Tomorroti^ ^ Leadei'^
KK^N NERT    SCHOOL O F^*^ A N A G E M EN T
PURDUE   UNIVERSITY
o
o
Fall     19 9 7
\
Professor Wins Award, Invests in Students
Arnold C. Cooper, Louis a. Weil, Jr., Professor in Management
ui
a3
0scHe3^
H
SCMCKPiNEWS
2   Dean's Letter
2 Enterprise Integration Lab
3 Technology in Action
4 International Multidisciplinary Management Project
Student Managed Investnrjf nt Fund
5 Awards
Q ALUMNI NEWS
6   Letter to Alumni
8 Receptions
9 Back in Class
10   Annual Fund Report
Q STUDENT NEWS
12 Graduation
13 Honors Banquet
14 Krannert Scholars
^ FACULTY NEWS
15 Honors & Awards Ifi   Affinity Credit Cards
^ CLASS NOTES
HOMECOMING
Join us for Homecoming
Oct. 17-18! See page 10.
Individuals and corporations that invest in endowed chairs ensure a legacy of educa¬ tional excellence. The Louis A. Weil, Jr, Professorship in Management was established in honor of Weil, the retired publisher of the Lafayette Journal and Courier (1954-62) and vice president of the Gannett Newspapers Group. An active journalist and entrepreneur, Weil gave financial support to a number of charitable, cultural, and educational institutions. He received an honorary doctorate degree from Krannert and Purdue in 1985. He was enthusiastic about the future prospects and opportunities of the Krannert School as a Dean's Advisory Council member, and his named prof&ssorship continues to support excellence in management education.
THIS IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF PROFILES ON KRANNERT'S CHAIRED PROFESSORSHIPS. A CHAIR CONFERS DISTINCTION, SHOWS RECOGNITION BY ONE'S PEERS, AND HELPS ATTRACT AND KEEP THE BEST SCHOURS AT KRANNERT. CHAIRHOLDERS ARE NAMED BY THE DEAN WITH CONSULTATION BY FACULTY AND OUTSIDE REFERENCES AND APPROVED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY.
For a man whose distinguished career has spanned the history of the Krannert School, the year 1997 has proven to be another milestone for Prof. Arnold "Amie" Cooper, strategic management. As he says, "It doesn't get much better than this for a professor."
Cooper has received international recognition for a lifetime of contribu¬ tion — he travels to Stockholm, Sweden, in September to accept the 1997 International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research. The award consists of a statuette, "God's Hand," and $50,000. Cooper will donate the monetary portion to management student awards at Krannert. "I'm just deliglited to have this opportunity," he said. "My wife, Jean, and I wanted to be able to give the money to future generations."
By Rex Mans
Significant Contribution
Three Swedish organizations instituted the annual award, which recognizes an individual who has contributed significantly to the field of entrepreneur- ship and small business: the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK), a branch of the government; the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research (FSF), an academic organization; and Telia AB, the country's leading telecommunications operator
At home the day he heard about the award, Cooper had more mundane things on his mind— his refrigerator was broken. As Cooper explains it, "I wanted to be here to let in the repairman. He was banging away and vacuuming when the phone rang, t  and this lady who said she was
     ^itt     ^ telephoning from Stockliolm
cHfviREO   ^     began to read a proclamation.
OFESSOW*   j^       "About halfway through it
began to dawn on me that I was
winning the intemational prize, but
my brain was still thinking, 'My, I'm
glad that refrigerator is getting repaired.'
So it kind of put things in perspective."
¦^^ winn
Pioneering Work
The Scientific Council of the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research, which evaluated the candidates and made the final selection, wrote of Cooper: "[His] pioneering work on technical entrepreneurship, new technology-ba.sed firms, and incubator organizations has significantly enhanced our understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena. He continues to make important contributions in a wide range of topics, recently on new venture perfomiance prediction. I)r Cooper is inspiring a new generation of researchers in a field which today has become of major interest for policy-makers all over the world."
The foundation for such pioneering work began, appropriately, at Purdue. Cooper graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1955. In 1956, he entered the first master's program in management at Purdue, which was started in Stanley Coulter Annex. Cooper was a graduate of that first MSIA class in 1957. He went to work for Procter & Gamble, eamed a doctorate at Harvard Business School, and taught there for 2 years.
Wlien he returned to Purdue to teach in 1963, the Krannert Building was under construction. Business education nationwide was in its infancy Much of the existing coursework had focused on the descriptive — on what business was like. TVo nationwide studies from the Ford and Carnegie foundations had been published in the late 1950s. Both were critical of business schools and called for substantial curriculum changes.
As Cooper says, "These foundations called for training students by giving them decision-making skills and knowledge that would help them analyze problems they might confront throughout their careers."
Coaching Decision Makers
The kinds of changes that Ford and Carnegie recommended were exactly what Krannert was doing from the start. Cooper recalls, "We really benefited because we were set up to reflect those philosophies of what management education should be: broader, more demanding courses with closer ties to the underlying disciplines of economics, statistics, psychology, and more research and research-oriented faculty."
Cooper's academic areas primarily have been strategic management and entrepreneurship, both of which look at the total business picture.
He says, "In the strategic manage¬ ment programs, we ask the question.
continued on page 2