education

Education

Stern Environmental Courses

Environmental Assessment, Management and Strategy (EAMS)

Fifty-one of the top 100 business enterprises are corporations. From a financial perspective, General Motors is larger than all but nine of the world's countries. Consequently, the role of business and government is blurring. Many businesses must both maximize profits and maintain a social contract with important stakeholders. Success in these new business conditions requires that managers both excel at the current business game and act strategically to create a better game. That is, they must both find hidden profit opportunities and act to structure more favorable business conditions. Using the context of environmental preservation, this class looks at the tools and strategies available to managers. It links these concepts to practices in operations, finance, marketing and general management.

Taught at Stern since 1995.
Contact Professor Andrew King
Go to the EAMS web page

Cases Developed by Stern Faculty

Fishbanks

Fishbanks provides a multi-period simulation of a common resource problems. In this game, each player is an owner of a fishing company and must decide how much and where to fish. A computer simulation calculates fish stocks and harvests each year based on models of fish population dynamics. The simulation was originally developed by Dennis Meadows at the University of New Hampshire, and he sells a very nice game board and supporting materials. Andrew King has developed an excel version of the program that allows real-time reports and more policy interventions than the original game.

Download Fishbanks

Greenpoint Savings

The cases discusses how Greenpoint Savings Bank responded to government action and the resulting conflict with community advocates in New York City. The story begins with government concern that low-income neighborhoods receive insufficient capital. In some cases, this resulted from "red lining" -- the practice of using location as the basis for lending. To end redlining, government passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which requires banks to "meet the credit needs of communities" and set up a mechanism for measuring bank performance in community lending.

Greenpoint developed a Low Doc/No Doc loan program to encourage investment in real estate. These loans require a large down payment and a signature, nothing more. Neither an engineering report nor credit history is required. The loans come with high service fees and lending rates.

Low Doc/No Doc loans fall into default more often and the buildings are foreclosed and auctioned. Usually, Greenpoint buys the building at auction and then resells it. During the period from default to resale, the buildings often fall into disrepair, and tenants and communities suffer.

Despite the high failure rate, Greenpoint profits from these loans. The Low Doc structure allows increased loan volume (and thus a larger portfolio of loans), and the bank's high fees from successful loans more than compensate for the failures. The bank also benefits from a high CRA rating -- thus gaining the support of bank regulators.

Contact Andrew King for a copy of the case.

SHARC - Shark Harvesting and Resource Conservation

"SHARC" is a social dilemma case based on the global fisheries crisis. It is also distributed by the DRRC of Northwestern University and has appeared in:
Wade-Benzoni, K.A., Tenbrunsel, A.E., & Bazerman, M.H. (1996). Shark harvesting and resource conservation. In A.R. Beckenstein, F.J. Long, M.B. Arnold, & T.N. Gladwin (Eds.), Stakeholder Negotiations: Exercises in Sustainable Development. Chicago: Irwin.
Contact K. Wade-Benzoni for a copy of this case.

SHARC was created to provide students with the opportunity to think about issues associated with the use of natural resources, as well as illustrating negotiation concepts. The original case is used to teach students about asymmetric social dilemmas and egocentric interpretations of fairness. Andrew King has modified the program so that it can be used to provide understanding of social-dilemmas and transaction costs.

Contact Andrew King for a copy of this case.

Recent Alumni (and what they are saying)

Brad Spivack - Vice President, Informix

EAMS is one of the few courses in which I was asked to integrate this vast array of stand-alone information we all accumulate during our MBA, and apply it to real-world problems. The skills I acquired in EAMS have served me in my post-MBA professional life as much as the technical marketing or finance knowledge I gained at Stern; perhaps more, since approaching a problem from all sides and constructing a favorable solution is what we, as general managers, are ultimately paid to do. Josh Wolf - Fund Manager, KPS Associates EAMS was far and away the most intellectually stimulating and useful course I have ever taken. EAMS helped me to understand, to quantify, to make intellectual and pragmatic use of, the distance between the theory and the practice. David Nothmann - Global Manager, Technology and Value Added Services , Monsanto EAMS was one of the most challenging and rewarding courses I took while at Stern. As one of the "greener" MBAs in the program, I was exposed to both the number of potential obstacles encountered when trying to "do the 'right' thing" and the tradeoffs involved in any single solution. I learned to identify problematic methodologies and approaches, a skill which continues to assist me in analyzing opportunities and developing reports... Any MBA would profit from the EAMS experience. Virginia Terry - Director, SustainAbility As a student of the Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Studies, I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of a vast range of educational opportunities at NYU, including the classes offered at the Stern School of Business. The brain power at Stern, from both the students and the professors, is considerable, and the resulting standards in both practical projects and academic research is of the highest caliber. By far my best experience at Stern and at NYU was working with my thesis advisor, Professor Andy King. The lessons I learned from him about designing a methodology, applying critical analysis, and telling a story through research have influenced nearly everything I have done in my professional career. Patricia Velasquez -Advisor Financial Strategy Group, Colombian Ministry of the Environment

NYU was one of the few schools that offered me the opportunity to combine my two areas of interest: business and the environment. It offers excellent environmental courses at several schools, including the Stern School of Business. Actually, I would have to say that the environmental courses that I enjoyed the most, and that I regard as the most complete, useful, and comprehensive were offered at Stern. Additionally, the business courses I took at Stern were of great quality.

NYU magnificently matches the needs of today’s business student.

Any comments, criticisms or queries about the BES website may be directed to Dr. King.
This page was last modified on Nov. 11, 2001.