Ross alums are changing the world through amazing careers all across the globe – and we want to hear about it! We know you’re up to all sorts of exciting things and we’re looking to share your story. What’s new? What’s amazing? What have you accomplished?
If you have an interesting story to tell or news to share, tell us about it in the comments or at rossdividend@umich.edu. Have a new job, new promotion, new baby or wedding news? We want to hear that, too!
Or if you want to brag on a Ross alum who may be too modest to do so on his or her own, please email us.
Is your spouse, sibling, child or employee who graduated from Ross up to something we need to hear? Send it our way.
We’ll share these stories in Dividend magazine and in our social media outlets. So don’t be shy. Leave a comment, or shoot us a quick email and help us share your story.
More than 80 positive business scholars from across the globe will gather at U-M Ross this weekend to present new research findings and collaborate with peers.
It’s part of Ross’ Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship 2013 Research Conference, “A Positive Thread: Connecting the Dots,” which aims to help researchers make connections with each other and work together across research topics.
“I’m really excited that we’re convening this again,” Chris White, managing director of the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship said. “World-class scholars will come together at Ross to work on understanding the science of helping leaders build organizations that bring out the best in people.”
The conference will include a mix of research presentations and small interactive discussions over the course of three days.
The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship was founded in 2002 by Ross professors Kim Cameron, Jane Dutton and Bob Quinn, who together also developed the field of research, and is dedicated to being the central place for the study and practice of positive organizations.
For the next year, Madhavi Rao will have a new audience. The U-M Ross and SNRE student will be posting weekly to a blog hosted by the Financial Times.
My first two years at Michigan have been a whirlwind of inspiring people, life-changing opportunities, stomach-churning failures and successes that I frequently find it difficult to believe are real.
The Financial Times MBA Blog features posts from more than 25 MBA students from a rotating selection of international business schools, such as the London Business School, University of Queensland, and Italy’s MIP Politecnico di Milano.
Rao is one of the many Rossers pursuing a dual degree with the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment through the Erb Institute, and said she is looking forward to sharing the unique U-M culture with the international audience that frequents the Financial Times blog.
“One of the big differences I’ve noticed in talking with some of the international students I go to school with is that in a lot of other countries, your life outside of the school is your life,” she said. “Whereas in the US, this is your whole life for two years, and a lot of the growth experiences that you have will be beyond academics and will come from interactions with your fellow classmates.”
This is the first time a Ross student has been included in the Financial Times' blog rotation, and Rao said she is excited to show readers what being a Ross student is really like.
“I’m going to give a flavor of what it is actually like to live the life of an MBA student rather than just completing the studies or going through all of the different opportunities that business school gives you,” she said.
Read Rao’s first post for the Financial Times. Leave a comment to welcome her to the blog and watch the short video below to hear more about what she plans to post.
You've heard there's no crying in baseball, but what about in business?
"You don't need to be a therapist, you just need to be available."
Jeffery Sanchez-Burks, Professor of Management and Operations. Harvard Business Review, June 2013.
U-M Ross Professor Jeffery Sanchez-Burks recently talked to Harvard Business Review about ways to help managers handle any tears in the workplace. Sanchez-Burks, an expert on leadership and workplace dynamics, said step one is to leave the judgment aside and help the person.
Ross Professor Gautam Kaul kicks off Coursera course
Today, Ross School of Business professor Gautam Kaul kicks off the third online offering of his popular “Introduction to Finance” course through Coursera.org.
This massive open online course (or MOOC, as it’s called in the ‘biz’) is completely free, and when it was first offered last summer more than 100,000 people enrolled. At the time, Andrew Ng, a Coursera co-founder, declared it one of the site’s most popular.
It’s an MBA-level curriculum, with an enrollment larger than the population of about 50 countries, and representation from many more than that.
Such large-scale course delivery methods are being vetted by Universities across the world and Coursera made significant news recently for the expansion of the number of universities participating.
Professor Kaul spoke with Businessweek about the challenges of delivering such high-level course work to such a large audience back in March, and said he isn’t skimping on quality to offer a course more suited for a general population. “I believe that MOOCs from [the University of Michigan] should showcase the talent and quality that the school has to offer,” he said.
It’s an experiment for sure. But, as the University of Michigan’s early involvement with the Coursera project shows, it’s one with high interest around campus. We’ll be following the course closely here on this blog as it develops over the next 15 weeks. Stay tuned.
Blowing the whistle on bad behavior takes more than personal fortitude. As U-M Ross Professor David Mayer tells National Public Radio’s Shankar Vedantam, the work environment plays a bigger role than previously thought.
“What we've neglected is understanding better the role of people who are not in formal positions of power - our peers. If we don't get consistent support from our coworkers, we're much less likely to act.”
According to a new report from The Graduate Management Admissions Council (owners of the GMAT) that we're reading about in Businessweek, MBA recruiters are about to get a lot busier.
The GMAC report looked at 935 corporate recruiters across the world, who said they are planning to hire more MBAs than at any point in the last five years (see chart). That means those on the job market need to be ready to maximize their value to these prospective employers.
Luckily, we recently met up with U-M Ross Professor Shirli Kopelman at Ann Arbor's Comet Coffee to talk about her new research related to how anxiety over making the first offer in a negotiation can affect overall satisfaction with the outcome. She also let us in on a little secret about salary negotiations: do your research, have an argument ready, and go first.
In a Q+A out in Businessweek today, she reiterates these points. "[Students] need to be seen as ambitious," she says in the article. "Employers will look at how you negotiate your own salary to see how you will negotiate on behalf of the company."
If you're on the job market now, or thinking about re-entering, be sure to check out the video below for how to get more out of a salary negotiation:
In the post, Keywell talks about a mentor who he met and formed a relationship with while here at The Ross School of Business - a mentor who would change his life. The mentor was Sam Zell, who's Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies here at Ross has been a leader in developing entrepreneurs since 1999.
Check out Keywell's blog to read the inspiring story and get a few tips on how to make sure you're making the most out of the mentor relationships in your life. Read the post.
This fall, the U-M Ross School of Business will take leadership training to a new level. A very, very high level, with a first-ever leadership class climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
It's part of an executive education program from Ross, which was just ranked among the top ten in the world by the Financial Times.
Professor and course leader Scott DeRue just summited Mount Everest (and blogged along the way for Harvard Business Review), and after returning home, DeRue will lead training sessions for a program on Mount Kilimanjaro in September. He says it is an ideal setting for leadership development.
"We don't simply teach leadership. We design experiences for you to learn leadership," DeRue said. "Climbing is the ideal experiential laboratory for learning leadership skills to transform you and your organization's performance."
Will it be challenging? Yes. Thrilling? Yes. Rewarding? You bet.
Learn more about the Advanced Leadership in Action: Kilimanjaro program. Deadline to sign up is quickly approaching. The program is suitable for beginners and experienced hikers. It costs $14,300, which includes tuition, climbing guide and park permit fees, group gear and equipment, meals, ground transportation and three nights' hotel stay in Tanzania.
About this blog
News and information from the Office of Marketing and Communications at The Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan
