Tag: Kansas City

Olin celebrates the accomplishments of students from its Executive MBA (EMBA) programs and Brookings Executive Education in a ceremony at 2 p.m., Dec. 12, in Graham Chapel. After completing their capstone coursework in St. Louis this week, the students from Shanghai, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Washington D.C.-based programs will don full academic regalia and participate in a diploma and awards ceremony together with Dean Mahendra Gupta, Chancellor Mark Wrighton, Associate Dean Zhiwen YIN from the Fudan University School of Management, faculty, friends, and family present.

The candidates for graduation include:

EMBA-Shanghai, class 12

EMBA-St. Louis and Kansas City, class 42

Master of Science in Leadership, inaugural class

The MS in Leadership degree is granted by Washington University and delivered via Brookings Executive Education in Washington, D.C. through Olin’s partnership with the Brookings Institution.

The EMBA-Shanghai program is offered in partnership with Fudan University.

KANSAS CITY BUSINESS JOURNAL: Olin Business School hires new managing director to oversee KC program. Linda Endecott has been named the new managing director of Olin’s Executive Education programs in Kansas City, where the Executive MBA program is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

Linda Endecott

It was a sunny, breezy Saturday in Kansas City and our Executive MBAs gathered to participate in the 10th annual Dragon Boat Races on June 14. Racing as the “Strokes of Genius,” our Executive MBA team kicked of a celebration marking our program’s five years in the Kansas City market.

Drawing on lessons learned in the Team Development course with Professor Bill Bottom, the “Strokes of Genius” raced in three races on Brush Creek that flows through K.C.’s famed Country Club Plaza. It was a day shared with family and friends, and one filled with laughs as our group of novice rowers (including me!), came together to better the time each race. Best of all, we kept the boat upright!

Participating in this Chinese tradition is especially meaningful for Olin Business School. Our top-ranked EMBA program in partnership with Fudan University in Shanghai was the first joint EMBA program recognized in mainland China in 2002. For their international residency, our students travel to Shanghai to engage with the Shanghai cohort in the classroom, in shared simulations, and case studies to truly experience doing business on a global platform.

The EMBA “Strokes of Genius” prepare for the start of a race.

Washington University’s Executive MBA program has been in Kansas City for five years and to commemorate this milestone, the “Strokes of Genius” team t-shirts boasted the line “5 Years Strong” underneath a Chinese character number 5.

The 5th Kansas City cohort includes leaders, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, industry leaders, lawyers, and physicians. The cohort will continue their studies through January before rejoining their colleagues in St. Louis for the second half of the Executive MBA curriculum, which includes the international residency in Shanghai.

Our next Kansas City cohort will begin in April 2015 and the “Strokes of Genius” will be back on Brush Creek next June!

Kansas City’s spectacular new Kaufmann Center for the Performing Arts was the venue for a unique collaboration between Olin Business School and Washington University’s College of Architecture called: “design thinking & innovation.”

The engaging Olin Business School Thought Leadership seminar was presented by Samuel Chun, assistant dean of executive programs and senior lecturer in management practices and Bruce Lindsey, dean, college of architecture and E. Desmond Lee professor for Community Collaboration, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

The design thinking approach hinges on an individual’s ability to express solutions to key problems and opportunities. Professors Chun and Lindsey explored and discussed simple tools to accelerate visualization and enhance one’s abilities to express creativity, communicate new ideas, and spur motivation.

The 60-minute discussion on Wednesday, April 24 engaged the audience of nearly 200 in a sketching exercise to introduce the concept of design thinking and an understanding of improvisation as a tool to innovate. Importantly, the fundamentals of both are roots from which design thinking & innovation can grow.

Special thanks to Hawthorn Bank and the Kansas City Area Development Council for their partnership in this thought provoking morning which gave attendees strategies they could apply to business situations immediately.

 One guest shared, “What a great morning. I’m leaving with several tools I can put to use in the office today!”

Stay tuned for information on “design thinking & innovation” events in St. Louis and Denver!

Photo Credit: Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, MO, view from the southwest. Designed by Moshe safdie. Photo by Tim Hursley. All rights reserved by kauffmancenter

Alicia Herald, A&S’05,EMBA’11, a former executive director at Teach For America in Kansas City, has launched an education business start-up, myEDmatch.com, an employment portal for teaching jobs.

Alicia Herald

According to Alicia, “the idea and inspiration for the company started in the innovation course in EMBA 36!”

The site matches teachers with schools based on a proprietary algorithm that accounts for education philosophies.

Maxine Clark, founder and CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, who is also an investor in the business, wrote in an email to the St. Louis Business Journal that myEDmatch.com “has the potential to make an important impact on a massive problem in K-12 education — talent and talent retention.”

Alicia’s new business was recently featured in the St. Louis Business Journal.