Chicago Business

Issue date: 9/28/06 Section: GSB Life

Shortly after my arrival at the GSB last fall, we launched the "Building Branding Project." Although the Hyde Park Center had opened to rave reviews the year before, it lacked branding. Not only weren't we identifying the building as Chicago GSB, on a deeper level, there weren't many clues to what goes on here and our connection with a management education that goes back more than a century. So we asked ourselves:

How could the GSB culture come through in its physical space?

We started fact finding, connecting with Suzanne Shusta-Martin, '95, at Motorola for a firsthand look at Motorola's morphing from a technology to a marketing/consumer company and with GSB council member Dennis Chookaszian, '68, who took us through CNA Insurance and its tribute to its history.

A plan emerged to showcase the GSB culture through its people. The result is three new displays in HPC. On the classroom level, a series of Faculty Stories. In Alper Lounge, a more personal treatment of the Nobel winners. And outside the Recruiters' Lounge, an Alumni Stories display that pairs recent GSB grads with well-known alumni.

In the course of the project, we sat down with Professor Harry Davis, who helped us determine the selection criteria. He asked us to describe the GSB faculty and its legends.



"Authentic across all audiences."

"They find issues irresistible."

"Focused on getting to the best idea, the best answer."

"Unconcerned with what others think."

"Never boring, bragging, posturing or pretending."



Harry said, "Well, what you've described here, isn't that a form of 'COOL'?"

Absolutely.

With our "cool manifesto" we set about choosing our subjects. Our Faculty Stories feature school founder J. Lawrence Laughlin, Nobel laureate George Stigler, and faculty award winners Gene Fama and Ann McGill. Check out their quotes, which say a lot about them and the GSB culture. Laughlin's-remarkably-includes the tenet "teaching (students) how to think," a belief we still hold a century later. My favorite is from Stigler, who said:

"[At Chicago] the inactive scholar may be liked and provide useful and appreciated services, but he or she will not be looked upon as one of the warriors."


Pretty GSB cool, if you ask me.

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