Are people who identify themselves as religious more likely to choose sustainable products and services? With more than seventy percent of the earth's population adhering to one of the world's seven main religions--and spending on sustainable consumption projected to grow $60 billion by 2014--this question is timely, to say the least.
Can redefining our notion of happiness help save the planet? This was the question Ehrman Giustina Professor of Marketing Lynn Kahle posed to an audience of graduate students and faculty members in his recent presentation "The Pursuit of Happiness." While our cultural wisdom suggests that people are happiest when they have lots of big, expensive things, this view isn't accurate, according to well-regarded research.
You've got five dollars in seed money, seven days to brainstorm, and two hours to execute your plan—how do you create value? These are the elements of the $5 Challenge, a core feature in management professor Andrew Nelson's course Recognizing Business Opportunities. Four MBA candidates from the Center for Sustainable Business Practices tackled the challenge by creating a service that would be valued by bike commuters everywhere.
Pitch an idea for an online startup to a group of web developers, designers, and business professionals; convince them to join your team; and then spend the weekend working with them building a prototype of the actual product.
This January, second-year MBA students affiliated with the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center spent three fast-paced days in New York City meeting with high-level executives at some of the most influential companies and organizations in the world of sports. The annual event marks the final trip the cohort will take together as a group, and it is one that is recalled with enthusiasm by many alums. This year's roster included an insider's view of ESPN (led by two program alums); a session at sports and entertainment powerhouse IMG; and a visit to the headquarters of Bloomberg Sports.
Planning to hit the slopes this winter? Check out SnowSense, an iPhone and iPad app recently launched by Joe Wright--a first-year MBA candidate affiliated with the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship--and his partner Max Lansing, a software developer with a background in geography. Because SnowSense's updates are based on a unique algorithm of real-time data on weather, snow quantity, and snow quality, users see not just how much snow there is currently and how much is expected, but whether the snow is wet, dry, and so forth.
"Whoosh-kerthomp!" That was the sound of bags of bread being tossed to participants in a question-and-answer session with the Entrepreneurship Club's first guest speaker of the winter term. "I like to bribe people to ask questions," explained Dave Dahl, the CEO of--and creative force behind--Dave's Killer Bread, the explosively successful Portland-based bread company.
On January 19, Lundquist College of Business academic advisor Tayah Butler received campus-wide recognition for her groundbreaking work promoting diversity. She was one of five UO employees honored with a 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. Butler--who is also a driving force behind the Diversity in the Workplace Symposium scheduled for this March--launched the Building Business Leaders project in September 2010.
"I expected it to be a lot of work, and it was. But it was fun work," said Shannon Oliver, MBA '13, describing a unique aspect of the Oregon MBA. Each fall, members of the first-year MBA cohort start working with a real-life company, almost right away, applying concepts learned in class--even while they're still acquiring them. This year's client was Ninkasi Brewing Company, the Eugene-based business that--for the past two years--has been the fastest growing craft brewery in the U.S.
A serendipitous partnership between the Lundquist College of Business and the Oregon Bankers Association (OBA) will benefit students, Oregon's independent community banks, and even the state's legislators. When Jeff DeBoer came on board as managing director of the Finance and Security Analysis Center (FSAC) last June, one of the first orders of business was to expand the curriculum to include a commercial banking track.
When asked to describe what motivated her to lead the MBA program as its new assistant dean, Rebecca Monro replied, “The Lundquist College offers rigorous academics and a truly distinctive hands-on program facilitated by a top-tier faculty. It simply felt like a perfect match." Blending academic knowledge with real-world learning in a vibrant higher education experience is an ongoing career theme for Monro.
