business strategy

The coronavirus pandemic has shattered and shuttered businesses. As businesses gradually continue to reopen across the United States, three Olin Business School experts at Washington University in St. Louis offer insights into potential opportunities that could help businesses to emerge from the economic storm.

Discounts are no way to increase business.Price promotions may not be the best way to increase sales of canned tuna — or any other frequently purchased consumer good. Managers can become overly focused on losing market share and get caught up in a mindless cycle of discounting — without regard to the long-term implications of their actions, according to marketing professors at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Streaming video can make for a very authentic form of communication.While most businesses pay lip service to the importance of communication in managing change, few successfully do it. A business professor from Washington University in St. Louis says using the internet to stream short videos every week from the CEO is the first step toward smooth transitions.

Entrepreneurs are just as sensitive to uncertainty as anyone. In fact, several studies suggest that entrepreneurs are more risk-averse than other people. So why do they risk losing their shirts by starting a business? They have an overdeveloped sense of confidence that that they can beat the odds, according to research from a business professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

For the second year in a row, the Olin School of Business is offering a course that includes a succession of “celebrity” CEOs as guest speakers. The class, “Creating Exceptional Value: Performance Without Compromise,” is co-taught by Chuck Knight, chairman emeritus of Emerson, and Anjan Thakor, Ph.D., senior associate dean and the John E. Simon Professor of Finance.

Joe Angeles/WUSTL PhotoThere are companies that, like people, are smarter than others. Literally. A business professor at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a way to measure a company’s IQ based on how effective it is at innovating. Using data from SEC filings, a professor at the Olin School of Business, computed the IQs of all the publicly traded US firms that engaged in R&D. More…

Successful strategies are innovative. They combine resources or businesses in unique or complex ways that other firms may fail to recognize. Yet research from the Olin School of Business at Washington University finds that the market tends to undervalue companies with complex or unique strategies. The reason: they receive less analyst coverage. More…

Businesses today are turning to quantifiable analysis to map strategies. According to a professor at the Olin School of Business, companies can address specific problems in a scientific way by using basic principals of game theory.

People’s suspicions about outsourcing are sometimes right; it is just a way for firms to save a buck. But when firms outsource IT projects or share resources with a supplier, they might be creating competitors who could steal customers or profit making ideas, says a professor from the Olin School of Business. Without knowing when it is appropriate to outsource, the financial impact could be quite harmful.

Alumnus Robert Frick and his wife Barbara have established a professorship in the Olin School of Business. Todd Zenger, authority on business strategy and organizational design, will be formally installed as the first holder.