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June 30, 2008
Power Lunch at Tennessee Lottery
Join us on Thursday, July 17 for our summer Power Lunch with the Tennessee Lottery. The event will run from 11:30 to 1:00 pm and be held at the Lottery office (200 Athens Way, Suite 200, Nashville, TN 37728). To RSVP, please email masseygrad@mail.belmont.edu by July 11, 2008.
Ethics Center Announces Fall Speaker Series
The Belmont Center for Business Ethics will present some outstanding programs during the fall of 2008. The first presentation will be on Tuesday, September 9, 2008. David Callahan, author of the best-seller The Cheating Culture, will make a presentation on Ethics and Politics. For more information about the event or to RSVP email cobaethics@mail.belmont.edu. For a biography of David Callahan, visit The Cheating Culture website.
Other upcoming events will continue the theme of ethics in government and politics as Belmont prepares to host a 2008 Presidential Debate. Other events include:
September 26: John Seigenthaler, distinguished Founder of The First Amendment Center, will lead a discussion on Ethical Responsibility and the Presidential Election: Is the Media Helping or Hurting? The Ethics Center will sponsor this event with Belmont’s New Century Journalism Program.
October 21: Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom whistleblower, Time Magazine 2005 Person of the Year, and author of Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower will make a presentation on Ethical Dilemmas: Power and Money.
November 6: Jonathan Wight, noted economist and author of Saving Adam Smith: A Tale of Wealth, Transformation, and Virtue, will make a presentation on November 6 (just two days after the presidential election) on The New Administration and the Economy: What can we expect? What should we expect?
Networking Opportunities
Massey Networking Luncheons are held on the third Thursday of the month (some exceptions apply during holiday months) and provide Massey students and alumni with an opportunity to stay in touch with one another, as well as to meet new potential business contacts.
The next luncheon will be held on July 17th at 11:30 a.m. at Mere Bulls in Brentwood. Contact Londa Morgan at londa@hardcastleconstruction.com or (615) 500-1443 for more information.
Other summer events include:
August 21 - Luncheon, Radius 10, Nashville, 11:30 a.m.
September 3 - Breakfast, Location TBD, 7:00-8:30 a.m.
The fall schedule of events includes:
September 18 - Luncheon at DaVinci's Gourmet Pizza, Nashville, 11:30 a.m.
October 16 - Luncheon at J. Alexander's, Cool Springs, 11:30 a.m.
November 20 - Luncheon at Nero's Grill, Nashville, 11:30 a.m.
December 3 - Breakfast, Location TBD, 7:00-8:30 a.m.
December 18 - Luncheon at Bricktop's, Nashville, 11:30 a.m.
Massey Students Travel to China
Thank you to Jeff Williams for sharing his experience on the International Business trip in China 2008: Beijing and Shanghai.
Twenty-one MBA and MACC students, Dr. Cochran, and Dean Raines spent May 16th to May 23rd touring two great cities in China. From the Great Wall to the Shanghai Port, the Belmont group traveled by plane, bus, sleeper train, taxi, and foot to explore Beijing and Shanghai. Boutique service provider ChinaSense arranged for the business visits, cultural excursions, meals, and market walks, in addition to providing much-needed translation services for the duration of the trip. One week after the catastrophic earthquake and less than three months before the Olympic Games, Massey students faced a climate rife with both grief and fervent preparation.
On Saturday morning, we kicked off a full weekend of discovering Beijing’s historic, cultural, gastronomic, and commercial attractions. Some lessons learned: 1) the breathtaking Great Wall should be more aptly named the Majestic Mountain Staircase 2) Peking Duck is delicious and it takes three days of applied culinary science to get the crispy skin just right 3) The Forbidden City is not actually forbidden but one of the most traversed destinations in all of China 4) a lunch of traditional Beijing noodles is the true reason that Dr. Cochran led the trip 5) while negotiating with merchants, you always need to walk away at least once 6) traffic laws are merely suggestions—might makes right 7) taxi rides in Beijing are kind of a crap shoot whether you are being taken back to the hotel or on a more expensive joy ride, and 8) KFC is strangely ubiquitous. All in all, seeing the Olympic National Stadium and the National Aquatics Center, better known as the “Bird’s Nest” and the “Water Cube”, as well as the endless construction sites at every turn, made for a very impressive ground introduction into this metropolitan center of China. 
On Monday, we began the true purpose of this journey: visiting eight businesses. Dr. Cochran must have known the power of the number “8” in China; for many, it is the number of happiness, prosperity, and essentially all things positive. On this tour of 8, we visited Lenovo, which is a global competitor in the PC and laptop market and one of the title sponsors of the Olympics. Lenovo is arguably China’s most successful company in history. Later that day, we visited a charity-funded vocational school for teens of parents who came to the city as migrant workers. We exchanged messages of encouragement, appreciation, and goodwill with the students, who touchingly sang for us before we left. After a trip through a Chinese Wal-Mart and a night on a sleeper train from Beijing to Shanghai, we visited an elite B-school named China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) on its I.M. Pei-designed Shanghai campus. CEIBS is a European-Chinese collaboration, and we participated in an informative Q & A session with two current students.
On Wednesday, in Shanghai, we embarked on four visits, beginning with the well-respected Jun He Law Firm, followed by the Office Depot warehouse, the Office Depot Shanghai Office, and last, but certainly not least, Dr. Ming Wang’s Aier Eye Hospital. Dr. Wang had been a guest speaker six weeks prior at one of our pre-trip classes, and in Shanghai, he gave us a personal tour of his impressive facilities. Never letting a teachable moment go by, Dr. Wang continually challenged us to think more deeply and creatively about the hospital business model as well as the differences between Chinese and Western approaches to medicine. On Thursday, our last full day in Shanghai, we witnessed the massive and astounding Shanghai Port, which loads and unloads ocean liners full of heavy cargo. As the logistic Mecca of Shanghai, it is where heavy global industries must go to send or receive cargo the size of tractor-trailers.
Filled with good Chinese food, our heads still spinning with the hustle and bustle of Beijing and Shanghai, we eventually had to leave. But at least we left Shanghai at the same pace as China’s economic growth—superfast—at 300km/h on a magnetic levitation bullet train, to be precise. In the coming weeks, there should be a link on the Belmont website for this China trip, which will include as much detail as possible regarding what was truly a broadening and enriching course.
Massey School Celebrates Achievements
You may have seen the ads running in the Tennessean recently. If you missed it, we have it here for you.
Massey Alumni Support Belmont Literacy Day
Massey alumni and students took part in Belmont's Literacy Day on Saturday, April 12 by hosting a reading circle. Thank you to the volunteers and those who donated books for the event.
Literacy Day is an opportunity for the Belmont community to support literacy in the broader Nashville community. The event draws students from pre-K to eigth grade. Students collect stickers at the various reading circles in order to earn craft time, game time and treats. Students who collect six stickers also get to take a book home with them from the event. The Massey reading circle theme was "fun with food." The volunteers and participants had a great time sharing stories and recipes during the event. 
Alumni Happenings
If you have a news item you would like to share with the Massey community, please email masseygrad@mail.belmont.edu. We would like to hear from you!
Chris Palmer (MBA '07) has joined the faculty at Murray State University in Murray, KY where he will be heading up their music business emphasis. Palmer was formerly general manager and senior vice president of marketing at Warner Brothers Records.