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VOLUME 54, ISSUE 9 | APRIL 20, 2018
For President Trump, Amazon is a prime target
When content is king, who awards the crown?
Anthony Pusateri, Contributing Writer MBA Class of 2020 The President of the United States took to Twitter last month to continue his feud with Jeffrey P. Bezos, the world’s richest person and the founder of a technology conglomerate with global reach. Such a conflict is a classic example of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, and is not entirely unlike past situations we have seen over the last century: “trust-buster” President Theodore Roosevelt took on tycoon J. Pierpont Morgan in 1902, for example. To understand the ramifications of today’s clash, we need to first consider the fundamentals of the
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How those 50% discounts hurt Uber and prove the importance of pricing Roy Levkovitz, Contributing Writer MBA Class of 2018 Have you recently gotten an e-mail with this subject line: “Thanks for being on time! Here’s 50% off 10 rides”? No? Well stop making your driver wait for you.
Leanna Bornkamp, Co-Editor-in-Chief MBA Class of 2018 When Kendrick Lamar was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music on April 16, the discussion turned to its implications on his career, or even on the Pulitzers themselves. But this award wasn't what legitimized Lamar's universally-acclaimed artistic currency—his contemporaries had already done that by awarding him a different type of recognition.
Five years later, remembering the collapse of Rana Plaza Su-Kyong Park, VP Content MBA Class of 2020 The garment industry in Bangladesh has been dramatically altered since the horrific tragedy five years ago at Rana Plaza, an illegally built factory that produced clothes for Mango, Walmart and other Western retailers. The collapse of the eight-story factory killed 1,134 workers, mostly young women, who were pinned under layers of outright safety violations. While a global movement of a variety of actors, including such retailers, have made significant strides in bringing up the industry’s human rights standards, by the end of this year one of two major safety programs led by companies will expire, making the future of workers’ safety uncertain. Leading up to the collapse of Rana Plaza, between 2005 and 2012, more than 500 workers died in fires and building collapses from poorly setup facilities in Bangladesh, according to the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. But it was the fall of Rana Plaza that finally set off the alarms for Western companies and consumers. On April 23, 2013, workers found cracks along the walls and a local engineer was brought in to assess the building. Even after the engineer found the building unsafe and police ordered it to be cleared for further inspection, the factory owner Mohammad Sohel Rana threatened employees that if they did not return to work the next day, they would risk losing their jobs.
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Over the last couple months, I have found myself waking up on Monday morning, checking my email and seeing this nice little present from Uber. Unfortunately, this “token of appreciation” is doing more harm than good for Uber. And Uber is not the only
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Heads of Stern Follies 2018 promise best show of audience’s lives, bar none, with The Applyin’ King Leanna Bornkamp, Co-Editor-in-Chief MBA Class of 2018 With little more than a week left before the 2018 Stern Follies, Heads of Content and graduating MBA students Ben Broderick and Rourke Willner still found the energy for plenty of quick quips and banter in the Sosnoff Café at NYU Stern. The big event, to be held on April 27 in NYU’s Skirball Center, has been a long time coming for the duo and their team—prep started last summer, and there has rarely been a reprieve since. “We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it,” said Broderick. “And the enthusiasm around it inspires us, too.” Follies takes the form of a multi-media comedy event. It is, at its core, a live production, with Saturday Night Live Digital Short-style videos played between the acts of the live show. Although Stern has produced themed Follies in prior years, having a cohesive story threaded throughout the production was a development first implemented in 2017’s show, based on The Wizard of Oz. This year, that format took on one of the most beloved Disney stories of all time: The Lion King.
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Stern Gridiron club debuts with victory over rival Columbia Business School Anthony Russ, Associate Editor MBA Class of 2019 NYU Stern MBA students James Morris and Dave Jaroslovsky knew something was missing as they looked over their club options this fall. “Football is one of the most popular sports in the United States, so not having a club at Stern seemed odd,” said Jaroslovsky. After organizing impromptu pickup games and seeing an outpouring of interest, they knew they had to formalize the Stern Gridiron club. On Saturday, April 14, the group’s first official event— against Columbia Business School (CBS)—introduced their presence on a high note. “[At] the game against Columbia, [we] had 29 people total compared to their 10,” Jaroslovsky noted; the demand was clearly there. Recognizing the unmet need at the beginning of the semester, they decided to take it upon themselves to officially establish Stern Gridiron. “We wanted to attract the die-hard fans but also those who may not know much about the game,” Morris said of the goal of the club. “Football is a hard sport to learn, especially if you don’t grow up with it, so we want to help new fans learn more about the game. Our goal is to put on events and establish a camaraderie between new fans and lifelong fans.”
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Stern Opportunity | sternoppy.com
April 20, 2018
From the Editors Guys, we’re here—we’re in the home stretch. A couple of weeks left before the end of the semester…and for some of us, the all-out jubilee/bittersweet void that is the completion of the MBA program. We don’t know what to do with our froy turm after graduation…frey tire? Oh, free time, right. Man, it’s been a long time since we’ve had to talk about free time.
Editorial Staff and Contributors PRESIDENTS/EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Leanna Bornkamp Dan O'Brien oppy@stern.nyu.edu
VP, CONTENT Su-Kyong Park
MANAGING EDITORS Abby Horowitz Matthew Longo
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Anthony Russ VP, CONTENT STRATEGY Jessica Wasserman
AVPS, COMMUNITY OUTREACH Jamie Quiroz Lorraine Rubio
VP, ADS & RELATIONS Jonathan Koo
VP, DIGITAL/SOCIAL James Li
DIRECTORS, STERN CHATS Sheri Holt Frank Varrichio
Around this time in the semester, it’s easy to get overwhelmed (or fully succumb to senioritis— we don’t judge). But the team at The Oppy had some other things in mind. In this issue, we celebrate the best that Stern has to offer, starting with killer industry commentary from our resident experts. Roy gives us a breakdown of Uber’s bizarre promotion structure and why it’s not that great for CRM. Anthony P shines a light on the insane, virtual cage match that has been Trump vs. Amazon on Twitter. Su reminds us of the Rana Plaza tragedy and why complacency, in government and in industry, allows history to repeat itself. Leanna got a little crazy about the Pulitzer Prize announcements earlier this week. This issue also looks inward, at the incredibly robust group of students, admins, and faculty that continue to push Stern to new heights. We caught up with Stern’s very own Abbott & Costello to discuss next week’s Follies extravaganza (spoiler: it’s going to be hilarious). In what may very well become the Oppy Sports Section, Erich walks us through the prep for a highlyanticipated rugby contest against some school uptown (I think it was called Columbus? Columbo?). Anthony R introduces us to Stern Gridiron, our new football club, and how they had some fun taking home the MBA Flag Football Tournament Cup in a pretty sweet debut. We also checked in with Stern’s Prof and Admin of the Year, to give them each a chance to brag. It took some prodding, but we did get them to talk about how awesome they are. Basically? This paper rocks, because you rock. So get to reading up on your badass cohort— and start planning what you’re going to do to get into Issue 10. Stay golden,
Leanna & Dan
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Erich Grant Roy Levkovitz Anthony Pusateri
Quote of the Week* *(obviously) taken out of context
"A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!" -Donald Trump, on the recall of romaine lettuce because of an E. coli outbreak in 16 states. All opinions in this publication are the sole view of the author, unless otherwise indicated.
April 20, 2018
Stern Opportunity | sternoppy.com
ON CAMPUS Graduating this spring? Sweet. Can you believe it? Graduation/Convocation/Commencement/whatever-they-call-it 2018 is right around the corner. For those of you who are far too good at ignoring your emails, here's another place to see what you've forgotten to do before crossing the stage in that purple getup.
March 19 (passed): Deadline for submitting draft speeches (2-3 minutes) for Student Speaker Auditions to paffairs@stern.nyu.edu March 26 (passed): Deadline to RSVP for Stern’s Graduate Convocation (Log in with your Stern username/ password) March 12 – April 10 (passed): Order academic attire March 12 – May 4:
RSVP for NYU’s All-University Commencement. Log in to Stern's AIS and click on "NYU All-University Commencement Tickets" under the Student Life column.
April 30 – May 11:
Pick up tickets & name card for Stern’s Graduate Convocation
May 8 – May 15:
Pick up academic attire & tickets to NYU’s All-University Commencement
May 15: Grad Alley (a Commencement eve celebration marking the accomplishments of NYU’s graduates) May 16:
NYU’s All-University Commencement
May 18:
Stern’s Graduate Convocation
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Stern Opportunity | sternoppy.com
April 20, 2018
ON INDUSTRY When content is king, who awards the crown? Kendrick Lamar’s content curation is more telling than his Pulitzer Prize for Music Leanna Bornkamp, Co-Editor-inChief MBA Class of 2018
of the country’s native languages. Although Wakanda is a fictional country (spoiler alert), Lamar commits to a cohesive soundscape as concrete as that of director Ryan Coogler’s landscape for the film itself. No small feat, considering that it required a leap of faith from the entire creative team of an absolutely enormous project—you didn’t see Lorde, for example, given carte blanche to write or be featured on every track on the Hunger Games soundtrack.
On Monday, April 16, the Pulitzer Prize committee announced that they voted unanimously to award the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music to Kendrick Lamar, rapper/lyricist/ composer/genius from Compton by way of Chicago. Frankly, that album should have won any award it was nominated for. His 2017 album DAMN. was a behemoth, striking, relentless documentation of a shocking reality, articulated with celestial prescience. In their announcement, the Pulitzer voting committee briefly described DAMN. as “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern AfricanAmerican life.” This is, in effect, a very pedantic way of applauding the use of slang and sick beats to tell the story of a deeply difficult existence for many in the United States—but hey, at least he won for a truly deserved work of art, right? As many publications have been happy to applaud in the wake of the announcement, Lamar is the first artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for content outside the realm of classical or jazz. Since the Pulitzer was first awarded—in 1943. But most of the articles
Committees for awards in music are less often being considered the gatekeepers of quality content. There are other ways in which artists are being recognized for their achievement and accessibility—in particular, through content curation on a global scale.
opinion, and the opinion of his contemporaries across genres and media, did that a long time ago. The lyrical and harmonic gravity of Lamar’s body of work have carried his impact to the masses, past the self-congratulatory circles of “highbrow” art as they looked in on themselves.
internalizing the motivations in the Black Panther story, and making them parallel to the very tangible, real-world context he is so good at depicting. Just like the world he creates and illustrates in the world of DAMN., he is able to imbue life into the world of Wakanda through musical curation.
Committees for awards in music, like the Pulitzers or even the Grammys, are less often being considered the gatekeepers of quality content. There are other ways in which artists are being recognized for their achievement and accessibility—in particular, through content curation on a global scale. One project that
Lamar’s ability to tell stories through multiple, conflicting narratives is apparent on both albums—from multiples facets of the gun debate in “XXX.” on DAMN., to T’Challa vs Killmonger in “King’s Dead” on Black Panther: The Album. Beyond that, the musical motifs and structures used in both albums create a ubiquitous environment in which to immerse the listener, without mercy. The sonic landscape created just before the three-minute mark in DAMN.’s “FEEL.” mimics that just before the two-minute mark in “DNA.” “Nobody prayin’ for me” is a frequently-referenced line throughout the album, found in “FEEL.,” “HUMBLE.,” and “ELEMENT.” In Black Panther: The Album, Lamar incorporates West African talking drums at the end of “X,” on the untethered “Bloody Waters” and on the more radio-ready “Big Shot;” he also employs recurring vocal samples as segues throughout the album.
It wasn't the Pulitzer Prize, nor any formal award, that crowned Lamar king of his genre; public opinion, and the opinion of his contemporaries across genres and media, did that a long time ago. discussing this “major win for hiphop,” not to mention a win for the artist himself (not long after he lost Album of the Year to Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic at the 2018 Grammy Awards, the third time he’d been nominated in the category), tend to stop at this revelation. But one dissenting consensus that has been forming in the days since the jubilant announcement is this: this award may turn out to have done more for the value of the Pulitzer itself than for the value of Lamar’s work. Because it wasn’t the Pulitzer Prize, nor any formal award, that crowned Lamar king of his genre; public
assigned immense creative control an equally immense release was Lamar’s role as curator for Black Panther: The Album. In the soundtrack released a week before Marvel Studios’ Black Panther film earlier this year, Lamar does what he does best: describe his experience with intimate, harrowing honesty. As a listed writer and producer on each album track, he delved deep into the film’s storyline and brought on artists who, without fail, enhanced the final product as contributors on an album ultimately attributed to him. But he goes above and beyond his Pulitzer-quality best—by
But beyond the self-referential aspects of these albums, Lamar uses similar themes across the two albums. Both show a careful attention to harmonic, lyrical, and technology-reliant motifs; sonic and lyrical album cohesion is paramount. The gating technique used in "FEEL.," for example, is frequently used in Black Panther: The Album. The album’s “Pray
For Me” single takes the concept so pervasive in DAMN., and applies it to a superhero context. This cohesion makes sense; many producers like Sounwave, BadBadNotGood, and Mike Will
Black Panther: The Album was important not just because it showed an epically large studio’s commitment to one artist’s vision—it also showed the studio’s trust in him to do justice to a story not entirely his own. Lamar’s ability to adapt across media, across storylines, and across markets has left an indelible mark on his portfolio of work and catapulted him onto an even broader platform.
Black Panther: The Album was important not just because it showed an epically large studio’s commitment to one artist’s vision—it also showed the studio’s trust in him to do justice to a story not entirely his own.
Made It get producer credits on both albums alongside Lamar. The role of “musical curator” isn’t entirely new; it has been toyed with before, in varying capacities. The soundtrack to Spike Lee’s He Got Game, for example, featured songs created by Public Enemy for the 1998 film; Tron Legacy, released in 2010, featured a score written entirely by Daft Punk. 2014’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 soundtrack saw one of the first contemporary musical curator assignments, with artist Lorde employed to help craft the arc of the album through an original single and through tracks written by over a dozen other artists. Black Panther: The Album was different. It was researched and curated in such a way that created cultural cohesion across tracks, through language, artists, and instrumentation. “Redemption,” for example, features artist South African singer Babes Wodumo; “Seasons” features South African artist Sjava singing in Xhosa, one
Although it’s a depressing reality to grapple with, it’s true that many people truly listened to Lamar’s work for the first time because of the soundtrack he created; Marvel Studios effectively gave him an outlet through which to share his art with a different audience. As some have argued that his Pulitzer will catapult him even further, will make his music accessible to even more people, it’s worth thinking about who those “even more people” are. And as many suggest that Lamar may now be legitimized as an artist beyond popular culture with this award, it’s worth thinking about who consider themselves to be the gatekeepers of legitimacy.
April 20, 2018
Stern Opportunity | sternoppy.com
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ON-CAMPUS: 2018 PROF, ADMIN OF THE YEAR Bridging the Gap: Professor of the Year William Silber talks connecting theory with practice in finance. appeal of Stern, particular to its academic environment.
Leanna Bornkamp, Co-Editor-in-Chief MBA Class of 2018 On March 13, the winners of the 2018 Professor and Administrator of the Year awards at NYU Stern were announced. This year, MBA students voted to award the Professor of the Year title to William Silber, Marcus Nadler Professor of Finance and Economics and Director of the Glucksman Institute for Research in Securities Markets. Silber, who is no stranger to winning awards for excellence in teaching, has been a member of the NYU community since 1966. “I got here [Stern] a long time ago,” he said. “I always liked the mixture between theory and the real world here.” “I was trained as an academic economist,” Silber said, who received his PhD at Princeton University. “At Stern I was immediately confronted with real-world application.” Silber’s initial studies were specific to academia and focused on the mechanics of the markets, both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and commodities exchanges. He spent time observing people working on the floor of the NYSE, while Stern was still downtown in New York City’s Financial District. “I watched what people did, and I published findings in academic journals,” he said, "and I thought ‘hey, I could do some of that.’” In 1980, Silber took a two-year leave from Stern and went to work as a scalper (a trader who specializes on gaining large numbers of small profits through rapid-fire trading) on the floor of the commodities exchange. “It was probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “There’s risk and decision making, and those decisions have to be instantaneous.” Silber continued to consult when he returned to Stern; while today there is a great deal of movement between academia and industry in finance, such crossover was not the case in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Despite the excitement he experienced during his time with the NYSE, he noted the
Worth the Trip: Administrator of the Year Conor Grennan talks camaraderie, long commutes, and ensuring that students’ voices are heard. them accomplish that. I want to be a school that they are proud to be associated with. But I know that we have to make choices. So when we do make those choices, we try to err on the side of inclusion, diversity, empathy and understanding over all else. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don't, but I want to be transparent in who we are and how we make decisions.
“There are some things about Stern, like the flexible teaching framework, that are nice from a faculty perspective,” Silber noted. “We do have a core curriculum— the professors who teach [Foundations of ] Finance have to teach present value, option value, risk and diversification, and arbitrage—but how and when we do each topic is flexible, and it allows faculty to play to their strengths. It’s not a rigid framework. Other schools are so much more straightjacketed and that stifles creativity; the flexibility that Stern has nurtures good teaching and good research.” Of course, for many students, the connection between research and teaching can seem weak or nonexistent. “Students often say ‘why do business schools reward research when students care more about good teaching?’” Silber said. “Great teaching is like local currency, because anyone in this school knows who the good teachers are. But a good global reputation of the Stern Business School needs knowledge of who the researchers are. In that way, research is international currency, valuable beyond the four walls of the institution.” The value of such “fundamental” research, according to Silber, is manifold. Some concepts may not seem to have a direct application in industry—but these very concepts often have the capacity to form the building blocks for applicable industry frameworks. “Any research is worth supporting because you can’t tell which will have applications. Some applications don’t happen until 5 or even 10 years down the line,” Silber said. “You can’t really tell what’s going to be pathbreaking. Both research and teaching are necessary and often reinforce each other.” Silber isn’t a stranger to the Professor of the Year award; he first won the title in 1990, and again in 1997. When asked about why he thought he won this year, he responded in a way that was strikingly similar to the language of his nomination, written by students. “I think it’s important to deliver what you say you’re going to deliver—to do what you say you’re going to do,” he said. “I try to do that. I try to set the framework, ‘here’s what we’re going to try to understand—the power of present value, xyz.’ And at the end [of the session], I say ‘here’s how we did that,’ and I make sure that we covered everything we said we were going to cover.” Such dedication to ensuring comprehension has made Silber’s course particularly
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Oppy Editorial Board On March 13, it was announced that Assistant Dean of MBA Students Conor Grennan was voted the 2018 Administrator of the Year Award at NYU Stern. Grennan, who received his MBA from Stern in 2010, has held his current role in the school since 2014. He shared some of the highlights and challenges of his role at Stern with The Oppy. Oppy Board: Can you tell us a little bit about your background at Stern? What brought you to the school? Why have you stayed? Conor Grennan: I've been back at Stern for exactly 4 years now, having started April 1, 2014. (Never start a new job on April Fools Day, BTW. Longer story.) After graduating in 2010, I worked independently for the next four years on writing and speaking projects, but found myself returning to Stern often, to speak to classes and help with orientation. One day I got a call from the powers that be letting me know that they were looking for a Dean of Students and asking if I might be interested in joining Stern full-time. The reason why I came back to Stern, and the reason why I've stayed, is this: I genuinely love this place. It's easy to talk about dream jobs, but I really have found mine here at Stern. The students make the experience for me. I get to work with hundreds of unique individuals, all of them impressive, all of them challenging themselves, all of them interesting and nice people. I just don't know where else I would find that, plus a team that I love working with. That makes up for the fact that I commute four (4!!) hours every day to get to work. Oppy: What are some of the biggest challenges and successes that you see at Stern right now? In other words, where do you see success stories from students and the administration, and where do you see room for improvement? Grennan: The biggest challenge for me is trying to meet the needs of a diverse student body. Everyone comes here with their own passions and their own agendas and their own goals. I really want to help
I'm excited for our general direction in terms of how we take chances and risks to broaden our reach and improve our reputation as a top-flight MBA program. I love the new programs in tech and fashion, I love the focus on veterans, I love that we are constantly looking to reinvent ourselves while keeping our core competencies. The student body has been enormously helpful in acting as ambassadors for who we want to be. Oppy: What are some of the things that you most value about Stern? What are some of the highlights of your time here? Grennan: The highlights for me have been watching the interaction among the community of students. We can set a culture and a tone as much as we want, but ultimately the thing I value most is watching how students take care of their classmates. There's nothing I get more pride and satisfaction from. Oppy: Winning Administrator of the Year is a big deal—congratulations! Toot your own horn: why do you think you won it? Grennan: So many empty phrases to choose from...I got lucky? It's a team effort? Or maybe something more self-deprecating, like I was the most recognizable name on the list and so I won by default? But I also hope that students see me as their ally and advocate, and somebody who genuinely cares about their well-being. If they see that, then I feel like I'm doing my job. Oppy: With your new-found title and platform to go along with it, what would you like to say to the MBA students at Stern? What do you think is the most important thing they should know about your work and/or their time at Stern? Grennan: The most important thing would be this, and I tell students this every time I see them: we take your feedback extremely seriously. When you email me or anyone on our team, we meet and we talk about it and we look for ways to use that to improve the student experience. You have a much louder voice than you can imagine, and you can shape the direction of this school. You should use it—we're listening.
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Stern Opportunity | sternoppy.com
April 20, 2018
ON CAMPUS Stern Gridiron debuts with victory over rival Columbia Business School from both full and part-time students, all of whom contributed to the victory.
Continued from Page 1 Anthony Russ, Associate Editor MBA Class of 2019
“The number of players we had definitely contributed to the victory,” said Morris. “We knew our full-time classmates would play because of our [pickup] games in the fall, but we had a great Langone turnout, too.” Both Jaroslovsky and Morris also credited the pre-game meal provided by incoming LSG President Allie Coffin as a pivotal part of team-building that contributed to the victory.
In order to ensure that the club is open to the entire student population, Morris and Jaroslovsky are planning a wide range of events for next year including Football 101 seminars and Fantasy Football primers, as well as watch parties and potential trips to professional and college games. “It is important to us to continue these flag football games against other schools,” Jaroslovsky said, “but we also want to host an intra-Stern tournament.” Morris echoed that he felt the games were very important and that the turnout thus far this year leaves him confident that this club will continue to grow in popularity. Stern Gridiron’s first official event occurred this past Saturday at Randall’s Island, as they participated in the MBA Flag Football Tournament hosted by Columbia Business School. Stern Gridiron struggled to find its footing in the round robin portion of the tournament, but overcame their early stumbles and took home the MBA Tournament Cup thanks to the play of the quarterbacking triumvirate of MBAs Chris Costello, Reid Velo and Andrew Schwartz. After opening the day with a loss to a
MBA Rohan Williamson's one-handed grab was a turning point for team morale on April 14.
talented Booth team and a convincing win over Yale, Stern was upset by MIT and faced an uphill climb in bracket play. However, both Morris and Jaroslovsky pointed to an acrobatic, one-handed grab by Rohan Williamson as not only the standout play of the day but also as a turning point for team morale. The Stern squad capitalized on that momentum in their playoff games, played later that day. Playing as the 4th seed, Stern faced Tuck in their opening game. It was a back and forth affair not decided until the
final seconds. Tuck was lined up for a gametying 2-pt conversion that Stern stopped not once, but twice, after a controversial pass interference call to win 26-24. In the championship game, Stern fittingly faced our uptown rivals, Columbia. Up 8 points with two minutes to play, Stern drove the length of the field and sealed the victory when Schwartz connected with James Sutton in the corner of the endzone. The Stern squad was able to overcome injuries to two quarterbacks in part because of the depth provided by high participation
Morris and Jaroslovsky are excited to start things off on such a positive note and are clearly passionate about making the Stern Gridiron Club a staple of the MBA experience. Both intend to continue spreading the word about future programming; they also praised the Office of Student Engagement’s efforts to formalize the club as well as their suggestions on how to appeal to a broader audience moving forward. If you are a football fanatic, if you want to learn more about the game, if you are compelled to join your classmates in their fantasy football obsession, or are interested in becoming a member of the Gridiron Club for any other reason, you can join on Campus Groups by searching “Stern Gridiron.”
Stern Rugby Football Club eyes rival upset Washington Square Park. Over the past twenty years, the team has grown and matured, and the Club now aims to become NYU’s preeminent sports team.
Erich Grant, Contributing Writer MBA Class of 2020 On Saturday, April 21, the Stern Rugby Football Club (Stern RFC) will battle the Columbia RFC at the Lawrence A. Wien Stadium for the Gotham Cup. Stern RFC is hoping to dethrone Columbia Business School (CBS), which has held the Gotham Cup for the past ten seasons straight. Stern RFC is coming off a winning season, competing against other teams in the prominent Business School League such as Duke, Wharton, Harvard, Yale and of course Columbia. Regardless of whether Stern emerges triumphant in the impending match for the Gotham Cup, the club’s current season represents the culmination of a period of extended growth for the RFC. Started as an informal club in 1996, Stern RFC has grown steadily. The club’s beginnings were humble, consisting largely of informal rugby matches after class in
The Stern RFC is currently led by co-captains William Pitt, Matthew Burke, and William Herrin. Pitt explained that the club hopes to become a vehicle to express school spirt and to build NYU community. Pitt hopes that the RFC will help to raise NYU’s profile, as well as increase the profile and popularity of rugby amongst NYU’s students. Stern RFC has a roster of almost sixty players, and the squad maintains a rigorous practice schedule. Stern RFC practices on Randall’s Island each Tuesday and Thursday, between seven and nine each evening. In addition to bi-weekly practice, the club has strength and conditioning training three times a week on campus. Staying in peak shape is important. “[Rugby is] a brutally physical game that requires total selflessness from everyone on the pitch, putting your body on the line for the men and women either side of you,” Pitt said. “It’s the ultimate team sport and breeds a certain type of individual that we’re incredibly proud of.” The club accepts new members twice a year, in the spring and the fall. Currently the club is open to anybody who wishes to play,
although starting positions are decided by skill level. Pitt explained that while many of the members of the club grew up watching or playing rugby, roughly one third of the team had never played rugby before joining the club. Pitt says the club is popular with former high school and college athletes, especially former football players, who are looking for camaraderie and a fun way to stay in shape. For those unfamiliar with the rules of rugby, there are two versions, called Rugby Union and Rugby League. Pitt explains that Stern RFC plays Rugby Union, which is the more popular of the two variants worldwide. Rugby Union and League share the same basic framework, with two teams attempting to score the most points through an 80-minute game. While the scoring mechanisms are the same in both variations of the game, there are slight differences in how points are allocated. The primary method of scoring in both variations is called a “try,” which is roughly analogous to a touchdown in American Football and is worth five points in Rugby Union. Rugby Union features 15 players on the field at a time, while League features 13. In addition to the 15 starters that Stern RFC will be fielding in the Gotham Cup, eight players will be on the bench. Stern RFC aims to go on tour twice a year
and has been competing in the annual “HogFest” festival thrown annually by Wharton in Philadelphia. In addition to that annual fall trip, Stern RFC aims to go on a summer tour, having participated in the world-renowned Bingham cup several times in past years. In addition to inter-collegiate games, Stern RFC regularly plays semiprofessional rugby teams throughout the city. Burke explains that the whole team has been preparing eagerly for the upcoming match. “I’m eager to see some of the new members test their skills against a strong opponent,” he said. “Games against CBS are always special but to be hosted in Wien Stadium has added another dimension to the event and for that we thank our cross-town rivals. It’s time to prepare for what will surely be a battle on Saturday!” Regardless of who triumphs in the quest for the Gotham Cup this month, the match is an event not to be missed. Prior to the 8pm match, a pre-game happy hour with three-dollar beer will be held at the Red Lion on Bleecker Street for fans over the age of 21. Following that, there will be a tailgate beginning at 7pm at Wien Stadium, featuring games, food from Kelvin’s Burgers and Brats, and team merchandise for sale. Additionally, NYU Cheerleading will perform at the match.
April 20, 2018
Stern Opportunity | sternoppy.com
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ON INDUSTRY How those 50% discounts hurt Uber and prove the importance of pricing Continued from Page 1 Roy Levkovitz, Contributing Writer MBA Class of 2018 company guilty of this; companies across a variety of industries are making the same mistake. Whether it’s 50 percent off my next 10 Ubers or my bi-weekly 40-percent-off emails from Banana Republic, companies are continuously reaching for the lowest hanging fruit (AKA easiest program to implement) in an attempt to drive in revenue, all the while killing the brand tree the fruit is grown on. Let’s walk through the process of how this discounting approach hurts companies and their brands. For the next 10 rides, I enjoy the fruit of my promptness. Trips that would normally have cost me $20 or $25 dollars are now $10-12.50 and I feel on top of the world. But then trip 11 hits. That $10 trip is now back up to $20 bucks and I hesitate to order the car. For $10 I was willing to skip the dread of the New York City Subway, but my Uber price has just doubled, so I
can take the subway or even walk… As I refresh my Uber App hoping the price has decreased, my mind is focused on how the price of this ride was just $10 yesterday. This is what psychologists call the Anchoring Effect. When applied to this scenario, the price we initially see or become used to effects our perception of future prices. I no longer want to pay full price for an Uber that is 5 minutes away when I can walk, take the subway, or hop into one of 20 yellow cabs flying past me. Coupon discounts do something extremely similar. We can all name three to four brands we would never pay full price for because we know that if we wait a couple of days, we are guaranteed to receive a discount offer. Discounting might drive revenue in the short term, but the long-term implications are numerous. 1. Discounting dilutes the perception of the brand. While not all companies or brands can say they are a luxury offering, the longer the company can hold out on discounting the better, because they won’t be unnecessarily cutting into their own profit margin.
2. Discounting trains the customer to wait for e-mails, and fails to encourage customers to proactively shop or use the company’s service during non-discounted times. 3. It causes customers to think the company’s ‘everyday prices’ are hyper inflated to adjust for these discount and promotional offers. 4. Ultimately the company is providing a discount on its retail price when the company could be discounting off the wholesale price (I’ll explain below). There are two alternatives for companies like Uber to escape the discounting and anchoring traps: 1. Switch to a model that discounts on the wholesale price of an item, rather than the retail price. Instead of giving me 50 percent off my next 10 rides, Uber (or any business) can create a digital punch card. After five, seven, or 10 rides, my next ride is free. I continue to pay full price for my rides, but there is a reward at the end. Think about your favorite frozen yogurt shop. They get me to come in 10 or 12 times before giving me my next
one free (capped to a certain price, to avoid abuse of the reward). When I finally earn my free FroYo, I am getting something that cost the store almost nothing, but damn does it feel good to cash in that punch card! We can use the FroYo example to prove how a punch card approach makes a company more money. Imagine that Roy’s Yogurt sends you an email that says enjoy 20 percent off your next 10 purchases. Every time you go to Roy’s Yogurt shop you spend exactly $7 on FroYo. With that 20 percent discount applied 10 times, Roy’s $70 has now become approximately $56. If Roy had instituted some kind of punch card rewards system, he would have generated the $70 from the 10 sales and given away maybe $1 worth of wholesale cost of goods of FroYo on the 11th visit.There are numerous paths a business can take with the wholesale discount, but as long as it isn’t discounting a retail price, it is in better shape than it was before! 2. Make the brand and company something people are willing to pay full price for. Everyone has a product or company that they are loyal to. Whether it is the quality
of the product or the customer support and post-purchase love provided, people are willing to pay full price because they feel that it is worth it. Companies have to continuously strive to differentiate themselves from the competition. If not, Amazon will just gobble them up. Ultimately, coupons and discounts are the cheap and easy trick that should be the last resort for companies and marketers. The playbook when it comes to discounting should always be the following: 1. Build a brand people will always want to pay full price for. 2. If it comes time to discount, don’t discount the retail price; it’s better to give away an item for free and eat the wholesale cost, than it is to begin the process diluting your retail prices.
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Stern Opportunity | sternoppy.com
April 20, 2018
ON CAMPUS
Professor of the Year William Silber Continued from Page 5 Leanna Bornkamp, Co-Editor-in-Chief MBA Class of 2018 accessible to students with no experience with finance, in academia nor in industry. “I try to level the playing field between people with finance and non-finance backgrounds, and to make certain that the only thing that students need to succeed in Foundations of Finance is what we do in Foundations of Finance,” he explained. “Routinely, at least 75 percent of the As in Foundations of Finance go to people with no background in finance. That’s the most rewarding thing to me.”
STERN CHATS:
at Stern), to potential employers until a full-time, post-graduation position has been offered,” according to the Stern Student Government website.
The Latest Stories Highlighting the Stern Community
“Grade non-disclosure and this short-run view have debased the currency,” Silber said. “Is that 14th coffee chat worth not understanding the importance of optionality? The options framework that many students ignore is to their own detriment. Ignoring that will hurt their job search more than missing the 14th chat.”
Entrepreneurship, Soundwaves, and the Beauty of Silence
Susan Kornfeld:
Susan Kornfeld, second year MBA student, was born with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss in both ears. Over the years, Susan has become an advocate for the hearing loss community and has formed an advocacy and outreach group called Hear Me Out which is focused on fostering a stronger community and support network for those who suffer from hearing loss. In a story about fearlessness, Susan shares what it’s like growing up with hearing loss and how it has influenced her adult life.
Much like Silber’s career-long foray into the relationship between academia and industry, the MBA experience, he notes, would benefit from a concerted effort to find a stable way to support all of its components.
Despite such accessibility, however, Silber sees overarching issues that impede students’ ability to get the most out of courses like his. “The biggest challenge is the pressure that students feel between getting a job and doing their academic work,” Silber said. “It seems that, especially in the 1st semester, students are overwhelmed by their job search and let academics fall by the wayside.”
“I don’t know what the solution is, but I think [the emphasis] has been pushed too far to ‘the job search,’ to the detriment to the academics—and in part, you have to know something to get a job,” he said. “There has to be a better balance.”
Silber attributes part of the issue to the Stern MBA program’s grade non-disclosure agreement. The agreement, passed in 2013, protects students’ decision to “refrain from disclosing GPA, specific course grades, assignment grades or transcripts (earned
Jazmin Cabeza:
Special Edition Ally Week Episode Jazmin Cabeza, first year MBA student at NYU Stern, discusses the importance and meaning of being an ally. In a story about empowering others and speaking up, Jazmin shares her experience of immigrating from Venezuela to the United States at a young age, the trials she has faced, and the growth she has experienced throughout her journey. Listen in to this very special episode produced for NYU Stern Ally Week.
Check out Stern Chats conversations with Susan, Jazmin and others on iTunes, Soundcloud, and at sternoppy.com.
Stern faculty weigh in on industry news Professor Paul Hardart shares his views on Sinclair Broadcast Group's must-run messages about their news coverage April 15, 2018 Adweek: "'It’s less an issue of what the content is, and one can argue that it’s innocuous or not innocuous,' said Hardart. 'I think the real issue is using local anchors and personalities who have spent their careers building trust among their communities, and they’re reciting something that isn’t necessarily their views.'" Professor Nicholas Economides offers commentary on the AT&TTime Warner trial April 13, 2018 Bloomberg: "Well I think there were certain weaknesses in the testimony of Carl Shapiro who was the key witness, key economist, for the government. I think AT&T was able to poke some holes in his testimony. At the same time, I do not believe that AT&T has managed to establish a theory that says consumers are going to be better off after the merger." Professor Thomaï Serdari is interviewed about Hermès' "Footsteps Around the World" series on the brand's corporate social responsibility efforts April 13, 2018
Luxury Daily: "'The series primarily isolates specific areas in which Hermès has been groundbreaking to ultimately bring out the humanistic profile of the firm, a differentiation point that only very few luxury brands can claim to cultivate,' Ms. Serdari said. 'The type of information communicated through this series is not new to those who know the brand well, but it is told in a compelling and contemporary form of storytelling that keeps the viewer engaged.'" Professor Menachem Brenner's joint research on volatility in financial markets is featured April 12, 2018 Financial Times: "In the 1980s, Menachem Brenner and Dan Galai published a series of papers that created an actual index of stock-market volatility based on options, which they called 'Sigma'. They pitched the idea to various exchanges but at the time no one wanted to turn it into a live volatility benchmark." Professor Priya Raghubir discusses how merchants use price reference points as a sales strategy April 10, 2018 Business Insider: "'[Reference points] are used on price tags. These are used in advertising. This is used inside retail stores on signage. All of which are
ways to try and get you to anchor on a particular price, so it is against that price that you would then evaluate the current offering,' Priya Raghubir, a marketing professor at New York University Stern School of Business, told Business Insider." Professor Anindya Ghose discusses WhatsApp's presence in India April 10, 2018 Quartz: "'I think this move to hire a country head is also a very credible signal to Indian payment system firms, notably Paytm, to ramp up their battle plans,' said Anindya Ghose, the Heinz Riehl professor of business at New York University’s Stern school. 'It will make the mobile payments market in India a lot more colorful!'" Professor Amy Webb discusses Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's appearance before Congress April 9, 2018 The Independent: "She told The Independent that while Mr Zuckerberg may be taking lessons on how to appear to appear contrite and charming, the company’s main concern now was to get ahead of the curve for anticipating and actually writing government regulations for the industry. 'The thing that matters most to Facebook is that it wants to write
the regulation and compliance going forward,' she said." Professor Ian D'Souza shares insights on behavioral finance and family offices April 5, 2018 Campden FB: "For family offices that are a number of generations removed from the founder, the importance is to have a board or investment committee that can review the actions of the family office investment staff over time to ensure there is continuous adaption relative to the office’s long-term objectives." Professor John Horton's joint research on rating inflation on online platforms is spotlighted April 5, 2018 Quartz: "How did Uber’s ratings become more inflated than grades at Harvard? That’s the topic of a new paper, 'Reputation Inflation,' from NYU’s John Horton and Apostolos Filippas, and Collage.com CEO Joseph Golden. The paper argues that online platforms, especially peer-topeer ones like Uber and Airbnb, are highly susceptible to ratings inflation because, well, it’s uncomfortable for one person to leave another a bad review."
Professor Robert Salomon shares how the trade deficit with China benefits the US economy April 4, 2018 TIME: "...according to Rob Salomon, associate professor of international management at the NYU Stern School of Business, trade deficits may actually help the U.S. by flowing dollars back into the economy and keeping American interest rates low. 'This makes mortgages less expensive, this makes business loans less expensive, and this makes capital to start businesses less expensive,' he says." Professor Michael Posner applauds Facebook's removal of accounts controlled by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) April 4, 2018 Newsweek: "'Facebook has appropriately banned the IRA from its platforms,' said Michael Posner, director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. 'We applaud Facebook for recognizing that Russian disinformation online is a serious problem and for developing a response to this sustained effort to inject political propaganda into American society, as well into Russian and European societies.'"
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ON INDUSTRY
#whomademyclothes: Remembering the collapse of Rana Plaza factories, otherwise we won’t work with you. This paradox has put factory owners in a difficulty financial position, which is a key reason why just 8 percent and 47 percent of Accord and Alliance factories have completed remediation to date. The Accord’s quarterly update from January this year states that while only 25 factories have completed their Corrective Action Plans (CAP), 1,247 factories are behind schedule, with 84 percent of them lagging behind for more than two years.
Continued from Page 1 Su-Kyong Park, VP Content MBA Class of 2020 The next day as employees settled in at their work stations, a power outage occurred, prompting heavy diesel generators located on the upper floors to turn on. The vibrations from the generators rippled down the weak structure, which then began to collapse inward, story by story. Government findings after the event are simply maddening. Built illegally, the top four floors of Rana Plaza lacked proper support and the building stood on top of swampy grounds. Moreover, the building was “constructed with substandard materials and in blatant disregard for building codes,” according to the New York Times. Rana was caught by Bangladeshi authorities at the Indian border several days after the tragedy. He has been sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges and still faces prosecution for murder, according to NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. The collapse of Rana Plaza was a test of commitment for brands to corporate social responsibility. Bad press has historically driven companies to adopt social responsibility that often felt no more than a weak line of defense against human and environment rights questions. But the event spurred a deeper self-reflection: did corporate social responsibility mean a responsibility not only to a direct supplier but also to that supplier’s supplier? How much due diligence were companies expected to do as part of their duty to their social mission? Shortly after the collapse, corporations banded together to create two programs that would identify and remediate factory safety issues. The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh was spurred by over 200 mainly European brands, such as H&M and Tesco, as well as NGOs and unions. The U.S. counterpart became the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and includes brands like Walmart and Gap. Both the Accord and the Alliance stepped into the void left by a weak and corrupt Bangladeshi government and became committed to conducting inspections and cutting ties with non-compliant factories. In their inspections, the Accord found that 97 percent of more than 2,000 affiliated facilities lacked a safe means of escape in the case of fire, such as exits blocked by heavy storage boxes and locked gates. Other common risks included a lack of adequate fire-detection and alarm systems, exposed electrical cables and a general unawareness about safety considerations. The structures themselves were another story. 70 percent of Accord-affiliated factories had undocumented structural additions, including inconsistent design documents, and a same percentage of factories did not have a load management plan, or plans to distribute factory weight
The collapse of Bangladesh's Rana Plaza five years ago was a test of commitment for brands to corporate social responsibility.
around the building to prevent weakening the structure. Conclusively, the Accord’s initial inspections found that there was an average of 64 violations per factory. The lack of regard for safety in the Bangladeshi factories, where 80 percent of the country’s exports are generated, is mainly attributed to the high demands of fast fashion companies. As the cheaper side of the coin that is high fashion, fast fashion changes course abruptly based on celebrities, social media and otherwise unpredictable viral trends. This volatility in the industry has driven companies like Zara and Forever 21 to pinch their supply chains, looking for the quickest and cheapest turnaround to dress their mannequins. Despite how quickly fast fashion seems to be moving, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Last week, H&M, seen as the founder of fast fashion, noted in their March 27 quarterly report that they are carrying $4.3 billion in unsold apparel. Furthermore, stock price has dropped by more than 40 percent in the last six months and the company announced that it will be closing 170 stores this year, more than it has in two decades. The woes of H&M however, aren’t attributed to the slowing down of the industry. In fact, it’s stating the opposite, that the sales crunch is becoming worse. H&M is now, in fact, too slow. Shoppers looking for a cheap throw on and bloggers looking for the perfect one-time post on Instagram are no longer looking to the more established giants. They welcome the new players like ASOS, who carry little inventory and thrive on online revenue. The new digital entrants are pushing down prices and wooing customers away from fast fashion retailers. Here’s just how bad this price-tag game between brands has defined fast fashion: according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association, in 2015 Americans bought on average more than 68 garments and eight pairs of shoes with an overall average price of just $19.
It’s no surprise then that it’s the factories producing the garments that are put under most pressure, to speed up production at a lower price. According to the NYU Stern Center of Business and Human Rights, the real dollar price of apparel entering the United States declined 48 percent from 1989 to 2010; men’s and boy’s cotton pants produced in Bangladesh for export to the United States, for example, fell 41 percent from 2000 to 2014. With profit margins in the single digits and on a continuous decline, producers have been forced to deprioritize workers’ safety. The Accord and Alliance have univocally changed the safety landscape in the Bangladeshi garment industry. For instance, there are initial and consistent follow-up inspections of factories to measure their remediation progress. If anything, the programs have made safety a mandatory factor in developing relationship with Western clients, no longer seen as a “Western luxury,” as said by Arun Devnath at Bangladesh News 24. Furthermore, the programs have even suspended operations at a combined total of 264 factories for failure to remediate safety violations identified during inspections. After years of ignoring safety investments, the cost of meeting compliance requirements has caught up to factory owners, posing complicated issues to the enhancement of industry standards. The programs estimate that an average of approximately $250,000 per factory is needed to remediate safety violations, with significant structural repairs requiring between $300,000 and $3 million upfront costs. Neither the programs nor any independent companies have stepped up to eat some of these compliance costs. Although some companies, like Walmart, have financing programs for suppliers, the general mood is that remediation money must come from factory owners’ pockets. Companies’ refusal to share the cost of remediation has frustrated factory owners who find Western demands ironic: lower your prices and also own the costs to fix your
Furthermore, the NYU Stern Center of Business and Human Rights estimates that fixing the factories of subcontractors, who help to fill orders in the shadows, would cost at least $1.2 billion. Five years ago, companies had no clue about subcontractors and today, they still don’t. In 2016, BRAC University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Development found that out of 455 factories surveyed, 31 percent were involved in unauthorized subcontracting. Although the Accord and Alliance realize that subcontracting exists, the Bangladeshi government continues to think otherwise. The Commerce Secretary Shubhashis Basu, according to the NYU Stern Center of Business and Human Rights, was resolute in saying “there is no subcontracting system. That is over and done with.” Turning a blind eye to subcontractors echoes a recurring approach taken by the Bangladeshi government as it looks to inherit the over 2,000 factories from the Accord and Alliance. The Accord announced last year that the program will be extended for another three years. The Alliance, however, does not seek to extend its tenure after May. Companies made a rare call to action that has done significantly more than stir the dust in Bangladesh. However, it’s apparent that their efforts are not enough. While the programs have filled a much needed gap, more permanent measures need to be taken to change supplier and company behaviors. Some recommendations put forth by the NYU Stern Center of Business and Human Rights include the creation of a locally-led task force to monitor compliance and for brands to form strategic partnerships with local suppliers to strengthen long-term relationships. Consumers can help drive the commitments made by companies simply by paying attention. There’s no call for a national boycott on brands or to picket outside of stores. It’s just a matter of looking beyond the label for size. By demanding companies to be transparent regarding where clothes are sourced, consumers can play a powerful role in strengthening a given brand’s moral compass; in fast fashion, where options are constantly increasing, consumers can be picky. And choosing to be picky about where and how our clothes are made can genuinely impact the process.
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ON CAMPUS Heads of Stern Follies promise best show of audience’s lives in 2018 Continued from Page 1 Leanna Bornkamp, Co-Editor-inChief MBA Class of 2018 “In our show, The Applyin’ King, Simba is a student who goes through some of the typical trials and tribulations of the recruiting process,” Willner said. “We wrote original lyrics to five or six Lion King classics for your listening pleasure,” Broderick added. The script for the 2017 show was written just five weeks before the spring performance. For this year’s show, Broderick and Willner drafted a script last summer. “We didn’t want to do the 4-week crunch time script writing this year,” Willner said. “We really put the onus on ourselves to get the ball rolling as early as possible.” As early as possible, in their case, meant the next morning. No rest for the weary, it seems.
new students at orientation in Fall 2017. “They allowed us to speak at LAUNCH—” “Asked us to,” Broderick corrected. “Right, they requested that we speak,” Willner laughed. Once the brainstorming in the fall was complete, so began the crowdsourcing of content creation. The number of students who signed up to participate this year allowed the board to rely heavily on contributors to be largely selfsufficient during the production process. “The second half of the year is about execution,” Willner said. “And, for the vast majority, this is their first time producing a show or doing comedy.”
fit organically into the program. Recruiting, in particular, lends itself to the format of Follies; dreaded hurdles like coffee chats and cover letters are “ripe for parody because it’s all a farce to begin with,” Willner joked. “The whole thing is kind of a charade in and of itself.” The jokes can’t be as predictable as these b-school tropes, though. “There are lots of internal monologues about the business school experience,” said Broderick. “We try to surface it through Follies—and the challenge is finding new ways to parody classic things,” Broderick noted. Follies are a creative outlet that graduate business programs across the country put on. The tone of Stern’s production, however, is different than those of many other schools.
example), short live performances on campus throughout the year, and the occasional Barney costume. “The easiest jokes are often the mean ones,” Broderick said. “And
"We aim for some degree of sentimentality. [Follies] is one of the last large events of the year and [it] gives us the chance to celebrate and revere the time we spent together." - Rourke Willner
there’s a satisfaction in getting the jokes right without resorting to that.” “One of the most rewarding things from last year’s Follies was how many graduating students
“We aim for some degree of sentimentality,” he continued. “[Follies] is one of the last large events of the year and [it] gives us the chance to celebrate and revere the time we spent together.”
“We work a shitload on this but there have been a ton of people who have put in hours well beyond what they needed to,” Broderick said. “It couldn’t’ve gone this well without them.” Willner had one more important note to include before they got back to work.
“The joy of the brainstorm session is being able to come up with great ideas, while building a support system for execution,” Broderick
"“There are lots of internal monologues about the business school experience,” said Broderick. “We try to surface it through Follies—and the challenge is finding new ways to parody classic things.” - Ben Broderick
This year, the number of participants dramatically increased. The Stern Follies’ social media and web presence seems to have helped spread the word. Willner attributed much of the increased participation to the team’s ability to connect with
“The process is exciting because we got to do it together,” Willner said. “The people who get most involved in it do so because they get to have fun with friends.
One thing was for certain: the scale of this year’s show required a lot of work from a lot of different participants.
The Follies board voted to run with the script for The Applyin’ King— and then the next behemoth step in the process began. “The first half of the year is focused on coming up with sketch ideas, brainstorming and playing the classic Stern circumstances out,” Willner said. The participation in this process spans across students at all stages of the MBA program, which means that some student participants, particularly those in their first year, haven’t been at Stern long enough to experience what these classic circumstances are actually like. Broderick, Willner, and the rest of the board work to guide that process during the fall semester.
March 28—in honor of Leonard N. Stern’s birthday, of course—to setting up a booth at Passport Day on April 26, the hope was to increase student involvement by keeping Follies top-of-mind.
said. "We give sketch ideas the green light, then the script, then the production itself. We help [contributors] when they need equipment, advice, or people to be in the sketches.” The standard business school tropes
“Follies at some other schools can be downright dirty,” Broderick said. “They can be brutal and meanspirited. It can feel more like a roast and can get pretty risqué and controversial.” “Our goal is not to put anybody down—the people, the school, or the b-school experience,” Willner added. “The easy humor is making fun of other people. It’s harder to come up with fresh ideas that aren’t making fun of someone or some other institution.” Such low-hanging fruit hasn’t been necessary at Stern. Instead of throwing cheap shots, the Follies board has focused their energy on crafting a more creative output— with puns on professor names (they promised not to “rag too much” on Dean Raghu Sundaram, for
felt like we captured their Stern experience,” Willner added. “We want to make sure that the spirit of Follies is upheld–if you want to complain, at least make it funny.” Location, at least, helps the team come up with a wide array of sketch ideas. “We get to make fun of the school and the city,” Willner said. “Being in New York—it’s unique.” “Unique New York, huh?” Broderick joked, alluding to the classic tongue-twister and vocal warm-up. The Follies team has been working throughout the year to increase their visibility and presence on campus. From wearing birthday hats and handing out cupcakes on
“We’re probably not going to need that Barney costume anymore after this,” he said. “So, if we could sell that—” “Oh no way, man,” Broderick interjected, without hesitation. “I’m keeping that.” Students can purchase tickets to the 2018 Stern Follies, The Applyin’ King, on CampusGroups. To learn more, visit the Follies Instagram (@ sternfollies) or www.sternfollies.com.
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ON INDUSTRY For President Trump, Amazon is a prime target online ones, and thus had to pay full taxes.
Continued from Page 1 Anthony Pusateri, Contributing Writer MBA Class of 2020 situation without a particular bias or partisan lens. President Donald J. Trump is a billionaire real estate mogul who has been no stranger to social elites and media attention. He was elected following a campaign that included a focus on renegotiating “bad deals” (impacting government finances) and bringing jobs to an economy that had left many U.S. working class individuals behind. As a person, he pays close attention to media praise and criticism. As a Republican, he pays particular attention to “left-leaning” outlets who produce unfavorable stories about him. Bezos is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Amazon, the world’s largest online shopping retailer and a growing supplier of cloudbased computing services. His company has grown rapidly and, while employing over 500,000 people globally, has put pressure on companies that employ millions of workers, replaced human jobs with technological advancements (and continues to seek new advancements), legally bypassed taxes, and is among the many beneficiaries of a financially inadequate U.S. Postal Service (USPS), a federal government agency. He has also owned The Washington Post (a media outlet Trump has accused of bias) since 2013 and, although considered to be a Libertarian, his political donations have gone mostly to Democratic candidates and related causes; simultaneously, his company’s total donations to the Clinton campaign were reportedly over 100x the amount they donated to the Trump campaign.
Now that we know the players, what exactly is the game? Trump views Bezos as a worthy adversary who controls a company that has financially benefited from the U.S. government’s “bad deals” and whose technological prowess has displaced jobs, while also controlling a publication that has been known to publish unfavorable stories about the President (although favorable ones are published, too). These days, that is a recipe for heightened scrutiny, which can be directly aimed at Amazon or where the company conducts its business. So where do we go from here? For Amazon, we must consider the prospects of antitrust considerations, new regulations, and increased expenses related to taxes and shipping. For consumers, we must accept the idea that Prime membership fees and prices of goods and services will likely rise. On the antitrust front, Amazon is an allencompassing business, but it is not by definition a monopoly. Amazon is just a large player in a highly competitive retail market. While it captures nearly 44 cents on every dollar (43.5 percent) spent in the $200 billion e-commerce sector, according to Recode, plenty of competitors compete for the remaining 56 cents. Also, only about 10 percent of total U.S. retail sales
are generated online, leaving plenty of business for traditional brick and mortar locations. Despite heavy competition from Amazon, retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot continue to be formidable for various reasons. In terms of taxation, the government continues to wrestle with how online retailers should recognize taxes. In an interview with FOX Business back in October 2017, NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway noted how Amazon paid $1.4 billion in corporate taxes since the Great Recession, whereas Wal-Mart paid $64 billion. In terms of state taxes, Amazon has improved its collection for its own first party products, which has increased its tax expense across 45 states, but there has been a legislative push for appropriate recognition of state taxes for online sales conducted by third party sellers who utilize the retailer’s platform; you can follow this in the ongoing South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. case that has reached the Supreme Court. These sales were sizable at around $313 billion last year, or approximately two-thirds of the company’s gross merchandise volume. By leveraging its online presence, Amazon has been able to take advantage of existing laws and pay/collect less in taxes, thereby allowing it to sell products at typically more competitive prices. This has been particularly detrimental for businesses that had “physical” presences in the United States, as opposed to
As for its relationship with the USPS: Amazon financially benefits from undisclosed, volume-based subsidies from the agency; these subsidies are not directly funded by taxpayers, but they are subsidized to the tune of $18 billion according to analysis conducted by economist Robert Shapiro. Additional reports indicate that the agency has incurred $65 billion of cumulative losses since the Great Recession and has failed to pay out $38 billion in required health benefits for its retirees, signals of an increasingly distressed financial position. An Executive Order signed by President Trump on April 13, which called for an evaluation of the postal service, as well as other proposed pieces of legislation, raise the likelihood that Amazon, which utilizes USPS services for over half of its “last mile” shipments, may be subject to higher shipping rates. With increased taxes and shipping costs, Amazon would undoubtedly experience tighter profitability margins and would likely seek to raise prices. However, this will in no way be crippling as the company has the scale to negotiate better terms with other shipping providers and the technological capabilities to continue seeking cost-cutting innovations, such as fully-automated inventory management and delivery services. At the end of the day, what we should not do is blow all of this out of proportion: Amazon is not going anywhere, no matter how much Trump’s tweets tend to create mass hysteria. Feel free to turn on your 80’s playlist on Prime Music, opt for next-day shipping on that paleo diet book you so desperately need, and ask your Alexa if everything will be OK; I can assure you the answer will be yes.
Sternies of the Month: April 2018 In a monthly tradition, LSG and SGov each recognize a Sternie of the Month, highlighting individuals working to drive student engagement and make a lasting impact on the Stern community. In April, they recognize Andrew Leighton and Dalia Shteinhauz, and offer words from submitted nominations:
ANDREW LEIGHTON
DALIA SHTEINHAUZ
"Andrew has been not only a great friend, but an incredible member of this community. He’s been deeply involved with both MVC and MCA, helping to pay it forward and make sure the current MBA1s have an even better experience than those of us graduating in May. He has gone about and beyond in fundraising for dunk on sternies, and working with the vet community to welcome prospective vets and current students. He’s a rockstar and brings brilliant energy, and cares deeply for the Stern community."
"Dalia has been able to improve the Stern experience and community by bringing together various groups of people from different years, blocks etc. She's always looking to ensure everyone is included and having the best time at Stern possible. Dalia encompasses and exudes all parts of Stern. She is always willing to help individuals with their careers, school work and academics. She's truly one of the best people I've met during this program and pushes others to be as great as they possibly can be."
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