A Message to Alumni

from Dean's Desk, Alumni E-Newsletter
October 26, 2004

Dear Yale SOM Graduates,

On October 1st and 2nd we had the great pleasure of welcoming back the Class of ’79 to the Yale School of Management as they celebrated their milestone 25th Anniversary Class Reunion. The weekend was a great success as classmates and colleagues gathered from around the country – and as far away as London and Jeddah – to reconnect with one another and to reflect on their time spent here in New Haven. Founding Dean of Yale SOM Bill Donaldson (now head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), Yale University President Richard C. Levin, and Provost Susan Hockfield, along with more than a dozen “original” and current faculty members were among the many in attendance.

In an overwhelming show of support for the school’s mission of educating leaders for business and society, the members of the class – with an astounding 85% class participation rate – raised over $244,000 in gifts and pledges to the endowed Class of ’79 Loan Forgiveness Fund, surpassing their initial class goal of $150,000. Once fully funded, this new endowment will lend critical support to the school’s current Loan Forgiveness Program which was launched in 1986 to enable graduates to pursue career opportunities in public and nonprofit jobs by easing the burden of repaying financial debt incurred during their education. In another measure of the generosity of the Class of 1979, its members’ donations to Yale SOM over the previous five years exceeded $975,000.

Also this fall, in the space of two weeks, we received very upbeat news from The Wall Street Journal, and very disappointing news from Business Week. The Wall Street Journal released the results of its fourth annual business school ranking – the only major ranking based 100% on what recruiters have to say. This year, a record 2,849 recruiters participated. Yale SOM was rated #6, up from #9 last year. Again, Yale SOM ranked “best for hiring graduates with high ethical standards,” and was also cited as one of the top schools for recruiting women M.B.A. graduates. We ranked #3 in Strategy, tied with Wharton (Harvard #1, Stanford #2); #5 in Finance (after Wharton, Chicago, Columbia, and Carnegie Mellon); and #10 for international business. And, we were singled out for first place in the financial-services industry ranking.

On the disappointing side, however, in the latest Business Week rankings, Yale SOM fell from #14 in 2002, to #22 this year. The Business Week survey is based, principally, on the responses of graduating students from the classes of 2004, 2002, and 2000, and 223 recruiters from a proprietary Business Week list. We know this survey landed around graduation, within a still difficult hiring season, when 72% of the class had job offers. The situation greatly improved three months later, when 87% had job offers. But in a tight economy, this may be an instance where some of our greatest strengths -- of being a small school with diverse students -- may have worked against us, if only at this snapshot in time. However, we are looking into the details of both surveys and what they mean, and we will, of course, do everything we can to correct deficiencies here at the school wherever they might exist.

We have always felt it’s important to put rankings of every sort in perspective, whether positive or negative, and to see them as the snapshot they represent. For several years, the school has done much better in a variety of surveys, as you know, including Business Week. And in a compilation showing the average of all the rankings (USA Today, July 2004) from major publications (U.S. News & World Report, Financial Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Business Week) we were #8, which is why we believe the latest BW ranking is an anomaly. To say this, however, is not to suggest we will ignore it.

The school’s momentum continues, however, and we are committed to redoubling our efforts to even accelerate this momentum. Toward that, the SOM Board of Advisors met for the second time on October 21st & 22nd, at Chelsea Piers in New York City. The group was fortunate to hear presentations by three notable alumni. Neal Keny-Guyer SOM ’82, CEO of Mercy Corps, and Tim Collins SOM ’82, Senior Managing Director and CEO of Ripplewood Holdings, LLC, together led a discussion on “Managing Global Relief Operations – from Iraq to Sudan.” John Thornton SOM ’80, Professor and Director of the Global Leadership Program at Tsinghua University, also spoke about “Observations on the Next Generation of Leadership in China.”

The specific agenda items for this meeting were both timely and engaging, mostly based upon issues raised at its inaugural meeting in New Haven last February, and from individual conversations I have had with members over the past few months. Topics included a report from me; discussions led by President Levin on the search for a new dean and an update on SOM’s facilities plan; executive education (both at Yale and SOM), led by Professors Jeff Sonnenfeld, Dick Wittink and Garry Brewer; and a presentation by Professor Stan Garstka on entrepreneurship at SOM.

I am also happy to say that Board membership has grown from 39 to 48 since its inaugural meeting. New members include:

• Herbert M. Allison, Jr., YC '65, Chairman, President, & CEO, TIAA-CREF
• Frances G. Beinecke, YC '71, Executive Director, Natural Resources Defense Council
• Adam M. Blumenthal, SOM '89, First Deputy Comptroller & CFO, City of New York
• Edward J. De La Rosa , SOM '81, Founder & President, E. J. De La Rosa & Co., Inc.
• Gail Harrity, SOM '82, Chief Operating Officer, Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Wendi Deng Murdoch, SOM '97, Advisor for Chinese Investments, News Corporation
• Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., YC '59, Chairman & CEO, WL Ross & Company, LLC
• Robert Simonds, YC '85, Film Producer, The Robert Simonds Company
• George U. Wyper, SOM '84, Managing Partner, Wyper Capital Management

The next meeting is planned for April 26 & 27, 2005, and will be held at Yale.

The school is also continuing to expand the reach of faculty research, and we are poised to open our sixth major research center. The Center for Customer Insights will be devoted to studying the behavior of customers in the marketplace. Under the direction of Professors Ravi Dhar and Dick R. Wittink, the center will bring together industry leaders and scholars from diverse disciplines with the goal of creating a greater understanding of the role customers play in the performance of products, services, and organizations.

Research fellows for the center include faculty from all areas of the Yale School of Management including marketing, economics, finance, game theory, and organizational behavior, departments throughout Yale University including psychology, sociology, law, and medicine, as well as visiting scholars and doctoral students. Research at the center will examine how individuals cope with choosing among financial planning options, the effects of marketing activities on the demand for prescription drugs, shopping patterns on the Internet, and the link between customer satisfaction and purchase behavior. Other initiatives will include experiments within the center’s virtual experimentation laboratory, the creation of new databases of customer data, seminars and conferences, executive education, a working paper series, and a business case competition.

We are grateful for the central role our alumni play in the school, and we continue our call for you to do all you can, not just in terms of financial support, but in getting even more involved in the life of the school, and in sharing the good news about the school with others, as so many of you have. And, while we are determined to make continuous improvements in our program, we believe Yale SOM is well positioned to educate leaders for business and society – which is our central mission – and to carry that mission into the future.

Best regards,

Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean