From the Dean's Desk

Guest column: Kara Palmer and Ken Kelley

Kara Palmer and Ken Kelley

Kara Palmer and Ken Kelley

Monday, 17 January 2022
What's in a name
Welcome back to all! We hope you are excited to start a new semester.
In our ongoing efforts to create an inclusive and welcoming environment in the College, an important element is also one of the most basic: pronouncing each other’s names correctly.
We all want to greet each other by the right name but sometimes this is hard based on our familiarity – or lack thereof – with how certain letters make different sounds in some languages. And it can seem embarrassing to continually repeat, “I’m sorry, but how do you say your name again?” Names are not mispronounced for a lack of trying or want, but simply because some sounds or spellings may be unfamiliar to us. And sometimes we may think we are saying the right name, but it may not be quite right.
We have a solution! NameCoach is now available to all Mendoza faculty and staff to help us solve the common problem of name mispronunciation. It is also useful to double check that you are saying someone’s name properly! The tool provides a simple and effective solution by allowing users to record their names with proper pronunciation and embed it into emails and online directories.
We encourage all of our faculty and staff to record your names and embed the “Hear My Name” icon into your email signatures and be included in the staff and faculty pages in the online directory.
To start:
1. Register for an account and login.
  • Follow the instructions on the personal email invitation you receive on Tuesday (January 18) from NameCoach (no-reply@name-coach.com) to establish your NameCoach MCOB account
  • Confirm your registration by clicking on the link in the email you receive from NameCoach and set up your password.
  • Log in at https://www.name-coach.com/login.
2. Record your voice.
3. Add the Name Badge to your email signature (embed link according to the instructions on the website).
Once you record your voice, the recording will be added automatically to your faculty or staff page. It’s an easy process and we strongly encourage all of our faculty and staff to use the service. Even if you think your name is simple to pronounce, it might not be so for others.
The instructions to use NameCoach are posted to the Mendoza Exchange website for future reference. We want to thank Chris Fruehwirth, MinHee Myung and Hank Gettinger for their work in making NameCoach available.
In commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Walk the Walk Week, and in the spirit of promoting peace and inclusion, we end this column with a prayer:
We pray this day for the grace to tear down walls that divide us and build bridges of understanding and unity. We praise you, God, for the gift of cultural diversity in our world. Help us learn to listen more deeply and connect with the "other," who may have a different perspective and background. We ask this in the name of Jesus, your son. Amen.
Yours in Notre Dame,
Kara Palmer
Director of Administration
Mendoza DE&I Staff Advocate
Ken Kelley
Associate Dean for Faculty and Research
Mendoza DE&I Faculty Advocate

Welcome back

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 10 January 2022
Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope you had a restful winter break and are returning refreshed and looking forward to a rewarding spring semester.
During the Mendoza Advent Christmas Reception on December 17, I repeated a prayer from the Notre Dame Book of Prayer that included these lines:
Knit us in harmony and love, we who are flesh of His flesh.
Fill the coming year with good gifts for all the world
Now, at the start of a new year, the prayer to be knitted in harmony and love and to share our gifts for the benefit of the world seems like an appropriate theme for the College in 2022. It speaks to our charge as a College as presented in the three Cs: to contribute to human flourishing, serving others in response to all the gifts we have received; to cooperate in solidarity through teamwork as part of a community and prioritize those with the greatest needs; and to compete with excellence by becoming the best version of oneself, by the grace of God and with the help of (and helping) others.
This is not an easy charge. At the New Year's Day Angelus, Pope Francis encouraged us to "roll up our sleeves to build peace." We don’t naturally associate “peace” with the persistent labor suggested by rolling up our sleeves. It takes hard work and enduring faith to be knitted in harmony and love, and even more so to invest this work in order to benefit others. Yet this is the basis of what we do at Mendoza and it is in evidence every day.
I’m very grateful to the many faculty and staff members who constantly go above and beyond to serve our students. I hope you will take a few minutes to read over the kudos that we gathered at the end of the fall semester to recognize the extraordinary efforts of our faculty and staff. It’s an amazing list of accomplishments.
I also want to pass along a message provided by Ann Tenbrunsel that was sent by a student to one of our M&O professors. It serves as a reminder of how important your work is and its impact on lives for years to come:
"I will never forget how in times of desperation and anxiety you showed empathy and gave me a second chance. Thank you. You have taught me so much, you have changed my perspective of management, but most importantly, you have changed the way I view leadership and the way I view life. It is all about giving, serving, and growing along the way. You are a very inspiring person, there were multiple times I entered your class with no motivation and a large amount of fear and uncertainty but left with great courage and a new desire to keep on fighting despite my struggles. You have turned me into a more caring and compassionate person, you have taught me to lead by example and inspire me to make a change, not a living."
My best wishes for a blessed 2022.
In Notre Dame,
Martijn

Rejoicing and Hope

Dean Martijn Cremers

Dean Martijn Cremers

Monday, 20 December 2021
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“Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” Luke 2:29-32

The passage above is known as the Song of Simeon, a man considered righteous and devout who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he wouldn’t die before he had seen the Messiah. The scene of Simeon first beholding the infant Jesus with Mary and Joseph is depicted on the Mendoza Christmas card this year. The art was reproduced from an inset from the “Our Lady of Sorrows” icon, which was blessed by Father John during the Mendoza Centennial Mass and now is installed in the Stayer Center’s St. Matthew Chapel.
Simeon’s song (also called the “Nunc Dimittis,” which is the traditional “Gospel Canticle” of Night Prayer) is one of rejoicing in seeing a long awaited expectation finally fulfilled and a message of hope for the future. His words express the gratitude for the faithfulness of God who keeps His promises, which is the source of joy in the present and of hope in the future. That is one of the reasons that the passage is often thought to present the Christmas spirit, as we remember the blessings of the past with gratitude, rejoice together in the present and look to the New Year with renewed hope.
We all have different holiday traditions. Growing up in the Netherlands, our family would celebrate Saint Nicholas with presents on the eve of December 5 (rather than presents on Christmas), for example. We also explicitly observed Advent traditions and then celebrated the Christmas season starting December 25. In the Netherlands, both December 25 and 26 have long been national holidays, where most people would not go to work and most shops would be closed.
Others celebrate holidays according to different faith traditions, such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, during this time of year. This special and holy season is an excellent time to focus on what we hold in common — the blessings of faith, love for our families and friends, and gratitude for all that we have received.
As we break for the upcoming holidays, I wish you the peace and joy of Christmas, and a refreshed spirit to greet the New Year.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Martijn

Guest column: Rob Kelly

Rob Kelly

Rob Kelly

Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Change. There’s no word that has come up in conversation more frequently in my first four-plus months at Mendoza. We have been through a lot of change and that’s led to some understandable change fatigue. The pandemic made this harder. And now we work in a world that is learning to live with the virus and its lasting social, economic and community health implications.
It would be disingenuous to suggest we are done changing. We have not yet reached our goals. It may be helpful to consider the growth and evolution of the College in terms of our role in the change:
  1. How can we make change less difficult or disruptive for others?
  2. How can we influence the change process and its outcomes?
Overall, our approach to change should advance our mission in the least difficult way by being:
  • Proactive, by doing the work to envision our future and make changes that overcome challenges that lay ahead. Reactive change is harder and more stressful.
  • Productive, by building an organization and delivering programs that Grow the Good in Business through our faculty, staff and students.
  • Planned, by outlining our 5-year strategy for the College, including the changes we need to make to achieve our ambitious goals.
  • Participatory, by involving and inviting others to contribute time, feedback and ideas, especially those impacted by the change.
Your voice is critical to shaping the future of the College and we want you to be informed, involved and inspired by the changes ahead. As you think about how you can influence what and how we change, here are a few considerations inspired by Dean Cremers:
  • Understand the OKRs of the College and how they translate into the objectives for your department/function and your team.
  • Discuss the impact of College priorities on your work with your supervisor and others you collaborate with.
  • Seek clarity where you don’t have understanding, question changes that lack explanation and challenge ideas that don’t make sense. Please speak up!
As the calendar year comes to a close, I want to provide several updates:
  • Strategic Planning: The planning committee is holding a kickoff meeting this week. After the break, you will receive a survey to complete that will help inform the committee’s important work. Please take 10-15 minutes to respond with your thoughts.
  • Finance & Facilities: In November, the Finance & Facilities team joined my team and we’re excited to more fully integrate them into the fold.
  • MBA Move to Stayer: Also in November, we assembled a steering committee to direct the various efforts involved in making the Stayer Center the new home of the MBA Program. There are three working groups focused on facilities renovations (see below), office space and classroom/event space scheduling.
Changes, especially those in our facilities, bring with them some amount of disruption. I just want to thank all of you in advance for your patience and understanding as we make our physical environment match our first-class educational environment. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out directly to me (rkelly1@nd.edu or 1x0979) with any questions or concerns regarding anything I’ve mentioned here.
Have a blessed remainder of the Advent season and a very Merry Christmas!
Gratefully,
Rob Kelly
Senior Director of Operations
Office of the Dean

Guest Column: Nick Berente and Mike Mannor

Nick Berente and Mike Mannor

Nick Berente and Mike Mannor

Monday, 6 December 2021
Silicon Valley MBA Mod-Away
We’re excited to let you know about an innovative program at Mendoza — the Silicon Mod-Away program for our MBA students. For the past seven weeks, 14 Notre Dame MBA students have been living and studying in Silicon Valley as part of a pilot program with Notre Dame California.
The Silicon Valley Mod-Away reflects the MBA program’s growing commitment to the technology field and an expansion of our analytics training in the program. Last year, more than one-third of our MBA students took jobs at technology companies, and others chose jobs in technology or data-related roles in other organizations, such as consulting firms.
Courses in the Silicon Valley Mod-Away are focused on product management, technology and innovation. All four classes are being taught or co-taught by tenured Mendoza faculty. Sarv Devaraj, the director of ND California, is teaching a course on Data and Digital Innovation. Xuying Zhao, who also lives in area, is teaching a course on Smart Supply Chain Innovation. Nick Berente and Jan Poczobutt (an ’83 alum and a senior executive at Amazon) are co-teaching two of courses — one on Digital Product Management and one that connects our students with tech companies in Silicon Valley to develop new digital innovations.
Although most Silicon Valley tech firms are still working remotely, limiting onsite visit opportunities, Silicon Valley faculty, as well as Ryan Retartha and John Rooney, stepped up to both bring speakers into the classroom and students out to some firms each week. The students had the opportunity to spend time with leaders from Google, Facebook, Amazon, IDEO, LinkedIn, Adobe, VMware, JD.com and several others. The Mod-Away also offered a range of opportunities to interact with alumni, such as happy hours, tailgating at the ND-Stanford game and visits to alumni-connected organizations. The visits included a trip to a Napa Valley winery (Silver Oak) and a professional soccer organization (San Jose Sharks), among other field trips to California’s abundant tourist destinations.
Beyond organized events, many students individually connected with alumni in the area throughout the term and found those alumni to be quite available for grabbing a cup of coffee and helping with networking. Most students lived in an apartment complex across the street from Stanford University, and took classes in a temporary facility on-site. ND California is working to identify a more long term classroom facility in Palo Alto for next year.
Overall, indications are that this Mod-Away in Silicon Valley was a successful pilot. Over the Stanford-ND weekend, we spent time asking the students for their reflections about their experience so far. They expressed overwhelmingly positive reviews of their experience, noting the lifelong bonds they have formed together, and deep appreciation for the opportunity to learn, network and immerse themselves in the culture of Silicon Valley. They are eager to help recruit first year students to participate in the program next year.
We look forward to building on this success and continuing to both build and strengthen opportunities for Notre Dame MBAs in the Bay Area.
In Notre Dame,
Nick Berente
Viola D. Hank Associate Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
Mike Mannor
Associate Dean for the MBA Program
John F. O'Shaughnessy Associate Professor of Family Enterprise

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