Villanova School of Business Spring 2010

Making Sense of the

MeltdownPreparing students for a

changing global economy

VillanovaBusiness spring 2010

magazine of the villanova school of business

John O’Hurley Celebrates Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship

VSB’s New Curriculum: A Case Study Comes to Life

2 villanova business | spring 2010 spring 2010 | villanova business 1

28 Walk a Mile in Her ShoesQuinetta M. Robersontalks about the many different roles that women are expected to play.

DeanJames m. Danko

Associate Dean for External RelationsmaDonna marion-LanDais ma ’81

EditorLiz H. FieLD

Director of Communication

ContributorsanDrea Carter ma ’09

BrenDan e. Cummings a&s ’13timotHy HoFFman VsB ’04, mBa ’06

kit gray WoLVerton

Design & Productionmoiré marketing Partners

Cover IllustrationCatHy genDron

Villanova Business magazine is published twice a year by the Villanova

School of Business.

Villanova Business welcomes inquires, opinions, and comments from its readers.

Liz FieLD Villanova Business

800 Lancaster AvenueVillanova, Pennsylvania 19085-1678

Tel: 610-519-5424Fax: 610-519-7864

Email: [email protected]

www.villanova.edu/business

VillanovaBusiness

Cert no. SW-COC-1551


contents From tHe Dean

02 Creativity, Innovation, and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Features

09 VSB Welcomes New Faculty

22 Making Sense of the Meltdown

28 If the Shoe Fits

33 A Case Study Comes to Life

46 Living an Extraordinary Life

Donor sPotLigHt

18 Elizabeth and Leonard LoBiondo

20 Frank J. Ryan

DePartments

03 Momentum

08 VSB in the News

14 Faculty Achievements

16 Student Achievements

34 Global Experience

36 Lessons Learned

38 Real Estate

40 Alumni Spotlight: Brad Ingelsby

42 Faculty Research

48 In Closing: The Villanova MBA

36

22

46

sPring 2010

2 villanova business | spring 2010

Creativity, Innovation, and the Entrepreneurial SpiritAs finAnciAl And economic issues continue to dominate the business news, questions certainly arise about how future generations will be affected by the shift of global economic power, the massive debt inherited by our children, and the impact of significant technological changes.

Many of us at the Villanova School of Business (VSB) believe that creativity, innovation, and an entrepreneurial spirit are more important than ever in meeting the challenges that lie ahead, especially for our students. As a result, there is considerable discussion at VSB about how our business school can be on the leading edge of change and support a spirit of creativity and innovation.

That spirit of innovation is reflected in the curricular changes occurring within our undergraduate and graduate programs—changes designed to keep VSB students well-prepared for the fast pace of change within a complex economy. It is reflected in the energy and ability of our faculty, who discover new business concepts, advance the connec-tion between theory and practice, and respond to current issues by developing new courses, integrating disciplines, and inviting business leaders into the classrooms.

A strong sense of creativity is demonstrated by our talented students, who have undertaken initiatives, such as Business Without Borders—which focuses on service to the global community—and have utilized outstanding problem-solving skills at many business school competitions.

The entrepreneurial spirit of our successful alumni has helped VSB in countless ways. The careers and business ventures of these alumni have allowed them to support us with their time, talent, and treasure.

I hope you sense the creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit in the many stories contained in this edition of Villanova Business magazine—and in the publication itself, which has undergone a creative change under the leadership of Liz Field, our new Director of Communication.

I welcome your comments and suggestions as the Villanova School of Business continues its momentum in being recognized as a premier global business school.

James m. Danko

The Helen and William O’Toole Dean

Villanova School of Business

“A strong sense of creativity is demonstrated by our talented students, who have undertaken initiatives, such as Business Without Borders. ”

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

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VSB 2009 Rankings

momentum

BusinessWeek Best Undergraduate Business Schools

• #11inthenation

• #5inthenationfor “Overall Academic Quality”

• #8for“OverallStudentSatisfaction”

• A+ in the Teaching Quality and Job Placement categories

Financial Times Executive MBA

• #18amongU.S.-BasedExecutiveMBAProgramsand#55intheworld

• #5intheWorkExperiencecategory amongU.S.-BasedPrograms

• #14intheSalaryTodayand Career Programs categories

• #11intheInternationalCourseExperience category amongU.S.-BasedPrograms

Princeton Review The Villanova MBA

• #9inthenationfor“QualityofCampus Environment”

Aspen Institute Global 100 The Villanova MBA

• #55worldwideintheAspenInstitute’s prestigious Global 100 list of business schools, which recognizes schools that have demonstrated significant leadership in integrating social, environmental, and ethical issues into their MBAprograms

• #13worldwideintheFaculty Research category

• #19intheStudentExposurecategory

BusinessWeek The Villanova MBA

• Top10inacademicquality

• 3rdhighestcompletionratein the nation

• A+ in caliber of classmates

U.S. News & World Report

• VillanovaUniversityisranked #1Master’sUniversityinthe North region

The Villanova School of Business is ranked consistently among the country’s best business schools by publications like BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report, and the Financial Times. We strive to deliver a world-class education that prepares students for the social, environmental, and ethical complexities of modern-day business.

spring 2010 | villanova business 3


MOMENTUM

more tHan 50 unDergraDuate stuDents reCentLy traveled toNewYorkCity toparticipate inVSB’s thirdannualFashionMarketingDay.

The participants received a firsthand look at the fashionindustryandheardadvicefromexecutivesworkinginthefield.While inNewYork, studentsvisitedwith representatives from

Salvatore Ferragamo, Bloomingdale’s, Ann Taylor, and IMG.Presentations by and discussions with marketing and humanresource professionals at these companies provided students with a glimpse of internal operations, recruiting processes, an understanding of diverse work environments, and many newnetworkingconnections.

Fashion Marketing Day in New York City

Chelsea Manowczak VSB ’11, Bloomingdale’s Deborah Weatherbee, Magdalena Adamczuk VSB ’10, Bloomingdale’s Emily Rickel, and Kayla Englot VSB ’10.

Stephanie Adey VSB ’12 and Salvatore Ferragamo Marketing Manager Pierre Goyenetche

tHe ViLLanoVa sCHooL of Business community cele-brated the achievements of students and alumni during the induction ceremony for Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS), the international business honor society created to recognize and promote busi-ness excellence. BGS was the first national honor society in business,foundedin1913,andhas a worldwide membership of more than 560,000.

Induction into BGS is the most elite honor a business student can receive in a business program accred-ited by the Association to

Beta gamma sigma Business Honors society inducts new membersAdvance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

VSB inducted 54 under-graduate, 17 graduate, andsixExecutiveMBAstudents in 2009. Denise L. Devine, a 1977 Department of Accountancy graduate, also was recognized as the 2009 distinguished honoree during the annual celebrationbanquet.

“Denise is a successful businessperson who exem-plifies the ideals of BGS, honor, wisdom, and earnest-ness,” says Dean James Danko.“Iamgratefulforhercommitment to Villanova

Universityandtotheschoolof business.”

A charter member of the Villanova chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma, Devine isaVillanovaUniversitytrustee, former president of the university’s Alumni Association, and former member of VSB’s Dean’s

Advisory Council. Currently she serves on VSB’s advisory council for the Center for MarketingandPublicPolicyResearch. For more than 10 years she has served as president and chief executive officer of her own busi-nesses, Nutripharm Inc., and its subsidiary, Devine Foods, Inc. Before starting her own businesses,Devineworkedin management positions in taxation and accounting with Campbell Soup Company and Arthur Anderson LLP. The BGS award was first given in 1976, and Devine is the 45th recipient.

Denise L. DeVine


tHe ViLLanoVa sCHooL oF Business is PLeaseD to welcome eight new members to the Dean’s Advisory Council (DAC). Composed of representatives from the regional and national business communities, members of the DAC provide professionalexpertise,advice,andfeedbacktothedeaninan effort to enhance the educational mission of VSB.

Membersserve three-year termsandvisitcampuseachsemester to meet with the dean. The council helps develop corporate relationships on behalf of VSB, assist with corpo-rate recruitment and internships for students, and provide support for VSB students, alumni, and strategic initiatives.

Dean’s Advisory Council

anDreW DiLoreto VsB ’80, Pa ’10Chairman & CEOICS Group New York, NY

DaViD e. rutter VsB ’84CEOICAP Electronic Broking, LLCJersey City, NJ

VaHan guregHian VsB ’76, Pa ’09CEOCharter School ManagementChester, PA

tHomas F. giLman VsB ’73Chairman & CEOChrysler FinancialFarmington Hill, MI

Lynn L. eLsenHausChairman, CEO & PresidentSunoco, Inc.Philadelphia, PA

JoHn J. Coneys VsB ’73Vice ChairmanPricewaterhouseCoopers New York, NY

artHur F. tuLLy Pa ’10 ’13Partner, Global Financial ServicesErnst & YoungNew York, NY

roBert F. moran VsB ’72President & COOPetSmart, IncPhoenix, AZ

tHe Women in Business Society and the Clay Center at VSB hosted the third annual Villanova Women in Business:BreakingThroughthe Glass Ceiling Conference. Bloomberg,KPMG,MorganStanley, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Verizon, and Wolverine World Wide provided corporate sponsorship for the event.

Morethan100undergrad-uate and graduate students, faculty, alumnae, and busi-nesswomen discussed the challenges facing women inthecurrentworkenvi-ronment.KeynotespeakerAriane de Bonvoisin, CEO and founder of First30Days, aNewYork–basedmediacompany focused on guiding individuals through personal and professional changes,

encouraged participants to pay attention to their dreamswhenmakinglife changes.

Conferencebreakoutsessions included “Campus to Corporate: A Program for Students to Create a Confident Personal Image,” “Smart Is Cool & You Can Rule: Women in Entrepreneurship,” “¿Estás Lista?: Preparing for an International Career,” and “Doing Good in Your Neighborhood: Bringing PhilanthropytoYourWork&Life.”Anetworkingrecep-tion was held after the conference where attendees andspeakerswerejoinedbybusinesswomen (many of whom are alumnae) repre-senting various professions and industries.

Keynote speaker Ariane de Bonvoisin

Breaking through the glass Ceiling: Villanova Women in Business Conference

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* PA - Parent


ViLLanoVa exeCutiVe Education has a series of world-class open enrollment programs that will address topics including leadership, strategy,risk,internationalbusiness, finance, accounting, andsystemsthinking.Managersandexecutivesgainexposure to cross-industry perspectives and will benefit from access to current content that allows them to maximize their impacts in today’s chaotic environment. Theuniqueprogramcombinesfaculty and business leaders who are recognized for their deep industry experiences, as well as for their excellence in teaching and research.

VSB also has launched theMini-MBA—amulti-session executive education program designed to provide a broad overview of management essentials for

MOMENTUM

executive education at VsB

VSB and Career Services Host Career Planners ConferencetHe CLay Center at tHe Villanova School of Business andthestaffoftheUniversityCareer Services Office hosted more than 95 career services professionalsfrom30areacolleges, universities, and related organizations for a one-day conference.

The Delaware-Valley Career Planners is an informal association initiated more than 20 years ago as a forum for information-sharing and networkingamongDelawareValley-based college career

services professionals. Father Peter Donohue, OSA, PhD,VillanovaUniversityPresident, attended the conference and officially welcomed the attendees. Sessions included “The Dilemma of the Decade: Are YouaScanner?”and“MentalHealth Issues 101: How Career Counselors Can Help” (presented by Joan Whitney, PhD, Executive Director of theUniversityCounselingCenter), as well as presenta-tions by the Philly Ad Club.

SCHEDUlE OF PROGRAMS

MARCH

MARCH 18 & 19FinancefortheNon-FinanceManager9:00a.m.–5:00p.m.

APRIl

APRIl 19International Business Strategy in the Face of GlobalUncertainty9:00a.m.–5:00p.m.

APRIl 27–JUNE 15TheMini–MBAEight Evening Sessions

MAY

MAY 3 & 4ManagingriskStrategically:FundamentalsofBusinessriskAssessment9:00a.m.–5:00p.m.

MAY 11 & 12TechnologyTrendsThatMatter:TheEffectiveUseofNewMediaforMarketing9:00a.m.–5:00p.m.

JUNE

JUNE 8 & 9re-ThinkingyourBusinessStrategy—ASystemsThinkingPerspective9:00a.m.–5:00p.m.

JUNE 14 & 15Creating and Leading High-Performance Teams9:00a.m.–5:00p.m.

To find out more information about Villanova Executive Education, please visit www.villanova.edu/business/graduate/execed

individualslookingtobuildtheirknowledgebasesacrossmultiple functional areas. For complete details on the mini-MBAandotherVillanovaExecutive Education open enrollment programs and to register, please visit: www.villanova.edu/ business/graduate/execed. Villanova alumni receive a 10 percent discount.


MARCH 10Executive MBA Open House

MARCH 15 Analytics Panel Discussion

MARCH 16 Commercial Real Estate Conferences, sponsored by the Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate

MARCH 26 Gary Loveman, CEO and President, Harrah’s Entertainment

APRIl 7The Villanova MBA Open House

APRIl 8 & 9 Real Estate Case Competition

APRIl 19 Business of Sports Conference

APRIl 23 Executive MBA Alumni Annual Conference

MAY 15 Villanova School of Business Commencement Recognition Ceremony

MAY 16 Villanova University Commencement Ceremony

MAY 24 – JUlY 28Summer Business Institute

JUNE 11–13Villanova University Alumni Reunion Weekend

Wanda J. Herndon, former Starbucks Vice President with Robert Mulhall VSB ’80, Partner at Ernst & Young

Former starbucks executive Visits the Villanova school of BusinessWanDa J. HernDon, former Senior Vice President of Global Communications forStarbucks,recentlyvisited VSB to share her experiences and advice with students. Herndon, who is now President and CEO of strategic consulting firm W Communications, was featured in Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time,byStarbucksCEOandChairman Howard Shultz.

For the second year in arow,Shultz’sbookwaschosen for VSB’s Read to Lead program. VSB faculty introduced the Read to Lead program, which aims to provide students with a real-world context for learning, as part of the undergraduate curriculum completely redesigned two years ago. Through the shared experi-ence of reading the same book,VSBfreshmenconnectwith one another and find a common inspiration. Pour Your Heart Into It captures the

four pillars of the under- graduatecurriculum— innovation, ethics, globaliza-tion, and technology.

Herndon, who remains a confidant of Shultz, was instrumental in the global expansionofStarbucksintoAsianmarkets.Duringhervisit here, Herndon shared her advice on how to achieve professional goals and succeed in an ever-more-competitive business world.

VSB extends its apprecia-tion to consulting firm Ernst & Young for supporting the Read to Lead program.

Pour Your Heart Into Itby Howard Shultz

events

For additional details on these and other events, please visit www.business.villanova.edu


BusinessBecause January 12, 2010“Villanova Students Put People Before Profit”FEATUrING:The Villanova School of Business

WHYY RadioJanuary 8, 2010“Looming Layoffs Can Impact Employees’ Mental Health and Productivity” FEATUrING:Ronald Hill, DepartmentofMarketingandBusiness Law

AdvertisingAgeDecember 21, 2009“The Chief Marketing Officer’s Role in Curtailing Black-Market Counterfeits”AUTHOrEDBY:Peggy Chaudhry and Stephen A. Stumpf, Department of ManagementandOperations

ABCNews.comDecember 4, 2009“Ten Ways to Create Jobs and Put America Back to Work as Unemployment Rate Drops to 10%”FEATUrING:Cheryl Carleton, Department of Economics and Statistics

CFO MagazineDecember 1, 2009“A Tax Credit? No Thanks”FEATUrING:PeterZaleski,Department of Economics and Statistics

New York PostNovember 27, 2009“After Black Friday: Where’s the Deal?”FEATUrING:Eric karson, DepartmentofMarketingandBusiness Law

ABCNews.comNovember 18, 2009“Unions Get Snarky With Big Banks”FEATUrING:Dennis kuhn, DepartmentofMarketingandBusiness Law

Financial TimesNovember 18, 2009“The Future of Business Schools 2009”FEATUrING:DeanJamesM.Danko,VSB

Philadelphia Business JournalNovember13,2009“Under Dean Danko, Biz School Has Improved its Faculty, Admissions, and Rank”FEATUrING:DeanJamesM.Danko,VSB

Campus TechnologyNovember 11, 2009“AV Tech Powers Financial Simulations at Villanova’s Applied Finance Lab”FEATUrING:DavidNawrocki,Department of Finance

MediaPostNovember 6, 2009“Social Credit For CSR Purchases Key To Consumers”AUTHOrEDBY:Aronté Bennett, Department of MarketingandBusinessLaw

DailyFinance October30,2009“Self-checkout Machines Cause ‘Stage Fright’ in Shoppers”FEATUrING:MichaelCapella,DepartmentofMarketingandBusiness Law

BusinessWeek.comOctober 29, 2009“Are Investors Ready for Higher Interest Rates?”FEATUrING:Victor Li, Department of Economics and Statistics

The Chronicle of Higher EducationOctober 12, 2009“GMAT® vs. GRE®: A New Question for Business Schools”AUTHOrEDBY:Dean James M.Danko,VSB

WHYY RadioOctober 12, 2009“PA Businesses Unhappy With Tax Increase”FEATUrING:Greg Bonner, DepartmentofMarketingandBusiness Law

CNNMoney.comOctober 8, 2009“Entrepreneurs Create Their Own Recovery”FEATUrING:John Pearce II, DepartmentofManagementand Operations

HealthDay August 27, 2009“Get Ready for Gruesome Cigarette Warnings”FEATUrING:Jeremy kees, DepartmentofMarketingandBusiness Law

Wall Street JournalAugust 20, 2009“Lessons That Fit the Times”FEATUrING:The Villanova School of Business

National Catholic Reporter August 5, 2009“How Parishes Can Cope With the ‘Great Recession’”AUTHOrEDBY:Charles Zech, Department of Economics and Statistics

BusinessWeek July 27, 2009“Why Business Schools Should Focus on Emerging Markets” AUTHOrEDBY:Jonathan Doh, Department of ManagementandOperations

VSB in the NewsFaculty,students,andstaffatVSBarefrequentlycalleduponbynationalandinternationalnewsmediatoserveasexpertsandtoprovide insight on current issues. The following is a list of print, broadcast, and online media featuring our experts.


welcome

Villanova School of Business faculty are leaders in global business education who develop and refine their ideas through meaningful interactions with their students and colleagues. It is this collegiality that helps make VSB one of the best business schools in the nation.

VSB’s four new faculty members

aronté Bennett

Faculty members routinely partner with local, national, and interna-tional businesses to test, refine, and implement new ideas. They capitalize on extensive experience in the corporate world to develop course content that addresses the conditions and challenges of today’s business environ-ment while also anticipating tomorrow’s business needs.

Knowledge gained through research, classroom experiences, and the business world continually impact and enrich VSB’s undergraduate and graduate experiences, as well as our executive education programs.

VSB’s commitment to research and academic rigor is exhibited through the school’s five Centers of Excellence: the Center for Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship; the Center for Marketing and Public Policy Research; the Center for Global Leadership; the Center for the Study of Church Management; and the Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate. These centers focus attention on critical business issues and leverage the expertise of VSB faculty in a cross-disciplinary way. Each center makes a significant contribution to VSB curricula.

stePHen LieDtka sue metzger tina yang

VSB faculty members are widely recognized for excellence in both teaching and research.Morethan90percentoffacultymembersholdthehighestdegreeintheirrespective disciplines. Ours is a multidimensional faculty that holds a wealth of real-worldexperiencefromcareers infinance,banking,sales,management,marketing,accounting, consulting, and other fields.P

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spring 2010 | villanova business 11 10 villanova business | spring 2010

aronté Bennett, PhDassistant ProFessor, marketing

The Augustinian mission of Villanova University—which centers on the values of truth, unity, and love merged with the guiding principle of leading through service—aligns perfectly with Aronté Bennett’s interest in determining what motivates altruism.

Doing Better By Doing Good

As a professor of marketing with interest in consumer behavior as it relates to prosocial behavior, Bennett’s academic studies and research help businesses adopt strategies that are good not only for the bottom line, but also good for society as a whole. For example, she examines the aspects of product design and retail environment that influence consumer responses to products that support charitable causes.

Bennett received her PhD in marketing from the Leonard N. Stern

School of Business at New York University in December 2009. Prior to joining the Villanova School of Business, Bennett served as an instructor at the Stern School of Business, where she also completed a Master of Philosophy and a pre-doctoral program in marketing. Before completing graduate study, Bennett earned a BSBA and an MBA with a concentration in marketing from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU).

>> TolearnmoreaboutVSB’sMarketingandBusinessLawDepartment,goto:www.villanova.edu/business/facultyareas/marketing


stephen L. Liedtka, PhD, CPaassistant ProFessor, aCCounting anD inFormation systems

Helping Corporations Keep ScoreIn basketball, the team ahead at halftime does not always win the game. The same is true in the business world—companies that report short-term profits can fail in the long term if they do not satisfy customers, attract and retain good employees, and continuously work to stay ahead.

Stephen Liedtka researches the ways various accounting and other performance indicators influence management decisions and long-term business performance. He has applied his expertise to a diverse set of topics, including information technology outsourcing, option trading, and Balanced Scorecard design. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Behavioral Research in Accounting, Communications of the ACM, Computers & Operations

Research, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, and Journal of Management Information Systems. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Northeastern Association of Business, Economics and Technology.

Liedtka earned his PhD from the University of Maryland, where he received the Allan N. Nash Award for the Outstanding Doctoral Student.

>> To learn more about VSB’s Accounting & Information Systems Department, go to: www.villanova.edu/business/facultyareas/accounting


sue mcFarland metzgerinstruCtor, management inFormation systems

The Villanova School of Business emphasizes a personalized business education and teaching excellence by world-class faculty who have spent substantial time actively engaged in the business world. Professor Sue Metzger continues this tradition, bringing a wealth of business experience and knowledge directly into the classroom.

Prior to coming to Villanova, Metzger spent eight years with SAP America as director of global support, five years at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School implementing client/server technolo-gies, and four years in programming and database consulting.

Since 2003, she has served as Villanova University’s program

director of information systems. Her areas of expertise cover a range of issues at the forefront of business technology, including enterprise systems, cloud computing, social media, and distance learning.

Metzger received her MS in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Mathematics from Bucknell University.

>> TolearnmoreaboutVSB’sManagementInformationSystemsDepartment,goto:www.villanova.edu/business/facultyareas/accounting

12 villanova business | spirng 2010

Wireless Solutions to Complex Business Problems

tina yang, PhDassistant ProFessor, FinanCe

Tina Yang cites this and other historical turning points, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley legislative reform, as the root of her interest in corporate governance, global shareholder activism, and corporate social responsibility—all concepts that only recently entered the public awareness.

A native of Beijing, China, Yang received her PhD in finance from the University of Georgia and an MBA and MS from the University

of Miami. She earned her BA from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

Yang comes to VSB from Clemson University, where in 2008 she received an award for faculty excellence. While at VSB, Yang intends to continue studying corporate governance with the objec-tive of producing research analyses for use by policymakers, financial managers, and business practitioners.

>> To learn more about VSB’s Finance Department, go to: www.villanova.edu/business/facultyareas/finance


Trading Tips Under the Buttonwood TreeIn the six years prior to 2003, the Wall Street Journal mentioned the term “corporate governance” 575 times. In 2003 alone, “corporate governance” appeared in 575 articles.


accounting Professor awarded Fellowship in applied ethics

Associate Professor of Accounting antHony H. CatanaCH Jr. was awarded the first-ever Cary M. Maguire Fellowship in Applied Ethics by the American College Center for Ethics in Financial Services. The fellowship is a two-year academic research position focused on examining disclosure practices in financial markets.

ConCeiVeD anD enDoWeD By PatriCk meyer VsB ’74, theMeyerInnovationandCreativeExcellence(ICE)Awardhigh-lights the importance of innovation and creativity in the field of business and recognizes members of the VSB community who exemplify these traits. The recipients of this year’s inaugural award,AssistantProfessorofManagementJames kLingLer and student JosePH manCari VSB ’09, each demonstrate the knackforcreativityandpassionfor innovation,whicharethehallmarksofsuccessfulbusiness.

Inhismorethan30yearsattheschool,ProfessorKlinglerhasbeen synonymous with the entrepreneurial spirit. As Dean James Dankosaidatthe2009VSBGraduates’recognitionCeremony,“entrepreneurship, at its core, demands creativity and innova-tion,”andProfessorKlinglerconsistentlythinks“outsideofthebox”toforgepartnerships.Hehasdevelopeduniqueprograms,such as the entrepreneurship minor, initiated VSB’s annual “Beyond Ideas” entrepreneurial education program, served as faculty advisor to the Villanova Entrepreneurial Society, and is the assistant director of the newly formed Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship Center.

Professor klinger also has been an advisor for Business Without Borders, a student group modeled after Doctors WithoutBorders,whichallowsVSBstudentstousetheskillstheyacquireintheclassroomwhilehelpingbusinessesandentrepre-neurs in developing regions throughout the world. “Despite his many undertakings, in true Villanova spirit, he remains highly

VsB Honors excellence in innovation, Creativity, and entrepreneurship

committed to his students and spends countless hours helping youngentrepreneurs,”saysDeanDanko.

The 2009 student recipient combined his passion for Villanova with an innovative spirit in his creationof “Wildpants”—apairof medical scrub pants emblazoned with Villanova Wildcat stripes.Despiteanumberofsetbacks,JosephMancariVSB’09,securedamarket forhisproduct throughaggressivepublicityandmarketingtactics.“Ifyou’veeverseenagorilladressedinWildcat striped pants at ‘The Oreo,’ you’ve witnessed his innova-tiveguerillamarketingtechniques,”DeanDankoquippedduringthe award ceremony.

TheMeyerInnovationandCreativeExcellenceawardwillbegiven each year to one faculty member and one student who have demonstrated innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship intheiracademicandprofessionalendeavors.DeanDankoandtheVSBcommunitygreatlyappreciatethegenerosityofPatrickMeyerVSB ’74,whocreatedtheaward inhonorofhisfather, C.PaulMeyerVU’29,andhisbrother,EdwardMeyerVSB’86.

Through the support of the fellowship, Professor Catanach will analyze which types of disclosures are useful, and how these forms of disclosure can be promoted and implemented. Professor Catanach plans to focus his research on accounting practices with the specific goal of enhancing ethical accounting

practices and transparency by highlighting the importance of ethical accounting to legisla-tors, the media, and the big four accounting firms.

Professor Hanouna serving nation’s Capitol as member of FDiC

PauL Hanouna, Assistant Professor of Finance, served the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Washington, D.C.,

as a visiting research scholar in the Center for Financial Research. The federal organiza-tion has asked Professor Hanouna to conduct extensive research on credit risk and capital require-ments. Professor Hanouna also is reporting to the FDIC on the impact of CEO compensation on corporate risk-taking.

Faculty achievements

Assistant Professor of Management James Klingler

Joseph Mancari VSB ’09


2009 meeting of the Academy of Management, the leading profes-sional organization for scholars in the field of management and organization. Their paper, “Market Watch: Information and Availability Cascades Among the Media and Investors in the U.S. IPO market,” examines how the media and investors evaluate newly public firms in the days following their initial public offerings (IPOs). “Beyond being an acknowledgement of my research, the award is an indica-tion that entrepreneurship as a scholarly discipline is receiving more traction,” said Maggitti. “I also am thrilled because the award highlights a successful joint effort between the Villanova School of Business and top research schools like Penn State and Texas at Austin. This recognition contrib-utes to VSB’s growing status among the top management and entrepreneurship research schools in the world.”

represent the broker-dealer, invest-ment management, and securities law industries.

maggitti awarded Best Paper by the academy of management

PatriCk maggitti, Assistant Professor of Management, recently received the 2009 Academy of Management IDEA Award in the category of “Thought Leadership” for best paper published in the field of entrepreneurship in 2008. Professor Maggitti and his coauthors, Tim Pollock (Penn State University) and Violina Rindova (University of Texas at Austin) were recognized at the

Professor Pagano appointed to Finra

Associate Professor of Finance miCHaeL Pagano has been appointed a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) Market Regulation Committee. Professor Pagano is the first financial acade-mician appointed to the 10-person committee, which oversees regula-tory activity in major U.S. equities markets. FINRA is the largest non-governmental regulator, managing nearly 5,000 brokerage firms, 172,000 branch offices, and approximately 665,000 regis-tered securities representatives. During his three-year appoint-ment, Professor Pagano will help

The Center for Financial Research helps fulfill the FDIC’s role as deposit insurer and bank industry overseer through spon-sored research, forums, seminars, conferences, and workshops. Professor Hanouna is actively involved in developing and imple-menting these programs during his time at the FDIC.

Dean Danko elected to gmaC® Board of Directors

Dean James Danko has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®). This nonprofit organization of graduate business schools is recog-nized worldwide and administers the GMAT® exam used as part of the graduate business school admissions process.

As a member of the board, Dean Danko will develop policies to ensure effective and strategic operation of the organization and monitor GMAC’s activi-ties, projects, and programs to ensure its mission is present throughout each of them.

Professor taylor recognized as Villanova university’s 2009 most outstanding scholarVsB CongratuLates ProFessor CHarLes tayLor, JohnA.MurphyProfessorofMarketing,whoreceivedthe2009Villanova University Outstanding Faculty research Award.ThisawardisthehighesthonorawardedbytheUniversitytothose professors who demonstrate excellence in academic research. In October, Professor Taylor was presented with an OutstandingFacultyresearchcertificateand$3,000hono-rarium by University President rev. Peter Donohue, OSA,PhD, and Vice President for Academic Affairs John Johannes. Professor Taylor joins a distinguished list of VSB profes-sors who previously have been honored with this award, including Professor Wayne Bremser (Accounting), Professor Matthew Liberatore (Management Information Systems),Professor JohnPearceII(Management),andProfessorCharlesZech (Economics).


A team of five Villonova School of Business (VSB) students won first place and were awarded a $10,000 prize in the PricewaterhouseCoopers xACT Competition, otherwise known as the xTREME Accounting Challenge, hosted on campus. The team also represented VSB by participating in PwC’s

VsB’s mBa team oF raCHeL BuCk, JoeL FairCLotH, ANd aLison saWyer scored well against top MBA talent innational business competitions. VSB’s team won first place and a$5,000prizeduringLaSalleUniversity’sfirstannualDelawareValley Nonprofit Case Competition.

At the third annual Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Philadelphia Cup, the three finished in third place with a $4,000 prize. The Wharton School of Business and Haub School of Business won first and second places respectively. VSB’s students wererecognizedfortheiroutstandingpresentationanduniqueapproach to the legal, ethical, and financial issues facing a local non-profit organization.

MembersoftheteamcitedtheirMBAcourseworkasrelevanttraining for these competitions. “To ensure we were success-fully prepared for these exercises, we studied relevant financial, business, and ethical concepts, which supplemented our course-work,”saysAlisonSawyer.

mBa Candidates receive top Honors in national Business Competitions

Joel Faircloth agrees that the competitions were challenging. “We had to draw on our collective experiences to develop a coherentstrategy,”hesays.“Itwasnotuntilthecaseworkwascomplete that I could recognize how much I have learned in the MBAprogram.”

national case competition in New York City.

Team members included students CHristina Brenner, meLissa sCHierL, DaViD reDDy, katHerine Forney, CarLy king, and faculty advisor kennetH HiLteBeiteL.

The Extreme Accounting Challenge is a case competition that tests critical thinking, team-building, presentation skills, and using time wisely in hundreds of the best undergraduate accounting students from colleges across the country. VSB’s team was one of 418 to participate from 42 colleges and universities across the country.

Finalists were required to present their case solutions to a real-world accounting issue, which focused on evaluating two financial options for a fictional U.S.-based energy company. Teams from five schools—Villanova University, Hampton University, LaSalle University Louisiana State University and the University of Illinois—made it to the national finals by winning xACT challenge on their respective campuses.

students excel in Capsim Foundation Challenge

Sophomores students keVin DesmonD and Haris CHauDHry took second place in an international business planning simulation competition hosted by Capsim Management Simulations, Inc.

The two students were the only Villanova team in the Spring 2009 Capsim Foundation Challenge. The two competed against 250 student teams world-wide in a web-based simulation challenge that required manage-ment of an electronic sensor company’s strategic, operating, and financing decisions over the course of 16 simulated years.

stuDent achievements

Assistant Professor of Management James Klingler

Joseph Mancari, VSB ‘09

Alison Sawyer VSB ’09, Joel Faircloth VSB ’09, and Rachel Buck VSB ’09

VsB students advance to Finals of the PwC extreme accounting Challenge

David Reddy VSB ’10, Katherine Forney VSB ’10, Christina Brenner VSB ’11, Melissa Schierl VSB ’10, and Carly King VSB ’10.


Mid-Cap Fund, a student-run, socially responsible investment Fund at VSB.

The Haley Group Mid-Cap Fund not only outperformed the other student-managed funds at Villanova and other schools across the nation, but the greater market as well.

Fifty universities submitted portfolios for the competition. Each school could submit two portfolios—one for under-graduate students and one for graduate students.

Student members of the Villanova Equity Society CHristoPHer DuDeriCH, anDreW miLano, PatriCk o’ConneLL, sean WHiPkey, and tHomas o’Connor were awarded first place in the undergraduate division, growth-style category of the Dayton University RISE (Redefining Investment Strategy Education) Portfolio Competition. The team received top honors for their manage-ment of the Haley Group

FinanCe stuDents Jamie CrimaLDi, CoLLeen keLLy, anD CatHerine Peterson, aswell asmarketing studentskatie neugoLD and Justyna niezgoDa, and accounting student VeroniCa santos, competed against 27 other teams winning first in theirdivision in the2009LoyolaMarymountUniversityBusiness Ethics Case Competition. The team finished ahead of

Dartmouth’sTuckSchoolofBusinessandNewYorkUniversity’sStern School of Business. The group placed second in the sepa-rate “ethics-only” portion of the competition.

The team examined the ethical, legal, and financial impli-cations for restaurant personnel as they consider providing consumers with nutritional information on menus.

undergraduates Win top Prize in Business ethics Case Competition

David Sauer, Director of University of Dayton Investment Management Center, Andrew Milano VSB ’09, Christopher Duderich VSB ’09, and Bob Froehlich, Deutsche Asset Management and RISE Master of Ceremonies.

VsB students Win First Place in the rise Portfolio Competition

Katie Neugold VSB ’09, Jamie Crimaldi VSB ’09, Justyna Niezgoda VSB ’09, Veronica Santos VSB ’09, Colleen Kelly VSB ’09, and Catherine Peterson VSB ’09.


Gateway to Success FOrELIZABETHANDLEONArDLOBIONDO,ATrIUMGIFTDEMONSTrATESBELIEFINVSB

ElizabEth lobiondonur ’80

Bsn CoLLege oF nursing

lEonard lobiondoVsB ’80

Bs aCCounting

As An undergrAduAte student in the lAte 1970s, Leonard LoBiondo spent three years living on the ground floor of Sullivan Hall East, near the heart of the Villanova School of Business. Many mornings he looked out his window, wondering what path his life would take.

After spending more than 25 years helping to turn around distressed companies and providing other corporate leadership advice, he decided to leave a special mark on the business school that helped shape him. His former dormitory room today overlooks what is now The LoBiondo Atrium at Bartley Hall, renamed last year in appreciation for a $1 million gift from him and his wife.

Donor spotlight

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“The neat thing is the Atrium would have been right outside my door. For business students it’s the first thing they see on the way in, and the last thing they see on the way out,” Mr. LoBiondo says today. “I really look at it as the gateway to the business school.”

We caught up with Leonard LoBiondo, who also is a member of the Villanova University Board of Trustees, to discuss his views on the busi-ness school, the university’s leadership, and why he and his wife have made VSB a priority in their philanthropy.

Q: How did your Villanova experience help shape your career?A: To be honest, I wasn’t a particularly great student coming out of high school, and I didn’t know what I wanted to pursue as a career. Villanova really helped me get focused. My experi-ence at Villanova ultimately shaped both my personal and professional life.

Q: What big differences do you see in VSB now compared to your experience?A: The biggest difference I see is how much sooner students study business dynamics and learn how everything fits together. One of my final classes was business policy, where we took our four years of learning and related it to case studies of various companies. The new curric-ulum actually starts with this exercise as a required core freshman class.

Over the years, I’ve worked with many companies in the business world and participated in case studies at various business schools. This approach is more typical for advanced classes and graduate programs. Students starting right off with Business Dynamics in their freshman year shows that the curriculum is very progressive. Accounting, finance, and economics are hard concepts to appreciate unless you under-stand how they fit into the real world.

Q: What do you think about the direction of VSB?A: I really do applaud Dean [James M.] Danko. He’s gotten the word out. VSB was always a great school, but it didn’t have the national recognition it deserved. Dean Danko has done a commendable job working with the business and academic communities to position VSB as a premier business school. The interdisciplinary approach they’ve taken across the curriculum has helped prepare students to secure jobs during a really difficult time.

Q: How can VSB continue to remain relevant to students as the business world changes?

A: We have the right professors in place to motivate the students. And we have the right curriculum to train them. I think the final piece of the puzzle is to get the business community to seek out VSB graduates in each discipline more aggressively.

Another issue is: How can we help our students become leaders in the business world? Having our graduates in executive level positions and involved in the outside world in a significant way is key. This is promoted through having the right students, wonderful facilities, attracting top faculty, and building the endowment. In today’s market-place, there’s a lot to be said for having the capital.

Q: Why is the value of VSB so great?A: As a parent or potential student, you’re really looking at what do my dollars buy me? What is the value equation? When you look at the value equation for Villanova in today’s market, it’s great; Villanova is a special place.

Q: How has your philanthropic support of Villanova changed over the years, and what do you attribute it to?A: My wife and I met at Villanova, and when we graduated we started with nothing, so we gave a little here and there. We didn’t have a big connection back to the university for many years because of our life situations–raising kids, focusing on building our careers, and paying the mortgage. As our careers prospered, Villanova became a very impor-tant part of our philanthropic giving program–both annually and then ultimately for estate planning purposes.

We’re very pleased with the administration of the school. Father Peter [M. Donohue, OSA, PhD] is a tremendous leader and spokesman in promoting the Villanova community.

Q: Your two brothers and sister also went to Villanova. But of your four children, your fourth was the first to attend the university. What took so long?A: I stayed out of the college decision process. My first three sons were interested in degree programs that Villanova University did not offer. Nick [a freshman at VSB] was the first one who wanted to go to business school, so for him the decision was easy.

Q: did that disappoint you?A: No, I was pleased with the schools my other children attended, but naturally I would have liked to have three more Wildcats in the LoBiondo family. V


Embracing a Culture of Change THErYANFAMILYDESCrIBETHEIrFATHEr’SCOMMITMENTTOINNOVATION

FranK J. rYaneng ’53

sCHooL oF engineering

Donor spotlight

frAnk J. ryAn wAs An engineer by trAining who possessed an innovative and creative spirit that touched the lives of many people. A 1953 graduate of the Villanova School of Engineering, he spent three decades inspiring colleagues, family, and friends as an engi-neer and top executive at Air Products and Chemicals, which he helped build into a global conglomerate that today serves the technology, energy, healthcare, and industrial markets. P

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He and his wife Jane raised four children all of whom graduated from Villanova: Laurene Ryan VSB ’80, Christopher Ryan C.E. ’83, Carolyn R. Healey A&S ’83, and William Ryan A&S ’88.

Jane and Frank Ryan, who were married for 51 years and enjoyed a strong and happy partnership, died within 10 weeks of each other in 2007. But through the Ryan Family Foundation, which the couple’s children oversee today, Jane and Frank remain important figures in the university.

The Villanova School of Business has benefited greatly from the family’s generosity. This year the Ryan Family Foundation committed $1 million to create the Frank J. and Jane E. Ryan Family Endowed Chair in Strategy and Innovation. The position will help advance the business school as a leading center for the study of innovation.

All four of Jane and Frank Ryan’s children have achieved success in their own careers, assuming leadership positions in human-resources management, business management, business development, retail, and other fields at such companies as Procter & Gamble, General Electric, Aetna, Rohm and Haas, and L.L.Bean. Each family member attributes much of their successes to their father’s guidance.

“Whatever we’re doing now ties back to my father,” says Carolyn R. Healey, a philosophy major at Villanova, who went on to get an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

The siblings recall sitting around the family’s home in Allentown, Pa., listening to their father tell stories about his frequent recruiting visits to Villanova’s campus. “He was very excited about learning and was a continuous learner, which meant having open conversations, whether it was with someone right out of college or a peer in the industry,” says Bill Ryan, who now works with L.L.Bean.

Throughout their lives, their father clipped articles on topics he had discussed with each of them. “He shared his love for learning not only through many meaningful conversations, but through these insightful pieces of reading that would arrive in the mail,” says Laurie Ryan, a senior human-resources specialist who has worked for various Fortune 500 companies. “It also showed us he was listening and engaged with us on the topics.”

Frank Ryan attributed his career success in part to the discipline he learned in the Villanova School of Engineering. But he also had a keen entrepreneurial mind and underlying innovative spirit that set him apart.

He started at Air Products and Chemicals in 1957, eventually rising to president and chief operating officer. Along the way, he helped create and lead the company’s chemicals division, building it into a $1 billion business. During his tenure, the company’s business increased three-fold; today it has annual revenues of more than $8 billion, with operations in more than 40 countries.

Just as important, he helped instill an innovative culture at the company, which it is known for today. “Our father had an insatiable

“The status quo is the domain of the unimaginative.”– FRANk J. RyAN ENG ’53

intellectual curiosity and was someone who really invited diverse thinking and debate to get solutions,” Laurie Ryan says. “He made connections between diverse ideas, which is something we watched and learned from.”

One of the things that drew people to their father was his ability to embrace change. “He understood that there are natural ebbs and flows in life and business, and to not be afraid of that,” Carolyn Healey says. “You plan for it and look forward to the opportunities around it.”

Of the many boards and individuals he advised, Frank Ryan did some of his most important community work with the Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. He served for many years on the hospital’s board of directors, and as head of its finance and audit committees.

A strong believer in the value of education and nurturing young talent, he also was actively involved in creating a leadership program at DeSales University’s Salesian Center. The program, still in place today, offers top students a chance to hone their skills as ethical leaders.

Mr. Ryan’s unique combination of interpersonal skills and ethical qualities put him in a category by himself, his children say.

“During my career, I have worked with many talented people, but my father was my mentor,” says Christopher Ryan, a chemical engineer who received his MBA from the University of Chicago and is now a senior executive at W. L. Gore & Associates. “He was able to teach and practice the rare combinations of strategic thinking, personal relation-ships, and motivating others while operating with rock-solid Catholic ethics and great modesty. Not many men possess this combination of capabilities. It is the reason he was so successful, and why he was so loved and admired.”

In fact, Frank Ryan would have thrived in today’s fast-changing busi-ness environment, his children believe. “It’s a huge time of change, and our Dad would have understood how to navigate that,” Healey says. Christopher Ryan agrees: “Really smart executives are taking advan-tage of this time to position their businesses for even stronger growth, investing in assets and people that are strategically important and less expensive than they have been in a long time. Our Dad was all about value and growth. He would have loved to put his money to work in this economic downturn.”

Thanks to the family’s gift, the next generation of VSB students will have an opportunity to learn from the lessons their father shared so freely. “Over the years, our family has received so much from Villanova,” Healey says. “It’s our wish that with these gifts, future Villanova faculty and students have the same experiences.” V


Making Sense

Reorganizing faculty and revamping its curriculum helped

of theMeltdown

VSB respond quickly to the financial crisis.

by Kit Gray Wolverton

Illustration by Cathy Gendron


Since 2005, the business school has been on the move, reorganizing its faculty, overhauling its curriculum, and attracting high-caliber students. The changes have helped Villanova move into the ranks of elite business schools.

The revamped curriculum—which emphasizes a holistic, multi- disciplinary approach that is responsive to the fast-changing world of business—is better preparing students to compete in a global marketplace.

Even with all those improvements, VSB’s leaders recognize that they need to do more to help students land on their feet in this uncer-tain economy. In addition to continuing to build strong ties to Wall Street and corporate America, school officials are reaching out to government and nonprofit agencies to pave the way for students to get different kinds of jobs.

Perhaps most importantly, VSB is positioning itself as one of the country’s most dynamic business schools, not only willing to make broad changes to better equip its faculty and its students for a changed business environment—but to recognize that it must continually rein-vent itself to stay relevant.

“Innovation is what will lead us out of this crisis and is critical for our students to learn,” says James M. Danko, The Helen and William O’Toole Dean, who has led the school through this unprecedented period. “Regardless of what takes place externally, the foundation we are building will better prepare students and help us respond quickly to change how we deliver education.”

Soon after Danko was hired in 2005, he established a faculty-led committee to consider updating the school’s curriculum, which had remained largely unchanged since it was established in the 1950s. The group, which included students, alumni, and corporate recruiters, came back with a bold plan that re-imagined the undergraduate business education.

Gone were stand-alone freshman courses on accounting and busi-ness law. In their place: “Business Dynamics,” a six-credit, yearlong course that highlights the overarching purpose of business within society. The class—which incorporates guest lectures with well-known CEOs and includes case studies that are as likely to come from an episode of “60 Minutes,” as well as a worn textbook—teaches innova-tion and openness to change as fundamental skills.

hen the financial crisis struck, manybusiness schools were caught off-guard. Some scrambled to add seminars and symposiums to help explain the economic downturn, which has since led to a wave of

corporate layoffs, declining portfolios, and one of the most significant

government bailouts in the history of American finance.

Thanks to sweeping changes the Villanova School of Business (VSB) put in

place just before the stock market collapsed, the school was in a position to do far more than

offer its students a few passing thoughts on the forces reshaping global business.


The new �rst-year curriculum has given students a better framework for understanding fundamental aspects of the �eld, says Ronald Hill, The Richard J. and Barbara Naclerio Chair and Senior Associate Dean, Intellectual Strategy. “I see students coming out of their freshman year now with a much more sophisticated view of business than perhaps they had before because they see how things are �tting together better,” he says.

Accounting and business law didn’t go away, but were blended into new courses—Financial Management and Reporting, and Corporate Responsibility and Regulation. Those classes are offered during the sophomore and junior years, when students have a better grounding in broad business principles.

One of the most dramatic changes to the undergraduate curric-ulum is the integration of concepts and disciplines. For students who enrolled after fall 2008, at least one course each year is team-taught by two instructors, who come from varied academic backgrounds, inte-grating different teaching methods into each classroom.

“So many programs teach in silos, but that isn’t how the business world works,” Dean Danko says. Now, for example, students are exposed to �nance and accounting principles in the same class. In another, they learn about marketing and management simultaneously.

The new curriculum is not etched in stone, either. Faculty members realized the importance of keeping the curriculum permeable to prepare students not just for the world they will enter upon graduation, but for what they may encounter a decade or more down the road.

VSB also is making big changes in its graduate business

curriculum. In spring 2010, it will offer one “hot topics” course that will change each semester depending on trends or activities occurring in different industries.

The class will build on an undergraduate course VSB �rst offered in spring 2009 that examined what the government bailout of various industries means for the U.S. economy. That course, one of the �rst in the country to discuss the government’s role in the crisis, went from concept to approval within one week, thanks to the forward thinking of associate dean, undergraduate business programs, Melinda German and department chairs. It will be offered again in spring 2010, this time examining the impact of regulatory reform in the United States compared to regulatory efforts in Europe, China, and India. (See Q&A with John Kozup, the associate professor who cocreated the class.)

This past fall, VSB hosted symposiums focusing on how the �nancial crisis and the government’s response to it affected economic growth. These seminars highlighted the �rms with the best chance of coming out ahead, and discussed how the regulatory changes here and overseas impacted international investment opportunities.

On the one-year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers banking collapse, VSB held a seminar called “Lessons Learned: The Financial Crisis and Its Long-Term Impact,” which provided students with insights into the 2008 �nancial situation, and offered a venue for busi-ness and government leaders to share their perspectives. It was also a way for students to connect their classroom experiences with real life—a growing need in a business education, Dean Danko says.

The Philadelphia Business Journal profiled VSB’s Bailout course as part of its business education news coverage.


“The economic crisis exposed us to a number of things we haven’t seen before,” he says. “Our job is to provide frameworks for how students solve problems in the new environment in which we live.”

Faculty members also have infused more real-time business situ-ations into their classes. Students now tackle live case studies in their sophomore year, working for leaders from such companies as Rolls-Royce, Tasty Baking Company, and American Eagle Outfitters, whose CEO, James V. O’Donnell, is a 1963 VSB graduate. For one class this semester, students created a marketing campaign for American Eagle Outfitters, which they presented to company executives who provided real-time feedback.

For the most part, the new curriculum has gone over well. Although some students initially were concerned about certain changes—for example, taking one six-credit course instead of two three-credit courses—many say they like the integration of class topics and appreciate how agile VSB has been in addressing the shifting business landscape.

Michael Cali, who graduated in May with a double major in finance and marketing, took away many valuable lessons from Professor Kozup’s post-bailout course, which he says examined the “bigger picture” by approaching current issues from different angles and placing them in historical context.

“Perhaps most importantly, the course stressed the importance of developing my own perspective,” says Cali, who now works as an assistant buyer for American Eagle Outfitters’ headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa. “Having a perspective on the economy that was shaped by seasoned and influential lecturers helped me during job interviews. And as an aspiring entrepreneur, it has shown me the importance of finding opportunities in a down economy.”

Despite the gloomy hiring climate, VSB has maintained a 90-percent

job placement rate. Incoming class sizes remain strong, at about 400 students per class. And the quality of students continues to improve.

All of that has helped the school make a big jump in the national rankings, and inspired an increase in private donations. Gifts to VSB have climbed from $2.1 million in 2005 to $10.5 million in 2008. And the undergraduate program, unranked just four years ago, is currently the 11th best business school in the nation, two spots higher than it was a year ago, according to BusinessWeek’s annual rankings. Villanova’s Executive MBA program is No. 25. (The rankings are based on faculty and educational quality, professional development, business relevance, and student satisfaction.)

“Our rankings success has revealed many opportunities, and helped us push aggressively on the curricular changes,” Dean Danko says. “We’re making changes other schools wish they could make right now.”

The increased attention also has helped faculty recruitment. VSB’s new faculty members come to the school with national reputations and have received teaching or research awards that help distinguish them as some of the best in their fields.

“People are starting to come here who we wouldn’t have been in a position to hire five, eight years ago,” Dean Danko says.

These moves have given the school another boost and have VSB leaders excited about the future. “We began offering open enrollment executive education in February 2010 and the Center City Philadelphia campus—open in April 2009—are two important and strategic moves in that direction,” Dean Danko says.

But for now, he and other VSB leaders plan to push harder to find jobs for students and keep making changes to improve the school’s reputation.

“We want everyone in the country to be aware of the Villanova School of Business,” Dean Danko says. “We’ve got a lot to be proud of.” V

Guest speakers from government and industry spoke to students to offer insight and clarity into challenges resulting from the current economic climate.

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Asthefinancialmarketswereunravelinginfall2008,JohnKozup,AssociateProfessorofMarketingandDirectorofVSB’sCenterforMarketingandPublicPolicyresearch,createdacourse exploring the economic crisis and the government’s response to it. The class came together in a matter of days and would become one of the first in the country to respond to the evolving financial crisis. We caught up with Professor kozup to find out how the class went, and what it has led to.

Q: do you think academe has traditionally been too slow to respond to forces in the real world? How has that changed with this economic crisis?A: That’s a very interesting question that should be answered in two parts. First, as researchers, we need to take time to analyze a crisis situation, uncover the root causes, and provide data for business and government leaders to make research-based policy and strategic solutions.

From a teaching and curricular standpoint, I would say that traditionally, business education has lagged behind the market-place in delivering innovative curricular initiatives that address timely issues.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for the post-bailout course, and how long did it take to create it? How does that compare to the normal amount of time it takes to add a class?A: Joseph DelRaso, Esq. VSB ’74, the center’s advisory board chairman, and center executive board member Mark Valente III VSB ’78, advised me in October 2008 to offer a course that dealt with the crisis from a real-time perspective. They offered their help and encouraged me to bring represen-tatives from key stakeholder groups (business, government, and academics) into the course to provide a broad set of viewpoints.

Q: What were some of the highlights of that course? How will the next version be different?A: Several key highlights come to mind. Finance Professor Michael Pagano’s overview of the root causes of the financial crisis was a great kickoff to the course content. Mr. Valente’s breakdown of the stimulus bill as it was being debated in the Congress really brought the issues home for students. Professor John Pearce’s sessions were particularly well-received.

One highlight for me was our special guest, the Honorable Amato Berardi of the Italian Parliament. The questions our students asked made this one of the best classroom sessions I’ve seen over the course of my tenure at Villanova.

Q: How do you see the job prospects of business-school graduates broadening in this new economy?

A: Our students need to pursue opportunities in Washington, D.C. There is a need for business students on Capitol Hill. Companies and industry groups are beefing up their D.C. operations. Regulatory agencies need students to analyze the massive amounts of data being collected on our most pressing issues. While New York is showing signs of recovery, students redirecting their careers to Washington, D.C., in the near term would differentiate themselves from their peers in valuable ways.

Q: In what ways have you helped your graduates think about those new opportunities and move into areas of employment that might not be part of the traditional path for business-school graduates?A: At the Center for Marketing and Public Policy Research, we’ve instituted a field experience program that gives students an opportunity to work on Capitol Hill or at government-relations firms in Washington, D.C. We’ve conducted in-class consultancies at the graduate level in the area of grassroots governmental relations. At the Executive MBA level, we recently brought in former Congressman Michael Oxley (coauthor of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation) to speak about upcoming financial regulatory activity.

Q: describe how you’ve reached out to government leaders to help blaze a trail for your students to get jobs in government?A: Congressman Jim Gerlach is an honorary member of our advisory board. He and his staff have been very supportive of VSB’s D.C. efforts. Board members Mark Valente, John Marino, Angelina Mondavi VU ’04, and Brett Loper VU ’95 have been instrumental in developing a formal Capitol Hill internship program. Internationally, I would like to announce a formal cooperative program with offices in the Italian Parliament thanks to the generous support of Amato and Carmine Berardi VSB ’09. They offered a unique prespective on how the financial crisis was received from an Italian and European Union perspective. Two VSB students will have the opportunity to spend two to three months in Rome at the Parliament working on Italian public policy initiatives.

Q: What role has the center played in examining the crisis?A: In addition to the Bailout class, center faculty are national leaders in research on marketing, business law, finance, corporate social responsibility, management, and policy issues. Recently, we have been very active in examining the consequences of proposed regulations in the financial services, pharmaceutical and food sectors; paying close attention to potential unintended consequences of regulation on businesses and consumers. While we have been examining policies related to risk management in the marketplace, center faculty also have actively been engaged in helping businesses to grow, an example of this is our research on corporate sustainability.

A Real-Time Take on the Financial Crisis

Q&A


Quinetta m. roberson talks about first ladies, gender roles, and attitudes about women in the workplace.

byMarkWalshphotography by keith Weller

Eleanor Roosevelt, RosalynnCarter, and Hillary Clinton

were, in the view of some political scientists,

virtual partners with theirpresidential husbands in

terms of professionalization,activism on issues,

and integration into thepolitical agenda.

Michelle Obama showedsimilar traits on the

campaign trail in 2008 withher husband, Democratic

presidential candidateBarack Obama. But a

Villanova School of Businessprofessor who has studiedMrs. Obama’s role believes

it is too soon to tell whetherthe First Lady will stepinto the shoes worn by

Mrs. Roosevelt, Mrs. Carter,and Mrs. Clinton as activists

with the ear of the president.


After the president’s milestone of 100 days in office, Roberson believes, the First Lady has settled into a somewhat less prominent role.

Quinetta Roberson often is quoted in the media on her areas of expertise: organizational behavior and human-resource management. In 2008, however, interest in her views skyrocketed.

“There was a two-week period where I was doing several interviews a day,” says Roberson. “All I had to say was that I wrote a paper on Michelle Obama and people said, ‘Really? What was it about?’”

Roberson and a colleague had just published a law review article that took a provocative look at Mrs. Obama—then still just a presiden-tial candidate’s wife and the potential first lady—under the lens of the public’s attitudes about race and gender.

In the article published in the Hastings Women’s Law Journal, Quinetta Roberson and Gregory S. Parks suggested that the often-cited comparison of candidate elections to hiring decisions could be analyzed under employment-discrimination law, particularly Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law that prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on race and gender (among other factors).

“In essence, the Title VII framework provides a template for how certain aspects of the 2008 Presidential Election can be understood,” the Hastings article reads.

The authors’ main conclusion: “Michelle Obama’s presence during Senator Obama’s run for the White House and her future role as First Lady has and will go a long way toward undermining stereotypes about black women.”

For Roberson, who joined VSB in 2008 from a tenured position at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, 2008’s presidential campaign presented a unique opportunity to apply her analytical expertise.

Having an African-American as a major party nominee for the first time, and one whose wife was a close political confidant of his and an experienced professional woman in her own right “presented a very new situation, and people didn’t know what to expect,” Roberson said in an interview.

“Of course there was a lot of attention on the possibility of Barack Obama being elected president, but there also was the potential for so many ways in which Michelle Obama was going to be a different kind of First Lady,” the professor added. “It wasn’t just about race. But it was a woman who had had a career and was willing to put that career on hold and support her husband’s candidacy. What could working women take away from that?”

Roberson had been planning to collaborate with Parks, whom she met while he was attending Cornell Law School. He currently is a law clerk to a federal judge in Baltimore. She has published her scholar-ship previously in such academic journals as Group & Organization Management and the Journal of Applied Psychology.

“Maybe 1 percent of the population reads these journals,” Roberson said. “Managers don’t like to read those very dense journals. So unless there is a research translation, there is no exposure. This was an oppor-tunity to do something in my research area that was really current and really relevant.”

One new perspective for the professor came in submitting an article for publication in a law journal for the first time.

“For the journals in which I typically publish, you write a complete manuscript, and you submit it to one journal,” Roberson said. “You hear back within 90 days, and they either reject or invite you to revise it. For law reviews, you submit your manuscript to a number of journals simultaneously. It’s almost like a bidding war. Hastings got back to us within 48 hours.”

–QUINETTAM.rOBErSON,PrOFESSOrOFMANAGEMENT


The Hastings Women’s Law Journal, a product of the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, is noted for publishing scholarship on feminism, race theory, multiculturalism, and other provocative issues.

The title of the piece by Roberson and Parks, published in the Winter 2009 edition is, “Michelle Obama: A Contemporary Analysis of Race and Gender Discrimination Through the Lens of Title VII.”

In the article, the authors noted the historic nature of the 2008 elec-tion: In Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, the electorate had its first minority and female candidates with a serious chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

And while Michelle Obama, herself, was not a candidate, voters tend to evaluate the spouse of a presidential contender almost as much as the candidate himself, the authors noted.

Active first ladies such as Mrs. Roosevelt, Mrs. Carter, and Mrs. Clinton were the most acclaimed for their roles in policy-making and as advisers to their husbands, but they also were subject to criticisms for it, the paper noted.

Michelle Obama, however, “contravenes conventional stereotypes of presidential candidates’ wives,” the paper stated. She has been direct

and plainspoken; she has stressed a work-family balance; and she has not shied away from expressing her views on race, the authors added.

“On the campaign trail, she has noted her awareness that some voters were concerned about Senator Obama’s electability due to his race. In response, she was more than willing to draw parallels between Senator Obama’s candidacy and black freedom fighters of the past,” the article said.

The heart of the 43-page article draws parallels between voter attitudes and biases, and those same dynamics in the workplace. One conclu-sion was that despite the ultimate victory for Barack Obama in the 2008 general election, “blatant and express racial attitudes played a significant role in the 2008 presidential race,” as Roberson and Parks put it.

For example, whites in 28 out of 37 primaries/caucuses for which exit-poll data were available voted for Senator Clinton in higher numbers than for Senator Obama, that data showed gender was less of a factor. Men in 26 out of 37 primaries/caucuses for which exit poll data were available voted for Senator Obama in higher numbers than Senator Clinton, according to the article.

“Race was more of a driving force,” than gender in the primary elec-tion, the authors said.

First Ladies Obama, Roosevelt, Carter, and Clinton were viewed by some as virtual partners with their husband’s political agenda.


Amid a discussion of various employment-discrimination cases under Title VII, and academic theories about race and gender, Roberson and Parks concluded that “the intersection of Michelle Obama’s racial and gender identity and politics—discussing issues of race, critiquing her husband openly and honestly, and discussing work-family balance for women—could ultimately leave voters fearing that she is an ‘angry black woman,’ or both wondering and critiquing, ‘Why is she so womanish?’”

The article also discusses the role of implicit race and gender biases, both among voters and employers, and how such attitudes manifest themselves at the ballot box or in the workplace.

So while Mrs. Obama was not subject to (much) explicit racism and sexism in 2008, the article said, “implicit-bias research findings, however, suggest that voters’ negative attitudes about her likely arise from unconscious attitudes about race and gender.”

Thus, a comparison made by a writer on The Huffington Post of Mrs. Obama to the character Zira from The Planet of the Apes is, “if not a blatantly racial attack, which it did not seem to be,” something that could be explained by “research on whites’ unconscious associa-tion of blacks with apes,” the authors wrote.

For centuries, the authors said, black women have been subject to stereotypes, such as that of the mammy, the sexual siren, the welfare queen, or the angry black woman. But workplace research has shown that hiring or promoting people to positions that run contrary to such stereotypes forces people to confront their implicit biases. The 2008 primary and general elections served the same purpose for voters, and Michelle Obama’s ascension to the role of First Lady, the authors conclude, “will work to undermine both non-black and black peoples’ stereotypes of black women.”

Nearly a year after the historic election, as Roberson reflected on the research and the interest it stirred, she recalled that she got some press calls looking for comment generally about the issue of race in the campaign and race relations in the country.

“When people would call me, I would ask what the piece was about,” she said. “If it was about race and gender in workplace, yes. But if it was about questions such as ‘Are we in a post-racial America?’—about race relations generally—I wouldn’t take that. That’s not my area. It kind of

discredits the research. Also some people tried to stretch it into areas that weren’t relevant, like affirmative action.”

Still, the race question was significant in the Presidential Election, and in the publishing process. Roberson and Parks also wrote and submitted a paper analyzing the roles of Mrs. Clinton and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president.

“That was accepted [for publication], too, but there wasn’t as much fervor,” the professor said. “Hastings put the Michelle piece at the top of the queue.”

Roberson’s article resonated with many working women, regardless of race.

Kathie De Chirico, a VSB Executive MBA alumna, and a busi-nesswoman in Princeton, N.J., said the article made her think about perceptions of the role of the First Lady.

“We’ve got an Ivy League-educated woman who is a lawyer in this role,” said De Chirico, who is the Director, Commerce and Business Development at Dow Jones, a leading provider of global business news and information services. “You’ve got two things going on here. [Mrs. Obama] was brought up through Princeton [University], and she has opinions. And now you have this professional woman taking on the role of First Lady.”

“I think Michelle Obama has given me a new light on the total role of women in this age,” added De Chirico, who didn’t support Barack Obama in the Democratic primary but voted for him in the general election. “I am extremely impressed with the abilities that our First Lady has in maintaining a value-focused perspective on family life for her husband, while recognizing his responsibility to lead the United States through these critical times of change.”

Roberson hasn’t ruled out revisiting attitudes about Mrs. Obama in future research.

“What we used for the article was primarily archival or theoretical” studies and ideas, she said about her work with Parks. “What we’ve talked about is collecting our own empirical research on attitudes. So we hope to follow-up.”

But for the time being, it’s back to organizational behavior and human-resource management.

“I have to get back to my bread and butter for awhile,” the professor said. V

–KATHIEDECHIrICO,DIrECTOrOFCOMMErCEANDBUSINESSDEVELOPMENT,DOWJONES


A Case Study Comes to life

As soon as stuDents saW tHe syllabus for the newly established

Competitive Effectiveness course this pastfall,theyknewitwasadifferentkindofclass—butfewunderstoodhowinnovative and challenging it would be.

Therequiredsophomore-levelcourse, a foundation of the business school’s new curriculum, presents studentswithareal-worldmarketingchallengeandachancetoworkcloselywith senior executives from leading companies to overcome a business problem. In the fall semester the compa-nies included American Eagle Outfitters (AmericanEagle),TastyBakingCompany,andMcNeil(J&J).

Workinginself-managedteams,VSBstudentscreatedmarketingplanstohelpthefirmsimprovetheirmarketpenetrationandmarketshare.Likeanyclass, students would be graded on their performances.Butinthisclass—alivecasestudy—theyalsowouldpresenttheir final reports to, and be evaluated by, executives from their client firms.

VSB faculty developed the Competitive Effectiveness class, which isteam-taughtbyamarketingandamanagement professor, as part of a revamped curriculum. They believe that combining different fields of study in the sameclassroom—andexposingstudentsto realistic business situations early intheirundergraduateexperiences—helpsthemmakeconnectionsbetweenbroader business principles that they might not otherwise have made, which ultimately gives them a leg up on students from other schools.

Villanova’s students made a strong impression on the firms’ executives, said CathyMcCarthy,theMarketingDirectoratAmericanEaglewhohelpedjudgethepresentations. “We were very impressed with the comprehensive level of plans and strategies we received from the Villanova students.”

American Eagle CEO Jim O’Donnell,


a VSB graduate, says he has been consistently impressed by the insight and intellect of Villanova students over the years. “The students performed to Villanova’s high standards of academic excellence, not to mention their enthu-siasm and entrepreneurial spirit,” he says. “American Eagle Outfitters is excited for the opportunity to help such talented young people prepare for their own future careers, and at the same time,potentiallymakeadifferenceinour business.”

Charles Pizzi, president of the Tasty BakingCompany,expressedhisappre-ciation to students by email. “I was encouragedbythequalityofwork,aswell as by the opportunities that exist forTastykake.Yourconceptswillnodoubt assist our New Product Team tothinkbeyondourcoreproductsand toward the innovations needed to succeed for another 95 years.”

The goal of the six-credit course, whichmeetsthreetimesaweekfortwohours at a time, is to provide students withaframeworkforunderstandinghow organizational management and marketingenhancethecompetitiveeffectiveness of organizations.

The professors for the sections thatworkedwithAmericanEagleandTastyBakingCompany—JamesM.Glasgow(Management)andJuliePirsch

Competitive Effectiveness

(Marketing)—organizedeachoftheirtwo classes into five teams of approxi-mately nine students.

Aspartoftheircoursework,studentsin their Competitive Effectiveness classes visited American Eagle stores and food and drug retailers to study display and design ideas, meet with store managers, and analyze the competition—someteamsevenorga-nizedFacebooksurveysandconductedfocus groups to understand better what consumerslikedanddislikedaboutthe brands.

“It was really intense,” says sopho-moreChristineLiberatore,whoworkedontheAmericanEagleproject.“IactuallythinkIworkedmorehoursfor this class than my other three classes combined.”

She and her fellow students say the real business issues they explored made the course’s difficult concepts easier to grasp.“Ilikedhavingarealclientandareal product rather than a hypothetical case study to learn from,” says Lindsay Mullen,anothersophomoreintheclass.

“Iknowitwasn’tanexactreplicaofthe real world, but it was more so than justlearningtheconceptsinabook.”Inthe end, Villanova’s students performed well, with one group developing a marketingapproachthatAmericanEagle is considering implementing. V

LEFT: Sophomores Lindsay Mullen VSB ’12 and Christine Liberatore VSB ’12 display their group’s American Eagle Denim Campaign artwork. RIGHT: VSB Professor James Glasgow; American Eagle representatives Marissa Morris, Michael Dubis, Cathy McCarthy, Arnie Cohen, and VSB Professor Julie Pirsch.


For tWo montHs tHis Past summer, Carlos Pradera lived, studied, andworkedinDubai,afast-emergingglobalcityintheUnitedArabEmirates,where he gained a valuable career and research experience to complement his business education. The opportunity arose following a chance encounter with Ronald S. Cruse A&S ’77, who came to campus in February 2009 to lectureabouthisbook,“Lies, Bribes & Peril: Lessons for the REAL Challenges of International Business (IUniverse,2008). Cruse serves as the President & CEO of Logenix International, a logistics companythathas,amongotherjobs,supplied many of the goods to help rebuildIraq.

After the lecture ended, Pradera spoketoCrusewhosuggestedtheseniormarketingmajorvisitDubai.Ashort while later, in coordination with Villanova’s Center for Global Leadership, Cruse offered to pay Pradera’s way to workforhiscompany’sDubaiofficeforthesummerandalsoundertakeaninde-pendentresearchproject.

“The internship gave Pradera an up close view of one of the world’s largest trading centers, which he combined

with an independent study on free-trade zones. The overall experience fit wellwiththeobjectivesoftheCenterfor Global Leadership and VSB more broadly,” says Jonathan P. Doh, the Herbert G. Rammrath Endowed Chair in International Business, the center’s founding director and VSB professor of management and operations.

“MorethanhalfofVillanova’sunder-graduate business students participate in a study-abroad program or an inter-national internship. But too few of ourstudents—orthoseatotherbusi-ness schools in North America and Europe—takeadvantageofopportunitiestoexperiencetheemergingmarketsof the world,” Professor Doh says. He is hoping to create more opportunities forstudentstostudyandworkabroad,especiallyindevelopingcountrieslikeChina and Latin America. So is Cruse, whowassohappywithPradera’sworkthat he is creating a scholarship fund thatwillpayforoneortwoqualifiedstudents a year to gain international experiences in emerging or culturally diversemarketsaroundtheworld.Heisconsidering locations in St. Petersburg or Moscow,Mumbai,andHongKong.

Immersed in an Emerging Economy

“ The internship gave Pradera an up close view of one of the world’s largest trading centers. ”

global experience

Burj al Arab, the world’s first and only “seven star” hotel. The is the centerpiece of Jumeirah Beach.

Abras aka “water taxis” that take residents back and forth from the creek. It costs 1 dirham (about 30 cents) to ride this each way.

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For Cruse, this initiative represents an initial commitment to support Villanova students’ international experi-ences, a program which Cruse intends to formalizeastheKuzminykhscholarshipin memory of a close Russian friend and colleague of Cruse.”

Cruseseesemergingmarketsaskeyto the future success of this country’s business graduates. He cites a recent report by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., showing that within the next two decades, the developing countries of the world, including China, India, Russia, and others will have a combined gross domestic product exceeding that of the world’s seven current leading economies.

He also believes that the cultural understanding gained from immersion experiences in developing countries will be increasingly important to future busi-ness leaders. In addition to Logenix, he has built two other successful businesses while traveling to more than 80 coun-tries,“MyVillanovaexperiencewascritical to my success,” Cruse says, “and I believe augmenting current students’ studies with a scholarship such as this will help prepare them for the rapidly changing business world of which they will be a part.” — Kit Gray Wolverton

What I Learned in dubaiWE ARE RARELY REMINdEd oF THE WoRLd’S INTERCoNNECTIVITY ANdthe power of certain individuals to transcend both national and international borders.However,IreceivedsuchastarkreminderwhilebeingwhiskedacrossDubaibymyPakistaniexpatriatetaxidriverduringatwo-monthinternshiptherethispastsummer.Istruckupaconversationwithmydriver,whobeganaskingmeaboutMichaelJacksonandhisrecentdeath.Hehadassumedthat,beingfromtheUnitedStates,IknewallaboutJackson,wheninfactIdidnot.AsourconversationcarriedonalongSheikhZayedroad,Icametorealize,quitesurprisingly,thatthisPakistaniman,livinganddrivingataxiinDubai,knewmoreaboutJackson’sbiography,music,andsongsthanIhaveeverknown.

I never would have been able to come to this realization if it were not for the generous support of Ron Cruse A&S ’77, who sponsored me for a trip to Dubai forthepurposeofworking,researching,andexperiencingacompletelydifferentculture than my own. When I first met Ron, during his on-campus presentation, he had suggested that I visit Dubai as my first trip to the region, but I never imagined he would offer to send me there a few months later.

WhileDubaiiswidelyknownasaluxury-goodscapital,manypeopledonot consider the city to be an integral hub of global trade and commerce. In fact, had I never been able to experience the city for myself, I would still view Dubai through the lens of The Discovery Channel, showcasing the latest architecture and high-rolling lifestyle. However, by the time my trip had ended, I came to realize three things: Flexibility and adaptability are essential characteristics; you never stop learning things outside of the classroom; and open-mindedness is vital.

Being in an entirely new country, it would have been easy for me to simply stay in the apartment and seclude myself. Instead, each day I identified a part ofthecityorbuildingtoexplore.Ialsojoinedarunningclub,whereImetnumerous expatriates and learned the “insider’s” perspective on Dubai and international business. Without being flexible and adaptable to my environ-mentIwouldneverhavecometoknowthe“real”Dubai—themiddle-classlifeofweeklygroceryshoppingandhangingoutatthecreeksidebynight.

WhileVSBprovidedafirmfoundation,myprojectmanagementworkandresearch on free-trade zones in the region taught me more about international logisticsthanIcouldeverlearninaclassroom.Infact,afterreadingron’sbook,listeningtohispresentationandstories;andlivingandworkinginDubai,anentireindustry,onethatIhadneverreallyconsideredorknownmuchabout,presented me with a host of opportunities previously unavailable.

Being relatively well-traveled for my age and the son of a foreign national, I have never really had much trouble dealing with people from different countries and cultures, but my time in Dubai really solidified this notion for me. Whether itwasstrikingupaconversationwithataxidriver,dealingwithanexpatriatewaiter, or engaging in a business setting, I found that I must always be open to dealing with people from different cultures, languages, and creeds, perhaps even those radically different than my own. In an increasingly globalized world, this lesson is best learned early on. I’m grateful to Ron and Villanova for helping tomakethishappen.— Carlos Pradera VSB ’10


lessons learneD

tHe sePtemBer 2008 CoLLaPse of Lehman Brothers has been widely viewedasakeyeventinthedescentoftheU.S.economyintothemostcomplex financial crisis since the Great Depression. One year later, at a panel discussion hosted by the Villanova School of Business, students, faculty, and alumni gathered to discuss what went wrong and how the global financial system might avoid similar problems in the future. The discussion, moderated by Economics and Statistics Department ChairWenMao,featuredseveralindustryexperts and provided an opportunity for theVSBcommunitytoposequestions,seekadvice,andlistentothepersonalexperiences of those at the forefront of the crisis. Panelists John J. Brennan, Charles R. Ellinwood A&S ’73,andTerenceM.O’TooleVSB’80spoketoastanding-room-only audience eager for information, perspective, and foresight.

John Brennan, Chairman of the Board at The Vanguard Group, believes the collapse of the financial industry can be encapsulated in six central points. He identified the importance of firm-wide leadership in long-term success, noting that “the companies that are surviving and doing well today almost invariably have strong, consistent leadership, while thosewithweakleaders”tendtofail.Mr.Brennan also addressed the importance of understanding investor leverage, the disastrous effects of over-borrowing, andtheimportanceofliquidityforbanksand corporations. In addition, he said, overly complicated investments and strategiescanhidetherisksinherentincertaininvestments.Mr.Brennanalsodiscussed the importance of regulators in preventing companies from getting into serious trouble in the future. Despite

The Financial Crisis—one Year Later

the global experiences of the past few years,however,Mr.Brennanbelieveswe should not lose faith in the future potentialofthemarket.“Itwouldbedevastating,” he said, “to lose an entire generation of investors and employees because of the rough times the financial sector has seen recently.”

TerenceO’Toole,Co-ManagingMemberatTinicumCapitalPartnersII,blames excessive leverage at many levels within the financial system for a large part of fall 2008’s catastrophe. Largecorporationsandindividualsalikewere too dependent on borrowing, he said, and were living well outside of their means. When these individuals and corporations were unable to get furthercredit,theresultingspikeinhome foreclosures and corporate bankruptcieshadeffectsfeltthroughoutthefinancialsystem.Mr.O’Tooleadvised

individual investors and corporate bankerstoplanfortheworstinorderto insulate themselves from future marketdownturns.

CharlesEllinwood,ManagingDirectorof Barclays Capital, explained the ‘client-centric’ nature of the finance industry. A firm’s problems, he said, should never become the client’s problems, and clients’ interests should always remain the primary concern of the entire firm. Mr.Ellinwoodurgedhumilityduringgood and bad times, and reminded the audience about the importance of balance and perspective in one’s personalandprofessionallives.AsMr.Ellinwood reminded the students in the audience, “when you leave this blue and white bubble you’re in, the fine educa-tion you are receiving here, as well as the support of the Villanova community, will serve you well.” — Liz Field

John J. Brennan speaks to a standing-only room crowd at the Villanova School of Business about lessons he has learned during the financial crisis.

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BUSINESSLEADErSSHArEDTHEIrExPErIENCES ANDKNOWLEDGEWITHAUDIENCEMEMBErSDUrING AQUESTION-AND-ANSWErSESSION.

Q: What does knowledgeable regulation look like?

A: (Brennan) Being knowledgeable about regulation means individuals are well-informed. Being well-informed doesn’t necessarily mean that one has all the answers, but it does mean one has the contacts, the connections, the expertise, and the willingness to pick up the phone and call the right people to find out what is going on in the markets from the people who know best.

Q: do you think deregulation is possible?

A: (O’Toole) That’s a complex question. The pure free-market view believes the markets themselves would have taken care of everything. Individuals who believe in deregulation say that capitalism is all about winning and losing by rewarding winners and punishing losers—‘economic Darwinism.’ But society doesn’t function that way. In our society people care about people; people care about jobs; and people care about people losing homes to foreclosure. It is for these reasons we chose not to let free-market occur unregulated.

Q: Was it a mistake to let Lehman fail?

A: (O’Toole) If Lehman didn’t fail, who would have? The question becomes whether the Fed was going to let the market work, and when they were going to stop bailing out the banks. It was just a matter of time until one of the banks was going to be unsalvageable.

Q: How are you operating your business differently today?

A: (Ellinwood) In the past few years, derivatives, other short-term investment instruments, and bond insurance have disappeared. Things have become a lot simpler and a lot more traditional, which is a good thing.

Q: out of all the decisions you have made over the past few years, which one are you most proud of?

A: (Brennan) I am most pleased with my behavior. I feel good about counseling people and organizations through the storm and being the voice of calm during the crisis. Patience, calmness, and keeping a reasonable perspective are extremely important in times of crisis.

A: (O’Toole) I am most proud of patience, which is correlated with prudence. Because of patience, we have allowed the markets to come back. I heard from many people a desire to liquidate their funds, but by believing in the markets, we will be rewarded in the long term. You have to have patience and keep an eye on the long-term goal.

Charles Ellinwood A&S ’73, Economics and Statistics Department Chair Wen Mao, Terence O’Toole VSB ’80, Dean James Danko, and John J. Brennan.

Q&A


as tHe gLoBaL eConomy Continues to recover from the recession, there is broad agreement that the real estate and creditmarketsnotonlyplayedacrucialrole in the development of the current crisis,butalsothattheyarekeyplayersin its eventual resolution. Although uncertainty persists, an increasingly optimistic sense of opportunity pervades thecurrentmarketplace.ThispastOctober,theDanielM.DiLellaCenterfor Real Estate hosted “Crosscurrents inrealEstateMarkets:TheEconomy,Fundamentals,andCapitalMarkets,”apanel discussion exploring the current economicandcapitalmarketenviron-ment for real estate and how recent and future trends will impact participants in the public debt, private debt, and equitymarkets.

The discussion, attended by more than 150 real estate professionals and members of the Villanova community, was moderated by David Hartzell, PhD, Director of the Center for Real Estate DevelopmentatUNCKenan-FlaglerBusiness School, and featured the expertise of several leading real estate professionals. Brian DiDonato EGR ’88, ManagingDirectorofSorinCapitalManagement,discussedcapitalmarkettrends;DanielDiLellaVSB’73,Presidentand CEO of BPG Properties, Ltd., commentedonprivateequitymarkets;BrentMorris,SeniorVicePresidentofCapmarkInvestmentsLP,exploredchanges in the commercial mort-gagemarket;richardParkus,HeadofCommercialMortgage-BackedSecurities(CMBS)researchforDeutscheBank

Crosscurrents in Real Estate Markets

“ The information and opinions offered by the panelists were both enlightening and relevant to the conversations we are having in my classes as we seek to make sense of the market. ”

real estate

Professor Shawn Howton, Director of the DiLella Center for Real Estate, welcomed attendees and discussed the center’s thought leadership initiatives.

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Securities, Inc., provided his assess-mentoftheCMBSmarket;andJoelRassman, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Toll Brothers,spokeaboutthehomebuilding industry.

The panel addressed several areas ofmarketuncertaintyandfeaturedlively commentary about the level and timing of asset distress and the potential triggers that might bring moneybackintothemarketplace.Asmore than $2 trillion in commercial real estate loans come due during the next severalyears,thereislikelytobeasmuch as $500 billion in lost value, and widespread concern exists about how themarketwillabsorbtheselosses.Onthemarketopportunitysideoftheequation,thereis$10trillionincashpotentially available to be invested in riskierassets,andpublicrealEstateInvestment Trusts and other smart and aggressive participants are strongly positioned to benefit. These condi-tions should lead to new leaders in theindustryandachanged—butstillimportant—CMBSindustry.

Student attendees, including CharlesPlacekMBA’11,wereimpressedby the relevance of the discussion. “The information and opinions offered bythepanelists,”saidPlacek,“wereboth enlightening and relevant to the conversations we are having inmyclassesasweseektomakesenseofthemarket.”Theeventalsoprovided students with the opportu-nitytonetworkwithindustryleaders.MariaPentoVSB’10,co-presidentof the Villanova Real Estate Society, commentedthat“inadifficultjobmarket,thiswasanexcellentopportu-nitytomeetandtalkwithprofessionalsfrom more than 70 companies. This will worktoouradvantage,bothnowandin the future.” — Timothy Hoffman

THE dANIEL M. dILELLA CENTER FoR REAL ESTATE WAS ESTABLISHEd Toprovide academic and professional development opportunities to Villanova students in the field of real estate. The center supports faculty research and teaching, ensuring relevance in the curriculum through the incorporation of site visits, an experiential learningdevelopmentproject,andtheperspectivesofindustryexperts.Studentscan graduate with a minor in real estate or a specialization in real estate as part of theVillanovaMBA.Learnmoreorwatchthepanelatwww.business.villanova.edu/excellence/realestate.

Daniel DiLella VSB ’73, President and CEO of BPG Properties, Ltd., (right), commented on private equity markets while Joel Rassman, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Toll Brothers (left), shared his outlook for the home building industry.

Professor David Hartzell, Director of the Center for Real Estate Development at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, moderated the panel and posed questions addressing the uncertainty in commercial real estate markets.


BraD ingeLsBy VsB ’02 Was selling insurance in 2008 when he got the call that would change his life. A screenplay written by the 2002 Villanovagraduatehadjustsoldfor$650,000, and Leonardo DiCaprio was signed up to play the leading role. Not bad for an aspiring screenwriter who had hired a Hollywod agent only months earlier.

UnlikealotofwannabeQuentinTarantinos, Ingelsby’s Tinseltown dreams didn’t form until his third year in college, whenhetookascreenwritingclasstocomplement his business administra-tiondegreeinmarketing.Itwasthere

that his instructor, Sloan Seale, discov-ered—andencouraged—hisnaturalgiftfor storytelling.

“I was passionate about films and writing,andIthinkSloansawthatinme,” Ingelsby says. “She was really the firstpersontothinkthatmaybeIhadsome talent.” Soon after, he started lookingintograduatefilmprograms,eventually landing at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles.

“I figured, ‘Hey, if I’m gonna try this thing, I may as well go to L.A.,’ ” he says now.

For his film-school thesis, he penned “The Low Dweller,” a thriller about an

A Screenwriter’s Star Turn

alumni spotlight

29-YEAr-OLDVILLANOVASCHOOLOFBUSINESSALUMNUS ENJOYSTIMEINHOLLYWOODSPOTLIGHT

ex-con who returns to his rural Indiana roots to start a new life. After the character’s brother is murdered over a gamblingdebt,heseekstoavengehisdeath. “What he encounters is far worse than anything he could have imagined,” Ingelsby says. “It’s a story about never really being able to escape your past.”

Ingelsby currently is rewriting “The LowDweller”forrelativityMedia,themotion picture company that bought thescript.Ifthestorymakesittothebigscreen, the 29-year-old writer will earn another $450,000.

A native of Berwyn, Pa., Ingelsby has strong ties to Villanova. His father Tom P

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had his number retired by the univer-sityafterstarringonthe1971basketballteam that reached the NCAA Finals. Ed Hastings, another player on that team, is his godfather.

Comingfromalargefamily—hehastwobrothersandtwosisters—hashelped him develop as a writer, he says. “Everyone can relate to having a father, ason,asister,abrother—andI’veseenall the relationships,” he says. “I’ve been able to poach things that are relatable.”

Ingelsby himself is a student of film, favoringdarkcomediesandthrillers.One of his favorite movies of all-time is “The 400 Blows,” a 1959 coming-of-age tale, which helped teach him the impor-tance of creating characters that the audience can identify with.

“Youhavetobeabletohitthekeypartsastudioneeds,likehavingatrailerthat gets people excited,” he says. “But the best movies allow people to see something in themselves.”

Another of his favorites is “In the Bedroom,” a 2001 tragedy starring SissySpacek,aboutayoungmanwho falls in love with an older woman andislaterkilledbyherex-husband.The film, produced and directed by Todd Field, earned five Academy Award nominations.

Earlier this year Ingelsby wrote a script for Field, whom he describes as “one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met.”

Ingelsbyiscurrentlyworkingonanaction movie for Warner Brothers, in the vein of the “Bourne Trilogy” and “Mission:Impossible”genre.

In 2008 Warner Brothers hired him toadapttheWildStormcomicbook,“Sleeper,” for producer Sam Raimi, knownforthecriticallyacclaimedcrime thriller “A Simple Plan” and the “Spider-Man”series.

Although that assignment eventually fell through, it gave Ingelsby a chance to meet Tom Cruise, who has been attachedtotheproject.“Honestly,hecouldnothavebeenanicerguy—atotalgentleman, totally committed,” he says.

Encounterslikethat—andanearlystreakofsuccess—haveleftIngelsbywith a pretty positive impression of Hollywood. But he admits that life along the red carpet has its ups and downs.

“I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of the movie business. It can be a strange, toughbusiness,anditrequiresathickskin,”hesays.“Thatsaid,you’regivena chance to tell stories and have those stories brought to life visually. To me, the highs outweigh the lows.”

He also appreciates his good fortune. “In film school, you’re told if youmakeitwithin10years,ifatall,you’relucky,”hesays.“Ifeelblessedto have been given this opportunity. Thetricknowistoproveyou’renotaone-hit wonder.” — Kit Gray Wolverton

He Was Just on His Own level Ingelsby’s breakthrough talent was evident early, says his Villanova University instructor.

Even as a 20-year-old undergraduate with no screenwriting experience, Brad Ingelsby was a cut above his peers, recalls Sloan Seale, a former adjunct faculty member at Villanova, who taught the budding writer during his junior year.

Of the 40 to 60 students a year she taught in a screenwriting class in the university’s communication department, Ingelsby stood out as an “extraordinarily talented” writer who was “just on his own level.”

“His script was just different than everyone else’s,” she says. “It was very character-driven and at a level of maturity that you usually don’t see in students.”

His first script was so good, in fact, that fellow students had trouble offering constructive criticism, Seale says. “You want people to tell you how to improve it,” she says. But when he presented his work, “students just fell silent.”

When Seale offered the young screenwriter feedback, he took it in stride, using it to improve his writing. That showed her that he had the temperament to make it in the business.

“He understood that it’s not about you; it’s about the work,” she says. “You’re not going to get strokes from anyone.”


Why Pink and Yellow Are En Vogue

Faculty research

EVERYWHERE YOU TURN THESE days, people are wearing pink and

yellow bracelets and sports gear to support cancer research and other charitable causes. Why have these corporate social responsibility (CSR) products become so popular, and what makes people actually purchase them?

New research by Aronté Bennett, assistant professor of marketing and busi-ness law, and Amitav Chakravarti of New York University shows that for consumers it’s important to wear their charity on their sleeve–literally. The researchers found that the “social signaling” potential of a product factors widely into consumers’ purchasing decisions. Consumers clamor for CSR products that send out highly visible, social signals to their friends, family, peers, and co-workers regarding their kindness and charitable nature.

But pink and yellow devotees aren’t just showing off, the researchers found. Consumers also like the more private “self-signaling”—a reminder of their

“ Embedding a CSR- associated product with high visibility, such as color, is key because consumers derive greater self-signaling benefits. ”

benevolence—potential associated with these products, even when a strong public social signal is absent.

The research was composed of three studies. The results across all three studies indicate that when products had a CSR-association, like donating a portion of proceeds to LIVESTRONGSM, the cancer-research charity, the products with high “social signaling” potential were evaluated more favorably.

“Embedding a CSR-associated product with high visibility, such as color (yellow headphones on iPods for LIVESTRONG, or pink products for breast cancer) is key because consumers derive greater self and social-signaling benefits from more visible CSR-associated products,” Bennett says.

Marketers heeding Bennett’s and Chakravarti’s findings, who are eager to tap consumers willing to pay a premium for CSR-branded products, would be wise to include larger graphics, brighter colors, and emphatic reminders that purchasing a CSR product is to “do good.” IL

LUSTrATION:DANPAGE


IN THE FIRST REPORT TO LOOK AT how the U.S. Department of Homeland

Security’s “terror alerts” affect the U.S. equity markets, Finance Professor Michael Pagano found that increases in the threat level increased volatility in the stock market, but that the magnitude of these effects decreased over time.

Pagano, who previously worked in the financial-services industry with Citibank and Reuters America, attributes these findings to two possible causes: that investors and traders began to ignore the warnings because they thought the Department of Homeland Security was “crying wolf,” or that the terror threats became less informative about the nature of the threat, warranting a collective shrug from the markets.

Overall, Pagano found that the U.S. stock markets responded fairly well to the threat of sudden terrorist activity. Terror alerts negatively affected the returns of airline stocks, he found,

Do Terror Alerts Cause Turbulence in the Stock Market?

while the alerts positively affected defense contractor stocks.

There was evidence that informed traders are more active when there is an increased threat of an attack, as investors quickly try to alter their portfolios based on any information they can glean from the alert.

In an analysis of daily equity returns from 2002 to 2006, Pagano’s research showed increased volatility lasted about 10 trading days following the announce-ment of a terror alert. In that time frame, which included 1,200 trading days, 16 days had alert changes. Using data from seven indexes including the S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000, Pagano compared the alert days to the non-alert days against the Options Exchange Volatility Index (VIX or “fear index”).

If a major terrorist strike occurs in the future, the professor recommends that inves-tors use “put” options or “hedging” techniques.

JUST AS THE SEC IS SET TO MAKE historical changes to shareholder proxy

access rules that would give U.S. share-holders more power and similar rights as shareholders in the United Kingdom, Assistant Professor of Finance Tina Yang released new research indicating that the current U.S. system is better than the U.K. system.

Professor Yang and coauthors Bonnie Buchanan, Albers School of Business, Seattle University, and Jeffry M. Netter, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, discovered that U.S. shareholder proposals have more significant and positive impact on firms than those in the United Kingdom. In fact, U.S. shareholder proposals have a significant positive impact on long-term stock performance, CEO turnover, and restruc-turing company boards.

SEC’s Changes to Proxy Access Rules for Naught?

The findings call into question the SEC’s decision on proxy rules, and if proposed changes to give investors more power will really make a difference. The SEC’s changes would allow certain shareholders to use a company’s board-election process to nominate directors who are opposed to management.

Currently, United Kingdom law permits investors to propose resolutions directly at shareholder meetings and to nominate candidates, which is not allowed in the United States, but is under consideration by the SEC.

Professor Yang’s research investigated the possible outcomes of the most significant changes to proxy rules by the SEC since 1942 by analyzing 3,793 shareholder proposals for 757 U.S. firms between 2000 and 2006, and comparing them to 496 shareholder proposals from 85 U.K. firms.

A RESEARCH STUDY BY Professors Charles R. Taylor and

Ronald Paul Hill with Karen Becker Olsen of the College of New Jersey demonstrates that global, corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs can reap posi-tive consumer perceptions for companies.

The study examined the reactions of consumers in both the United States and Mexico to Nokia’s global CSR initiative, “Make a Connection,” which is run with the International Youth Foundation and promotes positive youth development by improving educational opportunities.

Results of the study indicate that gener-ally both the Mexican and U.S. consumers report favorable attitudes toward company involvement in CSR programs, with Mexicans responding even more favorably than their U.S. counterparts. However, U.S. consumers were significantly more likely to expect firms to engage in CSR efforts.

Notably, the source of the message (company vs. nonprofit organization) made no difference in customers’ attitudes toward the sponsoring company, or their likelihood of purchasing. In other words, promotional messages related to corporate social respon-sibility programs can be communicated effectively by the nonprofit organization, the company, or both.

Another major finding of the study: In both countries, consumers had more positive reac-tions in terms of attitude enhancement, brand identification, and perception of a firm’s repu-tation when they were exposed to a message indicating the program had global reach.

“This means that global programs actually enhance company reputation more than local programs,” Professor Hill says. “And it suggests that it may be possible for large multinationals to standardize the use of global reach in communications about CSR programs.”

Think Globally for Corporate Social Responsibility


Faculty research

W ITH REVENUES HOVERING in the $1 trillion range, it’s clear

the counterfeit market is thriving. What can marketers do as counterfeiters move beyond high-fashion merchandise to include health and safety products, automobile parts, ciga-rettes, and even pharmaceutical drugs?

To protect consumers against decep-tive purchases and to do their part to curb black-market consumption, marketers must understand what drives people to “go fake.” Once consumers’ motivations are clear, marketing strategists can serve as change agents to prevent the flow of counterfeit goods.

Research by Professors Peggy Chaudhry and Stephen Stumpf have identified five tactics that industry professionals can institute to develop more educated and savvy consumers.

1. develop Better Measures of InvolvementWhen evaluating consumer behavior and counterfeit products, it is important to under-stand the behaviors involved. The researchers developed a “composite index of complicity” that provides insight into consumer behavior and includes variables such as the role of peer buyers, whether consumers would give or take fake merchandise from a friend, and the shop-ping environment where consumers had either a positive or negative experience obtaining a fake product.

2. Identify Successful‘de-Marketing’ TechniquesLearning from successful “de-marketing” campaigns that have decreased alcohol and cigarette consumption, marketers can implement similar strategies to address consumer complicity with imitation products. Successful tactics center on messages that use fear, rewards, and role models in anti-piracy advertisements. For example, Pfizer launched a “regur-gitated rat” campaign to build consumer awareness on the potential harm of fake drugs purchased over the Internet. The Motion Picture Association’s “You Can Click But You Can’t Hide” advertisement also honed in on a “fear of prosecution” theme.

3. Create Credible Links to organized Crime and TerroristsThere is evidence by governments around the world and brand managers that many counterfeit products are the work of orga-nized crime, and profits earned are used to fund terrorism. Some agencies, such as the Federation Against Copyright Theft, have run advertisements using the slogan, “Terrorist Groups Sell Pirate DVDs to Raise Funds,” to inform complicit consumers that supporting counterfeit markets is not as harmless as they suppose. The most difficult task for marketing managers is to prove the connection to terrorist-linked suppliers is valid. As consumers, we know very little about these suppliers and some media glorify the pirates as heroes who redistribute wealth to the needy.

Marketers vs. Counterfeiters4. Commit Resources to Eradicate PiratesThe intent to defraud consumers through the imitative packaging of counterfeit products is forgery, a felony crime of the federal govern-ment in all 50 states. The government should commit resources to eradicate pirates, as well as remove bogus goods from retail shelves. Brand managers also should aggressively pursue this type of litigation against pirates. Companies cannot rely solely on enforcement through government and police intervention. 5. Empower the Consumer and Arm Them With Product EducationCompanies can empower consumers to confirm the authenticity of their purchases. For example, Provalidate, a software firm, is developing an electronic warranty card for many companies that enables the consumer to authenticate their purchase at the brand owner’s website by using a sophisticated system of verification codes that also allows marketers to collect consumer data. Using an electronic warranty card for both physical and virtual purchases to ensure authenticity can empower consumers to buy legitimate products and encourage them to steer clear of the danger of underground merchants.

ILLU

STrATION:DANPAGE

Peggy Chaudhry is an Associate Professor of Management and Operations. Stephen A. Stumpf is a Professor of Management and the Fred J. Springer Chair in Business Leadership. Their research was originally published in both the Wall Street Journal and MIT’s Sloan Management Review. Please visit www.villanova.edu/business/newsmedia to read from these publications.


Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship

VSB launches ICE Center

THe aBiLity to Create FresH new ideas, concepts, and opportuni-

ties is a highly desirable commodity in theworkplace.Companiesofallsizesvalueindividualswhocanthinkcreativelyabout ways to improve outcomes.

It is with this paradigm in mind that the Villanova School of Business (VSB) is launching the Center for Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship (ICE Center).UndertheleadershipofPatrickMaggitti,PhD,theICECenterwillserve as a driver of scholastic, educa-tional, and professional development opportunities to promote innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship within VSB.ProfessorMaggittiandAssociateDirector James klingler, PhD, who has been heavily invested in developing entrepreneurial programs at VSB, hope the new center will help translate the inherently creative nature of college-age students into innovative productivity in the business world. “Villanova students must learn to be entrepreneurial whether they are small cogs in a big machine, or they choose to start their owncompanies,”saysMaggitti,whoadds that helping students develop the abilitytohelpothersthinkcreativelyalso is an important part of the center’s mission.

“The creation of the ICE Center highlights the emphasis VSB places on developingdecision-makerswhoarecapable of assessing and recognizing

opportunities in both existing and new organizations,”saysDeanJamesM.Danko,TheHelenandWilliamO’TooleDean.DeanDankobelievesthenewcenter will add to VSB’s strengths in world-class research and add to its reputation for innovative curricula. “As a former businessman who relied on innovation as a foundation of my own success, I have always been an advocate for entrepreneurial programs. I see great potential for the ICE Center at VSB.”

ProfessorMaggittiagrees,andaddsthat the ICE Center will provide a similar foundation for VSB students who arejustlaunchingtheirownbusinesscareers. “As an entrepreneur myself, I

knowfirsthandthevalueofhavingastrongnetworkofsupport.Ideally,wecan provide this for Villanova students thinkingaboutstartingtheirownbusi-nesses. For example, this presents a tremendousopportunitytolinkouralumni as mentors to these students.”

In addition to serving as the faculty directorofthecenter,PatrickMaggittialso becomes the Carmen and Sharon Danella ICE Center Director. The Carmen and Sharon Danella Endowed Chair in Business Innovation was estab-lished to support the director position and to provide resources to advance innovation, creativity, and entrepre-neurship initiatives at VSB.

ICE Center Hosts Mini-Conference and Research RetreattHe Center For innoVation, CreatiVity, anD entrePreneursHiP attheVillanovaSchoolofBusinesshelditsinauguralMini-ConferenceandresearchretreatattheVillanovaConferenceCenterinMay2009.

AnumberofinternationallyknownresearchersfromStanfordUniversity,theUniversityofMaryland,TempleUniversity,PennStateUniversity,andtheUniversityof Texas at Austin, along with faculty from VSB, discussed ongoing research in management strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Attendees of the event examined several papers based on how individuals and groups search for information, as well as the effect that group processes and team conflict can have on innovation and financial success. The meeting also served as anopportunitytodiscussscholarlyworkandresearchintheareasofinnovationand entrepreneurship,

Dean James Danko; Ken G. Smith, president of the Academy of Management; ICE Center Director Patrick Maggitti; and Associate Dean Ronald Hill.



It is no CoinCiDenCe tHat PatrickMaggittiaskedentertainer

and businessman John O’Hurley to serveastheinauguralspeakerforthenewly formed ICE Center. In addition to his television success on the shows Seinfeld, Dancing with the Stars, and Family Feud, O’Hurley has been entre-preneurial in leveraging his talent into a second career as an innovator, performer, and businessman.

“The ICE Center has been created to foster a culture of creative, innova-tive,andentrepreneurialthinkingwithinthe Villanova community,” according to CenterDirectorMaggitti.“Ourstudentsalreadyareknownforbeingamongthebest and most well-rounded. The ICE

living an Extraordinary lifeACCOrDINGTOACTOrANDBUSINESSMANJOHNO’HUrLEY


Centerseekstoprovideopportunitiesto develop and highlight their entrepre-neurial spirit as well.”

While many schools have created centers for entrepreneurship, the ICE Center at VSB does more than serve as a support mechanism for students wishing to start their own businesses. The ICE Center addresses trends that could have a large impact on the general population and in our changing world.

In order to illustrate VSB’s commit-ment to the ICE Center’s mission and to celebrate its launch, on November 16, 2009,JohnO’Hurleyspoketomorethan250 attendees in the Villanova Room of the Connelly Center about how to live an extraordinary life.

“ I don’t think any of us have woken up today saying, ‘I want an ordinary life.’ ”


PHOTO

:JIMrOESE


Commitment to Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship

The excitement of faculty,

students, and staff about the

development of the ICE Center

confirmed not only a need for this

center but also the need to prepare

VSB students for a business world

where these types of skills are

important. From the onset, alumni

and key supporters wanted to shape

the center, says Dean James Danko.

“It is support from our alumni that

has helped to make the ICE Center

a reality. VSB is grateful to alumni

Patrick F. Meyer VSB ’74, Daniel

J. Hogarty VSB ’61, and Kevin

M. Curley VSB ’80 for providing

initial support, guidance, and great

interest for VSB to focus in this

area. The school also recognizes

Carmen, Sharon, and James Danella,

who have provided the support

necessary for an endowed Chair in

Business Innovation to support the

director position.

VSB has established Centers of

Excellence designed to focus

attention on critical business issues

and to leverage the expertise of

faculty, often in a cross-disciplinary

way. Centers support faculty

research, teaching excellence,

curriculum development, and

the intersection of research and

business practice.



INANExCErPTFrOMHISLIVELYADDrESS,JOHNO’HUrLEYPrOVIDEDINSTrUCTIONSONHOWTOLIVETHEJ. Peterman Guide to the extraordinary Life

“I don’t think any of us have woken up today saying, ‘I want an ordinary life.’

No one has said, ‘I want to swing from the middle rung of a ladder.’ In each

one of us there is a desire to have an extraordinary life. What is an extraor-

dinary life? It is not an extreme lifestyle. It is a quality that has nothing to do

with power or money, and I present it as an idea for those who are trying to

find a more meaningful life.

“An extraordinary life has three characteristics—accomplishment, balance,

and meaning. And you have to have all three. How do we get there? We get

there by imagination, contemplation, and appreciation.

“What you imagine has value. It is the seed of all things extraordinary.

Everything has to begin with a good idea—that way, if you fail to execute,

you are still left with that good idea. I put value on my imagination. The

greatest tragedy is that people believe that other people’s ideas are better

than their own. Unlock your imagination by daydreaming as much as you

can. Why? Your daydreams do not lie. The hard part of imagination is taking

your dreams and turning them into accomplishments. The daydreams will

make you want to take a leap of faith. If you leap, the net will appear, but

you have to commit to the leap. How often do we hear about great ideas that

are dropped? I invite you to make a promise that you will daydream more

and that you will commit to plan that daydream, and you will commit to

imagine it.

“Balanced people are fascinating. They are still. They are unshakable and

seem to move in and out of time undisturbed. They listen when engaged in

conversation. Balance is achieved by contemplation. Contemplation teaches

us to be still and to listen. Contemplation leads us away from the past and

future and takes us right to the present. If we live in the past and the future,

we are filled with regret and worry. The only place there is true meaning is

by living in the present, because that is where the richness and stillness is

found. Find a way to be still and to listen.

“The final element is appreciation—our ability to give back. Appreciation

is what gives our lives meaning. Showing gratitude is the best way to give

back, not just for the big things, but for the small, too.”


in eaCH oF tHe Past two cycles, the Villanova MBAhasbeenrankedtop ten in the nation by BusinessWeek for academics. Students at the Villanova School of Business all share severalcommontraits—commitment, curiosity, and responsiblecitizenship—which set them apart as “Type V” students.

With the needs of the “Type V” student in mind, faculty and staff of the Villanova School of Business recently redesigned its curriculum to ensure that the experience in the classroom translates to professional impactintheworkplace.Thenew curriculum, launched in the summer of 2009, was developed based on feed-backfromalumni,currentstudents, corporate leaders, andsubject-matterexperts.The program emphasizes a business education that blends theory and practice.

TheVillanovaMBAisoffered in two locations, on the main campus of Villanova UniversityandinCenterCityPhiladelphia, and features twodistincttracks—theFlexTrackandtheFastTrack.Both options allow students to pursue their degrees part time and on a timeline that will allow them to best balance their lives, careers, and education. The Flex Trackisaself-pacedoptionthat allows maximum flex-ibility,whiletheFastTrackallowsworkingprofessionalsa predictable, two-year

The Villanova MBATYPE V PERSONALITY: THE V FACTOR

schedule.Bothtrackssupportstudents’careersandworkschedules, so they continue to progress professionally, buildtheirnetwork,andaddvalue to their organizations.

The first course devel-oped as part of the new curriculum,“Managingina Post-Bailout Economy,” was profiled in the Wall Street Journal. The program features two embedded consultingprojects(oneglobalandoneworkingforalocal nonprofit organization), cross-functional courses that challenge students to approach problem solving in a systemic way, and an increased number of elective offerings including courses in

finance,marketing,sustain-ability, talent management, innovation, creativity, entre-preneurship, management, leadership, accounting, real estate, healthcare, change

Students pursuing their MBA at the Center City location have access to a first-class learning environment in contemporary state-of-the-art classrooms.

in closing

management, operations, and supply chain.

Learn more about these programs and find out if you are a “Type V” student at www.mba.villanova.edu. V

The “Type-V” campaign appeared in area SEPTA stations, regional rail lines, busses, and billboards to bring greater visibility to the top-ranked Villanova MBA and to the opening of the Center City Philadelphia location.

You know strategy matters. So do we. THE TOP RANKED VILLANOVA MBA Now in Center City. Are you a Type V?

FIND OUTmba.villanova.edu

You know strategy matters. So do we.

TYPE V PERSONALITY?TYPE V PERSONALITY?TYPE V PERSONALITY?ARE YOU A

SBI, created specifically for non-business students and recent graduates, offers you the opportunity to:

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Villanova School of Business

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Diversify your portfolio of skills—in one summer.Consider the nationally ranked villanova School of Business

Summer Business Institute (SBI).

“SBI has been the most productive thing I’ve done in my college years. not only has it provided me with an overall understanding about the business world, but it

also opened many doors with regard to job opportunities.”

– CrIStIna DomInguEz, SBI ’09, a&S-PSyChoLogy ’10

“I cannot overstate the importance of developing a well-rounded academic portfolio before entering the professional world … SBI’s 10 weeks were the most informative

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ViLLanoVa sCHooL oF Business800 Lancaster AvenueVillanova PA 19085

NonprofitU.S. Postage

PAIDVillanova, PAPermit No. 5

Villanova School of Business Spring 2010

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