The Next Steps

How do you go from good to great? How do you go from great to excellent?

Here at the College of Business and Economics we do that by defining ourselves not by what we are, but by what we aspire to be.

This issue of Lehigh Business highlights many of the exciting initiatives under way at the College—a new one-year MBA program, a new online forum called IlLUminate and expanded opportunities with Lehigh’s push to the West Coast.

I’m also thrilled to tell you about a “game-changing” $5 million gift from Vistex Inc.founder Sanjay Shah ’89 MBA that will allow us to elevate our executive education program at Lehigh and move forward with our ambitious plans to strengthen engagements with industry and business (pg. 8). This gift will help us build a state-of-the-art home for our program offerings. In both gratitude for and recognition of Sanjay’s gift, we will rename our executive education program the Vistex Institute for Executive Learning and Research.

As a College, we are stepping up to the challenge of better preparing our students for the fintech-driven world that awaits them at graduation. We are leveraging Lehigh’s strengths to develop new courses of academic study and create meaningful programs in this area. In our cover story, we explore “The Fintech Disruption” that is changing everything in the financial services industry—the way we bank, the way we invest and the way we pay bills (pg. 2).

In this issue, you also will learn about some of the groundbreaking research by our faculty in the areas of finance, marketing, management, economics and accounting (pg. 15). How do investors process information received via social media? Are paid search ads profitable investments for small businesses? How can retailers keep brand manufacturers as tenants?

You also will read about the work and passions of some of our alumni (pg. 21), including Corning’s Wendell P. Weeks ’81, Innovid’s Beth-Ann Eason ’89 and The Precisionists’ Ernie Dianastasis ’78 ’79 MBA, whose new company is helping to employ individuals with disabilities.

Lastly, in our student section (pg. 27), you will read about some of the amazing work being done by our students, from creating a green campaign for the United Nations, to helping local businesses achieve organizational and team effectiveness, to an IBE team’s efforts to develop and market a concussion impact sensor for use in youth sports.

We hope you enjoy this issue of Lehigh Business. As always, thanks for reading.

Georgette Chapman Phillips
The Kevin L. and Lisa A. Clayton Dean of the College of  Business and Economics