2005
August-September
• Following the Rules: In a recent article in USA Today, Georgia Tech accounting professor Charles Mulford called Merrill Lynch's new requirement that its analysts incorporate options and other stock-based compensation in their earnings forecasts "a move in the right direction." A controversial new accounting rule requires public companies to treat stock options as routine business expenses, prompting the change at Merrill Lynch.
• Leader of the Pack: The Atlanta Business Chronicle's recent "CEO University" special section, which highlighted graduates from local schools who've made it to the top, profiled more business-school alumni from Georgia Tech than from any other university featured. College of Management alumni profiled included Jack Guynn, CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Hubert L. "Herky" Harris Jr., CEO of INVESCO North America; Larry Huang, managing partner of Sabal Partners; A. J. Land, CEO of Pope and Land Enterprises Inc.; and John Salley, CEO of Black Folk Entertainment. Guynn, who earned his master's in management in 1969, said, "My graduate school experience at Georgia Tech added another dimension to my portfolio and helped me think beyond my engineering degree to broader management responsibilities."
• East meets West: India's largest newspaper, The Times of India, recently covered the College of Management 's plans to set up shop in that country. "We will come to India as a standalone," said Dean Terry C. Blum of Tech's tentative plans. The Institute's standalone campus in India would focus on graduate education, initially offering a single multidisciplinary master's degree in systems sciences and engineering, including a specialization in management. Blum also recently appeared in China Business News discussing globalization issues.
• Damage Control: Rebuilding thousands of houses destroyed by hurricanes along the Gulf Coast would also help repair Habitat for Humanity International's battered image, reported the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Sexual harassment allegations involving Habitat's deposed founder and ensuing internal conflicts have hurt the organization recently. The article quoted Koert van Ittersum, an assistant professor of marketing and brand-management expert, who said that reconstruction efforts will put Habitat "in the public eye in a very favorable manner�.Branding is all about what's stuck in people's heads."
• Short Supply: As gas prices surged in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Associated Press quoted marketing professor emeritus Fred Allvine in an article carried by the Boston Globe, Toronto Star, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among other newspapers. "There is a possibility that we will see some form of rationing with the conditions being as bad as or worse than many people thought," said Allvine, an oil-industry expert, discussing fears that damage to Gulf Coast refineries and pipeline links would limit gas supplies. Also an aviation-industry expert, Allvine was interviewed about the woes of Delta Air Lines and other carriers by the Los Angeles Times, NPR 's "Marketplace" program, Bloomberg Radio, WAGA-TV, WXIA-TV, WGCL-TV, and WSB-TV .
• Big IMPACT: The Atlanta Business Chronicle previewed the fall lineup of the College of Management's IMPACT Speaker Series. Sponsored by Assurant Solutions, the weekly series provides Georgia Tech students, alumni and the Atlanta community an opportunity to network and learn from high-tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and notable business and community leaders. Upcoming speakers include Joe W. Rogers Jr., CEO of Waffle House, and Thomas Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign-affairs columnist for The New York Times.
• Ahead of the Curve: The Daily Deal financial newspaper turned to Stuart Graham, assistant professor of strategic management, for commentary on how software companies are plotting their intellectual property strategies in a world shaped by antitrust rulings and consumer demands for interoperability. "They're all talking about getting down the learning curve," said Graham in the article.
• Missing Link: Coverage of operations-management professor Vinod Singhal's research on supply-chain disruptions continued with an article in UPS's Channels magazine, which offers supply-chain insights to global business leaders. As supply chains grow more complex, so does their vulnerability to broken links that can devastate corporate performance, Singhal said. "Even supply-chain problems that are acts of man, not God, can cause immediate and sometimes prolonged damage to the bottom line," he added.
• Great White North: Strategic management professor John McIntyre, director of Georgia Tech's Center for International Business Education and Research, is a regular contributor and panelist on various programs of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Radio Canada). During recent appearances, he discussed reevaluation of China's Yuan currency as well as U.S. and Canadian exchange rates.