2005
March
• Major Impact: In a recent article titled "Little Campus Lab Shakes Big Firms," The Wall Street Journal emphasized the considerable influence of the College of Management's Financial Analysis Lab. Last year the lab's director, accounting professor Charles Mulford, issued a report criticizing dozens of companies, including automakers, for improperly boosting their cash flow reports by treating customer-related loans as an "investing" activity instead of an "operating" one. In response to the report, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently asked companies to correct this classification. BusinessWeek and the San Antonio Express-News recently have sought Mulford's opinion on other accounting practices recently.
• First Place: ImmersiTech, winner of the top award in the College of Management's 2005 Business Plan Competition, could revolutionize the way injured athletes are diagnosed for brain injuries during sporting events, reported the Atlanta Business Chronicle recently. Oftentimes coaches simply ask players if they can remember their names when determining whether they can return to the field. But ImmersiTech's virtual-reality technology, which can quickly assess players' neurological functioning on the sidelines, is far more accurate. Consisting of four MBA students, the ImmersiTech team won $10,000 in the competition to help market this patent-pending invention, which also could change how Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed. The article also reported that Frontier Sensors won the competition's Most Fundable award, which goes to the team most ready to enter the marketplace, for its innovative sensor technology.
• Cutting Edge: Georgia Tech College of Management is constantly evolving to meet the needs of employers, said Senior Associate Dean Nate Bennett in a recent article in Georgia Trend magazine on the value of the MBA degree. "We conducted a very comprehensive review of our MBA curriculum in 2000 and 2001," Bennett said. "A number of changes were made, and the curriculum was launched in 2003. We're in the process of evaluating that curriculum. Those are the things you need to do to stay competitive."
• Built to Last: Coverage of the College of Management achieving its $45 million fundraising goal to cover the cost of its new building has continued with articles in The Chronicle of Philanthropy and Atlanta Business Chronicle. Another recent article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlighted the building's status as only one of three structures in Atlanta certified by the U.S. Green Building Council for environmentally friendly design.
• Tall Order: The advice of Governor Sonny Perdue's favorite business book would be challenging for any politician to always follow, said Senior Associate Dean Nate Bennett in a recent article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jim Collins's Good to Great, which Perdue encourages all of his top aides to read, emphasizes finding the right people to fill jobs. However, the nature of politics often leads governments to hire people who might be right "from the standpoint of political payback but not from the standpoint of the mission to be accomplished," Bennett said.
• Made in America: After years of trailing Asian companies in consumer electronics, U.S.-based businesses have recently taken the lead, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The article quoted Samit Soni, assistant professor of information technology management, who attributes this turnaround to innovation. "American firms have been the leaders in innovation lately, whereas the Japanese have sort of been tinkering with their old products, saying, 'Okay, I have the technology already, can I just make it a little bit better?'"
• Rave Reviews: Accounting professors Charles Mulford and Eugene Comiskey are winning critical acclaim for their latest book, Creative Cash Flow Reporting: Uncovering Sustainable Financial Performance, which shows investors how to see through the often fuzzy math of corporate accounting practices. Marketwatch columnist Herb Greenberg recently deemed it a necessary part "of any serious investor's personal reference library." In an era of dubious earnings reports, the book teaches investors how to effectively gauge a company's financial performance by measuring sustainable cash flow instead of trusting operating cash-flow reports, which can be misleading.
• In Memoriam: When commemorating the life of outspoken Georgia Tech economics professor Mack Moore, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution turned to College of Management Dean Terry C. Blum. In addition to his academic career, Moore was well-known for his frequent letters to the AJC editor, in which he expounded on both the serious and silly. "He was often controversial but often interesting and often right," said Blum of Moore, who recently died from pulmonary hypertension. "He was always entertaining, and he brought some relief to the stodgy halls of academe."