InSights
A publication from the Albers School of
Business and Economics
the Center for Leadership Formation
Fa ll 2016
M
ar
il
yn
Gi
st
it being defined in terms of size: an
extent, amount, or intensity that is above
average. Synonyms for “great” include
words such as considerable, substantial,
serious.
m A search for definitions of “extraordinary”
suggests it goes a step further, being defined
as very unusual or remarkable or unusually
ly
al
great.
Synonyms include words such as exceptional,
l
Mu
Alan
amazing, astonishing, sensational, incredible, or
phenomenal. In essence, the term extraordinary goes beyond
greatness — it suggests very significant impact.
Applying this to organizations, let’s start by assuming that
organizations aim to be successful. At minimum, for-profit
firms require financial success. They measure this in terms
of growth, profit, return on equity, for example. Nonprofit
organizations seek outcomes that serve public interests with
funding they receive from donations, taxpayer support, or
Marilyn Gist and Alan Mulally
endowment. Nonprofits typically measure service delivery
What is the distinction between “great” and “extraordinary”?
and/or problems solved.
And what difference does leadership make? These are
So if organizations aim to be successful, those that are
compelling questions because organizations have such a
considered great would be those whose success is above
powerful effect on society, and on the people who work for
average on relevant measures. For example, in Good to Great,
them. The questions are also compelling for organizational
Jim Collins (2001) examined how companies beat the general
leaders because leaders play a major role in determining
stock market by at least 3 times over 15 years. And those that
organizational outcomes. This article will address these
are extraordinary would have ‘unusual greatness’ according
questions, providing views from both authors. To begin with,
to the definition above. This means they have phenomenal
we’d like to frame our use of the terms great and extraordinary.
success or very significant impact on relevant measures or in
m An internet search on definitions of the word “great” shows
Continued on page 4
Letter
from
the Dean
A
in this issue
Moving from Great to
Extraordinary / 1
Lessons From a Legacy / 3
Extraordinary:
A CEO Perspective / 6
Recapturing The American
Business Leadership Mystique / 8
What Differentiates the Startups
Likely to Move from Great Ideas to
Extraordinary Success / 9
Social Enterprises: Business
Models with Time-Tested Traits
of Success / 10
TrendWatch / 12
Big Data and Data Analytics:
Opening New Margins of
Competition /13
Upcoming Events / 16
s you are receiving this edition of InSights, I am starting my 16th year as the
dean of the Albers School. I am not very reflective and looking back is not in
my DNA. I have to be forced to do that, but somehow the theme of “Great to
Extraordinary” moves me to do that about our Leadership EMBA (LEMBA)
program. The program is in its 11th year, and there is no program that we are more proud
of! It has gone from Good to Great in a short period of time! Our LEMBA alumni go on to
do great things, and it is ranked 12th in the nation among EMBA programs in the 2017 US
News and World Report. The last issue of InSights focused on the impact of the program
and why it deserves such recognition!
LEMBA is a great program, but like any program, it can get even better, so we want
to make it extraordinary! As you will read elsewhere, that became much easier when Alan
Mulally, retired President and CEO of Ford Motor Company and Boeing Commercial
Airplanes, agreed to join the Center as a Senior Fellow. He is a transformational and
extraordinary leader who will help take our Center for Leadership Formation and
programs it runs, the Executive Leadership Program and LEMBA, to a higher level. We
are excited and honored to be working with him!
I continue to be amazed by the great work our faculty and staff members do with
our executive students. Students marvel at their transformation as skilled practitioners,
savvy business leaders, and contributors to the Common Good.
Please enjoy reading about the theme of “Great to Extraordinary!”
Joseph M. Phillips
Dean, Albers School of Business and Economics
Center for Leadership Formation Staff
Dr. Marilyn E. Gist
Associate Dean, Executive Programs
Professor, Department of Management
Executive Director, Center for Leadership Formation
Ariel Rosemond
Associate Director
Kathleen McGill
Manager, Executive Programs Outreach
Lorri Sheffer
Programs Manager
Center for Leadership Formation Fellows
Alan Mulally
Senior Fellow, Former President & CEO
Ford Motor Company
Phyllis Campbell
Chairman, Pacific Northwest, JP Morgan Chase
Jim Dwyer
President & CEO, Delta Dental of Washington
Allan Golston
President, US Program, Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation
Jim Sinegal
Co-Founder & Retired CEO, Costco Wholesale
Brian Webster
President & CEO, Physio-Control, Inc.
Center for Leadership Formation
Advisory Board
Lindsay Anderson
Vice President Quality, Boeing
Commercial Airplanes
Scott Armstrong
President & CEO, Group Health Cooperative
Scott Bond
President & CEO, Washington State
Hospital Association
Sallie Bondy
Director, Business Operations for Boeing
Fabrication, The Boeing Company
Page 2 / A lbers S chool of B usiness and E conomics I seattle universit y
Lessons
from a
Legacy
Ariel Rosemond
O
n March 21st of this year,
the world lost a great
business pioneer and
innovator. It is fitting that
we pause and reflect on his legacy.
Dr. Andrew Grove fled Communist
Hungary in 1956, to graduate at the
top of his class at the City College of
New York and earn a PhD in Chemical
Engineering from the University of
California, Berkeley. Intel Corporation,
with Grove as its Chief Executive
Officer and Chairman, would help
delivering microprocessors was a
testament to the focused genius of the
company’s executive leadership team. It
is also only a preamble to Andy Grove’s
story.
Extraordinary businesses, and the
executives who lead them, relentlessly
pursue the mastery of purpose. The
most successful leaders display it
through their operational efficiencies,
industry dominance, and influence over
the market. Organizational leadership
must establish and maintain a culture of
consistent effort towards this pursuit.
Grove famously led Intel’s
dramatic transformation in response
to the commoditization of its central
offering, the memory chip. In
successfully transitioning a dynamic
framing of purpose, Intel dominated
the semiconductor industry and
positioned itself to benefit from the
massive growth in personal computing.
Engaging his incredible ability with
book Only the Paranoid Survive, Grove
brought the concepts of strategic
dissonance and inflection points into
the classroom and into executive
leadership discussions around the
world. Business leaders look for the
clues that industry fundamentals
are changing and must be ready to
act. They achieve and retain success
through proactive reinvention.
Executives who take this lesson to
heart are primed to meet the needs to
“You have to understand what it is that you are better at than
anybody else and mercilessly focus your efforts on it.”
– Andrew s. Grove, Time magazine
create and subsequently dominate the
Dynamic Random-Access Memory
(DRAM) industry. Intel’s headquarters,
would become part of the “Silicon
Valley”— the global hub for technology
and innovation for most of the last
half-century. The success of Intel in
marketing and management, Grove
made the “Intel Inside” brand the
standard in PC hardware, while also
contributing business management
knowledge with his insightful books.
In writing for Stanford University
Graduate School of Business and in his
adapt and overcome. The competence
to welcome and influence change is
a hallmark of extraordinary business
leadership.
Since his passing, much has been
written about Andy and his legacy.
This funny, direct, argumentative, highly
Continued on page 7
Mike Butler
President of Operations & Services
Providence Health & Services
Dan Dixon
Senior Executive & Vice President of Public
Affairs, Providence Health & Services
Mike Ehl
Director of Aviation Operations
Port of Seattle
Brad Harlow
CEO & President, PhysioSonics
Aaron Howes
Vice President, Risk Management & Insurance
Expeditors International
David Jackson
Founder & Chief Strategist
Jaxx Strategic Partners
Harvey Kanter
Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
and President, Blue Nile
Jim Klauer
Senior Vice President, Non-Foods Merchandising
Costco Wholesale
Paul Lambert
Founder, Forum Solutions, LLC
John Milne
Founder & CEO, Avnew Health
Doug Moore
President, McKinstry
Sarah Patterson
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating
Officer, Virginia Mason Medical Center
Chris Rivera
President & CEO
Nativis, Inc.
Dan Wall
President, Global Products
Expeditors International of Washington
Fall 2 0 1 6 I seattleu . edu / albers / e x ecutiveeducation / page 3
Moving from Great to Extraordinary:
Why Leadership Matters
Continued from page 1
other ways.
Many factors contribute to
an organization’s outcomes, but
leadership is critically important. It is
leaders who prepare organizations
for change and help people through
that change (Kotter, 2001). They
set direction, align, and motivate
people. Without strong leadership,
organizations tend to stagnate or run
aground. Yet for all the discussion on
leadership, many people are unclear
how to put these ideas into practice to
achieve organizational greatness, let
alone extraordinary impact.
This article is the first in a series
that explores “how to” in conjunction
with Alan Mulally, the Center for
Leadership Formation’s Senior Fellow.
Mulally has been recognized as #3
among the world’s 50 greatest leaders
(e.g., Fortune, 2014), and one who
delivered extraordinary organizational
results (cf., Hoffman, 2012). In a quote
from Fortune, Mulally was described
as “Ford’s miracle worker [who] saved
the company without resorting to
bankruptcy or bailouts by doing what
previous leaders had tried and failed
to do: change Ford’s risk-averse,
reality-denying, CYA-based culture.
After earning $7.2 billion of profit last
year — far more than General Motors
or Chrysler — the company paid its
47,000 UAW workers a record $8,800
each in profit sharing.” (Fortune, 2014).
Of note, Mulally’s work is considered
extraordinary because he not only
achieved great financial results (and
during the Great Recession when US
auto manufacturers were at risk of
failing), but he positively impacted
the organizational culture and the
value chain.
In this article, we preview the
key principles in Mulally’s leadership
approach. Subsequent issues of
InSights will treat each of these
principles in depth. We close by suggesting additional criteria that lead to
extraordinary outcomes.
Mulally’s approach begins with the
formation of a compelling vision and a
The
contributions
of leaders
are essential to
organizational
Excellence.
comprehensive strategy for achieving
it. He looks for one that fits the
competitive and economic context
(e.g., business need) but also is clear
enough to rally everyone behind it.
At Ford Motor Company, after extensive research leading to a strong
understanding of the market and the
company’s situation, he formulated the
vision and strategy of “One Ford” —
implying that everyone and all of the
company’s efforts needed to unify
around this vision. In turn, the vision
became the focus for decisions on
which businesses to keep and spin off,
how to align the company’s management and unions, and how to gain the
support of suppliers and dealers.
Once the vision is introduced,
Mulally follows through with “relentless
implementation.” Import-antly, he
believes in the plan and persists in
aligning and motivating everyone’s
efforts toward the unifying vision.
There are three elements to his
approach to implementation, and they
are embodied in the “Business Plan
Review” process he developed.
1. The development and use of
metrics: Knowing the organization’s
vision, each leader is tasked with
identifying a strategy, plan, and
metrics for his or her part of the
organization that affect progress
toward the overall compelling vision
and strategy for the company. These
metrics must be able to be tracked
and reported.
2.Transparency: All leaders must share
with others how their part of the
organization is performing each
week. Through this transparency,
everyone knows how the
organization as a whole is doing.
3.Collaboration: Mulally’s “Working
Together” principles and practices
invoke a culture that respects the
dignity of all employees, avoids fear
and intimidation, and substitutes
a norm of supporting each other.
As problems surface in the weekly
Business Plan Review, separate
meetings are held with a team of
people who can support progress
in those areas. These collaborative
efforts continue until the problems
are resolved.
In sum, the extraordinary results
Mulally achieved came from a specific
leadership approach and management
system. It can be applied to other
organizations, but must be used as a
whole. For example, vision does not
work without implementation. And the
use of metrics in a climate of fear will
reduce transparency. Mulally notes that
leaders are then left trying to “manage
a secret.” So it is critical to embrace
the entire approach, something that is
challenging for many leaders.
We close with considering criteria
beyond financial outcomes that
comprise extraordinary results. In a
time when the world’s needs are great,
organizations have three compelling
opportunities to have significant and
positive impact on society beyond
financial gain and employment
opportunities. One involves innova-
Page 4 / A lbers S chool of B usiness and E conomics I seattle universit y
Continued on page 5
tion. The extraordinary impact of
companies like Apple and Microsoft
came from introducing significant
innovation into the market. Both
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are credited
with compelling visions that were
extraordinarily innovative at the time.
The impact has significantly benefitted
people’s lives worldwide.
Another path to extraordinariness
is improving the quality and dignity
of work life. Both Fortune and Seattle
Business Magazine, for example,
publish annual lists of the best
companies to work for. Nationally,
Google/Alphabet has ranked #1 for
seven times in ten years in Fortune’s
list. Both sources use employee
surveys to decide on rankings.
Fortune indicates that “two-thirds of
a company’s survey score is based on
the results of the Trust Index Employee
Survey, which is sent to a random
sample of employees from each
company. This survey asks questions
related to employees’ attitudes about
management’s credibility, overall job
satisfaction, and camaraderie. The
other third is based on responses
to the Culture Audit, which includes
detailed questions about pay and
benefit programs and a series of
open-ended questions about hiring
practices, methods of internal
communication, training, recognition
programs, and diversity efforts.” These
issues clearly relate to the quality and
dignity of employees’ work life.
Finally, extraordinariness can
be achieved through the impact an
organization has on the larger societal
good. One example is Starbucks,
which has been recognized for its
global development work with coffee
growers as well as direct-service
work to improve disadvantaged
domestic communities. However, the
company is also known for progressive
With compelling vision, comprehensive strategy,
and relentless implementation, leaders can move their
organizations from great to extraordinary.
Alan Mulally served as president and chief
executive officer of The Ford Motor Company
and as a member of Ford’s board of directors
from September 2006 – June 2014. Mulally was
named #3 on Fortune’s “World’s Greatest Leaders”
in 2014, joined Google’s board of directors in July
2014, and the board of directors of Carbon 3D
in May 2015.
Mulally led Ford’s transformation into one of the
world’s leading automobile companies and the
#1 automobile brand in the United States. Prior
to joining Ford, Mulally served as executive vice
president of The Boeing Company, president
and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and
president of Boeing Information, Space and
Defense Systems.
He has been named one of the 30 “World’s Best
CEOs” by Barron‘s magazine, one of “The World’s
Most Influential People” by Time Magazine, and
“Chief Executive of the Year” by Chief Executive
magazine. He also was honored with the American
Society for Quality‘s medal for excellence in
executive leadership, the Automotive Executive
of the Year, and the Thomas Edison Achievement
Award.
Mulally serves on President Obama‘s United
States Export Council. He served as co-chairman
of the Washington Competitiveness Council,
and has served on the advisory boards of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
the University of Washington, the University of
Kansas, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
and the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory
Board. He is a member of the United States
National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of
England’s Royal Academy of Engineering. Mulally
has also served as President of the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and
as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the
Aerospace Industries Association.
Mulally holds Bachelor and Master of Science
degrees in aeronautical and astronautical
engineering from the University of Kansas, and a
Masters in Management from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology as an Alfred P. Sloan
Fellow.
Dr. Marilyn E. Gist is Associate Dean
for Executive Programs and Professor of
Management, Albers School of Business and
Economics, Seattle University. In addition, she
serves as Executive Director of the Center
for Leadership Formation providing academic
direction for the executive degree and certificate
employment practices that support
health benefits and educational
pursuits for part-time, retail workers
— a practice that Howard Schultz
introduced to an industry known for
low wages and high turnover.
In sum, the contributions of
leaders are essential to organizational
greatness. This article is the first in
our series on the leader’s unique role
and contribution in an organization.
Subsequent issues will address how
the leader can hold him- or herself
and the team accountable for results
that affect all stakeholders and
society as a whole. With compelling
vision, comprehensive strategy, and
relentless implementation, leaders can
move their organizations from great to
extraordinary.
References
Collins, J.C. (2001). Good to Great. New York:
Harper Collins.
Fortune Magazine (March 20, 2014). “The World’s
50 Greatest Leaders.”
Hoffman, B.G. (2012). American Icon: Alan Mulally
and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company.
New York: Crown Publishing Group, a division
of Random House, Inc.
Kotter, J. P. (2001). What Leaders Really Do.
Harvard Business Review.
programs. Prior to this, Marilyn held the Boeing
Endowed Professorship of Business Management at the University of Washington, where she
was also the Faculty Director for Executive MBA
programs. In addition to her academic roles, she
has served in management positions in the public
and private sectors, and has extensive consulting
experience.
Marilyn is an internationally recognized scholar.
She has over 25 publications in leading scholarly
outlets. Google Scholar, which monitors how often
a publication has been cited by other scholars,
provides one measure of the quality or importance
of a person’s work. Marilyn’s work has been
cited roughly three thousand times in articles
and books that were published subsequently by
other people. Her current publications include
“Developing Dual-Agenda Leaders” (co-authored
with Professor Sharon Lobel) in the 2012 Journal
of Corporate Citizenship, and ”Self-Efficacy” (coauthored with Angela Gist) in the 2013 Oxford
Bibliographies in Management.
Marilyn earned her BA from Howard University
and her MBA and PhD from the Smith School
of Business at the University of Maryland,
College Park.
Fall 2 0 1 6 I seattleu . edu / albers / e x ecutiveeducation / page 5
EXTRAORDINARY:
A CEO Perspective
M
HARVEY KANTER
oving from great
to extraordinary is
much easier to say
than do. After all,
“extraordinary” is
something unusual or remarkable, and
when you think about it, it’s pretty
rare. Being extraordinary requires a
committed mindset, a relentless drive,
a strong team, and the ability to power
through setbacks.
In 2012, I was recruited by Blue
Nile, a leading retailer of diamonds and
fine jewelry, to lead its evolution as a
retailer poised to meet the demands
of the next generation of consumers.
Though I had a lot of retail experience
already, including at Carter Hawley
Hale’s Broadway Department Store
(now part of Macy’s), Sears, Eddie
Bauer, Aaron Brothers, Michaels, and
Moosejaw Mountaineering, this was
a new challenge. To accomplish the
vision set forth for Blue Nile, “great”
wouldn’t be good enough. I needed to
lead the team to be extraordinary.
As it relates to business, a clear
focus on the challenge is important.
I’ve faced significant challenges before.
For example, I joined Moosejaw in
January 2009, and the company,
like many retailers at the time, was
hammered hard by the recession and
challenged in sales and profitability.
However, a strong business plan and
laser-focus on the customer led to a
turnaround. Blue Nile, on the other
hand, already had an enviable business
model and a reputation for being
obsessively customer-focused. To
evolve the company, we would have
to become extraordinary. That meant
literally redefining retail.
Today’s consumer, including the
coveted millennial, doesn’t care if a
retailer is online or not. They demand a
great experience anytime and every
time, whether they’re on a phone, a
tablet, a PC, or in a store. To leverage
this environment, the team at Blue Nile
reimagined retail and put the company
squarely on the cutting edge in a
few ways.
industry. Finally and most recently,
the “Webroom” concept we launched
in June of 2015 is fundamentally
changing how our customers shop for
jewelry.
The Webroom is a hybrid online/
offline shopping experience in one
low-overhead installation. Unlike
traditional jewelry stores, customers
can walk into a Webroom and independently try on an assortment of
engagement rings, view jewelry from
every angle in dazzling display cases,
and get pressure-free advice from
“To evolve the company, we would have to become
extraordinary. That meant literally redefining retail.”
First, Blue Nile went all in and
created a responsive design website in
2013, which renders elegantly on a PC,
tablet, or phone. The company was
among the first retailers—and certainly
the first jeweler—to do so. Next,
clearly understanding the importance
of social media for consumers, we
made it a priority to supplement Blue
Nile’s already stellar reputation. Far
more than a “check the box” novelty,
the company sees social media as a
critical tool for building awareness and
loyalty, and believes it is instrumental
in consumer consideration. We’re
clearly doing something right; Blue
Nile was just recognized by Internet
Retailer as America’s 10th best
social media marketer, surpassing
many larger brands in and out of our
non-commissioned consultants. All
transactions continue to happen online
via in-store tablets or the customer
can choose to order at a later time on
their own smartphone, PC, or tablet,
through the Blue Nile website.
This vision, which puts Blue Nile
in a leadership position, is part of the
emerging trend of “omnichannel”
marketing. There has been a lot of
buzz about this re-imagined retail
experience. When reporters write
about the omnichannel trend, Blue
Nile is almost always mentioned as
a pioneer. Taken together, these
efforts are dramatically shaping and
reshaping retail. With a clear focus
on the challenges we face and a
relentless drive to meet them, we’re
moving from great to extraordinary.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
PA G E 6 / A L B E R S S C H O O L O F B U S I N E S S A N D E C O N O M I C S I S E AT T L E U N I V E R S I T Y
Lessons from a Legacy
Moving from great to
extraordinary is
achievable with clear
goals and hard work.
Continued from page 6
But extraordinary efforts are not
necessarily all about business.
There are other critically important
elements as well.
Back in 2014, I toured Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,
one of the leading U.S. research
institutes, with three Nobel Laureates
and world-class researchers in
immunotherapy. As a cancer survivor,
I was impressed by the work being
accomplished there, and I committed
Blue Nile to the “Obliteride,” an
annual bike ride that raises money for
the organization. After only two years
of participation, I’m pleased to say
that Blue Nile has become a significant contributor to the fundraising
total and even hosts a rest stop along
the way. What we have accomplished
working together with the Hutch is
extraordinary in my view.
Simply put, moving from great
to extraordinary is achievable with
clear goals and hard work. As we
have at Blue Nile, leaders must be
sure to have forward thought, push
boundaries, and give your consumers
or audience what they want, even if
they don’t yet know that they want it.
Harvey Kanter is Chief Executive Officer,
President and Chairman of Blue Nile, Inc.
He has an MBA from Babson College and a
BS from Arizona State University. Kanter is
a graduate of Seattle University’s Executive
Leadership Program and a member of the
Center for Leadership Formation’s Business
Leadership Advisory Board. Harvey also serves
on the advisory boards of the UW Bothell
School of Business and on the Jewelers for
Children Special Programs Committee.
Continued from page 3
intelligent and irreverent
business pioneer was an
exemplary business leader
and educator. He was a close
friend and guiding figure to
the charismatic pioneer of
personal computing, Steve
Jobs, and a mentor to scores
of others. Intel employees still
remark on the positive impact
of his “One-on-One” leadership
development techniques on their
careers. It is here that we find yet
another interesting lesson in the
study of executive leadership.
Much of Andy Grove’s
remarkable legacy is centered on
his extraordinary levels of influence,
on the personal computer industry
and management practice. He
succeeded in mastering his purpose
and in leading Intel to do the same.
When the conditions demanded,
Intel reacted to the market, with
incredible results. Finally, his great
influence over technological
innovation and business management is well recognized and
respected. The most influential
business leaders must be oriented
to creating value for the customer,
investor, supplier, employee and
mentee. Andy Grove left a legacy
of great value.
“There is at least one
point in the history of any
company when you have to
change dramatically to rise to
the next level of performance.
Miss that moment — and you
start to decline.”
– Andrew S. Grove,
fortune magazine
Executives striving towards
extraordinary performance will
extract lessons from Andy Grove’s
legacy. To wield any significant
influence over the long run, the
competencies to develop are the
discipline to lead, the mindset to
recognize and respond to challenge,
and the orientation to satisfy the
changing needs of the stakeholder.
Ariel Rosemond is Associate Director of
the Center for Leadership Formation at the
Albers School of Business and Economics,
Seattle University. Ariel is also a graduate
of Seattle University’s Executive Leadership
Program and Executive MBA.
“Businesses fail
either because they
leave their customers or
because their customers
leave them!”
– Andrew S. Grove,
Only the paranoid survive
Fall 2 0 1 6 I seattleu . edu / albers / e x ecutiveeducation / page 7
Recapturing The American Business
Leadership Mystique
Rubiná mahsud
S
ince childhood, I have always
thought of extraordinary
leaders as those who think
of others before themselves.
During a crisis or in the
wake of a disaster, leaders are just like
ship captains and plane pilots who are
expected to evacuate others to safety
first. From this perspective, let’s take a
look at the actions of business leaders
in America today, focusing on CEOs.
Historically, American businesses
have been known and admired globally
for their leaders’ relentless innovation,
imagination, and job creation. Because
of these qualities, American companies
created demand that never existed
before and catalyzed new industries
and markets around the world.
American businesses and their leaders
inspired the world with their ability to
mobilize human energy and achieve
solid consistent growth and profitability
for their companies and the economy.
Personally, the mystique of American
business and its management led me
to embark upon my Ph.D. in business
management in the U.S.
Leadership Cries for Repair
Sadly, a new corrupting phenomenon is destroying that mystique
I found so alluring: the enormous
and widening income gap between
American CEOs and their employees.
Partly as a result of this, America’s
reputation for management greatness
is shrinking and may evaporate
altogether. The Huffington Post
reported that CEOs of the fifty U.S.
firms that slashed the most jobs from
2008 to 2010 pocketed 42 percent
more compensation during that period
than the average CEO of an S&P
500 firm.
The study further suggested that
the majority of these CEOs announced
Mauborgne (2014) in Blue Ocean
Leadership suggested that leadership
can be thought of as a service that
those associated with organizations
can decide to “buy” or “not buy.” Every
leader has customers, among them the
directors and shareholders to whom
the leader must deliver performance.
At least as important to leaders are
the employees who “buy” leadership
for guidance, support, and inspiration.
Unfortunately, considerable evidence
suggests that employees are not
“buying” their executives’ leadership.
“Historically, American
businesses have been
known and admired globally
for their leader’s relentless
innovation, imagination,
and job creation.”
massive layoffs even though their firms
were profitable. Among those leading
the layoffs were the Hewlett Packard
CEO (earning $24.2 million in 2009
while laying off 6,400 workers), the
Walmart CEO (earning $19.2 million
while laying off 13,350 workers), and
commercial and investment bankers
who paid their CEOs approximately
$20 billion in 2008 while their industry
collapsed around them, requiring
government bailouts as it shed tens of
thousands of jobs. The retailer Target
recently announced a $5 billion loss in
Canada, terminating 17,000 employees, but the former CEO walked away
with $61 million. The current CEO’s
compensation was $28.2 million in
2014 alone.
What’s the impact of this on US
employees? Should we care? Kim and
The Price of Non-Repair
A major reason for not “buying” the
leadership arises from the accelerated
pay inequity in the face of massive
layoffs. Almost all of the accumulated
data suggests that this compensation
inequity leads to high levels of
resentment, mistrust, and disrespect
for executives. Gallup’s 2013 survey on
the State of the American Workplace
suggested that only 30 percent of
corporate employees are actively
committed to doing a good job; 50
percent merely put their time in, while
the remaining 20 percent act out their
discontent in counterproductive ways,
costing the U.S. economy around $500
billion each year. The study concluded
that the key reason for widespread
employee disengagement was poor
leadership. As the Huffington Post
suggests, employees quit their leaders,
not their companies.
The idea that a single person in
the company can be worth 531 times
the average worker’s salary is demoralizing to the average employee. In
essence, a grocery worker with a salary
of $18,000 per year would need to
work about 900 years to reach the
average CEO’s pay (Whelton, 2006).
Page 8 / A lbers S chool of B usiness and E conomics I seattle universit y
Continued on page 14
What Differentiates the Startups
Likely to Move from Great Ideas
to Extraordinary Success
Lisa Zhao
S
uccessful startups are
founded on great ideas.
However, ideas are often
abundant and not unique.
What differentiates startups
likely to move from great ideas to
extraordinary success are not the
ideas but the entrepreneurs’ drive and
ability to execute the ideas and turn
them into realities. The entrepreneurs
who achieve such success have key
qualities in common. In many cases,
they also benefit from strong support
networks.
Successful entrepreneurs are laserfocused on their missions, and they
nor the first to enter the digital music
industry—he succeeded by doing a
better job at both.
Successful entrepreneurs are not
afraid of failures. They are willing to
take risks but do so in a disciplined
way. They make small bets and test
their business models in the marketplace as inexpensively and quickly as
possible. This approach enables them
to quickly learn, pivot, and iterate in
search of a sustainable and scalable
business model.
Jeff Bezos built a culture of quick
learning at Amazon by encouraging
experimentation and insisting on a
local communities. Bill Gates led
Microsoft to extraordinary success
by strategically partnering first with
IBM and later with other PC makers
and software developers. For many
years, Microsoft helped these partners
attract new businesses and customers,
which in turn increased demand for
Microsoft’s products.
Critical as the above qualities are
for entrepreneurs to succeed, they
“Successful entrepreneurs are not afraid of failures. They are willing
to take risk but do so in a disciplined way.”
understand that they can realize their
missions only by solving customers’
problems, addressing their needs, and
fulfilling their desires. Mark Zuckerberg
works toward his dream of an open
and connected world by helping
Facebook’s customers achieve their
desire of being socially connected.
Elon Musk of Tesla Motors realized
his vision for a cleaner, more humane
world by offering innovative products
to provide people with a luxury vehicle
while addressing their concerns about
environmental degradation.
These entrepreneurs learned
from others who have experienced
successes and failures doing similar
things. Iconic entrepreneur Steve
Jobs led Apple to innovate by
building on other people’s discoveries
and experiences, not only in the
technology industry but also in other
industries such as consumer goods
and fashion design. He was neither
the first to build a personal computer
culture of measuring results. Many of
Amazon’s experiments failed, but most
were small endeavors. Bezos once
said, “If you double the number of
experiments you do per year, you are
going to double your inventiveness.”
PayPal pioneers Max Levchin and
Peter Thiel initially planned to offer
security software for handheld
devices. But when their offerings failed
to gain traction, they pivoted to a webbased system for securely transferring
cash from one user to another and
PayPal took off.
Finally, successful entrepreneurs
are team players. Attaining big,
multifaceted goals requires wide
networks of diverse talent and minds
that can be tapped into for inspiration,
knowledge, technology, and resources.
Successful entrepreneurs build these
networks by sharing their success
with their stakeholders, which include
their customers as well as their
employees, partners, investors, and
also need support from others. Some
of that support comes from family
and friends who are called upon to
share in an entrepreneur’s sacrifices.
But entrepreneurs also need a strong
support system of mentors from
industry and academia, and a network
of established businesses with which
they can partner. Local entrepreneurial
leaders can be important players in
such a support system.
A good example of a startup
that benefited from such a support
system is Vera Whole Health, which
was founded in 2008 by a Seattle
University MBA student, Ryan Schmid.
After facing and overcoming serious
challenges during the financial crisis
and recession, Ryan built an innovative
and successful business. That success
was owed in large part to the qualities
of a successful entrepreneur discussed
earlier, such as Ryan’s ability to learn
from failure and pivot from a fitness
Fall 2 0 1 6 I seattleu . edu / albers / e x ecutiveeducation / page 9
Continued on page 15
Social Enterprises: Business Models
with Time-Tested Traits of Success
atul tandon
M
any Seattle University
students and alumni
are probably familiar
with renowned
management guru
Peter Drucker who once said, “The
purpose of an organization is to
enable ordinary human beings to do
extraordinary things.”
Professor Drucker passed away 11
years ago after a six-decade consulting
career. Fortunately, I had opportunity
to meet him several times; for over 30
years, his business wisdom and insights
helped shape my career in the financial
services industry, the non-profit sector,
and now as a social entrepreneur.
So how does an organization
educate, inspire, and bring together
ordinary human beings to accomplish
extraordinary things?
Some people may try to answer
that question by studying today’s
corporate giants, such as Facebook,
Amazon, or Google. All three are
Critical lessons can be learned from
socially-conscious organizations that
have demonstrated staying power.
The honest answer? Well, time will tell!
Time is the great leveler of
strength, performance, and impact. It
has thrown many a great enterprise
into the dustbins of history. Standard
Oil once controlled nearly 90 percent
of the petroleum-related products
Five of those traits, in my experience
and observation, are:
m A long-standing, clear, and easily
understandable mission
m Consistent focus on people—
both internally, towards staff, and
externally towards customers
m An uncompromising commitment
to deliver value to their customers
and stakeholders
m A repeatable, scalable, and
continuously improving operational
model
m An enduring commitment to social
good, in addition to generating
investable surpluses
Three social enterprises I’ve
studied exemplify these traits and
merit elaboration. Like other successful
ventures, they focus on creating
common good for all stakeholders—
clients, employees, investors, vendors,
“the purpose of an organization is to enable ordinary
human beings to do extraordinary things.”
– Peter Drucker
extraordinarily successful. Stockholders, Wall Street brokers, and
business reporters eagerly await their
quarterly earnings reports. Each is an
instantly recognizable brand, helps
drive our global economy, and is led by
an innovative entrepreneur. I applaud
the visionary business savvy of their
leaders Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos,
and my fellow Indian entrepreneur
Sundar Pichai.
But interestingly, Amazon, the
oldest of the three, was founded in
1994 and likely is younger than most
MBA students at the Albers School of
Business and Economics. Over its short
life, Amazon has grown rapidly from
good to great. But is it extraordinary?
flowing into the United States. But
today, more than 100 years after its
demise, it is referred to in classroom
lectures as a corporate monopoly and
victim of antitrust laws.
In my opinion, to qualify as
extraordinary, an organization must
have delivered great results and
demonstrated sustained impact over a
long period of time.
So where do we find such firms
today? What makes them different?
When I counsel my clients and
students to examine the time-tested
traits of firms that have remained vital—
and relevant—for decades, I encourage
them not to limit their attention to
traditional for-profit corporations.
and others. The IRS tax status of a
for-profit corporation, an LLC, a
nonprofit, or a member-owned
cooperative does not define such
entities. Instead, organizations working
for social good can be any of these,
including commercial enterprises that
run surpluses and generate funding to
not only sustain, but also to scale their
operations.
Amul, located cross the world
in Gujarat, India, is the largest dairy
cooperative in the world as well as an
excellent example of an exceptional
social enterprise. The 70-year-old
organization is owned by more than
3.6 million farmers and engages
Page 1 0 / A lbers S chool of B usiness and E conomics I seattle universit y
Continued on next page
“In my opinion, to qualify as extraordinary an organization
should have delivered great results and demonstrated
sustained impact over a long period of time.”
supporters and volunteers by
operating under a three-tiered system
that includes village and districtlevel milk unions, and state-level milk
federations. Milk is collected at the
village level and processed at a districtlevel facility, and then the milk and
milk-related products are marketed
through a state-level federation. This
structure is replicated throughout the
country.
Rather than being operated by a
state or national government agency,
or a publicly traded corporation,
Amul is run on a business model that
epitomizes socially-minded success
focused on stakeholder satisfaction.
According to its website, the
organization witnessed nearly 200
percent cumulative growth over the
last six years and is growing its milk
processing capacity by more than
seven million gallons—every day.
More importantly, Amul has done
more than any other corporate entity
to help address poverty in India, and it
is investing in the next generation with
its “Made in Rural India” campaign,
promoting dairy entrepreneurship as
“an attractive livelihood” among rural
youth.
Closer to home here in Seattle,
most people are familiar with REI, the
retail-based consumer cooperative
founded in 1938 that models peoplefocused policies both internally and
externally. For example, I know of no
other firm with more than 140 stores
in 36 states and nearly $2.4 billion in
revenue that intentionally closes its
doors, shuts down its website, and
essentially, ceases all operations on
the biggest shopping day of the year
—Black Friday.
“We define success a little
differently,” said REI President and
CEO Jerry Stritzke in 2015. “It’s
much broader than just money. How
effectively do we get people outside?”
Its stores offer free clinics on
outdoor adventures and organize
hikes and cycling trips; REI also offers
meeting space free of charge to
non-profit organizations, supports
conservation efforts, and organizes
yearly outdoor service projects. The
organization has armies of volunteers
who help clean up the environment,
build trails, and teach children about
preserving the environment.
In 1935, three years before REI
was established, 18 Boeing employees
banded together to create another
Puget Sound-based social enterprise,
the Boeing Employees’ Credit Union
(BECU). In contrast to a traditional
bank, the leaders of BECU and
other non-profit credit unions report
to member-owners instead of shareholders.
And from my observations, its
leaders remain deeply committed to
their customer base. While it is not
the largest locally owned financial
service provider in Washington state
(that distinction goes to Washington
Federal Bank), BECU excels at
community outreach, including
member- and employee-inspired
giving and financial empowerment.
For example, members can
participate in free, self-paced online
courses on topics ranging from
budgeting to first-time home buying.
BECU’s stakeholder focus results in
best-of-class services while building
loyalty by giving members a percent
back of their account balances.
All three—Amul, REI, and
BECU—have vastly different missions,
stakeholders, and business models.
But all three, decades after their
founding, continue to deliver superior
performance, impact, and social good.
They have mastered the cocktail of
extraordinary success: a clear mission,
a focus on people, a commitment to
deliver superior and differentiated
value to their customers, and an
adaptable and continuously improving
business model. They educate young
couples about home mortgage rates,
instruct teenagers on rebuilding
hiking trails after a flood, and provide
life-enriching products to billions of
people.
These social enterprises have
provided guidance, wisdom, and
insight to those of us who study
successful business models, whether
from the inside of a classroom or a
board room. And together, they
represent more than two centuries of
enabling “ordinary human beings to do
extra-ordinary things.”
Atul Tandon is founder and CEO of the
Tandon Institute, which equips social sector
organizations with strategies, solutions and
staffing to grow their impact, revenues, public
awareness, and leadership effectiveness rapidly.
“They have mastered the
cocktail of extraordinary
success: a clear mission,
a focus on people, a
commitment to deliver
superior and differentiated
value to their customers,
and an adaptable and
continuously improving
business model.”
Fall 2 0 1 6 I seattleu . edu / albers / e x ecutiveeducation / page 1 1
TRENDwatch
EXECUTIVE LEADERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON
EXTRAORDINARY LEADERSHIP
T
he person who stands out as an exceptional
business leader is Lisa Brummel, Microsoft’s
former Chief People Officer. She held this role
for approximately 10 years and during that time, the
employee count swelled to nearly 130,000. During
her tenure were numerous annual review models, an
HR transformation, sizable acquisitions, enhancements
to the world-class benefits program, and one CEO
change. She was strategic, inclusive, authentic, diverse,
direct, compassionate, and approachable. Ms. Brummel
reported to the CEO so HR had a seat at the table with
the highest level executives in the company. She led
HR All-Hands meetings which gave the organization
insight into the latest events at Microsoft. She thanked
individuals, teams and the organization for our work.
We were also encouraged to do more and continually
improve. Ms. Brummel mastered the art of connecting
with large and small audiences; she was also very good
one-on-one. Microsoft was fortunate to have such a
solid leader for just under a decade. Ms. Brummel left a
legacy as well as tough shoes to fill.
Tameiko Davis
HR Leader – Google
B
ill Ayer, retired Chairman and CEO of Alaska
Airlines, is an extraordinary leader. Bill demonstrated the depth of his extraordinary leadership
to me on a trip I took to Washington, DC a few years
ago. I settled into my first-class seat early while the rest
of the passengers loaded. I was pleasantly surprised
when my friend Bill came aboard, and I fully expected
him to sit in the only remaining empty first-class seat
right next to mine. I was astonished when he said “good
morning” and walked by to take his seat back in coach.
I asked the flight attendant about it and she told me
that he always rides in coach so that one more good
Alaska customer can get an upgrade. It took me a few
minutes to understand that Bill’s real message was to
all of the Alaska employees: the customer is the most
important person on the airplane and every employee
needs to make the customer feel that way.
L
eadership is a transformative process.
As you develop your team(s), as you
develop relationships and partnership,
and as you develop your leadership, you’re in a
constant state of transformation. The pivotal factor
in moving from great to extraordinary is building
powerful team dynamics.
The development of your team requires identifying
individuals who will complement each other’s
strengths and counter each other’s weaknesses.
Your team members are looking for a leader who
demonstrates a genuine and indubitable character.
As a leader, you must be transparent with your team
and share information, strategy, successes, and
failures. You must provide an environment and nurture
a culture of trust and openness. Allowing the team to
form an organic structure versus installing a
hierarchical structure promotes social interaction
between the team members and the leader, and
places the team members in a stakeholder position
versus a subordinate position. This ensures the team
will be invested in the success of the team and by that
success, lend success to the organization as they
strive to fulfill the shared vision and goals.
The development of “leader partnerships” offers
a similar balance as noted above. You, as a leader,
should seek a leader partner who can augment
your strengths and counter your weaknesses. The
development of this type of partnership should be
done with intent. Having a partner to develop visions
and implement strategies, and to be responsive to
an ever-changing business environment is critical
for you as a leader and ultimately, critical for the
organization’s success.
Volumes can and have been written about the transformation from great to extraordinary; here, I have
provided a couple of seeds that you can germinate
and nurture as you continue on your transformative
journey from great to extraordinary.
Don Lonam
Vice President – Process Improvement
Valley Medical Center
Capt. Stephen R. Taylor
Chief Pilot – Boeing Flight Services
Page 1 2 / A lbers S chool of B usiness and E conomics I seattle universit y
Big Data and Data Analytics:
Opening New Margins of Competition
Gareth Green
A
s data and computing
power continue to grow—
increasing in volume,
velocity and variety—there
is more information available to
support effective business decisions
than ever before. But there is more
to the emerging data technologies
than being big and fast; data analytics
techniques are now more approachable. The term “big data” has become
a catch-all phrase used to describe
the rise of all data technologies, and
it is not entirely accurate. “Big data”
simply refers to data sets that are so
large that traditional data processing
applications are inadequate. Though
most data analytics techniques have
been available for decades, businesses
have lacked the data, computing power
and software to effectively apply them.
The current rise of data technologies
is enabling businesses to examine new
margins of performance, fostering the
move from great to extraordinary.
understand the mood
and direction of public
corporations; human
resources departments
can use prediction
tools to investigate
productivity and staffing
trends; engineers can
gather performance data
and use it to customize
equipment maintenance
plans; insurance firms
can monitor the driving
styles of their customers
and offer them rates based on their
competence rather than simply their
age and gender; and health service
providers can mine clinical data
to gauge the cost-effectiveness of
medications for specific clients. Data
technologies are opening new margins
to measure business effectiveness,
creating better products and services.
Data provides transparency—
whether big or small, simple or
now more accessible,
thanks to software
development. Unlocking
the transparency that
data can provide is the
key to benefiting from
data technologies—
enabling the move to
extraordinary.
A recent set of
studies have identified
three key factors in
companies that have
benefited from the
growth in data technologies: size,
awareness, and the complementarity
of technology and an educated work
force. Larger businesses are able to
gain from economies of scale to bring
down costs of data technology per unit
of production. Awareness relates to
managers and firms being able to learn
about new practices from multiple
sources, and be flexible and willing to
investigate them. And complementarity
The current rise of data technologies is enabling businesses
to move from great to extraordinary.
The combination of big data,
data analytics and computing power
is changing what constitutes data.
Historically, data was limited to
numerical information because that
was all that could be processed. For
example, marketers can gather a
huge variety of data—numbers, text,
images, audio, video, location, time
frame—and analyze it simultaneously
in real-time to create personalized
offerings to individual consumers.
Or investment brokers can use text
analysis of financial reports to better
complex, survey or sensor, structured
or unstructured. The key is to correctly
match the data and analysis techniques
to the questions at hand to make
effective business decisions. It is quite
common to sample from big data and
analyze the “small data” to understand
business settings. Much insight can
be gained from querying, comparing
descriptive statistics, and examining
correlations, regardless of the size
of your data. Or you can dive deeper
using data mining, machine learning,
and statistical techniques that are
indicates that you need both
data technology and an educated
workforce, not just one or the other.
Firms with at least two of these
attributes have been more successful
at leveraging data technologies and
advancing in their industries.
Data technologies are not perfect,
nor can they capture many elements
of qualitative reasoning. While some
data enthusiasts have suggested
that it is better to rely on mountains
of data rather than rely on business
domain expertise, I contend it is critical
Continued on page 15
Fall 2 0 1 6 I seattleu . edu / albers / e x ecutiveeducation / page 1 3
Recapturing The American
Business Leadership Mystique
Continued from page 8
In discussing this glaring disparity,
well-respected management and
strategy scholar, Henry Mintzberg said,
“Although executives like to think of
themselves as leaders, when it comes
to their pay practices, many of them
have not demonstrated leadership
at all.”
“Sub-ordinary” or
Extraordinary – A Choice
The CEO sets the direction and
vision of a corporation, and the skills
and responsibilities required to run a
company are admittedly rare. However,
the current trend in excessive
compensation is out of proportion
to the CEO’s value added to the
enterprise, and that is distressing to
employees. Peter Drucker advised
business leaders to think of their
enterprises as social systems rather
than mechanical systems. Mintzberg
suggests that a robust enterprise is not
a “collection of human resources” but
rather, a community of human beings
responsible for its performance. CEOs
who accept compensation packages
that single them out from everyone
else are not genuine leaders. Excessive
compensation effectively isolates
them from that community. This
sharply contrasts with a critical role
of leadership: creating and engaging
passionate value-creating communities
while devoting energies to employee
care and concerns.
adding value to the entire enterprise.
Leaders can either become
overpaid statistics with many dollar
signs associated with their names, or
they can become social architects who
…a critical role of leadership: creating and engaging
passionate value-creating communities while
devoting energies to employee care and concerns.
Jim Collins, talking on “The 10
Greatest CEOs of All Time,” stated
that the overriding commonality
among the ten greatest CEOs was
their deep sense of connectedness to
the organizations they ran, not how
much they were paid. Secondly, these
CEOs were unlike other CEOs, who
often saw themselves as members of
an “executive elite club” that measured
their pay/privileges against other
CEOs. Instead, the great CEOs’ ethos
was a true corporate ethos, in the
original, non-business sense of the
word, “corporate” meaning “united or
combined into one.” These CEOs
understood the central paradox of
exceptional corporate leadership. On
one hand, a company depends more on
the CEO than on any other individual
for making complex and difficult
decisions. On the other, a
company equally depends on
the CEO’s aware-ness that
he or she is just another
one of many resources
construct workplaces with meaning
and purpose. In a new leadership
model, CEOs would set the tones and
create environments where every
employee has the chance to collaborate, innovate, and excel; environments
in which employees perceive they are
fairly treated and compensated for the
value they create.
Today’s CEOs need to rise to the
levels of extraordinary leadership I
envisioned and admired as a child,
where those in power served others
first. Their efforts to ensure the
well-being of employees before they
turn to their own will revive the
mystique of American businesses while
creating vibrant communities where
employees gladly contribute their gifts
of initiative, imagination, and passion.
DR. Rubiná Mahsud is an Associate Professor
in the Albers School of Business and Economics,
teaching executives at the Center for Leadership
Formation, Seattle University. She teaches in the
areas of competitive and collaborative strategy,
blue ocean strategy, global business strategy,
and international management. Her previous
experience includes working as a medical doctor,
medical director, consultancies with UN and other
private organizations. Her work is published in
the Journal of Managerial Psychology, Journal
of Leadership and Organizational Studies,
Consulting Psychology Journal, Business &
Society Review, and The Independent Review.
Page 1 4 / A lbers S chool of B usiness and E conomics I seattle universit y
What Differentiates the Startups
Likely to Move from Great Ideas
to Extraordinary Success
Continued from page 9
studio for women to onsite primary care
clinics and health coaching for employers.
But Ryan also owes some of his success
to the willingness of local businesses and
health care providers to partner with him,
and the sound training, mentoring, and
support he received at the outset from
Seattle University.
Ryan obtained seed money for Vera
by winning first place in the Seattle
University’s Harriet Stephenson Business
Plan Competition. Kent Johnson, an
SU adjunctprofessor and successful
entrepreneur himself, mentored Ryan
in the competition and thereafter, just
as he has done for many other young
entrepreneurs in the Seattle area. As Ryan
explains, “Countless people offered their
help to refine the business plan which
ultimately made our business stronger
and was instrumental in raising our seed
capital. Kent’s support of the company
as our lead investor and board observer
(he’s currently our board chair), was
the final major push that got us rolling
downhill. Without Kent’s mentorship and
support, we may never have raised the
capital to launch in the first place.”
In short, entrepreneurs who move
startups from a great idea to extraordinary
success share important qualities that
differentiate them from their peers. But
universities and local business communities
can nurture those qualities and provide
the business skills and support systems
that even the most highly talented
entrepreneurs need to succeed.
Dr. Lisa Zhao is professor and Lawrence K. Johnson
Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Albers
School of Business and Economics. Prior to joining
Albers, she was on the faculty of the Bloch School
of Management at University of Missouri-Kansas
City, where she taught courses for undergraduate,
MBA, Ph.D., and executive programs. Dr. Zhao holds
a Ph.D. from Cornell University. During her career,
she also conducted research at Cornell University
and Michigan State University and consulted with
startups and Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Zhao’s
research focuses on market-entry decisions, new
business model development, new venture funding
and exit strategies, and big data analysis and statistical
modeling. She has published articles in top academic
journals.
Big Data and Data
Analytics: Opening New
Margins of Competition
Continued from page 13
to use both. Data and algorithms
are not unbiased. Relying on pure
correlation without understanding
is likely to result in poor decisions,
not to mention the danger of
overlooking ethical considerations.
A balance of quantitative and
qualitative analysis resulting in
data-informed decisions—rather
than data-driven decisions—will
bring the best results. Of course,
the caveat to balancing quantitative
and qualitative reasoning is knowing
when to use each, and that comes
from learning and experience. Data
technologies must be integrated
with domain expertise and the
human dimensions of decisionmaking.
The use of big data and data
analytics are here to stay; companies
will find it difficult to compete if they
leave the new set of decision-making
margins untapped. Firms are aware
of this and are racing to find employees with the skill set to help them
take advantage of the data technologies that are being developed. We
are launching the Masters of Science
in Business Analytics at the Albers
School of Business and Economics
to teach a balanced set of quantitative and qualitative skills. The MSBA
program will equip graduates with a
broad toolset to be data technology
savvy, to solve problems with the
support of data, and make decisions to benefit businesses and their
customers. While the traditional
margins of decision making will
remain important, big data and data
analytics are critical components to
opening new margins and moving
from great to extraordinary.
Reports available online
Big Data Evolution: Forging new
corporate capabilities for the long
term, The Economist, 2015
The rise of the marketer: Driving
engagement, experience and revenue,
The Economist, 2015
Big data: Changing the way businesses
compete and operate, Ernst & Young,
2014
Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity,
McKinsey Global Institute, May 2011
Dr. Gareth Green received his Ph.D.
in Agricultural and Resource Economics
in 1995 from the University of California
at Berkeley and his B.A. in Economics
at the University of Washington. He
is Chair of Economics and Finance
Departments in the Albers School
of Business and Economics. Green
teaches microeconomics, statistics,
environmental and natural resource
economics, and managerial economics.
Green’s research interests include
natural resource and environmental
economics, behavioral economics,
and statistical modeling. Specific
examples of his research include the
economics of fair trade coffee markets,
designing water purchase programs
for the Bureau of Reclamation for
salmon habitat restoration in Idaho
and Washington, developing and
instituting water pricing policies in
California irrigation districts, estimating
the technology-adoption response to
water pricing regulations, examining
the potential for environmental water
marketing and leasing in Washington
state, and behavioral economics related
to environmental investment decisions
over time.
Fall 2 0 1 6 I seattleu . edu / albers / e x ecutiveeducation / page 1 5
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EXECUTIVE SPEAKER SERIES
Free and open to the public.
5:30 to 6:30 p.m. / Pigott Auditorium
Elena Donio
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
President, Concur
Jerry Stritzke
Thursday, January 19, 2017
President & CEO, REI
Doyle Simons
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
CEO, Weyerhaeuser
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