Tag: WashU at Brookings

David A. Peacock, former President of Anheuser-Busch and active community leader, has been named President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Schnuck Markets, Inc., Schnucks Chairman and CEO Todd Schnuck announced today [May 4, 2017].

“Dave’s entrepreneurial spirit, vision and drive, along with his extensive business background will help us set a strong course for the future,” Schnuck said. “His counsel and leadership on our company’s Advisory Board have been instrumental in positioning Schnucks for growth. Further, his commitment to St. Louis and the region is aligned with Schnucks’ commitment to superior customer experience and community support. Dave also has strong values and a leadership style that will fit well within the Schnucks’ culture.”

Schnucks benefits from a highly experienced management team with an exceptional track record of managing the business. Peacock joins a management team with an average industry experience of over 20 years and that is well respected in the industry.

Among his duties, Peacock will manage Procurement/Merchandising, Operations, Marketing/Communications and Supply Chain for a company whose 100 stores and 14,000 teammates span five states.

“This is a tremendous company and opportunity. Our teammates are focused on serving customers, delivering quality products and making Schnucks the best grocery shopping experience in the region,” Peacock said. “I am excited to work with Todd and his management team more directly on continuous improvement and innovation that will assure industry leadership, customer service and community support for the long term.”

Peacock managed U.S. operations for Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, from 2008 through early 2012, and was responsible for the commercial success of Anheuser-Busch during its integration with InBev in the United States. In 2008, Peacock led the negotiating team for Anheuser-Busch during the merger with InBev – the largest all-cash transaction in history at the time.

Peacock joined Anheuser-Busch in 1992 and served many roles in management, finance and marketing. At various times, he led the financial planning, mergers and acquisitions, information technology, procurement and route-to-market development as well as several groups within marketing. In 2007, he was named Vice President of Marketing for Anheuser-Busch and in that role led the revitalization of the company’s marketing approach.

Peacock is dedicated to the St. Louis community and region and he serves on the board of directors of several charitable and civic organizations. Peacock is chairman of the St. Louis Sports Commission and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Trustees. He is a member of St. Louis’ CityArchRiver Board where he co-chaired the initial campaign helping raise $180 million for the new Arch grounds revitalization. Peacock formerly served as chairman of the Beer Institute, the U.S. beer industry’s policy organization in Washington DC and was also previously chairman of the St. Louis chapter of the American Red Cross.

Peacock’s Vitaligent, LLC owns 78 Jamba Juice stores in Northern California and Missouri.  Vitaligent has reported $61 million in sales and is Jamba Juice’s largest franchisee. He is also an investor in Crushed Red, an elevated fast-casual restaurant with locations in St. Louis, Denver, Columbia and Kansas City. Peacock served as a member of Schnucks’ Advisory Board beginning in July 2013 and will give up that role in his new position. A native of St. Louis, Peacock holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009. He lives in St. Louis with his wife and three children.

About Schnucks

Founded in St. Louis in 1939, Schnuck Markets, Inc. is a third-generation, family-owned grocery/pharmacy retailer committed to nourishing people’s lives. The company takes pride in its community partnerships and gives more than $13 million annually in food to food pantries and more than $1.7 million to not-for-profit organizations through the company’s My Schnucks Card program. Schnucks currently operates 100 stores in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa. Privately held, Schnucks employs 14,000 teammates and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Follow Schnucks on Facebook at www.facebook.com/schnucks.

Source: Schnuck Markets, Inc. Press Release

Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., President of US Information Solutions (USIS) at Equifax, is the keynote speaker at Olin’s Executive MBA Class 47 Graduation – the first ceremony of the spring graduation season – that takes place May 5, 10:30 a.m. in Emerson Auditorium, Knight Hall.

Paulino Do Rego Barros Jr. ©Photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr.

Before joining Equifax in April 2010, Barros was the founder and president of PB&C- Global Investments (LLC), an international consulting and investment firm.

When Barros joined Equifax, he led the company’s international unit with responsibility for Latin America, Europe, Asia and Canada, and also led expansion efforts into other countries.

Barros’ career has included executive positions with a number of global corporations including: AT&T where he was president of Global Operations; several top positions at the BellSouth Corporation before it was acquired by AT&T in 2006, including chief product officer, president of BellSouth Latin America, regional vice president of Latin America, as well as chief planning and operations officer.

Barros also served at Motorola, Inc., as corporate vice president and general manager – Latin America Group and was also corporate vice president and general manager of Market Operations – Americas. He also held a variety of positions with The NutraSweet Company as well as with Monsanto Company in the U.S and Latin America.

Patti Williams

Patricia Williams, has been selected by her classmates as student speaker. She is Vice President and General Counsel – Strategy, Litigation and Business Development
for Peabody Energy.

The Executive MBA is a rigorous 20-month degree program designed for working executives. When Class 47 entered the program, these stats provided a snapshot of the students:

• Average age: 39
• Average work experience: 15 years
• Average management experience: 9 years
• % female: 40% (roughly double the EMBA industry average)
• % born outside the U.S.: 18%
• % military veterans: 21%

Olin’s Executive MBA program is also offered in Shanghai in conjunction with Fudan University; in Mumbai with partner school IIT-Bombay; and satellite campuses in Kansas City and Denver.

Understanding the inner workings of the federal government and how it impacts business through a residency with Brookings Executive Education (BEE) is one of the unique components of the Executive MBA program at Olin. And beginning in March 2018, Olin full-time MBA students will also have the opportunity to take advantage of the Washington D.C. residency that provides an insider’s view of bureaucracy, policy, and process.

“Our goal with the residency is to cut through the political polarization that dominates the story coming out of Washington,” explains Lamar Pierce, Associate Professor of Organization and Strategy and at Olin and BEE faculty member. “We want our students to understand that most of the people in our capital are committed to helping create a better world, and although they may disagree about how to achieve that, they’re trying to solve the same problems.”

Earlier this month, 36 Executive MBA students (pictured above), traveled to Washington, D.C. to engage with policymakers, senior-ranking officials, and other key decision-makers in the nation’s capital. The BEE four-day immersion program introduces students to practitioners from government, industry, and NGO’s in an experiential format, and allows dialogue with experts that have worked at the highest levels of the White House, Congress, and other policy making institutions. EMBA Class 49 even had one such conversation on the Floor of the House of Representatives, just one week after the President’s address to a Joint Session of Congress.

The program broadens students’ perspectives and offers unique insight into how non-market strategy shapes and frames the institutional landscapes in which firms operate. Through active participation and dialogue, the program reminds leaders in both the private and public sector that the best solutions to complex problems result from healthy collaboration between business, government, and broader society.

BEE is a partnership between two world-renowned organizations: the Brookings Institution and Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Instrumental to both, St. Louis businessman Robert S. Brookings (1850–1932) founded the D.C.-based think tank and led Washington University’s governing board for 33 years.

Visit the Brookings Executive Education website for more information.

Guest Blogger: Evie Kallenbach, Brookings Executive Education

Move over, baby boomers. In the past few years, millennials have become the country’s largest living generation—and the country’s largest employee demographic. Known (OK, stereotyped) for their sense of entitlement and need for constant praise, these job-hopping 20 to 30 somethings have flooded organizations from coast to coast. And the resulting clash of work styles and preferences has created challenges for business leaders.

Employers can throw up their hands and keep managing the way they’re managing—or they can get tips and tools from Andrew Knight, associate professor of organizational behavior.

“The generational change in the composition of the workforce has been like a wave crashing,” he says. “Companies must adapt or they won’t survive.”

Knight has developed a survival guide.

In April, he’ll launch Managing Millennials, a daylong, open-enrollment seminar offered through WashU’s Executive Programs.

The seminar will begin with millennial myth busting.

Prof. Andrew Knight

“Group-based stereotyping has a negative impact on employees and results in employers missing out on a lot of talent,” he says. “No one likes being put in a bucket, especially if they don’t fit in it. Millennials are individuals, just like members of every other generation. Actually, in some cases, employees will have more in common with people in their functional area than with people their same age.”

Still, many millennials do share certain characteristics and motivations.

Pew Research Center asked millennials what makes their generation unique. Their No. 1 answer was technology use.

Knight says they’ve grown up with the assumption that information is readily available. Employers can leverage millennials’ affinity for information, especially when they push them to check sources and to interpret findings.

In comparison, work ethic was boomers’ No. 1 answer and Generation Xers’ No. 2 answer to Pew’s question on uniqueness. But work ethic didn’t make millennials’ top five responses.

“Some data suggest that millennials are less motivated by traditional financial rewards than boomers are,” Knight says. “Millennials want meaningful, purpose-driven work that’s aligned with their values. They also prefer a flatter corporate hierarchy, with more-direct access to senior leadership.”

Knight will present strategies for millennial engagement and retention. Best practices include clear expectations; regular feedback; reverse mentoring (pairing millennials with boomers for two-way learning); coaching; showing millennials how they can advance their own and their organization’s values; and well-being activities that promote work-life balance and physical, emotional, and financial health.

The goal is to boost organizational and employee effectiveness—and to make sure that companies and their people thrive.

Managing Millennials will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.  April 4, 2017, at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center on WashU’s main campus.

Registration is required. For more information, call the Executive Programs office at 314-935-9494 or register here.

This month Brookings Executive Education (BEE) launched a new course, “Excellence in Customer Service,” taught by Professor Jackson Nickerson, BEE Director and Associate Dean. The inaugural offering of the two-day course focused on how government can work with limited resources to create a culture responsive to the needs of customers and provide excellent customer service. To help illustrate how some agencies are already working towards excellence in customer service, BEE welcomed former political appointee and startup entrepreneur Phaedra Chrousos.

Phaedra Chrousos

Chrousos co-founded the Technology Transformation Service at the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA) and served as its first Commissioner. The mission of the Technology Transformation Service is to help the government build and buy technology solutions that provide experiences designed for the user first. The new service institutionalizes some of President Obama’s most successful digital initiatives and provides a foundation for the government’s ongoing digital transformation.

One of the first projects Chrousos was tasked with at GSA was evaluating and improving the tenant satisfaction survey process. At that time the nine-month process yielded an average response rate of 30 percent. A yearly survey that took nine months to complete did not leave much time to effectively design or implement any suggestions brought forth from the data. Chrousos and her team got to work and determined that one of the biggest factors for low scores is that people did not know who to get in touch with regarding concerns or issues. Data analytics show that creating a 1-800 number was an inexpensive way to gain momentum on the satisfaction survey quickly, at low cost.

As a member of the 18F Digital Service team, Chrousos and her team were asked to support the Department of Education’s goal to make information it had collected on colleges and universities available to potential students. They quickly realized that the web-based design focused on the wrong audience. Instead of focusing on the students who would actively use the information, the initial design was developed with internal audiences in mind.

Research showed that the actual audience (students), did not want the information via a website, but an app. Within three months the data was made available to outside vendors (up and running with 20 different companies) along with specific instructions on how to interface with the Department of Education’s database apps. This approach to development led to substantial savings over the expected cost of a website.

Each example illustrated the importance and the benefits of focusing on excellence in customer service. In each case not only was customer experience improved, but the activities also saved staff time and money.