Darden Report Spring 2011

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA DARDEN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

The Darden Report

SPRING/SUMMER 2011

Inside: East Meets West, Should You Check Facebook Before Hiring?, Reunion 2011

University of Virginia Darden School of Business

The Darden Report

Spring/Summer 2011

20 COVER STORY

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Thinking Like an Effectual Entrepreneur

Case in Point: Should You Check Facebook Before Hiring?

Charting an East/ West Passage

By Carlos Santos

By Bidhan Parmar

By James Erik Abels

Most people envision entrepreneurs as the ultimate risk takers, willing to gamble it all for the glory of high profits. Not so, says Darden Professor Saras Sarasvathy, whose 10 years of research reveal the true nature of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, who bet only what they can afford to lose.

In the virtual world, our houses are made of glass. In the first in a new series of articles by Darden professors for The Washington Post, Professor Bidhan “Bobby” Parmar asks whether basing a hiring decision on a job candidate’s Facebook page is ethical.

Management techniques of the East and the West differ — and sometimes clash. What if a new management style emerged that could combine the best of each? Professor Ming-Jer Chen envisions the new “ambicultural” executive on his quest “to make the world smaller.”

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Knock, and the Door Will Open

Dean Bob Bruner heads to New York City to help 12th graders sell the New York Times Co. to Google.

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Faculty Spotlight

Melissa Thomas-Hunt “Winning at Tough Negotiations”

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20 Questions: George Tahija (MBA ’86)

DEPARTMENTS 5 6 30 34

From the Editor News Briefs Reunion 2011 and Alumni News John Macfarlane Receives the Charles C. Abbott Award, Alumni Career Services Named for Beverley “Booty” Armstrong Alumni Leadership

WWW.DARDEN.VIRGINIA.EDU/DARDENREPORT

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Visit The Darden Report online, www.darden.virginia. edu/dardenreport, for additional audiovisual content.

Dean, Charles C. Abbott Professor of Business Administration and Distinguished Professor of Business Administration Robert F. Bruner President, Darden School Foundation, Senior Associate Dean for External Relations Trip Davis (MBA ’94) Chairman, Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees Henry F. Skelsey (MBA ’84) Vice President of Alumni Relations Michael Woodfolk The Darden Report Senior Director of Communication, Editor Julie Daum Director of Publications, Design Susan Wormington Copy Editor Seamane Flanagan Class Notes Editor Stephanie Grasso Illustrations (Cover & p. 18) Matt Thomas Photography Dan Addison, Michael Bailey, Amy Boyd, Ian Bradshaw, Tom Cogill, Cole Geddy, istockphoto.com, Fotolia.com, Gettyimages.com, Andrew Shurtleff, Susan Wormington Printing Progress Printing, Lynchburg, VA Volume 37, No. 1: Spring/Summer 2011 Send correspondence to: The Darden Report Office of Communication & Marketing P. O. Box 7225 Charlottesville, VA 22906-7225 U.S.A.

FROM THE EDITOR

Looking Uncertainty in the Eye AS 2011 UNFOLDS against a global backdrop of turbulent political, natural and economic events and accelerating changes in society and technology, this issue of The Darden Report confronts uncertainty.

Our cover story focuses on optimistic entrepreneurs who plunge into the murky, roughand-tumble business world with a great, new idea and no guarantees.

Another article looks at the ambiguity surrounding social media. As many as 30 billion photographs have already been uploaded to Facebook, but where will they end up? One place might be the computer of the hiring manager for the job you want. Darden Professor Bidhan “Bobby” Parmar examines the ethical dilemma of using Facebook to conduct background checks on job candidates.

As global boundaries blur, Darden Professor Ming-Jer Chen studies the challenges Eastern and Western managers face as they attempt to blend their businesses. Chen has coined the term “ambicultural” to describe managers who are able to embrace the best Eastern and Western management techniques — and to bypass the worst.

Darden professors bring insights from their research to the classroom. Every day at Darden, we teach MBA students and Executive Education participants to look uncertainty in the eye and to make sound decisions using limited information. How does uncertainty affect you and your business? Let me know: daumj@darden.virginia.edu.

Julie Daum Editor and Senior Director of Communication

STAY CONNECTED Get to know the Darden Community through social media.

Visit www.darden.virginia.edu/dardenvoices DARDEN ALUMNI PORTAL Log on to http://alumportal.darden.virginia.edu to update your contact information, reconnect with Darden graduates and learn about new job and educational opportunities.

communication@darden.virginia.edu The Darden Report is published with private donations to the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation. © 2011 Darden School Foundation

FIND US ON: The Darden MBA YouTube Channel 500 videos Facebook 6,800 friends Twitter 2,300 followers LinkedIn 3,475 members

PODCASTS The Darden BusinessCast The 10-minute podcast, hosted by Abena Foreman-Trice and broadcast each Friday afternoon, features news from Darden and in-depth interviews with the school’s faculty, staff, students, alumni and distinguished visitors.

Download the podcast from Darden’s website (http://media.darden.virginia. edu/podcasts), Podcast Alley or iTunes.

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

5

News Briefs

For School news, go to: www.darden.virginia.edu

Scott Price (MBA ’90) at Darden in April.

Darden Alumnus Leads Walmart Asia’s Quake Response When a devastating earthquake rocked the northern coast of Japan in March, Walmart’s senior leaders were attending a conference in Orlando, Fla., more than 7,000 flight miles away. Walmart had 24 stores in the affected area, two of which were severely impacted. The crisis also raised concerns about the safety of Walmart’s 1,889 employees in the area. Scott Price (MBA ’90), president and CEO of Walmart Asia, navigated around interruptions to the country’s supply chain and led the effort to send rapid relief (including a plane with 95 tons of relief materials) into Japan as part of a $5 million commitment Walmart made to relief and recovery work in the area. An article appearing in the March 24, 2011, edition of The Wall Street Journal chronicles how Price and others responded to meet the needs of quake victims desperate for food, water and shelter.

Darden Lends a Hand

In the wake of recent worldwide disasters, many of Darden’s best have jumped in to help, driven by their sense of duty.

AS A 9.0 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE and a subsequent tsunami devastated much of Japan in March, Shin Furukawa (MBA ’92) escorted a member of Darden’s staff who was in Tokyo at the time promoting the new Global MBA for Executives program to safety. Furukawa quickly sought out information about the welfare of other Darden alumni, students and friends in Japan to allay the concerns of their friends and loved ones back home.

Meanwhile, classmates Frank DePalo and Kanji Fujii (both MBA ’95) offered Darden suggestions on ways it could support various relief efforts.

From Japan to Haiti to Pakistan

Second Year students Kristen Kelly, left, and Jamaica Wood, right, led the Second Year of the Darden Haitian Development Project.

6 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

Earlier in the school year, the Darden Student Association (DSA) raised $10,000 in 10 days to help victims of a flood in Pakistan that had left 18 million people homeless and in desperate need of food and water. The DSA held a similar campaign to raise $10,000 for victims of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in January of last year.

The school’s efforts to help the Haitian people continue today. The studentinitiated Darden Haitian Development Project (DHDP) is entering the second phase of a three-year consulting plan to develop a trade school in Haiti to train the country’s citizens in skills such as carpentry and masonry — skills that are desperately needed to rebuild the island country. The DHDP is also working to build a for-profit hostel that would support the operations of a medical clinic located just 45 minutes from the quake’s epicenter.

Carolyn S. Miles (MBA ’88), executive vice president and COO of Save the Children Federation, Inc. and a member of the Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees, appeared on CNN to discuss the impact of Pakistan’s floods on families.

Meanwhile, Darden professors are using their academic talents to improve the efficiency of humanitarian relief.

Edward Davis, the Oliver Wight Professor of Business Administration at Darden, and five academics from other schools founded the Humanitarian/Disaster Relief Supply Chain Initiative to address the

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jefferson Innovation Summit October 11-12, 2011, “Creating and Sustaining a Society of Entrepreneurs and Innovators” University of Virginia Investing Conference November 10-11, 2011, “The Political Cycle, Political Change and Investing”

Dean Bruner Reappointed to New Four-Year Term Bob Bruner, the eighth dean of the Darden School of Business, was reappointed in April by U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan. Bruner, who began his tenure as dean in August 2005, will lead the school in his new term through July 2015.

President Sullivan wrote in an e-mail to the Darden Community that she is grateful “for his steadfast leadership and willingness to undertake a second term. It will be my pleasure to work closely with Bob to accomplish goals that are both essential and ambitious.”

Bruner’s reappointment was reviewed by a committee of faculty, Dean Bob Bruner staff, students and alumni, chaired by Darden Professor Paul Farris.

The committee noted some of Bruner’s many strengths, including his strong relationship with alumni, his excellence as a communicator, and his use of technology to communicate news. n

problem. In the fall of last year, the group held a two-day workshop for disaster relief professionals to explore chain of supply Prof. Ed Davis and information management issues that typically arise during catastrophes.

Shelter and Socially Responsible Business

Promoting home ownership is also part of Darden’s tradition of helping those in need. Darden Professor Frank Warnock and Batten Fellow Veronica Cacdac Warnock devote their efforts to helping developing nations — including Colombia and the Philippines — create a financing system that will allow people to buy homes. The Warnocks’ research shows that three factors are needed for a healthy housing finance system: legal protection for lenders and borrowers, a stable macroeconomic environment and meaningful credit information.

Darden students also learn about socially responsible business in the classroom and on the road. Darden Professor Gregory Fairchild’s popular one-week

course “Entrepreneur as Change Agent” immerses students in the history and culture of New Orleans and teaches them how social ventures and entrepreneurship can help the city recover from the effects of the BP oil spill. Darden’s Tayloe Murphy Center and the Batten Institute sponsor the class.

Learning to Lead While Giving Back

As a “capstone” to their first year, Darden’s First Year Full-Time MBA students participated in a curriculum innovation that combined creative thinking and philanthropy. The new “Capstone Weeks” events marked the end of the students’ first 10 courses and required them to apply the skills they had learned thus far to help the area’s less fortunate. Thirty teams from across all five First Year sections competed to raise money for local Charlottesville charities through entrepreneurial ventures and sheer hard work. Students got practical in their efforts, shining shoes, baking cookies and washing cars to raise money for the Charlottesville Free Clinic, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children and Greer Elementary School.

The Capstone event’s tagline, “Learning to Lead While Giving Back,” could serve as a motto for the school. n

New Leadership for the Darden School Foundation TRIP DAVIS (MBA ’94) became president of the Darden School Foundation and senior associate dean for external relations in February.

Davis leads foundation administration, development, Executive Education, hospitality, corporate relations, alumni relations, marketing and communications.

Prior to joining Darden, Davis was co-founder and CEO of two travel technology companies, including TRX, Inc., a leader in travel data processing with 800 employees in the U.S., U.K., Germany and India. He served on the Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees, co-authored three Darden cases, and taught entrepreneurship, finance, operations and “Reading Seminars.” He was the co-faculty director of U.Va.’s McIntire School of Commerce Galant Center for Entrepreneurship, where he created the Entrepreneurship Track for fourthyear students.

“We are confident that in Trip we have found a dynamic executive who is skilled at managing complex organizations in a global world, and we are thrilled to have him on our team,” said Darden Dean Bob Bruner. n

Trip Davis (MBA ’94), president of the Darden School Foundation and senior associate dean for external relations, teaching the class “Entrepreneurs Taking Action” in April 2011.

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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News Briefs Batten Institute Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Are B-Schools Grasping Globalization?

Darden Dean Bob Bruner chairs a three-year study that reveals business schools can and should do more to accelerate and respond to the pace of globalization. With its new Global MBA for Executives program, Darden will lead the way. community and broader society.”

The number of business schools in the The report shares new approaches to world conferring bachelor’s or master’s curriculum design, faculty development degrees in management has grown to and the cultivation of strategic partner13,000. Yet less than 10 percent are acships. In recent years, business schools credited. have frantically arranged “tie-ups” with These data, coupled with the growing peer schools in other parts of the world to need for graduates with global competenput a stake in the ground cies and the increasing and grow bigger; yet not complexity and con“The imperative for all of these partnerships nectedness of higher education, command change is clear. We are at are meaningful.

As Bruner told The the attention of busia critical inflection point, Economist, “Bigger is not ness schools around the and now is the time for better. Better is better.” world. all business schools to Bruner explains that To find out more a truly global business about the globalization respond,” said Bruner. education must provide of management educaa broad and deep untion, the Association derstanding of the way to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) conducted a business is conducted around the world, which requires a mixture of classroom three-year study led by Darden Dean Bob teaching and time spent on the ground in Bruner, who was appointed chair of the other countries. task force.

To develop action-oriented, globally According to the report, today’s MBA programs don’t place enough emphasis on minded executives, Darden has launched its Global MBA for Executives program, globalization. which will send students to five global “The imperative for change is clear. financial centers — in India, China, Brazil, We are at a critical inflection point, and the European Union and the United States now is the time for all business schools — starting in August. to respond,” said Bruner. “Schools must To learn more about the AACSB report, develop approaches that will positively go to www.aacsb.edu. n impact globalization within the business 8 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

ANNI VE R S A RY

The Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation celebrated BATTEN INSTITUTE its 10th anniversary at the Darden School Foundation Trustees’ spring dinner. A plaque commemorating the creation of Darden’s i.Lab was presented to Frank Batten Jr. (MBA ’84) in honor of his family. The institute was established with a $60 million gift from U.Va. alumnus Frank Batten Sr., who sought to “challenge the Darden School to become a preeminent education and thought leader of entrepreneurship and innovation.” www.batteninstitute.org n

Darden’s New Greenhouse Adds ‘Homegrown’ Produce to the School’s World-Class Menu Darden serves more than 14,000 meals each year in the Abbott Center Dining Room and Café 67, and Financial Times ranked Darden Executive Education #1 in the world for food and accommodation in 2010. This spring, the school added locally grown vegetables and herbs to its daily menus. Darden has partnered with Appalachia Star Farm to build a new greenhouse at its farm in Nelson County, Va., that will deliver fresh, high-quality produce to the school’s kitchens each day.

Appalachia Star Farm is a family owned, sustainable farming system. “They take every measure to add nutrients to their soil through composting, rotating crops and crop cover,” said Tom Cervelloni, manager of food and beverage at Darden.

The result? Healthy food and outstanding flavor. n

Prof. Yiorgos Allayannis Recognized as a Master Teacher

by U.Va.’s Alumni Association “He starts by drawing you to the edge of your seat with a remarkably passionate and engaging teaching style,” says Second Year student Nathan DeLuke, “and then he keeps you there by driving you to make and defend specific, time-critical decisions rather than accepting easy generalizations.”

The exceptional teaching ability of Darden Professor Yiorgos Allayannis was recognized in April by U.Va.’s Alumni Association, which awarded him the 2011 Distinguished Professor Award.

The award acknowledges teachers who excel in the classroom, show unusual concern for students and make significant contributions to the life of the University.

Allayannis, who began his teaching career at Darden in 1996, teaches “First Year Finance,” “Valuation,” “Financial Institutions and Markets” and “Portfolio.”

He teaches Executive Education courses and will teach in the new Global MBA for Executives program. He is a four-time

Announcing a new publication to showcase the power of philanthropy at Darden.

In his finance courses, Darden Professor Yiorgos Allayannis draws students to the edge of their seats.

In recent years, five graduating classes have elected him Faculty Marshal.

recipient of Darden’s Outstanding Faculty Award and was elected Faculty Marshal by five graduating classes: 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2010.

Said Darden Second Year student

Akshay Mittal: “He is a wonderful teacher who realizes the needs of all the students. He will push you to think on your feet and move out of your comfort zone.” n

www.darden.virginia.edu

Summer 2011

Darden’s Philanthropic Priorities:

Student Fellowships & Financial Aid

Faculty Support & Infrastructure, Curriculum Experience & Development Technology

Annual Fund Giving & Unrestricted Funds

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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Knock, and the Door Will Open DEAN BOB BRUNER GOES BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL TO HELP 12TH GRADERS SELL THE NEW YORK TIMES CO. TO GOOGLE.

CHRISTINA FENG believes in her 12th graders. Too few do. They’re deterred by the school’s particulars. Sixty-five percent of its 595 students are poor, and 97 percent are minorities. Visitors are greeted by a metal detector and need an escort to walk the school’s hallways.

Yet Feng is undeterred. “My kids can totally do all the hard work,” she says.

The 24-year-old economics teacher, an alumna of Teach for America, found an ally to help her prove it: Darden Dean Bob Bruner. In an out-of-the-blue e-mail to the dean, Feng invited him to help her finish a difficult unit on mergers and acquisitions by teaching one of her classes. She had

They’re miles away from the business experience that most of Darden’s MBA students have.

But Bruner believes teaching is about engaging students rather than worrying about appearance or past experience.

“The most important thing is to teach students to ask good questions,” he explains. “What matters is the struggle.”

In that case, Feng’s kids may rank among his best pupils. In October, a city administrator told them that they couldn’t use M&A as part of a mock business project. The reason: They had too little experience with finance to learn about big deals.

Would it be possible to teach anything meaningful about M&A in a 90-minute class to 12th graders?

by James Erik Abels

assigned his book Deals from Hell: M&A Lessons that Rise Above the Ashes.

“What Matters Is the Struggle”

The High School of Arts and Technology is built atop a fortress-like slab of concrete on the corner of 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan.

It looks nothing like the neoclassical campus Thomas Jefferson designed for the University of Virginia. And Feng’s students average only 17 years of age.

10 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

But some of them heard another message: You’re not smart enough. “Half of them were really outraged — and half of them thought we couldn’t do it,” Feng recalls. She had found Bruner’s book at a local Barnes & Noble and thought its use of case studies was perfect for her students.

“Christina has a lot of energy for her students — indeed, she is a nuclear stockpile,” says Bruner. “I like the company of such people and don’t mind picking up some spare radiation.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTINA FENG

Dean Bruner with the 12th grade business and economics class of teacher Christina Feng (far right) at the High School of Arts and Technology in Manhattan.

The challenge was on, and Bruner was intrigued: Would it be possible to teach anything meaningful about M&A in a 90-minute class to 12th graders?

He suggested to Feng that they teach the class using the case study method, and he shared merger negotiation exercises with her. Meanwhile, Feng split her 27 students into three groups of buyers and sellers. Their goal: to structure a deal between Google and the New York Times Co. “With the death of print media, I thought that was fascinating,” she says.

The students couldn’t have had a more cutting-edge topic. Newspaper circulation and ad revenues have dropped at many metropolitan papers for years.

Newspapers such as The New York Times have responded by cutting products and staff. Meanwhile, young technology upstarts such as Google have quickly risen to prominence. Combining the two made for the perfect M&A debate for the class.

Midday Life Lessons in Manhattan

It’s now February 16, and Dean Bruner is standing at ease at the front of a thirdfloor classroom in the high school. It’s lunchtime, but the students aren’t antsy.

They are wearing name tags that Feng created, and they are listening carefully.

Bruner explains to the students that deals are frequently defined by the “human factor.” Loosely translated: They often come down to the story a deal team uses to rationalize its work. The idea

seems to resonate with the students. They know their fondness for Googling things is one of the main reasons newspapers such as The New York Times are imperiled.

They have no trouble inventing a story about why the search engine should buy the paper.

Bruner moves from group to group, asking the students to describe the negotiations and their results. Calling The New York Times a “trophy wife” for Google, Ahlaqanah Bell, a 17-year-old mock New York Times Co. representative, explains why he feels good about ending the paper’s independence for $20 a share.

In the end, all three teams sold the paper to the search company.

Bruner later says their work was grounded in the type of analysis that he would want any M&A student to consider, such as a careful look at price-to-earnings ratios. As the high schoolers describe how they reached their deals, the dean points out how messy and risky M&A can be.

Feng’s students know about risk. Many are preparing for life beyond high school right now. Sensing the big decisions they face, Bruner leans forward as the class ends to offer some advice: Finish high school. If possible, go to college. Climb as high as you can up the educational ladder.

He then delivers what may be one of his best lessons ever: “Be as audacious for yourself as you possibly can,” Bruner tells them. “There are people like me who really want to help.” n

“Teaching is like sending a letter with an imperfect address. You never know where or when the message will arrive.”

— C. Roland Christensen From Dean Bob Bruner’s blog posting “Letter With an Imperfect Address” Dear Dean Bruner, I’m a Teach for America alumna teaching high school business, economics and government to disadvantaged, at-risk 12th graders. I love what I do, and this year, to better facilitate my students’ understanding of the business world, I am having my students run a boutique mergers and acquisitions advisory firm. We are just in the beginning stages of our work, but we are getting very into it. I am writing to see if we could welcome you as a guest in our classroom. … I want to show my students that they deserve the attention of talented and successful people like yourself, and that they too can enter the world of finance, no matter what their own personal backgrounds may be. I look forward to your thoughts.

All the best, Christina Feng “Christina’s invitation grabbed my attention.

Helping disadvantaged kids finish high school has to be a national priority. Failure to get a diploma is a key predictor of adult poverty. I’ve done my share of criticizing K-12 education in the United States — so, I thought that this might be an opportunity to lend a hand and at least learn more.”

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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did you know?

1. Darden Faculty Ranked

No. 1 in the World — Again

In its 2011 survey of the world’s top 65 executive education programs, Financial Times named Darden’s open-enrollment programs #5 in the world — and Darden faculty #1 in the world for the seventh year in a row.

Darden Executive Education delivered one of its newest programs “Women Emerging in Leadership” in Dubai in May. The program, presented in collaboration with the Emirates Institute of Bank Banking and Financial Studies, responds to the development needs of rising female business leaders in the Middle East.

2. Darden Launches Concentrations

While remaining true to its focus of preparing the world’s best general managers, Darden has created formal concentrations within its Full-Time MBA program. The concentrations are divided into career tracks and theme tracks. Students may now choose two of the following: CAREER TRACKS: Asset Management/Sales & Trading Corporate Finance/Investment Banking Entrepreneurship Consumer Marketing Business-to-Business Marketing Supply Chain Management

THEME TRACKS: Corporate Innovation Business Development and Growth Market Analytics Sustainability

3.

Darden Students Globetrot This spring, Darden Full-Time MBA students traveled around the globe for two-week international Global Business Experiences. For the first time, current MBA for Executives students were invited to take part in these educational journeys to China, Brazil, Spain, Dubai, Argentina, Sweden and Israel.

Because of the turmoil in the Middle East, trips to Bahrain and Egypt were cancelled, but the Center for Global Initiatives, with the invaluable support of alumnus Nic Labuschagne (MBA ’89), was able to organize an alternative trip to Dubai, led by Professor Marc Modica. The Dubai trip concluded with a safari deep into the heart of the desert, across the rolling dunes of the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve.

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4.

Colley Moves to the Lawn In a year of unexpected accolades, Darden Professor John Colley was selected to live on U.Va.’s historic Lawn. In 2010, Colley became the first Darden Professor to receive the Thomas Jefferson Award — the highest award the University bestows on its faculty. Now, he has moved to one of the Lawn pavilions at U.Va., in the heart of Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village. “This has been a truly remarkable year for me,” says Colley, who resides in the upper apartment of Pavilion VIII. “I am greatly honored.”

5.

A+ in Career Services Financial Times ranked Darden’s Career Development Center fifth in the world in placements success in 2010, based on a survey of Class of 2007 alumni, who were asked to rank career development effectiveness in their job search. In addition, Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2010 full-time MBA rankings gave Darden Career Services an A+ ranking.

6. Communication

Lessons for the FBI

7.

A Techno Upgrade Over the past three years, Darden has upgraded the instructional technology in the school’s 18 classrooms, 16 learning team rooms and 10 conference rooms. The upgraded classrooms each have two projectors and a custom-designed teaching console with integrated controls and a document camera. The conference and learning team rooms have large, wall-mounted LCD monitors, on which content can be displayed from a notebook computer. In addition, Darden’s video production studio has been upgraded from an analog to a digital platform, and the new installation also includes a high-definition video conferencing system.

Darden Professor June West serves as faculty liaison to the FBI National Academy.

She is one of five U.Va. faculty liaisons to the academy’s academic units. West works with the law enforcement and communication fac faculty and provides assistance on course design, delivery and evaluation. The National Academy has been accredited through U.Va. since 1972 and is highly selective, admitting officers who are moving up in their organizations — approximately one out of every five active duty graduates heads an agency.

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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Faculty Spotlight Melissa Thomas-Hunt Winning at Tough Negotiations DARDEN PROFESSOR MELISSA THOMAS-HUNT learned the art of persuasion at her first job as an IBM sales representative. She grew up in New York City and studied chemical engineering at Princeton University, but it wasn’t until she followed her first boss and mentor around the trading floor of Chemical Bank that she realized just how important negotiations are to business. She also perceived that some of the toughest conversations in business take place not with clients, but within companies.

Her experience at IBM sparked her interest in group dynamics, and she set off to the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in organizational behavior and to find out what makes some people exceptional negotiators.

After serving as an assistant professor at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and a visiting professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, she joined the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell, where she was granted tenure in 2009. She joined the area of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at Darden in 2010. When she’s not teaching or researching, Thomas-Hunt can often be found cheering as her three children play soccer, lacrosse and tennis.

She even brought her own game from the colder climes of Ithaca: She has been known to don ice hockey gear and stand tall as goalie.

Favorite Book: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Favorite Movie: Dave (“I like the theme of ‘Do all you can with what you have.’”)

Favorite food and drink: Spicy food, especially East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine

PROFESSOR MELISSA THOMAS-HUNT warms up the conversation in her “Bargaining and Negotiating” class with a few “what ifs.” She sets the stage for a simple buyer-seller bargain and then a more complex, multi-issue strategic relationship. She lays the groundwork for winning a job negotiation. “I love teaching the class,” she says. “Darden Professor Sherwood Frey paved the way and created a valuable experience, and I’m building on it.”

As the students debate strategies, behavior and tactics, she watches carefully and, for the purpose of her research, examines group dynamics and what drives people to agree with a colleague or — conversely — to walk away from a deal.

“When you have a group of businesspeople around a table, I want to know why some individuals are more likely to contribute and influence than others,” she says. “I explore how a person’s status — whether title, tenure, visible characteristics, gender, race or ethnicity — impacts the conversation.”

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Is Expertise, Like Beauty, in the Eye of the Beholder?

Through her research, Thomas-Hunt has found that when groups of people come together, they tend to talk about what they all know — not what they don’t know. She also finds that two people in a meeting from the same area are less likely to share information.

“People are concerned about their relationships,” she explains.

To test status within groups, she sets up behavioral research experiments. She identifies a topic, invites participants to a meeting and then manipulates the perception of who’s who in the room. She then stands back and observes as the negotiations unfold.

For example, her research with Professor Katherine Phillips of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management focuses on the role of gender dynamics in the expression of expertise.

“We find that groups with female experts underperform groups with male experts,” she notes. “I want to unpack this and understand the phenomenon.”

The research shows that in many business contexts, females are not expected to be experts. Consequently, when they contribute an expert perspective that differs from that of others, they are assumed to be wrong and exert little influence on the group. Their expertise is not incorporated in the same way that male expertise is typically incorporated.

“Gender expectations do interfere with the expression, perception and use of expertise, harming both the experts and the groups that depend upon them,” declares Thomas-Hunt. “So, indeed, expertise does seem to lie in the eye of the beholder.”

BRAD Lab Thomas-Hunt’s research has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including Organization Science, The Journal of Applied Psychology and Management Science.

In March 2011, Thomas-Hunt coordinated the effort to launch Behavioral Research at Darden (BRAD), an interdisciplinary laboratory that will support data collection for behavioral research on business-related topics.

“The research laboratory will be a shared asset for all faculty and students engaged in behavioral research,” she says. “Our goal is to enhance faculty research productivity and to contribute to Darden’s reputation for excellence in academic research.”

Researchers affiliated with BRAD will use the lab to run studies in organizational behavior, marketing, business ethics,

Great Negotiators • Understand who is at the table and what they care about.

• Hold conversations with individual members before the full group meeting. This is even more important if they are “lower status” individuals. At the meeting, they are well prepared and bring information.

• Know that if they are solicited — if they are asked for their opinion — their stock will go up. In turn, the group will make a better decision.

• Have a healthy ego. If you perceive yourself as having a low status, you will get less respect.

• Are not bullies. Bullies may get good short-term outcomes, but they leave things on the table. Great negotiators engender trust and get the other side talking. Great deals come when each party understands the other’s interests.

judgment and decision making, behavioral operations and entrepreneurship.

“BRAD came to life when we sat down to create a participant pool — a list of individuals interested in participating in research — and found this incredible enthusiasm among Darden faculty and doctoral students that spanned almost all areas at Darden.

This collective effort was really exciting,” she says.

The BRAD Lab already has a participant pool of 2,000 undergraduate and MBA students.

Thomas-Hunt will use the lab to continue her research toward understanding group dynamics — with the goal of ensuring that all opinions are heard and weighed.

— Julie Daum

CARTOONSTOCK

“Behavioral Research at Darden came to life when we sat down to create a participant pool — a list of individuals interested in participating in research — and found this incredible enthusiasm among Darden faculty and doctoral students that spanned almost all areas at Darden.”

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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case in point: A WASHINGTON POST/DARDEN SERIES*

Should You Check Facebook Before Hiring?

More than half of employers cite provocative photographs on social media sites as the biggest factor in the decision not to hire.

By Darden Professor Bidhan “Bobby” Parmar

*Every other Sunday in The Washington Post’s Business section, Darden professors share lessons from recent cases.

Below: Prof. Bobby Parmar

THE BIG IDEA: Is it ethical to base a hiring decision on a job candidate’s Facebook page?

THE SCENARIO: Miranda Shaw, a manager at a leading consulting firm, is hiring for a senior analyst position. She has narrowed the field to two candidates, Robert Perkins and Deborah Jones, and must make her recommendation to the company’s human resources department immediately. Both candidates graduated from the same highly ranked business school that Shaw attended.

Both boast appropriate work backgrounds and shone in their interviews.

However, Perkins is first in line for the job because of his

16 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

leadership skills, reputation for tireless energy and great communication skills. Before making her final decision, Shaw decides to Google both candidates.

A Microsoft-sponsored survey from December 2009 found that 75 percent of U.S. recruiters and human resources professionals say their bosses require them to research job applicants online. Seventy percent report they have rejected candidates after such sleuthing.

Shaw’s initial search revealed that Perkins was involved in nonprofit work and had won community service awards. She was impressed. But then she landed on his friend’s Facebook page.

In July 2010, Facebook’s founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had just enrolled its 500 millionth member. If it were a country, Facebook would rank third in population — behind China and India.

Facebook’s users have shared 30 billion photographs.

“People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds but more openly and with more people,” Zuckerberg said. “And that social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”

On one Facebook page, Shaw found an album of pictures showing Perkins drinking, smoking cigarettes and — in his words — “smokin’ blunts” with college fraternity brothers.

The page belonged to Perkins’ friend, who had not enabled his privacy settings.

When Shaw Googled the other finalist, Jones, she found only work-related sites that listed Jones as an effective

project manager.

Perkins’ online photos caused Shaw to rethink her choice and to grapple with the slippery boundaries between public and private life.

THE RESOLUTION: Shaw concluded that Perkins would not fit in with the company’s professional work environment and her team. She could not waste time or money on hiring the wrong person. Yet she wondered whether she arrived at her decision fairly. After all, Perkins had not offered the information willingly, and he had set the appropriate privacy settings on his own Facebook page. Also, Shaw had not disclosed that she would conduct a background check online.

THE LESSON: Many people do not realize the extent to which their friends and associates could harm their online reputations. For example, friends who post and tag photos with their name and online identity on Facebook and elsewhere may have much more open privacy settings. Whatever is publicly accessible becomes public information, no matter who uploads it. It is more efficient for HR professionals to conduct online searches than to conduct reference checks, so this is a growing dilemma for companies.

Before posting information and photographs on Facebook, remember that in the virtual world, our houses are made of glass. Every piece of data is permanent and stored in a digital archive. More than half of employers cite provocative photographs as the biggest factor in the decision not to hire. n

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THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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what to read now BOOKS, CASES AND DARDEN IN THE MEDIA

Darden Business Publishing’s Top 10 Best-Selling Cases 1. “Nike, Inc.: Cost of Capital” by Robert F. Bruner, Sean Carr and Jessica Chan

REMEMBER: Darden alumni enjoy free access to the Darden Case Collection.

For more details, e-mail dardenalum@darden. virginia.edu.

2. “Diamond Chemicals PLC (A): The Merseyside Project” by Robert F. Bruner 3. “JetBlue Airways IPO Valuation”

by Michael J. Schill 4. “Methods of Valuation for Mergers and Acquisitions” by Susan Chaplinsky, Paul Doherty and Michael J. Schill 5. “Decision-Making and Leading Through Crisis” by Erika Hayes James and Gerry Yemen 6. “John Wolford (A)” by Jack Weber

Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers

By Darden Professor Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie, CEO of the innovation strategy consultancy Peer Insight “Design thinking” is a topic that recently burst onto the scene, accompanied by lofty promises but precious few practical details. The book Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers provides those details. Going beyond the basic theory and philosophy presented in recent books on the topic, it shows readers how to apply design thinking in a step-by-step way to DARDEN IN THE MEDIA solve complex growth challenges.

Reuters – 3/31/11 Darden Professor Ed Freeman comments The WSJ Guide to the 50 in the article “Buffett, and Replacing the Irreplaceable”: “No one has the same cachet Economic Indicators That as a legend, or else they would be legends Really Matter: From Big themselves.”

Macs to “Zombie Banks,” the Indicators Smart Investors Watch to Beat the Market

by Simon Constable (MBA ’97) and Robert E. Wright A guide, which quotes Darden Professor Peter Rodriguez, to the indicators most investors aren’t following — but should be.

Washington Post – 2/20/11

Darden Professor Ed Hess’s article “A Well-Run Company Can Weather a Storm” (written for the Darden/Washington Post series “Case in Point”) explains why companies should treat employees like partners.

Financial Times – 2/14/11

The article “MBA Students Start Taking the Tablets” describes the benefits of the iPad and how Darden, “the case-writing powerhouse,” is keeping up with technological trends.

Financial Times – 2/10/11

Darden Professor Frank Warnock, named “Professor of the Week,” defines key terms in his field of expertise: international capital flows, international portfolio allocation and financial sector development.

Poets & Quants – 2/9/11

Two Darden professors, Raj Venkatesan and Mike Lenox, make the list of “Top 40 Professors Under 40.”

18 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

7. “Ben & Jerry’s Homemade”

by Michael J. Schill 8. “Warren E. Buffett, 2005”

by Robert F. Bruner and Sean Carr 9. “The Body Shop International PLC 2001: An Introduction to Financial Modeling”

by Robert F. Bruner, Robert M. Conroy, J. Harvie Wilkinson Jr., Susan Shank and John Vaccaro 10. “What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?” by Saras Sarasvathy

Wall Street Journal – 2/7/11

Darden Professor Ron Wilcox warns that well-meaning employers should not meddle with retirement plans in “Your Employer Knows Best. Perhaps” about 401(k) plans.

Poets and Quants – 1/20/11

“How Darden Became Number 1 in Student Satisfaction” explains why Bloomberg Businessweek gave Darden the #1 rating in 2011, and shares insights from Darden Dean Bob Bruner, Senior Associate Dean for Degree Programs Robert Carraway and Professor Jeanne Liedtka.

China Business News Daily – 1/5/11

Darden Associate Dean for International Affairs Peter Rodriguez explains the effects of bribery in global business affairs in the piece “Government Should Be More Active in the Affairs of Anti-Business Bribery.”

MBA Channel (Germany) – 1/3/11

“Top Business Schools Revise Their Curricula” highlights recent curriculum enhancements to Darden’s First Year program.

sound bites To access videos, use your camera phone and a code reader to scan the following QR codes (short for Quick Response).

“If you understand your customer, you get it right more often than you get it wrong.”

— Glen Senk, CEO of Urban Outfitters, Inc., who spoke at Darden in February as part of the school’s ongoing Leadership Speaker Series. Urban Outfitters forms part of the URBN retail group, which also includes the brands Anthropologie, Free People, Leifsdottir and Terrain.

“If you root for the players and we win the injunction, we have football. If the owners win, we don’t! So which side are you on?”

— DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the National Football League (NFL) Players Association, who spoke at Darden in March as a Leadership Speaker about a possible lock-out for the fall NFL season

“Why, in the United States of America, should a child have to win a lottery to go to a good school?”

— Dr. Steve Perry, CNN Education Contributor, keynote speaker at the Black Business Student Forum conference “Education in the New Economy”

“The theme for 2011 is a tale of two economies. You have a rich world struggling with a jobless recovery, and an emerging world growing four times as fast.”

— Joseph Lake, editor and economist for The Economist Intelligence Unit, keynote speaker at the 2010 International University Consortium for Executive Education at Darden

“2010 tied for the hottest year on record. ... When the pot is boiling over, who in the world would turn the heat up?”

— Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, at “People + Planet = Profit,” a conference sponsored by Darden’s Net Impact and Energy Clubs

“So regardless of how much we may want to abandon fossil fuels and move to a lowcarbon, renewable energybased world, we must be realistic.”

— Thomas F. Farrell II, chairman, president and CEO of Dominion, Leadership Speaker at “People + Planet = Profit,” a conference sponsored by Darden’s Net Impact and Energy Clubs

“The problem with cholera is that if you don’t get treatment within 48 hours, you will die.”

— Carolyn Miles (MBA ’88), executive vice president and chief operating officer of Save the Children Federation, Inc., who explained to students what the organization is doing to assist Haitian families after a devastating earthquake in January 2010 caused 300,000 deaths in two minutes

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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20窶サHE DARDEN REPORT 窶｢ Spring/Summer 2011

Thinking Like an Effectual Entrepreneur Jump in, Limit Loss and Make Your Mark So you’re a risk taker, a gambler, a stubborn visionary who likes to do things in a big way. And you think those traits would make you a perfect entrepreneur. Think again.

by Carlos Santos

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

21

T

Darden Professor Sarasvathy has led the way for teaching the art of entrepreneurship to the ordinary person who has the extraordinary dream of building a business.

increasing their ability to create successful ventures.

The alternative to effectual thinking is causal thinking, which describes decision making that is based on careful calculations, heuristics rooted in prediction. The causal chef sticks closely to the recipe and calculates — in advance and to the teaspoon — how The best entrepreneurs don’t much of each ingredient to add to the pot and the exact moment the oven waste time predicting; they follow timer should ring. their instincts as the venture Yet the best entrepreneurs, says Sarasvathy, don’t waste time predictunfolds. They are masters at ing; they follow their instincts as the venture unfolds. They are masters at limiting the downside.

Grand Improvisation limiting the downside.

Sarasvathy likens entrepreneurs to “They’ll say, ‘I want to do this even Iron Chefs. When an idea for a new if it ends in failure, because it’s worth dish springs to mind, they gather the trying,’” she explains. “They’re good available ingredients and get to work, at driving the downside down to aladding a little bit of spice here, turning up the heat there. They most zero. It’s their way of dealing with potential failure. If you do ask their customers — the judges — to sample spoonfuls along the that, you don’t have to be brave. The worst that can happen is still way. And they listen, making adjustments to the recipe until they something you can live with.” have a popular, best-selling dish.

They are grand improvisers, says Sarasvathy, a foremost A Positive Return — No Matter What scholar on the cognitive basis of successful entrepreneurship.

She hatched her plan to learn what makes entrepreneurs tick Though entrepreneurs are often viewed as risk takers who will a decade ago as a Carnegie Mellon graduate student, under the gamble their personal possessions and their minds, her research guidance of her thesis advisor, Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon. shows the opposite is true.

For her project, she enrolled 27 founders of highly successful, Before they roll a die, entrepreneurs measure “affordable loss.” billion-dollar businesses. She asked them to think aloud as they Unlike the “causal” entrepreneur who will calculate up front how solved 10 typical problems every start-up faces. She turned on much money he or she needs to start a venture and invests time, her tape recorder, kept her own mouth tightly shut, and let each effort and energy in raising that money, the “effectual” entrepreexpert talk for two hours. neur tries to estimate the downside and weighs what he or she is What she learned from the business leaders — including T.J. willing to lose to start the venture.

Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor, Earl Bakken of Medtronic Affordable loss varies from entrepreneur to entrepreneur and and Dennis Bakke of AES — converged into a new concept she even across his or her life stages and circumstances. “To calculate calls “effectual reasoning.” The term “effectuation” refers to the affordable loss, we need to know our current financial condition logic, the decision-making principles that entrepreneurs use in and a psychological estimate of our commitment in terms of the uncertain situations. (And what situation is more uncertain than worst-case scenario,” Sarasvathy says. a start-up?)

Of course, windfalls, such as inheritances, change what entreBest of all, the principles, says Sarasvathy, are teachable. preneurs consider losable, as do credit cards, because credit cards Entrepreneurs can learn to think and act effectually, thereby weaken the coupling between decision and payment. The Home

hrough her pioneering work on entrepreneurship, Darden Professor Saras Sarasvathy has identified an entirely different kind of creature. She finds that successful entrepreneurs are not actually risk takers. They create products they never initially envisioned and are certainly not interested in gambling away their money — at least not all of it.

Entrepreneurs excel at limiting failure. They bet only what they can afford to lose. And that gives them the leeway to act rather than just dream.

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Depot was started with credit cards. Ross Perot founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962 with a credit card. (He later sold the company to General Motors.)

In 2005, as Darden students enrolled in Sarasvathy’s course “Starting New Ventures,” graduates Jim Zuffoletti (MBA ’05) and Otavio Freire (MBA ’05) founded the start-up OpenQ. The company’s subscription software and research provide life science companies with compliant access to formal and informal medical networks.

“Both Otavio and I funded the effort and then made subsequent investments. In each case, these were sized to be at the level of affordable loss,” Zuffoletti explains.

“I am married and have four children and maintain an agreement with my wife that I need to be able to start again if a business fails — that is, not have to declare bankruptcy. There was also a time element to things where neither Otavio nor I wanted to commit an unlimited period of time. If we had not signed customers on as fast as we did, we may very well have stopped working on OpenQ.”

Taking the Plunge The critical moment an entrepreneur decides to launch a company is known as the “plunge decision” or initial commitment. The “focal point” of the decision is usually the worst-case scenario.

As an example of an entrepreneur in action, Sarasvathy offers the story of Tom Fatjo, a 28-year-old accountant in Houston, Texas, who debated whether he should start his own trash-hauling business. His subdivision was having trouble getting its garbage collected, so Fatjo decided to borrow $7,000, buy a garbage truck and pick up the trash himself. Starting at 4 a.m., he would collect garbage for two hours before going to his full-time job as a white-collar accountant.

Fatjo wanted to take that entrepreneurial plunge but sweated about the worst that could happen. He had nightmares that his garbage trucks would break down.

“I wanted to quit and run away. I was scared to death, very lonely, sick of the whole deal,” he wrote in his autobiography, With No Fear of Failure: Recapturing Your Dreams Through Creative Enterprise. Fatjo went on to found what would become BrowningFerris Industries, the first waste hauler ever listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In terms of money, Fatjo risked only $7,000. “If you can get the deal done with close to zero resources invested, you literally have nothing to lose,” says Sarasvathy.

“On the one hand, this allows you to fail and experiment and learn along the way.

And on the other hand, when you do succeed, it appears like a sure thing — after the fact.”

Entrepreneurship is not about risk, she says. It’s about responsibility and a belief in human potential. “The truth is each of us has a unique viewpoint and a unique set of resources that no one else has. We can all be visionaries in that sense. But unlike most of us, entrepreneurs actually act on these to create value for themselves and those who are willing to co-create.”

Fatjo kept driving the garbage truck, found the strength to believe in his vision and hired people who would help him create it. Yet once he pulled off the deal, he — like all entrepreneurs — had to wake up day after day and deliver on the operational details that would ultimately create the bottom line.

Says Sarasvathy, “Experienced entrepreneurs will tell you that what keeps them awake at night is not the risk, it’s next week’s payroll.”

A Global Groundswell of Support What keeps Sarasvathy awake at night is helping would-be entrepreneurs launch their businesses.

“Sarasvathy gets up at 4 a.m. and goes to bed at midnight knowing that if we change the way we think of entrepreneurs and how to do start-ups, everyone is better off,” says entrepreneur Chip Ransler (MBA ’09). “We have to get over the hump of people thinking they can’t be entrepreneurs — that they have to be a special type of person to be one.”

Ransler co-founded Husk Power Systems (HPS) with Darden classmate Manoj Sinha (MBA ’09); they shaped the company in the Darden Business Incubator. HPS is now leading a revolution in electricity by converting discarded rice husks into power to illuminate rural villages in Bihar, India — lighting 30,000 households so far

The Do’s and Don’ts of Entrepreneurship The business builders — the entrepreneurs in the trenches — have looked uncertainty in the eye. They know from experience what it means to plunge into the rough and tumble of the business world with a new idea. Here are a few tips from expert entrepreneurs: JIM ZUFFOLETTI (MBA ’05), co-founder of FreeMarkets and OpenQ: • “I believe anyone can be an entrepreneur, but that experience, however it’s gained, is valuable. I think it helps to be optimistic and creative, stubborn, yet stubbornly flexible. You need to be able to tune out others, but you also need to know when it’s time to dash for an opening in the market (acting effectually) when you see it.”

• “No matter how much urgency you feel, act faster and be more decisive. Speed is an entrepreneur’s advantage, and I’ve not always exploited that. I’m also a big believer in entrepreneurship as a partner experience. My business is not my business, it’s our business, meaning jointly owned by me and my co-founder who originated the idea for OpenQ. Having a person to collaborate with as you build your ‘patchwork quilt’ or plan for ‘affordable loss’ is vital, in my opinion.”

CHIP RANSLER (MBA ’09), co-founder of Topik Solutions and Husk Power Systems: • “Start with who you are and what you know and what you’re good at already. Be prepared to embrace failure. Get ready to fail. It’s a wonderful learning tool if done correctly.”

• As for your start-up, don’t hesitate to pull the plug if it’s not working. “Kill them young,’’ says Ransler.

“Kill them cheap. Spend as little as possible.”

Ransler co-founded the software firm Topik Solutions right out of college and let it limp along for five years. “I’d have two to three years of my life back if I had known about effectuation.”

• “Sail with other people. You’re diversifying yourself when you do that. You’re not the only one everybody has to rely on.”

TRIP DAVIS (MBA ’94), co-founder of Green Room Productions and TRX: • “Be in it for the passion, not the money. If you’re in it for the passion, the rest will follow.”

• “Seek out advice. Asking for help is a sign of strength not a sign of weakness.”

• Finally, he says, take your imperfect idea and jump in. “By all means avoid that one year of perfect, pristine planning. Get into the market quickly and be ready to iterate. Don’t try to be perfect from the beginning.”

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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Myths on entrepreneurs from Sarasvathy’s book Effectual Entrepreneurship MYTH: ENTREPRENEURS ARE VISIONARY. FACT: Many firms we admire started out doing nothing close to what they do today. Opportunities were made over time and through interactions with customers, partners and employees. Tiffany & Co. started as a provider of stationery, not jewelry.

MYTH: BUT I DON’T HAVE A GOOD IDEA. FACT: Good ideas are cheap and plentiful. It’s what you do with them that matters.

MYTH: ENTREPRENEURS ARE RISK TAKERS. FACT: Research shows entrepreneurs are more conservative than even bankers.

MYTH: I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY. FACT: Starting with little money is so challenging it generates strong new ventures. Dell Computer launched in 1984 with $1,000.

“Sarasvathy’s strategies and approaches are not ivory tower; they are company ground floor,”

MYTH: ENTREPRENEURS ARE EXTRAORDINARY FORECASTERS. FACT: In uncertain new ventures, prediction is irrelevant.

says Jim Zuffoletti, left, who co-founded with Darden classmate Otavio Freire (both MBA ’05), right, the start-up Open Q, which provides life science companies with compliant access to formal and informal medical networks.

MYTH: ENTREPRENEURS ARE NOT LIKE THE REST OF US. FACT: Entrepreneurs have simply developed expertise in making opportunities in uncertain environments.

— with plans to expand into Nepal, Southeast Asia and eventually Kenya and Nigeria.

Sarasvathy aims to help entrepreneurs limit their fear of failure and to spur action. Her research findings and her concept of effectuation have received a groundswell of support from entrepreneurs around the world — from Brazil to Turkey to Holland — who have reached out to her wanting to learn more. Her seminal article, “What Makes an Entrepreneur Entrepreneurial?,” spawned a whole new branch of entrepreneurship research, and Inc. magazine featured her findings in its February 2011 issue.

“I do believe she is on to the fundamental elements of the entrepreneurial journey,” says Trip Davis (MBA ’94), who co-founded two businesses in the travel industry sector: Green Room Productions and TRX. “The research she has done and the framing of those concepts as effectual has been groundbreaking and illuminating.” In February, Davis became president of the Darden School Foundation and senior associate dean for external relations.

Davis says Sarasvathy’s findings “make some feel uncomfortable. She has no recipe for a successful entrepreneur. There is no, ‘if you do this, this will happen.’ There is no 20-step process.”

But business school and all the skills it teaches are still crucial, Davis says. “Couple the use of the toolbox you get from business school with effectual reasoning, and you’re really dangerous.”

Sarasvathy teaches courses in entrepreneurship and ethics in Darden’s MBA program and “Leading Organic Growth” in the school’s Executive Education program.

“I could write a book on what not to do, and half of it would be covered by effectuation,” says Ransler.

In conjunction with Darden’s Batten Institute, Sarasvathy recently launched, with the support of Ransler and Darden alumnus and entrepreneur Ian Ayers (MBA ’09), the Society for Effectual 24 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

Action and its popular online community effectuation.org.

The community offers articles related to effectuation, a directory of researchers around the world, forums for commenting on questions in the field of entrepreneurship, resources for young scholars, event listings and a trove of materials for educators, including teaching notes, case studies and other tools for bringing effectuation into the classroom.

Four Guiding Principles for Entrepreneurs “There is a science to entrepreneurship — a common logic we have observed in expert entrepreneurs across industries, geographies and time,” says Sarasvathy, who also co-authored the book Effectual Entrepreneurship. Using that science, she has led the way in teaching the art of entrepreneurship to the ordinary person who has the extraordinary dream of building a business.

“There’s a certain amount of instinct, but you can train yourself to be an entrepreneur,” she claims.

To help someone think like an effectual entrepreneur, Sarasvathy teaches four core principles: set affordable loss, embrace surprises that arise from uncertain situations, form partnerships and start with your means.

Starting with your means also means just plain starting. At some point, you have to stop thinking and planning and start doing, she says. Just like the Iron Chef. Gather your ingredients. Put on your apron. Go to work. And start asking your customers what they want.

Says Zuffoletti, “Sarasvathy’s strategies and approaches are not ivory tower; they are company ground floor.” n Carlos Santos, an award-winning reporter, wrote for The Richmond Times Dispatch for 30 years and now writes from Charlottesville.

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THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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Charting an East/West Passage

by James Erik Abels

Professor Ming-Jer Chen maps a new route to connect managers in the East and West

I

n both the East and the West, it was hard to believe the story.

At a factory in Shenzen, China, at least 14 workers killed themselves in 2010. The factory, owned by Foxconn, produces iPads and iPhones for Apple and computers for Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

By most accounts, the manufacturers’ unrelenting production demands had triggered the spate of suicides.

So, who’s responsible? The Western companies, who rely increasingly on Eastern contractors to produce their products for low wages and low prices? Or the Eastern manufacturer, whose plant managers and workers face incredible pressure to meet ambitious deadlines?

26 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

Darden Professor Ming-Jer Chen is vice president and program chair of the Academy of Management.

He will assume presidency of the 19,000-member organization in 2012 and is the first U.Va. professor to be elected as an Academy Fellow for his significant contributions to the science and practice of management.

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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Charting an East/West Passage

In his strategic management course “Strategic Thinking: Integrating East and West” this past spring, Darden School of Business Professor Ming-Jer Chen asked his students to opine on the issue.

“Chinese managers are shifting to the Western culture of produce, produce, produce,” said Kristyn Kelly of the Class of 2011.

“It’s the sort of hyper-productivity that only works if people are ready, willing and able to say ‘no.’” But Kelly says many Asians — long accustomed to rigid hierarchies — simply won’t say no.

This time, the cultural clash appeared to have contributed to the tragedy.

The Foxconn case spotlights the challenges Eastern and Western managers face as they blend their businesses.

And Chen is the perfect person to steer the conversation.

A New Discipline

The topic’s timing may be just right. “The United States still has the best business system, but the system has also shown its vulnerability,” explains Chen.

In 2008, a period of financial chicanery abruptly ended when the bubble it created in the U.S. housing market popped. Many still feel the effects of the recession that followed its explosion.

“Because the economies in the West are soft, there are Westerners moving here,” says Darden alumnus Peabody Hutton (MBA/JD ’77), general counsel of Ajia Partners, a Hong Kong investment firm. Hutton says that for American Asians to set up shop on Eastern shores is not uncommon.

That’s one reason Chen thinks the market is ready to formally expand its horizons.

He may be right. Harvard’s Rivkin leads the academy committee that decides which sessions to feature during the annual meeting’s full-day “All-Academy Theme” program. Proposals have ranged from whether Asian business schools should follow a Western model to yoga’s impact on an organization’s effectiveness.

The variety of the proposed topics suggests that people may be ready for new ideas. “For a long time, there was an assumption that Western management was good management,” Rivkin says.

That may be changing, but can still be a hard sell.

Each culture has its strengths and weaknesses when they’re applied to business practices. Combining the best parts of each approach is

Chen’s work and life focus on balance. He grew up in Taitung on the southeast coast of Taiwan. As a youth, he studied philosophy and the Chinese classics with a cousin of Puyi, “The Last Emperor” of China. In 1981, Chen emigrated to the United States with a visionary quest: to “make the world smaller.”

Before joining the Darden faculty in 2001, he was a professor at Columbia Business School and was founding director of the Global Chinese Business Initiative at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Chen focuses on ways to help managers combine the cultures, to narrow the East-West divide. “I very much consider myself an academic entrepreneur,” says Chen. And he’s a rather bold one.

This summer, the management professor will blaze a new trail.

As vice president and program chair of the Academy of Management, Chen — who will assume presidency of the group in 2012 — at this year’s annual conference intends to ask business scholars from around the world to study Eastern and Western management techniques. His goal: find ways to characterize and quantify their differences so executives can incorporate the best — and avoid the worst — of each.

“Ming-Jer has put his finger on a very important question,” says Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner professor and chair of Harvard Business School’s strategy unit. “Can a superior model of management emerge from combining the best of both worlds?”

The academy conference should help Chen and his colleagues around the globe find an answer. In August, the meeting will host more than 11,000 of the organization’s 19,000 members. Among its ranks, the 75-year-old group counts some of the world’s top scholars. For five days, they’ll meet in San Antonio, Texas, to discuss the theme “West Meets East: Enlightening, Balancing and Transcending.”

ambicultural.

28 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

Defining the Eastern Paradox Easterners and Westerners think differently.

The Foxconn suicides were a somber reminder of that. Yet these differences are often expressed more subtly than through questions about workers’ rights.

“Business [here] tends to be conducted less on the basis of merit and price than on the basis of relationships,” says Ajia’s Hutton. The results can be unpredictable.

To help explain the cultural nuances, Chen has lately been publishing about an idea he calls “transparadox.”

It’s designed to offer Westerners a new way to think about ideas that appear to contradict each other but which may be two sides of the same coin. In essence, transparadox proposes that notions that appear to be oppositional — such as competition and cooperation — are interrelated or even interdependent, connected by a series of implicit links. Chen seeks to bridge a fundamental philosophical difference between the way Easterners and Westerners regard paradox. “By making these links explicit,” says Chen, “we can enhance a mutual understanding that differences are not irreconcilable.”

“The Chinese are used to ambiguity,” says Hutton. Chen says there are plenty of reasons for Westerners to get used to it, and

Traditionally, finances were managed at a corporation’s Western headquarters, says Leslie Grayson, right, professor emeritus of international business at Darden for whom Chen’s academic chair is named. Today, funds may move between foreign territories without passing through the West.

money is a big one.

Traditionally, a corporation’s finances were managed at its Western headquarters, says Leslie Grayson, professor emeritus of international business at Darden for whom Chen’s academic chair is named. Today, funds may move between foreign territories without passing through the West.

As a result, Easterners and Westerners have good reason to adapt to one another.

“If you don’t learn, there’s a penalty,” says Grayson. “You fail.”

Measuring Ambiculturality Given their philosophical differences, how do Easterners and Westerners successfully combine their management strategies?

The answer could become one of Chen’s biggest hits. Last November, he publicly coined a term that may ultimately define not only this summer’s academy conference but also the study of Eastern and Western management as a whole: ambicultural.

It reads like intellectual popcorn. Say it aloud and ideas like ambidexterity and cultural sensitivity come easily to mind. “The basic premise is that each culture in society has its own strengths and weaknesses when they’re applied to business practices,” Chen explains. Combining the best parts of each approach is ambicultural.

But this involves a trick. Strengths cannot be combined and weaknesses avoided until they’ve been defined. So the professor is creating a survey to be sent to Eastern and Western managers later this year that he thinks will do just that.

For instance, the survey may ask executives to rate the importance they place on personal connections, and to numerically prioritize their interest in employees, stakeholders and society.

“I think there will be many different ways we can quantify the variables that can reveal how ambicultural a company is,” Chen says. Already, he hopes to create a scale for companies to rate their use of cross-cultural management strategies.

This wouldn’t be the first time Chen has developed a way to quantify the seemingly unquantifiable. In the mid-1980s, he spent months analyzing a database of airline industry events that were covered by the trade newspaper Aviation Daily. Thousands of articles were scored against variables, such as “event visibility” or “response announcement speed,” that Chen helped pioneer as a way to study airline competition over an eight-year period.

The database made the competitive patterns that businesses fall into clear enough to study — and often, to predict.

The result: A popular new area of strategic theory named competitive dynamics emerged over the past 25 years in the management field and continues to thrive today. Competitive dynamics is the analysis of competition at the action and response level to predict how a firm will act or react toward opponents.

An Eastern or Western Face?

All the signs suggest “ambicultural” will be as big a hit.

The concept is not even a year old, yet management experts are already starting to buzz about it.

In March, an Asian edition of the Harvard Business Review translated the word into Chinese. Now, the editors of the U.S. edition are talking to Chen about producing their own story on it.

And next year, many business students will study the term in the new edition of a well-known textbook on strategic management.

The word’s surging popularity isn’t surprising. People are hungry for ways to sail between the East and West more easily.

“Right now, what we need to do is to compare management systems from one country [against those of] another country,” says Grayson.

The hard part is doing that without judging the results harshly. Consider job interviews. Grayson says that rather than just examining competence, Asian companies focus on learning “who” they are considering hiring. This may entail asking questions some Western countries deem illegal, such as whether the candidate is married or plans on having children.

Chen’s ideas can’t solve legal problems like those, but they may help managers bridge the cultural chasm underlying them.

Still, it’s a big task — certainly too big for one man to perform alone, and the strategy expert has no intention of trying to do so single-handedly. Rather, his plan is to work through the Academy of Management to expose his colleagues to a framework they can use to study it on their own. The approach already seems to be working.

Darden student Kelly — who worked for the U.S. Navy before coming to Darden and studying Foxconn with Chen — says he opened her eyes to the East.

“We’re still viewing China through a Western lens,” she says.

“We’re not viewing the Chinese as partners.” n James Erik Abels is a writer based in New York City. A former media reporter for Forbes, he has also written for Slate’s The Big Money, Corporate Counsel, and Pearson’s mergermarket news wire. He anchors stories about digital media at his site, TMMnews.com.

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

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DARDEN REUNION WEEKEND 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006,

2011

DARDen Reunion First Year Reunion, MBA for Executives, The AbbottWeekenD Society

April 29–May 1 • 2011

More photos at www.flickr.com/photos/darden-uva

Saturday night dinner and dancing

30 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

Abbott Society Induction, the Abbott Award and the Dean’s “State of the School” Address

Field Day and Barbeque

THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

31

DARDEN REUNION WEEKEND (CONTINUED)

Darden Alumnus John Macfarlane Receives Charles C. Abbott Award After receiving the Charles C. Abbott Award, the highest honor the Darden Alumni Association bestows on members of its alumni, at the “State of the School” event on Saturday, April 30, John G. Macfarlane III (MBA ’79) described the moment as “humbling and energizing.”

Each year, during Reunion Weekend, Darden’s Alumni Association presents the Abbott Award to a graduate of Darden’s MBA or MBA for Executives program who has generously given his or her time, energy, resources and talent to the school.

“The decision to give John this award is a logical one,” said Darden Dean Bob Bruner. Macfarlane has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Darden School Foundation for

more than 10 years and served as its chair. He has been instrumental in leading Darden’s fundraising efforts and in building support for the new Center for Asset Management and orchestrating the annual University of Virginia Investing Conference, which will take place November 10–11, 2011. Macfarlane is helping Darden forge new paths in the field of finance.

“Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, said, ‘Whatever you are, be a good one,’” said Bruner. “We’ve got a good one in John Macfarlane.”

Macfarlane is vice chairman of Tudor Investment Corporation in Greenwich, Conn. He is also board chairman of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company.

John Macfarlane

Darden Alumni Career Services Named for Beverley “Booty” W. Armstrong During Alumni Weekend 2011, the Armstrong Center for Alumni Career Services (ACS) held a naming dedication ceremony at which a plaque revealed the name of the center’s most ardent supporter, Beverley “Booty” W. Armstrong (MBA ’66). With pride and admiration, Herb Crowder (MBA ’66), former director of ACS, shared what led Armstrong to advocate for, and partially endow, alumni career services at Darden.

“Booty and I are classmates and we’ve known each other for many years. So when he wanted to offer something new and first approached me about potentially doing this, I

thought the idea was fantastic,” says Crowder. “I had been involved in banking through a lot of cycles, and I knew there was a terrific need to help others who had been through the same periods of stress that I had been through.”

MBA graduates often change jobs many times during the course of their careers. In addition to job market challenges, technology has changed the way employers connect with job seekers. Connie English, director of ACS, helps Darden alumni determine their best job matches.

“These days employers tend not to ‘push out’ information about job opportunities,” English says. “They use referrals and websites such as LinkedIn to ‘pull in’ the people they think will be right for the position.”

With ACS, it’s not just about finding a job; it’s about finding a mutually beneficial opportunity that fits both the individual and the employer. Thanks to Armstrong’s commitment to ACS, experts stand ready to help Darden graduates manage their lifelong professional goals. www.darden.virginia.edu/acs

The staff of Alumni Career Services at the dedication of the center.

From left: Associate Director Marty Speight (MBA ’96), former Director Herb Crowder (MBA ’66), Director Connie English (MBA ’91) and Dean Bob Bruner.

32 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

IN MEMORIAM Class of 1958: Roald W. Hertzwig Class of 1959: Johnson Crawford Jr. Class of 1960: Owen B. Pickett Class of 1963: Lawrence M. Raines Jr. Class of 1972: Robert J. Edgreen Class of 1973: Roy Mitchell Class of 1977: George J. Stradtner Jr. Class of 1983: Roy A. Lilley Class of 1987: Sean M. O’Connell

ALUMNI NEWS

Broadening the Portfolio

W

ith the leadership of Dean Bob Bruner, we have changed the game around alumni engagement. Our goal is simple: to create a broad portfolio of offerings for our alumni. Our goal has always been to learn about our alumni’s unique interests and to create a mutually beneficial engagement experience.

As we saw in April, Reunion is the flagship venue for bringing alumni together. However, the reasons for returning to Charlottesville are numerous and competing. That said, we are driven to do more as we consider your interests and feedback. We have accomplished the following: • Emphasized international travel and connections for our faculty, with 20 professors having traveled to 27 international venues since March 2010.

• Planned a two-way, audio-video case discussion for alumni and students “in” the Darden classroom.

• Utilized our alumni base to help secure top talent through admissions events, including 8 yield events and 13 GEMBA events, engaging 90 alumni in the former and 62 alumni in the latter.

• Connected students with alumni for job opportunities through Job Treks. In the 14 domestic treks, 87 alumni participated, and

in the 4 international treks, 18 alumni participated.

• Supported conferences on Darden Grounds, including Finance, Black Business Student Forum, National Association of Women MBAs at Darden and others.

• Collaborated with the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Armstrong Center for Alumni Career Services to create the Darden Entrepreneur Alumni Network, intended to promote engagement through lifelong learning, networking, mentoring and events.

• Facilitated lifelong learning events that included travel to five locations (four domestic and one international) for four Battensponsored faculty members to lead case discussions and meet with media representatives.

The bottom line is we must continue to innovate around the area of alumni engagement. Learning is a lifetime endeavor, and giving back is what sets our alumni base apart. When we work together, Darden wins.

Do share your thoughts. We are always interested. Momentum is special, and we have a strong wind at our backs.

Cheers, Michael Woodfolk, Vice President of Alumni Relations woodfolkm@darden.virginia.edu

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Information Center ALUMNI WEBSITE http://alumportal.darden.virginia.edu Locate former classmates, catch up on chapter events or update personal information. If you need your username or have password questions, please contact: Alumni Relations, dardenalum@darden. virginia.edu or call +1-800-DARDEN3.

ALUMNI CAREER SERVICES www.darden.virginia.edu/acs The Armstrong Center for Alumni Career Services (ACS) office can assist you in managing your career and making transitions. E-mail AlumniCareerServices@darden.virginia.edu. or call +1-434-924-4876.

Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees CHAIRMAN Henry F. Skelsey (MBA ’84) PRC Venture Partners, LLC VICE CHAIRMAN Peter D. Kiernan (MBA ’79) Kiernan Ventures Thomas J. Baltimore Jr. (MBA ’91) RLJ Development, LLC W.L. Lyons Brown III (MBA ’87) Altamar Brands, LLC Robert F. Bruner, Dean, University of Virginia Darden School of Business G. David Cheek (MBA ’79) The Meridian Group James Su-Ting Cheng (MBA ’87) CH3

FULL-TIME MBA www.darden.virginia.edu/admissions For information about Darden’s Full-Time MBA program and admissions process, e-mail darden@virginia.edu or call +1-800-UVA-MBA1.

Michael A. DeCola (MBA ’77) Mississippi Lime Company

GLOBAL MBA FOR EXECUTIVES www.darden.virginia.edu/GEMBA For information about Darden’s new Global MBA for Executives Program, e-mail GEMBA@darden.virginia.edu or call +1-434-243-3622.

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION www.darden.virginia.edu/exed Develop your executives and grow your business through Darden Executive Education. For information, e-mail darden_exed@darden. virginia.edu or call +1-434-924-3000.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTER Interested in recruiting MBA students at Darden? Contact the Career Development Center at +1-434-924-7283 or e-mail careerdevelopment@darden.virginia.edu to schedule a company briefing or student interviews. Or visit us at the “Recruiters & Companies” link at www.darden.virginia.edu.

DARDEN MERCHANDISE To order Darden merchandise, contact the Darden Exchange Bookstore at dx@darden.virginia.edu. +1-434-243-5515.

DARDEN BUSINESS PUBLISHING www.dardenpublishing.com Representing a broad range of industries and companies, Darden Business Publishing provides faculty instructors, corporate trainers and individuals with an extensive selection of case-based educational tools for business. For information about Darden alumni access to the case collection or to purchase materials, call +1-800-246-3367.

34 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

John G. Macfarlane III (MBA ’79) Tudor Investment Corporation Carolyn S. Miles (MBA ’88) Save the Children

GIVE TO DARDEN www.darden.virginia.edu/givenow To make a gift to Darden or to receive information about planned giving, visit our website, or contact the Development Office at development@darden.virginia.edu or call +1-800-DARDEN3.

MBA FOR EXECUTIVES www.darden.virginia.edu/MBAexec For information about Darden’s MBA for Executives Program, e-mail MBAExec@darden.virginia.edu or call +1-434-243-3622.

Philip W. Knisely (MBA ’78) Clayton, Dubilier & Rice

VN Dalmia (MBA ’84) Dalmia Continental Pvt. Ltd. Trip Davis (MBA ’94) President, Darden School Foundation, Senior Associate Dean for External Relations

Kenneth M. Eades (Faculty) Professor of Business Administration Louis G. Elson (MBA ’90) Palamon Capital Partners, LLP John M. Farrell Jr. (MBA ’80) The Coca-Cola Company Jennifer McEnery Finn (MBA ’00) Capital One Financial Donald W. Goodman (MBA ’84) The Walt Disney Company Robert J. Hugin (MBA ’85) Celgene Corporation Martina Hund-Mejean (MBA ’88) MasterCard Worldwide William I. Huyett (MBA ’82) McKinsey & Company

Marshall N. Morton (MBA ’72) Media General Inc. Honorable Lewis F. Payne McGuireWoods Consulting, LLC Harry T. Rein (MBA ’73) Foundation Medical Partners Mark A. Riser (MBA ’94) Morningside Peter L. Rodriguez (Faculty) Associate Dean for International Affairs and Director, Darden Center for Global Initiatives Walter E. Shill III (MBA ’86) Accenture Bryan H. Simms (MBA ’94) Lazard Wealth Management, LLC E. Follin Smith (MBA ’85) Constellation Energy Group (Retired) John R. Strangfeld Jr. (MBA ’77) Prudential Financial, Inc. Teresa A. Sullivan President, University of Virginia Warren M. Thompson (MBA ’83) Thompson Hospitality James W. Todd (MBA ’64) JWT, Inc. Roger L. Werner Jr. (MBA ’77) Outdoor Channel Holdings, Inc. Elizabeth K. Weymouth (MBA ’94) Riverstone Holdings, LLC Vanessa A. Wittman (MBA ’93) Marsh & McLennan Company

Board of Directors for the Alumni Association CHAIR Mark A. Riser (MBA ’94) Morningside Private Investors PRESIDENT Jennifer McEnery Finn (MBA ’00) Capital One Financial Services George Allayannis Faculty Adviser Mark Danzenbaker (MBA ’08) GridPoint Christian Duffus (MBA ’00) Spectrum Bridge, Inc. Karen K. Edwards (MBA ’84) Kosiba Edwards Associates Warren F. Estey (MBA ’98) Deutsche Bank Securities Michael Ganey (MBA ’77) Howard, Merrell & Partners Kirsti W. Goodwin (MBA ’02) Aashish Goswami (Class of 2011) Student Representative Gordon Grand III (MBA ’75) Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc. Owen D. Griffin, Jr. (MBA ’99) MinorityMBAS.com Louis K. Gump (MBA ’97) CNN Ray R. Hernandez (MBA ’08) Bank of America Lisa O. Jones (MBA ’85) Pavilion Properties

Harry N. Lewis (MBA ’57) Nicole McKinney Lindsay (MBA/JD ’00) New York Needs You Michael K. Ling (MBA ’06) iCrossing Richard K. Loh (MBA ’96) Ploh Group Pte. Ltd. Elizabeth H. Lynch (MBA ’84) EHLynch Consulting Dar Maanavi (MBA/JD ’94) Signal Equity Partners Jay McDonald (MBA ’71) Middleton McDonald Group, Inc. Jeanne L. Mockard (MBA ’90) Douglas T. Moore (MBA ’80) Principal First Street Consulting, LLC L. Paul Nelson II (MBA ’77) OFIC North America, Inc. Chrissa Pagitsas (MBA ’09) Fannie Mae Jerry Peng (MBA ’03) Goldman Sachs Kari E. Pitkin (MBA ’97) Bank of America Merrill Lynch Elvis Rodriguez (MBA ’10) Barclays Capital Abby A. Ruiz de Gamboa (MBA ’04) Deloitte Consulting Shelley Reese Sawyer (MBA ’08) Booz Allen Hamilton

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20 Questions: George Tahija (MBA ’86) GEORGE TAHIJA is not afraid of an uphill climb.

In the past five years, he has summited Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, Indonesia’s Carsten’s Pyramid and Russia’s Mount Elbrus.

At work, he faces new terrain each day in his role as president director of PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya (ANJ) and CEO of the Austindo Group, an Indonesian holding company wholly owned by the Tahija family. ANJ invests in natural resources, including food and energy, and in the financial and medical services sectors.

Tahija guides the company through the ever-changing national and global environment, developing the group’s culture, values, governance, businesses and commitments to social responsibility.

In 2005, he wrote the book A Walk in the Clouds, a travel documentary which describes his trek through the rich landscape of Papua, the largest province of Indonesia which comprises most of the western half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands, and his encounters with indigenous Papuans along the way. A year later, he published a book of photographs called Land of Water, Vol. I: From Bali to Komodo, which depicts the exotic landscapes, people and natural wonders of Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago.

Tahija holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Trisakti University of Indonesia. He graduated from Darden’s Full-Time MBA program in 1986. He is chairman of the Plenary Committee of the Trisakti University Foundation and a founding member of PSKD Mandiri School of Jakarta. He is a member of The Nature Conservancy’s Indonesia Chapter Advisory Board, the Board of Trustees of the Asia Business Council, the Young President’s Organization Indonesia Chapter and the Darden School’s Global Advisory Council.

What was your first job?

As a kid, returning used bottles to a convenience store.

How do you stay ahead of the competition?

Constant tinkering.

What’s the best advice you have ever received?

From my father, more money in than out.

What characteristics do you look for in people?

Humble, smart, communicator, ethics.

How did Darden get you ready for your career?

Giving me skills and self-confidence.

Which Darden professor influenced you the most?

In class: Alec Horniman in his “Organizational Behavior” course.

Out of class: Les Grayson.

Who’s your favorite action hero?

Clint Eastwood in a Western.

What is your most marked characteristic?

Listener/observer.

What’s the best thing that has happened to you in the last year?

Learning to surrender without giving up.

When and where do you do your best thinking?

In the outdoors.

Which natural talent would you most like to have?

Speaking skills.

What’s your current state of mind?

Tired.

What’s your favorite food and beverage?

Japanese and red wine (not together).

What’s your favorite business book of all time?

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Keeping my family/work/personal life in balance.

Which living person do you most admire?

Nelson Mandela.

If you could go back and take a class now, what would it be?

“Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations.”

What companies do you admire?

Investor AB of Sweden, Temasek of Singapore and Apple of the U.S.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

To sleep without worry, to awaken without fear, to live with passion.

What’s your motto?

Truth telling, promise keeping.

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Darden’s Special Blend

The case study method

Highly acclaimed faculty

Our tight-knit community

Your philanthropic support If you believe in Darden, invest in Darden.

Make a gift to the Darden Annual Fund before June 30. www.darden.virginia.edu/givenow 36 THE DARDEN REPORT • Spring/Summer 2011

University of Virginia Darden School Foundation P.O. Box 7726 Charlottesville, VA 22906-7726

Congratulations to the Class of 2011 May 22, 2011