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Biography
Dr. Blaine McCormick is an award-winning management professor at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University where he serves as chair of the Department of Management. For many years, Dr. McCormick taught business acumen in the first-year business course to almost 500 students each semester. In the spring of 2009, Inc. magazine named his course one of the nine best entrepreneurship courses in the United States. A nationally recognized scholar on the business practices of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, Dr. McCormick is interviewed frequently across all forms of media including the Forbes, New York Times, CNN, public radio, and ABC World News Tonight. He often travels to developing countries to teach business lessons to undereducated entrepreneurs using only a bottle of Coca-Cola as a teaching aid. A native Texan, Blaine grew up working in the cotton fields of West Texas. Before joining the Baylor faculty, he worked in Dallas and Plano for ARCO Oil & Gas Company as a human resource management professional. He lives in Waco with his wife of twenty-seven years, Sarah, and their three children – Ellis, Miriam, and Bea.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Edison
Business Education
Foundation Business Simulation
Greatest Entrepreneurs and Businesspeople in American History
Education (3)
Texas A&M University: Ph.D., Management 1996
Texas A&M University: M.S., Human Resource Management 1989
Abilene Christian University: B.B.A. 1988
Media Appearances (4)
Why America should be celebrating entrepreneurs, not presidents
Fortune online
2024-02-19
Pegged to Presidents Day and discussions about presidential greatness, Blaine McCormick, Ph.D., associate professor in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, co-authors this opinion piece focusing on what makes great entrepreneurs vs. what makes great presidents.
A Penny Saved Was Never A Penny Earned
Forbes
2014-08-18
One of the characters in Woody Allen’s 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters quipped, “If Jesus came back and saw what’s going on in his name, he’d never stop throwing up.” If Ben Franklin came back he might have to strengthen his gag reflex as well. Despite the popularity of the t-shirt in tourist shops throughout Philadelphia, Franklin never said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Not even close. Franklin announced in 1736 that, “There’s more old drunkards than old doctors,” to contrast the undisciplined path a life could take and the narrower road of skill-acquisition. Franklin also never said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” He only says this on Google...
The Ignorance Of Today's College Students Shouldn't Surprise Us
Forbes
2014-01-08
What did our students learn during this holiday break between college semesters? Once finals were over, many probably went to see a movie or took a trip with their family. What did they discover about this rich nation that will give them so many chances to succeed in life...
Who Are The Greatest American Entrepreneurs Ever?
Forbes
2013-11-03
If U.S. presidents are studied, evaluated, and ranked, shouldn’t we do the same for our entrepreneurs and businesspeople? After all, they built the U.S. from the ground up into a great economic power. The state of business affects our quality of life as much, if not more, than whomever sits in the Oval Office. We need to know where to give the credit for American achievement and how to rank its value...
Articles (3)
Management History The Greatest Entrepreneurs and Businesspeople in American History: A Survey of Historians
Academy of Management2013 Ten years ago, we began a conversation about what constitutes “greatness” in American business history and, in particular, how academics perceive greatness. One decade after our original publications, we surveyed forty-one experts in management, economics, and history to rank the greatest entrepreneurs and businesspeople in American history. Henry Ford once again topped our ranking. Steve Jobs entered the top five and Alfred Sloan dropped out of the top ten demonstrating that this is an active ranking exercise and that a great deal of change happens across a ...
Scissors Cut Paper: Purposive and Contingent Strategies in a Conflict Situation
International Journal of Conflict Management2012 This paper aims to focus on a little studied but important type of conflict, zero‐sum situations. These conflicts are less likely to take place than those in which participants can come to an integrative agreement, but knowing how to best strategize for zero‐sum conflicts can lead to better outcomes in these situations.
Message in a Bottle: Basic Business Lessons for Entrepreneurs Using Only a Soft Drink
Journal of Management Education2010 Coca-Cola is available in more than 200 countries and territories. As such, it stands as a readily available resource for teaching business lessons in developing countries. This article presents the use of a bottle of Coke to teach 12 basic business lessons. Designed for minimally educated entrepreneurs starting or running microenterprises, each lesson contains a microlecture and several discussion activities to improve the interaction of the group and reinforce the microlectures. The article concludes with advice for users and planned future activities.