Marathon runners and CEOs | MBA Learnings

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A Google search for “CEO Marathon study” reveals a slew of articles talking about how marathon running CEO’s lead successful companies.

The study has been quoted in numerous blogs and articles since it was published. Now, let’s take a closer look at the abstract of the study (the first line will do).

This study finds a positive relation between CEO fitness and firm value. For each of the years 2001 to 2011, we define CEOs of S&P 1500 companies as being fit if they finish a marathon. The literature suggests that fitness moderates stress and positively affects cognitive functions and performance. Accordingly, we find the strongest effects on firm value in subsamples where fitness is most important, i.e., for CEOs with high workload, above median age, and above median tenure. Fit CEOs are further associated with significantly higher abnormal announcement returns in M&A bids for large, public, and cross-border targets, concomitant with high stress. Our findings can explain the importance of CEO fitness in the managerial labor market and the trend among CEOs to stay fit.

This is a classic example of the identification error – mixing correlation with causality. Here is an example of the kind of issues that this study might have:

Kellogg gives back to the community

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This year I had the great opportunity to organize Kellogg Cares Day, a one-day community service event for Kellogg students, faculty and staff. This was the 10th year the Kellogg community came together to help out the surrounding Evanston and Chicago area, and it proved to be a truly valuable experience.

5 things we learned after winning the Adobe Digital Analytics Competition

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Snow-topped mountains made a picturesque backdrop in the celebratory photos we took from Adobe’s office in Lehi, Utah last weekend after our team of One-Year MBA students won first place in the annual Adobe Digital Analytics Competition. This was the second year in a row that a Kellogg came out on top.

For the past 13 years, Adobe has given graduate and MBA students from around the country the opportunity to learn Adobe’s digital analytics products, showcase their understanding of analytics and presentation skills, and apply their business knowledge to tackle real-world challenges. This year John Elder ’15, Yajur Kapoor ’15 and I helped identify ways to improve the customer experience on the Lenovo Mexico website using analytics to drive the recommendations.

After placing first, our team was awarded a prize of $15,000. But a big check wasn’t the only takeaway. Below I’ve summed up five things our team learned from the experience.

Kellogg’s unique approach to data analytics

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It’s been a busy few weeks for data analytics at Kellogg. Earlier this month, Professor Florian Zettelmeyer hosted a panel discussion about the topic with prominent alumni at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. And this past weekend, three One-Year MBA students took first place in the Adobe Digital Analytics Competition, where they walked away with a check for $15,000.

With all the buzz about big data, Kellogg continues to be focused on preparing business leaders to harness the power of analytics.

Jim Reynolds ’82, on the value of building coalitions

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The Kellogg Black Management Association hosted its annual BMA Conference earlier this month. The event was titled “The Balancing Act,” and the day featured conversations with a collection of prominent Kellogg alumni and influential business leaders.

The event was highlighted by a morning conversation between Dean Sally Blount and Jim Reynolds ’82, founder, chairman and CEO of Loop Capital.

Behind the scenes of the Chicago sports industry

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In an industry such as sports, where the supply of jobs is so small and the demand is so high, sports industry leaders are bombarded by job requests all the time. Therefore, receiving uninterrupted time with these sports leaders is a rare occasion. But that is the exact opportunity myself and more than 20 other first-year Kellogg students had earlier this month on our Chicago sports business trek.

The secret Amazon, Nike and Zappos share | MBA Learnings

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In their groundbreaking book, “Discipline of the Market Makers,” Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema argued that outstanding companies typically pick one of the following three disciplines to excel in: operational excellence, product leadership and customer intimacy.

Their research found that these companies centered themselves around one discipline. Companies that tried to do all of these inevitably didn’t do as well. It is a fascinating insight and has a couple of interesting implications.

Taking on some of Chicago’s key social challenges

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In October, myself and five other MMM students headed to Chicago for two and a half days to participate in BarnRaise, an annual design workshop held at IIT Institute of Design. Here’s what I learned from the experience.

The MMMs are always looking for new competitions and workshops to participate in; it gives us the opportunity to apply our thinking, learn new design techniques and network with professionals and students passionate about design innovation. I participated in the Rotman Design Challenge in Toronto last year, and I’m starting to run into a lot of familiar faces at these events.

Asst. Dean Kate Smith: Why we’re focused on growth

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Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about growth at Kellogg. You may have seen it in our new brand positioning that builds on Think Bravely. Or noticed that we have a new suite of courses on growth and scaling. Or read stories about alumni who are driving growth in their communities or organizations.

For Kellogg, this emphasis on growth isn’t something new. Rather, it’s an articulation of what we’ve long been known for: developing brave leaders who inspire growth in people, organizations and markets.