Just a quick update with regard to several Marketing & Communications milestones.

Thanks,

Pam McCoy
Executive Director, Marketing & Communications

New Foster School of Business Identity

Proposed guidelines for the new Foster “look” are currently being finalized and will be unveiled in mid-May. The proposed look is fresh, upbeat and “cool!” Stay tuned for more information.

Foster School Brand Roundtables

Approximately 200 faculty and staff were able to attend the April roundtables at which Dean Jiambalvo and Mark Forehand shared the Foster brand promise and attributes. If you were unable to attend and/or did not receive a Foster vest, please visit the Branding Roundtable Web page to view a quick PowerPoint, a video of the presentation and/or register to receive your vest. During the roundtables every one was encouraged to share brand proof point stories with the Marketing & Communications team, which may be used in our media outreach efforts, brochures, the Foster Web site, etc. If you have a proof point you’d like to share, please go to http://foster.washington.edu/in/stories/ to share your story.

In the News – March & April 2008

The faculty, students, alumni and staff of the Michael G. Foster School of Business are in the news on a regular basis. From features stories to faculty quotes, you’ll find a taste of recent media coverage below.

Business Week Online, April 14, 2008
Seattle’s Ambitious B-School
On a recent visit to New York, Dean Jiambalvo met with Phil Mintz, business schools editor at Business Week. In addition to the meeting, the dean was interviewed for Business Week’s “Video Views” Web site series. The dean joins good company. Recently featured business school luminaries include Dean Tom Campbell of Haas, Dean Judy Olian of UCLA, Dean David Schmittlein of Sloan and Dean Robert Joss of Stanford.

Puget Sound Business Journal, April 18, 2008
Stay in Seattle or go? Industrial land costs dictate complex decisions
Ted Klastorin, professor of operations management, is quoted in this story about rising land costs in Seattle and the impact on local manufacturing companies.

The Daily, April 17, 2008
It’s Business Time
Foster School undergraduates won the People’s Choice award with a strategy for personal music havens at Starbucks locations in the 10th annual Global Business Case Competition. The GBCC has become the flagship international event for the Foster School, and 16 teams from around the world participated this year – the winning team was the University of Singapore.

Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2008
Why Do Investors Ignore Inquiries?
From "the first revelation of misconduct" until an investigation is resolved, stocks of target companies tend to fall by an average of 40%, says Jonathan Karpoff, a finance professor at the University of Washington, who co-authored a study on the topic.

Seattle Times, April 8, 2008
Microsoft, Yahoo elbow each other over buyout offer
Jarrad Harford, associate professor of finance, said Microsoft could eliminate stock price uncertainty for Yahoo shareholders with a "collar" that effectively guarantees the value would remain constant or within a certain range.

Bloomberg.com, April 2008
What’s an Analyst Worth? Not a Penny as Estimates Miss
Accounting professor Shiva Rajgopal comments on the unlikelihood that corporations, such as GE, will consistently meet estimates. If analysts made their own judgments independent of company forecasts, the probability of compiling a record like GE's by sheer chance would be about 1 in 100 billion, based on a standard statistical equation, similar to a coin flip.

U.S News & World Report, March 26, 2008
Student Profile: Why Full-time Studies Works for This Mom
Jennifer Mechem, now 43, always had thoughts of law school, but she lost out in an interview for executive director of a nonprofit because of her lack of management experience: "If I wanted to get to the next level, I needed to fill the credential gap." Now she's in B-school at the University of Washington.

Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2008
At Starbucks, Low-Key Vet Plots Course
Foster MBA alumna, Michelle Gass has been Howard Schultz's right-hand person in developing new strategies to turn Starbucks around.

Olympian, March 18, 2008
Adviser: Small business needs plan
MBA alumna Celia Nightingale draws on her professional experience in banking, accounting and human resource management to provide free business counseling through the Small Business Development Center in Olympia.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 13, 2008
MySpace expands in Seattle
MySpace, with 60 local employees, plans to double its Seattle work force in the next year after making the city the first remote development office for the Beverly Hills, Calif., company. MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe is an alumnus of the School of Business.

Internet Update

Web Site Scrub
The Foster School Web site now includes the new Foster logo across all pages. Copy and links on the main navigation pages are being simplified and improved based on Google Analytics data. Initial analysis reveals that usability has already improved since simplifying some of the Web content.

Web Redesign Prep
Research is underway for the Web site redesign that will take place later this year. Activities include:

• Content Management System (CMS) research – CMS is a tool that will vastly improve the efficiency of producing Web pages, e-newsletters and more
• Web 2.0 planning and research – identifying social networking opportunities for Foster and ways to optimize features blogs, podcasts, Facebook and more
• Technology improvements – a video camera has been purchased to help the marketing team showcase the Foster brand across our Web site, intranet and within e-newsletters