The magazine for alumni and friends of the UB School of Management
Issue link: http://ubschoolofmanagement.uberflip.com/i/261286
Spring 2014 B B Forbes magazine has again ranked the School of Management as one of the best business schools in the world based on the return on investment it provides MBA graduates. (See story, page 2.) The School of Management is ranked as one of the country's best undergraduate business programs once again in the 2014 edition of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News and World Report. (See story, page 4.) Lewis Mandell, professor emeritus and current instructor in the School of Management's Singapore EMBA program, was quoted in a CNBC article about teaching children about money by giving them an allowance. Mandell researched the impact of allowances on financial behavior later in life, and says the results are troubling. Although his initial premise held that kids who had a regular, unconditional allowance, and who could reason- ably budget their allowance, would probably have the highest financial literacy scores, Mandell said, "It turned out they had the lowest." Mandell also was quoted in a Bloomberg article about the impor- tance of knowing the basics of personal finance and the difference it could have made to many who had difficulties surviving the Great Recession. If you haven't been taught such fundamentals as math, Treadway also was quoted in an article on Success.com about bully- ing in the workplace. "A bully who is politically skilled or socially confi- dent can understand or sense what their target is most insecure about. That's when bullying becomes effective," he said. Arun Jain, Samuel P. Capen Professor of Marketing Research, was quoted in an article that appeared on Businessweek.com about the sale of Budwey's, a three- store Western New York grocery chain in business for more than 85 years. "It's very difficult to compete in this marketplace," he said. "I think it will become even tougher now with Trader Joe's coming in." Tom Ulbrich, assistant dean and executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), was quoted in a story that appeared on Businessweek.com about the CEL's new Taking Care of Family Business initiative, designed to support family business ventures. "It's a unique set of support and services," he said. "Family business- es are complex systems, and we'll provide an environment where family members can flourish individ- ually while collaborating to run a business successfully." Natalie Simpson, associate profes- sor of operations management and strategy, was quoted in an article in The Boston Globe about the declin- ing number of major fires both in Boston and nationally, and the dilemmas cities are facing over whether a system built more than a Several influential media featured the accomplishments of the School of Management and the expertise of its faculty over the past year. Below is a summary of some of the school's citations in prominent national and regional media. These media "hits" enhance the school's national reputation and help to brand it as one of the nation's top business schools. N e w s B i t e s teaching financial literacy is a fool's errand, he said. "It's devastating to find it may not be worthwhile. American students can't even add, subtract, multiply or divide as well as the rest of the world." Fox Business interviewed Mandell about his research showing that financial wisdom peaks in one's 50s and then declines steeply, making seniors vulnerable to bad decisions. "The single most important thing you can do is delay taking your Social Security until you turn 70," he said. "Not only does Social Security give you an 8 percent return for every year you wait, that 8 percent is a real rate of return that's protected against inflation. No one else is giving you a real rate of 8 percent. The single best annuity is Social Security because it not only pays you as long as you're alive, but it also adjusts to the cost of living." Darren Treadway, associate profes- sor of organization and human resources, was interviewed by the BBC for "The Why Factor" in a feature about bullying. "We'd like to see people who bully actually get lower performance ratings. But since we all know that bullying continues to persist, there has to be some bullies who are doing well," he said. "Our particular research looked at whether or not bullies who are politically skilled—people who are able to read their work environments, people who are able to understand the motivations and the weaknesses of other individu- als—are actually able to leverage their bullying behavior to get higher performance ratings. And what we saw was that for people who are politically skilled in organizations, their performance ratings continue to go up the more they bully." century ago to help protect citizens from fire offers the best approach to the very different sorts of emer- gencies that modern cities face today. "When you start integrating emergency medicine into [the job], you have many, many more separate incidents ... you need to go more to 12-hour shifts or 8-hour shifts, because the person needs to be rested," she said. Brian Becker, organization and human resources professor and senior associate dean, was quoted in a Buffalo News article about plans by Wegmans to offer buyouts to full-time workers age 58 and older who have worked for the company's stores for at least 15 years. "The employees are only going to take advantage of it if it works for them, so it sounds like a win-win for the company and the employees," he said. David Murray, associate professor of management science and systems, was quoted in an article about the challenges of preventing corporate cyber thefts. "The insider attack is something that can't be ignored by businesses or government," he said. Harold Star, assistant professor of operations management and strategy, was quoted in an article on the front page of the business section of The Buffalo News about the advantages and disadvantages of running a business franchise. "All the big decisions are made for you, but that's the downside, too," he said. Cristian Tiu, associate professor of finance and managerial economics, was interviewed by YNN for a story about the federal government shutdown and the impact of missing the debt ceiling deadline. "They tie together because of the timing, and I think they were basically both used as a negotiation tool," he said.