozge Islegen.

photo of Zakary TormalaBelieve Me, I Have No Idea What I’m Talking About

Experts can be more persuasive by expressing uncertainty, argues Stanford Graduate School of Business marketing professor Zakary Tormala.


photo of Erica PlambeckSlowing Introductions of New Electronic Products Reduces E-Waste

Some types of regulations governing disposal of electronic waste can reduce the world’s mountains of devices waiting to be recycled, while they also slow the rate of new product introductions says Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Erica Plambeck.

photo of Prof. Tunay TuncaServices Market Is Key to Open Source Software

Open source software has become a major and fast-growing presence in the computer industry in recent years. Professor Tunay Tunca of Stanford Graduate School of Business and his co-authors argue that the key factor in whether to create open source software is the strength of the market for support, integration, and related services for such programs.

Peers Influence Decision to Become Photo of Jesper Sorensen an Entrepreneur

Why do some geographic areas — such as California’s Silicon Valley — produce so many entrepreneurial companies? The answer may be workplace peers. Working with former entrepreneurs makes individuals more likely to start their own businesses, says Professor Jesper Sørensen of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Alan SorensenCustomers Can't Buy It If They Don't Know It Exists

Rock groups can lose as much as 40% of their potential sales because consumers don’t know enough about them, says the Stanford Business School’s Alan Sorensen. There are lots of crowded markets out there where lack of information skews sales.

Courting So-So Customers Can Be Good for Business

Marketers often lavish attention on their best customers, but Stanford Graduate School of Business researchers James M. Lattin and V. Srinivasan suggest it may be more cost effective to increase their spending on clients who only occasionally use their products or services.


 

Elsewhere at Stanford