Republican American – The UConn-Waterbury School of Business and Main Street Waterbury will hold a workshop for the business community on Sept. 15. The session, titled Exploring Pivot Points: Creating Space for Opportunity, will be from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the school’s multipurpose room at 99 East Main Street.
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New Undergraduate Center at UConn School of Business Centralizes Student Services
The School of Business has established a new Undergraduate Center, combining important student services into one central location. The Center, which was formed over the summer, is located in Suite 248, and will now house the Office of Undergraduate Advising, the Undergraduate Career Development Office, the Office of Diversity Initiatives and the Business Writing Center.
“I’m very excited because this will provide efficient, one-stop shopping for our undergraduates,” said Larry Gramling, associate dean for undergraduate programs. “It will be extremely convenient for students, and provide even greater opportunity for the professional staff to collaborate.”
The new center is designed to offer support that is completely dedicated to the undergraduate students’ professional needs. The Center takes advantage of space formerly occupied by the Full-time MBA program, which has since relocated to Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford.
Brandy Nelson, who had formerly served as an academic advisor, is now the director of the Office of Undergraduate Advising (formerly known as the Undergraduate Programs Office) and the program can be reached at (860) 486-2315. Kelly Kennedy, well-known for teaching career development courses, will continue in that role as well as creating a new academic advising program that will engage students through all four years.
Kathy Hendrickson is serving as the assistant director of the Undergraduate Career Development Office (formerly known as the Business Career Center). That program can be contacted at (860) 486-5136.
Seanice DeShields is director of The Office of Diversity Initiatives, and that office can be reached at (860) 486-4135.
Jeffrey Roberts is director of the Business Writing Center, which can be contacted at (860) 486-9011.
Another familiar presence in the new center is Debbie Smith, who will now serve as front-desk receptionist in addition to her duties with the Career Development Office.
UConn Business Magazine – Summer 2014
The latest issue of UConn Business is now available. In this issue, we focus on modern business education. Our feature article highlights the Storrs headquarters of the Connecticut Small Business Development Center. We also share with you “Insights on the Frontier of Marketing,” reflecting emerging communication trends; “Hall of Fame 2014,” introducing you to our five newest Hall of Fame members; “Giving Back with Pride,” one family’s generous gift to the School; and the Executive MBA summer business trip to South Africa.
View Magazine Online | Download PDF
B-School Expands Professional Development Programs, Adds Finance for Non-financial Managers for Fall
The UConn School of Business will offer an executive education program this fall titled, “Finance for Non-financial Managers.”
The two-day, professional development program is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. October 23 and 24 at the UConn Graduate Business Learning Center, 100 Constitution Plaza, Hartford.
The program is designed to enable mid- to senior-level business managers to better understand and interpret their company’s financial status, thereby offering depth of insight to make sound company financial decisions.
“Finance for Non-financial Managers” provides the essential elements of finance and accounting, whereby participants will learn about different financial principles, including value creation and value drivers, revenue and expense recognition concepts, ratio analysis, financial statement analysis, time value of money and capital budgeting and project evaluation.
In addition, the workshop will enable the participant to understand and interpret the major financial statements of the firm and to assess how the firm is creating value for its stockholders. Interactive exercises, based on nine public companies, across several industries, will be used to apply these concepts.
The program instructor is Robert Hoskin, associate professor emeritus of the Accounting Department at UConn. Hoskin is a leading expert and consultant in insurance and banking accounting, and an award-winning teacher. He was on the faculty at the UConn School of Business for 27 years and during that time directed executive programs. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Cornell University.
Register now! For more information please call (860) 728-2400 or email execed@business.uconn.edu.
The School is also offering Hands-on Lean Business Process Improvement program November 6-7. Registration for this program will open shortly.
David Bergman Receives Prestigious Association for Constraint Programming Doctoral Thesis Award
David Bergman, an assistant professor of Operations and Information Management in the School of Business, has been selected as the winner of this year’s Association for Constraint Programming Doctoral Thesis Award.
The annual award is given to a researcher who has completed his/her thesis in the area of constraint programming. Bergman will present his thesis at this year’s 20th International Conference on Principles and Practices of Constraint Programming in Lyon, France, in September.
Bergman’s thesis is titled, “New Techniques for Discrete Optimization,” and it explores new methodological approaches to discrete optimization problems, an area of operations research which finds an increasing number of applications in fields such as finance, healthcare, and logistics, to name just a few. His thesis provides both theoretical insights and important algorithmic discoveries which together improve upon existing state-of-the-art technology.
He completed his Ph.D. in 2013 at Carnegie Mellon University in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization, a joint program administered by the Tepper School of Business, the Department of Mathematical Sciences, and the Computer Science Department. Bergman’s thesis advisors were John N. Hooker and Willem-Jan van Hoeve.
An abstract of “New Techniques for Discrete Optimization” is available here.
Grad Students on Verge of Exponential Change, Says Senior Executive, UConn Alumna Melinda Brown
What’s the key to staying competitive in a quickly changing job market?
Build a strong skill set, distinguish yourself from your peers, and be a productive, likeable, and forward-thinking employee, said Melinda Brown, ’77, ’85 MBA.
Brown, the senior vice president and corporate controller of Coach Inc., a $5 billion company, directed her remarks to UConn’s graduate business students during an alumni-student networking event Aug. 21 at the Society Room in Hartford.
Brown earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the School of Business in 1977 and her MBA from UConn in 1985. She is on the Board of Directors for the UConn Foundation, and in 2012 was inducted into the School of Business Hall of Fame. After 29 years as a top executive with PepsiCo, she joined Coach two years ago.
Since she earned her MBA, Brown said, the world has accelerated at a rapid rate. While functional excellence is still important, today it is vital to spot converging trends, she said. To her parents, owning a microwave and TV was innovation. For today’s students she predicts they will someday be vacationing off the Earth.
“Today everything is feasible, everything is one moment away,” she said. “The next innovation is right around the corner.”
She urged the students to take advantage of every opportunity as they pursue their degrees.
“You can’t afford to come here to punch your ‘MBA ticket’ and become functionally literate and grab your diploma. This is a journey to learn both facts and ways of thinking and operating and well, frankly, about how to confront what you can’t even yet articulate. Those are the areas to explore, to dig into.
“The things that scare you the most are often the most rewarding. Develop your frameworks and paradigms, focus on creativity, EQ, collaboration and leadership—stretch yourself in ways you may have not previously contemplated. This is a safe place to practice being the next version and the next version and the next version of you.”
More than ever, organizations are seeking “design thinkers,” who can identify problems at their root cause. These are the people who will make the world a different place.
“I have one cell phone, two iPads and two computers. But if you asked me when I purchased my first Gateway computer in 1995, I would have told you that I thought it would be doubtful that any home needed more than one computer, let alone one person having multiple personal devices. The designers of all my mobile devices uncovered what I really needed, not what I told them I thought I needed. Henry Ford got it right—he said, “If I asked my customer what he wanted, he would have said, ‘A faster horse.'”
As her remarks drew to a close, she told the 150 graduate students that their future was certain to be exciting—and unprecedented.
“I know you’re going to get a wonderful education,” she told the students, “and I hope you’re ready for exponential times.”
Pictured: Mario Flores of New Britain, Alia Mahmood of North Haven, and Nicole Segretta of Bristol, all graduate business students at the University of Connecticut School of Business, speak with John A. Elliott, dean of the School of Business, and Melinda Brown, senior vice president and corporate controller at Coach Inc., during a student-alumni networking event on August 21 at the Society Room in Hartford.
Second Annual UConn School of Business Conference to “Celebrate Women Entrepreneurs” in Connecticut
Stamford, Conn. – Connecticut’s second annual statewide conference celebrating and supporting women entrepreneurs* will be held Friday, September 19, 2014, at 8:30 a.m., at UConn’s Stamford campus. Similar to last year, this event is sure to sell out and keynote speakers include: Continue Reading
How to Build a 21st-Century Business Plan
Hartford Business Journal – Q&A talks about the evolution of business plans with Timothy B. Folta, a UConn professor and Thomas John and Bette Wolff Family chair in strategic entrepreneurship.
Message from the Dean (Summer 2014)
What should a modern business education encompass?
Innovation, Sustainability, Analytics Top List of Academic Strategies
This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 4, Issue 3 (Summer 2014)
Education is a truly transformative experience.
While it is incumbent upon our students to take advantage of the many wonderful opportunities they have here at UConn, we—the administrators, faculty and staff—have an equally formidable responsibility.
Education is never stagnant. We must be mindful of the changing business climate, tap the expertise and perspective of our business partners, and consistently deliver the knowledge and skills that our students require.
We must embrace change. This year the School of Business will adopt a new academic vision to guide us in our preparation of future entrepreneurs, executives and decision-makers.
In consonance with the University of Connecticut’s newly adopted academic vision, “Creating our Future: UConn’s Path to Excellence,” we have identified the following four areas for emphasis: creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship; sustainability and risk management; analytics and big data; and healthcare management and insurance studies. All are vital to economic growth and solving the world’s problems, be they personalized medicine and genomics, data management or protecting our planet. These areas of emphasis help focus our attention and guide our growth. They engage us with our business community. However, they do not mean we are turning away from the core functional education that our students seek and our business partners rely upon in the traditional areas.
At the UConn School of Business, we strive to be a globally-recognized provider of exceptional managerial and business leadership. We believe that academic excellence in a modern business education requires a global perspective. Our many goals include identifying and addressing business challenges and recognizing our role as a partner in the success of business development both in Connecticut and beyond. We believe our new academic vision will keep us sharply focused on those goals.
In this issue of UConn Business, we have the opportunity to introduce you to a very special family whose generosity will enable us to continue to invite the most deserving students to our ranks.
Denis ’76 CLAS, ’77 MBA and Brita Nayden ’76 have donated $3 million towards the new UConn Basketball Champions Center and for scholarships for student-athletes, with a very generous amount earmarked for School of Business students.
The School honors remarkable individuals by induction into the School of Business Hall of Fame. Denis Nayden has already earned this distinction. In this issue you will also enjoy reading about five of our remarkable alumni whose business accomplishments, character, and dedication to others have recently earned them similar recognition.
While each of their passions and stories is unique, I’m sure they share the mantra of alumna Amy J. Errett ’79 (CLAS), an entrepreneur, senior executive, venture capitalist and philanthropist. When asked how she accomplishes so much, she said: “Well, I don’t sleep a lot … I get up early and go to bed late, and I try to make every day count.”
Our Storrs campus is bustling with the addition of headquarters for the Connecticut Small Business Development Center, now located on the second floor of the School of Business. The CTSBDC provides free, confidential, business advising to entrepreneurs who are forming or growing a business. We certainly believe this partnership will be advantageous for our students, our university, and many businesses throughout Connecticut.
As the summer draws to a close, the School of Business faculty and staff are excited for this academic year. Always a busy time, this year it is even more so, as we usher in new programs in Human Resource Management and in Digital Marketing & Analytics, a rapidly growing field with tremendous employment opportunities.
Best wishes to all,
John A. Elliott
Dean and Auran J. Fox Chair in Business
Insights on the Frontier of Marketing
This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 4, Issue 3 (Summer 2014)
The rapidly rising demand for digital marketing expertise and the accompanying explosion in job openings has prompted the School of Business’ Marketing Department to offer a new undergraduate major in Digital Marketing & Analytics at the Stamford campus.
Digital Marketing & Analytics students will learn how to use marketing analytics to gain insights into consumer behavior and to develop digital marketing strategies. The major takes a comprehensive approach that covers all aspects of marketing and includes developing strategies for creating, branding, and positioning digital products and services; dynamic pricing, digital distribution, social media and digital communication; and integrating digital marketing into a firm’s overall marketing strategy.
The new major supplements a certificate in Digital Marketing & Analytics, already available for business students at Storrs, and a minor in Digital Marketing & Analytics, offered to non-business majors at the Storrs, Hartford, and Stamford campuses.
“This will put our students on the frontier of marketing,” said Robin Coulter, professor and head of the Marketing Department at the School of Business. “There is tremendous excitement among students, faculty and the business community. We’re very enthusiastic about the curriculum and the abundant opportunities that await students who pursue these fields,” she said.
In fact, a quick check of the job-hunting web site Indeed.com found 25,000 marketing jobs, many requiring digital media and analytical expertise, all within 50 miles of the Stamford campus.
Lee Manning, human resources director for Coca-Cola Northeast, said the company recruits employees with digital marketing and analytics skills. “The world is changing at a very quick pace,” Manning said. “People have to keep up with the different types of communication. It is important to be quick and nimble in business today, and to stay ahead of the curve.”
For instance, Coca-Cola recognizes the importance of the growing Hispanic market and employs digital marketing experts to explore how its beverages are viewed by those consumers, what questions they may have, and the best way to target information to that consumer demographic.
Proficiency in marketing analytics is rapidly becoming a requirement for many marketing positions and the ability to use analytics to inform marketing strategy is central to leading marketing organizations. Graduates who can strategically use digital analytics to gain and act on insights into consumer search, decision making, purchase activities, and the success of marketing activities are increasingly in demand.
Bernard Gracy Jr. ’85 (ENG), vice president of strategy, Digital Commerce Solutions at Stamford-based Pitney Bowes Inc. said every company today either has to have a digital marketing strategy—or face extinction.
Pitney Bowes is a global technology giant that provides shipping and mailing solutions, data management and engagement software and location intelligence for two million customers, including 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies. It employs 16,000 people.
Gracy said Pitney Bowes used to receive calls from businesses, asking advice on the best location to open a storefront, or the ideal location for a new bank branch. They still do.
“But now what they want is to go global,” he said. “They have globalized digital storefronts that reach consumers around the world. They may want to do business with customers is Botswana, Estonia, Lithuania,” he said. “Digital marketing has never been more important. At Pitney Bowes, we are going through explosive growth.”
The School of Business faculty envisions graduates using their digital analytics and strategic marketing skills in traditional consumer and business-to-business marketing and sales organizations, social media organizations, online firms such as Amazon.com, as well as startups.
Although a general business major has been offered in Stamford for many years, this is the first specialized marketing major offered on the campus and joins the recently launched majors in Financial Management and Business Data Analytics.
“The Digital Marketing & Analytics major concept in Stamford makes incredible sense. Digital media is growing rapidly and the greater Stamford area is becoming a mini mecca for production,” UConn marketing professor Kevin McEvoy said. “We are very central to the marketing and advertising hubs of the world. There are numerous opportunities nearby.”
Meanwhile, students in communication sciences, professional sales leadership, economics and statistics, as well as graphic designers and digital media and design majors are expected to seek the digital marketing and analytics minor.
Approximately 18 percent of the students enrolled in the UConn School of Business are marketing majors.
The Digital Marketing & Analytics major will be available to undergraduate students in Stamford in Fall 2015.