NewsBites
Several influential media featured the accomplishments of the School of Management and the expertise of its faculty over the past year. Below is a summary of some of the school's citations in prominent national and regional media. These "media hits" enhance the school's national reputation and help to brand it as one of the nation's top business schools.
Forbes
The School of Management has again been ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the best business schools in the U.S. for the return on investment it provides MBA graduates.
The school's rank at No. 50 puts it in the top 10 percent of the more than 500 schools accredited by AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Forbes calculates return on investment by comparing the cost of earning an MBA (tuition plus forgone income) to the average salary earned five years after graduation.
The Wall Street Journal
For the seventh consecutive year, the School of Management has been ranked as one of the world's top business schools by The Wall Street Journal. The UB School of Management was ranked No. 9 among schools with strong regional recruiting bases, up one spot from last year.
Paul Allaire of the Career Resource Center was quoted in a November story on the efforts of business schools to improve the English proficiency of their international students. The School of Management offers classes in "English as a Second Language" and also gives international students experience through its practice interview program and at mock career fairs. "The average recruiter is going to decide in 30 seconds whether a student has the communication skills to make it in his organization," Allaire said. "We want to give our international students a fighting chance to compete."
A book by Jerry Newman, chair of the Department of Organization and Human Resources and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, was named one of 2007's best by The Wall Street Journal. In his review of My Secret Life on the McJob: Lessons from Behind the Counter Guaranteed to Supersize Any Management Style (McGraw Hill, 2007), former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card wrote, "Mr. Newman writes with respect about the tasks that too many see as menial but that must be met with efficient excellence in order to satisfy the demands of corporate brand-owners, franchise holders and hungry, impatient customers."
Business Week and Yahoo! News
Photo: Douglas Levere
Debabrata Talukdar, associate professor of marketing, was quoted in an October issue of BusinessWeek for his research on grocery shoppers who buy sale items and nothing else. Talukdar and his fellow researchers found that these "extreme cherry pickers" account for only 1.2 percent of shoppers, much lower than the 10 to 15 percent the industry has assumed. Talukdar said this could be "great for the consumer," as retailers realize they do not have to give up huge profits when offering sale items. This may lead to more price competition "to attract new shoppers and retain existing ones," he said. The research was also cited on the Yahoo! Finance Web site, The Buffalo News and several other outlets.
MSN Money
Lewis Mandell, professor of finance and managerial economics, was quoted on the MSN Money Web site in August in a story on teaching preschoolers the basics of financial management. It's important to start the lessons early because high school financial literacy courses do not seem to be working, according to Mandell. "It may be more indoctrination than education," he said. "They need to know things like, 'saving is good.'"
Baltimore Sun
Mandell was also quoted in September in a Baltimore Sun article on the extra costs associated with living in urban poverty, such as higher grocery prices and check cashing fees. "It's very expensive to be poor," he said, noting that some of these costs are unavoidable due to lack of transportation and other limitations. However, "if we tell the poor that they have to bear all of these costs, which is what we more or less have done in the past, then we're just going to see a perpetuation of poverty," he said.
Las Vegas Sun
Jerry Newman also was quoted in October in the Las Vegas Sun. The article focused on a controversial contract for the new North Las Vegas city manager that guaranteed a lucrative severance package, but Newman said the terms of the "golden parachute" were not unusual. "Any executive is going to negotiate [that] up front," Newman said.
The Buffalo News
Natalie Simpson, associate professor of operations management and strategy, was quoted in an August story in The Buffalo News about socalled "echo boomers" (children of baby boomers) in college and their preferences for technology.
Simpson, director of the school's Digital Access program that allows student to download lectures to their laptops, said, "It's second nature to them. What students nowadays really prize is that they can control the lecture. They can pause, they can back up, or-this doesn't appeal to my ego-they can speed up."
Charles Lindsey, assistant professor of marketing, also was quoted in The Buffalo News in an August article about incentives that the Buffalo Niagara International Airport is offering to airlines to provide more nonstop flights from the airport. In order for the plan towork, Lindsey believes the airlines must become convinced that new routes will be profitable for them. "In my mind, the first thing you need to do is present the airline a compelling business model based on their needs," he said. "At the end of the day, the numbers have to be there."
