Strategic Management News 

As he watched his neighboring Nevada mountains disappear under a plume of smoke in the summer of 2021, Danny Dudley felt a new sense of urgency for environmental conservation. This experience helped clear a personal haze about his future and led him to the strategy program in the BYU Marriott School of Business.

New research published this week from BYU Marriott School of Business professors Jeff Dyer and Taeya Howell finds that innovation can be hampered when organizations prioritize “psychological safety” at the expense of intellectual honesty.

As the supply of unsold housing increases in Utah—and across the nation—and as home prices continue to fall, new research has discovered under-the-radar forces that are quietly impacting home pricing and purchasing decisions.

Everywhere you look, something or someone is being rated, and we can all agree that a positive rating is good, and a negative rating is bad. Or can we?

As a child, Bethany Bahr loved riding on towering roller coasters, and her mom would joke that Bethany wasn't scared of anything. Since then, Bahr has enjoyed the twists and turns that come from stepping outside her comfort zone. On one of her most recent adventures, Bahr applied to the strategy major at the BYU Marriott School of Business.

Jared Tate would rather build ties with his family than put on a tie every morning to go to work. So Tate, a 2016 graduate from the strategic management program at the BYU Marriott School of Business, has looked for a career that minimizes travel, protects his weekends from work emails, and allows him to participate in activities with his family all week long. 

Not everyone would take being called “funny guy” as a compliment, but Michael Gibbs isn’t everyone. He took the moniker given to him by a classmate and plastered it on his LinkedIn and résumé. His sense of humor has helped Gibbs, now a senior in the strategic management program at the BYU Marriott School of Business, find connections between the genres of comedy and strategy. 

BYU Marriott School of Business dean Brigitte C. Madrian has announced Paul Godfrey as the next chair of the Department of Management. Godfrey took over for the previous department chair, Curtis LeBaron, on July 1, 2022.

When Isaac Pettit was 14, his uncle gave him an extremely unusual gift—a unicycle. With the promise of $100 from his uncle if he could learn how to ride the one-wheeler gracefully, Pettit took off. Now, as an April 2022 graduate of the strategic management program at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Pettit has extended his ability to balance from riding his unicycle to staying on top of future education and career opportunities.

Wearing Nike shoes, surrounded by BYU sports paraphernalia in his office without a textbook in sight, Bill Keenan works to put the job-seeking students he advises at ease. As a career advisor at the BYU Marriott Business Career Center, Keenan tailors his teaching and advising to help undergraduates find jobs after graduation.

When a teacher disciplines a grade school student, it is usually because the student was caught passing notes or talking in class. Unless that student is Nate Gardner. A young Gardner got in trouble for showing off his E*TRADE account to his classmates during his fifth-grade computer lab class. In elementary school, he dreamed of becoming a stockbroker in New York. Now, as a strategic consultant and a 2014 BYU Marriott School of Business strategy alum, Gardner helps businesses figure out what they want to be when they grow up.

Nine students at the BYU Marriott School of Business were recently honored as 2022 Bateman Award recipients for their excellence both inside and outside the classroom. The annual award, named for Merrill J. Bateman, allows each undergraduate program at BYU Marriott to select a 2021–22 academic year senior for recognition.

Some people may shy away from the challenging and unpredictable, but not Gentry Davies. He has made a career out of solving tricky projections and analyzing future business opportunities. Now a senior director of product at Divvy, Davies credits his problem-solving abilities to his 2012 degree in strategy from the BYU Marriott School of Business.

The potential to achieve lasting and meaningful success in life is within each of us—at least that's what strategy senior David Rawson says. For Rawson, he is following a career path that he believes will help him aid others in finding success and becoming the best version of themselves. Rawson's goals were inspired by his service as a missionary in Brazil and the knowledge he gleaned from a book that TIME magazine called one of the 25 most influential business management books.

After spending most of his time as an undergraduate student preparing for law school, Kurt Herrmann received surprising inspiration to change career paths. This sudden shift in plans started a long road through marketing, entrepreneurship, business consulting, and ultimately to the BYU Marriott School of Business as an adjunct professor of management.

What do you get when you combine business strategy and students from 16 different majors at BYU? A group dedicated to learning and applying strategic principles to any career path. The Business Strategy Society at the BYU Marriott School of Business helps all BYU students see how strategy can be used every day to accomplish any goal.

The more Breann Hunt learns about social impact causes, the more she envisions businesses changing the way they operate forever. The BYU Marriott School of Business strategy senior hopes to change the industry as a social impact consultant who helps businesses take on bigger roles in making a difference in their communities. Hunt is studying strategic management at BYU Marriott because she believes the program will give her the tools to help companies make those changes.

After drinking a soda on his way home from campus, BYU Marriott School of Business alum Ryan Smith was surprised to find his student apartment did not have any way to recycle his empty can. After reading a BYU survey that showed the majority of students also wanted to recycle, the 2016 strategy alum started thinking of the idea for Recyclops, a gig economy recycling company. Running his own business while taking classes allowed Smith to learn much more from the strategy program. Although Recyclops almost failed, applying the principles he learned in the classroom to his work helped Smith produce a multimillion-dollar company.

Four years ago, BYU Marriott alum Stephen Farnsworth felt like he was metaphorically in the best seat on the wrong bus. He held an enjoyable position at a company that valued his contributions, but he also wanted to move technology forward by working at a smaller startup company. In order to reach his goals, Farnsworth took a risk—one that has paid off with a product marketing position at Workato, a workforce automation company.

Every year, each department in the BYU Marriott School of Business selects one outstanding student to receive the Bateman Award, which recognizes excellence both inside and outside the classroom. The award is named after Merrill J. Bateman, who served as the dean of BYU Marriott from 1975–79 and the president of BYU from 1996–2003.