Stanford GSB News

June 2009

Leadership

We Must Restore Trust in Business
Stanford Business School Dean Robert L. Joss says too many organizations have performed poorly and too many have squandered their trust. How do we restore trust in these vital institutions? From Stanford Business magazine.

Leadership Means Responsibility
Dean Robert L. Joss defines what it means to be at the top: "It's any position where you take responsibility for a group with a mission to fulfill." 

Lessons of War
Six Stanford professors--White House advisers, Cabinet members and congressional go-to experts--share their insights on terrorism, diplomacy and the role of scholarship in policymaking. What keeps us from stopping wars? From Stanford Magazine.

Ethics

Promoting Ethical Conduct for Nonprofits
Two Stanford Law School scholars examine the ethical issues that arise specifically in the nonprofit sector and identify four crucial factors that influence ethical conduct: moral awareness, moral decision making, moral intent, and moral action.

The Risk of Sharing Genetic Information Online
Broadcasting genetic information electronically to family and friends sounds relatively harmless. But bioethicists from the Stanford School of Medicine warn the practice raises a host of ethical questions.

Management

Improving Lives for the Very Poorest Consumers
As students design products to help people with tiny incomes improve their lives, our journal follows their progress in the 2009 elective Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability from a class brainstorming session to a Myanmar farm. From Stanford Business magazine.

How to Be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy   
When cutbacks are necessary, can a good boss do right by the company's finances and by its staff? Some pain is probably unavoidable, but Stanford management science and engineering Professor Bob Sutton says that psychological and organization theory research suggests clear ways to handle such situations with a minimum of harm to the people and company involved. 

Diversity

Better Decisions Through Teamwork
The U.S. Supreme Court benefits from differences of opinions among the justices. Research that included studying how teams make decisions says when a narrow majority exists, pressure of the minority forces the majority to think with more complexity and to consider diverse evidence, says Stanford Business School Professor Deborah Gruenfeld.

Newcomers May Enhance Group Performance
Groups with diverse functional expertise, education, or personality can increase performance by enhancing creativity or group problem-solving. In contrast, more visible diversity, such as race, gender, or age, can have negative effects unless it's managed properly, says Stanford Business School Professor Margaret Neale.

Recent Speakers

Oracle CFO's Career Didn't Follow Straight Path
For Jeff Epstein it's not been a straight career path from his time as a Stanford MBA to becoming CFO at Oracle. There were many twists and turns he told a student audience. 

What's It like to be the Boss of The Most Interesting Man in the World?
He's suave, he's wise, and his advice is always: "Stay thirsty, my friends." Jose Antonio Fernandez, chairman and CEO of FEMSA, the largest bottler in Latin America, is the man behind the ad campaign featuring The Most Interesting Man in the World.

Research Papers

The Meaning(s) of Happiness
Authors:  Sep Kamvar, Cassie Mogilner, Jennifer L. Aaker
Abstract:  An examination of emotions reported on 12 million personal blogs along with the results of three experiments reveal that the meaning of happiness is not fixed; instead, it shifts as people age. Whereas younger people are more likely to associate happiness with excitement, older people are more likely to associate happiness with feeling peaceful. (PDF)

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