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Welcome to the Dean's Log Archive! By clicking on the date or day below, you can link to the issue for that particular date. The Dean's Log is a periodic first-person account from the Dean of Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business about the achievements, events, programs, faculty, students, and alumni, especially written for the alumni and friends of the premier business program for Silicon Valley.

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Day 100 October 8, 1997 Day 175 December 22, 1997
Day 204 January 20, 1998 Day 218 February 3, 1998
Day 242 February 27, 1998 Day 268 March 25, 1998
Day 294 April 20, 1998 Day 324 May 20, 1998
Day 340 June 5, 1998 Day 450 September 23, 1998
Day 518 November 30, 1998 Day 594 February 14, 1999
Day 626 March 18, 1999 Day 700 May 31, 1999
Day 800 September 9, 1999 Day 850 October 28, 1999
Day 883 November 11, 1999 Day 1000 March 26, 2000
Day 1066 May 30, 2000 Day 1081 June 15, 2000

     
1997-98 Vol. 1 1998-99 Vol. 2
1999-00 Vol. 3


Vol. 1



The Dean's Log:Day 100
October 8, 1997

Commentators and editorial writers often weigh in with assessments of a new administration's first 100 days, remarking on what's been accomplished (or not). I thought I'd spare you the media punditry and let you know first-hand what we see as milestones in these first three months, as well as give you a forecast of what is to come.

First, we are planting a stake in the ground that exclaims: Santa Clara offers the premier business programs for Silicon Valley. Keep posted as the evidence mounts.

The Leavey School of Business reflects the characteristics of our dynamic region: innovation, speed, leading-edge, dynamic, competitive, global, and responsive. That's why our students and alumni are found in various leadership roles in nearly all the Silicon Valley's top performing companies. Consider that 25% of the Silicon Valley 50 Fastest Growing Technology Firms are led by Santa Clara graduates!

One element in the Silicon Valley success story is the significant contribution of venture capitalists who have sought out promising entrepreneurs and emerging companies to "grow." The School of Business has its own version, with generous friends making investments in our growth with professorships, scholarships and program endowments. Among recent investments we've received are:

  • The William T. Cleary Professorship, an endowment for business school faculty, provided by Silicon Valley marketer Bill Cleary, founder of CKS Group, a leader in marketing through the new media.
  • The first pledge toward a $4 million professorship campaign to honor senior faculty who have made a difference to the character and vitality of the School of their lifetime.
  • A $1 million program endowment from MBA alumna Agnieszka Winkler, founder and CEO of Winkler, a leading advertising agency, to enhance Santa Clara's capacity to develop leaders for a just world.
  • Establishment of a new MBA Alumni Visiting Professorship, funded through annual donations from graduate alumni, enabling Santa Clara to bring to campus national and internationally renowned scholars and practitioners who can impart their leading-edge knowledge into the fabric of the School (think of this as "technology transfer").

As the momentum of the Leavey School rolls ahead, we find:

  • the entering Fall Quarter 1997 MBA class had an average GMAT in the 88th percentile, putting this group of students on par with MBA students enrolled at University of Michigan, NYU, UC Berkeley, and UCLA, among others.
  • this year's undergraduates are similarly well-qualified, as the newest business majors earned an average 3.5 gpa and an average SAT score about the 80th percentile.
  • Marketing Professor Dale Achabal being appointed as associate dean for R & D, a structural decision to solidify our commitment to a world-class faculty of "teaching scholars" and in the development of "new products"--experimental classes, professional symposia, and consulting relationships with the region's industry, as examples.
  • faculty research being more accessible and expanding its exposure as our Working Papers and Reprints series are being put on our Web site
  • a new Executive MBA program is developing under the leadership of Management Professor David Caldwell, strengthening our ties with bright, fast-paced, and dynamic executives, and extending our product offerings.
  • plans are underway for launching an undergraduate convocation this Spring, providing interactive opportunities between students and senior executives from our Advisory Board, and focusing on the dynamics and uniqueness of Silicon Valley.

And this is just the first 100 days! Finally, one of the unexpected pleasures of becoming Dean is hearing from alumni about the effect their education has had upon their lives. The cards and e-mail come from across the nation and around the Pacific Rim. They tell us of the continued value they place on the connections made here. They let us know about the companies they've started, and the hearts they have touched; they tell us about friends, families, and the foundations that were influenced by Santa Clara. It is always gratifying to hear these stories and experiences, and I hope to hear more of them as I begin to meet with our alumni and friends in gatherings around the country.

I invite you to renew your connection with the Leavey School of Business and become an active partner in the premier business program for Silicon Valley.

Barry

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Day 175:December 22, 1997

HAVING AN IMPACT....ALREADY
Our message is getting through. We are on the move. Here's what we heard recently from two alumni.

An undergraduate alumnus writes "Recently I received your letter regarding the 'First 100 Days' and I was inspired to contact you regarding a United Nations sponsored delegation that our Center is hosting...it made me realize that while, in the past I have given presentations at and brought groups to Stanford University, I have never contacted my alma mater...I decided to amend their itinerary and bring them to Santa Clara University." This alumnus is with the Center for Asia Pacific Development and the delegation is headed by the Chair of Shanghai's Economic Commission (involving over 20,000 industries and responsible for approving all future joint-ventures).

An MBA alumnus e-mails: "I seldom take the time to get involved in any alumni discussions (prior to Santa Clara's MBA program I also graduated from UC Berkeley and Stanford), but I have been very impressed by the style and energy with which you have embraced your new challenge. Somehow that sparked a desire to answer your call to become active." This MBA graduate recently founded DataMind Corporation, listed in the Top 100 of both Computerworld and Upside lists of "Hot Private Companies."

Notes like these, among others, let us know that the word is getting out about the impact of Santa Clara as the premier business program for Silicon Valley.

FACULTY FALL RETREAT--A WHOPPING SUCCESS
Most frequently checked remarks in the feedback survey about our September School Retreat were: "Simulating, fun, felt more community spirit, felt better about the school, great location, learned something, important." Overall, the Faculty Retreat was described as "excellent" by 60% of the respondents, and "very good" by another 31%. We'll start working on the Fall '98 Retreat later this Winter.

TALKING ALL THE TIME--CONVERSATIONS, DIALOGUES AND MEETINGS
I made good on my promise to have a one-on-one conversation with every faculty member before the end of the Fall Quarter. I found these very informative and a great opportunity to learn more about my colleagues, and keep focused on key priorities. We also held two faculty "lunches with the Dean" and more are scheduled over the Fall and Spring quarters. How many executives do you think visited our classrooms this Fall? Take a guess (the answer is provided at the end of this section).

We're hosting three luncheon conversations with Provost Steve Privett to talk more about what "competence, conscience, and compassion" mean, and how we operationalize these concepts at the University. Chairs, and members of both our Undergraduate and MBA Leadership teams, will be participating.

Associate Dean Dale Achabal and I have begun hosting some informal conversations with various faculty members about scholarship within the School--how we build a community of scholars, what constitutes scholarship and intellectual contributions, and how our culture and system supports, and hinders, scholarly activities. We'll be scheduling more of these in the near future. Dale has scheduled a Research Colloquia with Atulya Sarin for January 13, and a Teaching Symposium with Al Bruno and Michelle LaPlante for January 29--with more information to follow as these get closer. The Working Papers Web Page is "live" and the new covers have been distributed to departmental administrative assistants.

LEAVEY LECTURE
Les Vadasz, Intel's Senior VP (and member of their founding team and our Advisory Board) is slated for the Leavey Lecture on January 6 at 6:30 pm in Mayer Theater. Faculty and members of the Dean's Affiliates have been invited to a reception with Les prior to the Lecture.

ECONOMIC FORECAST
The 28th Annual Economic Forecast with our own Professor Mario Belotti will be held on Thursday, January 22, at 4 p.m. in DeSaisset Museum. We will also honor Mario that evening by announcing the Mario Belotti Distinguished Professorship. Join family, friends, colleagues, alumni, and business executives for an economic perspective on the year ahead and a celebration of Mario's contributions.

MBA ALL-HANDS MEETINGS
"All-Hands" meetings for MBA students will take place on January 27 and 28, and we hope all of you teaching MBA classes these evenings will participate. The 5:30 pm classes will begin at regularly scheduled time, with a videotaped presentation by the Dean set to start about 6:30 pm, followed by an "in-person" Q & A session with the Deans in the MBA Reading Room, and refreshments throughout the building. Regularly scheduled 7:00 pm classes will begin at 7:20 pm and end at 8:20 pm while 8:30 pm classes will begin and end as scheduled. This is new--special, informative, celebratory, fun, experimental--and we thank you for participating. More details will follow later.

THE ANSWER
Forty-four (44) senior managers and executives spoke in our undergraduate and MBA classrooms this Fall. Thirteen of these were Advisory Board members. Most schools would be fortunate to have this many over an entire year, not just a single quarter! The active involvement of the business and professional community in our classrooms serves many purposes, not the least of which are operationalizing University initiatives to provide integrated education, building a community of scholars, and educating people to make a difference. This is terrific and please keep me posted--we want to acknowledge their contributions to our educational endeavors in our 1997-98 Annual Report.

COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD--THE DEAN
We're taking the show on the road--and over the next four-to-five months, I will be visiting with various alumni groups around the West Coast--scheduled already at Fresno, Bakersfield, Medford, Portland, Seattle, Napa, San Diego, Orange County, with plans to get back again to Chicago and Sacramento. Please let us know if you would like to come along, or if you know of alumni or colleagues in these areas we should be certain to see while we're in town.

Happy Holidays,

Barry

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Day 204:January 20, 1998

Every hundred days. They come, and go, quickly--and it's great to be able to periodically reflect on what we're doing, and where we're going. My thanks to all of you who have helped to literally "launch" the School in these first 200+ days--through your support, encouragement, financial help, classroom participation, conversations, advice, and in lots of other ways as well. People are talking about us and what they're saying is great news.

POINTS OF PRIDE
What makes Santa Clara the premier business program for Silicon Valley? There are lots of reasons, but let me focus on our faculty this time around.

At our December Town Hall meeting (with all faculty and staff), the Department Chairs, Associate Deans and I gave out awards to our faculty for exceptional and extraordinary performance as teaching scholars. "Good" is what we expect of all our faculty, "very good" is what describes the vast majority, and even "outstanding" doesn't do justice to describing our faculty. Six faculty were singled out for their extra-ordinary accomplishments as teachers, as scholars, and in their service to others: David Caldwell (Management), Andre Delbecq (Management), Dennis Moberg (Management), Hersh Shefrin (Finance), Drew Starbird (Agribusiness), and Meir Statman (Finance).

In addition, we gave awards to another 13 faculty members for their exceptional performance as teachers: Naren Agrawal (Operations and MIS), Yaron Brook (Finance), and Joel Leidecker (Management); as scholars: Kirthi Kalyanam (Marketing), Dan Klein (Economics), Larry Iannaccone (Economics), Rhonda Righter (OMIS), Tom Russell (Economics), Atulya Sarin (Finance), and Manny Velasquez (Management); and for their service: Naren Agrawal (OMIS), Bill Sundstrom (Economics), and Greg Baker (Agribusiness).

"Please know that whomever hired this man, they did a fine job in identifying a gifted educator," writes one of our students to me about Professor Andy Tsay (OMIS). He goes on to say: "I found the material in [Computer-Based Decision Models] to be extremely difficult, which, at times, truly humbled me. My perception and understanding of Professor Tsay is that he is a genius; often times when individuals are incredibly smart, they lack compassion and understanding. What is unique about Professor Tsay is that in addition to having a keen mind, he is host to a personality that shows genuine concern, support, and guidance."

And letters like this are not an isolated occurrence. We've been having lots of fun, Professor Bob Collins (Agribusiness) and I, joking about the student who likened him to a microwave oven in the sense of how Collins was able to make finance become an essential part of this student's life: "I use the tools you taught me at least once a week. Just like a microwave in the kitchen, now I wonder how I ever functioned without finance. Thank you for your wisdom, insight, and enthusiasm."

The folks at Andersen Consulting wrote recently about how much they were impressed by our students and faculty who participated in their Business Integration Contest. Subsequent feedback from the students was also very positive; for example: "The experience of having to work as a team with people you didn't know was most interesting and educational. I finally know or have more of an idea of what the big picture is like. This was a great simulation of real life -- very challenging and rewarding."

The MARIO BELOTTI Distinguished Professorship gets officially announced on January 22 at the 28th Annual Economic Forecast (presented by our beloved and insightful colleague Mario Belotti). In just a few months, and with relatively quiet communications, we raised more than a million dollars to endow a professorship in honor of Mario. In the next few months, we'll be going more public with this fund-raising effort, and provide the thousands of students, alumni, community and corporate executives who have been touched by Mario's gracefulness over his 39 years at Santa Clara an opportunity to make a contribution in his honor. As always, Mario's heart and generosity are directed toward the University.

The faculty size grows, as two job offers in the Marketing Department for next Fall were recently accepted. The two new assistant professors (from the University of Chicago and the University of Texas, Austin) will further enhance our capabilities in marketing strategy, with special expertise in the areas of high technology, retailing, and agribusiness. We're currently recruiting for a new faculty member in the Management Information Systems area, and seeking to fill another two positions in Accounting. These additions, along with future ones, enhance our present services and add to our capacity to provide new offerings. Plans are still moving forward, for example, on new and innovative executive-level MBA program for next year.

OTHER NOTES
We're on-line with our new Working Papers and Reprints series. Check out the latest faculty research at http://LSB.SCU.EDU/faculty/working_series.htm. This year's Crab Feast (January 30), sponsored by the MBA Alumni Association, is the 30th annual event and looks like another sell-out, so you better call "yesterday" if you want to attend. Invitations to the School's second annual Mission Ball (May 2) at the Silicon Valley Capital Club should be going out in a few weeks. At this Black-Tie event we'll honor our exceptional faculty and announce the MBA Alumnus of the Year, and have a great dinner, dancing, good times, and conversations. If you're a golf player, hold May 15th, when our Executive Development Center sponsors the second annual Leavey School of Business Invitational Golf Tournament (a best-ball scramble, mixing faculty and alumni together for an afternoon of chasing little white balls, fresh air, and enjoying one another's company--details to follow).

People ask me whether or not I am enjoying being the Dean. I say: "This is a great job--great people, great opportunities, great fun." Thanks for being part of the adventure.

Barry

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Day 218:February 3, 1998

REFLECTIONS ON AN EL NINO DAY:
How did your day begin? I guess the good news is that I was one of those who made it to the university today --many faculty, staff and students didn't. The bad news was that the guest speaker in my 8:00 a.m. class was unable to wade through the new lakes in his neighborhood and nearby roadways. The fifty percent of those students who did make the class strolled over to the Mission Bakery and we talked about life's mysteries. My day ended the way it started with an Advisory Board committee's dinner on "branding the school" canceled because of weather-related exasperations. The good news--a group of faculty and staff joined me for dinner any ways, we had an engaging discussion, and I got home early! Tomorrow (Wednesday) I'm off to Fresno (driving), for several visits with alumni during the day and an local alumni association reception in the evening.

EXECUTIVES-IN-RESIDENCE: WELCOME
Take advantage of the expertise and insights of our three new "Executives-in-Residence" who have joined us for the rest of this academic year:

Art Dauer recently completed an assignment as vice president, human resources for Northrop Aviation in Southern California, after leaving a 20+ year career with Hewlett-Packard in a variety of sales and marketing management positions (culminating as head of personnel in his last several years). Art is now involved with several start-up ventures. Warren Anderson began his career as a software engineer, before taking the entrepreneurial leap to start Anderson Soft-Teach, a video-based computer learning corporation. Fourteen years later he sold the company, stayed on for one year with the new firm, and now is enjoying time with his family and looking around for other opportunities. Larry Henninger began his own consulting in 1981, so that he could be a confidant to (working one-on-one with) CEOs of small entrepreneurial companies --something that he longed for in his own career in which he helped launch several start-up firms, typically as the CFO. In addition to his finance and accounting background, he has also held line positions in marketing, and even personnel.

All three of our executives-in-residence have MBAs from Santa Clara University (as does Larry's wife, Amber). We initiated Art and Larry into Beta Gamma Sigma. Warren currently sits on our Advisory Board (Art and Larry have previously served) and is active with our CEO Forum.

What are they doing thus far? Art, Larry and Warren are actively involved as "coaches" for my undergraduate leadership seminar this quarter. Larry is heading up a strategic action team evaluating the future of our CEO Forum (which he helped to start and still provides leadership for). Art is working on a research project with Dave Caldwell, Jim Koch, Larry Robertson, and me on the human resources needs of emerging companies. Warren will be involved with our Silicon Valley Undergraduate Convocation, and offering his perspectives on our branding task force. One common project they have is to consider what this position (executive-in-residence) should be all about.

If you'd like to make use of their expertise, their insights, experience, perspective, willingness to help, or whatever --please let me know and we'll get you together. They're also available to talk with undergraduate and graduate students about jobs, careers, industries, and the like.

BUILDING COMMUNITY: "ALL HANDS" MEETINGS AND CRAB FEAST
The feedback has been uniformly positive from last week's first every "All Hands" Meetings --not that folks didn't have suggestions about how we can do it better the next time! Our students felt valued and informed, they were treated as important members of our organization, and they got the chance to spend some informal time among themselves and faculty. I appreciated greatly the many faculty who made themselves available to talk and interact with our students during the informal break. Many of these "little things" go a very long way toward building customer (student and alumni) satisfaction and esprit de corps. We'll experiment with holding the Spring Quarter meetings outside!

The largest number of people ever at the 30th Annual MBA Alumni Association Crab Feast last Friday evening (more than 375)--of course, bolstered by the fact that 64 faculty and staff members participated (another record number by a large margin). The OMIS Department even brought their recruiting candidate to the dinner! We had great fun, lots and lots of crab, and took the opportunity to provide our alumni with more evidence about why we're the premier business program for Silicon Valley: I asked them to remember, if they could, their own GMAT scores, and then told them that most of them wouldn't meet today's entering GMAT standards. We just keep getting better and better --that's the message.

BELOTTI CHAIR "OFFICIALLY" ANNOUNCED
We recently had a wonderful dinner with Mario, his family, and many of his friends and faculty colleagues following his 28th Annual Economic Forecast (this in collaboration with the Kenna Club). Paul Locatelli talked about being one of Mario's students, and shared some comments from Mario's original letters of recommendation for the Santa Clara position. Don Lucas spoke about Mario's willingness to launch an economics symposium 23 years ago for a group of venture capitalists who wanted to understand what it was they were doing! The list of faculty Mario's brought to campus for this symposium reads like a "Who's Who in Economics." I recalled the first time I met Mario when I was being recruited on campus (he rescued me from a young Professor Heineke question) as well as the note I received very recently from an undergraduate student who told me how Professor Belotti had helped her figure out not only economics but what to do with her life at Santa Clara. We'll host another campus reception sometime soon to continue the tributes and to be inspired by Mario's example. Meanwhile, in a little over six weeks we raised about $1.1 million and are currently planning the remainder of the endowment campaign.

Well, it's still raining --at least where I live. Probably need to move the drip buckets! Hope you are having a great day wherever you are.

Barry

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DAY 242:February 27, 1998

SCU's BOARD OF TRUSTEES:IMPRESSED
Last week, the Deans met with the Academic Affairs Committee of the University's Board of Trustees....and I think we left them impressed with the range of initiatives we're engaged in across the Business School. Quite frankly, I think it is impressive and that we should be proud of where we're going. Here are the actual handouts we presented regarding the School's action agenda around the University's key strategic initiatives:

BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS and PROVIDING INTEGRATED EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES

Undergraduate Program (Undergraduate Leadership Team)

  • Holding the first undergraduate Silicon Valley conference (May 1998). This puts Silicon Valley leaders in direct contact with our undergraduates and faculty.
  • Recruiting for certificate program in leadership, with cooperation between our Management Department, the Center for Student Leadership, and Provost Office.
  • Experimenting with multi-course integration in core courses required of business students (i.e., accounting, economics, and statistics).
  • Identifying key learning outcomes for each departmental major. Next stage will identify key competencies to be delivered by each course required for degree.
  • Launching joint undergraduate-MBA degree program, involving co-op (internship) experience.
  • Investigating service-learning program opportunities (e.g., micro-loan program).
  • Promoting faculty teaching/scholarship efforts in developing countries.

MBA PROGRAM (Graduate Leadership Team)

  • Continuing improvement in student quality (GMAT: 88th percentile).
  • Identifying key competencies for each required MBA course. Next stage will review for gaps and redundancies and revise curriculum in response.
  • Reviewing waiver rules and scheduling options for consistency with our desired market position as the highest quality and most responsive MBA program for working professionals in Silicon Valley.
  • Designing new Executive MBA program (1999 launch), with curriculum organized around themes and business problems as modules, rather than functional or discipline-based structure.
  • Strengthening MBA Consulting Group and fostering alliances with The Enterprise Network (TEN) and the Center for Excellence in Non-Profits (CEN).
  • Investigating development of a public management (not-for-profit) option.
  • Offering new Agribusiness MBA track for Peace Corps volunteers.

NON-TENURE TRACK FACULTY:MORE DISCUSSIONS
The Chairs Council, having consulted various faculty colleagues, and after several conversations, is completing a draft report of various policy recommendations for the School's consideration. The locus of discussions will now take place within departments in order to provide faculty the opportunity to talk about the various recommendations at both a philosophical and practical level. We'll see if we can determine a position that makes sense for the Business School. As many of you know the Faculty Senate/University is also addressing similar issues and we hope to be able to both gain from their insights and make certain that any of our aspirations are consistent with their objectives.

MOVING THE BUSINESS SCHOOL FORWARD
The other evening a half dozen Advisory Board members joined with about the same number of our faculty (and several development officers) to continue discussions about how to best market, position, brand, and promote the vitality of the Business School (and its many constituent groups, programs, and interests). We had a thought-provoking and simulating conversation and we'll be meeting again soon to work on both "advertising" (led by Bill Cleary, Senior Partner, CKS Partners) and "public relations" (led by Fred Hoar, President, Miller/Shandwick Technologies West) activities.

The Executive MBA Strategic Action Team has completed two breakfast meeting discussions with Advisory Board members (Debra Engel, VP Corporate Services, 3Com; George Scalise, President, Semiconductor Industry Association; Bob Saldich, President and CEO [retired], Raychem; Steve Strain, Managing Director High Technology Practice, Spencer Stuart; and Patrick Yam, Executive Managing Director, Private Capital Advisors -- we had met earlier with Les Vadasz, Sr. VP, Intel), with one more to go (Bill Cleary; Sherry McVicar, VP Human Resources, Read-Rite; and George Sollman, President and CEO, Arabesque Communications). Their support has been encouraging and this team continues to move ahead smartly!

Nearly one-third of our faculty attended a luncheon discussion about our proposed launch of the Silicon Valley Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship--and it wasn't just for the free food! There was no shortage of good ideas and energy was high for what such a center could accomplish and mean for the Business School. Al Bruno has agreed to head up the Strategic Action Team to develop a business plan for center. We'll be linking up with a number of executives who have also expressed high interest and energy for this initiative.

SHARE OF MIND--IT'S HAPPENING
"Another reason that pushed me to choose the Leavey School of Business," writes a prospective MBA student, "is the advice I received from the continuing education counselor of my company. When I met her to discuss my proposal to receive support for an MBA program, and we went through the schools I selected, she clearly stated that the solution the company would prefer is the Leavey School because of the quality of the teachers, and because of the results achieved by the employees who attended the School in the past." This student, and her education counselor, are right.

What more can I say?

Barry

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Day 268: March 25, 1998

We make a difference, and people are hearing our story! That's the news from a meeting I had a few weeks ago with an MBA alum from the 70s, now CEO of a $350 million high technology company, who had just made his very first gift to the School. He wanted to get back in touch with the School, he told me, because he had been hearing good things about us recently. And, he said, that his MBA education had proven very useful in his career, although he admitted to not fully appreciating this fact until a number of years after completing the program. Given the nature of our program the latter doesn't surprise me; and given all the good news we've been realizing lately, the former also doesn't come as a surprise either.

DAN KLEIN TENURED
I hope you'll join me in congratulating Dan Klein (Economics) whose tenure application was favorably reviewed by the President. Or to quote from one of his colleague's recommendation letters: ?It would be a mistake, bordering on insult, were he to be denied tenure.? We look forward to years (and years, and years) of productivity, energy, enthusiasm, good will, humor, scholarship and perspective from Dan.

SCU JOINS INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
At the strong urging of both the University President and Board of Trustees, we recently joined many of the nation's other Jesuit business schools with Peking University, China's oldest and most prestigious university, to offer the first foreign MBA in Beijing. Science magazine ranked Peking University as the best Chinese University; it also heads the listing of best Chinese universities by the number of national key research projects, by number of academicians of Chinese Academic Sinica, by the numbers of national key labs, and by the number of books in their library. The MBA degree itself will be awarded by Fordham University, and involve faculty resources from across the 25 Jesuit universities. This should provide some interesting opportunities for international teaching and collaborative research.

NEW FACULTY ADDITION
The OMIS Department successfully concluded their new faculty search this year with the hiring of Dr. Sarma "Ram" R. Nidumolu. Ram, with a Ph.D. from UCLA, is currently an assistant professor in the MIS Department at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on coordination and control of software development, particularly in the software industry, and the adoption and impacts of new information technologies. He has published extensively in such journals as MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Management Science. Ram will be teaching MIS strategy and computer communication systems, and we look forward to his joining us this summer.

PHYSICAL PLANT EXPANDING
We'll try to keep everyone update and involved in these various efforts, even as they may change. We expect the two Market Street properties to be available early this summer, with the Executive Development Center, MBA Admissions and External Relations moving to these facilities. We'll be remodeling the entire first floor south wing of Kenna Hall (Kenna 110 and MBA Reading Room) to house our MBA Student Services function and create a new MBA Student Learning Center. We're also planning to extend the UNIX facility currently located in the ACC computer laboratory, move the Dean's Office to the former EDC offices, relocate the OMIS faculty to a new departmental suite (Kenna 323), replace the fixed seating in the second and third floor tiered classrooms with moveable chairs (similar to those in Kenna 104), add an additional faculty office in the Agribusiness Center, and add several more offices for the Accounting Department complex. There's more: We recently concluded discussions with the College of Arts and Sciences (and English Department) -- which Provost Steve Privett dubbed "The Treaty of St. Joseph's" -- that will bring to the Business School seven new offices on the second floor of St. Joseph's Hall. This space will not be available until next winter (at the earliest, as it is tied to the move of the Communications Department to their new building) but most probably will be available by the following summer (1999). It is anticipated that this space will house our showcase programs and provide some additional space for new Management and Marketing Department faculty.

For your information:

  • A draft document regarding non-tenure track faculty should be working its way through discussions at the departmental level. This matter responds to one of our more serious AACSB accreditation concerns, and is also in line with University-level interests.
  • A breakfast briefing on "Venture Capital Financing" is being held at the Faculty Club on Wednesday, April 8th and features two senior partners from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The presentation is sponsored by the MBA Alumni Association and School of Law High Tech Law Program. Tyzoon Tyebjee has been our key liaison on this program and can respond to any questions or make reservations if you are interested, or call Angela Belluomini at 408/551-1868.
  • Don't forget to adjust your MBA schedules this Spring Quarter to accommodate the Leavey Lecture on Tuesday, March 31 featuring Mike Malone, and our next All Hands Meetings on May 20 and 21. Flyers have been posted around the building regarding Malone's provocative presentation (entitled: "What if Everything You are Learning is Wrong") and in early May we'll provide more information about the All Hands Meetings.
  • Please consider how to involve your undergraduate classes in our first-ever Silicon Valley Undergraduate Convocation (the afternoon of May 6th). There's a full lineup of concurrent discussions with senior executives (from our Advisory Board), hosted by our faculty, for the benefit of our students, covering a full range of topics and disciplines. You may want to consider substituting participation in the convocation for one of your regularly scheduled class sessions. Contact Jim Sepe or Donna Perry (408/554-2162 ) for more information. Final details (e.g., locations) will be provided in late April.

The other day I joined Dale Achabal, Hersh Shefrin, and Larry Robertson for a round of golf at the site of this year's Leavey School of Business Invitational Golf Tournament (May 15). We hope everyone will consider participating: Consider that Hersh, who had not played golf since 1977, was the winner of our long ball competition, and now a "born-again" golfer! For my part, I made everyone else look very good.....hole after hole after hole after hole. Making others look good is, after all, the proper role of a Dean. Hope this note finds each of you well.

Barry

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Day 294:April 20, 1998

We're looking good -- that's how I felt when my (our) boss recently caught up with me for my performance review. He noted a greatly improved morale within the School and commented on the "marked sense of purpose pervading the School; faculty and staff seem to feel LSB is on the move and appear to be energized and motivated to take the School forward." No question about it -- we are on the move -- consider this:

Dennis Moberg selected to be the new Presidential Professor of Ethics and the Common Good.
Fr. Locatelli explained: "I make this appointment in recognition of your distinguished contributions to our mission as a teaching scholar who effectively incorporates ethics in your teaching and research." In this role Dennis will not only be working even more actively with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and the Corporate Ethics Roundtable program, but also considering how, in Fr. Locatelli's words: "to leverage this appointment to become an articulate spokesperson and exemplary colleague of faculty in all of the professional schools for systemically integrating ethics into the curriculum."

Alex Field, even while on sabbatical, brings credit to the School through hosting a national Economic History Conference on campus. Harvard Professor David Landes writes: "...this brought me to Santa Clara for the first time and sent me away with the most agreeable and satisfying memories of beautiful site, superb hospitality, and an environment that promised a marriage of excited scholarship and warm friendship. Much of this, of course, was the work of Alex Field and company. In a long experience of these matters--some fifty years--I have never seen such eagerness of participation and intellectual exchange. I'm sure everyone, like me, went home invigorated....So I just want to thank you and all those at Santa Clara who made this encounter possible."

Off the Web come notes of appreciation to Meir Statman for his continuing insightful reflections on financial matters. Says one New Yorker: "I just wanted to thank you for 'The Numbers Racket Rages On' in the April issue of Financial Planning. I've been wondering what to make of the 'asset allocation hoax' debate that has been taking place across time and journals, and your clear-eyed critique brought order to a confusing discussion." Meir was also recently featured on television (Fox on Money) talking about how to build a diversified portfolio.

The Accounting Department receives a check for $37,000 today from Ernst & Young, which brings the contributions of our alumni at E&Y's to over $260,000 since 1994. National Director of Recruiting (and Chair of the E&Y Foundation) Ellen Glazerman, while on campus, notes that Santa Clara's Accounting Department is regarded as providing a nationally recognized first-rate education.

Nearly 400 people attend a dinner at the Fairmont Hotel honoring the Family Businesses of the Year presented by our Family Business Forum (Executive Development Center). Fr. Locatelli, Larry Robertson, and I are hosts for the event, which is featured prominently in a full-feature pullout from the San Jose Business Journal.

The Business Journal also recently ran a highly visible story about our MBA program's distinguished national ranking--now 11th in the nation as evaluated by U.S. News & World Report's Best Graduate Schools guide.

"I guess your on-going effort to get the word out is paying off," our colleague Joel Leidecker recently tells me. Seems he received several very gracious notes from former students, in response to the information contained in the 200 Days' Dean's Log sent out to our alumni. Last week I was in Oregon and Washington visiting with alumni (including the Naumes family, who endowed the chair held by Bob Collins) and they all echo the comment from Steve Privett that the School "is energized...and moving forward."

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

May 2nd Leavey School of Business Mission Ball -- SOLD OUT! Enough said.

May 6th Silicon Valley Undergraduate Convocation -- we're really counting on everyone's participation, so please continue to figure out ways to involve and encourage your students to participate in this event. Contact Donna Perry for more information and check out the details on our Web page.

MORE NEW FACULTY!!!!
We're delighted to announce the recent hiring of Martin Calkins, S.J. in the Management Department, where he'll be teaching courses in business ethics, international management, and the social, legal, and political environment of business. Marty is one of the first graduates from Darden's (University of Virginia Graduate School of Business Administration) new doctoral program in business ethics, and completed both a business career in international business and military service before entering the Jesuit order. He'll bring valuable insights and perspectives to our community. We've got several offers outstanding to candidates in Accounting. Hopefully we'll be able to say more about this good news very shortly.

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS:
Currently circulating the Internet these days is a funny set of responses to the question "How many alums does it take to change a lightbulb?" I thought the "good news" was the inclusion of Santa Clara in the list and the "bad news" was what it said. Before giving that away, however, here's a couple of responses attributed to other schools:

Dartmouth --- None. Hanover doesn't have electricity. Yale --- None. New Haven looks better in the dark. Harvard --- One. He holds the bulb and the world revolves around him. Penn --- Only one, but he gets six credits for it. UC Davis --- Five. One to change the lightbulb and four to find the perfect J. Crew outfit to wear for the occasion. UCLA --- One, dude. Berkeley --- Five. One to change the bulb and four to do an interpretative dance around it. Stanford --- Three. One to change it and two to figure out how to get high off the old one. Williams --- The whole student body. When you're snowed in, there's nothing else to do. Boston College -- Seven. One to change the lightbulb and six to throw a party because he didn't screw it in upside-down this time.

.....there are lots more where these came from, and then, the one about us:

Santa Clara --- One, but you would never know it because only Stanford and Cal get the recognition and press for changing their light bulbs.

For my taste, this "joke" hits too close to home for me to be able to laugh -- don't worry I'm not that serious -- but this reflects why we'll be spending considerable time this Spring looking at various ideas and strategies for marketing and promoting the School's image and message as "the premier business school for Silicon Valley."

Barry

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Day 324:May 20, 1998

It's been a busy quarter:

The Undergraduate Convocation was a tremendous success -- just about one in every three of our business majors attended. The Undergraduate Leadership Team reviewed the feedback from our Advisory Board, faculty and students and have a number of suggestions about how we'll make it even better next year. Our thanks to the 30 Advisory Board members and 25 faculty members who helped make this innovation such a success.

Santa Clara was recently named one of the fifty "most wired" universities in the U.S. according to Yahoo! Internet Life magazine. Only six other California institutions were ranked in the top 50 spots in the survey.

The endowment for the Professorship named to honor Mario Belotti reaches nearly $1.5 million. Don Lucas, noted venture capitalist (on the boards of both Oracle and Cadence Design Systems, among others), as our honorary initiate this year into Beta Gamma Sigma, speaks about giving back and makes a surprise challenge grant of $250,000 toward the Belotti Professorship. We'll be making every effort to match this amount by September in order to complete the endowment.

Our new Advanced Management Program, sponsored by the MBA Alumni Association, will end with a dinner celebration for the 60+ participants. The two sold-out programs, held in the evening and open to MBA alumni, featured highly interactive and practical seminars with Professors Joel Leidecker, Al Bruno, Tom Russell, Atulya Sarin, Manny Velasquez and Tyzoon Tyebjee. This series will be repeated next year, along with a new series of offerings (to be announced soon). We are working on a proposal to offer parts of this program, through the Alumni Association, in Southern California, Portland, Seattle, and maybe Chicago!

Suzanne Luttman is named Chair of the Accounting Department. Our thanks to Neal Ushman for his valued service in this capacity. She'll be joining new department chairs Manny Velasquez (Management) and Mike Munson (Marketing) as members of the Chairs Council.

And just to show you that department chairs don't go easily into the night:

Jim Hall (Management) will be heading up the School's new Leadership Studies Certificate Program and in this capacity will be working with Jeanne Rosenberger (Center for Student Leadership) and Charlie Erekson (Provost's Office). They've recruited a pilot group of students, and the program actually kicks-off next week.

Tyzoon Tyebjee (Marketing) has agreed to become the School's Director of Integrated Education. He'll be recruiting companies to support the new ACE program (Accelerated Cooperative Educational Experience) and helping to design an internship program which provides reflective experiential education. He'll also be working with the MBA Consulting Group, and providing curriculum assistance to the MBA Alumni Association's professional development programs.

Just in case you missed these announcements: The University names Dennis Moberg to the Presidential Professorship of Ethics and the Common Good; Steve Nahmias is selected to receive the University's Award for Excellence in Scholarship; the School (and Finance Department) receives a $100,000 grant from the Dean Witter Foundation; Ernst & Young completes a $250,000 pledge to enhance our accounting program; and Advisory Board members Bill Cleary, Chuck Berger and Leigh Belden kick-off a challenge to the Board to raise funds for our new Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship by donating over $200,000 themselves.

And on a personal note, in the School's 2nd Annual Golf Tournament last week my team comes in third place (mostly through the skill of Advisory Board member Mike Hope) and over this weekend I took home a first-place trophy in the third year of the California State Euchre Championship Tournament.

Best regards to one and all.

Barry

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Day 340:June 5, 1998

It has been nearly a year as Dean and the news just gets better and better. Consider these highlights:

The first-ever Undergraduate Convocation draws over one-third of our business students, interacting with 32 CEOs, in 16 concurrent sessions, bringing to the fore corporate experiences corresponding to the ideas presented in our classrooms. For example, in the seminar on leadership, students interacted with Warren Anderson (Founder, Anderson Soft-Teach), Les Vadasz (Sr. VP, Intel), Bob Teresi (Chairman and CEO, Caere Corporation), and Steve Johnson (President and CEO, Komag). The session on "Marketing in Silicon Valley" drew upon the experiences of Sue Swenson (President and CEO, Cellular One), Bill Cleary (Founder and Sr. Partner, CKS Partners), and Fred Hoar (President, Miller/Shandwick Technologies West); and in a session linked to classes in international business entitled "Bribes, Gifts and Cultural Clashes," students heard from Bob Saldich (former CEO, Raychem) and John Dean (President and CEO, Silicon Valley Bank).

Our MBA program moves up four places in national rankings, compiled by U.S. News & World Report, to 11th in the nation among part-time programs. No other school ranked this highly has only a part-time program. Average GMAT scores stay at the 88th percentile. By the way, Santa Clara was recently named one of the "most wired" universities in the U.S. according to Yahoo! Internet Life magazine.

The first MBA Alumni Visiting Professor is Bill Cleary, founder and senior partner of CKS Partners, who offers a new class on Branding Strategies in the Marketing Department. Bill's agreed to return again this Fall. In the Winter Quarter, our next MBAA Visiting Professor will be Dr. Andre Morkel from the University of Western Australia's Graduate School of Management, who'll teach course in high technology business policy as well as entrepreneurship.

The endowment for the Professorship named to honor Mario Belotti reaches nearly $1.5 million. Don Lucas, noted venture capitalist (on the boards of both Oracle and Cadence Design Systems, among others), as our honorary initiate this year into Beta Gamma Sigma, speaks about "giving back" and makes a surprise challenge grant of $250,000 toward the Belotti Professorship. We'll be making every effort to match this amount by September in order to complete the endowment.

In only our second year with the Mission Ball--it's a sell-out. We honor Dick Moley, retired CEO of Stratacom, as MBA Alumnus of the Year, as well as this year's extraordinary faculty (Caldwell, Delbecq, Moberg, Shefrin, Starbird, and Statman) and "dance the night away" at the Silicon Valley Capital Club.

Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is launched under the leadership of Professor Al Bruno. Intended to provide intellectual capital to entrepreneurs and early start-up companies through teams of faculty, students, and alumni, the Center will also enhance the curriculum through the development of an entrepreneurial MBA concentration.

Our new Advanced Management Program, sponsored by the MBA Alumni Association, ends with a celebration for the first 60+ participants. The two sold-out programs, held in the evening and open to MBA alumni, featured highly interactive and practical seminars with Professors Joes Leidecker, Al Bruno, Tom Russell, Atulya Sarin, Manny Velasquez and Tyzoon Tyebjee. This series will be repeated next year, along with a new series of offerings -- and we're even looking into taking part of this program to Southern California, Portland, Seattle, and maybe Chicago!

Faculty grows by nearly 10% with the addition of six new tenure-track faculty in Marketing (2), Accounting (2), Management (1), and Operations & Management Information Systems (1). Plans are developing to add two or three more in the next year, enhancing our capability to provide new electives at both the MBA and undergraduate level, as well as reduce class sizes.

There's too much to report: New department chairs named in Management (Manny Velasquez), Marketing (Mike Munson), and Accounting (Suzanne Luttman); 2nd Annual Golf Tournament doubles in size and records first hole-in-one; one-quarter of a million dollars raised in six weeks (and still counting) toward new endowed chair in entrepreneurship; MBA Student Services and Dean's offices will be moved to the first floor of Kenna this summer increasing accessibility and visibility; MBA Reading Room is being transformed into the MBA Technology Learning Center; Dennis Moberg named as "Presidential Professor of Ethics and the Common Good"; Steve Nahmias wins the University's award for "Excellence in Scholarship"; $100,000 grant received from the Dean Witter Foundation; Ernst & Young completes $250,000 pledge to enhance our accounting program; and so on.

But stay tuned....because there's more good news on the horizon. And, our thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement throughout the year. Hope you have a wonderful summer.

Barry

P.S. Commencement is just around the corner. We expect 275 to receive undergraduate business degrees and nearly 200 to receive their MBAs. Patrick Stewart, well-known Shakespearean actor (and also Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek fame) will speak to the undergraduates, while Lew Platt (CEO, Hewlett-Packard) will address the graduate students.

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Vol. II 1998-1999


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DAY 450:September 23, 1998

The year 1923--The College of Commerce enrolls its first class at Santa Clara University.

The year 1998--Now known as the Leavey School of Business, we just opened our doors for the 75th year to one of our most outstanding group of students, ever! Our 240 members of the Class of 2002 have an entering GPA, on average, of over 3.5 and SAT's in the 88th percentile. Our Fall MBAs (some 150 strong) have an average GMATscore above the 90th percentile, which puts them among the best in the nation. We're building upon a strong tradition of excellence.

As classes began at Santa Clara, Fr. Paul Locatelli (University President) named four of our faculty to endowed professorships:

Hersh Shefrin (Finance) who has provided leadership to both the Economics and Finance Departments, been innovative in the classroom and published insightful scholarship, is selected as the first Belotti Chair recipient, an endowed position funded by the many friends, colleagues and alumni of Professor Mario Belotti to honor the lifetime of contributions and leadership provided by Mario (who begins his 40th year with the School);

Al Bruno (Marketing) becomes the William T. Cleary Professor, funded by Bill Cleary (one of the founders of CKS Partners, an multimedia marketing company) who chairs the School's Advisory Board, and along with Al, has a keen interest in marketing innovation and entrepreneurship. Al also agrees to lead the new Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Dave Caldwell (Management) is named to the Steve and Patricia Schott Chair, whose generous contributions to the School are recognized as they graciously support the work of one of the school's noted "teaching scholars." In addition to his outstanding work as teacher and scholar, Dave has contributed significantly in planning for the new EMBA program (more about that below) ; and,

Meir Statman (Finance), a pioneer in the area of behavioral finance and often-quoted financial guru by the nation's media, is honored with the Glenn Klimek Chair, originally funded by Glenn (MBA '75) in appreciation for the role our education played in starting his own company.

Annual Report is on its way...and it looks great! In the next few weeks you should be receiving your copy and it calls for "a close look" (that's the theme --take a close look at what we're doing and you'll be amazed). Really, last year was an impressive start on a new era for the School, and the Annual Report is full of information, photos, vital facts, and recognitions of faculty, students, alumni and our partnerships with a vast array of Silicon Valley companies and friends. We also acknowledge our many donors for their contributions in enabling us to be "the premier business program for Silicon Valley." After you've taken a close look at the Annual Report, let me know what you think.

Look for us in the Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News, and San Jose Business Journal this October and November. We'll be taking out nearly full-page advertisements announcing the launch of our new Executive MBA program, and you can help us create a "buzz" about this exciting new program--an intensive weekend format, a completely multi-disciplinary and cross-functional curriculum, a strategic leadership perspective, and a 15-month schedule make this the most substantive and dynamic program of its kind. The EMBA is limited to 30 managers (with at least 10+ years of experience). We're holding EMBA Open Houses on campus October 15 and November 19 and more information is available on our Web page (http:LSB.SCU.EDU).

More Leavey School faculty in the news: Santa Clara's Finance Department is ranked among the TOP 12 in the nation in terms of significant impact in the general finance area by the Journal of Financial Education. An extensive analysis of over 300 business schools and thousands of published papers in 16 leading scholarly journals, finds the scholarship of our Finance faculty to be among the nation's finest, outpacing such schools as Carnegie Mellon (15) and Harvard University (26), and just following UC Berkeley (12), the University of Pennsylvania (9), and University of Chicago (4).

We're pleased as could be to have added six outstanding new teaching scholars to our faculty this year:

Thomas Burnham (Ph.D. University of Texas) joins the Marketing Department. He'll be teaching courses in marketing decision models and principles of marketing. His most recent research has looked at issues related to managing customer retention.

Georg Muller (Ph.D. University of Chicago) also joins the Marketing Department, where he'll be teaching courses in both Marketing and Agribusiness. He's been investigating a number of issues, most recently looking at the impact of price responses to cost changes among retail products.

Susan Parker (Ph.D. University of Oregon) joins the Accounting Department, and will be teaching undergraduate accounting courses in this year. In her dissertation she examined the effect of audit committee characteristics on financial reporting.

Ranjan Sinha (Ph.D. Berkeley) also joins the Accounting Department, following faculty positions at Boston University and UC Davis. He'll teach both undergraduate and MBA accounting courses this year. Ranjan's research has primarily focused on how financial markets react to earnings and book value information.

Marty Calkins, S.J. (Ph.D. University of Virginia) joins the Management Department and will be teaching courses in business ethics, international management, and the social, political and legal environment of business. Marty brings both strong professional experience and rich Jesuit education and perspective to the School. In his doctoral dissertation, Marty examined a number of important business ethics issues, both at a practical as well as pedagogical level.

Ram Nidumolu (Ph.D. UCLA) joins the Operations & Management Information Systems Department, following several years on the faculty at the University of Arizona. His research looks at adoption and use of information technolgoies in organizations, and the control and coordination of software development. He'll be teaching courses in business data communications, and graduate courses in information systems and business competitiveness.

After last year's success with the Advanced Management Program (AMP)--we sold out both sessions by word-of-mouth--the MBA Alumni Association and School are set to offer a repeat as well as an entire new series this year. The AMP is a monthly seminar program exploring a cutting-edge managerial concern within a balanced perspective of theory and practice. Some of the topics (and faculty) this year include "Decision Traps and How to Avoid Them," with Economics Professor Thomas Russell; "Life Cycle Management of Technology Products," with Marketing Professor Tyzoon Tyebjee; "Currency Unions and Currency Crises," with Economics Professor Helen Popper; and "Globalizing High Tech: Lessons for Silicon Valley," with MBA Alumni Association Visiting Professor Andre Morkel. Contact the MBA Alumni Office at 408/554-5451 (or check their Web page--LSB.SCU.EDU/MBA_alumni/) if you want more information, but don't wait, because I know these will sell out again--and participation in each seminar is limited.

Finally, I've appreciated hearing from you as a result of these Dean's Logs, published every 100 days or so. And you've also been noting, as we have, about the wider press recognition and greater visibility being given to the Business School. We are on the move, and you have every right to be bragging: Tell a friend, colleague, relative, and prospective donor or student about how Santa Clara offers the premier business program for Silicon Valley. You've got the evidence.

Barry

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DAY 518:November 30, 1998

We're in the right business: The U.S. Department of Commerce reports a massive shortage of qualified candidates to fill high-tech jobs. The recent 1999 Career Guide from U.S. News & World Report (Headline: "Scoring the best high tech jobs") explains that the most highly-sought people are those "who have experience in business, particulary in the financial sector or marketing." They quote one corporate executive, in rejecting a 3-foot high stack of resumes, not because these candidates lacked technical skills but because they wanted people who also "have business skills. Finding these people," he said, "is very difficult."

Leadership guru to present Leavey Lecture: Jay Conger, the distinguished professor of organizational behavior, who heads the Leadership Institute at USC, will present the Winter Quarter Leavey Lecture on Tuesday, January 5th (6:30 p.m. in Meyer Theater). Conger will talk about "The Necessary Art of Persuasion" which is the focus of his latest (and seventh) book on leadership. Call the External Relations office if you'd like us to save you a seat (408/554-2162).

New concentrations and curriculum innovations approved: The MBA Leadership Team gave its blessings to a new MBA concentration in entrepreneurship, as well as another one in accounting. A proposal to allow credit for modular (less than 3-unit courses) was also approved, which will allow faculty to experiment with short-courses focused on curricular innovations, to address fast-breaking and emerging business issues, and to increase the program's flexibility for students.

Distinguished Executive Fellows recruited: The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's inaugural Executive Fellows are world-class: Bill Cleary (founder of CKS Partners), Linda Alepin (retired Amdahl executive, and founder of Pepplesoft Learning), Art Dauer (retired vice president of human resources at Hewlett-Packard and also Northrup), Warren Anderson (founder of Anderson Soft-Teach), Larry Henninger (retired CFO and current Executive Coach), and Dave Davison (venture capitalist). MBA Alumni Association Visiting Professor Andre Morkel (University of Western Australia) will also work with the Center this Winter. These Fellows will share their talents and experiences with our students and form the basis for mentoring teams with entrepreneurial enterprises.

Executive MBA getting great reception: The EMBA Open House the other evening drew more than 50 qualified candidates. The EMBA ads in the San Jose Mercury News and Wall Street Journal have also pulled in lots of requests for materials. We're quite optimistic about being able to recruit a talented cohort group for our first program scheduled to begin in April.

STS conference invitation: The invention of magnetic recording was a paradigm shift in information storage and the Center for Science, Technology and Society is hosting a one-day conference (Monday, December 14) to examine both the historical and future impacts of this innovation, and others like it. It looks like an interesting program, so let us know if you'd like to attend (you can also register at www.iist.scu.edu).

At the Town Hall meeting with Leavey School faculty and staff on December 10, we'll be announcing the Faculty Achievement Award recipients. Should be a great end to the Fall Quarter.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS We'll have a busy three weeks with the end-of-quarter activities, then the campus closes down for a week (December 24 through January 3)--then it's into 1999!

Every best wish to you and yours for a joyous holiday season.

Barry

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DAY 594: February 14, 1999

Valentine's Day 1999

I've been struck (a nodding metaphor to Valentine's Day) by just how impressive our students and faculty are. Let me share just a couple of examples.

Our students are very impressive. We had dinner with a group from Lorie Mazzaroppi's capstone business policy courses, following the excellent presentation by John Dean (CEO, Silicon Valley Bank and Advisory Board member) as this quarter's Dean's Distinguished Executive. Nearly all of them were currently working part-time or involved with internships, and they were interviewing for positions with Silicon Valley's academy-companies. Several aspired to start their own businesses one day. They hailed from Israel, India, the Philippines, as well as Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, Los Angles, and even the Bay Area. Several were multilingual. John asked them provocative questions, and they were articulate, thoughtful and bright in response, and with their own questions. On our behalf, as their teachers, I sat there like a beaming, proud parent.

Our students are impressive. More than 400 actively, and eagerly, participated in this year's undergraduate business convocation: "Making Connections: Silicon Valley Executives in the Classroom." That attendance number is up by over 30% from last year. We're appreciative of the many faculty who directly and indirectly participated in making the program such a success, including 16 Advisory Board members.

This email from one of our students is representative of what we're accomplishing with this initiative: "I just wanted to take a minute and congratulate you on what I thought was a successful program on Wednesday. I attended the session entitled "An Insider's View of High Tech Investing" and was really glad I did. Both of the speakers and both faculty members did a superb job with the session. I gained some real insight on high tech investing, and what it takes to be a successful investor. I also attended the "Getting a Job..." session. This was equally informative and well presented. I think you have the beginning of something really wonderful here; the sky is the limit for an afternoon such as this. Best of luck with future U/G Convocations, and I look forward to next year's event." Providing an integrated education and fostering a community of scholars, two of our key strategic objectives, are clearly being accomplished with this program.

Our faculty are also very impressive! We recently completed a meta-analysis of the faculty activity reports from last year and found a truly outstanding record of accomplishments by the "teaching scholars" on the Santa Clara Business School faculty. Here are some highlights (remember this is within a 12 month period):

  • 61% of our faculty had one or more manuscripts published (19% published three or more!).
  • There were over 70 articles published and 5 books written by Santa Clara Business School Faculty within this academic year.
  • 25% of the faculty made a presentation at a major international conference or professional meeting.
    One out of every four faculty members held an editorial position on a major professional journal, like Operations Research (Nahmias, Area Editor), Journal of Financial Research (Sarin, Associate Editor), Advances in Taxation (Luttman, Associate Editor), Journal of Economic Literature (Field, Associate Editor), Journal of Management Inquiry (Posner, Section Editor), International Food and Agribusiness Management (Baker, Associate Editor), among others.
  • More than 50% of our faculty were on editorial review boards of the major professional journals, like the Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting, Journal of Investment Consulting, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Economic History, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Value-Based Management, International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, Journal of Applied Probability and others.
  • Our faculty were represented on the board of directors of 11 privately-held and publicly-traded organizations, as well as 7 non-profit organizations.

Our faculty are clearly knowledge generators, not simply information providers, and it's manifest in the quality and character of their students. With good reason.....Santa Clara is the premier business program for Silicon Valley.

Barry

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DAY 626:March 18, 1999

CIE SUMMIT - A HOME RUN!

Nearly 300 folks joined us on campus at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's first summit on Financing New Ventures - Gaps and Gateways for an exciting and stimulating experience. As Advisory Board member George Sollman emailed: "....your team knocked the ball out of the stadium with yesterday's forum! It was very well received by everyone with whom I spoke last evening." Another participant (Carol Titus, Director, Corporate Development, VISA International) emailed this unsolicited review: "Congratulations on the successful launch of the CIE. The panel discussions were great - and no matter where you looked - whether on or off stage - there were mentors and great contacts everywhere. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of such an auspicious event. Looking forward to the next meeting." WOW! Our grateful appreciation to current and emeriti Advisory Board members (John Dean, Irwin Federman, Fred Hoar, Don Lucas, Mike Malone, George Sollman, Les Vadasz) and new CIE Executive Fellows (Bob Lorenzeni and Dave Davison) for their key participation in the program. MANY KUDOS to Al Bruno and Pat Hubbard for their leadership and inspiration. By the way, CIE now has 15 Executive Fellows actively engaged, has initiated formal partnerships with two emerging companies, and has nearly three dozen "more deals" on the table to be reviewed.

EMBA - TAKES OFF!

Twenty-nine managers and executives start the new Executive MBA program next month. Most will participate in a series of foundation courses before the opening weekend residential module at Seascape in May with Barry Posner on the topic of leading dynamic organizations. With lots of calls and requests for program information, we've begun recruiting a second cohort group for the end of this year. KUDOS to Ed McQuarrie, Elizabeth Ford, and many other faculty members who are making this a key new program for the School.

VISITING PROFESSORS - VALUED ADDED COMPETENCIES

Adding great talent and experiences to the School, four visiting professors join our expanding program as we tap into a global network of business educators. Andre Morkel (University of Western Australia) brought keen insights to our High Technology Business Policy and our Entrepreneurship classes, and has developed six new real-time Silicon Valley-based cases through this experience with our students. Bill Cleary (CKS founder, and now CEO of Cleary & Partners) brought his years of experience and wisdom to bear with a Brand Marketing class this year, and has promised us two sections this next year. Allan Hodgson (University of Queensland) joins us this spring and summer to provide his global perspective in the area of Derivatives and Risk Management for the Finance Department. Max Sutherland (Monash University and Chairman, MarketMind, Inc.) brings his practical experience and scholarly understanding about Advertising this spring and fall to our undergraduate marketing program. Several other invitations for next year are still pending. This is a great opportunity for our students to be exposed to high quality teaching scholars, and for us to share conversations with these colleagues around mutual interests.

FACULTY EXPERTISE NOTED - "COLUMNISTS" FOR THE SAN JOSE BUSINESS JOURNAL

Mario Belotti (Economics) and Kirthi Kalyanam (Marketing) have been asked to provide regular columns for the San Jose Business Journal's Quarterly Economic Report. Belotti will be providing a spotlighted forecast and overview of the Silicon Valley Economy, while Kalyanam will write about e-commerce activities. Each Quarterly Economic Report will be unveiled to a select group of Silicon Valley business leaders at a breakfast conference, and will be mailed to 15,000 Business Journal subscribers, plus CEOs and CFOs of technology companies in San Jose, San Francisco, Boston, Orange County, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Houston, Austin, Portland and Minneapolis. The Business Journal editors are excited about this new, regular participation by Santa Clara faculty in their pages.

LEADERSHIP EDUCATION - WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

I've been giving this lots of thought recently in preparation for several upcoming presentations. At the end of the month I'll give a keynote for the annual conference of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators about what leadership education means for college students, and, then in early April, I give the opening presentation for an all-day faculty conference at the University of Texas, Austin on ethical leadership, and what it means for faculty to be involved in providing this education. The importance of leadership education, even as an aspiration, has been reinforced in my conversations these past weeks with the top 100 high school students admitted to the Business School for this coming Fall. Our programs in leadership development -- for example, the ACE program, leadership studies certificate program, and activities of the Center for Student Leadership -- clearly stand out as value-added components of the SCU educational experience. The attention given to "educating men and women for competence, conscience and compassion" at Santa Clara is at the heart of educating people who will make a difference.

All the best.

Barry

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DAY 700:May 31, 1999

Day 700 brings us near to the end of another academic year and with it, a full schedule of celebrations and a long list of individuals to recognize for their achievements in the last nine months. Reporting the accomplishments of our faculty, students, and alumni every 100 days can’t possibly capture all of the Leavey School of Business activities, but I know you take great pride, as I do, in these highlights:

At the undergraduate level, our new leadership development program is a clear winner. Aimed at increasing academic quality, this program targets high school students admitted to SCU with distinction (these are the students who can write their own ticket when it comes to selecting a college). In just two years we've gone from only eight honors students accepting admission to 38 students jumping at the opportunity to attend Santa Clara. The incoming freshman class in the business school will have, on average, a GPA above 3.5 and SAT scores greater than 1250.

Our seniors also benefit each quarter with the opportunity for an intimate and up-close conversation with Silicon Valley's movers and shakers through the new Dean's Distinguished Executive lecture. At how many other undergraduate business program would students have dinner with an executive whom Business Week named as one of the top 25 power brokers of Silicon Valley (that's Advisory Board member and Silicon Valley Bank's CEO John Dean who joined us this winter)? And talk about first-hand, this spring when Advisory Board member David Lee (chairman of several companies, board member for at least six other publicly traded companies, and University of California Regent) joined us, he had just that day launched his fourth IPO and the next day he would oversee the merger of two other companies where he served as Chairman of the Board.

At the graduate level, we successfully launched our new Executive MBA program. The first cohort members in this intensive, interdisciplinary, strategy-focused, fifteen-month program average more than 15 years of managerial experience and represent both large and small companies as well as a range of functional backgrounds. We're recruiting NOW for our second cohort group scheduled to begin late fall. Check out our website: http://business.scu.edu/admissions/execmba.

Demand for our Evening MBA program remains very strong, with GMAT scores averaging in the 90th percentiles for entering students. The orientation program for new MBA students has been totally revamped, now spread over two evenings, including an on-line computer simulation exercise, an information carnival, and sessions for significant others (like spouses).

At the professional level, the new Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship got off to a fast start with a highly successful conference on Venture Financing in March which drew over 300+ participants. CIE faculty have developed a new concentration for our students in entrepreneurship, have recruited 15 Executive Fellows for the Center, and already have engagements with three start-up or emerging companies. Plans are underway for future conferences dealing with E*Commerce, and with Best Practices in Supply Chain Management.

At the Advisory Board level, we added 11 new members, many with SCU degrees (noted by asterisk): Cheryl Breetwor* (Strategic Advisor, E*Trade), Bill Flanagan (Group President, Amdahl), Wolfgang Hausen* (Sr. VP, Logitech), Jim Hawkins* (President, Invivo), Chuck Kissner* (CEO and Chairman, Digital Microwave), Chris Paisley (Senior VP and CFO, 3Com), Roger Sanford (President, P3M), Rob Selvi* (CFO, Artisan Components), Tom Stevens (retired Senior VP and CFO, Duty Free Shoppers), Mikes Sisois* (VP, Planning and IT, Atmel),and Kevin Walsh (VP, Operations, Sun Microsystems). Mike Hope* (Managing Partner, Andersen Consulting) takes over as Chair of the Advisory Board from Bill Cleary (CEO, Cleary & Partners). Bill was the honorary initiate of the academic honor society for business school majors, Beta Gamma Sigma, in May.

Other recent honors and achievements of our faculty:

Hersh Shefrin (Finance) received the President's Distinguished Faculty Award this spring. His new book Beyond Fear and Greed will be published later this summer by the Harvard Business School press. Shefrin is also named as the first recipient of the Belotti Chair (named in honor and recognition of the many accomplishments of Mario Belotti, who continues to provide economic insights to students and executives alike).

Jim Sepe (Accounting) wins the Brutocao Award, which is the University's highest honor for teaching innovation, and recognizes his creative efforts to link intermediate accounting with the English Department's business writing course. Jim is also named to the McCullough Chair, recognizing his overall professional accomplishments, and his continuing service as the Chair of the Undergraduate Leadership Team.

Barry Posner (Management, and yours truly) was surprised by the faculty by being included among the recipients of the School's Extraordinary Faculty Achievement Award. He was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the Jesuit Business Dean's Association and had two books published this year: Encouraging the Heart and The Leadership Action Planner.

Tenure and promotion to Associate Professor was granted to Naren Agrawal (OMIS), Bob Hendershott (Finance) and Kirthi Kalyanam (Marketing). Rhonda Righter (OMIS) was promoted to Full Professor. Henry Demmert (Economics) was named the new Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs, and Bill Sundstrom takes over as chair of the Economics Department. Meir Statman (Finance) received the Klimek Chair and Al Bruno (Marketing) received the Cleary Chair.

Graduation this year moves to Buck Shaw stadium, which will be transformed into an Olympics-like venue complete with festive banners and floral arrangements. Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, speaks at the undergraduate commencement on June 11, and Mike Hackworth, chairman of Cirrus Logic, addresses the graduate commencement the following day.

Hoping the next few months (100 days) go well with you and yours. All the best and keep in touch with the premier business program for Silicon Valley.

Barry (still enjoying the Dean's job!) Posner



Vol. 3



DAY 800:September 7, 1999

With this note, we begin my third year as the Dean, the last year of the century, the 31st year of the MBA program, the 149th year of the University, and so on.

With this coming academic year there is much to look forward to: The incoming freshman class will be the largest ever, because of a yield (percentage of students admitted who enroll) that was 12-15% above our historical average. We're expecting 286 business schools majors from out of the 1,100 or so in this year's SCU freshman class. They are a talented group--wherever we end up putting them!--with SAT scores at nearly 1200 and GPAs in the 3.5+ range.

Our new ACE (Accelerated Cooperative Education) Program has succeeded in increasing the number of students "admitted with distinction" who actually enroll in SCU to 36 percent -- remember these are the students who also get admitted to Cal, UCLA, USC, Washington, Northwestern, Notre Dame, etc. This is up from only 8% just two years ago. ACE students are provided a series of special programs and activities over their collegiate experience designed to enhance their professional and leadership development. A summer internship is provided prior to their senior year in cooperative with a unique partnership with many of Silicon Valley's finest companies. Current ACE Business Partners include: Andersen Consulting, Applied Materials, Atmel, Comerica Bank, Digital Microwave, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin, Logitech, LSI Logic, Lucent Technologies, Read-Rite, and Silicon Valley Bank. Contact Professor Tyzoon Tyebjee if you'd like to explore how your company could become an ACE Business Partner.

Our MBA Program remains among the top 15 Part-time Programs in the nation according to surveys conducted by U.S. News and World Report. Our aspiration is to break into the top 10, the membership of which hasn't changed much in the past few years. Several new programs should help us gain more renown and prestige, for example, even though they rest upon their own merits:

  • Successful launch of our new Executive MBA program, which is highly innovative, completely cross-functional, and strategically oriented. Twenty-eight pioneers just completed their first of four terms; with acceptances into the second cohort being mailed this month. Recruiting has begun for EMBA #3, scheduled to begin later next year.

  • Concentration in Entrepreneurship for our Evening MBA Program, in collaboration with our new Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, comes on line, pulling together our various course offerings in leadership, managing innovation and technology, financing new ventures, high tech business policy, and E*commerce marketing, among others. We're looking for ways to ensure those in this concentration have hands-on project assignments with emerging enterprises.

  • Introduction of one-unit MBA modules into the curriculum to speed up the curricular innovation process and be even more responsive to internet-speed business issues. Each quarter we'll be offering 8-10 modules placed into the nooks-and-crannies of the schedule (that is, at other times than Monday-Thursday evenings). This will also help some students complete the program one or even two quarters earlier. Topical modules include: Internet Finance, Managing to IPO, and Leadership in Action.

  • Weekend/On-Line MBA Program is under development, and set for launch September 2000. This bi-weekly, Saturday-only, cohort program will extend our geographical reach, provide opportunities for experimenting with technology-based learning experiences, while still maintaining the high-touch, personal attention, interactive and collaborative educational experience that characterizes Santa Clara.

  • Developing leaders has always been a key University mission and the Business School is taking this objective to heart even more so than previously: Service Learning and Leadership Development is the responsibility of the School's newest Assistant Dean Jo-Anne Shibles. Shibles, most recently associate director of student life at San Jose State and previously responsible for leadership education at Cal State Fullerton, takes on this position challenged by the abundant opportunities we have for enhancing the leadership skills of our students, fostering an attitude of responsible citizen leadership, and promoting experiences for servant leadership.

  • Leavey Leadership Lecture program begins this Fall, featuring a monthly presentation by Silicon Valley CEOs on leadership-in-action--a very personal, up-close and up-front conversation on what it takes to be a leader; for example, where do you get the courage, how do you deal with the disappointments, what makes for a good mentor, what's involved in creating partnerships, can you find work-life balance, and so. Dinner with that CEO and a small group of students will follow each session. Check out our web page (BUSINESS.SCU.EDU) for more information about this program and speakers.

  • John Whalen completes 24 years of service to the Undergraduate Program as Associate Dean, and returns full-time to the Economics Department. Honoring his service, faculty, friends, and alumni have created the Whalen Scholarship Fund. This endowed fund will provide scholarships for both need and merit-based students. With over $200,000 having been raised over the summer, and another $100,000 pledged as a one-for-one challenge grant, the half-million target looks achievable as we gear up for a Fall fund-raising campaign. Funding for scholarship support remains one of our highest priorities, and the Whalen Scholarship Fund is a noble and purposeful effort that not only recognizes John's many contributions but acknowledges his concern with making a SCU education accessible.

  • SANTA CLARA: AT THE HEART OF SILICON VALLEY is the title of our latest annual report (1998-1999 academic year). NOT available on your newsstands.... we'll be mailing these to you in the next month. You'll find a complete overview of last year's accomplishments, points-of-pride which we can all bask in, and evidence for why Santa Clara remains the premier business school for Silicon Valley.

    Here's to another great "academic" year to each of you!

    All the best, Barry


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DAY 850:October 28, 1999

At last week's Western Dean's Conference, Pepperdine's Dean Otis Baskin told me how they were running a successful Executive MBA Program in Silicon Valley (along with a Master's Program in Innovation and Technology). San Jose State University's Associate Dean Lee Preston explained how they had 11 corporate MBA programs currently in operation. Just the other day, the University of Arizona announced both a new Evening and Weekend MBA program in Silicon Valley, beginning this Spring. The latter programs take 24 months to complete, cost over $40,000 and "use the latest technology for course delivery, projects, and communication with faculty and other students located in Tucson."

All of this, and more, convinces me that Silicon Valley is "where it's at" and that no one is conceding the marketplace to us. We have to not only maintain our quality but also be innovative and responsive if we are to preserve our market leadership position. If we rest on our laurels and existing programs and paradigms, I am certain that over time we will find our reputation and vitality diminishing.

Not to sound a warning bell too strongly, but it is clearly important that we continue to pursue our own initiatives, like the proposed Weekend MBA Program (and use this program as our "skunk works" opportunity to experiment with various learning technologies).

And learn from our new executive program with Applied Materials. Likewise, we must continue to explore others graduate program possibilities in such areas as technology management, IT, accounting, e*commerce, and the like. For example, the Accounting Department, in collaboration with the Executive Development Center, is working on a new summer intensive program in accounting, which responds to new professional standards. The EDC has a proposal pending with an overseas business school to provide an executive program for their MBA students in the management of innovation and technology (and no better place for this than in the heart of Silicon Valley), and is exploring partnerships with other foreign universities.

More on the positive: We had over 100 folks at last evening's MBA Open House. They were excited and jazzed about our program offerings. In addition, 33 outstanding candidates have been admitted to the Executive MBA Program and we're certain to fill our second cohort group. We are excited and jazzed about these folks because they have great credentials, with an average of 16 years of work experience and again represent a variety of emerging and premier Silicon Valley companies.

Further, in The Templeton Guide: Colleges that Encourage Character Development, a guidebook released nationwide last week, the School is recognized for its collaborative efforts with the Center for Student Leadership in offering innovative and exemplary programs in leadership development.

Lastly, the kudos are rolling in from our alumni and friends regarding our Annual Report. One CEO alumnus sent a note saying, "This is great. I just think the School is doing a marvelous job. And I hear more and more about your accomplishments each day." Another alum took me aside at the Open House and just couldn't say enough about how the School is just getting better and better and it "fills me with pride," she exclaimed, "how I can brag even more and more about the School to my colleagues." A current student, graduating this quarter, sends an e-mail noting: "Keep up the great progressive work. I have been impressed with the top-to-bottom changes I have witnessed in my last two years at SCU."

Certainly, let's keep up the great work (and not kid ourselves that standing still is a viable competitive strategy).

Barry

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DAY 883:November 30, 1999

We're just winding down from the Fall Quarter. I'm getting ready to read the papers from MBA students in my "Managing High Technology" course on the topic: "What are the critical issues facing the leadership of high technology?" Should be interesting reading, as the students draw from the experience of their peers, the distinguished speakers we've heard, and their day-to-day challenges in the workplace.

Here's a note I received last week from one of the students in that class which says a lot about the progress we're making at Santa Clara and about our impact on educating the next generation of Silicon Valley leaders:

"I appreciate the offer and the chance to interact with the types of people who are coming in and giving us their perspectives on leadership and business. It is so interesting being in the Bay Area while our society, the world, is undergoing a communications/information revolution which will transform how business is done. I believe this is one of those spectacular times in history and I am fortunate enough to be in the middle of it and be in an MBA program that extenuates or highlights it. I believe there are many who live in this area that don't get what is happening. I believe being exposed to the thought leaders and the literature of today and of this environment provided by the MBA program is key to the realization of what is happening.
"I know this may sound a bit deep and like I am sucking up but I am not. I think the change in the courses offered and adding the one-unit courses to bring exposure to key topics are great things. I am very excited about this quarter and the remaining ones because of my ability to engage in the topics that are important for today and tomorrow and the exposure to people who are out there doing it. It is making a big difference on how I view my work and what I need to do to take charge my future. It makes a difference and I thank you and the faculty for putting together a good program. I did not go into the MBA program with any idea that I would be coming out thinking this way."

Our thanks for all you do to enable us to aspire to greatness. May this holiday season be full of blessings for you and yours. As we peer into the next century, may it be full of pleasant surprises.

Barry

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DAY 1000:March 26, 2000

One thousand days and then some.....

Yes, it is true. You've been receiving my periodic "Every 100 Days" Reports and now this first "Every 1,000 Days" note. Have these past 2-plus years flown by as quickly for you? What's it been like to be the Dean for these past thousand days? In a word: Terrific (wonderful, super, exciting, challenging, rewarding, energizing, busy...and did I include, fun?). After being with my Jesuit School Business Dean colleagues at a recent conference and listening to their issues, I returned back to campus remarking how I wouldn't want to change places with any of them (and they'd sure be willing to change their problems for our challenges). By the way, I asked so many questions that they elected me their new President and we'll bring this conference to Santa Clara next March.

Great New Faculty Hired
Sanjiv Das, associate professor at Harvard Business School, joins our Finance Department faculty in the Fall, along with Thomas Urich, associate professor at Fordham University. Lyda Bigelow, currently on the faculty of Washington University (St. Louis), and completing her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley will join our Management Department, teaching in the areas of organizational design and the management of innovation. After finishing up her doctoral program at the University of Arizona, Aslihan Celik will join the OMIS Department specializing in electronic commerce data management. In an exceptionally competitive marketplace for faculty we attracted some truly exceptional individuals and these colleagues will bring new skills and resources to both our undergraduate and graduate programs.

3rd Annual Undergraduate Convocation Sets New Record
"Making Connections: Silicon Valley Executives in the Classroom" drew nearly 800 students for concurrent sessions featuring executives on such issues as: "Startup Strategies and Wealth Creation," "Shopping Behavior on the Web," "The New Financial Landscape in the Internet Age," "E-Commerce Technologies," "The European Union: Possibilities and Problems," and "Image-Building, Silicon Valley Style."

New Undergrad Business Sequence Created
Beginning this Fall all incoming business students will take a new course entitled "Contemporary American Business" which will be taught entirely by Silicon Valley senior executives (under the direction of Associate Dean Henry Demmert). Imagine how exciting it will be for our students to get introduced to the workplace through the up-close and personal lens of experienced executives. This course will, in turn, be linked up with both our International Business and Business Ethics courses to form an integrated first-year educational sequence providing an insightful and comprehensive introduction, integration, and immersion into today's global business world.

Another new curriculum feature for all first-year students will be a one-unit module on leadership, which I'll be directly involved with, and will also include Fr. Paul Locatelli (President of Santa Clara University) addressing each section on his leadership experiences and issues. We aim to win a national ranking for SCU's undergraduate business program to match the national rankings received by our MBA program.

Check out Our New Website
With the assistance of the University webmaster, we've revamped the look of our Business School site and re-worked its structure. Most of the feedback we've received has been positive, so make a visit and let us know what you think! The address is BUSINESS.SCU.EDU.

New Graduate Programs Launched
The reaction to our recently launched Executive MBA Program (EMBA) has been outstanding. For the second session, begun in January, we filled every seat. Participants have more than 15 years of work experience, with titles ranging from Director-level through vice-president, CIO, and chief operating officer, and their college GPAs and GMAT scores were on par with those of our Evening MBA students (who, by the way, keep getting better and better themselves). We're currently recruiting participants for our third session (applications are due May 15; see business.scu.edu/admissions/execmba/ for more information). And, turning around, we'll graduate the first group from this program this August!

Meanwhile, plans are being finalized to launch a new Weekend MBA Program next March. Students in this program will complete studies with a cohort group, taking classes every other Saturday, and making use of technology-enhanced learning experiences. With the WMBA Program we'll extend both our geographical reach and ability to further serve the working professional and managerial markets.

Leavey Leadership Lectures Insightful and Compelling
This new initiative has brought Silicon Valley senior executives to campus for remarkably candid, timely, and thought-provoking discussions about leadership and leading today's organizations. Ray Bingham (CEO, Cadence Design Systems), George Scalise (President, Semiconductor Industry Association), Bill Krause (retired CEO, 3Com and private investor), George Sollman (founder and CEO, AtMotion, Inc.), Linda Alepin (Partner, Center for New Futures), and Steve Johnson (founder and retired CEO, Komag) have shared their insights and opened up their hearts in discussions with both undergraduate and graduate students. Following their presentation, each has stayed for dinner with a small group of students to continue the conversations.

This Spring Quarter brings to campus Roger Dunbar (Managing Partner, Ernst & Young), Dennis Rohan (founder and retired CEO, Cohesive Network Technologies), and Irwin Federman (Senior Partner, U.S. Venture Partners).

More to come.…
There's the University's 150th Anniversary Celebration and a great lineup of events and activities, plans for a new business school building (this topic deserves a newsletter of its own!), a new series of professional development seminars and programs under development (MBA-PLUS), a national conference on Business and Spirituality in the works, a new curriculum being developed in e-commerce, and plans for the next Summit sponsored by our Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

As one upcoming MBA student emailed: "This has been a fabulous time to be associated with the Business School. There's a wonderful sense of energy and excitement, like electricity, among my fellow students but shared with the faculty." An Advisory Board member remarked: "I can't believe all that the School has been able to accomplish in these first thousand days. Absolutely fabulous....there's a growing buzz in the Valley that Santa Clara's Business School is the happening place these days. Congratulations."

Thanks to all of you for your support. Keep talking with pride with your colleagues, family and friends about Santa Clara.

Here's to another thousand days (December 24, 2002)! Stay tuned because there's still more to be accomplished...and celebrated!

Barry Z. Posner
Dean

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DAY 1066:May 30, 2000

Musings on the Future: Gary Hamel has a new book forthcoming and it's got me thinking. Hamel is a distinguished research fellow at Harvard, visiting professor of strategy and international management at the London School of Business, and chairman of Strategos, a consulting firm based in Menlo Park. The Economist calls him "the world's reigning strategy guru." The new book is entitled Leading the Revolution, and its got some very exciting, and disturbing, ideas.

Hamel calls attention to a recent Gallup survey that asked nearly 500 CEOs, "Who took best advantage of change in your industry over the past 10 years? Newcomers, traditional competitors, or your own company?" The number one answer was newcomers. They were then asked whether those newcomers had won by "executing better" or "changing the rules of the game." Fully 62 percent said that the newcomers had won by changing the rules of the game.

Starbucks has become America's premier coffee brand, and has the most loyal clientele of any retailer in the U.S. The average Starbucks customer visits a store 18 times a month. So, picture those brands managers sitting at Nestle headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, says Hamel, "plotting a course for Nescafe, the best-selling coffee in the world. Do you think they ever wondered how they could entice bus drivers and schoolteachers to line up five deep to pay three bucks for a latte? No? What were they worrying about? What color cans to put on supermarket shelves? Their supermarket endcap displays? How to beat Procter & Gamble?"

Consider another example: Royal Dutch/Shell is one of the world's premier oil companies, with a history as old as the industry. Yet one day Shell awoke to find that a supermarket (Tesco) had become the largest gasoline ("petrol") retailer in Britain, one of Shell's home markets. How would you handle that? You've spent hundreds of millions of pounds over several decades trying to convince consumers that your brand of gasoline is better than the next guy's, and suddenly it's being sold as a loss leader along with milk and eggs?

In industry after industry, Hamel observes, unorthodox startups are challenging complacent incumbents. And academe is hardly immune.

In these next few years (could universities ever operate with Internet speed?), we've got to continue to embrace this revolution. We're heading roughly in the right direction. Discussions surrounding the new building should help us to think about the future, as will the launch of our new Weekend MBA Program. Still, the need is to continue diversifying and expanding our product lines, customer bases, faculty competencies, scholarly contributions, business and professional interactions. Remember that wonderful scene in the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the villain is about to slice Indiana Jones to shreds with a couple of gleaming sabers? Unperturbed by his enemy's impressive swordsmanship, Indiana calmly pulls out his revolver and shoots him dead. That's the way it works in the age of revolution. Those who live by the sword will be shot by those who don't.

YEAR-END KUDOS: Before we wrap up this academic year, let's give credit to a number of recent awards garnered by our faculty and staff:

Extraordinary Staff Award for Leadership: Marquita Coe (Undergraduate Business Office)

Extraordinary Staff Award for Service: Cheryl Silver (Food and Agribusiness Office)

Extraordinary Staff Award for Teamwork:

  • Official Team: Priscilla Corona, Patty Cortinas, Alicia Franzen (MBA Student Services Office)
  • Ad Hoc Team: Patty Dionne (Accounting Department) and Ramie Fernadez (Finance Department)

President's Award for Distinguished Faculty: Dennis Moberg (Management)

University Award for Sustained Excellence in Scholarship: Alex Field (Economics)

Brutocco Award for Teaching Excellence: Mario Belotti (Economics)

Graham and Dodd Award (for the outstanding paper published in the Financial Analysts Journal ): Meir Statman (Finance)

McFeely Award (presented by the International Management Council to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to leadership and management development ): Barry Posner (Management)

Dean's Award for Outstanding Student Organization: OMIS Student Network (Faculty Advisory: Andy Tsay)

Student Life Award to the Outstanding Faculty/Staff Adviser to a Student Organization: Andy Tsay (OMIS)

OUTSTANDING GROUP JOINING ADVISORY BOARD: Welcome to a number of new members joining the School's Advisory Board: Ken Chow CFO, Cobalt Networks; Nora Denzel, Sr. Vice President, Legato; Dana Evan, CFO, Verisign; Marci Favi, Principal, Alpine Associates; Ruth Grouell, Vice President, HelloDirect.com; Pat Guerra, CEO, SpinCircuit.Com; Christine Russell, CFO Persistence Software; and Ken Wilcox, CEO, Silicon Valley Bank.

EXPANDING FACULTY RESOURCES: We look forward to another exciting year of faculty recruiting. We'll be searching for new faculty colleagues in Accounting, Economics, Management, Marketing, and OMIS. We're also continuing efforts to fill the new Santa Clara Entrepreneur's Chair. Expect to hear about several new term professorships to be announced at the Fall Retreat!

Let's hope that each new hire will feel about us like our most recent faculty addition in Marketing, Chris Miller: "I would like to accept the Santa Clara University offer. The opportunity to work with great people has outweighed very attractive alternatives. When it all comes down to the very essence of enjoying life, it is the people that are around oneself that really make the difference. And that is what I feel Santa Clara is extremely strong on... I am looking forward to joining Santa Clara and hope that I can immediately contribute to the success of the Marketing Department on their teaching, research and 'real world' initiatives." I hope this is the spirit that each of us has about the difference we can make at Santa Clara. See you at either undergraduate or graduate commencement and the receptions which follow. Have a great summer.

Barry

P.S. MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW:

University Planning Day-October 16 LSB TGIF-October 27 Town Hall-December 8 and Holiday Affaire-December 15



DAY 1081:
June 15, 2000

Random Musings from Commencement....

Colleagues:
Perhaps you had plenty of time to think about other things while you sat at Commencement (try going to both the undergraduate and graduate events!), but I did some counting. Here are the results:

359 undergraduates from the Business School were listed in the program; by department they are (the number in parentheses represents the percentage of those graduating with academic honors):

Accounting: 60 (33%)
Economics: 10 (20%)--with another 44 majors in the College of Arts and Sciences
Finance: 93 (16%)
Marketing: 101 (18%)
Management: 21 (10%)
Operations and Management Information Systems (OMIS): 74 (14%)

We estimate more than 300 people attended the School's first-ever informal reception following undergraduate Commencement. They must have been pleased because they ate all the food ordered for 600! Plans next year are to move this event closer to Buck Shaw Stadium and improve the publicity, but for the first time, it was a great turnout. Thanks to the many faculty and staff who participated.

422 MBA candidates were listed in Sunday's Commencement program, and by program:

Food and Agribusiness MBA program: 9 (11%)
The Evening MBA program: 387 (17%)
Executive MBA program: 26 (n/a)

We presented more than 310 graduation gifts to the new MBAs at the reception which followed in the Alumni Picnic grounds, so it was an excellent turn-out! (The gift was a license plate frame, inscribed "MBA: Santa Clara University", with a coupon good for one free MBA Alumni Association Breakfast Briefing in 2000-2001.) Again, thanks to the faculty and staff who both attended and helped to hand out the gifts and congratulate our new alumni!

Suggestions are already being solicited for graduation speakers for the 150th Anniversary Commencement, so let me know if you have any suggestions. Likewise, let me know if you have any recommendations about individuals who you think the University or School should recognize with honorary degrees.

Barry

 

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