Download a PDF version - McCombs TODAY - The University of ...

NETWORK
Pencil it in
MAY
17-18
Commencement
It happens every year,
but it never gets old
watching proud graduates
cross the stage.
forms of media, relying heavily on social
media campaigns. Prior to the launch,
Twitter users were encouraged to compose
tweets using the hashtags #DoritosLocosTacos
and #Contest. The competitors
with the most retweeted tweets were
rewarded with a visit from the Taco Bell
Truck, stocked full of Doritos Locos Tacos
before they were released in stores.
“It’s a craveable
product to begin
with, but when
you put the power
of traditional
media and online
media together,
the launch was
even better.”
A recent Taco Bell commercial features
user-submitted photos on Facebook, Instagram,
and via email. People who posted
pictures of their tacos with the hashtag
#livemascontest were eligible to win prizes
such as a trip to Pacifica, Calif., and a $5,000
college scholarship.
“We used social media and influencer
engagement to enhance the launch and
saw great results,” Williams says. “It’s a
craveable product to begin with, but when
you put the power of traditional media
and online media together, the launch
was even better.”
The taco is leaving its mark on popular
culture, even receiving a favorable review
from New York Times food critic William
Grimes. The band Passion Pit sang the
taco’s theme song on “Saturday Night Live,”
JUNE
6-7
Learn
Innovation
Executive Education’s
“Strategic and Business
Model Innovation” course
teaches disruptive
strategies to create
new market opportunities.
SEPTEMBER
21
Alumni BBQ
Tailgate with McCombs
alumni before Texas
tackles 2012 Big 12
champs Kansas State.
actress Anna Kendrick tweeted about her
affinity for the DLT, and mixed martial arts
fighter Gian Villante admitted to eating
Doritos Locos Tacos after difficult matches.
“Success isn’t just the marketing and
media; it’s also operations as far as getting
a product that our restaurants can
make quickly and easily and make it delicious,”
Williams notes. “All the teams have
to come together to make it happen—
marketing, operations, and finance.”
Prior to joining Yum! Brands, Williams
honed her strategy chops at Dell
and then Boston Consulting Group, earning
her MBA from Northwestern University’s
Kellogg School of Management
along the way. As a working mother, Williams
says she was drawn to a position at
Yum! because of the work-life balance and
stays motivated by the knowledge that
her team’s work directly grows the Taco
Bell brand at home and abroad. She says
the sense of community and teamwork at
Yum! sets it apart from other large, international
companies.
“The thing I love about Yum! is the recognition
culture,” Williams says. “In my
team meeting we spend the first 15 minutes
just taking time to recognize what the
different team members have done to help
each other in the last month. Other companies
might take the time every quarter
to recognize someone, but at Yum! it’s in
the DNA every day.”
So what can fans expect for the Doritos
Locos Taco in the future Will there
be more where this blockbuster hit snack
came from Williams says that Taco Bell
is continuing to work on expanding the
Doritos Locos Taco line, and the product’s
growth is far from over.
“We’re continuing to work on other
‘flavors of the shell,’” Williams says, using
Taco Bell staffers’ favorite expression signifying
their devotion to all things taco.
“We launched the Cool Ranch Doritos
Locos in March of this year. Our favorite
line is, ‘Collect all two!’”
CAMPUS CALENDAR
@ www.mccombs.utexas.edu
for details on these and other events.
NOVEMBER
1-3
MBA Reunion
A weekend of nostalgia
and networking for the
classes of ’83, ’88, ’93,
’98, ’03, ’08, and ’12.
Young And
Distinguished
Two of the four recipients
of the 2013 Outstanding
Young Texas Ex Awards
are McCombs alumni.
Andrew Vo, BBA ’95, is
a managing director at
Accenture Management
Consulting in Houston,
leading the firm’s global
trading operations
practice. Vo, a member
of the BBA/MPA Alumni
Advisory Board, is also
the founder and senior
adviser of the Texas Iron
Spikes service organization,
which has actively
supported Special Olympics
Texas for nearly
two decades.
Stuart Bernstein, MBA
’05, is the senior investment
manager in the
investment division at
the Teacher Retirement
System of Texas, a $112
billion pension fund serving
the investment and
benefit needs of more
than 1.3 million public
school teachers in Texas.
He is also the founder
and chairman emeritus
of Young Texans Against
Cancer, which has raised
more than $1.7 million
and committed more
than 17,000 hours of
volunteer work for
cancer-related causes
across Texas.
© Axel Heimken
“We are all Lance Armstrong ... sort of.”
That was professor Robert Prentice’s
caution against thinking you’re immune
to ethical blunders, during his talk at the
eighth annual McCombs Alumni Business
Conference in February. More than 200
alumni gathered for the one-day series of
in memoriam
1925 Towery, Forrest Lee, BBA
Wallace Jr., Herbert Randolph,
BBA
1931 Ragsdale, Susanna L., BBA
1936 Colen, Albert B., BBA
1939 Hughes, Dorothy D., BBA
1942 Burton, Collins M., BBA
Mabry Jr., Clarence L., BBA
Spears, John M., BBA
1943 Williams, James D., BBA
West, Jack M., BBA
1946 King, Edith J., BBA
Sharp, R. Glen, BBA 1946
1947 Holladay III, Robert E., MBA
Ennen, Frederick W., BBA
1948 Hall, E. Wayne, BBA
Bell, John William, BBA
Goodson, James B., BBA
Sanders, Robert L., MBA
Rancich, Bennie Jo, BBA
Pearson, Fred, BBA
Velasco Jr., Ralph E., MBA
1949 Lane, William Caswell, BBA
Thompson III, George, BBA
Colbert, Gene E., BBA
Bruner, Paul Harold, MBA
1950 Schumann, Merritt J., BBA
Daly Jr., Mark R., MPA
Randolph, Zelah Dwight, BBA
Hoofard, Louis Joseph, BBA
Keller, Charles L., BBA
Runnels Jr., Charles C., BBA
1951 Glenewinkel, D. E., BBA
Block, Sharlene A., BBA
Pratt, Lloyd E., BBA
Wininger, Arthur W., BBA
Brooks, Durward Tilman, BBA
1952 Smith, Barbara T., BBA
Pilon, Jack I., BBA
Stanaland, Kenneth, BBA
Sealy, Lane T., BBA
1953 Waltrip, Kenneth M., BBA
1954 Strickland Jr., Richard F.,
BBA
Porter, Charles Ray, BBA 1954
1955 Elliott, Shirley C., BBA
Batson, Arthur Lee, BBA
1956 Chapman, Charles C., BBA
Callaway Jr., Wesley M., BBA
Thompson, Robert R., BBA
1957 Mahon, Everitt M., BBA
Taylor, Joan H., BBA
1958 Huffman, Ralph Derrell,
BBA
talks from faculty, including Lew Spellman
and Laura Kilcrease. John Doggett, senior
lecturer in management, served as the
emcee. The sessions sparked plenty of
discussion online, too, landing #UTBizConf
in Twitter’s trending topics that day.
Benkendorfer, Donald William,
BBA
Welch, James D., BBA
1959 Price, Jim D., BBA
Northcutt, John H., BBA
1960 Anderson, John Paul, BBA
Hawthorn, Neal A., BBA
Schieffer, Estelle S., BBA
Herring, Joe Ray, BBA
1961 Wehner, Judith S., BBA
Hankins, Phyllis S., BBA
1962 Wehman Jr., Ernest W., BBA
Gerhardt III, Edgar L., BBA
Renteria, Carlos R., BBA
Collins Sr., Wayne Clark, BBA
1963 Segrato, Joe L., BBA
Carson, Van W., BBA
Baker, James L., BBA
Hyde II, C. Brodie, MBA
1964 Chesley, G. Stuart, BBA
1965 Toland, Thomas Tucker, BBA
Roper, Frederick T., BBA
Ireland, H. Kelly, BBA
1966 Mauldin, Billy Wayne, BBA
1967 Hicks, Jack Scott, BBA
1969 Fernandez, Fidel Bernardo,
BBA
HONESTLY
SPEAKING:
Disgraced cyclist
Lance Armstrong’s
televised
confessional to
Oprah Winfrey upset
many, but we’re all
capable of fraud,
says professor
Robert Prentice.
Swift, Edward R., BBA
Smylie, Robert Passmore,
BBA
1971 Burch, Larry R., BBA
Sefcik, Douglass R., BBA
McEwen, Russ, BBA
Biesenbach, Donald E., MBA
1972 Smith, George R., BBA
Gray, Jefferson S., BBA
Brassard, Raymond M., BBA
1973 Brown, Jack D., MBA
Chalmers, Stephen C., BBA
Roberson, Curtis R., BBA
1975 Murphy, Julie, BBA
1976 Houser, Robert B., BBA
1978 Swenson Jr., G. Thomas,
BBA
1979 Morgan, Cyndy Selecman,
MBA
Willard, Mary Jane, BBA
1980 Sansing, John Edward, MBA
1981 Dietze, John F., BBA
1983 Silver, Martin H., BBA
1984 Shirey, Bobbie Sue, BBA
1985 Epstein, Shari, BBA
1988 Martinez, Christine R., BBA
2002 Ussery IV, Fred M., BBA
www.mccombstoday.org
OPEN SPRING 2013
www.today.mccombs.utexas.edu
www.mccombstoday.org www.today.mccombs.utexas.edu
SPRING 2013 OPEN
36 37