Smith Newslink MBA - An eNewsletter for MBA Students at the Robert H. Smith School of Business

News Briefs

U.S.News & World Report Ranks Part-time MBA Program #11, Full-time #25
The part-time MBA program at the Smith School is ranked No. 11 and its full-time MBA program is ranked No. 25 in the latest edition of U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” published on March 30.

U.S. News also ranked the Smith School among the nation’s best in numerous specialty areas, including its Information Systems program at No. 6. Here is the complete list of Smith’s rankings:

No. 25 Full-time MBA Program
No. 11 Part-time MBA Program
No. 6 Information Systems
No. 12 Supply Chain/Logistics
No. 19 Entrepreneurship
No. 22 Management
No. 23 Productions/Operations
No. 25 Marketing

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Noted economist Robert Shiller, professor at Yale University, author of Irrational Exuberance and pioneer in the field of behavioral finance, presented the keynote address.

Seventh Annual Finance Symposium
The Seventh Annual Maryland Finance Symposium, co-chaired by Lemma Senbet, William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance, and Vojislav Maksimovic, Bank of America Professor of Finance, provides a biennial forum for presentation and discussion of recent research by top scholars in the field. This year’s forum, held May 29-31, 2007, focused on Behavioral Finance and included papers discussing the limits of arbitrage, CEO overconfidence and myopia, herding and over/under-reaction in financial markets, trading behavior and volume, market timing and consumer finance.
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Seventh Annual Netcentricity Conference on April 27
Smith School students are cordially invited to a daylong exploration of one of the most important developments in the networked era - the Transformation of Financial Markets. Join distinguished members of the finance community, speakers, panelists and renowned scholars from the Smith School’s finance and decision and information technology faculty on April 27 at the Smith School as they gather to assess the forces driving change in this critical industry. Featured speakers include Richard Schaeffer, chairman of NYMEX Holdings, Inc. and the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., Robert L. D. Colby, deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Market Regulation, and Michael Richter, executive vice president of development at Lime Brokerage, LLC.

Thanks to a generous grant, Smith students can attend the conference at the special rate of $25 (normally $95), if you register before April 15! Register online and use the discount code: NETC07STU. For more information, contact Faye Baker, fbaker@rhsmith.umd.edu, or visit: www.rhsmith.umd.edu/netconference

UM Student Entrepreneur Gets a Taste of Success with Candy and Coins
Kailyn Cage, a freshman at the University of Maryland, has been selling candy since she was in 7th grade. Recently she joined up with the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, and you can find her candy machines in Van Munching Hall's suite 3570. Cage says her business really took off when in 9th grade she attended an entrepreneurship academy, and then created a business plan in the 10th grade, while at Largo Senior High. A top student, she was the D.C. region's Ernst & Young/Junior Achievement Youth Entrepreneur of 2006.

"Kailen's Candy Catering" took in about $35,000 in revenue last year, but Cage says that she puts most of the money back into the business. She gives 10 percent to the locations (retail and community buildings in the area) where she has the candy machines and soda/snack vending machines. She is planning to start offering ice cream machines this summer.

Cage says that she can assemble and repair the machines by herself and has the computer skills necessary to troubleshoot problems, which is a big advantage in the vending machine business. Where will this entrepreneurial drive take her? "I want to invent my very own vending machine," she says with a big smile.
►Read more about Kailyn Cage in this weekend's Washington Post Magazine (Stop by suite 3570 to sample her candy and read more about her business!)

Smith MBA Takes Third Place in Simon Marketing Case Competition
Congratulations to first-year Smith MBA Donald Wood who, along with a team of students from business schools across the United States, won third place in the annual Simon Marketing Case Competition. The third-place team split $1,000 in prize money. Sponsored by Heineken USA, the event was held March 20 and 31, 2007 at the University of Rochester's Simon School of Business in the state of New York.
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Business School Event Profile: The China Business Forum
“The China Business Forum gave students, academics, and professionals alike an inside look into the latest trends in U.S.-China business development and investment,” said student organizer and Smith MBA candidate William Krents, MBA candidate 2008.

The first of its kind, the student-organized forum was held on April 6 with the theme of Private Equity and Investment in China and was hosted by the Smith China Business Association in cooperation with the Smith CIBER. The event included internationally recognized speakers Jonathan E. Colby, managing director, The Carlyle Group; Ming-Jer Chen, PhD; and (Henry) Hong Liu, Of Counsel, International Asia Business.

China has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is now considered a major player in the global economy.

This developing environment is a melting pot for new investment opportunities, which have potential for high rewards. The forum drew a number of experienced professionals who discussed the investment and legal infrastructure, private equity market in the country.

For more information and to download papers visit:
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/chinabusinessforum/

Smith Students Invited to Learn the Business Behind Disney Magic – June 6, 2007
The Disney Institute brings its renowned Keys to Excellence program to the Smith School of Business June 6, 2007. This one-day conference is a must for members of any organization focused on customer and employee loyalty and retention. As the host of this event, the Smith School is able to offer the Disney program to the Smith School community for $349 per person. Be sure to use discount code UMCPDISNEY07 when you register at http://www.disneydc.com.

Net Impact Organizes Career Panel
The student club Net Impact organized a career panel at the Smith School recently. Invited speakers included:

• Matthew Mendis, Corporate Vice President, Energy and Environmental Management Division, International Resources Group
• Tracy Smith, Communications Officer, E+Co
• Perry Goldschein, Managing Director, SRB Marketing
• Donna Gomez, Calvert Group

This career panel provided MBA students a chance to hear from professionals from non-traditional career fields. The panelists covered areas as diverse as international development consulting, alternative energy financing, socially responsible marketing, and socially responsible investing.

Based on the high attendance, number of questions and the post-event response, the event was a tremendous success. First-year MBA candidate Rahul Prabhu said, “"I really liked the event because it cleared a lot of misconceptions pertaining to socially responsible companies. I was under the impression that these companies are more like not for profit organizations having thin margins and not-so challenging work environment. But looking at the profile of the speakers and after hearing their presentations, it became obvious that getting into these companies is not only difficult but also that these companies are extremely successful without sacrificing their core social responsibility principles."

Clearly excited at the strong positive response to this event, Net Impact Co-President Lilah Pomerance said, “"Hosting industry experts like the Calvert Fund and the International Resources Group is a great kick-off for Net Impact's programming next year where, among other issues, we are focusing on exposing MBA students to fulfilling careers in non-traditional industries like socially responsible investing and alternative energy consulting. We believe that the number of MBA students interested in these issues is on the rise and the Smith Net Impact Chapter is excited to be a resource to them."

Perhaps the mood of the event was best captured by Perry Goldschein, managing director of SRB Marketing. In his engaging presentation he described the coming years as “the best time in history to graduate” for students interested in socially responsible careers.

Business School Speaker Series Profile: Michael Raynor (Deloitte Consulting LLP)
In his new book “The Strategy Paradox: Why committing to success leads corporations to failure,” Dr. Michael Raynor explains that success is double-edged sword. The prerequisites of success are almost always the ingredients for failures.

As managers at corporations feel compelled to make choices that could either positively or negatively affected their companies, Raynor explains that it is the collision of commitment and uncertainty that creates the paradox. This leads some managers to be more conservative in their decision-making.

Raynor, coauthor of the bestselling The Innovator's Solution, explains, “How leaders can break this tradeoff and achieve results historically reserved for the fortunate few even as they reduce the risks they must accept in the pursuit of success. In the cutthroat world of competitive strategy, this is as close as you can come to getting something for nothing.”

Raynor uses detailed case studies of success and failure at Sony, Microsoft, Vivendi Universal, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, and other major companies in industries from financial services to energy to show a concrete framework for strategic action that allows companies to use today’s opportunities while planning for the future.

Raynor is a distinguished fellow with Deloitte Research. For more information, www.strategyparadox.com

Entrepreneurship in China
Interested in what's happing in business in the world's fastest growing economy? Check out news and articles from China Entrepreneur, a media sponsor for the 2007 Robert H. Smith School of Business China Business Plan Competition.
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Reminder! Second-Years Please Fill Out Your Graduation Paperwork
Second-years, your deadlines are fast approaching for completing the paperwork necessary for graduating. Reminders from the MPO and the University – there are two separate processes – are in your inboxes.

Business Ethics Lecture Series, April 18
As part of the Smith School's spring Business Ethics Lecture Series, B. Gary Dando will speak on “The Cheating Culture” on April 18, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m., in Van Munching Hall's Frank Auditorium. Dando is a retired partner with Ernst & Young. He started working for Ernst & Young in 1964 after he graduated from what was then the College of Business and Public Administration at the University of Maryland. He was elevated to partner at the firm in 1976. In addition to client engagement responsibilities, Dando held positions of national and regional operational responsibility within Ernst & Young in areas of practice management and operations. He retired in June 2001 after 37 years with firm. (Highlights from previous speakers are online.)
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More Latest News

♦ Smith Asia Business Review, March 2007 (PDF)

♦ Smith Faculty Opinion: Dr. John A. Haslem, Professor Emeritus
S&P 500 Index Mutual Funds

♦ Smith Faculty Opinion: Dr. Peter Morici, Professor of International Business; Personal Income up $65.4 Billion in February Inflation Rising; Forecasts for upcoming economic data

♦ Smith Faculty Opinion: Dr. Peter Morici, Professor of International Business; Economy Added 190,000 Jobs in March

♦ Spring 2007 Smith Business Magazine

♦ Research@Smith January 2007

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University Update

Math Breakthrough by UM-Led Team Excites Congress and the World
A major mathematical breakthrough by a team of 18 scientists, led by University of Maryland mathematician Jeffrey Adams, has drawn praise from Congress, generated international headlines and created worldwide excitement in the math and physics communities.

On Tuesday, March 27, Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) read a statement to Congress about the work, which involved mapping one of the largest and most complicated structures in mathematics. If written out on paper, the calculation describing this structure, known as E8, would cover an area the size of Manhattan. Maryland's partners on this project included MIT, Cornell University, University of Michigan and the University of Utah. The calculation was announced on March 18 by the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM).
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Summit Aims To Create National Coalition of Digital Humanities Centers
The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland are pleased to announce a summit meeting to plan a national coalition of digital humanities centers.

The meeting will take place at NEH headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 12-13, 2007. The meeting is part of NEH's Digital Humanities Initiative, which supports projects that use or study the impact of digital technology to offer humanists new methods of conducting research, conceptualize relationships, and present scholarship.
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University of Maryland Grows Globally
From worldwide executive MBA programs to food-security research abroad that protects the foods back home, the university gives new meaning to the phrase “study abroad.” It starts with language.
►Read the full story in Terp magazine, Featuring Dean Howard Frank

Student Spotlight: John Bullock, Vice-President of Student Affairs, MBAA

He simply states, “He prefers to be called by his middle name John and not his first name Greg.” John Bullock is a man of few words but always successfully expresses his views. He is also very detailed oriented. Originally from Baltimore, MD, Bullock obtained an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Virginia. Prior to Smith, he worked as a territory sales manager with Philip Morris USA in Baltimore.
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Spotlight: Mark Grovic, Venture Capitalist in Residence, Senior Fellow

In 2003 Mark Grovic co-founded the New Markets Growth Fund at the Smith School, after serving as deputy director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship for two years. The New Markets Growth Fund (NMGF) is a $21 million venture capital fund that is located at the University of Maryland, and is focused on high-growth technology companies. In his position as managing director of the fund, as well as being a venture capitalist in residence and a senior fellow for the Executive Education program, Grovic is involved in many aspects of the Smith community. He teaches a venture capitalist class, which in 2004 won the USASBE award for best entrepreneurship class in the country. He also teaches an ethics class to executive education students and he works with the office of technology and commercialization.
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Smith School in the News

►Traffic World – April 9, 2007 – The Global Supply Chain Competition is the subject of a story, including quotes from Supply Chain Management Co-Director Sandy Boyson, Professor of the Practice Bill DeWitt, students and game co-developers Alexander Verbraeck and Stijn-Pieter van Houten from Delft University in the Netherlands.

►Washington Post Magazine – April 8, 2007 – Student Kailyn Cage is profiled for her candy business, for which she receives mentoring from the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, along with quotes Dingman Managing Director Asher Epstein. ►Read more

►WTNT 570AM – April 7, 2007 – Smith’s CEO Entrepreneurship Conference, “Turning Your Passion into Profit,” is the subject of the hour-long Business Destiny program, with in-studio guests Dean Pat Cleveland, teaching fellow and faculty champion Oliver Schlake, and Shady Grove students, talking about the conference, entrepreneurship and Smith’s Entrepreneurship Fellows program, the broad Undergraduate Fellow Programs and other Smith initiatives.

►Wall Street Journal – April 6, 2007 – Business professor Peter Morici adds his opinion to the “Economics React” feature on the latest jobs report: “The economy is adding lots of jobs for college graduates, especially those with technical specialties in finance, health care, education, and engineering. However, for high-school graduates without specialized skills or training, jobs offering good pay and benefits remain tough to find.”

►Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – April 6, 2007 – Business professor Peter Morici is quoted in a story on the latest jobs report. ►Read more

►San Francisco Chronicle – March 29, 2007 – Business professor Peter Morici is quoted in a story about global competition in information and communication technology. ►Read more

►Economic Times (India) – March 27, 2007 – Anil Gupta is quoted in a story profiling the new Global Consortium MBA in the paper’s special “Beyond Business Education” section.

More Smith School in the News

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Thursday, April 19, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 20, 6:00 a.m.

Smith Business Close-Up can be seen bi-weekly on Maryland Public Television's Business Connection. Watch Dr. Gerald Suarez, senior fellow and executive director of the Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST)program, on Thursday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Friday, April 20, 6:00 a.m. on public television stations throughout Maryland and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, including:

   ■ WMPB-TV (Ch. 67), Baltimore
    ■ WMPT-TV (Ch. 22), D.C. metro/Annapolis
    ■ WCPB-TV (Ch. 28), Salisbury
    ■ WFPT-TV (Ch. 62), Frederick
    ■ WWPB-TV (Ch. 31), Hagerstown
    ■ WGPT-TV (Ch. 36), Oakland

Previous episodes of Smith Business Close-Up on Maryland Public Television's Business Connection can be seen online.

Faculty Up Front

Roland Rust to Receive Academy of Marketing Science’s Top Award
The Academy of Marketing Science has honored Roland Rust, chair of the marketing department at the Smith School, with its top award — the 2007 Cutco/Vector Distinguished Marketing Educator Award. Rust will receive the award on May 25, at the academy’s annual conference in Coral Gables, Fla. Rust has held the David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing since he joined the Smith School in May 2000. He also is executive director of the Center for Excellence in Service, a center he founded at the school in 2000.
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Hugh Courtney Named Professor of the Practice
Hugh Courtney, in the management and organization department, has been appointed Professor of the Practice. "This is a great honor and a fitting recognition of Hugh's manifold contributions to the Smith School and the management and organization area, as well as his significant prior role as an accomplished executive within the consulting practice," says Arjang Assad, senior associate dean.

Technology@Smith

Automatic Reply from the Smith IT Helpdesk
Please look forward to an automatic reply when you submit an e-mail to helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu. You can be confident that your email has been received when you receive our automatic reply. It will look like this: This is an automated response – PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE!

Thank you for your submission. We have received the e-mail you sent to helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu requesting assistance. The Office of Smith IT Help Desk monitors and manages the helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu e-mail inbox several times a day. We will process your request for assistance in the order it was received and during the helpdesk operating hours. A Request For Service ticket will be generated at that time and assigned to the appropriate support personnel. If this is an urgent matter, we recommend that you call the Office of Smith IT Help Desk at 301-405-2269 or come by our offices in 3520 Van Munching Hall during our hours of operation.

Hours of Operation:
Monday thru Friday - 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (except University Holidays)
Please Note: Classroom support staff is also available to assist during all hours that classes are in session including evenings and weekends. In the event of an unscheduled system wide outage, Smith IT System Administrator's have 24/7 notification tools in place and will respond accordingly.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests regarding the status of your submission.

Smith IT Upgrades over Spring Break
Over spring break the MBSLAB Netware server was moved to new, more modern and supported hardware and upgraded to the most current version of Netware. Changes are mostly back-end and not visible to users other than, in the event of a server crash or power outage, the server can be rebooted in 10 minutes rather than the previous 45-minute interval.

Blackboard News
Over spring break the Blackboard server was given a service pack release to fix a few bugs and to address some performance issues. The outage was scheduled for twelve hours the Wednesday of break but was finished in about six by the Blackboard ASP team. The visible aspect of this, other than hopefully more speed and stability on the servers, is that the What's New module is back in Blackboard.

Student ID is now available to be viewed by instructors in the Blackboard gradebook -- a commonly requested feature. To see the column, instructors have to go into Gradebook Settings and then Column Settings and check the Student ID column to be displayed.

If you get an e-mail about your University Directory Password, please do not ignore it!
To meet increased security requirements, passwords will need to be reset every 180 days, so if you set your University Directory Password last October, you should be getting e-mail to remind you that it is time to change that password now. If you allow your password to expire, you will be unable to log in to many university systems, including Blackboard, eSmith portal, the wireless network, electronic timesheets for employees, and Testudo. If your password does expire before you have an opportunity to change it, you will be able to use your old password for the sole purpose of selecting a new password. See http://www.oit.umd.edu/password/ for complete information.

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Bulletin Board

Bone Marrow Drive for Minorities
On Thursday, April 19, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., stop by Van Munching Hall's Pownall Atrium to join the national bone marrow donor registry. Donors only need to provide a mouth swab and fill out a consent form -approximately 10 minutes. Every year, more than 35,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with leukemia, anemia, lymphoma, and other life threatening blood diseases. For many of these patients, marrow transplant is the last hope and 70 percent of them depend on the national registry. While 40 percent of those awaiting transplants are minorities, only 20 percent of registered donors are minorities. Until now, only 500 Asian, 800 Black, and 2100 Hispanic recipients are able to find a match in the national registry. Provide a ray of hope to terminally ill cancer patients by registering. All registered donors will be entered into a drawing and two lucky winners will receive an Apple iPOD Shuffle. For further information, please contact Vinay at 301-874-6742 or MarrowDriveVinay@yahoo.com or visit www.dana-farber.org/how/donatebone/minority-donors.asp

Smith School of Business Day at the Ballpark
Come join the Smith Undergraduate Student Association (SUSA) at Shipley Field Saturday, April 14 at 1 p.m. for the "Robert H. Smith School of Business Day at the Ballpark." The Terps will face Boston College in a televised game, hoping to break the all-time attendance record. The game is also a "Strikeout Cancer" event, with proceeds from team fundraising as well as a silent auction for signed authentic jerseys and helmets at the game going to the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. Throwing out the first pitch is Smith School graduate, Jim Martinko, principal with the Reznick Group. The first 250 fans to arrive will receive a FREE Maryland Baseball T-shirt and a FREE pack of 2007 Maryland Baseball Trading Cards. Student admission is FREE with UM ID and regular tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for youth.

First MBA Basketball Tournament
Interested in networking with Smith MBA students (full-time, part-time and executive programs) and business faculty? Come to the first 3-on-3 B2B (Business to Basketball) Tournament on Sunday, April 22, 1 - 5 p.m. at the Reckford Armory Gymnasium (College Park Campus). Prizes and trophies will be awarded and refreshments will be provided! Check all of information (including 3-on-3 rules) at: http://iliveindc.com/rhsmithbball
►Register via e-mail at rhsmithbball@gmail.com.

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