Research and Learning Centers

Chicago Booth is famous for groundbreaking research. A great deal of research activity takes place under the auspices of several centers, institutes, and programs found here.

Accounting Research Center (ARC) 
The Accounting Research Center coordinates the accounting activities in the Chicago Booth School of Business.

Applied Theory Initiative
The University of Chicago Applied Theory Initiative is an interdisciplinary research program that brings together Booth faculty from a variety of academic fields with shared research interests in optimization theory, game theory, price theory and incentives theory.

The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory
The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory, Founded by Richard O. Ryan, was established to continue the analysis and research conducted by leading professors at the University and Chicago Booth into the role prices play in the fundamental functions of an economic system. In addition, Price Theory has also pioneered the use of economic tools in studying a wide range of other human behavior (e.g. crime and corruption, discrimination, marriage).

Center for Decision Research
The Center for Decision Research specializes in understanding individual judgment and decision process. Founded by Hillel Einhorn in 1977, it is the oldest academic center devoted to decision research.

Center for Population Economics
The Center for Population Economics (CPE) supports research on demographic, epidemiological, and economic processes such as in chronic diseases, mortality, work levels, geographic mobility, intergenerational transition of wealth, and more.

Center for Research in Security Prices
CRSP was established at Chicago Booth more than 40 years ago to create the finest tools for tracking, measuring, and analyzing securities data.

Chicago Energy Initiative
The Chicago Energy Initiative is an interdisciplinary research program devoted to the study of the economic, environmental and geopolitical impacts of energy use.

George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State
The Stigler Center supports research on the effects of political life on economic life and the reciprocal effects of economic life on political life. The center publishes a Working Paper series and promotes dissemination of research via conferences and lectures.

The Initiative on Global Markets
The Initiative on Global Markets deals with the massive global movements of capital, products and talent in the modern economy that have fundamentally changed the nature of business in the 21st Century. The Initiative will focus its work on international business, financial markets as well as the role of policies and institutions.

James M. Kilts Center for Marketing
The center sponsors basic and applied research in marketing as well as innovation in the Chicago Booth marketing curriculum.

Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneurship Program at Chicago Booth is a vibrant matrix of courses, experiential learning, collaboration, and research centered on new venture formation and development.

The Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics
A collaboration between Chicago Booth, the University of Chicago Law School, and the Department of Economics, the Milton Friedman Institute draws together preeminent scholars from around the globe and supports research addressing policy-related questions through economic analysis.

Custom Learning Solutions

Our approach is one of partnering. We take time to get to know you and your business. We challenge you to think deeply and innovatively about your needs and to collaborate with us in designing a learning solution that will have enduring impact at both the individual and organizational levels.

You face new
challenges and
have high
expectations.

We help provide
the tools to succeed.

Your company has what it takes and knows where it wants to be: at the top. And we can help you get there.

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
We are one of the world’s premier business schools. With our custom Executive Education solutions, designed specifically for your company’s needs, we’ll get you where you want to go.

Along the way, your organization and leaders/executives will be
Energized. Challenged. Empowered.

Discover the true value and potential of your organization with custom Executive Education from Chicago Booth.


A Global Partner
for Global Solutions

With campuses on three continents, Chicago Booth Executive Education leverages its global footprint and network to help your company meet its most demanding global challenges.

Corporate ties
Many of Chicago’s current innovations are directly related to its close
ties with the leaders of some of the world’s most respected corporations.
This grounding in the real world has helped Chicago Booth maintain its
reputation as one of the world’s leading centers of business education
and research.
 
World’s best business teachers
Known for enduring contributions to the field of business as researchers
and consultants, Chicago’s faculty is also noted as some of the world’s
best business teachers.
 
Variety of programs
Chicago Booth offers seven full and part time programs leading to the
MBA degree. In addition, Chicago offers a PhD program, open enrollment
executive education seminars, and custom programs tailored to the needs
of individual companies.

The University of Chicago boasts 85 Nobel laureates among its faculty, researchers, students, and graduates.


Case Study 1

Fostering Strategic Leadership

Partner: International defense electronics firm
Audience: Over 450 vice presidents, general managers, and directors across all
locations and business units
Delivery: 11 five-day sessions over six years

The Challenge
The partner had recently undergone major acquisition and restructuring activities
and was assembling executives from many company cultures. The company needed
its leaders to think more strategically and creatively in providing value-adding
opportunities to customers and shareholders.

The Strategy
The program needed to enhance participants’ ability to lead other leaders in
strategic thinking about markets, competitors, customers, suppliers, and their
businesses while building personal connections across businesses.

The Solution
Partnering with the client, Chicago Booth created a high-impact, multi-week modular
program built around action learning projects. It started as a week-long seminar on campus
in which the participants worked in teams to develop original projects tied to key strategic
initiatives. They continued working on the projects during a virtual module and finalized
the program at headquarters with live presentations to the CEO. The stakes were
high because only the best projects were approved for full implementation. The pay
back was also high because several projects became strategic initiatives for the company.

For more information on this or other custom solutions, contact Chicago Booth at:
exec.ed@ChicagoBooth.edu
312.464.8732
www.chicagoexec.net


Customized programming.
Enduring impact.

With custom Executive Education from Chicago Booth, your organization gets specialized programming that has benefits well beyond your current challenges.

Strengthen Your Organization
Keeping your organization competitive requires ingenuity and adaptability—not keeping up with
the trends, but predicting them, setting them, and knowing when to reject them. At Chicago Booth,
we know that the strongest ideas aren’t trends at all; they’re rooted in a deep understanding of the
fundamental concepts that underlie business.

By teaching research-based fundamentals, your executives learn how to handle today's challenges and
proactively anticipate and address future challenges.

Surmount Your Challenges
Chicago Booth has developed intensive educational programs for organizations around the world,
from helping a U.S. pharmaceutical giant strengthen its partnerships with managed-care clients to
teaching senior managers of a global Swiss company to make better strategic decisions. Organizations
have relied on Chicago Booth expertise to:

• Gain competitive advantages.
• Align leadership vision and goals.
• Change strategy.
• Transform corporate culture.
• Close skill and knowledge gaps.
• Catalyze change or instill inspiration.
• Motivate teams, gain interest, and align goals.
• Retain employees and attract talent.
• Manage complexities such as changing markets, regulatory or technology changes, rapid growth, and global expansion.

The Chicago Booth difference.
To develop leaders in your business, learn from
a leader in business education.

A Tradition of Excellence
Founded in 1898, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is the second oldest
business school in the United States and the first to teach executives, offering the first executive
MBA program in 1943. Our academic programs consistently rank among the top 10 schools in
surveys worldwide. Our path-breaking research and distinctive approach to learning have produced
ideas and leaders that shape the world of business. Our unparalleled faculty is famous for developing
theories that change business practice. We proudly claim six Nobel laureates among our current
and former faculty.

Experience the Chicago Approach
Our teaching method stems from fundamental principles, not fads. We leverage vital knowledge from
sociology, psychology, economics, and other disciplines to develop critical thinkers who can assess
any challenge or opportunity. Program participants learn to develop deep insights and instinctively
push to make the best solution to a problem even better.

The Chicago Approach to management education reflects our belief in an essential fact: There are
neither enough formulas nor business cases to span the range of high-stakes decisions you’ll face
during your career. Therefore, we don’t seek “right” answers but instead strive for the best solutions
to unique challenges.

Create Lasting Value
Our rigorous approach and focus on fundamentals mean that rather than simply solve your
company’s challenges, we teach your executives frameworks for generating the best solutions and
applying them effectively. Whatever your reason for seeking our expertise, one outcome is certain:
participants will emerge as better thinkers, able not just to apply tested concepts to the issues at
hand, but also to approach and think through the unknown challenges ahead.

Our Worldwide Perspective
At Chicago Booth, global business and global delivery is more than a model—it’s a way of life.
Our students and alumni work and live in every corner of the globe, and a third of our faculty hold
degrees from universities outside the United States. We are the first business school to establish
permanent campuses on three continents: Asia (Singapore), Europe (London), and North America,
which includes our main campus in Chicago’s historic Hyde Park neighborhood and Gleacher
Center, our beautiful riverfront campus in downtown Chicago.

The University of Chicago has been a world leader in management education since 1898. Our
customized Executive Education programs have provided the vehicle to communicate and disseminate
the insights from the latest Chicago Booth research and the venue for its world-class faculty to
interact with business leaders across the world. We have partnered with global companies headquartered in many countries on several different continents to drive strategic initiatives and provide superior value
that adds to the capabilities of the client organization.




More than a business school,
a business force.

Community
Our culture is unparalleled. We are a meritocracy of ideas. This keeps us on the cutting edge, collaborative and energized. We value self-awareness, intellectual curiosity, empirically grounded examination, and an eagerness to engage in debate. Above all, we value honesty and transparency: about what we know, and in the way we engage with one another.

Ideas
Our ideas change business, public policy, and the world. We believe in freedom and competition.
We are not content to teach existing knowledge or follow fads. We believe in the power of empirics—as a source of inspiration and as a reality check. We focus multiple disciplinary perspectives on the underlying forces that drive markets and organizations; these perspectives enable us to uncover new facts and frameworks, crack open seemingly intractable challenges, and produce solutions that are both surprising and enduring.

People
We produce leaders who create lasting value. The intellectual energy that makes us a business force
expands beyond our campuses; it becomes part of our graduates, and distinguishes them in organizations. Our alumni are known for their astute understanding of themselves, for making knowledge richer and more relevant, for reframing problems to reveal new opportunities, and for making any team stronger. They push conversations both broader and deeper to achieve better answers. Chicago Booth people fundamentally increase the trajectory of organizations and sectors through the power of bigger and more enduring ideas.




Case Study 2

Building and Living the Brand

Partner: European-based global engineering and technology leader with
over 100,000 employees
Audience: CEO management board and top 200 employees
Delivery: three days of experiential learning

The Challenge
The CEO wanted to expand the company's focus beyond engineering and manufacturing
to fully encompass customer engagement as a way to drive product innovation and loyalty.

The Strategy
In a short period, the program had to amplify the participants’ cognitive and emotional
understanding of the brand and convey the importance of bringing its promise to life in
everyday behaviors.

The Solution
Working in close collaboration with the partner, Chicago Booth designed a program
comprising a mix of sessions led by both academic experts and company leaders,
including the CEO. Largely experiential engagements, the sessions included working
on a live case; focus groups about the emotional connection that consumers
and business-to-business purchasers have with brands; and site visits to businessto-
consumer and business-to-business companies to get an in-depth look at how
they deliver on their brand promise. This led to a follow-up program to train 1,000
brand ambassadors.

For more information on this or other custom solutions, contact Chicago Booth at
exec.ed@ChicagoBooth.edu
312.464.8732
www.chicagoexec.net


World Changing Ideas.

The University of Chicago is one of the world’s great intellectual communities and centers of learning.
 
It has achieved particular distinction through faculty scholarship, the training of graduate students,
and an undergraduate education that emphasizes critical thinking and broad, interdisciplinary exposure
to the common wisdom of humankind. Few institutions are as well known for advancing knowledge. The
first three Americans to win the Nobel Prize in physics were all University of Chicago faculty members.
In the last 20 years, Chicago’s faculty has been honored with 26 more Nobel Prizes—seven in physics,
four in chemistry, 14 in economics, and one in literature.

Nobel Recipients
In all, 85 recipients of the Nobel Prize have been students, researchers, or faculty at the University
including economists: Milton Friedman, who was cited for his study of monetary policy; Theodore
Schultz, who showed the relationship between education and economic development; George Stigler,
who was cited for his research on government regulation; Merton Miller, who assessed the use of debt
as a source of corporate capital; Gary Becker, who applied an economic approach to diverse aspects of
human behavior; Robert Fogel, who applied economics and statistics to the analysis of history; Robert
Lucas, who developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations and transformed traditional
macroeconomic analysis; and Myron Scholes, who explained the pricing of stock options with the late
Fischer Black, also a former University of Chicago faculty member.

Global/International Leader
The University of Chicago was founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1890 and its first president was William Rainey Harper. Their institution would be a modern research university, combining an English-style
undergraduate college and a Germanstyle graduate research institute. The University of Chicago quickly fulfilled Harper and Rockefeller’s dream by becoming a national leader in higher education and research. Their visionary spirit continues to inspire the work performed at the University of Chicago. Its scholarship is marked by a willingness to challenge conventional thinking and a desire to explore uncharted territory. As a result, the University has always been on the leading edge of discovery. Rockefeller proudly called The University of Chicago “the best investment I ever made.”

A leader in higher education, Chicago has earned a celebrated reputation as a “teacher of leaders.”
Currently, 67 University of Chicago alumni serve as presidents or provosts of colleges and universities
internationally. More than 50 of its graduates are deans of leading business schools, and more than
470 of its alumni hold the title of CEO for their organizations.




A true partnership.

Chicago Booth is committed to your success.

A Trusted Partner
With Chicago Booth as your partner in custom Executive Education, you can trust not only our
business expertise, but also our honesty and commitment to helping your organization address
its challenges.
 
Our tradition of demanding facts and questioning assumptions means we approach your program
with the utmost objectivity, dedicated to identifying the roots of your challenges and collaborating
with you to craft strategic, effective solutions. We don’t simply tell you what you want to hear, and
we won’t give you our analysis and then try to up-sell you on enacting a solution. We are, simply,
committed to your success.

The Chicago Approach to Custom Program Design
Developing Your Custom Learning Solution
When you work with Chicago Booth to create a custom learning solution, you benefit from more
than 100 years of experience in educating business leaders, as well as from the innovative research
of our faculty. When working with you to create a custom program, we integrate our knowledge and
experience with yours to create what you need to move ahead: high-impact, results-driven learning.
Chicago Booth faculty develop and advance the theories that underlie business—and relate them to
your organization with powerful results. Our multifaceted approach to addressing your company’s
needs is based on a fundamental concept developed by Chicago faculty: The success of an enterprise requires effective use of human capital and social capital. Chicago Booth Professor Gary Becker received the Nobel Prize for his work on human capital, while Booth Professor Ron Burt pioneered the concept of social capital. Our custom learning initiatives help your team understand both assets and leverage them to maximize your organizational capital, putting you on the path to long-term, impactful success.


Collaborating to create
lasting value.

At Chicago Booth, we work with you to form a learning partnership focused on creating lasting value.

You and your company bring to this partnership domain knowledge—the knowledge of your
particular firm and industry.

Chicago Booth adds value with conceptual knowledge—the business concepts and proven
framework for analyzing business problems taught by our faculty.
 
This combined knowledge leads to the components that set Chicago Booth apart from all other business educators and maximizes the partnership’s value for your company: action skills and insight. Action skills enable individuals to set goals, convince others of their value, and see them through implementation. Insight is the ability to gain greater value from the interpretation of
results and experience.
 
The outcome is a new approach to problem solving.
 
At Chicago Booth, your executives learn the value of constructive questioning and a willingness to
alter beliefs in the light of new data, to recognize the importance of multiple viewpoints, to take
calculated risks, and to ultimately deliver effective performance.

Your executives leave our programs knowing how to evaluate potential actions and interpret the outcome of those actions—to go beyond the action learning of the program and continue to draw lessons from new experiences.


Case Study 3
 
Planning Ahead, Looking to Grow

Partners: two world-class scientific laboratories
Audience: 125 senior managers with responsibility for individual lab units
Delivery: three modules totaling eight days over seven months, offered
five times over five years

The Challenge
The partners faced a critical period as traditional sources of research funding
became less secure and global competition from new laboratories rose.

The Strategy
The program had to empower scientists to think more like business developers
and secure funding from alternative sources. Additionally, lab-unit leaders needed to
think and work better across units as well as between the two labs to promote
continued advancement.

The Solution
Using an internal leadership assessment conducted by the labs, Chicago Booth
devised a modular program consisting of a four-day leadership session in May,
a two-day strategic thinking session in September, and a two-day session
on leading change in November. Over the seven months, participants worked
in groups to develop business plans that addressed a pressing issue facing
the labs with both short- and long-term consequences. In the final session, the
groups presented their plans to senior leaders from both labs.

For more information on this or other custom solutions, contact Chicago Booth at
exec.ed@ChicagoBooth.edu
312.464.8732
www.chicagoexec.net


Case Study 4
 
Building Business by Broadening Skills

Partner: National leader in accounting, tax, and business consulting services for
mid-size companies
Audience: Firm partners and senior managers
Delivery: Nine one-week modules over three years

The Challenge
Our partner faced threats to its primary business and looked to reposition itself
as the dominant firm in helping middlemarket companies achieve long-term,
profitable growth.

The Strategy
To achieve its repositioning, the firm needed to improve its consultants’ business
advisory skills. The program would have to equip participants with the strategic frameworks
and techniques to critically examine their clients’ strategies and help them
achieve their goals.

The Solution
In close cooperation with the partner, Chicago Booth created a four-tier business
advisor program that provided integrated, cross-functional skill development in a client
service delivery model. As participants progressed through the program, they increased
their knowledge in areas important to their clients and increased their confidence in their
ability to advise them and increase shareholder value. In addition, participants networked
with one another and gained insights on how to leverage internal resources.

For more information on this or other custom solutions, contact Chicago Booth at
exec.ed@ChicagoBooth.edu
312.464.8732
www.chicagoexec.net


Draw on our talented team.

When you partner with Chicago Booth for custom Executive Education, you benefit from the most dynamic minds in business. In turn, we thrive on helping organizations face the biggest strategic challenges.

Our Faculty
Chicago Booth’s world-class faculty is known for generating ideas that advance business theory and
shape its practice. They have:

• redefined the science of the stock market.
• originated the study of modern finance.
• pioneered database marketing.
• developed the concept of social capital.

When you choose Chicago Booth, you enter into a partnership with the school that developed—and
continues to develop—the underlying fundamentals upon which business is based.

When collaborating with Chicago Booth, your organization is paired with one or more faculty leads who
are uniquely qualified to address your challenges.
 
Our Areas of Expertise
Chicago Booth is known for the breadth and depth of its business research and teaching and for the
inter-disciplinary nature of its faculty and research. Booth faculty has strong research backgrounds as
well as a passion for helping executives apply new knowledge, concepts, and tools on their jobs in order to improve performance. The faculty offers a blend of academic excellence, rigorous scholarship, real-world relevance, and practical application that provides executives unparalleled opportunities to deepen their understanding of leadership and management issues. This world-class faculty challenge participants to explore new ideas, recognize the value of multiple insights, and experiment in a risk-free environment before applying their knowledge and proposals on the job.




Here’s what a few organizations have said about working with Chicago Booth:

“ We have been thoroughly impressed with Chicago Booth; from the design to
the delivery of our programme, they have exceeded our expectations. Throughout
the process Chicago Booth has shown dedication in getting to know and understand
our business, listening to and acting on our requirements, anticipating our needs,
and delivering a solution that met our objectives.”
— An international professional service firm

“ I have worked with a team from Chicago Booth for the past 12 months in the design
and development of a custom Executive Education program delivered to our senior
executives across the globe. They are thorough in their approach and incredibly
disciplined, which has ensured our aggressive time scales were met during
the in-depth and complex design of the program.”
— A global bank


Your Return on Investment

Committed to Your Success
We work with you because we are engaged by your challenge and want to see you achieve success. We are committed to making a difference for our clients, and we work collaboratively with you to assess your needs, review program performance, and design and modify programs to assure desired results.

And We’ll Prove It
Our fact and data-based approach is available to help you to authoritatively demonstrate the impact of your program. We seek to look beyond immediate program evaluations and demonstrate how your investment in a Booth custom learning solution helps drive your success. Consider the Return on Investment research Chicago Booth Professor Ron Burt conducted to assess program impact of a custom learning solution for Raytheon Corporation. Professor Burt conducted this study with Don Ronchi, former chief learning officer at Raytheon Company, and their results were made available to the public in a research paper titled “Teaching Executives to See Social Capital.”*
 
The two examined the ROI for the Business Leadership Program, a Chicago Booth Executive Education custom learning solution grounded in principles of social capital and how to leverage it for creating and delivering value. Their findings are of keen interest beyond just CEOs, senior HR executives, and chief teaching officers, but also business heads directly responsible for the P&L in their divisions.
Curious? Results in Summary:

• Graduates of the program are 36% to 42% more likely to receive top performance evaluations.
• Program participants are 43% to 72% more likely to be promoted.
• Program graduates are 42% to 74% more likely to be retained by Raytheon.
• Two years after completing the program, program graduates who had been categorized as “active” participants had 43% higher odds of promotion.
The program has substantial positive effects for the participants and the company.

* Their research was published in the Journal of Social Science Research, 2007. For a complete copy of the research paper log onto: http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ronald.burt/research/TESSC.pdf

Contact/Next Steps
To speak with us about our capabilities and partnership process for designing and delivering custom
learning solutions:

• phone: 312.464.8732
• e-mail: exec.ed@chicagobooth.edu
• visit our website: www.chicagoexec.net