Spreadsheet One
*School Backs Interns in Nonprofits
*GSB Loses Long-Time Adviser
*Guilt is a Sunk Cost
*Accessing the Global Workplace
*Prom Night Redux

Spreadsheet Two

Illustration by Terry Colon

Bottom Line Squared

STUDENTS IN THE PUBLIC Management Program (PMP) are interested in better understanding how and why some innovative businesses are promoting double bottom lines—profits and public service—at the same time. Double bottom lines, the subject of this year’s Public Management Initiative, will be explored by inviting industry speakers to the GSB and looking at the business models of companies like Wal-Mart and Cisco. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opened its health insurance plan to workers who punch in only a few hours a week, and Cisco Systems recently offered laid-off employees the option of receiving a third of their salary if they work for a nonprofit organization for a year.

The topic also includes innovative efforts to bring the venture capital model of for-profit investing to the nonprofit sector and initiatives by nonprofits to create for-profit functions. For more information, go to the PMP Web page at www.gsb.stanford.edu/pmp.

And the Alumni Survey Says...

ALTHOUGH GSB ALUMNI/AE have a very strong affinity for their classmates, younger alums also like to network with classes besides their own, according to results of a new survey conducted for the Stanford Business School Alumni Association (SBSAA). Grads view the Internet as an important source of information, although younger alums are more inclined to access and use the alumni Web site and online services.

About 4,500 of the School’s 23,000 alumni/ae responded to the mail and email survey. Nearly 100 also attended focus group sessions in 14 locations around the country and in London. Those who earned their MBA in the last 15 years “are really interested in having the Alumni Association provide networking opportunities across the board, either through chapter events, conferences, or career services,” says Lynne Reynolds, SBSAA executive director. Older alums are interested in class reunions but tend to think linking peers is a less important role for the association than “enhancing the reputation of the GSB.” The association will use survey results to design events, services, and communications targeted to people with different interests and awareness of existing SBSAA programs, Reynolds said.

SRO Turnout for Hollywood Class

Photograph by Stuart Brinin

SIGOURNEY WEAVER, star of Aliens and Gorillas in the Mist, was one of a cast of entertainment industry notables who spoke to students in Rod Kramer’s course Working in the Film and Television Industry. Also appearing at the three-hour-plus weekly workshops, which Kramer cotaught with Emmy- and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Bill Guttentag, were writers, directors, film and television producers, agents, a film critic, the head of a major entertainment law firm, and a former CEO of Universal Studios.

More than 100 students auditioned for 60 spots in the course by writing proposals for a project related to the entertainment industry.

Weaver, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford in 1972, turned out to be refreshingly down to earth. Her advice to budding producers was: “Be picky in your projects.… Don’t do it if it doesn’t feel right to you.… Embrace failure and learn from it.… Never do business with people you wouldn’t have dinner with.” But most important, she said with a sly grin, “When you’re very successful, hire me!”

Alum Returns to Head MBA Admissions

Derrick Bolton, MBA ’98, became the GSB’s director of MBA admissions in August. Alumni/ae, students, administrators, and faculty participated in an intensive national search for a director to succeed 10-year veteran Marie Mookini, who announced her desire to change roles last winter. Mookini remains at the School as an associate director of development.

Bolton, an associate at Goldman Sachs since graduating from the GSB, also earned a master’s degree in education administration and policy analysis, with a higher education focus, while he was at Stanford. Before coming to the School, he was a business analyst at McKinsey & Co. He completed his bachelor’s degree in psychology at Southern Methodist University.

Hiring Talent

MBAS LOOKING for a better job will find tips in a new book that was written primarily for recruiters seeking talent in competitive markets, says Steve Anderson, MBA’99, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The book, Hiring the Best and the Brightest, is by Sherrie Gong Taguchi, MBA ’89, who directed the Business School’s Career Management Center until October when she moved to London with her husband, Mark Taguchi, MBA ’86.

Taguchi’s tips are based both on her experience assisting company recruiters and GSB students to make good matches and her past work in global recruiting and human resources. The book is published by Amacom, the publishing arm of the American Management Association.