Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, has awarded a prestigious fellowship to Wynd Harris, associate professor in-residence of marketing, which will allow her to pursue her interest in learning modern Hebrew, and ultimately assist her in researching the relationship between military expertise and entrepreneurship.Continue Reading
This article was written by John Schumacher and originally appeared on the UConn Sport Management Program website.
This past summer, members of the UConn Sport Management program (Michael Mudrick, doctoral student, Raymond Cotrufo ’14 Ph.D., and Laura Burton, associate professor) partnered with the UConn School of Business SCOPE program (Sustainable Community Outreach and Public Engagement) and the Special Olympics for a project involving an examination of strategic alliances.
Through an extensive analysis, the research team discovered opportunities for the Special Olympics to achieve several goals as ancillary benefits from the procurement and continuance of successful partnerships. These goals included: augmented awareness of the Special Olympics brand, program relationship building, and additional participation opportunities for its athletes.
On September 30, 2014, the research team presented results of the project to Jon-Paul St. Germain, senior director of Unified Sports and Sport Partnerships and Aldis Berzin, senior director of sport of Special Olympics and SCOPE program director, Wynd Harris, with a best practices guide toward strategic alliance success. In addition, the research team proposed an application model to be utilized for analyses of partnership benefits and value.
The Special Olympics partnership with SCOPE is funded by an donation from UConn alumnus David A. Gang ’81, CEO and co-founder of Perfect Sense Digital, LLC, and his wife, Charmaine Gang.
Experiential learning in action. As part of Professor Wynd Harris‘ strategic brand marketing class at the University of Connecticut-Stamford, MBA candidates received a backstage tour of The Palace Theatre prior to attending a live performance of The Temptations & The Four Tops last Wednesday evening. The experience is all part of an introduction to their semester-long team project to help enhance “The Palace – Stamford Center for the Arts” brand.
The MBA candidates will create a brand audit review and a brand-oriented marketing action program for “The Palace – Stamford Center for the Arts,” and will be meeting with The Palace management team throughout the course. Each team will present their findings and recommendations to management at the end of the semester.
Cindi Bigelow, president of Bigelow Tea in Fairfield, Connecticut, the #1 market leader of specialty teas in the United States, spoke to 45 MBA students recently in the Stamford Learning Accelerator (SLA) Rotunda at the University of Connecticut’s Stamford campus. Also present from Bigelow Tea were Lauren Westbrook, Brand Manager, and Patrick Rowan, Sales Representative.
Cindi was invited by Brian Brady, director of the SLA and faculty Instructor in Residence for “Thinking, Acting and Managing Entrepreneurially” in the Management Department, one of the MBA classes Bigelow addressed. Additionally in attendance were Professor Wynd Harris of the Marketing Department and students from her MBA course, “New Product and Management Innovation.” Also attending was Professor Tim Dowding of the Operations and Information Management Department and Associate Director of the International Business Accelerator at UConn Stamford.
Under Cindi’s energetic leadership, Bigelow Tea has embraced social media and continues to expand a product line that now includes over 120 varieties of black, green, decaffeinated, herbal and iced teas. The company produces over 1.6 billion tea bags annually.
Weeks prior to Cindi’s visit, the MBA students conducted research on tea drinkers and shared their findings with Cindi who led an interactive discussion on what it’s like to be the third generation running a family business, staying ahead of the competitive tea industry and why Bigelow Tea’s over 300 employees are like family. Cindi also engaged all of the students in a hands-on Earl Grey tea cutting demonstration, comparing Bigelow Tea’s brand to major competitors.
Photos from the event can be viewed at
To learn more about the Stamford Learning Accelerator, please visit http://sla.business.uconn.edu/