Cornell Business

A Postcard from Cape Town

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

A couple months ago my roommate, Brandon Ray, penned an article entitled "A Postcard from South Africa," addressing income inequality and micro-entrepreneurship in the nation. I promised the CBJ editors I also would contribute a piece, and I have had four months to contemplate my living in Cape Town and my experience in Southern Africa, the region.

BR MicroCapital ends the year with Community Appreciation Event and a hopeful outlook

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

On a brisk spring evening, Steve and Anne Sierigk met Jeffrey Witty in United Way's Livermore Building on Aurora Street. Steve and Anne run Acorn Designs, an eco-friendly paper products company, out of their farm house in Trumansburg. Jeffrey, known to his customers and friends as "Ru," is the owner of Providence Hobbies on Seneca Street.

Incoming AMBAs

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

As the 2010 AMBA class enters the final stages of the business school experience, it's hard to believe we still have less than 1 year of official JGSM tenure. Tradeoffs occur because of the compressed nature of the program, and one of them is reduced time getting to know our 2-yr classmates.

Johnson Board Fellows get ready for a new year

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

A new group of talented students has been selected to be Johnson Board Fellows program serving as non-voting board members of local non-profit organizations. I sat down with outgoing Executive Director, Brian McMeekin, and his counterpart, Shamis Abdi, to get their perspectives on the program.

Cornell Venture Challenge: More Than a Competition

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

April 15-16 marked the annual Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration, where over 200 Cornell alumni returned to Ithaca. They were joined by students, faculty and staff from 11 Cornell schools and colleges for two days of panel and networking sessions. Leading off the Celebration was the 2010 Cornell Venture Challenge, a business plan competition sponsored by Big Red Ventures (BRV).

Fitness Focus: Weight Lifting Basics

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

For someone who has never lifted weights before, or is a newcomer to working out, the weight room can be an intimidating place. Since there are so many different weight machines, dumbbells, barbells, medicine balls, and other equipment that fills a gym, a person might feel lost, overwhelmed, and have no idea where to start.

Johnson Tackles Complex Tech problems in Microsoft's Firenze BXT Innovation Competition

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The 2010 Microsoft Firenze BXT Innovation Competition recently concluded with a Johnson School student, Derek Peterson, being the only Cornell student on the multi-school winning team. The competition took a cross functional approach at addressing a current Microsoft problem by having top notch teams that consist of Business, eXperience (Design), and Technology students build a product that fits a number of vague criteria.

Move over Carbon, the water footprint is here

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Over the past decade and more, Carbon has captured the global environmental movement's imagination as the one element that held the key to solving global warming. Put a price on carbon and everything else will fall into place. Simple. What also took center stage was the image of rising sea levels and threatened polar icecaps.

Summer Stock Ideas

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Things are looking up. Baseball's begun, Ithaca's weather can finally be confused with California's, and the stock market has come roaring back from year-ago levels that had every investor running for cover. Investors of all types are now coming off the proverbial sideline and looking for those perfect entry points.

Sustainability Investment Competition Reflects the Johnson School's Divergent Focuses

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Sustainability and investment management tend to blend together at the Johnson School about as well as oil and water. Capital market stalwarts look to their SGE classmates as tree-huggers and SGE'rs reciprocate by looking at CMAM as soul-less capitalists.

Leaders Eat Last

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

First, Enron fell.
Then, WorldCom, Adelphia, Tyco, and Bear Stearns. Now, we read accusations against Goldman Sachs.
This all begs the question: where's the accountability?
Many would answer that these companies' leaders were corrupted, or that their cultures were to blame.

Why the Democrats Will Lose In November

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

In his November 16, 2008 article "The Moose Stops Here", liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich gleefully described the massive Republican electoral defeat as a "conservative crackup" that was "great entertainment" to watch. He then went on to discuss the reasons why the Republicans were so widely rebuked by Obama and the Democrats, crediting the GOP's extensive losses to the party's supposedly outdated ideas no longer consistent with a new America.