VANDERBIL T BUSINESS OWE N GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT V Fall 2010 Bil l oƒ Health The financial impac t of B health care reform MILITARY DISCIPLINE From battlefields to business fields BEYOND NUMBERS The Master of Accountancy program takes a new approach www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-business Mary Duvanich Ravi S. Chari, M.D. Vanderbilt MM Health Care 2009 Vanderbilt Executive MBA 2008 Vanderbilt Medical Center Centennial Medical Center Josh Nickols, PhD Zahra MirAfzali, PhD Vanderbilt MBA 2006 Vanderbilt MBA 2005 Insight Genetics Encapsula NanoSciences Liz Pavlic Markus Frank Grant Vanderbilt MBA 2008 Vanderbilt Executive MBA 1991 Johnson & Johnson Cisco Systems, Inc. Health Care. Business. Vanderbilt. Like nowhere else, we combined a world-class business school, world-class medical center and world-class health care community to bring you programs in health care business that are a world apart. 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Fall 2010 CONTENTS 2 PERSONAL ASSETS MISCELLANEOUS Tasha Ross, MBA’08, and Lindsay Beckner, 4 FROM THE DEAN BA’04, discover a winning recipe at FiddleCakes A message from Jim Bradford by S ETH R OBERTSON 5 EDITOR’S MEMO 9 IN THE NEWS Preserving a reminder of Nashville’s resolve Headlines from around the world 10 STUDENT EXPERIENCE 6 INSIDE OWEN Making lighting more affordable ‘Cracking the Code’ Conference Examines I in Bangladesh Consumer Psychology McNamara Named Executive Director of CMC I New Event by B RIAN W AINSTEIN Welcomes Students to Owen I Off the Press 14 CAMPUS VISIT 12 FACULTY IN FOCUS Q&A with Read McNamara, MA’76, Executive Director of the Career Promotions, appointments, awards and honors Management Center 34 16 INSIDE BUSINESS 26 CORPORATE SPOTLIGHT Trade Secrets I Raising the Red Flag I Karla Diehl, MBA’87, embraces a new The Elephant Inside challenge at Partners Tea Co. FEATURES by C INDY T HOMSEN 42 CLASS ACTS 40 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY 20 Jim and Margaret Brunstad, MBM’75 I Bryan Bringing better nutrition to Mozambique BILL OF HEALTH Deaner, MBA’93 I Todd Jackson, BA’96 , EMBA’08 by C LAIRE B ROWN The financial impact of health care reform 53 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE by R OB S IMBECK The valuable lesson I learned in India by D ARREN G EST , MBA’10 34 56 BOTTOM LINE MILITARY DISCIPLINE Rebuilding Gaylord Entertainment From battlefields to business fields after the flood by David Kloeppel, BS’91, MBA’96 by R ANDY H ORICK ON THE COVER 26 Illustration by George Schill PHOTO ESSAY CH INA 28 BEYOND NUMBERS Vanderbilt’s Master of Accountancy program takes a new approach by Jeannie Naujeck 16 V ANDERBILT B USINESS 1 PERSONAL ASSETS AKING IS ALL ABOUT CHEMISTRY ,” SAYS Lindsay Beckner, who co-owns FiddleCakes, a The Right Ingredients Nashville-based bakery, cafe and catering busi - ness that can accommodate box lunches for 30 Tasha Ross, MBA’08, and Lindsay Beckner, BA’04, or cupcakes for 500. “You have to be very discover a winning recipe at FiddleCakes ‘‘ exact. There’s little room for error.” Beckner may be referring to what deter- By SETH ROBERTSON mines a successful recipe for, say, a muffin or a Bscone, but she could just as well be talking about what determines a successful business, like the one she and fellow co-owner Tasha Ross have built during the past year. The idea of opening a bakery started with Ross, but the pieces did not fall into place until Professor of Accounting Germain Böer intro - duced her to Beckner, a fellow Vanderbilt alumna who was working in finance and cater - ing on the side. Ross and Beckner clicked, and their business plan came together quickly: They opened FiddleCakes just five months after their initial meeting. “Coming from an HOP [human and orga - nizational performance] background at Owen, I knew one of the toughest things would be building a team,” says Ross, who previously worked for a startup software company. “Fortu - nately we found that we share the same vision.” An important part of that vision is provid - ing customers with tasty vegan and gluten- free meals. Demand for the latter has grown in recent years as more doctors prescribe restricted diets for those suffering from condi - tions like autism and celiac disease, the autoimmune disorder caused by gluten pro - teins in certain grains. Forgoing eggs and traditional flour makes Ross and Beckner’s task of operating their bak - ery all the more challenging. “The recipes are much more temperamental than they would be otherwise,” Beckner explains. “Sometimes the mixes don’t rise, and you have to start over again.” The challenge, though, as they see it, is well worth the effort. “It makes all the difference when, for exam - Tasha Ross (left) and Lindsay ple, a parent whose child suffers from celiac Beckner offer a variety of disease thanks you personally,” Ross says. vegan and gluten-free baked J O H goods at FiddleCakes. “Running a successful business is rewarding, N R U but having a social impact on top of that is S S E L even better.” L 2 F ALL 2010 V ANDERBILT B USINESS 3 FROM THE DEAN Friends and colleagues, nspiration comes in many forms and often from unexpected sources. As business leaders we plan, Ibudget and dream, yet we often don’t find the needed spark in the incremental day-to-day events of life. As Seth points out in his editor’s memo on the opposite page, sometimes it takes a calamity like the flood that devastated Nashville in early May to make us see things differently. Crisis can often be the driver of change, and in such change we frequently find inspiration. In the early days of my management career, a mentor of mine named R.D. Hubbard offered this advice: “Never waste a crisis.” What he meant was that a crisis can inspire us to go in new directions and to think of the world in what Charles Handy in The Age of Unreason calls an “upside-down way.” In many regards we’re witnessing today the dis - continuous change that Handy predicted. It is a J O H time of irrational markets, deflation, unsettling yield N R U curves, overpriced tech deals and talk of the Hin - S S E L denburg Omen. Yet amid all of this uncertainty, L there is opportunity. At a recent gathering for an advisory group composed of faculty, Alumni Board members, Board of Visitors members, staff and friends, I found inspiration in their longer vision for how to propel the school forward. They suggested that we in the Owen community should “think longer, think bigger, think of the tipping point.” In the coming months I hope you will seek similar inspiration in a plan for the future— to act, to engage and to make a difference for Owen. Respectfully yours, James W. Bradford Dean, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management Ralph Owen Professor of Management 4 F ALL 2010 Visit Owen online: owen.vanderbilt.edu EDITOR’S MEMO FALL 2010 Flood of Memories DEA N O L L Preserving a reminder of O J IM B RADFORD H S I R EDITO R Nashville’s resolve H C S ETH R OBERTSON By SETH ROBERTSON CONTRIBUTORS N IKHIL B IMBRAHW (MBA’03), C LAIRE B ROWN , N ELSON B RYAN (BA’73), D ANIEL D UBOIS , D ARREN G EST (MBA’10), HE FLOODWATERS THAT DEVASTATED S TEVE G REEN , R ANDY H ORICK , D AVID Middle Tennessee in early May left their K LOEPPEL (BS’91, MBA’96), J ENNY M AN - DEVILLE , J EANNIE N AUJECK , A LLEY P ICKREN , mark in more ways than one. The physical J AN R EAD , A NN R OBINSON , J OHN R USSELL , destruction was sudden and overwhelm- T ERRI S EALE , C INDY T HOMSEN , M ARSHALL ing: Lives were lost, and many homes and T URNBULL (ME D ’05), R YAN U NDERWOOD businesses were in ruins once the muddy (BA’96), B RIAN W AINSTEIN , A MY W OLF water subsided. The psychological impact, DESIGNER however, didn’t recede quite so easily. For M ICHAEL T. S MELTZER T weeks afterward the unseen effects of the ART DIRECTOR disaster—the shock, worry and fatigue— D ONNA P RITCHETT continued seeping into the lives of every- MBA’96, President and Chief Operating EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF one in this area. Officer at Gaylord Entertainment, writes MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Fortunately my family and I were about on page 56. Gaylord has worked Y VONNE M ARTIN -K IDD spared during the flood, but I’m still doggedly to restore the Opry House to its ASSOCIATE DEAN OF DEVELOPMENT haunted by pictures from those days. One former glory, and remarkably it is now AND ALUMNI RELATIONS in particular that has stayed with me is open for business once again. P ATRICIA M. C ARSWELL that of the Grand Ole Opry stage door While I never really doubted that the EDITORIAL OFFICES: Vanderbilt University, half-submerged in murky water. The Opry would someday return, I did wonder Office of Development and Alumni Relations photo, which appeared in various media if it, and Nashville for that matter, would Communications, PMB 407703, 2301 Vander- ever be the same. Now that time has bilt Place, Nashville, TN 37240-7703, Tele- outlets, is what you’d expect from a snap- phone: (615) 322-0817, Fax: (615) 343-8547, shot taken in difficult conditions; the afforded some perspective, I realize how [email protected] lighting is poor, the image a little shaky.