'Nota Bene' lectures share eclectic faculty knowledge

By Matt Golosinski

This spring, the Kellogg School presented three more special opportunities for others to learn from the teaching and research of its top professors. Nota Bene, a 2004 innovation introduced by Kellogg, is a forum to share knowledge with the school's second-year MBA students as they approach graduation. The presentations are designed to be both thought-provoking and practical, offering students real-world insights they will soon be able to implement in the work force. The lectures are especially valuable to second-year students who did not have the chance to learn from these professors in the classroom.

Recent Nota Bene lectures were given by Steven Rogers, the Gordon and Llura Gund Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of the Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice at Kellogg; Victoria Medvec, the Adeline Barry Davee Professor of Management and Organizations and director of the Kellogg Center for Executive Women; and Hayagreeva Rao, the Richard L. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change.

Professor Rogers introduced his area of expertise, entrepreneurship, to an audience of some 400 Kellogg Class of 2005 students, their families and friends during Graduation Week. The lecture employed the Socratic method, a favorite of Rogers, and resulted in an interactive group session that explored the nature of entrepreneurs and how they achieve success.

Professor Medvec delivered her Nota Bene presentation on the topic "10 Key Strategies for Negotiations," one of her areas of research.

Medvec articulated the importance of, among other things, laying the groundwork for negotiations with good preparation that assesses one's goals; setting an aggressive goal; improving one's BATNA ("Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement"); establishing a reservation price and scoring system; negotiating at the "package level" rather than issue by issue; and making the first offer while leaving sufficient room to concede.

"Those who speak first win" in negotiation, Medvec told the audience. "The first offer creates an anchoring effect" that then serves as the touchstone for others' estimates.

"Make the first offer to define the 'fair' territory," she said.

Professor Rao's presentation, "Interagency Coordination," illustrated the challenges that occur when problems must be addressed across multiple jurisdictions. He accented the importance of how "design should accomplish cognitive and motivational repair," and he cited examples that included the misdiagnosis of the West Nile Virus and events leading up to a "friendly fire" incident in Iraq, to drive home the dangers of a variety of logical fallacies, including circular reasoning. He also provided some frameworks and processes that would have helped avoid these problems.