The Connecticut Economic Outlook: June 2015

Flat Lining – Connecticut’s Disappearing Economic Growth

Connecticut Center of Economic Analysis – In early June, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revised national 2015Q1 GDP estimates, including, unfortunately, strong downward revisions for Connecticut’s Real Gross State Product, wiping out the strong growth reported in CCEA’s previous Outlook.

5 Resources for Turning Veterans into Entrepreneurs

June 24, 2015

Milwaukee Community Journal – Is the solution to joblessness among veterans, entrepreneurship? Career experts think so. According to the Small Business Administration, military veterans are almost twice as likely as non-veterans to start their own business, but their unemployment rate stands at 6.7 percent as of February, and has been consistently higher than the national average.

Darden’s Real Estate Play

Marketplace – Eaten at the Olive Garden lately? You probably thought more about the bread sticks than who owns the building — fair enough. However, Darden Restaurants, which owns the Olive Garden, Long Horn Steakhouse and some other chains, announced Tuesday that it’s going to spin off its real estate into something called a REIT — a real estate investment trust — and then lease the properties back.

A New Use for Old Carpet

June 23, 2015

UConn Today – Nearly 4 billion pounds of carpet are discarded every year in the U.S. Now, researchers from the UConn School of Engineering and School of Business are working together to figure out a way to make good use of all that waste.

What Makes Us Tick?

June 22, 2015

Behavioral lab at UConn School of BusinessNew Behavioral Lab Expected to Fuel Surge in Research at UConn

Marketing Professor David Norton has a theory he just can’t wait to test, and it involves two things most people love:  coffee and their own names.

“One idea that I’m currently pursuing is whether having the name on your morning coffee cup spelled incorrectly can impact your evaluation of that cup of coffee,” Norton said. “Essentially, the idea is that we like ourselves, and pretty much anything associated with ourselves, so when we are reminded about “me” we get positive feelings toward the object that does the reminding.”Continue Reading

Nobel Prize Winner Shares Business Wisdom at Commencement

Nobel Prize Winner Shares Business Wisdom at Commencement

Working in business is a noble profession, and its success should be measured not exclusively by profit but in helping others meet their goals.

That was the wisdom shared by undergraduate Commencement speaker Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University professor and the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Shiller discussed the perceived contradiction between profit and corporate benevolence. But that need not be the case, he said, urging the new graduates to conduct themselves with personal and professional integrity and to never lose sight of the communities they serve.Continue Reading

CEO Evolution Offers a View from the Top

Fairfield County Business Journal – For the second consecutive year, accounting firm Citrin Cooperman gathered a panel of CEOs to UConn Stamford’s General Re Auditorium — filling it again with an audience of 200 — for a give-and-take with Mark Fagan, managing partner at the firm.

The questions were designed to plumb the CEOs’ successes and harvest their anecdotes. The CEOs responded with unguarded responses that ran from whimsy — “I always wanted to be a ballerina” — to horror: “When you hit the water at 74 mph it’s like hitting cement.”

Advice from the Top

June 19, 2015

CEO Evolution - header
Pictured, L to R: Anne Mulcahy, Tom Kallish, and Denis Nayden

Three Outstanding CEOs Share Business Insight, Success at ‘CEO Evolution’ Program in Stamford

Be a coach, be a leader, be a taskmaster—but don’t ever be a jerk.

Establish a strong network, but if you need additional help, reach out and ask for it. Even strangers can be strong allies.

Don’t plan your career path so rigidly that you miss out on new and amazing opportunities that can enhance your future in ways you never imagined.

That was some of the advice that three exceptional CEOs shared at the second annual “CEO Evolution’’ June 15 at the University of Connecticut’s Stamford campus. The program, attended by almost 200, was presented by Citrin Cooperman, the University of Connecticut School of Business and the Fairfield County Business Journal.Continue Reading

Should Companies Eliminate Audits?

Fortune – Do the millions that large companies spend on annual audits actually provide the information investors need and are paying for? And are the earnings reports that companies produce trustworthy? If recent events offer any indication, the answer to both questions is likely a resounding no.