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Continued from previous page
An Olympic-Sized Study
While studying the Olympics may seem far afield to topics like emerging economies and venture capital,
Guillén says that his sports research is actually an extension of his globalization work.
After the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Guillén sorted the medal
results by country to see if he could explain the differences.
He found some interesting patterns: Richer countries earned
more medals, countries with governments that intervene more
in the economy also earned more medals, and democracies on
average earn more medals than non-democracies.
“Some would say that this is an indication of the power of
the free spirit and that individual initiative is more important
than governments telling people what to do,” he says. “I haven’t
had time to compile more data on all of the Olympics since then, but that is what I intend to do in the future. I want to
know to what extent the wealth of a country plays a role and
I want to look at the interplay between how much a country
can do to make it more competitive and its actual ability to win
medals. Can governments do anything about it and to what extent
is individual initiative playing a role?”
Since all this plays out in the Olympics — and in individual
sports like tennis and golf in general — Guillén plans to study
the question with several undergraduate Wharton students.
New Directions
Given his love of working with students and his focus on globalization, Guillén’s new role as director of the
Lauder Institute is a perfect fit. As he looks ahead, a primary goal is to make the Institute even more relevant.
“When Lauder was created in 1983, it was extremely innovative,
as it was well before business schools were even thinking
about incorporating globalization and emerging economies
into their curricula,” Guillén says. “Back then, Lauder students
were getting something that other MBA students were not,” he
says, adding: “There is a need to redefine the Institute’s mission
in such a way that it continues to be as relevant today as
it was 25 years ago.”
He plans to achieve this goal by helping students integrate
what they learn at the Lauder Institute, which combines
a Wharton MBA with a master of arts in international studies.
The Institute also offers a masters/JD joint degree. Lauder
students receive high-level language and culture training, a
two-month in-country immersion and coursework from both
Wharton and the School of Arts and Sciences.
“We are going to better help our students integrate everything
they learn by creating new hands-on projects around the
world,” says Guillén. Such projects include students traveling
to Senegal or Cape Verde to help local entrepreneurs launch
businesses by teaching them how to use basic accounting and
marketing principles in areas such as agriculture for export,
tourism, health care, and even credit unions. Another project will compile emerging companies’ databases in China and
India. And a third project, in conjunction with Knowledge@
Wharton, will allow students to travel the world to gather data,
conduct interviews, and compile materials for a series of reports
on topics such as family businesses.
He notes that his biggest surprise as director has been the
high level of commitment from Lauder alumni, of whom there
are more than 1,100 around the world, as well as the active involvement
of the Lauder family, and in particular Leonard
Lauder, W’54, who co-founded the Institue with his brother, Ronald Lauder, also W’54.. “I get an e-mail from Leonard every
week or sometimes every other day. He has been very generous
not only in endowing the institute, but also with his time.
He provides advice and a fresh perspective from the outside.
It’s great to have someone on his level who is very smart and
knows how to anticipate changes.”
Frequent contributor Meghan Laska is a senior associate director
for Wharton Communications.
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