Spreadsheet One

Old Ritual, New Roof

Illustration by A.J. Garces

IN A CEREMONY that traces its beginnings back more than 1,000 years, some 75 GSB faculty and staff joined construction workers to raise high the roofbeam of a new wing of the 10-year-old Littlefield Management Center. The building, which will house the dean's office and serve as the School's main entrance, is scheduled for completion in the spring.
       August's "topping out" ceremony, which signals the placing of a building's final structural beam, has many roots and as many variations. In ancient Scandinavia, the Vikings would celebrate a victory by building a new mead hall and hoisting an evergreen tree to the rooftop. The Chinese would smear a building's ridgepole with chicken blood to appease the gods, while the Romans might toss a few unfortunate folks into the Tiber.
       The Business School forwent the human sacrifice, however. Instead, the audience first lined up to autograph the steel beam with marking pens and then watched as the beam, bearing a small evergreen tree, an American flag, and a GSB banner, was slowly swung into position and secured by two seemingly nerveless construction workers. Along with all the other murmurs from the past, somewhere on the beam, now hidden from view, is another historic reminder, this one dating back to World War II. Among the signatories, Kilroy--prominent proboscis, beady eyes, and all--was there.

Asian Students
Choose the GSB
DESPITE, OR EVEN BECAUSE of, the economic woes of Asia, "more and more young Asians than ever are going to America to get their MBAs," said Fortune in an international edition story in October. Fortune began researching the story last spring, interviewing GSB students from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the People's Republic, and India, to ask them why they had chosen to earn their MBAs at Stanford.
       "Even those headed for more traditional MBA haunts, such as investment banks and management consulting firms, say they leave Stanford imbued with the spirit of innovation," the magazine said.
       Sak Morimoto, MBA '98, told Fortune he wanted not only to escape the hierarchy of his conventional Japanese corporation but to help restructure his country's corporate culture. He's now back in Japan with McKinsey and Co. Vivian Tsui, MBA '98, who wound up at the Timken Company in Ohio, picked the GSB because the culture was "a little less conventional and I could get more involved." One of her involvements was in the Global Management Immersion Experience (GMIX), which Fortune refers to as "just one way Stanford has tried to internationalize its curriculum," noting also the new core course in global management and the international diversity of the student body.
       And Dinesh Sawal, MBA '98, now at A. T. Kearney in San Francisco, put his finger on what Fortune called "the nurturing soil of Silicon Valley." Sawal, referring to another international member of the GSB community, Hungarian-born lecturer Andy Grove, told the magazine that one of the thrills of his first week at Stanford was to run into the Intel founder in the hall and be able to tell his "longtime hero" how Grove's career had inspired him.

Search for a Dean
YOUR VIEWS ARE SOLICITED by the search committee currently meeting to select the eighth dean of the Business School. Cochaired by GSB professor Charles A. Holloway and Stanford University Provost Condoleezza Rice, the committee invites suggestions and nominations.
       Rice is at the Office of the Provost, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2061, and Holloway is at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5015. Both can be reached at deansearch@gsb.stanford.edu.
       Members of the committee include John Lillie, MBA '64; Ignacio Giraldo, MBA Class of 1999; GSB doctoral candidate Prashant Fuloria; GSB faculty members Mary Barth (PhD '89), Roberto Fernandez, Joel Podolny, John Roberts, Paul Romer, and James Van Horne; Karen Wilson, the GSB's acting director of information resources; and Margaret Brandeau, an associate professor of industrial engineering. The new dean is expected to begin his or her term Sept. 1, 1999.

Silver Apple, Eat and Run

Illustration by A.J. Graces

PROFESSOR EMERITUS William "Bill" Miller seems to have always been there for alums. But he almost didn't make it this time. Miller was to be presented the SBSAA's Robert K. Jaedicke Silver Apple Award on October 10, the Saturday of Alumni Weekend, but it turned out he had to go on a typical Miller trip--a rush flight to South Korea to advise that nation's president.
       Miller has spent his life almost equally divided between the public and private sectors. He has been president and CEO of SRI International; he founded and chaired the David Sarnoff Research Center; he was vice president and provost of Stanford. He's also been a director of more organizations than you could list on this page, and he's logged more air miles than Donner and Blitzen combined. Still, he says, he always returns to the faculty. (Typically, he's on two: the GSB's and the School of Engineering's.) Despite all this, Miller always seems to find time for alumni/ae events anywhere in the world. Most especially the ones anywhere in the world.
       In a hastily arranged ceremony on October 9, outgoing SBSAA president Richard Talbot, MBA '79, praised Miller "for his continuous interest in and support of alumni/ae" and presented him with the Silver Apple. After a gracious acceptance speech, Miller, the apple, and his overflowing briefcase were off to SFO.

"Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it's all gone."

FINANCE PROFESSOR JAMES VAN HORNE, quoting retired colleague James Porterfield at Alumni Weekend in October