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by Erin Markey, MBA1
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Left: David D. Alger is president, CEO, and chief investment office of a $7 billion Wall Street investment firm. He will deliver the keynote address at commencement. Right: Richard Frankel, Assistant Professor of Accounting, has been honored by MBAs with the 1997 Student Award for Teaching Excellence.
Commencement ceremonies for the University of Michigan Business School will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 2, in Crisler Arena. About 6,000 people are expected to attend the event, including 450 MBA day program, 70 MBA evening program, 285 BBA, and a handful of doctoral students. The keynote speaker will be David D. Alger, president, CEO, and chief investment officer of Fred Alger Management, Inc., an investment firm with more than $7 billion in assets.
Several awards also will be presented on Friday. The Alumni Achievement Award will be presented to Sam Wyly, who recently made a $10 million gift to UMBS toward the construction of a new building, which will be named Sam Wyly Hall. The 1997 Student Award for Teaching Excellence from BBAs will go to Scott Moore and from MBAs will go to Richard Frankel. The Class of 1997 Student Recognition Awards will also be presented at commencement. Recipients are Greg Gamble, MBA Leadership Award; Andrew Taylor, BBA Leadership Award; Amiel Handelsman, Community Service Award; and John Gray and Edward Guzzo for the Innovation in Education Award.
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| Breaking New Ground: On Friday, May 2, UMBS will break ground on Sam Wyly Hall--a $27 million addition to the B-school complex bounded by Hill, Tappan, East University, and Monroe Streets. Dallas entrepreneur Sam Wyly donated $10 million toward construction of the new facility, which will house the headquarters of the William Davidson Institute, offer expanded space for the Executive Education Center, and include new faculty offices. Wyly will attend this week's groundbreaking ceremony. |
by Donald Houston, MBA1
This summer 14 University of Michigan Business School students
will work in sub-Saharan Africa as a part of the African Business Development
Corps (ABDC).
ABDC was conceived to expose future corporate executives and entrepreneurs to the various emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa. Started in 1993, ABDC establishes ties to medium-sized indigenous companies in the region and sends students to complete summer internships in these areas. Since its origination, its student participants and program director E. LaBrente Chrite have personified a deep desire to exert a positive impact on the region. Current student participants share the same sense of commitment to help the economies of the region and learn about various cultures.
When asked to reflect on the present state of the program, Chrite remarked, "By providing our students and faculty members with the opportunity to work in this region at this time, we can play a vital role in dispelling much of the misinformation that continues to color the lens through which the West continues to view sub-Saharan Africa. Our continued involvement will add greatly to our knowledge regarding the complexity, challenges, and opportunities of this marketplace."
Contributing To Economic Justice
Many of this summer's interns will be based in South Africa. Slow but steady progress is being made toward a solution of equity in South Africa--a country long associated with blatant social and economic injustice. The historic release of Nelson Mandela and his triumphant election victory not only warmed the hearts of people who cared about changing the country's unfair system, but also sparked a renewed interest in the region for investors and business people.
To the economists and capitalists who followed the exodus of multinational companies, investments, and the ripple effect on the economic climate in the country, a "free" South Africa was considered a financial investment opportunity. The more aggressive multinationals and daring entrepreneurs have started to enter and invest in the country looking for above average financial returns. Currently, the country also is seen as a barometer for the whole southern portion of the continent. The stable growth of South Africa is critical to the entire region.
Amidst the challenge to make good on all the promises of a free South Africa, economic growth is critical to the process. Parallel economic expansion needs can be identified in Namibia and Zimbabwe--countries where other ABDC fellows will be interning. To that end, ABDC is more than a summer program providing a meaningful experience. Its students contribute in a small way to the fulfillment of a promise of opportunity in a region that is at a crossroads.
"Through the transfer of managerial and technical skills to enterprises in southern Africa, the African Business Development Corps can become a major player in the development of one of the world's most important emerging markets," Chrite added.
Growing More Successful By The Year
Over the past few years ABDC has been growing in success and popularity, and this past year is considered a breakthrough year. Some of last summer's fellows tried to return to the sub-Saharan continent to work full-time, and a larger number have plans to get back to the country in which they worked at some point during their business careers.
Trina Callie, MBA2, is taking the opportunity to go between graduation and full-time work. "I've always wanted to go to Africa," explained Callie, "I figured I had better take advantage of the great opportunity Africa Corps presents because once I start working full-time, I won't have the chance to really live and work with people from another culture and another country. It's sort of my last hoorah."
Callie will be working on a team with three other people doing strategic marketing for Whirlpool. In fact, her team includes three recent UMBS graduates.
David Hudson, MBA1, chose an ABDC internship in lieu of the traditional, Corporate America internship route. "In all the reports and commentaries about the exciting and unique opportunities for capitalism in transitional and developing economies around the world, the countries of Africa are rarely discussed. I chose to take part in the African Business Development Corps to help raise the awareness of the economic possibilities of sub-Saharan Africa and to take part in one of the most exciting summer experiences offered at Michigan."
Hudson added: "All business aside, having never missed an episode of 'Fangs' on the Discovery Channel, I'm looking forward to taking in as many safaris as possible."
By John Larkey, MBA1
Over
150 MBAs from 12 of the country's top business schools competed in 10 events
over two days to help raise money for the Special Olympics at the Fuqua
MBA Games. The Games, now in their 9th year, are organized annually by
students from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and held on Duke's
picturesque campus in Durham, NC.
This year 15 Michigan MBA students, sponsored by the Dean's Office and Chicago-based consultancy Diamond Technology Partners, participated in the Games and experienced firsthand the combination of athletic competition, friendly rivalry, and civic responsibility--interspersed with plenty of social interaction with other MBA students--that the games have come to represent.
Schools participating this year included Michigan, Indiana, Johnson (Cornell), Columbia, Stern (NYU), Wharton (Pennsylvania), Chicago, Kellogg (Northwestern), Tuck (Dartmouth), Darden (Virginia), Kenan-Flagler (NC-Chapel Hill), and host Fuqua. Each team was joined by a North Carolina Special Olympian who participated in several events as part of the team and helped to bring focus to the true spirit and objective of the Games.
The events require a combination of athleticism and humility, as individual efforts are cheered by the entire gallery of spectators who witness the spectacle of the Bat Spin Relay--a relay whereby a team of six athletes dash 50 meters, place their head on the tip of a baseball bat positioned on the ground and spin around it eight times, then weave, stagger, and stumble 50 meters back to tag off to their teammate. This year's relay saw several contestants spin themselves right into the spectator crowd--or in some cases into each other--as the disequilibrium effects of the spinning forced some to crawl across the finish line.
Every event requires co-ed participation and in addition to the bat spin relay teams participated in: a golf tournament (four- person scramble), 5-K run, volleyball, briefcase toss, obstacle course, tug-of-war, basketball shootout, water raft relay, and a swimming relay.
Michigan took 6th place in this year's competition, which was won by the Kenan-Flagler team. In 1991 and 1994, Michigan MBAs took 1st place in the Games, and Michigan is one of the few schools that has participated in the games every year since their inception in 1989. While all the participants share in the camaraderie of friendly competition with fellow MBAs, the real winners are the Special Olympians, who gain an opportunity to compete as part of a team during these games and who benefit throughout the year with the corporate-sponsorship funds raised by the Games.
by Deborah Hanson, MBA1
When
you go to the grocery store and see a cleaning product with Wal-Mart or
Kroger as its brand name, do you ever wonder who manufactured this product?
The Perrigo Company, located in Alleghan, Mich., is one of the major manufacturers
of these types of products.
The Perrigo Mercusor IMAP team was charged with conducting an industry analysis and developing a market entry strategy for pharmaceutical drug and personal care products in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Our six person team interviewed numerous industry experts, manufacturers, retailers, and associations in an attempt to give Perrigo a thorough understanding of the market.
In reflecting upon our time here in South America, we have realized a number of differences from how business operates in the United States. Some of the things we have learned are as follow:
* How critical contacts are in this very private industry
* A large number of invisible obstacles must be overcome in order to operate in these countries
* Very different legislation exists in these countries.
Our IMAP (International Multidisciplinary Action Project) experience has given all of us a great opportunity to see how a different part of the world operates from both a business and cultural perspective and how to use these differences to create a successful market entry strategy. So if you ever come to South America and visit a grocery store with its own private label, you can say that some of your U-M classmates may have played a part in making that happen.
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