He’s Back! What The B-school World Is Saying About Obama’s Second Term

The morning after the night before, we trawled the web to find out what the b-school world is saying about Obama's re-election as US President.

 

True to form, Harvard Business School, where two thirds of students supported Obama this election, was first off the mark. In a blog posted at 6.30am EST today, Harvard Business Review blogger Gretchen Gavett advised Obama on what his first task should be. 

 

“Today, Barack Obama needs to focus on building — or rebuilding — his leadership team,” she said, adding that he should favour people with wisdom and “depth of mind and heart” over the "experts with a capital E" that he went for in his first term.

 

Meanwhile Prof Mark Thoma, an economist at the University of Oregon commented that Obama’s victory would at most “nudge” white, non-urban, socially conservative Americans towards accepting a more diverse and tolerant America. “The fight is far from over”, he said.

 

Tyler Cowen, an economist who teaches at the George Mason University’s School of Management said that the Republican Party needs to wake up to America’s changing demographics, and make major inroads with Hispanic voters. A “market liberal”, Cowen thought Romney would have made a "fine president” who comes from the more moderate wing of the Republican Party.

 

However, it’s a wing of the GOP that has lost out to extremists over time: “The broader array of interest groups, to support the real Romney, comes from another time and place,” he said.  

 

In an interesting pre-election post, professors from several business schools including IE Business School, Duke -Fuqua and Mexico’s ITAM compared Obama and Romney’s leadership styles in America Economia. Check it out for comparisons of “visionary” Obama versus “micro managing consultant” Romney, and the pros and cons of each.

 

From IE Business School professor and communications expert C Todd Lombardo we got news that “Thank God” was the fifth most mentioned phrase on Facebook in the US last night!  

 

Most impressive election night photo so far? BusinessBecause member, Kellogg MBA and prolific blogger Jeremy C Wilson tweeted a photo of himself celebrating at the Obama campaign HQ party at McCormick Place in Chicago!