December 13, 1999
Contact: Lew Harris, (615) 322-NEWS, [email protected]
or
Juliana Deans, (615) 322-0456
[email protected]
Survey finds MBA faculty and students "hang-up" on telemarketers
Nashville, Tenn.- Hold the phone. Better yet, ignore it. Telemarketers take it on the chin again. In a recent survey of B-school faculty and MBA students, telemarketing was rated as one of the worst business innovations of the 20th Century. And no surprise, the computer led all others as the best invention of the last 100 years.
The survey asked faculty and MBA students - who represent 30 nations - from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management to rank the five best and worst innovations of the last century. The findings from the two groups, save a few candidates, were remarkably aligned.
"The computer has changed our lives and our society more than anything else before or since," said Amit Basu, Professor of Management at Vanderbilt. Owen at Vanderbilt is a leading institution in the competitive, rapidly changing field of electronic commerce and its ever-widening impact on the global economy.
Besides slamming telemarketing, faculty also ranked neckties, the BETA format VCR and carbon paper as some of the worst innovations of the last century. The students' worst list included thermal fax machines, and automobiles such as the Gremlin, Pinto and Yugo. Both groups listed New Coke as one of the worst business innovations of the last century.
Meanwhile, faculty and students agreed that computers, the Internet and assembly lines were among the best innovations of the last 100 years.
Asked why telemarketing may have won the dubious distinction as the worst innovation of the last 100 years, Professor Larry LeBlanc replied, "I'll call you during dinner to explain..."
Ironically, voice-mail, e-mail and fax machines made both the faculty's best and worst lists. Faculty also counted the financial markets on their best list, while students nominated the telephone. For the worst list, faculty added taxes and business conglomerates. Students, perhaps influenced by the Dilbert comic strip, nominated office cubicles as among the worst innovations in the last century.
Owen at Vanderbilt's Best and Worst Business Innovations of the 20th Century
Faculty Best
1. Computers/Personal Computers
2. Assembly Lines/Production Automation
3. Financial Markets*
4. Voice-Mail, E-Mail and Fax Machine
5. The Internet
Students Best
1. Computers/Personal Computers
2. The Internet
3. Voice-Mail, E-Mail and Fax Machine
4. The Telephone
5. Assembly Lines/Production Automation
Faculty Worst
1. Telemarketing/Direct Mail/E-Mail Spam
2. "Poor" Inventions
3. Voice-Mail, E-Mail and Fax Machine
4. Business Conglomerates
5. Taxes
Students Worst
1. "Poor" Inventions
2. Telemarketing/Direct Mail/E-Mail Spam
3. Pagers
4. Cubicles
5. "Poor" Software
* "Financial markets" encompassed the stock market, derivatives, mutual funds, private capital markets that fund new ventures, junk bonds and option contracts.
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