NY Post: Pricey Housing May Pop Market

Professor John H. Vogel via New York Post about the current housing prices in the United Sttes:

"That seems to contradict the idea that housing prices are going to continue to increase," said John H. Vogel, adjunct professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. "If interest rates do jump 3 or 4 percentage points, then there's no way prices can go up."

Vogel expects interest rates to rise - and housing prices in some markets to fall as much as 20 percent. "We've all gotten so used to housing prices going up that it's hard for homeowners to think of them doing anything else," he said. "But I think prices will be down next year and head down for a while."

Source: New York Post by Janet Whitman May 27, 2006

Reuters: Lifting the Lid: Home Depot's no-show board raises ire

Professor B. Espen Eckbo via Reuters about the absence of Home Depot Inc.'s directors from this year's annual meeting who didn't have couarage to face upset investors to answer unpleasant questions about CEO's pay, poor performance of the stock and other issues:

"There is no question that a board member ought to be at these meetings -- all of them," said B. Espen Eckbo of Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. "Anything else is a statement that they may not take their responsibilities as seriously as they should." Eckbo added that growing shareholder activism, particularly from the institutional community, has increased focus on annual meetings. "This is the kind of activity that will upset institutional investors and is really counterproductive," he said.

Source: Reuters by Karen Jacobs and Jonathan Keehner May 27, 2006

HBS: Five Guidelines for Using Statistics

Professor Victor McGee via Harvard Business School Working Knowledge about how to effectively apply statistics in manager's work:

"In real life, managers don't do as much number crunching as they think," says Victor McGee, professor emeritus at Dartmouth College's Amos Tuck School of Business. "In fact, managers are primarily idea crunchers: They spend most of their time trying to persuade people with their assertions." But they rarely realize the extent to which their assertions rest on unproved assumptions.

Source: HBS Working Knowledge by Harvard Management Update May 22, 2006

The Times: One year or two: the great divide

Dean Paul Danos via The Times about the advantages of the classic two-year MBA program instead of the shorter ones:

“There are large numbers of brilliant young people with a variety of college degrees and experiences who want to change their lives and careers but who have little or no formal business education,” says Paul Danos, dean at Tuck. “They need the classic programme with an introductory year, a paid internship in the summer and a second year of in-depth electives.”

Source: The Times May 18, 2006

WP: Job Security Wanes in Executive Suites

Professor Constance E. Helfat via The Washington Post about the high CEO turnover making chief-executive jobs less attractive:

"If you ask CEOs to take the risk of having to resign in a fairly public manner . . . people might be less willing to take the job and want higher compensation, which means you shrink the pool," said Constance E. Helfat, a strategy professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business who studies chief-executive turnover.

Source: The Washington Post by Brooke A. Masters May 18, 2006

The Times: US has advantage in hunt for funds

Dean Paul Danos via The Times explains why Tuck enjoys the high-level of donations and endowments from its alumni base:

“It is a defining characteristic of our school, where our alumni, who benefited from the generosity of alumni while they were students at Tuck, are now helping today’s students become tomorrow’s business leaders and future supporters of the school.”

The Times also illustrates the Tuck's success in money-raising:

Tuck has embarked on a huge fundraising campaign. Its “investing in excellence” programme aims to raise $110 million (£61.6 million) by December 2009. In 2004-05, its first year, the campaign raised $66 million, with more than 24 gifts in excess of $500,000.

Last year 64 per cent of alumni contributed, the highest rate among business schools. This makes Tuck less reliant on tuition fees than most of its competitors. Fees bring in about 40 per cent of revenue compared with 60-80 per cent at most privately funded schools.

Source: The Times by Stuart Crainer May 18, 2006

CNNMoney: IPOs: Don't fear 'The Flip'

Professor Colin Blaydon via CNNMoney.com about the end of the "era of buying and "flipping" companies" by private equity firms:

"Debt markets are stable, and nobody really is flipping companies. They [private equity firms] really have to figure out how to add value and build the company and then look very carefully at where they're going to exit," Colin Blaydon, director of the Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, said.

Source: CNNMoney.com by Grace Wong May 16, 2006

BW: The Art Of Motivation

Professor Vijay Govindarajan via Business Week about the U.S. steel-maker Nucor, a company that treats workers like owners:

Unusual? No Doubt. But Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, teaches Nucor as an example of outstanding strategic execution, placing it alongside highfliers such as JetBlue Airways and eBay. "My
students say: 'I thought Nucor created steel.' And I say: 'No. Nucor creates knowledge."'

Source: Business Week by Nanette Byrnes, with Michael Arndt in Chicago May 1, 2006

WSJ: Business Schools Target At-Home Moms

Professor Constance Helfat via Wall Street Journal about the Tuck's initiative -- "Back in Business: Invest in Your Return" executive-education course, which is "geared toward women who have put their careers on hold to raise families and are ready to return to the professional world." Co-sponsored by City Group, the 11-day Tuck program will cost $6,000, including meals and lodging. Classes will start in October and "will walk students through recent changes in various fields", including subjects such as finance and accounting.

The Dartmouth program also offers resume-writing workshops, job-interview
coaching and networking opportunities. Representatives from Citigroup and other companies will be speaking and mentoring with classes. "We certainly can't guarantee jobs," says Ms. Helfat, "but we would like to provide a way to help the participants re-enter."

Source: Wall Street Journal by Anne Marie Chaker May 10, 2006

U.S. News: Analyst hype in IPOs: Explaining the popularity of book building

Professor Kent Womack via U.S. News & World Report about IPO book building versus IPO auctions, questionning the reasons behind the prevailing practice of the U.S. companies relinquishing control of the IPO process to underwriters rather than conducting IPO auctions:

"Issuers are at the mercy of underwriters," says Kent Womack, an associate professor of finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, "because underwriters have all the buyers." Professor Womack and his collaborators Francois Degeorge (University of Lugano) and Francois Derrien (Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto) co-wrote a research paper - "Analyst Hype in
IPOs: Explaining the Popularity of Bookbuilding" - suggesting that "IPO issuers and investment banks have formed a quid pro quo relationship in which issuers are willing to absorb the cost of book building in exchange for more - and more favorable - research coverage. But their research also indicates that these supposed benefits are not always forthcoming for the issuer."

Source: U.S. News & World Report May 09,2006

Economist: News from schools

Patricia Palmiotto via The Economist about the Tuck's practice to invite former executives procecuited for wrongdoings to discuss the ethics of what they've done in order for students to "beware of the temptations that await them once they enter the pressure-filled world of earnings targets and shareholder value".

Patricia Palmiotto, the director of Tuck's Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship, says that for the people mixed up in corporate scandals, it is not always obvious that what they're doing is unethical. She hopes inviting these felonious speakers to campus will help students recognize when they may be falling into an ethics trap.

Source: The Economist May 09, 2006

BW: If You Know You'll Get An MBA...

Dean Paul Danos via Business Week about the suitability of undergraduate business degrees for MBA programs:

Another problem with using the undergraduate business degree as a stepping stone to the MBA is that it duplicates much of what students will encounter in grad school. Many classes students take as undergraduates, such as economics, accounting, and statistics, are also required for the master's. Some MBA programs allow students who have already taken these to substitute with electives. But few students do, believing they'll miss out on all-important networking. Explains Paul Danos, dean of Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business: "MBA programs aren't designed for people who have a lot of formal business training."

Source: Business Week by Geoff Gloeckler May 8, 2006

BG: The little white lie about leaders' words

Paul Argenti via Boston Globe about the business leaders having no time to do their own writing such as speeches, because "they are preoccupied with other matters, such as meeting constituents or poring over financial data."

"It's unfortunate that the demands on a CEO's time mean they can't take the time to develop their own words," said Paul A. Argenti, a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Source: The Boston Globe by Robert Weisman May 5, 2006

BW: From New Hampshire to the World

Richard McNulty, director of the Career Development Office (COD) at the Tuck School of Business, via Business Week about the COD's task of "helping Dartmouth's 240 graduating MBAs get on the right job track each year."

Assisted by about 50 full-time faculty, 96% of graduates looking for a job had an offer by the end of the summer. Similar trends are expected in 2006, says Richard McNulty, director of the CDO for the past three years.

Source: Business Week by Janie Ho May 03, 2006

CNET: The politics of tech's tax breaks

Professor Richard Sansing via CNET News.com about the accounting practice by some companies to claim stock option tax benefits as a result of employees exercising stock options awarded to them as compensation.

Accounting experts say this is entirely appropriate. "There is nothing remotely questionable...regarding either the legality or ethical propriety of deducting stock option exercises," said Richard Sansing, an accounting professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business.

Source: CNET News.com by Declan McCullagh & Anne Broache May 1, 2006