Babcock students, faculty, and alumni are frequently in the news for their accomplishments. From furthering industry knowledge to winning national competitions, the people of Babcock are always making a difference.

The 7 secrets of really, really lucky companies - by Drake Bennett
04/12/09, The Boston Globe
Smunt, Timothy

Nothing succeeds like success - and few books succeed like books about success. Since the 1982 publication of "In Search of Excellence," by the McKinsey consultants Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, the business-success book has grown from a genre into a juggernaut. The most influential among them, like "The Leadership Engine" and "Reengineering the Corporation" and "Built to Last" and "Good to Great," sell millions of copies, are translated into dozens of languages, and shape the habits of managers from Detroit to Dubai. While the particulars vary, the basic idea underlying the literature is the same: that the secrets of success can be divined by careful study of the institutional habits of the world's business all-stars - companies that set the standard for their industries, that thrive in tough times, companies that win the war for talent, companies that are built to last. In the imperturbable focus on core values of Hewlett-Packard or the restless innovativeness of Google or the ruthless accountability of GE, there are lessons for us all. Recent years, however, have seen a proliferation of critiques of books like "Good to Great," fueled in part by the same quantitative urge behind the push for evidence-based medical care. In last fall's issue of The Academy of Management Perspectives, two separate articles took issue with "Good to Great." One of them, by Bruce Resnick and Timothy Smunt, professors at Wake Forest University's Babcock School of Management, found that if the 15-year window during which Collins looked at each of his "great" companies was moved by as little as a few months, the exceptional stock market performance that distinguished them all but disappeared.

The 7 secrets of really, really lucky companies, by Drake Bennett
04/12/09, The Boston Globe
Resnick, Bruce

Nothing succeeds like success - and few books succeed like books about success. Since the 1982 publication of "In Search of Excellence," by the McKinsey consultants Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, the business-success book has grown from a genre into a juggernaut. The most influential among them, like "The Leadership Engine" and "Reengineering the Corporation" and "Built to Last" and "Good to Great," sell millions of copies, are translated into dozens of languages, and shape the habits of managers from Detroit to Dubai. While the particulars vary, the basic idea underlying the literature is the same: that the secrets of success can be divined by careful study of the institutional habits of the world's business all-stars - companies that set the standard for their industries, that thrive in tough times, companies that win the war for talent, companies that are built to last. In the imperturbable focus on core values of Hewlett-Packard or the restless innovativeness of Google or the ruthless accountability of GE, there are lessons for us all. Recent years, however, have seen a proliferation of critiques of books like "Good to Great," fueled in part by the same quantitative urge behind the push for evidence-based medical care. In last fall's issue of The Academy of Management Perspectives, two separate articles took issue with "Good to Great." One of them, by Bruce Resnick and Timothy Smunt, professors at Wake Forest University's Babcock School of Management, found that if the 15-year window during which Collins looked at each of his "great" companies was moved by as little as a few months, the exceptional stock market performance that distinguished them all but disappeared.

Retail Notes: Coupon programs go online
02/01/09, Winston-Salem Journal
Herbst, Kenny

Supermarket chains may have found an answer for thrifty customers who forget and leave their coupons at home. Kenneth Herbst, an assistant professor of marketing at the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University, said that the ability to download coupons easily and quickly brings value to customers. "From Lowes' perspective, it could increase customer loyalty because it provides a reason and incentive for shoppers to visit Lowes' Web site," he said.

Some factories stable amid downturn
10/29/08, Charlotte Observer
Mandel, Stanley

While large corporations have built new plants in other countries, many smaller, private companies are more limited in their ability to expand overseas, and would rather be closer to their U.S. customer base anyway, said Stanley Mandel, director of the Angell Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management. "They tend to look at their market as regional or domestic vs. international," said Mandel, whose center provides assistance for closely-held and family firms. "That could explain some of the stability" with certain manufacturing jobs. While privately-owned, Mandel said, many such companies still have hundreds of employees and play a vital role in the regional economy. "We're not talking about mom-and-pop," he said.

No guarantee that bailout will work, banker says
10/04/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Reinemund, Steve

The financial crisis has produced a level of fear that sets up a self-fulfilling loop of economic problems, said Steve Reinemund, the dean of WFU's School of Business. Many companies are now reluctant to borrow money, even if it is available, and forgo potential expansions. That may lead to more layoffs. "It is a scary time for consumers, taxpayers and companies," Reinemund said.

The Economic Crisis
10/03/08, Window on Wake Forest
Bruce Resnick & Charu Raheja

The Babcock School's Bruce Resnick and Charu Raheja explain the credit crunch driving the proposed $700 billion bailout plan

WFU to hold discussion about U.S. financial crisis
10/02/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Babcock Graduate School

Wake Forest University will be the host of a two-hour panel discussion on the facets of the financial crisis at 4 p.m. Friday in Brendle Recital Hall at Scales Fine Arts Center. The discussion is free and open to the public. Banking executives and Wake Forest professors will discuss the root causes of the financial crisis and how it is affecting Americans. Other topics will include leadership in times of crisis, what is in store for the economy, and the political and ethical implications of potential courses of action. Among the panelists will be John Allison, the chairman and chief executive of BB&T Corp., and Reggie Imamura, the managing director at PNC Bank.

Steve Reinemund: WFU dean of business knows a thing or two about realigning large bodies of business
09/26/08, Triad Business Journal
Reinemund, Steve

The job of taking two of the regions top business programs  with their separate faculties, student bodies and administrations  and turning them into essentially one functioning unit might seem a daunting task. But Steve Reinemund knows a thing or two about making mergers work. Before taking on the job as dean of Wake Forest Universitys Calloway undergraduate and Babcock graduate business schools with the charge to oversee their realignment, Reinemund occupied one of the top corner offices in American corporate life as CEO and chairman of PepsiCo  the massive food and beverage conglomerate whose holdings include billion-dollar brand names like Pepsi, Tropicana, Frito-Lay and Gatorade and enough related fizzy and fruity drink labels and assorted grocery items to fill a supermarket. Reinemunds tenure as CEO between 2001 and 2006 saw PepsiCos net income increase by more than 70 percent and revenues grow from $26 billion to $35 billion annually. He also oversaw mergers and acquisitions of brand names like Naked Juice, Stacys Chips and his biggest single deal, the $14 billion buyout and integration of Quaker Oats. Now, at age 60, Reinemund is launching a new phase of a career that has already won accolades ranging from Business Weeks list of Worlds Most Respected CEOs to the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund: He wants to help Wake Forest turn out a new generation of corporate leadership that gives weight to personal and societal well-being along with the bottom line.

Pepsi Ex-Chief Targets Jobs, Duke as Wake Forest Business Dean
09/17/08, Bloomberg Markets
Reinemund, Steve

When he led PepsiCo Inc., Steve Reinemund had no shortage of buyers for his products. As the new business dean at Wake Forest University, he knows he'll have to work harder at getting employers to hire his students. Reinemund, 60, says his task is to improve the job- placement rate for graduate students, which at 73 percent lags behind regional rivals Duke University at 79 percent and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at 80 percent, according to the schools' 2007 data. Since April Reinemund has recruited a career-management director and invited executives of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Deere & Co. to strengthen their ties with the school. He has even coached job seekers personally.

Making decision to take right path
09/16/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Fogel, Daniel

The doubtful among us might call it catching the "green wave" and responding to the natural inclination to "do the right thing," and therefore perhaps not a serious leadership topic. We have a different view about "Go Green Winston-Salem," a climate-protection week series of events promoting environmentally sustainable practices in Winston-Salem.

Winston-Salem man wins silver in Paralympics
09/11/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Babcock Graduate School

A Winston-Salem man was on the U.S. team that won the silver medal today in a rowing event in the Paralympics in Beijing. Jamie Dean, who is in a combined law/MBA program at Wake Forest University, was a member of the team that won the 1,000-meter race in the mixed-coxed-four division. The Italian team won the gold, and the team from Great Britain took the bronze. Dean, 26, has retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease that gradually destroys the retina and optic nerve. He can still perceive light to some degree but cannot make out objects. Dean has an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest and is in the final year of a four-year program that will give him both a law degree and an MBA.

Heinz North America CEO to speak at Babcock series
09/06/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Babcock Graduate School

The Babcock Leadership Series for 2008-09 will begin at 5 p.m. Sept. 24 with a speech by the chief executive of Heinz North America. The series is conducted by the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. David Moran will speak on his career path at Heinz and how the business has evolved and grown under a new leadership model. His speech will take place in the Worrell Professional Center. The speech is free and open to the public. Heinz North America is a $4.5 billion business composed of the company's U.S. Consumer Products, U.S. Foodservice and Heinz Canada business units. Heinz North America is Heinz's largest business, representing more than 50 percent of its world sales.

THE ABCS OF THE MBA WORKERS ARE HEADING BACK TO SCHOOL, THANKS TO POOR ECONOMY
08/31/08, Charlotte Observer
Fogel, Daniel

Wake Forest's part-time business programs are increasing dramatically, says Dan Fogel, associate dean for working professional programs. The surge hit the school's Winston-Salem campus about 1 1/2 years ago but has been slower to reach Charlotte, where the market has remained strong, he said. Enrollment at Wake's Charlotte program is forecast to expand once it moves into the new Wachovia tower uptown in late 2009 or early 2010. The typical MBA student is about 30, with several years of work experience. Students usually take out loans to cover the cost. Many employers will cover some or all of the tuition, but that support is dwindling in the downturn. Dan Fogel, associate dean for working professional programs at Wake Forest, says the shift started even before the economy slowed - partly because employers feared that their workers would get an MBA and then jump ship.

Business Milestones
08/10/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Babcock Graduate School

A student at Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management has been invited to participate in a "Symposium on Emerging Issues in Character Education" on Aug. 18 at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington. Chris Yuko, the co-founder of Project Nicaragua and the program director, will discuss the Babcock School's work in Central America and the project's efforts to develop socially responsible leaders.

WFU grad student invited to speak at U.S. Education Department symposium
08/06/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Babcock Graduate School

A Wake Forest University graduate business student has been invited to speak at a U.S. Education Department symposium in Washington on Aug. 18. Chris Yuko will be part of a panel that will discuss "The Impact of Character Education on Students Enrolled in Institutions of Higher Education." Yuko is the co-founder and program director of Project Nicaragua, which is being conducted by students at the university's Babcock Graduate School of Management. The students have either conducted a two-day educational seminar or helped at a vocational school as part of offering their knowledge to Third World entrepreneurs and small-business owners. The project also aims to develop socially responsible business leaders. Another group of five students and three faculty members made a similar presentation earlier this summer in Benin in western Africa.

Ex-chief of Porsche to speak first at WFU business forum
08/06/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Baker, Kathy

The Family Business Center at Wake Forest University said that the former chief executive for Porsche A.G. will begin the speaker series for its quarterly forums for 2008-08 on Sept. 23. Peter Schutz will speak on the theme "Leadership: The Driving Force." The forum will take place from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Bridger Field House at BB&T Field. The center is part of the Babcock Graduate School of Management. Other forums will be held Dec. 4, Jan. 28 and April 16. The forums are open only to center members, sponsors and their guests. For more information, call 757-1250.

People in Business
08/03/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Groff, Guy

Guy R. Groff has been named the director of the Career Management Center at Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management. He was most recently the director of the Graduate Career Management Center at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He has more than 20 years of leadership and has spent the past 10 years in MBA education-career management. He established and continuously enhanced a comprehensive career development program for full-time and working professional students at Arizona State University. He is a former Marine and director of worldwide career counseling services for the U.S. Marine Corps.

Babcock Demon partners with STI
07/29/08, Triad Business Journal
Clarkson, Thomas

Southeast TechInventures will base its new Triad operations out of the Babcock Demon Incubator in Winston-Salem, where it will help foster growth among local startups, according to an announcement. Southeast TechInventures or STI is based in Research Triangle Park, where it works with startup tech companies with commercialization potential. STI spin-off companies include Advanced Liquid Logic, Bioptigen and MBright. STI's commercialization process has resulted in a total of 12 spin-off companies and a high rate of research grant application successes, according to Babcock Demon director Tom Clarkson. "STI will be a great addition to the Triad's entrepreneurial community and the companies it creates will provide significant economic growth for the region," Clarkson said. STI CEO Karen LeVert said her firm already has relationships with technology transfer officials at Wake Forest University, N.C. A&T and UNC-Greensboro. "We're excited about the growth we've seen in the Triad and we want to play a larger role in the area's future growth," LeVert said.

From Carolina to China: Blind Wake Forest student training to compete in 1,000-meter rowing contest at Paralympics
07/14/08, Winston-Salem Journal
Babcock Graduate School

Come September, Jamie Dean will be in Beijing rowing in the Paralympics. Leading up to that, Dean is one incredibly busy man. He recently completed the third of four years in a program at Wake Forest University that will give him both a law degree and an MBA, and he is working at the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice this summer. Most weekdays, he trains for two hours after he gets off work. That might be working on a rowing machine at home or going out to Salem Lake with his rowing partner, Andy Trafford. On Wednesdays, though, he has to get up early enough to train before work because he has a 3½-hour class at night. Come Friday, he is likely to be getting on a plane to someplace such as Philadelphia, Washington or Oklahoma City to spend the weekend training with his teammates. Oh, yeah. Last month, he married Lauren Brown Dean, a student at Wake Forest's divinity school. So somewhere in there, he has to find some time to spend with his wife.

College Notes
07/06/08, Charlotte Observer
Baker, Kathy

Kathy Baker is the new director of Wake Forest University Babcock Graduate School of Management's Family Business Center -- Triad and Charlotte Metro. She starts July 1. Baker, associate director of the center since October 2005, replaces Tom Ogburn, who is retiring. Baker earned an MBA from DePaul University and a bachelor's degree in finance from Illinois State University. The Babcock School, with its array of MBA program offerings, has served the Charlotte community since 1995 from One Morrocroft Centre in the city's SouthPark area.