NOTES FROM THE DEAN

What It Means To Be A Leader

Katz/CBA was pleased to welcome Sharon Allen, chairman of the board of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, on September 19 for the second Thought Leaders in Business seminar. This annual seminar is made possible by generous support from Katz alumni Shekar Narasimhan (MBA ’75) and Ed Hurley (MBA ’78). The purpose of the event is to expose students to leading business thinkers and to allow the entire Katz/CBA community to reflect on what it means to be a leader.

What is a leader? Not too long ago there was a clear answer: leaders were White men—tall was better and gray hair was good. They possessed other traits too, but there has been a good deal of debate about what traits make leaders effective. So executive suites tend to be a full of tall, White men at a time when we know that leadership is not determined by height, race, or hair color. Especially in today’s global economy, leadership is not linked to our skills—abilities and aptitudes—and our desire and drive to truly make a difference. While everyone can be a leader, not everyone is.

Sharon Allen is a leader. She grew up on a farm in Idaho, where there was always work to do. Hard work produced results, but it also showed Sharon that any result wasn’t automatically a good result. So she has worked relentlessly to make a difference—and she has. Last month, Deloitte was name the number one best place to launch a career by BusinessWeek. The secret to Deloitte’s success is accommodating the needs and goals of new employees as much as possible. The firm does so in person—involving many employees and executives in the recruiting process and stressing the opportunity for Deloitte employees to balance career and personal life.

Earlier this year, Allen was the force behind a unique survey that aligned work life balance and ethics. The results showed that taking time off to be with one’s family is not only good for the employee but for the employer as well. Can leaders really risk such different thinking? Sharon Allen has proved that they must.

Read more about Sharon Allen’s unique leadership style and excerpts of her keynote address from September 19.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

All Signs Point to a Successful Future
	CBA senior Erin Scheihing has found a way to combine her interest in business with her interest in serving others, and though its taken a great deal of organization, she’s managed to juggle the demands of her accounting coursework and two certificate programs. Read more about Scheihing’s undergraduate program of study and future ambitions >
EMBA Worldwide to Offer Career Management Resources to Students and Graduates
While most EMBA students are mid-career professionals preparing for the next level of management within their sponsoring organizations or senior executives who wish to enhance their managerial and leadership abilities and knowledge, many will benefit from the Career Management Resources now available through EMBA as students and later as alumni. Read more about the resources and services available to EMBA students and graduates >

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Saaty Wins 2007 Akao Prize
	Thomas L. Saaty—University Chair, Quantitative Group—was in Williamsburg, Va., September 7 and 8 to receive the 2007 Akao Prize for excellence in Quality Function Deployment (QFD) at the 13th Annual International Symposium on QFD. The award was created in 1996 in honor of Yoji Akao, a cofounder of QFD. QFD is a system for intelligently linking customers’ needs with design, development, engineering, manufacturing, and service functions. Read more about Saaty’s award >
Focus on Finance
The Finance Interest Group contributes to the school’s mission through its teaching and research activities. Read about the group’s scholarly endeavors of the past academic year. > Stay tuned! Future issues of Pitt Business will feature news and updates from our various interest groups.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

2007 EMBA Graduate Mike Dolan Takes Job as Vice President of Sales, Acuo Technologies
	When Mike Dolan was approached by a former coworker—now the chief executive officer of a medical informatics company—and asked to help the CEO grow his business internationally, participate in taking the company public, and work with large partners such as IBM, Microsoft®, and Hewlett-Packard, he says it was the knowledge he had obtained in the EMBA program; the relationships he had built with students from the program’s Pittsburgh, Prague, and São Paulo locations; and the resources of Katz professors made available to him through the EMBA program that gave him the confidence to take on the role of vice president of sales. Read more about Mike Dolan and his new role with Acuo Technologies >
Katz Grad Named Senior Vice President, Business Communications Services for AT&T Southwest
	Xavier Williams (MBA ’90) was named senior vice president, business communications services for AT&T Southwest, effective October 1. Williams was previously AT&T’s vice president, federal sales.

About Us

Learn more about the University and Pitt Business, including its centers, institute, and programs:

• University of Pittsburgh
• Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business
• College of Business Administration
• David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership
• Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence
• International Business Center
• Center for Executive Education

Could your office or service operation benefit from Lean Office techniques?

The Katz School’s Center for Executive Education is offering the Streamlining Office and Service Operations with Lean workshop, October 22 and 23, 2007.

Read more about how to eliminate waste, bottlenecks, and non-value-added work in your office or service environment.

The Pittsburgh Steelers: 75 years of family business success.

Each week, from August through December, millions of people tune in to watch one of Pittsburgh’s most famous family businesses, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Few fans, however, consider the Rooney family’s planning and business leadership that have helped the organization succeed for the past 75 years

In September, the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence’s (IEE) Family Enterprise series kicked off its fall season with Dan Rooney, chairman of the five-time Super Bowl champion Steelers, and a special program on family succession and transitioning roles across generations led by family consultant Amy Schuman.

Read more about the Family Enterprise program.

When a mid-career professional or senior executive decides to pursue the Executive MBA (EMBA) degree, it’s not just the student who must make sacrifices. A great deal is required of his or her family as well. EMBA students succeed in large part because of the support of their families. And when it comes time for graduation, the celebration is a multicultural family affair.

View a photo gallery of the July 27 EMBA graduation celebration.

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Question: What do mishandled luggage, the pet industry, Denmark and Hong Kong, Picasso and Billy Graham, and the Hindenburg exploding at Lakehurst, N.J., all have in common?  

Answer: You’ll find them all in the newest KatzQuiz.

Take this week’s KatzQuiz. >