business

Leadership, at its core, is about influence. In Olin Business School’s popular MBA elective “Power and Politics,” students learn how to navigate leadership positions, which necessitates building power and gaining influence in the workplace.

Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis is hosting seven of the nation’s top finance scholars for an intensive, four-day program geared for doctoral business students and university faculty. More than 130 participants from across the nation and around the world will gather on the Danforth Campus Aug. 12-15 for a program called “Summer School: Financial Intermediation and Contracting,” a chance to learn from some of the brightest and best-regarded minds in the field.

The number of women and minorities on corporate boards has remained static in the last 10 years, despite an increasing amount of data supporting the argument that board diversity is related to good business outcomes. “Businesses have a significant opportunity to improve performance through increasing the diversity – in many forms – of their board,” said Hillary Sale, JD, corporate governance expert and professor of law and management at Washington University in St. Louis. Sale offers thoughts for both corporations and potential board candidates.

Surcharges — additional fees such as shipping and handling — are unwelcome but common charges that can shoot up the cost of online and catalog shopping. Yet how many of us base our purchasing decision on these niggling fees? A lot more than you might think. New research conducted by Amar Cheema, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing at Washington University in St. Louis, holds important implications for businesses and their pricing practices.

Inflation may be rampant, but not all consumer products are getting more expensive. Instead, they’re getting smaller. Three marketing professors from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis comment on why smaller packaging is a good idea — for business.

Spurred by concerns over China’s booming economy, the Bush administation plans to crank-up pressure on Chinese authorities to curtail the rampant theft of intellectual property — the black market in pirated films, software and equipment that costs American companies billions in lost sales. While anti-piracy rhetoric plays well in Washington, a new book on the “Politics of Piracy” in China suggests that external diplomatic pressure will have little effect on China’s ability to enforce international norms on copyrights, trademarks and patents. “The key to gaining enforcement of those laws lies at the local level,” says the book’s author, WUSTL China specialist Andrew Mertha.

Good team work means not trusting each other too much.There’s no denying that trust is essential in a healthy work place. It’s expected that you trust your co-workers and your boss. And you hope that your boss and peers trust you. Common wisdom is that trust brings numerous benefits: it improves communication, raises group performance, reduces conflict, and provides greater job satisfaction. However, a recent study by a professor at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis found that too much trust could actually be bad for business…when it comes to working on team projects.

Super Ad Bowl 2005: Super Bowl advertising will be critiqued and ranked by Olin School of Business MBA students, faculty and local advertising professionals during the game on Sunday, Feb. 6 at 5:00 p.m.

WeidenbaumThe economic power of American businesses is playing a key role in the war on terrorism: helping cut off the flow of money to terrorist groups, producing anti-terrorist equipment, screening employees and visitors entering company facilities, manufacturing the medicines to respond to biological and chemical attacks, and making the weapons used by our armed forces in the fight. Nevertheless, such responses often raise the cost of production and act like a new tax on private enterprise, suggests Washington University in St. Louis economist Murray Weidenbaum.