Two Olin Business School professors are part of WashU’s new Mindfulness in Science Practice Cluster, chosen for funding from the Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures: Erik Dane, associate professor of organizational behavior, and Armando Gomes, associate professor of finance.
Dane, one of four faculty leaders of the cluster, teaches about mindfulness in the workplace to Olin MBA and undergraduate students.
Dane
“I have a longstanding interest, certainly on the academic side and increasingly an interest in the practice,” he said.
“In a work world besieged by tension, anxiety and conflict, timeless practices associated with mindfulness are perhaps more timely than ever.”
“Mindfulness” refers to a set of mental training practices and skills that can improve health, wellness and psychological functioning in a low-cost, non-pharmacological way.
“The practice of mindfulness can fundamentally change how we experience life,” Gomes said.
Gomes
His interest in mindfulness started with personal practice. Now he’s attempting to weave that into his academic and research work. “In an economy increasingly competing for our attention, which is a scarce resource we all have, the importance of mindfulness practice is bound to grow as a way to create more balance in our lives.”
For more than 2,500 years, mindfulness practices have formed a central component of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Mindfulness practices have gained widespread adoption in Western culture, as well, and are becoming a focus of intense transdisciplinary research interest.
“Over the past two decades, research on mindfulness has seen remarkable growth across the psychological and health sciences,” Dane said.
Numerous articles have been published in leading journals, including Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Multiyear collaborations
The Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures is an Arts & Sciences Signature Initiative at WashU that’s funding several clusters on campus. The clusters are multiyear thematic research and learning collaborations.
The mindfulness cluster started a couple of years ago as an informal working group designed to transform the science of mindfulness through collaborative research. The cluster brings together researchers, scholars and mindfulness practitioners from a range of Arts & Sciences departments and other units, including Olin, the Brown School and the School of Medicine.
The mindfulness cluster will advance Arts & Sciences and university-wide strategic initiatives through activities including:
developing a new interdisciplinary undergraduate minor;
expanding mindfulness programming to support campus and community needs;
hosting public-facing events, including interdisciplinary seminars, lecture series, scientific conferences; and
launching the first-of-its-kind mindfulness instructor certification program to fully incorporate DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) perspectives.
Said Dane, “I’m delighted and honored to be working with scholars and practitioners throughout the WashU community on this important initiative.”
I have exciting news about our faculty member Robyn LeBoeuf, co-vice dean of faculty and research and professor of marketing.
Professor LeBoeuf has been appointed as the Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Distinguished Professor in recognition of her contributions and leadership in research and teaching. She received her PhD in psychology from Princeton University in 2002. After joining Olin Business School in 2014 as an associate professor, she was appointed a full professor in 2019 and was appointed vice dean of faculty and research in April 2022. Most of Professor LeBoeuf’s research includes consumer behavior, judgment and decision-making, behavioral decision theory, intertemporal choice and gift giving.
Her papers have been published in top psychology and marketing journals such as the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
In 2002, she was the recipient of the Hillel Einhorn New Investigator Award, and she has received numerous other accolades in the years since, including the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, the Poets & Quants List of Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors in the World and many others.
Distinguished professorship established in 2021
The Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Distinguished Professorship at Olin Business School was established in 2021. Joyce Buchheit also established the Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Professorship in Public Health and funded a summer college prep program dedicated to prospective students from rural Missouri and southern Illinois.
Joyce Buchheit was born in Missouri’s Arcadia Valley and attended 14 schools in her youth. She enrolled at Washington University as a married mother of two children, receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis in 1976 and an MBA in 1977.
Joyce Buchheit served on WashU’s Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2016, when she became an emerita trustee. She is a member of the School of Medicine National Council and the Institute for Public Health National Council, which she led from 2018 to 2021.
Please join me in congratulating Professor Robyn LeBoeuf. We will have a formal installation ceremony at a later date.
Radhakrishnan Gopalan, a longtime, beloved professor of finance at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, died Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, of cancer. He was 50.
Born in 1972 in Chennai, India, Gopalan joined the university in 2006 after earning his PhD in finance from the University of Michigan. Before that, he worked for five years in the project finance department of a leading Indian bank. Most recently, he served as the academic director of Olin’s Mumbai-based executive MBA program, in partnership with IIT-Bombay.
“Radha was a dear friend, former student of mine, an esteemed researcher and a respected teacher and mentor to Olin students,” said Anjan Thakor, interim dean of Olin Business School and the John E. Simon Professor of Finance. “Our grief over this tragic loss is great, but so is our gratitude for the life of our friend.”
In remembering Gopalan, colleagues and friends recalled that he was an independent thinker who loved to call himself the “devil’s advocate” in any conversation. He was well loved for his kind heart, warm smile, quick wit and humor.
“Radha was a very special person — brilliant mind, warm heart, witty humor, caring and compassionate, a change agent and always encouraging his students and colleagues to do better and move forward,” said Mahendra R. Gupta, a former dean and the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management.
“His research impact is global and so is his support for those in need. His presence was felt by all when he was in the room, and people paid attention to his words. He will be missed in the halls of Olin but live in our hearts forever.”
A prolific researcher
A prolific researcher, Gopalan authored more than two dozen academic papers on topics including corporate finance, corporate governance, emerging market financial systems, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, entrepreneurial finance and household finance. He was a go-to finance expert for journalists and researchers alike. His research collected nearly 4,000 citations over the years, according to Google Scholar notes.
Gopalan’s accomplishments were many. He was a recipient of Olin’s Reid teaching award, an annual award presented by Olin graduating students to the professors whose enthusiasm and exceptional teaching most inspire, energize and transform students.
He also was a two-time winner of the Olin Award, which is given in recognition for research most likely to have an immediate impact on business. In 2011, Poets & Quants selected Gopalan as one of the “40 best business school professors under 40.”
He leaves behind his wife, Sundari Balan, an adjunct lecturer in business at Olin and at University College, as well as two children — Ananya, a sophomore at Washington University, and Shrey, an eighth grader at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School.
Gopalan was an avid runner and was very active in supporting the nonprofit Asha for Education, an organization dedicated to providing education to underprivileged children in India. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to Asha.
It has been nearly three years since the COVID-19 pandemic upended businesses worldwide. From supply chain disruptions to shipping delays, worker shortages and, now, the looming threat of a recession, it has been anything but business as usual ever since.
With so much uncertainty, how can businesses gain a competitive edge going into the new year and beyond? How can they better anticipate threats created by competitors, the economy, suppliers, politicians and more, and identify new opportunities?
Horn
One way is through the process of “war gaming,” according to John Horn, professor of practice in economics at Washington University’s Olin Business School and author of the forthcoming book “Inside the competitor’s mindset: How to predict their next move and position yourself for success.” In simple terms, war gaming is a simulation that allows risk-free analysis of how to act strategically in the actual marketplace, Horn said.
“War gaming gives businesses the opportunity to practice a series of situations in a risk-free environment so that when they confront that situation in the real world, they have better insight into the best way to respond.”
For centuries, militaries have conducted war gaming exercises to better anticipate how their enemies will act in battle. Likewise, war gaming in a business setting always involves other “players,” such as competitors, supply chain partners and regulators. War gaming is not used to test strategy against some abstract market model or in cases where decisions made—like the Federal Reserve raising interest rates—are outside the company’s influence, Horn explained.
Instead, the practice is used to test strategy based on how competitors, regulators and other influencers will react to choices you make, and how their choices could affect you. During the simulation, team members are given background information on the role they are assigned to play. Then, they develop their strategy and the facilitators determine the market outcome resulting from all the teams’ collective decisions. The workshop helps the organization gain insight into what works, and why.
Walk a mile in competitors’ shoes
Prior to joining the Olin Business School faculty, Horn worked as a senior expert in the strategy practice of McKinsey & Company. Over the course of nine years, he worked with more than 100 clients on competitive strategy, war gaming workshops and corporate and business unit strategy across a variety of industries and geographies.
“I began doing war gaming exercises because I wanted companies to experience what it was like to make those decisions, and to feel those decisions, both for themselves and for their competitors,” Horn said. “What I realized is that a lot of companies ignore their competitors because they think they are irrational. But it’s not that competitors are irrational. Companies have never taken the time to understand their competitor’s perspective and why they do what they do.
“Through role playing, you gain a better understanding of why your competitors make the choices they make, even if you do not agree with them.”
John Horn
“Through role playing, you gain a better understanding of why your competitors make the choices they make, even if you do not agree with them. Like, why are they lowering prices? Why are the focused in a particular region? Why are they topping my products? From there, leaders are better positioned to anticipate their future moves and how best to respond.”
Practical applications
There are many practical applications for war gaming, Horn said. It can be used when there’s something strategic you’re wanting to accomplish, like growing sales or introducing new products. War gaming also can be used to test how you and others in the industry will respond to things happening outside of your company, like a recession or a regulatory change.
Additionally, war gaming can be useful to understand how new technology or trends — like increased awareness about global warming or consumer demands — will impact your industry. And it can be employed in response to new competitors entering the market. These are just a few of the potential scenarios in which war gaming can help business leaders analyze the situation, Horn said.
With the threat of a recession looming, business leaders should be thinking about how an economic downturn could shake up their strategic plans and affect their bottom line, Horn said. War gaming might help.
Let’s say you owned a sporting goods company that struggled during the past two recessions. During the last recession, your chief competitor fared better. Through war gaming, you can analyze the possible decisions your competitors will make this time around and how your company might respond.
“War gaming helps companies avoid being caught off guard, better anticipate decisions their competition might make and determine how to respond to them,” Horn said.
War gaming ‘lite’
One downside to running a war game exercise is that it can require several weeks of designing and building the material needed to conduct the workshop. However, there is a way of getting the benefits of war gaming without the resource-intensive costs of a traditional effort, which Horn calls “war gaming lite.” This format can be incorporated anytime the organization meets to discuss future industry trends.
Based on his observations, Horn said one of two things typically happen when business leaders discuss strategy and future plans. Most often, leaders focus on what they’re going to do and why it’s going to be good for them. Occasionally, the conversation takes a much more negative tone — we’re going to get crushed, there’s no way we can win, Horn said.
“It’s only natural for business leaders to have a more biased view about how situations will play out to their advantage,” Horn said. “War gaming forces them to take a more realistic view of the situation. Yes, I want it to work this way, but my competitors want it to play out a different way, and they’re going to make choices that may not be good for us. The benefit of ‘lite’ war games is that you realize these benefits without incurring the costs of a traditional war game.”
For example, imagine a hospital rolling out a new weight loss surgery program. In preparing to launch this new service, hospital leaders will likely have detailed conversations about how this program will increase patient volume and profitability, giving them an edge. Or, they may worry that the larger hospital in town will continue to stay one step ahead, dominating the market. As a result, they may limit expectations for the new program.
It would be more beneficial if the team took the time to incorporate a lite war game. Assuming the roles of the hospital’s competitors and referring physicians, the business development team could test ways to market the procedure with patients and physicians, referral processes, clinic practices and more before going public with the announcement. The role-play information would build off ongoing competitive insight efforts, and the conversation about how the industry would play out would incorporate each of those players’ perspectives based on what works best for them. The process can highlight risks and opportunities business leaders might otherwise miss, Horn said.
The best part is this process does not require a large investment of time or resources. While it’s true that larger simulations—the kind companies may do every few years as a part of their overall strategy process—often occur over days and may require external consultants, Horn said it doesn’t always need to be that detailed.
“Ideally, I would like to see companies getting in the habit of conducting their own lite war game activities any time they have a strategic question that involves outside players. Set aside 30 minutes to think about how these outside players may react and what you can do to get ahead,” Horn said.
By making this a regular habit built into the company’s strategic planning process, companies can maintain their competitive edge through recessions, market changes, supply chain disruptions and any other challenge they may face in 2023 and beyond.
I wanted to share some exciting news about our faculty member Nicolae Gârleanu, professor of finance.
Professor Gârleanu has been appointed the H. Frederick Hagemann Jr. Professor in recognition of his contributions and leadership in research and teaching. He received his PhD from Stanford University in 2002 and joined Olin Business School in 2021, after serving on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. Most of Professor Gârleanu’s research is in the area of capital markets and asset pricing, where he concentrates on various facets of liquidity and the extent to which consumption and production dynamics are consistent with asset returns.
His papers have been published in top economics and finance journals such as Econometrica, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics.
The H. Frederick Hagemann Jr. Professorship at Olin Business School was established in 1997 through the leadership of Mr. Hagemann’s brother, Paul O. Hagemann. Gifts from family, friends and business associates of Mr. Hagemann and from the State Street Bank and Trust Company of Boston, where he retired as chairman and chief executive officer in 1971, made the professorship possible.
Mr. Hagemann received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis in 1926. He began his professional career in St. Louis with Kaufman-Smith Company, an investment banking house that subsequently merged with Boatmen’s National Bank. He spent 20 years at Boatmen’s before leaving to be president and chief executive officer of the Rockland Bank in Boston, which through successive mergers combined in 1961 with State Street Bank, the second oldest bank in Boston.
At Washington University, Mr. Hagemann represented the third generation of his family to serve on Washington University’s Board of Trustees. He served from 1965 until his death in 1996. In 1955, the university cited him as one of its most distinguished alumni; Olin Business School added that same honor in 1987.
Please join me in congratulating Professor Nicolae Gârleanu. We will have a formal installation ceremony at a later date.
I wanted to share exciting news about two of our faculty members: Richard Frankel and Lamar Pierce, both of who have been appointed to named professorships in recognition of their contributions and leadership in research and teaching.
Frankel: Nicholas Dopuch Professor
Professor Frankel has been appointed the Nicholas Dopuch Professor of Accounting. He received his PhD from Stanford University and joined WashU Olin in 2005. Prior to joining Olin, he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and the University of Michigan. Professor Frankel’s principal teaching interest is financial accounting and reporting, and his research focuses on valuation using accounting numbers and on corporate managers’ use of conference calls, earnings forecasts and pro forma earnings.
The Nicholas Dopuch Professorship in Accounting is a newly established professorship honoring the memory and impact of Nicholas Dopuch, who died in 2018. Professor Dopuch was Washington University’s first Hubert C. and Dorothy R. Moog Professor of Finance and directed Olin’s PhD program from 1986 through 2003.
Nick Dopuch loved research and spent his academic life promoting accounting research, especially among young researchers—PhD students and junior professors. He epitomized higher purpose in research, making countless contributions to the research careers of many who went on to distinguished careers in accounting. He was a senior faculty member at the University of Chicago and the long-tenured editor of the Journal of Accounting Research when he was recruited to come to Olin in 1983 by Bob Virgil, then dean of Olin, with the support of then-Chancellor Bill Danforth. This was a transformational moment for Olin.
Nick’s contribution to Olin did not end with his life. His estate made a gift in support of what he loved the most: undergraduate students, the PhD program and the celebration of accounting research. The dean’s office and the university have made the decision to establish a chair in the name of Nick Dopuch to always remind future business researchers of the transformative impact he made on Olin and his legacy of world-class research, teaching and service.
Pierce: Beverly and James Hance Professor
Professor Pierce has been appointed the Beverly and James Hance Professor in recognition of his contributions and leadership in research and teaching. He joined the Olin faculty in 2007 after earning his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Pierce’s research focuses on economic and psychological factors that affect both productivity and misconduct and the organizational solutions to jointly address these effects.
James and Beverly Hance, both Washington University alumni, established the Beverly and James Hance Professorship in 2004. James earned his MBA from Olin in 1968 and has had a distinguished career in the fields of banking and accounting. Beverly earned a master’s degree in education, also in 1968. In addition to the professorship, the Hances have made multiple generous contributions to Washington University and Olin scholarships throughout the years.
Please join me in thanking James and Beverly Hance for their tremendous support, which exemplifies their higher purpose in recognizing and rewarding research excellence. Please also join me in congratulating Professor Lamar Pierce. We will have a formal installation ceremony at a later date.
Please join me in congratulating Professor Frankel and Professor Pierce. We will have a separate, formal installation ceremonies for both of our colleagues at a later date.
Pictured at top: Richard Frankel, left, and Lamar Pierce.
