post # 446 — Tuesday, October 9, 2007 — a Managing post

B-School competition on Human Capital

I received an email from Susan D. Strayer, theDirector of Talent Management at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. She included a press release letting me (us) know that students from the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management who focus in human and organizational performance issues are hosting the nation’s first-ever competition focusing solely on human capital challenges.

The National MBA Human Capital Case Competition will be held in Nashville, Tenn. on Oct. 19-20. The teams will be judged by a panel of industry executives, including leaders from General Electric and Deloitte, who are sponsoring the competition. The teams will have the chance to win more than $30,000 in cash prizes.

Strayer (a 2007 grad of the Owen school) said “Some of the biggest obstacles companies of any size will face have to do with their employees. It's imperative that business school students make employee-related issues as important as other avenues of business. That’s why Owen is taking the lead to elevate the study of human capital to be on the same level with marketing, finance and operations."

For more information on the National MBA Human Capital Case Competition, log onto www.humancapitalcasecompetition.com.

I’m sure other business schools will take issue with the assertion that Vanderbilt is “taking the lead” here. Any current or recent B-school grads have anything interesting to report about the extent to which the “study of human capital” (horrible phrase) is being integrated into the curriculum and treated “at the same level with marketing, finance and operations”?

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