Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

Huntsman Hall will feature new event space

2012-03-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

There are a few people, mostly those who lead clubs, departments or other organizations within the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, who have learned that in one area the school’s capacity is limited. They know that if they want to hold an event to host VIP visitors or a special meeting, there’s a good chance they won’t be able to use the only space we now have for such things because it will already be booked.

Ken Snyder

The O.C. Tanner Business Lounge on the ninth floor is sometimes double or triple booked, meaning that if someone were to cancel their reservation there might be two other groups that would be ready to claim the space and time.

Once Huntsman Hall is completed, there will be more options available. We plan to include some event space in that new facility that will be four times as large as what we have on the ninth floor. The new room will be designed so that it can be broken into two separate mid-sized rooms. We will also have an executive conference room, something we don’t have now, that can be used for special meetings such as hosting our National Advisory Board.

When Huntsman Hall is completed we’ll continue to use the ninth floor, but our new event space will also offer spectacular views of south Cache Valley. As we planned what to put in Huntsman Hall, every single group we spoke with said they were frustrated by the lack of available space for special events, speakers, luncheons or club meetings. Huntsman Hall will open the doors to more visionary, celebratory and inspirational events, all things that are continually a part of a school that is transforming itself into a top-tier institution.

- Ken Snyder

"Find a gray-haired mentor"

2012-02-29T15:09:00.000-08:00

Justin Gold could write a book on being a passionate person. From my initial greeting and throughout his lecture his passion was contagious. He was not only passionate about his business but also about his interests, hobbies and family. My experience with Justin was not limited to the lecture as I was able to be his host throughout the night. The following points are concepts I learned from not only his lecture but also from my interaction with him throughout the night.

Justin Gold, Founder and CEO of Justin's Nut Butter

Know who you are: When I met Justin, he was in a food distributor trade show. I noticed Justin was unique as I walked around the room looking at the different booths and their reps. He was the youngest one in the room but looked comfortable in talking with the other vendors. When I introduced myself he greeted me as one would a good friend. I did not feel any ego or superiority. Throughout the night he stayed true to this character and was comfortable in his skin and with his story.

Let your supply chain feel some ownership: When Justin was trying to get into stores he regularly went to the buyers and asked their opinion of the product. He asked for their feedback on everything from the recipe to the packaging. While he did not always implement the feedback he would later go back to the buyer and ask for their feedback again and again. By doing this, he built a relationship, and the buyer felt he/she had given input to the final product they finally would decide to place on the shelves.

Find a gray-haired mentor: The right mentor is one that has time and is interested in giving back to the next generation. His mentors have been the key to his success as they have unlocked doors to capital, determining strategy and building distribution networks. An interesting experience occurred on our drive to the campus. Justin spent a half hour on the phone with another entrepreneur giving advice on how to get into the market. After the call he said that he has about five of those calls a week and rarely hears again from them. A mentor is someone that is a long-term relationship and not a one-time event like these calls.

Do the things you love now: The life that gives meaning to the rest of life has to be nurtured and scheduled. The activities that you love can all to easily be pushed to the side. He was tempted to live at the office all his waking hours but his mentor told him to keep doing the things he loved because he risked forgetting how to do those things. I recognize this personally because I am doing this now with school. I have not been hiking in far too long. I keep telling myself there is no time and push it off.

Start with the end in mind: Justin has a strategic plan on where he wants to take the company. There are two general plans for his company’s future. He wants to build the company into a national brand and keep running it as long as it is fun. The other plan is to build it to the point that he can have a healthy exit sale. He knows that to have the second exit strategy he needs to currently be in contact with companies that could potentially purchase his company.

- Bryce Huff

Don't let thank you notes go extinct

2012-02-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

Some members of my family really like to talk.

Last week, my aunt had a “quick question” for me. If this were one of my siblings, the conversation would have been over in 30 seconds. Actually, it never would have taken place, because we would have done it via text.

However, my aunt knows I am looking for a big-boy job and she took this opportunity to give me advice. For half an hour.

I am not complaining. I am really grateful for her help. Most of it was stuff I had heard before and am trying to implement.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

There was one thing which I thought was outdated, but which I decided to look into.

Maybe it is just my generation, but except for wedding presents, I do not know anyone who sends out thank you cards. Hardly anyone uses standard mail anymore. Everything is done electronically.

However, I found an article which said sending a paper thank you note through the mail after an interview may be the factor that sets you apart from the rest and lands you a job.

The article was mostly about following up after an interview, but they took a significant chunk talking about thank you notes. And not only sending them to the person who interviewed you, but also to anyone in the company who helped you find out about the job and get the interview.

Thank them for their time and effort, reemphasize your interest in the position and how you can help fill their needs, and maybe ask a follow up question (especially if you send a written note) to encourage a continuing conversation.

However, whether you follow up the interview with a thank you note, email, telephone call, or in person, I would encourage you to not follow my aunt’s example and keep it concise.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

Huntsman Hall will serve solutions for the hungry

2012-02-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

As I have visited business schools across the country, I noticed one thing that nearly all of them have in common – they offer their students a place to get something to eat. The only exception was a business school that was right next door to the university’s student union where there were several places to get food. And the buildings were connected by a tunnel.

Ken Snyder

We discussed this with our student building committee. The students unanimously voiced their opinion that they want to see some sort of student café as part of the new building.

So Huntsman Hall will have, right next to the student commons area, a café. I have some ideas about what I’d like to see in that café that were sparked by what I observed at other business schools. The approach I’d like to see is all about offering variety and efficiency at the same time.

Imagine this: you walk in the door and immediately there is a counter where you can order a sandwich or something hot. One need not stand there waiting, however, because just beyond that would be a convenience store of sorts where you could buy fresh fruit, candy, yogurt, granola bars, drinks, ice cream and all matter of prepackaged foods. It would all be designed so you could go in, quickly pick out what you want, and then head to the cash registers to get checked out. And yes, I did say cash registers, plural. The basic idea is that there would be offerings for those craving a more substantive sandwich and there would be a wide variety of food available for those on the run. Think of it as a convenience store and a Panini café all rolled into one.

This café will be about 1,400-square-feet. It will be next to the student commons area so that teams of students who wanted to meet together and grab a bite to eat could do so. The café can double as a student team meeting area. Our students say they really hate leaving the business building to try to find some food somewhere else on campus. Our new café should not only provide them with a source of food, but also satisfy some of the need for team meeting space as well.

- Ken Snyder

- Ken Snyder

"Angel" visits Huntsman School

2012-02-22T14:30:00.000-08:00

When someone usually thinks of an angel, they might picture a halo and wings. What you may not know is that recent Lectures in Entrepreneurship Speaker Gary Gigot is a different type of angel, which is one that invests their own funds to provide capital for a business start-up.

Gary Gigot

Gary Gigot was on the bottom floor of Microsoft and Visio Corporation’s meteoric rises where he managed their advertising and PR. But after a successful run in corporate America, he said, “at this stage in [his] career, [he] could not work in a large company … because there are too many things and too many committees and [he] is much more interested in building things and doing things on [his] own.”

He also shared the reasons he has discovered that have led him to continue to pursue and help others pursue careers in entrepreneurship in the following list:

Reasons for being an Entrepreneur
• Independence
• Have an idea
• Questionable fit in large organizations
• Comfortable with risk
• Cash flow and/or value creation focused
• Self-learner/constant curiosity

Gary was adamant about the need for our society, in our current economy, to return to its roots of hard work and diligence in creating valuable enterprises from smart individuals.

“I got asked by Notre Dame Magazine to offer up a commentary on ‘Where are the new jobs going to come from’ … I’ve thought about it and thought about it with the people that I know, and I realized that people need to learn to be self-reliant again,” David said. “People need to realize that professionals and the jobs they’ve had before may be gone out of the U.S. economy for good. People that are getting smarter are going up and recreating themselves with a new business. ”

He also shared his wisdom in what to strive for when one gets to the point where they are looking to have their company bought.

“One of the truisms in selling companies is that ‘companies are never sold, they’re bought,’ which means you want to be in the position where the buyer is pursuing you, you are not putting the company up for sale.”

- Rob Goates

Utah State Should Bolt the Western Athletic Conference

2012-02-18T16:39:00.000-08:00

The Western Athletic Conference is about to have a major makeover. With Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii all leaving, the conference is about to look a whole lot different.

Last week, long-time WAC Commissioner Karl Benson jumped ship to become the Commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference. Seems like a lateral move on its surface, but it’s actually an upgrade when you look at what is coming into the WAC as replacements for the “Fleeing Four”. Maybe with Benson leaving, we should now say the “Fleeing Five”, including the captain who just jumped off this sinking vessel.

Next year, the WAC will have Utah State, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State, Louisiana Tech, Idaho, New Mexico State, San Jose State, and Denver (non-basketball). Other school being considered for inclusion in the near future include Louisiana-Lafayette, Sam Houston State, California-Davis, Portland State, Cal-Poly, and as non-football members, Seattle University, Cal-State Bakersfield, and Utah Valley University.

That my friends, is a pretty lousy lineup of conference friends. No rivals for USU. No driving-distance opponents. For all intents, it’s a Division 2 conference. There isn’t a single opponent in that list that makes me want to jump up and go buy tickets – for football or basketball.

College teams are in many cases defined by who they are aligned with. If USU stays in the WAC as it will soon be constructed, its reputation as a Division 1 program will go down the drain.

USU needs to get creative and try to develop a new conference with schools that all are within driving distance of one another.

To qualify as a D-1 Football Subdivision Conference, eight teams are required. Utah State needs to get on the phone and try to get a new conference constructed of the following schools:

Utah State

Idaho State

Boise State

Colorado State

Wyoming

Air Force Academy

BYU

UNLV

Here are the advantages. All would be within driving distance of one another. There are natural rivalries in place. They would have enough members to be included in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Travel expenses would be much lower, for both the teams and fans. And most importantly, attendance at games would increase significantly.

Looking at Utah State football attendance over the past eleven years, home games against these proposed conference opponents have averaged 19,893. Home games against the “New WAC” conference opponents have averaged 12,701. Even BYU saw about 7,000 fewer fans at their home games last season against the distant “WAC” opponents of Idaho and New Mexico State. Do we really want to keep having less than 50% of seats filled at Romney Stadium? That’s not a “college football” experience in a half-empty stadium every Saturday afternoon!

Yes, there would be some challenges. BYU would need to keep their TV contract with ESPN for sure, making a conference TV contract difficult to put together…but not impossible. It certainly would be worth more than the “new WAC”, where there won’t be a TV contact at all.

If Utah State can’t get a new conference assembled, I suggest their next best option would be to follow BYU into football independence and align in other sports with the WCC. At least we’d have a decent basketball conference with Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, and BYU, and we could try to schedule football games against more local opponents to drive fan interest and attendance. Even football home games against Weber State and Southern Utah University have averaged 19,987 fans, a far cry from the 12,701 against WAC opponents. Anybody with me on this? What do you think?

Eric D. Schulz is a Sr. Lecturer and Co-Director of Marketing and Brand Management at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. He has worked as Vice President of Marketing for the XFL Football League as well as the Utah Jazz, and has over 20 years of professional sports management experience.

C-USA / MWC Merger and its Impact on Utah State University Football

2012-02-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

The world’s biggest college sports conference is coming your way in about 18 months. Spanning from Hawaii to Central Florida, its 24 members will be strewn across the USA. Yes sports fans, Fresno State will be in the same conference as Southern Mississippi. East Carolina will be a conference rival of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Get out the popcorn for these intra-conference rivalries!

So where does this leave Utah State University and its WAC affiliation? Better off. This 24-team atrocity is doomed to failure, just like the 16-team WAC experiment flamed out after just two years back in 1998. USU is better off sitting on the sidelines for this one.

There was this interesting commentary on the C-USA / MWC Merger by Chadd Scott last week.

He proposes for smaller D-1 schools, that rather than trying to compete with the Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC and the likes, they instead create small, boutique conferences …with every team within driving distance.

Not only would it cut down on travel costs, but it would create more local rivalries. Does anyone at USU feel strongly when Louisiana Tech rolls into town? Wouldn’t it be more likely to rev up the engines if Boise State, Idaho State, Utah State, Wyoming, Colorado State, and Air Force Academy were its own conference (and possibly BYU if they were to let them do their own TV deal)? If a D-2 regional conference had Weber State, Utah Valley University, BYU-Idaho, Southern Utah, Westminster, SLCC, and possibly Dixie?

Of course, the major college football world is driven by TV money, and the big dollar signs that the top conferences are getting is what is driving the C-USA / MWC merger. But it won’t work. Ohio State v. Michigan, USC v. UCLA, LSU v. Alabama…those conference matchups are much more compelling for television than Marshall v. Nevada, New Mexico v. East Carolina, or Alabama-Birmingham v. Colorado State. The TV deal this new super-conference ends up with won’t amount to much more (if not less), than the current TV monies those conference members now receive.

Just to test this theory, I looked at the attendance figures at Utah State University for the past 64 home football games, dating back to 2000. Here’s what I found, which supports the “boutique conference” concept:

Average Attendance (All 64 games): 16,507

Avg. Attendance – Boutique Conf. Teams (14 games): 20,826 (+26%)

Avg. Attendance: D-2 Regionals + Univ. of Utah (9 games): 22,712 (+38%)

And here is the average attendance by longer-distance conference opponents over the years (San Jose State, Nevada, N. Mexico State, Louisiana Tech, Hawaii, Fresno State): 23 games: 12,708 (-23%).

For schools like Utah State, it’s about butts in seats, not TV money. And when Utah State hosts a more local opponent, there is, on average, an 8,000 person positive swing. At $25 / ticket, that’s $200,000 more ticket revenue per game…over six home games, an increase in over $1 million dollars.

For Utah State, the best move is to focus on scheduling as many “local” rivals as possible; wait for the implosion of the C-USA / MWC, then be ready to propose the following new boutique conference:

Utah State

Colorado State

Idaho State

Wyoming

Air Force Academy

Boise State

BYU

Then, if Utah State focused its non-conference schedule on including every year two of these:

Weber State

Southern Utah

Utah

That would leave 3 or 4 other non-conference games with which to try to schedule from the “power” conferences.

The school would make more money, incur smaller travel costs, and fan interest would increase. Win-Win-Win.

Eric D. Schulz is the co-director of strategic marketing and brand management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of Marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a general manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

"Hick from Montana" explains his entrepreneurial path

2012-02-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

It seems sort of ironic that an entrepreneur who didn’t even understand he was supposed to be filing tax returns with his first business would eventually join a company that was the first firm to introduce tax preparation software that consumers could use.

Eric Jacobsen

Eric Jacobson, who is now a managing partner with Dolphin Capital, was the Lectures in Entrepreneurship speaker on Feb. 1, and those who attended that night got a very unvarnished, genuine take on the determination, attitude and luck that have made him successful.

He talked about how his first business, launched in college, was sort of a fluke that grew from the fact that he enjoyed a good party. He and his friends would host what he called “insta-parties” where they would play some music, buy some beer, and celebrate just being around.

That led to others asking him to do parties for them, and by the time he graduated he sold a company that had 40 sound systems being put to use all over northern California.

“I started a business with zero money, in fact, tremendously in debt, and ended up selling that business when I graduated for more money than I had ever had in my entire life,” he said.

He encouraged the students there to get a good education and told them being an entrepreneur was not as hard as they might think, if they were tenacious.

“I’m a hick from Montana,” he said. “I grew up in cowboy boots, long hair; racing motorcycles. I am not a prototypical entrepreneur. If I can do it, I’m telling you that anybody in this room can do it.”

He may have called himself a “hick” but he graduated from Stanford and said college is a great place to learn the basics you need to succeed in business but warned the student to never let “school interfere with your education.”

He argued that you don’t need a big investment of outside capital to be successful.

“The reality is that you are much better off if you can do it on your own,” he said.

He told a story of how he first discovered that he didn’t realize he was supposed to be paying taxes when TNT Sound was getting off the ground. Eric then talked about how, after working as an investment banker, he joined a firm called MECA, which created tax preparation software that was eventually sold to H&R Block and is now called Tax Cut.

He said part of being successful is just learning how to sell.

“You are always, always selling,” he said. “Always. It’s not a bad thing in my mind. It’s not an evil thing.”

He said that he has pitched ideas for new ventures that became very successful, despite that fact that others told them they his ideas were awful.

“Trust your gut instinct,” he said. “Your gut instinct as an entrepreneur is generally, very, very good. Push hard. Be tenacious. Figure out how to sell it. If people buy it, then you know you have a good idea.”

He warned that there would be dark days as they tried to be successful. He said the entrepreneurs who have succeeded were the people who “had the ability to never accept failure; to keep powering through it. To say, ‘I believe. Let’s go. We are gonna make it. I’m not stopping.’”

- Steve Eaton

"When am I ever going to need this?"

2012-02-15T12:36:00.000-08:00

I have been a college student for almost four and a half years now. I have taken classes in subjects from all over the academic spectrum, from history of the civil rights movement (an excellent class, by the way) to social media to calculus II.

Connor Child

In almost every class I have ever taken, I have heard at least one of my classmates complain that the information being taught is worthless as it pertains to practical use. "When am I ever going to need this?"

I can't say that I have never asked this question myself, but I can assure you that I have never had any doubts regarding this matter while attending the Dean's Convocations that are frequently held at the Huntsman School. I know it sounds corny, but I sincerely mean it. Every so often, the Huntsman School will invite a dynamic individual with a wealth of experience to speak to our students and community free of charge. In every instance, the featured speaker has provided me with new insight into how I should approach my education and future career.

This Friday (Feb. 17), Thomas Donaldson will be the Dean's Convocation featured speaker. He will be speaking from 12:30-2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the business building. Donaldson is a professor at the Wharton School who has a strong background in business ethics. On Friday, he will present on a paper he wrote titled, "Three Ethical Roots of the Economic Crisis."

I can't think of a more time-relevant subject to learn about. I look forward to seeing you there.

- Connor Child

The Importance of Brand Strategy

2012-02-14T15:27:00.000-08:00

Eric D. Schulz

Procter & Gamble invented the business strategy of “Brand Management”. Brand management focused attention on product specialization and differentiation instead of business function. By distinguishing the qualities of each brand from all other P&G brands, each would avoid competing with one another by targeting different consumer markets with a different set of benefits. This was especially important in product categories that the company manufactured several competing brands, like laundry detergent.

Over the years, P&G and the companies that embraced the brand management concept became extremely successful. In the early 1940s, Ted Bates & Company decided to conduct an extensive research study to find out why and reverse engineer the success of these brands. The company researched “successful advertising campaigns,” to see whether they could identify a pattern. What they found was that the most successful brands—those that both lead their category and produced the highest ROI—used what they termed the Unique Selling Proposition or “USP.”

The concept of “USP” has three guiding principles:

The proposition must be clearly stated to the consumer: “Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”
The proposition itself must be unique. It must express a specific benefit that competitors do not, will not, or cannot offer.
The proposition must be strong enough to pull new customers to the product.

Brand positioning

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, the concept of “brand” began to take on new meaning, including the larger concept of image and values. Al Ries and Jack Trout captured this evolution in their Harvard Business Review article and later authored a book by the same title: POSITIONING: The battle for your mind. Their concept stated that it was not product superiority that mattered, but rather consumers’ perception of a given brand that paved the road to success. This concept was dubbed “brand positioning” and to this day it remains the standard for developing successful brands.

Branding is managing customer expectations
Branding is not about getting people to choose your offering over the competitions. It is the act of managing consumers’ expectations so as to condition your target audience to see your offering as the only answer to a specific need.

By defining a realistic and manageable promise of what the brand owner will deliver and what consumers can expect of the brand, branding has become the backbone of modern business strategy. “Brand” drives consumer purchase decisions and affects nearly every functional area of a business. With product offerings converging into sameness, companies are viewing “brand” as the only avenue of differentiation.

Branding defines market position (brand strategy) and, through a series of signals, articulates that position as promise (brand positioning). When strategy and positioning work as one, brands obtain sustainable and favorable market positions. This has shifted the task of brand building and management to the primary business strategy.

Brands are built on trust

While the concept of brand is ever-evolving, its primary purpose is to balance the objectives of an organization with people’s needs and expectations. It does this by building a trustworthy relationship with consumers. In other words, what is promised by the brand owner and what is expected by the brand’s audience become one and the same—It’s that simple and that complex.

brands are about feelings, not facts.
how your customers feel about your brand isn’t a casual question. It is the crucial question.

Eric D. Schulz is the co-director of strategic marketing and brand management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of Marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a general manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Going from $1 million in debt to the top of industry

2012-02-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

Made a million dollars by the time she was 25. Lost a million, and owed a million more, by the time she was 28. Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year.” Bought a car from a 16-year-old for $250 when the bank seized her car.

Jacque Butler, CEO and founder of MedQuest Solutions

I’m talking about Jacque Butler, the remarkable entrepreneur who was the most recent featured speaker of the Huntsman School’s “Lectures in Entrepreneurship” series. Butler, who founded MedQuest Solutions and was its CEO until last month, described her numerous entrepreneurial experiences. At times, things were a little rocky. Those times appear to be in the distant past, as her last few ventures have been home runs.

Butler started out in real estate. She worked with her father after she finished college, and she had great success at first. She said she made a $1 million by the time she was 25. Around this time, however, the economy took a turn for the worse, and Butler’s bank account followed suit.

“I didn’t know what I would lose first: my house or my car,” Butler said.

She decided to become a waitress to pay off her debts. Then she realized she needed a graduate degree to become more marketable. While she was attending school during the day and working during the night, she realized she needed someone to help with her six children. After a frustrating experience trying to find a nanny agency that could deal with her situation, she decided she could do it better: she started her own nanny agency. Within the first year, it became the largest nanny agency in the U.S.

When her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she said it was difficult to watch him go through the downward slide of the disease. That fueled her desire to start her next successful venture, MedQuest Solutions. The company specializes in bio identical hormone replacement therapy and provides physicians and patients with pharmaceutical services, lab work and supplement manufacturing.

Butler said entrepreneurship is in her blood. She said she didn’t think there were any other options when it came to picking a career. And it doesn’t sound like she will be getting out of the game any time soon. During the question and answer session at the end of her lecture, a student asked what she saw herself doing in 10 years.

“I will have started two or three more companies.”

- Connor Child

Developing a brand

2012-02-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

Many people frequently misuse the term “brand” by interchanging it with advertising, marketing, naming or a design. These improper applications have caused much confusion as to what branding is and how it works. As such, “brand” has become a bit of a buzzword. But, what does it really mean and how does it work?

First, let's clear up the confusion of brand strategy vs. marketing strategy vs. marketing tactics. Here is a simple definition:

A brand strategy defines the unique benefits your brand offers to the target audience. It spells out clearly and concisely what makes your product or service different, better and special in the competitive marketplace. It clearly defines what it is you want the consumer to think about your product (brand).

A marketing strategy has a defined business goal, i.e. increase sales; generate more newspaper stories in the local press; attract new customers. Each marketing strategy uses the brand strategy as the cornerstone in developing “what it will say” to the customers, local press or prospective customers. They will all be “singing from the same hymnal,” with a consistent brand benefit message.

Marketing tactics are the actions you take to execute the marketing strategy. It could include any number of things…advertising, Facebook postings and other social media, new promotional materials, mailers, flyers, etc.

In practice: A brand is an experience living at the intersection of promise and expectation. Here’s how it works. A company expresses its brand as a promise, both overt and implied. That promise lives in consumers’ hearts and minds as an expectation. When brand promise and consumers’ expectations reflect one another, the brand holds tremendous value for both parties.

Eric D. Schulz

Effective businesses view their brands as tools that allow their messaging to cut through the noise of an overcrowded marketplace. Consumers use brands as a method for navigating their way through the marketplace. Each brand distinguishes itself, allowing consumers to identify their preferred products and services from those they see as being less desirable. When brand meaning and relevance are clear, the brand will hold a stronger position in consumer’s minds and the more likely they are to choose it.

Branding is not about getting people to choose your offering over the competitions. It is the act of managing consumers’ expectations so as to condition your target audience to see your offering as the only answer to a specific need. Brands are about feelings, not facts. How your customers feel about your brand isn't just a casual question. It is the ONLY question.

In order to develop, cultivate and nurture your brand, there are definite actions and qualities on which you must focus.

You can't fake honesty. You must believe in your own brand. If you don't have faith in what you do or sell, you can't expect your customers to believe in you either.

Focus on that benefit(s) and your means of delivering it. Never lose sight of what it is that your business seeks to achieve for your customers.

Keep it simple. Find out what you can do well for your target audience and concentrate on doing it.

Seth Godin says, “In my experience, people get obsessed about tactical detail before they embrace a brand strategy... and as a result, when a tactic fails, they begin to question the brand strategy that they never really articulated in the first place.”

The next time you find yourself spending 8 hours on tactics and five minutes defining your strategy, you'll understand what's going on.

-Eric D. Schulz

Generous donation from Flying J helps us "go big"

2012-02-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

Ken Snyder

As you may have heard, we at the Huntsman School were recently the beneficiaries of a $1.75 million donation from Flying J Management Inc. Crystal Call Maggelet, Flying J’s President and CEO, is a great friend of ours and we are fortunate to have such generous donors.

Thanks to the gift, we will create the Flying J Career Development Center. The center will be an invaluable resource for students to develop relationships with hiring organizations. We haven’t determined where the final location of the center will be, but it will either be in the new building, or in renovated space in the Eccles building.

This gift represents a major step to closing the gap between what we have and what we need to “go big.”

- Ken Snyder

When will we be moving into Huntsman Hall?

2012-02-01T17:25:00.000-08:00

Ken Snyder

One of the questions I am often asked about our new building, Huntsman Hall, is, of course, when will it be done? We nailed some of those key dates down last week and I thought I would share them with you.

We plan to demolish Lund Hall in late August or early September of 2012. We plan to break ground for the new 117,000-square-foot building in September of 2012. Huntsman Hall will be substantially completed by June of 2014, and we plan to start moving into the building on August 1st of that same year in time for Fall 2014 semester classes.

- Ken Snyder

iFrogz founders talk of the cold, wet beginnings of their first company

2012-01-30T17:04:00.000-08:00

The road to entrepreneurial success might just go through a car wash in the cold of winter and the middle of the night.

Scott Huskinson speaks to students at various regional
campuses who were watching a video broadcast from Logan

That was one practical lesson offered up at the Lectures in Entrepreneurship series on Jan. 25. I knew that the people who came to hear Clay Broadbent and Scott Huskinson, the founders of iFrogz, were not going to get the standard how-to-succeed in business presentation. Dave Herrmann, a senior lecturer, introduced the two founders of iFrogz and told the students in the packed auditorium that the last time Scott visited his class on campus, he was voted the best speaker of the semester.

I’m sure those who came on that Wednesday evening weren’t disappointed. In fact, I’m know that two students probably found it one of the most rewarding lectures they ever attended. Scott opened his part of the presentation by saying he’d give $100 to the first woman and the first man who could show him a hole in their sock. Two startled students ended up with a crisp $100 bill in their hands.

After that introduction he had everyone’s attention including students who were watching from the regional campuses. He made sure they knew he could see them on the overhead screens by waving at them and waiting until they responded.

Clay Broadbent addresses the audience

I’ve interviewed Scott a few times and was impressed with Clay’s presentation, but what they said and the way they interacted with the students as individuals reinforced one key thing I’ve always admired about them. They treat people with respect. Here are some of the tips they shared:

• When your company does well, show your employees some appreciation for their contributions to your bottom line. While this can’t always be done, I know for a fact that Scott and Clay went far beyond normal expectations when they sold iFrogz for $105 million last year to ZAGG, a company that sells mobile device accessories. Scott told the students it was one of the most rewarding days of his life when, after they made the sale, they invited employees to one-on-one meetings so they could give them some unexpected bonus checks. They apply this principle when it comes to the companies in China they work with to manufacture their products by treating them as partners and insisting on paying them a fair amount for the work they do. This kind of philosophy breeds a sense of fierce loyalty.

• They wanted the students to understand that becoming a successful entrepreneur doesn’t come without sacrifices and long hours. Clay told of a stage early on when the first wristband company they founded in 2004, Reminderband, was taking off so fast that, in order to keep up with demand, they had to go out in temperatures of 15 degrees below zero, in the middle of the night, to a car wash to spray off and clean the bands they had received from China to prepare them so they could be customized. At one point the demand for the product was so high that they had to work 20 hours a day and sleep at the office because they were so overwhelmed with orders, Clay said.

• If you want to take advantage of opportunities, sometimes there is little time for market research. They did their homework but seemed to have a real bias for action and pattern of looking ahead and preparing for market changes. When sales at Reminderband started to slow they were already working on the idea that became iFrogz. That transition was facilitated by the fact that they had developed trusted business partners who could help them innovate and expand into a totally new market. (Clay still leads Reminderband. It was not part of the sale.)

It’s pretty difficult in a short blog posting to capture a remarkable success story like the one that Clay and Scott told. I would recommend, instead, that you see if for yourself. You’ll find yourself laughing at their stories and being impressed by their character. Actually, in Scott’s case you’ll discover that he actually is a character. It’s probably one of the best campus presentations on entrepreneurship that you’ll ever take in. See it yourself by clicking here.

- Steve Eaton

HERE IT IS!

2012-01-27T16:13:00.000-08:00

Last week, I promised to post an image of the building concept as soon as I could. I put off my blog post this week until today because I wanted to be able to show you this rendering as soon as we had shared it with our National Advisory Board. Well … here it is. Isn’t it amazing?

Check out this video to see more of what the building could look like:

- Ken Snyder

Go big or stay home

2012-01-24T18:37:00.000-08:00

I recently finished my undergraduate studies and am on the hunt for what my boss calls "a big boy job."

I found a blog from a year and a half ago that gives some good job seeking advice. One thing that threw me off was the advice to be professional and classy.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

Not that it was unexpected, but I was especially struck by how specific and all-encompassing their advice was. They said to "carry yourself with a sense of class and professionalism all the time, not just in an interview." You never know who you are going to meet waiting in line or at your favorite local café.

And I know people who have gotten jobs from conversations they started on airplanes or waiting in line at the movies. That is bold networking.

Another tip this same blog had was physically visiting the office of a company at which you have applied. You are following up, which is good. You are showing that you are proactive, which is good. And you are initiating a conversation and putting a face (and a personality) to a name, which is good.

Nobody is going to hand you a job on a silver platter, and just looking on job boards probably is not going to cut it in today's business world. You really have to leave your couch and dare mighty things.

-Paul Lewis Siddoway

Key Ragnar people discuss thriving business

2012-01-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

Finishing a Ragnar overnight relay race takes endurance, motivation and the ability to do whatever it takes to succeed. After hearing from some of the key people from Ragnar Events, it sounds like creating the company requires the exact same attributes.

Tanner Bell, co-creator of Ragnar Events, discusses his
company at the first Entrepreneurship Lecture Series

On Wednesday, Tanner Bell, Ken Jacquin and Chris Infurchia visited the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business as part of the Spring 2012 Entrepreneurship Lecture Series. The three of them discussed the success of Ragnar Events and offered suggestions and tips to the budding entrepreneurs in attendance. The Utah-based company puts on 14 overnight relay races across the U.S. in which teams of runners cover hundreds of miles. The first race drew 220 participants; there are now 60,000 people who run in Ragnar races each year.

Bell, who co-founded Ragnar Events with his friend shortly after graduating from Brigham Young University, said he had to do some unorthodox things to get some publicity for his fledgling company. On a drive home one evening, he was listening to a radio segment called “Speaking on Business” hosted by Zions Bank executive Fred Ball. During the segment, Ball would highlight a local business, and Bell felt a strong urge to have his business be featured on a future episode. Not knowing how to get ahold of Ball, he opened a phonebook and saw four people by the name of Fred Ball. He dialed the first listing, and to his surprise, he soon found himself talking to the bank executive and radio host. Two months later, Ball’s secretary called Bell and asked if he would like to be featured on an upcoming segment.

Bell said that is the kind of stuff you have to do to get noticed in your early days. He also talked about several other keys to Ragnar’s success, including their commitment to the brand loyalty to their racers and sponsors.

Jacquin, one of the founding partners of Dolphin Capital, said his private equity firm decided to invest in Ragnar for many reasons, but one reason in particular was because they “seemed like a lot of fun to work with.” He said Dolphin Capital invests in mid-market businesses with large growth potential, and his firm saw a lot of growth in Ragnar.

Infurchia is the current CEO of Ragnar Events. He talked about his admiration for the “pure passion and abject courage” or entrepreneurs like Bell.

“Entrepreneurs say, ‘this can work, and here’s why,’ and they’re willing to fail and fail and fail until they get it right,” Infurchia said.

Getting a business off the ground takes a lot of work, Infurchia said, but it does not stop there. For a business to have sustained success, entrepreneurs must surround themselves with talented people. Good entrepreneurs know where they need help and they know where they can find the right people.

A video of their presentation may be found here.

- Connor Child

Life currencies

2012-01-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

The art of creating a brand positioning is knowing precisely what it is to say about your product that makes it most appealing to the customer.

But before we can develop that articulation, we need to understand what it is that the consumer is seeking, and most importantly, we need to understand the criteria the consumer uses when making their purchase decision.

Understanding the concept of life currencies is the best place to begin the process of consumer insight. What are life currencies? They are the things besides money that affect purchase decisions. In almost every transaction, there is a combination of life currencies in play that affect the decision on whether or not to purchase something.

The twelve life currencies we as marketers can manipulate in purchase decisions are:

• Information
• Time
• Space
• Human Energy
• Expertise
• Fun
• Fear
• Frustration
• Convenience
• Love
• Quality
• Money

The only currency we ever talk about is money, but the reality is that every individual has this combination of currencies continually being evaluated in their subconscious that they measure when contemplating a purchase decision. The currency in your pocket is often of least concern.

Using Life Currencies

Here are some examples of how life currencies work. Have you every purchased a good or service because having that would save you a lot of time? Time therefore is one currency that you value and use as a consideration when making the purchase decision, along with money.

Eric D. Schulz

Have you ever walked away from buying something because you were frustrated standing in line or waiting on the phone, or the website was just too slow? Frustration or lack of convenience is the primary currency that makes that purchase (or non-purchase) decision.

Have you ever wanted a giant LCD HDTV, but haven’t bought it because you don’t have a place in your home to put it? Space (or lack of space), is the primary currency that sways the (non) purchase decision.

Step back for a moment and think about the purchases (and non-purchases) you’ve made in the past several days; I’ll bet that one of the other life currencies was the determining factor in the many of your purchases, though you were likely unaware of its influence.

When business schools teach marketing, they focus on the 4-P’s: Product, Placement, Promotion, and Price. When they talk about price, they only talk about money. That’s wrong. Smart marketers know that for most products, money is only one factor in the purchase decision, and it’s often a minor one at that.

- Eric D. Schulz

It's time to leave a once-in-a-generation legacy

2012-01-17T20:27:00.000-08:00

The progress we are making at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is creating the kind of opportunity that may come along only once in a lifetime. It’s been more than 41 years since the George S. Eccles Business Building was dedicated. We have money pledged from donors and appropriated by the legislature to build the new Huntsman Hall addition to the business building complex. We have enough money to build a 78,000-square-foot building. But as I have indicated in my blog entries the past few weeks, we know a 78,000-square-foot building will fall short of meeting the needs of our students.

Ken Snyder

To meet the needs of our students, we need to “go big.” We are moving forward with a 117,000-square-foot building. We need to raise about $10 million more to build Huntsman Hall to the size we now envision.

We believe this new building, when utilized along with the George S. Eccles Business Building, will meet the needs of our students for the foreseeable future. In fact, it could be another 40 years before our successors start the process of raising money for a new building all over again.

We are now talking with key supporters and friends, asking them to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to leave a legacy. Years from now, there will be satisfaction in being able to point to this new building and say you helped make it possible, not just because it will be a beautiful, impressive building, but because it will represent the many lives that have been influenced and will be influenced for the better because they has passed through Huntsman Hall.

In the next few weeks, we anticipate introducing an image and a video of what we are envisioning. Stay tuned.

- Ken Snyder

Tragedy avoided in Logan River

2012-01-12T20:05:00.000-08:00

As you may have heard, a heroic act was performed just minutes away from our campus. One of the rescuers was Blake Dursteler, a member of the Huntsman School’s National Advisory Board. Blake, along with the other rescuers, recently made an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, where they were reunited with the rescued family. The video can be watched below:

We are so thankful that Roger Andersen and the three young children are safe. We are also amazed at the courage of Blake, Chris, Bruce, Ben, Kristen, Buzzy, Phil, Morgan and Victor (Editor’s note: all names were taken from listening to Ellen’s introduction, so I apologize if any names are misspelled).

Thank you for your remarkable story!

Winning support in high places

2012-01-11T19:55:00.000-08:00

Last week, I mentioned we will try to “go big.” As a first step in that process, we needed to present our plans to people in high places. We first presented our plans to President Albrecht. He is always supportive of our students, and he approved our plans. We next presented our plans to the Utah State University Board of Trustees. All of them were supportive of our vision. They recognize our new plans will better meet the needs of our students for the next 15 years or more.

Ken Snyder

We are now aiming to raise funds to make our building 117,000-square-feet, instead of the 78,000-square-foot plan we can do with the original budget. That means we will need to raise an additional $10 million in the next few months.

This expansion of our vision was sparked by a National Advisory Board member who inspired us by telling us we should “go big, or go home.” We were persuaded to “go big” and we are gaining support as we move forward. We are fortunate to have committed leaders at USU who share our vision of what we can do to empower our students and raise the profile of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, and we look forward to training many more leaders just like them as we move onward.

- Ken Snyder

Get ready for the future

2012-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

Make a New Year’s resolution that will pay off in 2012 and beyond. A visit with a professional in the Career Acceleration Center can create dividends that will benefit you and your career for years to come.

Ron Godfrey

I have seen what can happen when a student proactively taps into the expertise that is available in the Career Acceleration Center. I work with four professionals who can draw from years of broad-based experience as seasoned executives to offer the type of targeted coaching that can give a graduate an edge in today’s competitive marketplace.

Time passes quickly and you will soon be immersed in the mad scramble for a competitive job. Give yourself an advantage by speaking with someone who has already experienced what lies in store for you. Many skills sets are offered by these business leaders. You can receive help with networking, interviewing skills, and résumés. More importantly, you can be assisted with personal development and direction, tailored to your individual needs. Please, make a resolution and develop a plan for the future.

- Ron Godfrey

Elton John and Marketing Pro's

2012-01-06T15:37:00.000-08:00

Imagine for a moment that you are at a friend's home for a party, and to your amazement, in walks Elton John. After some brief introductions, he meanders over to the piano, sits down and starts playing a medley of his hits – an impromptu private concert. He doesn’t sing. He just plays the piano. Classics like Your Song, Rocket Man, Tiny Dancer, Bennie & the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, and many, many more. You listen, absolutely amazed at the pureness of the sound coming from the instrument, the crispness of the notes, the flawless execution as he strokes the keys in just the right way, at just the right times, making the piano sing like an angels voice from heaven. You realize just what a unique and special talent Elton possesses in his ability at playing the piano and creating unique and memorable songs that stand the test of time.

Eric D. Schulz

Now, imagine this party in a very different way. Instead of Elton John taking to the keyboard, it instead is the hosts’ 3 year-old son. He sits down and starts banging the keys, creating nothing but noise and utter annoyance -- this coming from this very same instrument that in the hands of Elton was made to sing like an angel. It is the same instrument, in different hands, creating a complete opposite outcomes. Please, make him stop!

Effective marketing campaigns are the handiwork of skilled and trained marketing professionals, not unlike Elton John playing the piano. Created in the hands of a marketing pro, campaigns can be joyous and wondrous – they engage the customer, showcase products and services in relevant yet unexpected ways, and communicate how different, better, and special they are versus the competition. They delight and drive the customer to purchase their products.

The strategies and skills used to develop these marketing plans – created in just the right way, and executed at just the right times -- are learned through the training received from a skilled marketing teacher and mentor, then built upon by individual practice that can only be gained overtime and through experience.

Many business professionals and small business owners believe they possess the skills to execute their own marketing programs, despite having no formal marketing training or expertise. They underestimate the skills and knowledge required to plan and execute a meaningful and effective marketing plan. And, just like the 3 year-old on the piano, they end up making nothing but noise, annoying and potentially driving away potential customers, creating nothing of value and in fact, wasting both time and resources as well.

As we begin 2012, my hope is that business managers and small business owners will realize they need real marketing professionals driving their marketing ships, and that they will hire my students who have been trained by my guided hand to help them!

- Eric D. Schulz

Go big, or go home

2012-01-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

We have been very excited about moving forward with our plans to construct Huntsman Hall, but along with that progress we’ve had a nagging feeling that we could do better. We have the funds to construct a beautiful 85,000-square-feet building. Our projections, however, indicate that to really meet our anticipated needs for the next 15 years or so, we should be building a 120,000-square-foot building.

Ken Snyder

We were discussing this shortfall with one of our major donors who is also a member of our National Advisory Board. He told us that we should “go big, or go home.” He encouraged us to raise an additional $8 to 10 million so we create the space we need for our students. So, we have decided to try to do just that.

Does this mean that the construction of the building will be delayed while we come up with this additional cash? No. Our plan is to raise the extra money in the next six to seven months so that we’ll be able to stay on our original schedule.

Next week I’ll write about how we plan to do that but, in the meantime, those of you who might have $8 to 10 million available that you’d like to invest in our students, we invite you to step forward. The way we see it, this is truly the time to “Go big, or go home” and we need your help to do that.

- Ken Snyder

What is half of 8?

2012-01-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

While I have been searching for jobs and doing interviews, my current boss and I have talked about his job search experience and how he conducts interviews.

When I interviewed with him, he had me perform a sort of skills test for things I would be doing for him, and I am not talking about running over to Cafe Ibis and getting him coffee.

There was a question and answer part of the interview process, but it did not seem very scripted. It was more conversational.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

Come to find out, he once heard an interview question which asked the applicant what half of "8" was. I am sure that most people would say, "4." My boss said that those people would be summarily dismissed. A "correct" answer would be something more creative, like "o" or "3" (because you cut the symbol "8" in half) or "1+1+1+1" or "the square root of 16."

You get the idea. I recently read glassdoor.com's top 25 oddball interview questions of 2010, which just goes to show that a lot of companies ask questions like this.

And for some jobs, you do need people who can think outside the box. But my boss said more often than not, he just needs someone who can communicate and give him a straight answer.

And in grade school, I was taught to NOT think outside the box.

I remember in second grade, when we were learning the names of the days of the week, we had a spelling test on them. I wrote:

"Mon
Tues
Wednes
Thurs
Fri
Sat
Sun"

And then, in letters filling the page top to bottom, "day."

Obviously, I knew how to spell the names of the day of the week. And I recognized there was an easier way to do it. I was thinking out of the box.

But I got a zero. I guess creative thinking only goes so far.

Stephen R. Covey, the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair in Leadership, wrote a book about seeking the third alternative. I wrote a blog post about it once. In those situations, I think it is vital to think outside the box. Especially if it means I'll get paid to move to a tropical island.

Gratefully, none of the companies I have interviewed with so far have asked any of those off-the-wall questions. They are out there, but now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

Ignoring distractions

2011-12-29T18:29:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, I got an iPhone 4S. One of the most hyped-up features of this device is Siri, the voice recognizing and talking assistant. The phone also has a “reminder” app, so I can either manually type in reminders or tell Siri to take care of it for me. Siri has made it easier for me to keep and respond to a “to do” list.

According to Peter Bregman, a strategic advisor to CEOs and their leadership teams, there is one other list I should think about: an ignore list. Bregman wrote a post for the Harvard Business Review Blog Network titled, “Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning.” The two lists he talks about are your focus list and your ignore list.

Connor Child

I know it may seem silly to write a blog post about another blog post, but this is just what I needed to hear. As the new year approaches, many of us will make resolutions about what we will do in the coming year. My resolutions will be more about what I will stop doing in the coming year. For instance, do I really need to read the comments below a YouTube video? Odds are that I’m already not making productive use of my time by watching said video; what could I possibly get out of reading what ragtag57 has to say about it?

Bregman says the “ignore list” should contain distractions. What types of things are getting in your way? I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say for myself that there are several distractions that have limited my academic progress. With the internet and social media networks, the number of distractions out there is limitless. As I near the beginning of the final semester of my undergraduate career, I have made a commitment to eliminate or reduce the timewasting activities that have gotten in my way.

But not right now. I just got a cool new smartphone and I want to play with its lightsaber app for a little bit.

- Connor Child

Show, don't just tell

2011-12-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

I have been keeping my eye on sites like Forbes and Time for any tips on the search for what my wife calls "a big boy job."

Lately, I have noticed that a lot of sites post articles about words to strike from your resume or buzzwords to take off your LinkedIn profile.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

Reading these articles, they all seem to say the same basic thing: instead of using your LinkedIn profile, cover letter, or resume to try and convey your qualities, you should show people.

For example, if you are in marketing, you can (and should) have a portfolio. And I suggest a nice hard copy to show off, a decent one you can give away at interviews, and an online one you can share with everybody.

Obviously, you have to have to have words in your cover letter and resume, but it seems like there are some words that used to mean something, and now they have been overused and have lost what they used to mean.

In all my business correspondence, I try and use real language (not anything too flowery or academic) and whenever I have a potentially abstract term, like "experienced," I try to quantify. That, along with my portfolio, allows whoever is reading my resume to determine how experienced I am.

If pictures are worth a 1,000 words, then I would imagine making sure a potential employer sees my portfolio is worth striking a few words from my resume.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

We have a contractor!

2011-12-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

Ken Snyder

After a very close competition, our selection committee chose Spindler Construction to be the contractor on our new building. Spindler reportedly won based on bringing several ideas on how we can save money in the construction process. Their history of working on buildings on campus, where they have helped stretch the budget through their innovations, persuaded the committee that they are the right people to work with.

Spindler has built several buildings on campus, including the Early Childhood Education Building and Widtsoe Hall.

Spindler is a local company with headquarters in Logan, Utah. For more information, see their website at www.spindlercorp.com.

I’m looking forward to working with them.

- Ken Snyder

The Law of Diminishing Returns

2011-12-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

This week I read an article in the Harvard Business Review called “How to Accomplish More by Doing Less”. I was immediately drawn into this idea. Let’s face it, who doesn’t want to make more happen in the time that they are given? I was pleasantly surprised by what I learned.

The article begins by giving examples of two men named “Bill” and “Nick” who have equal skill, who work at the same office and at the same hours, coming in at 9 a.m. each day and leaving at 7 p.m.

Rob Goates

Bill is the typical worker. He doesn’t stop for the whole 10 hours, he’s always in meetings and, in order to save time, he even eats lunch at his desk. He counts his productivity based on the amount of hours worked. He is like many of the workers in today’s society.

Then there’s Nick. He works intensely for approximately 90 minutes at a time, and then proceeds to take a 15 minute break before resuming work. At 12:15, he goes out for lunch for 45 minutes, or works out in a nearby gym. At 3 pm, he closes his eyes at his desk and takes a rest. Sometimes it turns into a 15 or 20 minute nap. Finally, between 4:30 and 5, Nick takes a 15 minute walk outside.

While they both work hard while they are at work, Nick takes the opportunity to refuel and put more energy into his eight hours of work than Bill has in his 10. Studies show that people who work like Nick have faster reaction time and make fewer mistakes as they are more alert. They also have more energy for other aspects of their lives outside of work, such as family and hobbies. They understand that they work to live, not live to work.

People around the world believe that Americans are working themselves to death. We need to discover the importance of smarter, not harder and as we do that, we will begin to realize that it is just as important to work hard as it is to unwind and recover.

- Rob Goates

The Final Four

2011-12-14T16:39:00.000-08:00

The college basketball season may have just begun, but the Huntsman School is already focused on a Final Four of its own. After seven construction companies submitted bids to build our new building, the selection committee narrowed the field down to four.

Ken Snyder

The process may not have involved three-pointers at the buzzer or Cinderella stories, but a great deal of thought and effort went into making the selections. Each of the bids were given a score in four criteria: past performance rating, strength of contractor’s team, project management approach and experience with working in a campus environment. The four contractors with the highest combined score were added to the short list.

For a detailed breakdown of the scoring, click on the pdf titled "Short Listing" on this link. The following four firms made the short list:

• Layton Construction
• Jacobsen Construction
• Gramoll Construction
• Spindler Construction

Fortunately, we didn’t have to look at strength-of-schedule or tinker with a complex formula like RPI. But these four firms achieved the highest combined scores, and they will present and interview this Wednesday.

No word yet on whether or not Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg will be there to announce the proceedings.

- Ken Snyder

The day the NBA died

2011-12-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

Born: June 6, 1946
Died: December 8, 2011

The National Basketball Association passed away under duress as a result of strangulation from 25 of the 30 league team owners on Thursday, December 8, 2011. The hands on the throat that applied most of the pressure and led to loss of blood to the brain resulting in death belonged to Cleveland Cavalier’s CEO Dan Gilbert.

The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders are hard at work today laying the groundwork for actions against the perpetrators.

Some would characterize this as a crime of passion. The chain of events leading to death were precipitated by a proposed three-team trade that would have sent Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets to the Los Angeles Lakers, and an assortment of other players and draft picks moving to New Orleans and Houston in order to complete the deal. All-Star Pau Gasol and NBA Dream-Teamer Lamar Odom would have moved from the Lakers to the Rockets and Hornets, respectively, as part of the deal.

Eric D. Schulz

Upon word leaking of the impending trade, several small-market owners- led by Gilbert – called the league office, and stated that the proposed trade was a “travesty” and urged NBA Commissioner David Stern to put the deal to a vote of the “29 owners of the Hornets” (the team is owned by the league, therefore the other 29 NBA teams all “own” an equal percentage of the franchise). Other small-market owners rallied behind Gilbert, afraid that the “superstar” team formations that had begun in Miami and New York – and ostensibly would be halted by the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was sold to the owners as a move towards a more level playing field among teams – was still business-as-usual. Gilbert mused that if the deal were approved, the NBA would become “five teams, and 25 others all named the Washington Generals”. For those of you unfamiliar with the Washington Generals, it is the long-time opponent of the world famous Harlem Globetrotters. The Generals have only beaten the Globies six times in 49 years, losing over 13,000 games since their last win which came on January 5, 1971.

With his brain both oxygen deprived and with reduced blood flow, commissioner David Stern killed the trade and his league with an unprecedented and never-before-used veto power, citing “basketball reasons” as the rationale for nixing the deal. Never before has the league interfered in trades, as long as they had met the required financial criteria (i.e. salary matching).

Pre-meditated murder with extenuating circumstances are the charges being prepared for filing. Temporary insanity is contemplated as a primary defense motion for Commissioner Stern and the League office.

Services are pending.

Eric D. Schulz is the co-director of strategic marketing and brand management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of Marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a general manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Political website in top 20 of Intel competition

2011-12-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

Editor's note: A group composed of students, alumni and faculty from the Huntsman School recently launched a political website called Politicit. A unique aspect of the website is the "It" score that it assigns to each candidate. The score is calculated through a software program that utilizes a neural network to calculate how people feel about candidates today.

A handful of Huntsman students, alumni and a professor (the creators of PoliticIt) have made it to the semi-final top-20 round of entrepreneurs in the Intel Innovators Competition! The top five teams from this round will have a chance to win $100,000! Please help our Huntsman family out by doing the following (The person who invests the most points will be a judge for the next round):

1. Click this link: https://apps.facebook.com/intelinnovators/ (You must be logged in to Facebook to participate.)
2. Let Intel Innovators have access to you (safe app that doesn't post any material to your wall unless you ask it to).
3. "Like" it to get your first intel points in the right upper corner.
4. Once you have the first 10,500 points click on the "i" tab.
5. Click on "Pitch Room" tab.
6. Find "Politicit" among the 20 entries by mousing over them to see the names.
7. Click "INVEST"
8. Type "10500" (the points you just earned) into the box and click "INVEST".
9. If you want a chance to earn more points and a better chance for PoliticIt to win, press play on 10 videos. You don't have to watch them all! Just press the play button and you'll see points added for each one to your pool. Repeat the invest step with these new points.
10. You CAN repeat these steps EVERY DAY until Dec. 19, and each day you invest Intel points, you get another chance to win. The top prize will go to the entrepreneur team with the most points.

Progress Hastens

2011-12-06T16:14:00.000-08:00

So many things are happening with our building plans that it is difficult for me to report on just one thing each week. This past week, three big things happened. Let me give a brief report of each:

Ken Snyder

First, we are very close to locking down what goes in the building. The architects created a proposal as to where everything will go in the new building. It seems like it will work very well. We made a few changes to their proposals, but we generally really liked what they proposed. Most of the space in the new building will be classrooms. Our two event rooms will have the prime views of the south end of the valley. There will be two main entrances – one at the northwest corner of the complex, and the other at the southwest corner. Both entryways will be two-stories. The café will be near the south entryway.

Second, we showed our plans to President Albrecht. He seemed to like the plan as much as we do. He especially liked the additional new classrooms the project would bring to the campus. The shortage of classrooms on campus is a bigger and bigger problem as enrollments have grown. The classrooms in our building will help bring some needed relief. He also seemed to like the iconic look of the new building.

Third, construction contractor proposals were due last Thursday. Seven firms submitted proposals. A selection committee is now narrowing down the list to the top three or four. One contractor will be selected to work with us and the architectural firm as we work through the process of creating the design documents for the building.

It’s exciting to see this progress. It will be a great building!

- Ken Snyder

Some important skills can't be quantified with a letter grade

2011-12-05T16:59:00.000-08:00

I recently read a blog which was sparked by a Twitter conversation about the importance of GPA's in the "real" world.

The blog basically said that while taking classes seriously, working hard and learning are important, you can only be graded on certain aspects of your education.

Once I started studying things that would need to last me for the rest of my life in a vocation (I'm sorry, but the role of the plow in the settlement of Nebraska just doesn't figure into my plans for the future), I started working harder than when I was just doing school work.

Sometimes it is still hard for me to keep that focus in mind, but at least I don't have any more worksheets.

Through my college career, I have learned more than just facts and formulas. I've learned other things that are more abstract, and therefore harder to give a grade to.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

For example, personal skills or social skills.

Whenever I need to do a new task, it really helps to see someone else do it. I play music, and whenever I want to learn something new, the easiest way for me to do that is to see someone else do it; I can see how their hands move.

Teachers give students assignments so the student can not only learn the material, but also so they can learn how they learn best. Good teachers will teach using different methods and give assignments requiring different skill sets. The grades given will help students learn what works and what doesn't, but no kind of teacher can really grade on whether somebody knows their learning style.

Being married, working two jobs, going to school full time and finding time for myself has taught me prioritization and time management. That's something else I doubt I could be graded on. Sometimes you have to sharpen that proverbial saw to push through and get work done. Sometimes you have to do a rush job on a project and you have to know what other things you can or can't procrastinate.

And you have to know how to be a big boy and take accountability for your decisions. Gratefully, I'm pretty sure I have received better grades based on my being honest with my professors.

One of the biggest shortcomings I run into is everyone being so worried about hurting other people's feelings. If I have done a botched job on something, I want to know about it so I can make it better. I don't need you to tell me two good things I did first. I do appreciate "positive" feedback, but only when it's honest. (Being able to tell if it's honest is another un-gradable thing I've learned in college.) And really, if it makes me and my work better, isn't it all positive?

I don't want to say that GPA's aren't important (graduate school, anyone?), but there are other things that are important that can’t be given a concrete grade quite as easily.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

The Effect of the New CBA on the Utah Jazz & Small Market Teams

2011-12-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

Did the Jazz and small market teams get any “wins” in the deal?

Yes. The new deal includes an increasingly painful luxury tax for teams that habitually stray into taxpayer territory, which should keep the Lakers and Celtics of the world from going significantly over the luxury tax line (as the Lakers, Dallas, Celtics, Bulls and several others do nearly every season). This should – at some point in the future – begin to level the salary playing field between the big-market, high revenue teams and the smaller market teams. However, the new luxury tax doesn’t begin to kick in until the 2013-14 season, so until then, it’s business as usual. It will be five years before the real effects of the new, steeper taxes manifest themselves.

Eric D. Schulz

An immediate win the Jazz have available to them is the new “amnesty” clause, which allows each team to waive one player prior to any season and have 100% of that players salary removed from their team salary for cap and tax purposes. This new clause will allow teams to dump players that they signed to big contracts and then had buyer’s remorse – as would have been the case with Andrei Kirilenko and his $17 million dollar annual contract the past couple of seasons. The team still has to pay anyone they dump (unless he’s picked up by another team, in which case they have to pay a portion of the contract instead of all of it). On the Jazz radar for using the amnesty clause this season is Mehmut Okur and his $11 million salary. If somebody shows up to camp way-out-of-shape, they also could be on the radar.

Will the new deal allow small market teams to compete for the NBA championship more effectively?

No. The big market teams will continue to be the only ones you’ll see hoisting trophies at the end of the year. The new deal does nothing to address the “Miami Effect”, with players leveraging their way to the big markets to play with their All-Star buddies. Before this year is out, you will see Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, and Pau Gasol as the “big three” in LA; Amare Stoudamire, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul headlining the Knicks; Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer and Tim Duncan on the Bulls; Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams, and Brook Lopez headlining the Mavericks; and of course, LeBron, D-Wade and Bosh in Miami. Nothing has changed. The haves will continue to have. The smaller market teams will continue to be have-nots and be in continual rebuilding mode.

Will the Jazz have an easier time signing big-name free agents under the new deal?

No. Utah is not a destination where players want to come and form their “big-three’s”. Once players get to Utah they like it, but it is not a preferred destination, and any free agent player that’s top-tier has multiple options from which to choose. Major markets, with big opportunities for incremental cash from personal sponsorships and endorsements -- along with nice weather and beaches -- win every time.

Will the Jazz be able to make a profit under the new deal?

Only if they keep their player salaries at or near the salary cap – in the $50 - $55 million dollar range. As it stands today, the 2011-12 roster is at about $59 million, and they have to sign at least two more players.

Will the new CBA keep owners from handing out outrageous contracts?

No. In fact, they can give out MORE outrageous deals. The maximum that any single player can make under the old CBA was 25% of the salary cap. Under the new deal, a max contract can be up to 30% of the cap.

The free agent signing period starts next Wednesday, and it will be interesting to see the feeding frenzy. The New Orleans Hornets only have five players under contract. Most teams need to add two-to-four players. It will be a crazy week next week!

- Eric D. Schulz

Eric D. Schulz is the co-director of strategic marketing and brand management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as vice-president of marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a General Manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Work on the new building will require constructive input

2011-11-30T15:48:00.000-08:00

We recently met with the contractors who would like to build Huntsman Hall. We plan to follow an approach that is commonly used on the Utah State University campus and throughout the state when new buildings are constructed. It is called the Construction Management General Contractor process. This is a state-approved approach that allows our contractor to work with the architects as the building is designed to help identify ways we can save money.

Ken Snyder

Proposals, including a cost proposal, management plan, references and statements of qualifications, must be submitted by 12:00 noon on Thursday, December 1, 2011. You can view the bid requirements on the DFCM website.

After we get these proposals, we will narrow the field of prospects down to three to six companies and select the final firm by the end of the year.

We will, of course, be looking at each firm’s track record. Companies that have already delivered impressive results and constructed remarkable buildings will have a competitive advantage. We know some of the top firms in the state want to be a part of this project. Once the design work is done, we will determine the final construction cost of the project.

This is an exciting time. We have a new design concept and we are selecting our contractor. I can almost hear the sounds of construction underway already.

- Ken Snyder

Fill your wallet and feed the hungry!

2011-11-29T18:55:00.000-08:00

Wouldn’t you like your end-of-the-year holiday card to serve a better purpose than to be temporarily magneted to a fridge alongside a dozen others?

This holiday season, the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University is offering people the chance to donate to a local charity and win as much as $500 in the Huntsman Holiday Card Contest.

The contest will be held on the Huntsman School’s Facebook page. Contestants will submit their best holiday cards to the page, and for the first 300 votes, the School will donate $0.50 to the Cache Community Food Pantry. The contestant(s) who submits the entry with the most likes will win $500. Second prize will win $200 and third prize will win $100. Entries are to be submitted by Dec. 4 at midnight, and voting will go from Dec. 5 to Dec. 9.

To summarize:

The contest will be held on the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Facebook page
For the first 300 votes on all contest entries, the Huntsman School will donate $0.50 to the Cache Community Food Pantry
Entries are to be submitted by Dec. 4 at midnight, and voting goes from Dec. 5 to Dec. 9
1st prize: $500 2nd prize: $200 3rd prize: $100

For more details, please visit the Huntsman School's Facebook page.

The right way to use social media: timely, relevant, actionable

2011-11-28T17:10:00.000-08:00

A new study came out this past week that said 56 percent of chief marketing officers at companies who believe they are "advanced" in the use of social media admit they still don't know how to utilize social media effectively as a marketing tool. Scary. I've been giving this a lot of thought recently and have come to the conclusion that there really is a simple rule for effectively using social media and it's this -- your messages must be TIMELY, RELEVANT, and ACTIONABLE. If they don't meet at least two of the three criteria, don't do it!

Eric D. Schulz

It seems that many companies have invested in having people dedicated to social media, and therefore figure that if they've got this person, they better be posting on Facebook and Twitter 17 times a day! And therein lies the problem. If you are doing this, you’re spamming. Grit your teeth, and hold yourself back. Look at every message -- is it TIMELY, RELEVANT, and ACTIONABLE?

Social media is great for giving things away, but most companies are having a hard time figuring out how to generate sales. There are certain industries that are perfectly positioned to effectively use social media -- restaurants, fast food chains, retail stores and movie theatres. Need to stimulate purchases? Need some customers for dinner tonight? Tweet and post a "today only" special. Timely, Relevant, Actionable. Sports teams can use social media effectively to disseminate information and special offers. TV/Radio stations absolutely can use social media to drive consumers. Watch this show for a chance to win X. Listen at 4 p.m. to win Y. A local TV station here in Utah in fact has used social media so effectively to drive it’s 10 p.m. newscast that it was able to rise from a perennial #2 position to #1 in the market and continues to build their ratings/share advantage on the back of their effective use of social media tied to a "watch and win" contest nightly within their newscast.

Consumer product companies have a problem, however -- what can you say about Tide detergent that's timely, relevant and actionable? Probably not much. So, as my momma always said, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Save your breath. The same study I referenced also asked consumers how often they wanted to hear marketing messages from companies they "liked" -- the answer? Most only wanted to hear from them once a month or less. A smaller portion said once a week was OK -- none said "everyday" -- let alone 17 times a day!

Social media CAN be a powerful marketing tool if you use it correctly. Unfortunately, most companies are just using it for spamming out useless information. If what you have to say isn't timely, relevant and actionable, stop doing it.

- Eric D. Schulz

Eric D. Schulz is the co-director of strategic marketing and brand management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent over 20 years in consumer product marketing with Procter & Gamble, The Walt Disney Company, and The Coca-Cola Company. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

We hope you have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving break. We look forward to seeing you next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A room full of people are smitten by a design

2011-11-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

I promised you last week that I’d give you a peek at a new design concept that changed the way we have been envisioning what Huntsman Hall might look like. Hey, you went ahead and looked at the picture already, didn’t you?

Well, what do you think? If you were like those of us who were presented with this preliminary design concept last week, you liked it immediately. Of course, we got to see a three-dimensional model but this image should give you a sense for the unusual, innovative design that we fell in love with. We unanimously voted to go in this direction. We were smitten by this concept.

The new building, Huntsman Hall, as proposed, would be a functional, iconic building that would integrate well with the George S. Eccles Business Building. The first and second floors, which would be mainly classrooms and student meeting rooms, would offer great views of Cache Valley. The third floor will be mainly office space.

The sweeping design will take up where Lund Hall now sits and will extend into the construction staging area on the west side of the business building, and will wrap around the east side of the building to near Moen Hall.

We think it is a phenomenal concept that will look just plain cool. This initial concept includes two large two-story entry ways – one from the side of building that faces Route 89, and one on the northwest side of the building that will offer access to both the George S. Eccles Business Building and Huntsman Hall. It will connect the old to the new buildings in two places and create a nice open courtyard area, which will be sheltered from the wind, between the two buildings.

This is just a preliminary design concept, so the design may change as we work out details. I will share with you more images as the architectural renderings begin to take shape. But isn’t it cool?

- Ken Snyder

Graduating class with brighter outlook

2011-11-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

Good news. According to U.S. News and World Report, the class of 2011 has a brighter job outlook than previous years. And salary offers are on the rise in addition to job offers.

That may be the case, but it's still not easy. I read a blog with some tips on what to do between graduation and that first big-boy job.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

The main point I got was essentially "pretend like you have a job." Have a regular schedule, set goals, and spend at least 40 hours a week working toward them. If you have a job, great. If you have time left, spend it looking for a job. If you still have more time left, be working on something else that will help. If you're into marketing, blog about marketing fails (like putting an ad for 5th and 6th graders' ski passes in a college newspaper) and marketing successes you've seen. If nothing else, it shows you are keeping up with your job competition and critically thinking others' marketing strategies. Companies like critical thinkers.

And then be patient and don't stress out.

I think that's good advice for anyone.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

The best and worst thing about the internet

2011-11-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, it’s best to just keep some thoughts to yourself.

Connor Child

Arguably the best and worst thing about the internet is that it gives just about everyone a voice. Once upon a time all you could do was rant about the Raiders’ offense to three of your friends – now, you can get on a message board and say something deeply poignant like “CARSON PALMER SUCKS!!!” and get 15 responses in an hour. The upside is increased feedback, efficient communication and instant responses. The downside is that a phrase like “CARSON PALMER SUCKS!!!” is Shakespearian compared to 90 percent of the drivel you will come across on any open internet forum.

As I said earlier, some thoughts are better off left unsaid. This American Life recently reran one of my all-time favorite episodes, “Right to Remain Silent.” The first segment of the program focuses on Joe Lipari, a man who became infuriated with the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City and made his anger abundantly clear in a Facebook post later that day. After watching the movie Fight Club, he posted a paraphrased quote from the movie that said, among other things, that he might “walk into an Apple store on Fifth Avenue with an Armalite AR-10 gas powered semi-automatic weapon and pump round after round into one of those smug, fruity little concierges."

One of his Facebook friends saw the post and reported him to the police, and it wasn’t long before he was visited by the police and charged with two felonies. He has spent the last few years in and out of courts fighting the charges. Although the ordeal appears to be over (a judge dismissed the charges in February), he definitely paid a price.

Lipari was obviously being sarcastic. But sarcasm doesn’t come through on the web quite like it does in person. Additionally, it’s probably a good idea to avoid any sort of references to pumping rounds of ammunition into people.

Extreme cases like Lipari’s are the exception and not the rule. The First Amendment is thriving in today’s era of social media, according to an editorial in the Dallas Morning News. In 2006, 45 percent of students surveyed said the First Amendment guaranteed too many rights. That number dropped to 23 percent in the 2011 survey. The increase in use of social media has also led to increased tolerance of opposing views. A group called the Knight Foundation “found a link between social media and tolerance of unpopular opinions; daily users were the most tolerant and infrequent users the least.”

Let’s just hope these people eventually come up with something cleverer than “CARSON PALMER SUCKS!!!”

- Connor Child

Huntsman Hall - What's in and what's out

2011-11-17T15:20:00.000-08:00

After brainstorming, prioritizing and more prioritizing, we’ve made some decisions about what we want to go into Huntsman Hall, our new 85,000-square-foot building. Here is what we are planning for now:

Ken Snyder

• There will be 15 to 20 study rooms for meetings and student group projects.

• We are planning on ten new classrooms in the building.

• There will be a nice student lounge.

• We plan to accommodate our students with a café.

• We will have a “resource library” with a quiet study area.

• There will be two rooms for meetings and VIP receptions. One will be larger than the O.C. Tanner lounge on the ninth floor in our current building, and the other will be an executive board room for 25-30 people.

• We will convert the classrooms that are sometimes called “the caves” in rooms 317 and 319 in the Eccles Building into office space, freeing up more room in the new building for new, state-of-the-art classrooms.

• Most of our faculty offices will remain in the Eccles Business Building. We will probably need to move one department of faculty offices to the new building.

• The Orson A. Christensen Auditorium, Room 215 in our business building now, will remain our largest classroom.

The architects also proposed a really cool idea for what the building might look like, but I’m going to save that information for next week. Here’s a teaser, however. It’s a unique design unlike anything we have discussed or envisioned before. Stay tuned for more information next week.

- Ken Snyder

NBA players should form their own league

2011-11-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

Memo to: All NBA Players (Past & Present)

From: Eric Schulz

Subject: Game Plan for Starting Your OWN League

Congratulations on turning down the latest proposal from the owners. Bold move. Now, here’s something to think about. How about thumbing your nose at the NBA and its owners, and start up your own league – the UBL (Unified Basketball League)?

When the NBA was formed decades ago, it needed rich people to make it work. But it doesn’t anymore. YOU are all rich people. Screw them. They locked YOU out. You don’t need “owners” anyway. It feels so aristocratic. They want a nuclear option? Well here it is. Blow up their entire system and put them all out of business. You want to strike fear in their eyes – this is it. Starting a players-owned league isn’t that hard, and in fact, you can do it much cheaper and streamlined than they can. And if YOU own the league, YOU keep ALL the revenues, not just half. So, here’s your game plan.

Eric D. Schulz

1) Form A League Where All Teams Are 100% League Owned. This gets rid of “the man” (David Stern, league lawyers, and all the “owners") and you are in complete control. Make your own TV / media deals. Sell your own sponsorships. Sell your own tickets. Instead of having 30 different teams operated by 30 different groups all doing 30 different things, you’ll have ONE centralized system for everything managed at the league level. Each city would need a small staff, but nowhere near the size they are now. And the economies of scale you’d have from one ticketing system, one licensing / sponsorship group, one building leasing group, and one media division would slice out a lot of the costs of doing business that currently exist, and give you great negotiating leverage.

2) Pay Each Of Yourselves A Base Salary + Incentives + Cash Shares That Are Divvied Up At The End Of Each Season. There would be three pay components for every player:

a. Set up your league so that everyone on every team makes the same amount of base salary during the regular season.

b. But here’s the twist --everyone on each team earns a $50,000 bonus for each regular season victory, and a $250,000 bonus for each post-season victory. So, you get paid to play, but you get paid more to win!

c. At the end of the season, you divide the remaining league revenues amongst yourselves, based on a statistical model with the players who performed the best and put butts in the seats (Kobe, Dirk, Kevin, Dwight, LeBron, et al) getting more.

So how would this play out? Assume every player in the league is paid a base salary of $2 million. A team that wins 50 regular season games (earning an additional $50,000 per win) would earn bonuses of another $2.5 million each.

Then, for every playoff win, each player on winning teams makes a $250,000 bonus. With 16 post-season victories needed to win the championship, that’s another $4 million for each player on the championship team. Add it all up, and every player on the championship team would earn a total of $8.5 million as their salary, plus a share of the remaining league revenue splits at the end of the season based on the statistical model. Oh, and by the way, with this system, you can all stop paying your agents 3-5 percent of your salaries. No agents needed!

3) Level The Playing Field Every Season For Every Team. We all know that none of you like living in places like Utah or Minnesota during the winter. Miami and LA are the places to be. We get that. So here’s another twist. Let’s make our league work like fantasy sports. Every year, we redraft new teams, done by random draw (to keep teams from trying to tank it at the end of the season). So, the NBA Draft becomes a draft of EVERY PLAYER, not just rookies. Twelve rounds. Pick your your 12 players for this season. So, if the first ping-pong ball goes to Memphis – you want LeBron, OK he’s yours. Second pick to Dallas – you want Kevin Durant, he’s yours. Third pick to Phoenix – Kobe it is. And so on. This would eliminate the current systems problem of having all the top talent purchased by over-cap spending large-market teams, and spread the best players all over the league, making it more competitive, and giving every team the chance to compete for a championship every year. It also gives every team a chance to have LeBron, or Dirk, or Kobe, Kevin, Dwight, D-Wade, D-Will and others play in their city for at least one season of their career. What would this do to league licensing revenues? Think about it. Now I need to buy a new jersey for my team’s favorite player EVERY year, at $125 retail! And for you players, if you are drafted by Minnesota or Utah, it’s not a death sentence – you’re only stuck there for one season, then can get redrafted by somebody else!

That’s it – a pretty simple operating model that would raise the boat for all of you and stick it to the man. So let me know when you want me to get going on this for you. We should be able to have the UBL up and running by next season. I’ll be your first league commissioner – and we’ll put headquarters here in Logan, Utah to keep down costs!

- Eric D. Schulz

Eric D. Schulz is the Co-Director of Strategic Marketing and Brand Management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of Marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a General Manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Students invest real money in finance course

2011-11-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

Fred Dickson, the Chief Investment Strategist from DA Davidson, spoke at USU tonight. He emphasized the importance of gaining experience in the field before you graduate from college. In fact, one of the big reasons for his visit was to reward the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business as a result of investments by a group of students.

Students in Paul Fjeldsted’s Investing Practicum class have a unique opportunity to invest real money. DA Davidson donated $50,000 for this purpose. When the investments work out, DA Davidson cuts a check to the school. Tonight, Mr. Dickson presented the school with a check for $1,500. Before presenting the check, Mr. Dickson praised the efforts of the school in promoting real-life involvement.

It never hurts to ask

2011-11-14T20:55:00.000-08:00

Recently, I wrote a blog post about an article by Jeff Haden, a blogger for CBS. After reading the article, I was left with a question: "What can I do to get a business to notice me in the sea of other applicants?"

I wrote him and asked the same question. He wrote an article, posted it, and sent me a link.

I can't say he did this just because I asked, but one thing I've learned in life is that it never hurts to write people letters. You often get something for your trouble.

So what did he have to say?

First, determine who you want to work for. Not just what industry, but narrow it down to specific businesses. Then get to know the company and think about what you can offer immediately, then tell them. One of my professors already suggested this to me as a potential job search option, but didn't go quite so far as to have a show-and-tell presentation ready.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

Another thing Haden said that I really liked was, "Don't be afraid to take charge of the interview." Obviously, it's not an ideal thing in every job interview situation. And you should always go into the interview with questions about the company that show you've done some research into what they do, but I would imagine the interviewer would get bored asking the same questions. Engaging in a conversation would probably be nice for them, too.

Haden also gave advice for the people on the other side of the interview. Mainly, employees should show they are willing to work for the company, not just fulfill their job description.

One thing Haden said reminded me of the account of Sir Ernest Shackleton, an Antarctic explorer. If you haven't read the story of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, you need to. At least check out the Wikipedia page. When I think of leadership, I turn to Shackleton first.

When he was outfitting his expedition to the South Pole in 1914, he got more than 5,000 applications for 28 spots. The semi-finalists for the positions were chosen based on skill. The men who ended up going on the expedition were chosen based on personality and how personable they were. Shackleton knew they would be in close quarters for long periods of time. Besides himself, only two of his men had previous experience in the Antarctic.

Haden said it may be more important to hire someone with a little personality that can learn the job than someone who would be a great employee, but a horrible co-worker.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

"Big Four" CEO, USU graduate to speak on Wednesday

2011-11-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

James Quigley

This Wednesday, we will have the opportunity to hear from one of our most distinguished alumni. James Quigley, who graduated from USU in 1974 with a BS in accounting, will speak at a Dean's Convocation on Nov. 16.

Most people have heard people talk about the "Big Four" accounting firms. Well, Mr. Quigley is the global CEO of one of them - Deloitte Touche. He has clearly built a career around the fundamental principles of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. Students who take the time out of their day to hear Mr. Quigley will undoubtedly walk away with a better understanding of how to succeed in the business world.

Doug Robinson of the Deseret News recently wrote an article about Mr. Quigley. Here is how the article begins:

Jim Quigley is an oddity in the corporate world of high finance. His peers tend to be graduates of leafy old Ivy League schools – Wharton, Yale, Harvard, et al. Then there's Quigley. He grew up in a town of 400 in southern Utah. Graduated with a class of 92. Earned a B.S. degree from – ahem – a state school. And that advanced degree? Didn't get one.

"Not exactly the credentials you have to have to be CEO of a large company," he likes to say.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Penn State now "Penance" State

2011-11-10T15:29:00.000-08:00

A brand is a living, breathing thing – built over time. Brands, like people, have good days and bad days. Unfortunately, as the stunning revelations coming out of Penn State this week demonstrate, the power of a brand that took years and even decades to build can be destroyed in a matter of days.

Penn State and Joe Paterno are the definition of big-time college football. The image of Paterno – a football professor with a tie, thick glasses and Nike coaching shoes - has stalked the sidelines in Happy Valley since 1950. The success of the football program has driven the reputation of the university for decades. The Nittany Lions won national championships in 1982 and 1986.

Eric D. Schulz

Just how powerful is Joe Paterno? In 2004 the university president demanded his resignation. Paterno ignored him and kept on coaching. He and his wife Sue have donated over $4 million to the university. The school library bears his name, as does an ice cream flavor at the campus creamery.

In the past three days, the reputation and brand of both the school and Paterno have been destroyed as quickly and completely as New York’s Twin Towers. In case you haven’t followed the news, a former defensive coordinator under Paterno, Jerry Sandusky, has been accused of sexually assaulting young boys over a 15-year period. In 2002, a graduate assistant witnessed a sexual assault by Sandusky on a 10-year old boy inside the football locker room showers and reported it to Paterno. Paterno in turn told his superior, school athletic director Tim Curley, who took it to the school’s senior vice president for finance and business, Gary Schultz (no relation to me, thank heaven).

All three decided that protecting the power and prestige of the brands of Penn State and Joe Paterno were more important than doing the right thing. They swept the information under the table and never reported it to police. Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report to authorities what they knew in a Grand Jury investigation, but Paterno has not been charged (yet).

Regardless, the brand reputations of Penn State and Joe Paterno have lost their luster. The school will need to do some serious damage control. Their plight is similar to that which the Miss America pageant faced back in 1984 when nude photos – pics that had been taken back in 1982 -- surfaced of then Miss America Vanessa Williams (yes, THAT Vanessa Williams – the singer and actress, most recently seen on “Ugly Betty”.) The pageant had brushed with scandal before, and responded in 1985 by crowning the most squeaky – clean contestant they could find, Utah’s Sharlene Hawkes.

Penn State will need to sweep out their entire athletic department leadership, as well as their football coaching staff, and start over with a coach and new athletic director above reproach, never tainted or even hinted at by scandal or NCAA violation. If they do – and if the football team excels – they will be able to regain their luster quickly. Winning fixes everything in sports (unfortunately sometimes – as in Kobe Bryant / Ben Rothlesberger / Michael Vick cases). For Joe Pa however, there will be no redemption. The man who spent over 60 years building his reputation will need to slink off into retirement and stay away from Penn State forever. It's a shame, but when he walks away from his resignation press conference, that will be the last we will ever see of the winningest coach in football history.

The moral of this story is something all brands should take note of. No matter how big or powerful a brand you have stewardship over, morality trumps all. Do not try to “protect the brand” by actively doing, or ignoring, immoral acts. Don’t hide negative test results from the FDA or other government agencies in place to protect the public. Don’t – as auto companies are famous for doing – have “statistical” acceptability of product failures. A death due to your product is not acceptable under any circumstance.

When I was at Coke, I was standing alongside the Chief Marketing Officer, Sergio Zyman one day, when an international Coke brand manager approached him and started explaining the idea she had for a Coke brand consumer promotion in her country. His reply was the height of brand arrogance. He said “Let me ask you this. Do you think you have within your power the ability to destroy brand Coca-Cola?” “Of course not”, she replies. “Then do whatever you want”, he said.

Unfortunately, as was the case at Penn State, too many leaders think that way.

- Eric D. Schulz

Eric D. Schulz is the co-director of strategic marketing and brand management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as vice president of marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a General Manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Apps, apps, and more apps

2011-11-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

Apparently, one screen isn’t enough to keep us entertained any more.

A recent article on CNN.com says that numerous studies show that 80 percent of TV viewers of all age incorporate a “second screen” – laptop, smartphone or tablet computer – into their viewing habits.

Connor Child

The most likely reason for this trend is that people like to talk about TV shows and event while they are happening. Zeebox is an app developed to take advantage of this scenario. It “determines what show is currently being viewed and then provides streams from relevant social media, as well as offering targeted links to spin-off products, and background information about the actors, music or writers drawn from online resources.”

I appreciate the concept behind this service as much as anyone. I’m always going to the internet during shows to see what other movies/TV shows such and such actor has been in. During a sporting event, I like to see other people’s responses to the ref’s last call or Coach Jackson’s decision to go for it on fourth down.

But, the old man inside of me worries about whether this type of technology will dumb down TV. For example, my favorite show of all time is Lost. I would turn my phone off while I watched an episode, and if anyone ever tried to talk to me I would pause it. It’s too cerebral of a show to allow yourself to be distracted by apps or any type of second screen. Since Lost went off the air, I have been worried about whether I will ever see a show like it again. Now, as shows try harder to be second screen compatible, I am even more worried.

In addition to being fun and neat, apps can be genuinely useful. Jayne O’Donnell wrote an article for USA Today about how apps can help consumers save money as the Christmas season approaches. eBay has its Red Laser app and Amazon has its Price Check. Both are price comparison apps that quickly tell consumers where else they can get Good A and at what price.

Ms. O’Donnell offers a few other tips on how to use apps to help you shop smartly. One of the coolest apps she highlighted was Lemon, an app that keeps track of receipts. As someone with no organized method of keeping receipts, I can quickly see how that app would make my life easier.

- Connor Child

It's all about context

2011-11-08T20:29:00.000-08:00

Even though the design of our building is the next major step after we complete the programming, there are some design issues that affect spaces in the building, and therefore, are important for us to consider as part of the programming process. So, we have started working on some design concepts with our architects. In short, we need to make sure our building fits the context of the campus.

Ken Snyder

Let me share examples of some of the issues we are considering:

• One of the things we must consider is how our building will fit in with the other buildings and features of the campus. We have a beautiful campus and our building needs to enhance that beauty and not detract from it.

• Another thing we must consider is traffic flow. Our building will be between two parking lots and the rest of campus. We want it to prove inviting so that people will want to walk through it, even if it is only in one door and out the other. It’s important to us that we be connected with the campus community and one way to do that is to design a facility that is welcoming.

• We have to think about how tall the new building should be. We don’t want it to block the view we have from the George S. Eccles Business Building.

• We want to maximize the terrific asset we have of providing views of the south end of Cache Valley. We need to create reasons (classrooms!) that pull people into the south end of the new building where they will be able to enjoy the great views. If our classrooms are all located in or close to the old business building, the part of the new building with the great view of Cache Valley will be underutilized.

• One of the first things that visitors to our campus will see is Huntsman Hall. It will be like a face of the university. We want that face to reflect the campus.

Context counts!

- Ken Snyder

The difficulties of quantifying abstract skills

2011-11-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school, my mother, as a joke, gave me a t-shirt that said, "My mommy says I'm special." I don't often wear it in public.

I would wear a shirt that says, "My boss thinks I'm exceptional." Or “outstanding.” Or “dependable,” “smart” and “talented.”

Paul Lewis Siddoway

I would even consider wearing it to an interview. Especially if my boss signed it.

Okay, maybe not.

It seems like getting a job is just one struggle after another. Finding openings is hard enough. Standing out in relation to the crowd and actually getting an interview seems impossible at times.

Jeff Haden, a blogger for BNET, part of CBS's interactive business network, came up with some suggestions on things businesses are looking for. Essentially, Haden says uniqueness, social smarts, adaptability, inquisitiveness, focus, the urge to tinker with the status quo, a desire to prove they (the employee) are right, public praise of others, and complaining only in private are some of the qualities businesses are looking for.

That's great. My question is, "How do I show potential employers that I'm focused?" Or, "How do I show in my résumé that I have social skills?"

Any suggestions?

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

School's namesake featured in SL Trib today

2011-11-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

Today, the Salt Lake Tribune published an interview with our school’s namesake, Jon Huntsman Sr., as he was getting ready to dedicate a $100 million expansion at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City. Throughout the interview, Huntsman speaks “candidly about the state of the nation’s economy, the effect the downturn is having on charitable giving and the role he sees private enterprise playing in the battle to help relieve human suffering around the world.”

Some highlights:

• “…When we talk about the (downturn in the) economy, I have to ask myself what does that mean? It means I will have to raise more money. I have to give more money and find more avenues to tap into to keep this facility and others going and productive. “

• “We’ve been building our business for 41 years and now produce 12,000 products. We help make plastics that go into airliners. They replace metal parts so the planes are more fuel efficient and safer. We are one of the world’s largest producers of soaps and detergents to make the world cleaner and people happier and more beautiful.”

• “I’m totally lost as to why people don’t either give their money away like we are trying to do to help those who are suffering, or investing it in something that will create jobs.”

• “My wife and I started contributing to charitable causes when we were first married and only making $300 a month. As we were able to make more money we were able to continue to give to charity, while at the same time keeping our businesses sufficiently supplied with capital for growth and expansion. We’ve been able to give over $1 billion away, and our business is stronger than ever.”

To read the full interview, click here.

Out of the caves

2011-11-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

An idea was unearthed last week that may mean that soon our students will never have to go to class in “the caves” ever again.

Ken Snyder

There are two large classrooms on the third floor of the George S. Eccles Business Building that are so big, so deep that students say they can barely hear in the back of the room. Teachers and students alike have taken to calling room 317 and 319 “the caves.” These are flat classrooms furnished with old-fashioned, fixed-arm, hard desks. Teachers don’t like to teach there and students would prefer to be taught anywhere else. Up to 85 students fit in these classrooms.

When we have larger classrooms, we usually use tiered classrooms to facilitate discussion. We can’t convert these classrooms into tiered classrooms because the ceilings are too low. If we were to try to break these classrooms up into smaller classrooms, we’d end up with a lot of wasted space – a luxury we can’t afford.

As we’ve been discussing what we should and shouldn’t put into the new building, we came up with an idea that we had not thought of before. What if we converted these two classrooms into office space? If we make that space into office and meeting space for our centers, for example, we would have that much more room in the new building available for great, new classrooms. Swapping out bad classrooms and replacing them with great, new classrooms is the kind of trade we want to make.

Another advantage of this set-up will be that students who come through the George S. Eccles Business Building would then walk by this area on their way to their nice new classrooms in Huntsman Hall. This will help give more exposure to the work the centers are doing. After all, they won’t do much good if our students don’t know they are there.

This idea will make it so none of our students will ever again be lost in the back of “the caves” straining to hear what the teacher is saying. We think it’s a great idea.

- Ken Snyder

Should Nintendo skills go on a résumé?

2011-11-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

On Halloween, I spend the evening applying for jobs and playing a little 8-bit Nintendo.

I spend 4 hours filling out 5 job applications and 1.25 hours saving the princess. Guess which activity I felt better about when I went to bed?

Paul Lewis Siddoway

Nobody will argue that it's easy to find a job. Especially in this market. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and plenty of advice on the subject.

One blog I found, "Thoughts on Teaching," comes from the stand point of a professor from the University of Florida.

Julie Dodd, a professor in UF's communications department saw an article in the New York Times about new graduates waiting for their careers to begin, and she suggested a few things to do.

Obviously, while I'm looking for a foot in the door to the big-boy job world I'll keep the job I have, but Dodd also suggested freelancing. One guy I work with got paid $50 for one hour of consultation. Brilliant.

There are other ways to make good use of that 40-hours a week I may not be using, too. And I'm not just talking about traversing the underworld and slaying monsters. I found Dodd's blog because I decided to start my own blog. It may not be about accounting or finance or marketing, but it is about music, because that's one of my passions. And maybe someone else who's into music will read it. And maybe, just maybe, they'll want to talk to me about something else, like a job. It's worth a shot, right? If nothing else, I'm developing another marketable job skill.

I've already talked about networking, but Dodd recommends always carrying business cards, just in case. Even if they aren't that professional, as long as they have a way to contact you, that's enough. Ideally, I'd like to give everyone I meet a copy of my resume, so they can give it to someone else they know and I will be handed a job on a silver platter.

And speaking of resumes, do you think beating a golden action-adventure game from the 80s is resume-worthy? What demonstrates your work ethic better than the infinite amount of hours you’ve spent on problem-solving a single, dedicated task with no form of reward other than the satisfaction of completion?

At least, that's how I justify it to my wife.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

The emergence of location-based services

2011-11-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

Connor Child

America’s Finest News Source (aka “The Onion”) may have mocked glowing media reports about Foursquare’s entrance into the social media world, but it looks like the tone of those media reports was justified.

This past summer, the number of Foursquare users reached 10 million, a 100 percent increase from December. Shortly after, the privately held company raised $50 in funding at a $600 million value.

Foursquare has established itself as a formidable player in the social media realm, worthy of being mentioned alongside Facebook and Twitter. But, as a June USA Today article reports, success of that magnitude comes with challenges.

Foursquare is a location-based service (LBS) that lets users win virtual prizes by using their smartphones to “check in” to the places they visit. Many people are weary about having their movements tracked and broadcasted online, and privacy concerns remain a major hindrance to further growth. In response to these concerns, Foursquare lets users decide for themselves whether or not they want to share their locations with a broader audience on Facebook and Twitter. If they want, users can have their locations shared with a small group of trusted friends.

This article brought up some interesting points about Foursquare’s utility. For example, a New York restaurant near Foursquare’s office has used the service to “break down its customer base by gender, age group and check-in time. Knowing when customers visit lets the restaurant plan operations when things are busy and offer specials when business is slow.”

Facebook, having already been on the winning side of creative destruction once before (see: Myspace), couldn’t just sit around and watch Foursquare get all the accolades. Consequently, it launched “Facebook Places” in August of 2010.

After a year of less-than-impressive results, reports surfaced that Facebook was killing off its “Places” feature. But, as Steve McClellan reported, Facebook wasn’t conceding the LBS marketing battle to Foursquare: “Agencies say that what Facebook is actually doing…may scale their location-based marketing capability in a way that could motivate a majority of their 500 million global members to add location data when using the site.”

Basically, Facebook just made it possible for users to tag status updates with their locations. They can do this on laptops, phones or any other portable device. Michael Nicholas, chief strategy officer at Aegis Group’s Isobar, described the move as an “embedded tag strategy that's about getting more people to put more location data into Facebook.”

The value of putting “more location data into Facebook” is that it makes the product more attractive to marketers. Marketers are constantly trying to dig up information on potential customers, and finding out what locations they visit and at what time of day gives them valuable consumer insight.

A rapidly increasing number of people are participating in location-based services, making it easier than ever before for businesses to learn about consumers’ daily behavior. It is obvious that consumers value the services provided by Foursquare and the like, but what will ultimately determine LBS’s success is how useful they are to businesses. Foursquare works with hundreds of thousands of merchants to develop incentives for people to check in at their locations, and if these merchants don’t see results, they will find other methods to bring in customers.

- Connor Child

NBA lockout part 2: The best and worst case scenarios for the Utah Jazz

2011-10-31T15:02:00.000-07:00

Following last week's blog on the NBA Lockout, several folks emailed me asking what is the best-case and worst-case scenario as far as the Utah Jazz are concerned with the new collective bargaining agreement in terms of luxury tax, salary cap, etc.

The best case for the Jazz will be three-fold:

Eric D. Schulz

1) A hard salary cap, which will force the "have's" (the big market teams like the Lakers, Knicks, Bulls, Heat, Mavericks) to compete on a level playing field with the have-nots. The big-market teams have such a financial advantage that they ignore the salary cap/luxury tax and consider them a cost of doing business. For example, the Lakers last season paid total salaries of $110.4 million, including $20 million in luxury taxes. If you look at the teams with the highest payrolls, they consistently are the teams in the Conference Finals/NBA Finals.

The National Hockey League (NHL) has a hard salary cap, and it appears to have restored competitive balance. Since their lockout season in 2005-06, of the twelve Stanley Cup Finalists, 10 different teams have appeared. In the same period in the NBA, the Western Conference champions have been only San Antonio (05 and 07), Dallas (06 and 11), and the Lakers (08, 09, and 10). In the East: Miami (06 and 11), Boston (08 and 10), Orlando (09), Cleveland (07), and Detroit (05).

2) Increased Revenue Sharing: The NBA currently has two revenue sharing mechanisms. First, all the monies collected from luxury taxes are distributed equally among those teams that do not go over the luxury tax limit. There is also a pool of money that small-market teams can earn based on a complicated formula that uses "performance & effort" criteria based on the teams sales and marketing efforts. If the team is deemed to have done all they can do in these areas based on their market size, they receive a portion of the pool -- but its a relatively small amount, one to two million dollars per team on average. And only a handful of small teams get these dollars every year.

The small market teams like the Jazz want to move to an NFL revenue sharing model, where teams get to keep their "premium" seating revenues (luxury boxes, Hollywood "Courtside" seats) and local sponsorship dollars, but the rest of the ticket revenues are pooled together as a league and shared equally. Small market teams also want local TV/radio rights monies included in the shared pool as well, since there is such a wide disparity among the values of those in cities like Los Angeles vs. Salt Lake City.

3) Franchise Player Designations: The NBA is on a slippery slope, with players now colluding to form their own All-Star teams. Boston started the trend with the trade for Kevin Garnett, followed by the Lakers acquisition of Pau Gasol. 2010 was the tipping point, when LeBron James, Chris Bosh and DeWayne Wade decided to join forces in Miami, and Carmelo Anthony forced a trade to the Knicks to join Amare Stoudamire, and together they are lobbying hard to get Chris Paul to the Knicks.

The NFL has Franchise Players, and it has worked well in keeping "stars" put. Had Cleveland been able to designate LeBron as their franchise player, Denver designated Anthony, and Utah designated Deron Williams, most of what has happened this past season in terms of "star" movement would not have. But under the current system, the good ol' days of Karl and John playing for a Utah team their entire career is never going to happen again. The Jazz will be able to do what they did with Deron - re-sign him to his first max contract, then be forced to trade him or watch him walk in year 6 or 7 (just when he is reaching All-Star status). Small market teams will constantly be in rebuilding mode, unable to compete.

So what is the worst-case scenario for the Jazz?

No salary cap. In other words, keeping some form or variation of the luxury tax, and not reducing the basketball related income down to at least 50 percent. The big market teams have such a huge advantage financially, it's akin to Zions Bank trying to compete with Citibank. As long as the big market teams can "buy" their advantage and have owners like Jerry Buss, Mark Cuban, and other rich people, the Utah's of the world will never be able to compete. Sure, they may have a one-year blip like the Jazz run to the Western Conference Finals in 2007, but nothing sustainable. Money always wins in the NBA.

The other thing that needs to get fixed are the outlandish salaries paid to mid-level players…guys who fill up the roster, but aren't putting butts in seats. Guys like Al Jefferson ($14 million), Mehmut Okur ($12 million), Andrei Kirilenko ($17 million), and Paul Millsap ($8 million). Sure, these guys are good, but people don't say "Gee, lets go drop a hundred bucks to see Andrei Kirilenko tonight"; they DO say that, however, for guys like Kobe, Kevin Durant, LeBron, and Dirk.

To fix it right, a hard salary cap, where the total team salary can't exceed X no matter what, would by default drag down these mid-range guys salaries. Teams would end up doing what Miami did last year - pay the three "stars" good money, and everybody else makes minimum wage. That's how it should work – and THAT would restore competitive balance to a league of have's and have nots.

- Eric D. Schulz

Eric D. Schulz is the Co-Director of Strategic Marketing and Brand Management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of Marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a General Manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Study abroad: the highlight of my college experience

2011-10-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

This past week, a group of Huntsman Scholars got home from a 3 ½ week long trip to Europe. I literally thought about them every day and reflected on my own experience on that trip two years ago.

Bungee jumping in the Swiss Alps wasn't the only great
thing I did on my study abroad.

My study abroad experience was the highlight of my college career. I spent a majority of the trip trying to convince myself that I was actually experiencing everything that was happening. I did a lot of fun things (see the picture at the right), but I also learned about things in a way that I never had before. It’s one thing to talk about international economic policies; it’s quite another to talk to a European Union official in Brussels, Belgium.

There will be a Go Global information session on Tuesday from 5-6 p.m. The first 300 people to show up will win Best Buy gift cards ranging from $5 to $50. If you haven’t had the chance to “go global” with the Huntsman School, I highly recommend that you attend this session. I am a firsthand witness to the value of these study abroad trips. We have a world-class global enrichment program, and my education has been greatly enhanced by their efforts. In the words of Huntsman student Whitney Dastrup, the world is too interesting to stay in one place.

Space, the final frontier

2011-10-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

Everyone has submitted their projections for the kind of space they’d like to see in our new Huntsman Hall. They calculated and recalculated, thinking of what life could be like in 2025. Each group making recommendations figured out such things as:

• how many classrooms they need,

Ken Snyder

• what kind of classrooms (tiered or flat) will work best,

• how much office space is necessary,

• how many meeting and break-out rooms would be optimal,

• how much open space for students should be part of the plan,

• and where we might plug in a place to get some nourishment (eats).

We took all those estimates and gave them to our architects to see just what kind facility we were cooking up. We have funding for a building that will be about 90,000 square feet. When our architects estimated how many square feet it would take to meet everyone’s forecasted needs, it came to about 123,000 square feet. Our vision exceeds our resources.

Am I surprised? Nope. This is exactly what we predicted. Most of the schools I visited experienced the same thing. Part of doing great things with this new building will be figuring out where to say no and where to say yes. It’s time to prioritize.

The engagement and contributions of our advisory teams have been impressive. We will be turning to them to help us separate our needs from our wants. Because I have seen their unified desire to focus on how to best serve our students, I am confident that our next step will not be about giving up things but refining our ideas so that even better ones can come forward. Stephen R. Covey, the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair in Leadership, calls this synergy, or, as he describes it, when one plus one can equal three. When it comes to this building, we need it all to equal 90,000 square feet.

It’s all good. We’ve got the right people in place so that, in our case, I am confident space will not be the final frontier … only the beginning.

- Ken Snyder

The Fourth Class

2011-10-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

I used to not be a big fan of change. Now, that’s not to say I didn’t like improvement or growth. I’ve just always been a firm believer in the idea that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And there are many aspects in my life that don’t need fixing as they do fine for me.

Rob Goates

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I had a beautiful, healthy baby. Now, for those unaware of how college life is separated at USU, there exist four classes. There are freshmen, single students, married students and students with kids. They don’t generally mix, except for class projects, and if they do, it’s because either party doesn’t know of the other’s situation; when they do, thus ensue two situations, the awkward “How’s that treatin’ ya? Do ya like it?” conversation or a comment like “Cool,” with a looming silence afterward. I’m now in the final class; from this point on I am that guy with a kid.

Anatole France, a French novelist, said “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” Those who read that might think a small part of my “married student” life “died” when we had our baby and, in some essence, you’d be right. Life has become less spontaneous and more prearranged. Do I regret it? Not a chance.

A person with a narrow perspective longs for and wishes to continue living the experiences of a previous class, looking towards their peers there and imagining of how much more fun they must be having (except for freshmen to single students, that is a change where many don’t look back). But adulthood is a fickle beast that hides itself and waits to descend upon the most unsuspecting, whether it is in the first meeting with your future companion or the two lines on a pregnancy test, it waits.

As the degree of responsibility increases, so does the potential for joy. I have lived them all and can say, unequivocally, the most joy, and the most stress, is found in the fourth class.

Now, with a baby, there is change every day, and I’m okay with that.

- Rob Goates

Why the NBA will lose this season

2011-10-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

For the past five years, I was the Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz. This position gave me insight into the finances of not only the Jazz, but the NBA as a whole. With that perspective, let me tell you why this lockout isn’t going to get solved any time soon.

Eric D. Schulz

Enough has been written about the negotiations over the split of BRI (Basketball Related Income). In the last Collective Bargaining Agreement, players received 57% of BRI, and as a result, 24 of the 30 NBA franchises lost money. Let me put that into perspective.

On a good night, an average NBA team – selling out their arena – takes in about $1 million in ticket revenue. The teams in the larger cities – New York, LA, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Miami – make almost double that. So for a 43 game home schedule, a team makes about $43 million or so in revenue.

Teams also make money from sponsorship sales, selling their TV / Radio rights, and to a lesser extent, food and beverage (depending upon their deal with their arena). For the average NBA team, there’s another $25 million or so from these sources. Again, the larger city teams make about double or triple that amount.

The final source of revenue is from the NBA itself. Teams split evenly 30 ways the revenue from the league TV / Broadcasting deals (about $10 million per team), and also NBA licensing (another $6 million).

So, add it all up, and the “average” NBA team takes in about $84 million a season. The Lakers, Knicks, Bulls, Celtics, Mavericks, Heat – they take in about $150 million each.

Now let’s look at the expense side. Player salaries top the list. Last season, the top team payrolls belonged to the Lakers $95 million; Orlando $90 million; Dallas $86 million; and Boston $83 million. The median team salaries paid was around $67 million.

Add on to that the expenses for the coaching staff (about $5 million); travel ($2 million); front office ($5 million); marketing ($1 million); taxes ($5 million) and general expenses ($1 million). The “average” NBA team, their expense side totals around $86 million.

So the “average” NBA team loses about $2 million per season. But if the team payroll is over $67 million – and 13 teams exceeded that level last season – you can see there isn’t much room left for profit – UNLESS you are one of the “haves” – Lakers, Boston, Chicago, New York, Miami – where you make significantly more than everyone else. And for teams that have large sections of empty seats every night – who are only taking in $500,000 per game in revenue – you can see how their losses pile up much faster.

Now, you can say that the reason player salaries are out-of-whack is because of stupid owners handing them out – and that is absolutely true. Nobody put a gun to their head. Kobe Bryant is scheduled to make $25 million this season; Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett $21 million each. In the grand scheme, those salaries are fine – because THEY put butts in the seats. Fans pay to see them play. Where it gets messed up is when big contracts get handed to players who DON’T put butts in the seats – Rashard Lewis at $22 million; Gilbert Arenas $19 million; Elton Brand $17 million – to name but a few.

Under the current system, the only penalty for acquiring a roster full of all-stars and overpaying them is a dollar-for-dollar “tax” for teams that exceed the luxury tax limit – which last year was around $77 million. But if you are one of the “haves” like LA, Boston, New York – which have far greater revenues than the average team – it’s just a cost of doing business – and leads to a league where the have-nots can no longer compete with the haves.

The All-Star aggregation that began in earnest three years ago when Boston acquired Kevin Garnett, and accelerated last season when players started making their own teams – Miami with LeBron, Bosh and Wade; the Knicks with Amare Stoudamire, Carmelo Anthony and rumored to be joining them soon, Chris Paul – has further exacerbated the problem. The big cities already had an advantage with their large wallets; now players are picking their own teams in those cities, and the rest of the 20 or so other NBA teams are out of luck. Utah’s trade of Deron Williams to New Jersey was the beginning of the slippery slope. Deron had big-city dreams, and Utah had no chance of keeping him when his contract expired after next season, so rather than letting him walk, they traded him for “potential”, NBA speak for “I just got robbed, but I have to sell this to the fans so that they’ll keep on paying”.

So, the owners are putting it onto the players to save themselves FROM themselves. Cut the players guaranteed dollars from the BRI, add in a “hard” salary cap, and in theory, it will level the playing field for everyone. The NBA cites the NFL as an example of success, where every team has the ability to compete for a championship. Not so in the NBA. You can pretty much pick the Conference Finals before you play a single game --- in the West, Lakers and Dallas. In the East, Miami and either Boston or Chicago. Notice the trend here? They are all “haves”.

For the vast majority of NBA teams, they are far better off losing this season and fixing the system than they are by playing it. They still have to pay their coaches and front office, but most of the other expenses go away. For a team losing $20 million, the prospect of not playing this season and only losing $10 million is a breath of fresh air. That’s why you better enjoy this NFL season, and find a good college team to root for in basketball. Come January, that will be your basketball for 2012.

Eric D. Schulz is the Co-Director of Strategic Marketing and Brand Management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of Marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a General Manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

It's time to make some educated projections about how many students we will have

2011-10-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

I’ve talked about envisioning the future several times as I’ve blogged about the creation of Huntsman Hall, our new building. It’s one thing to talk, in general terms, about our upward trajectory, but it’s another when we have to start thinking about actual numbers. One of the things we have had to do in this process is project how many full-time students we think will be here by the year 2025.

Ken Snyder

Our architects, who have experience in this sort of thing, say that it’s not realistic to try to project the needs of a business school 50 years into the future. There are too many changing variables and who knows what technology, education or even the typical student will be like 50 years from now. Our architects have learned, however, that projecting needs about 15 years out makes better sense, so that’s why we picked 2025.

At last count we have 1,523 full-time-equivalents on campus. (No one has ever seen a full-time-equivalent even though we are always counting them. That’s a way we have of measuring how many students we have because some students go part-time and we may combine two of those part-timers and count them as one full-time-equivalent. They are people but sometimes they are composite people. Try not to think about it and just trust me.) Based on Utah State University’s growth estimates and our own enrollment trends, we believe that we’ll have about 2,371 full-time-equivalent students on campus in the year 2025. We consider this to be a semi-conservative estimate because it’s based on assumptions that we won’t continue to grow as fast as we have the last five years.

That’s the easy part. Each department head and program leader is tasked with figuring out not just how many students will be entering their areas in the next few years but how many professors we’ll need to teach them. We need to calculate what the demand for classrooms will be and what kind of technological advances we may need to accommodate. Each of the program areas need to figure out just what kind of space and staff it will need to deal with in their programs.

We need to come up with the best projections we can about what our needs will be 15 years from now. We won’t know for sure how we did until the year 2025, but the good news is that, at least initially, when we move in we should be a pretty comfortable fit in Huntsman Hall and there should still be plenty of room to grow.

- Ken Snyder

The wild, wild web

2011-10-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

Connor Child

If I wanted to know who got voted out of the top 8 on the 2007 season of American Idol, I could find that information on the Internet. If I was looking for information about the origins of bubble gum, there's a website for that. If I was interested in what kind of car Lightning McQueen is, there are numerous online discussions and comment boards devoted to the subject.

Simply put: there is a lot of stuff out there on the internet. So it makes it even more impressive when I talk to people like Raine Christensen, a Huntsman student who runs banktruth.org, a website that has climbed the ranks to become one of the top bank evaluating websites on the web. A Google search for "best banks" will bring up nearly 300 million results, and his website is currently the second one listed.

I wrote a short story about Raine's website for the most recent edition of the Huntsman Post, which came out yesterday. The Post also includes a story about our MBA students scoring in the 90th percentile on a national test given to 225 institutions. And did you know that a student club in the Huntsman School has achieved a "superior" designation for national record 35 consecutive years? Many of the people reading this weren't even born before then.

All of these stories, along with many more, can be read here.

- Connor Child

Experimental classroom is cool but not yet the future

2011-10-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

BUS 318, which for the last 18 months has been our
"experimental classroom"

Even though I have been writing about the programming process for just the past few weeks, the process actually started a long time ago – 18 months ago to be precise. That was when we formed the advisory team to start working on our recommendations for classrooms for the new building.

I asked for volunteers from the faculty of the school and got a tremendous response. Several senior professors volunteered to help. We also have some junior professors on the team who are very in tune with what can be done with modern technology in the classroom. We have at least one professor from every department. In other words, we have great representation from across the school.

We took one of our “worst” classrooms (as determined by the faculty) and decided to completely redo it. We wanted to test all sorts of different things in this classroom. So, we put in the following features:

Movable tables and chairs

• Portable furniture – including portable chairs and tables – so the professor can easily re-configure the class at a moment’s notice.

• Four projectors – so the professor and/or students can project different things at the same time.

• An experimental white board known as an Egan board which is supposed to work well both as marking surface and as a projection surface.

• White boards on the threeother walls in the room so there are white boards on all four walls.

Four projectors

• An in-ceiling, document camera.

• We buried the classroom technology in the corner of the room, out of the way, and then built a portable podium that connected to the technology only through a WiFi connection.

We worked with the campus classroom scheduling people to make sure that the faculty members on the advisory team were assigned to teach in the experimental classroom this past academic year.

Believe it or not, not all of these experimental items worked well. Some big hits include the portable furniture, multiple projectors (although four may be too many), white boards on all four walls, the fact that we moved the technology off to the side, and the portable WiFi podium.

We also experienced some problems: the students complained that the portable chairs were uncomfortable, the Egan board didn’t work well as either a marking surface or a projection surface – and it got bubbles on the surface, and the document camera failed to perform up to specifications.

Thanks to the faculty members on this advisory team who researched features and then worked through all the problems. We now have a real good idea of what we want to put into the classrooms in the new building.

- Ken Snyder

The most wonderful time of the year

2011-10-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

I’m not talking about Christmas, although I like Christmas. I’m talking about now. Fall. When the weather cools and it’s time to retrieve heavier clothing, my heart grows fond of the opportunity to sip hot chocolate and, this year especially, seek shelter under the ribs of my umbrella.

Rob Goates

Thomas Hood, the English poet, said “I saw old Autumn in the misty morn stand shadowless like silence, listening to silence.” How often is that noticed? Our homes are left, in the early morning, and one pauses to feel the crisp, cool silence present in “old Autumn.” The animals are gone; wintertime hides herself and waits to descent upon the unsuspecting Utah State students and faculty.

Many literary minds pay homage to this time of year. Albert Camus, a French philosopher, stated that “autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Those who have had the opportunity to drive or hike through any canyon in Cache Valley are well aware of the eruption of color that bursts from every tree and shrubbery from the surrounding hills. To smell the earthy, damp scent rush with the wind. To feel the crunch of dried leaves underfoot.

Utah State athletics have the feel of autumn throughout the whole year. Most of those in attendance don’t realize the significance of the seats, believing the “nauseous” colors are indicative of the era in which the arena was built. However, when the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum designer worked on the building before its dedication on December 1, 1970, he decided to immortalize the feeling we experience now at every event by creating those same colors found in Sardine Canyon.

There is a harmony in autumn not seen nor heard through the summer, then vanished in winter, when nature herself orchestrates the beginning of a long, emotionless rest. During that time, it is, in my opinion, the most wonderful time of the year.

- Rob Goates

Steve Jobs worthy of superlatives

2011-10-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

As a society, we are obsessed with superlatives. Every memorable moment or accomplishment must be labeled “the greatest of all time” immediately after it takes place. As a sports fan, I have probably watched 30 different games that have been christened the best of all time. Dozens more have been tagged “the worst collapse in sports history.” I take issue with such pronouncements because they are based on emotions rather than pure analytics. The old adage, “What have you done for me lately?” applies here – we tend to overvalue what we have just witnessed.

Every once in a while, though, a person, feat, accomplishment, etc. is worthy of superlatives. By now, thousands of publications have paid tribute to Steve Jobs. All of today’s major newspapers featured front-page stories about his passing. Tech industry giants and major politicians have chimed in with universal praise. He has been compared to historical behemoths like Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Edison. Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google Inc. and former Apple board member, said Jobs will be remembered as “the greatest computer innovator in history.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a baptized and confirmed convert to Apple products. I fought it for years, and I still like to poke fun at the Apple culture that The Onion satirizes so brilliantly, but I just happen to believe their products are better suited for me. But it doesn’t take an Apple enthusiast to recognize Jobs’s brilliance as an innovative thinker and business leader. The fact that one of the most heartfelt statements concerning his passing came from Bill Gates, his chief rival, speaks volumes.

So yes, I believe Steve Jobs is worthy of every hyperbolic statement uttered about him. Let me add one more such statement (although I’m sure I am not the first to say this): the world is a much better place because of him.

- Connor Child

There’s room at the top at the Huntsman School of Business but not enough

2011-10-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

There’s a room in the George S. Eccles Business Building that is not often used as a classroom, yet it is where some of the most educational events of the year take place. Most of our VIP visitors end up there and some of our student clubs do their best planning there.

Ken Snyder

I’m talking about the O.C. Tanner Lounge on the ninth floor, a meeting room that offers the best view in Cache Valley and serves as a place where the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business hosts some of its most important visitors. It was originally slated to become a mechanical room and the windows to the east and west were bricked over. But Obert C. Tanner saw its potential and donated funds to make it much more than that.

One of the problems they had back then was they didn’t know how to put the 10-foot, by 8-foot windows in. They wouldn’t fit in the elevators or stairways. So Mr. Tanner solved the problem by bringing a helicopter up from Salt Lake City. The helicopter lifted the windows to the ninth floor.

That was in 1970. In 1989 Mr. Tanner paid to have the room renovated. When he first saw it after the renovation, he reportedly said, “This is the most beautiful room in Utah!”

I think others agree because the ninth floor is often double booked, meaning that if someone cancelled their plans there would be another group ready to jump in and use the space. The room is used, on average, by four different groups a day, nearly year round. The school hosts more than 50 executive visitors a year and nearly all of them make it to the ninth floor before they leave.

For example, just this past year the list of people who were hosted on the ninth floor includes Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, who has become an ambassador from the new nation of South Sudan; Mark James, the senior vice president of human resources and communications for Honeywell; Edward C. Prescott, Nobel Prize winner; Elder Stephen Snow and Elder Yoon Hwan Choi, both general authorities for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Andrew Chern, the founder and chairman of the Panda Restaurant Group; Scott Davis, the president and CEO of Mountain West Small Business; and Dell Loy and Lynnette Hansen, of Wasatch Property Management.

The type of meetings held on the ninth floor often give students a chance to meet and network with some remarkable people. Visiting professors give lectures there, as do many of the business leaders the clubs bring in to speak.

So, it’s no wonder that when we met recently with groups who are helping us plan what to include in our new building, they all agreed that we need more space like we have now on the ninth floor. We could use a place that could serve as a board room for important meetings like those held by our National Advisory Board. And a room that would be big enough to host larger events that would not fit in a room the size of the O.C. Tanner Lounge would prove valuable.

The O.C. Tanner Lounge has a great view of the valley. I’m looking forward to the day when that view will include our new Huntsman Hall.

- Ken Snyder

We did it!

2011-10-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

What is it that we did? We raised $16,000 for the Huntsman Cancer Institute, beating last years total of $9,000!

Business Week 2011 was a great week, and the Huntsman School enjoyed being in the spotlight. The crowning moment was when Scot Marsden, our student senator, presented Jon Huntsman with a giant check for $16,000. Mr. Huntsman and Mrs. Huntsman were both deeply touched, and Mrs. Huntsman even went to the microphone and made an impromptu speech thanking the school for its support. We have witnessed the great work Mr. Huntsman has done to make the world a better place, and we would be selfish not to find ways to raise money for one of his favorite causes.

Just before the check was handed over to Mr. Huntsman, a video was shown depicting students in the Huntsman School who have benefitted from the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The video, made by Huntsman students Sterling Morris and Brent Meacham, was top quality and deserves to be seen by anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Thanks to everyone who made Business Week a success, and here's to hoping we beat $16,000 in 2012!

A business professional talks about Honest Abe's influence on business

2011-10-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to see Jerry Bussell's presentation on leadership skills at the the Partners In Business Operational Excellence Conference that the Huntsman School put on.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

His whole lecture was based on Abraham Lincoln and his influence on Toyota. I never knew this, but apparently Lincoln is very popular in Japan, and it's because of his leadership skills and integrity. After Mr. Bussell's presentation, he came and talked with a couple of students.

Mr. Bussell told us that while scholars and politicians have gone back and forth praising and criticizing Lincoln, nobody has ever been able to attack Lincoln's honesty and integrity. He said that only about a third of employees trust their employers. And unfortunately most employers don't merit it; Bussell also said that three quarters of employers have done or saw a colleague do something unethical. I think it's ironic that I just saw a great example of integrity.

Mr. Bussell said the key to good, ethical business is mentoring everyone in the company, not just mandating from the top down, and he uses Lincoln as his guide. Just like Socrates taught Plato, Mr. Bussell said he never gives any answers, he just asks more questions. It makes everyone else earn the answer, because they have to think it through for themselves. Mr. Bussell doesn't have 200 employees who work for him; he works for his 200 employees. By putting the organization before himself and by remembering that he serves others, Mr. Bussell said that he strives to maintain ethical leadership. Just like Lincoln.

Now all he needs is to grow Lincoln's chin curtain.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

Honesty at the Last Dash Relay race

2011-09-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

A group of runners compete in the Last
Dash Relay Race during Business Week

On Tuesday I went to the Last Dash Relay Race that the business school put on for Business Week. I thought about running in it, although I had to work late, so it's probably a good thing I decided not to, because I didn't get there until about 17 minutes into the race.

The course was set up along a 5K route, which people had to run twice. If they were on a relay team, they switched off at the halfway point. It turned out that not everybody ran it. There were some people on bikes and a couple were on roller blades.

I knew I got there about 17 minutes in, because that's when the first guy hit the halfway point. Actually, he was the third guy to hit the halfway point. Two guys came in about 30 seconds before him. By the end of the race, he had passed both of them. When they were giving out the prizes for the top three finishers in each of the categories, at least one of the runners came forward and declined his prize because he had missed a section of the race.

Nobody would have known. He could have just accepted his prize, but he didn't.

It's nice to see people being honest. It kind of restores my faith in humanity when most of what I see on the news gives evidence that you can't trust most people. And just like running, it feels good and in the long run it's better for you.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

No gridlock at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

2011-09-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

The five building advisory teams met for the first time last week with our architects in preliminary planning meetings. I was very happy to discover that the ideas presented by the different team members for what should be included in our new building were surprisingly similar.

Ken Snyder

Members of the Student Advisory, Technology Advisory, Classroom Advisory, Department Head Advisory and the Program Leaders Advisory teams came to the meetings prepared with ideas and reasonable suggestions.

As an example of the consistency of suggestions, here are three needs identified by all five teams:

1. We need more upscale space like what the O.C. Tanner Lounge offers on the ninth floor in the George S. Eccles Business Building. Some people suggested that it would be nice to have two more rooms like that, one larger that could be used for banquets and other special functions, and the other smaller – more like an executive board room.

2. We need an eclectic mix of classrooms. People seemed to agree that it would be nice to have a good mix of new classrooms – some flat and some tiered, some large and some small, and some mid-size classrooms and not the strict 40-seat or 80-seat classroom sizes we have in the current Eccles building.

3. We need more student meeting rooms. Everyone agreed we need a lot more rooms that could be used by students for break-out groups, team meetings and group-study sessions. As I have traveled around to various business schools, they all reported that despite their best efforts, they still feel like they didn’t include enough student meeting rooms after they completed their buildings. The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School has 55 such rooms and they told me they still feel like they could use more.

I came away not only enthused by everyone’s thoughtful input but impressed to see that 90 percent of the ideas suggested were brought up by at least two groups. I didn’t know what to expect and wondered if there would be conflicting needs that would make the process of prioritization more difficult. I was afraid I might have to referee a few battles along the way. It appears that will not be the case. We had a lot of consensus across all of the advisory teams.

- Ken Snyder

A possible path to the bobble-headed dolls industry

2011-09-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I'm in a speech class. I think it might have something to do with my minor. My professor is just great. The other day I went to her office to talk about an assignment. Somehow that turned into a conversation about job searching.

The ultimate goal for any student is probably to get a job. So we submit as many applications as we can, hoping that we'll get an interview. The more interviews we get, the more assured we can be that we'll actually get a job.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

This is an age where most jobs do not come from employers posting a job and waiting to see who applies.

I already wrote about networking once. Networking helps cut down the job search. You have everyone you know looking for a job for you. It's not a bad way to do it. Ideally you want someone in the industry to let you know of a job opening. Let's face it, your mother probably doesn't know when a marketing firm is hiring. Or even which is a good marketing firm to apply for.

However, in my conversation with the professor of my speech class, who also teaches an interviewing class, lightning struck my brain.

There is a way to cut out the middle man and network all at the same time.

Let's say I am a marketing student and I really love those bobble-headed dolls that you stick on the dashboard of your car. Well, then I should call up a company that makes those and make an appointment to talk to one of the guys in their marketing department, just to find out what it is like to work for that kind of company. Who wouldn't want to help a student? And just like that I get an interview. And since I'm the one who's asking the questions, I can ask things I probably couldn't get away with asking in a job interview.

And there's a bonus. I can network with someone in the industry. If their company has openings, I've already had face time with them, which gives me an advantage over anyone else that's applying. Even if that company doesn't have any openings, they probably keep tabs on their competition. Or the guy I met with probably has friends I could talk to in other companies.

To me, this seems like a brilliant idea. Now I plan on setting up interviews with all the bobble-headed doll companies I can find. I'll let you know how it goes.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

Huntsman School Golf Tournament

2011-09-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

A golfer lines up a putt at the Huntsman
School Golf Tournament.

One of the best things about being a student at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is that it shares its namesake with the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. It’s a constant reminder about the expended efforts of hundreds of people seeking to relieve the suffering of cancer patients.

Today, I had the opportunity to participate in an event that raised thousands of dollars for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. I played in the Huntsman School Golf Tournament along with many other students and alumni. I love to golf any chance I get, but it was also great to network with professionals and contribute to a great cause. It was a good way to start of Business Week, and I hope that we can continue to raise a lot of money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. I’m hoping we can even beat last year’s donation.

- Kade Hansen

Wendy's "Dave's Hot 'N Juicy" strikes out

2011-09-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

I LOVE new products. Innovation is in my DNA, and I regularly look for new products to try. By the way, if you need to hang something on your wall, try the new HERCULES Hangers at Bed, Bath and Beyond. They are AMAZING.

But I digress. Back to the story. It was with great anticipation that I read earlier this week of Wendy’s introduction of the all-new hamburger “Dave’s Big N Juicy”, the first overhaul of Wendy’s traditional hamburger offering since 1969.

Eric D. Schulz

I have to give Wendy’s PR team credit. They got great press on Monday and Tuesday about the introduction. And the story they told, of embarking on a two-year quest, criss-crossing the country trying new hamburgers, going to small dives in the middle of America, to finally land on this new landmark burger – even using a pickle scientist -- intrigued me enough that I immediately called home and informed my wife that Monday night, we were going to Wendy’s to try out the new burger, which seemed from their press release to be manna from heaven…new crinkly pickles, a butter toasted bun, thicker meat, and more.

My disappointment set in as I pulled into the parking lot. Not a sign, not a window sticker, nothing at the location indicated that the new Dave’s burger was being served. But we went inside, and yes, there it was on the menu board, so I stepped right up and ordered away.

Alas, to my dismay, it arrived looking just like the old Wendy’s burger. Same foil wrapper, nothing to indicate it was anything new or different. And indeed, when I opened it up, it wasn’t. It looked like the same old Wendy’s burger, only what used to be white onions are now red onions, and the flat pickles are now crinkly. Had I not peeled open the burger, there was no outward sign that it was anything different. Taste-wise, size wise, it was exactly the same, only now it cost $3.79.

Will this burger be the savior of Wendy’s? Not a chance. In fact, it’s probably going to do more damage to the brand than good. They’ll get a nice short-term bump in sales from people like me who will buy into the PR hype and run down and try it, but when they end up disappointed by the product, they’ll likely not return. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and if their now $3.79 burger doesn’t meet expectations (which it does not), consumers won’t come back. We’ve seen this movie before….Crystal Pepsi, New Coke…and others.

This reinforces the marketing paradigm I call The Gravitational Law of Marketing. The ONLY way to disrupt marketplace equilibrium is to introduce a new, better product that is SIGNIFICANTLY different than what already exists. Marginal improvements are a waste of time. Go big, or go home. Wendy’s. Go home. You just struck out.

- Eric D. Schulz

Lingering memories from Business Week 2010

2011-09-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

As you hopefully know by now, Business Week is just about to start. Huntsman students, faculty and staff have worked diligently to make sure the week will be filled with enjoyable activities and opportunities to network.

My fondest memory from last year’s Business Week was watching Skyler Jenks (our then-Business Senator) and Nick Sokolik (president of USU chapter of Sigma Chi fraternity) present Jon Huntsman, Sr., with a check for the money that the school had raised during the week (pictured at right). The money was donated to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation to help fund cancer research. Even though it wasn’t a secret that any fees associated with Business Week activities were to be donated to cancer research, it became more concrete when I personally witnessed Mr. Huntsman’s satisfaction at receiving the fruits of our hard work.

A couple of days before the aforementioned moment, I spoke with several runners who had just completed the Last Dash relay race. Many of them had just run 10 miles and were exhausted. But whenever I brought up the fact that their application fee was going to be used to fund cancer research, their faces lit up as if they forgot what they had just put their bodies through.

So as we get ready for Business Week 2011, remember that it’s about more than just you getting to participate in fun activities or establish networking connections (although those are extremely important). Remember our school’s namesake and his message or helping others.

- Connor Child

Paying Forward

2011-09-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Huntsman Hall

I have traveled about the United States in recent months in hopes of seeing into the future.

I’ve been visiting business schools that have recently completed new buildings to find out what they learned from the process, what is working, and what they would change if they had that opportunity. I’ve gone to the University of Washington, William and Mary, Georgetown University, the University of Utah, and the University of Minnesota. I also traveled with our architects to the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School last week where their building, Huntsman Hall, is already 10 years old. We did so because we have a special connection to that top-rated school because of our namesake Jon M. Huntsman and because we thought it would be interesting to get their insight 10 years after their building was constructed.

In each case I was welcomed and given the VIP tour. My hosts were always very open and willing to share with me what they learned from their building experiences.

Another reason I traveled was because I was looking for examples of things that I want to see in our own building. If I tell the architect that I want our building to have an “open feel” and that helps “build a sense of community within the school,” what does that mean? Visiting other schools helps me see exactly what we need and allows the opportunity to point to an example of what we could create. I also hoped to discover new ideas and gain insight I would never be able to get browsing through pictures on the internet.

Here is an example of a tiered - or "case-study" classroom
at the Wharton School. It is the best-designed case-study
classroom I have seen. The chairs even swivel 360 degrees.

I took pages of notes and made a list of more than 60 ideas we might put into the mix for our school. I thought I’d share just a few with you to see what you think.

1) One school has three rooms set aside for visiting executives and another had interview rooms just for recruiters. One facility even had a lounge for the more than 160 recruiters that visit the school each year.

2) One school had two interview rooms that were equipped so that Skype interviews could be conducted.

3) One building featured floors that looked like they were made of marble. They were really just stained concrete, a nice artistic touch that made the building look distinctive.

4) In many cases, the student-related program offices were all located in prime areas on the main floor of the building or “beachfront property” as they called it.

5) Every school I visited said they wished they had designed more meeting spaces for students. I consider that important information to know.

6) One school set aside space for future growth that could eventually be converted into offices, staff areas or a program office.

7) I saw lots of examples that show how a design can make great use of natural light, giving classrooms windows and all offices windows to the outside or a very open building interior.

8) One building discovered a problem after the construction was done. The doors had no windows. This means people are often opening the doors just to find out if a class is in session. Another made sure the doors entering the classrooms were at the back of the room so that latecomers wouldn’t disturb the entire class.

9) Some meeting rooms are adjacent to classrooms, making it easier for professors to send students into breakout sessions.

I was warned that once we have our building completed that we’d need to budget time to give visitors from other schools tours of our own building. If we build it, they will come, I was told. The help we have received has been invaluable. I’m looking forward to paying it forward.

- Ken Snyder

Organizational uses of social media

2011-09-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

I’m a sucker for strongly worded critiques. If an author says things like, “The food at the restaurant was abysmal to the point that I intentionally threw up in my mouth to get rid of the bad taste”, sign me up.

So when I came across an article on Forbes.com titled “Skittles’ Stupid Social Media Trick”, it took me all of a nanosecond to click on the link. And I have to say, reading Laura Burkitt shred the marketing tactics of my favorite candy brand was sweeter than the figurative “taste of the rainbow” that Skittles claims its product delivers.

Connor Child

Skittles didn’t want to lag behind the rest of the industry with its social media efforts, so its marketers got rid of the traditional home web page and put in its place “a collage of content from social networking sites.” Their main error was including a live, unedited Twitter feed. It didn’t take long before anonymous, attention-seeking Twitter followers began directing “scalding” comments to its feed containing profanity. Because Skittles didn’t use a social media aggregator that would allow them to moderate comments before they were posted, the offensive language was displayed on their website for everyone to read.

Burkitt doesn’t fault Skittles for experimenting with Twitter on its website. She criticizes them for not using a social media aggregator, such as FriendFeed or Plaxo, to “view comments and moderate them before they are posted.” Companies now have the liberty of doing this thanks in large part to PepsiCo. FriendFeed never had this feature until Pepsi requested that they make the service available only to Pepsi, but they added the option for all companies.

Now I want to shift from a company that didn’t get social media to one that excels at it: the NBA.

In April of this year, Maria Burns Ortiz wrote an article for ESPN.com titled, “The NBA’s social media explosion”. She mentions several facts and figures illustrating the NBA’s dominance over its competitors in the social media realm: “The NBA has positioned itself as the top sports league in social media – No. 1 on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in terms of respective followers, likes and views.” At the time this article was written, the NBA had 10.5 million users who like and follow its official Facebook and Twitter page; the NFL, which is easily the most popular sports league in the United States, had yet to crack 5 million.

What has this done for the NBA? It has engaged fans in an unprecedented way. They can get to know their favorite stars on a much more personal level than ever before (approximately half of the NBA’s players are on Twitter). League and team officials can also monitor relevant trends and see what the fans are talking about. This allows them to gain valuable consumer information for marketing and public relations purposes.

I am baffled as to why the other professional sports leagues haven’t followed the NBA’s lead on this. Perhaps the NFL doesn’t view the NBA as a viable competitor (indeed, revenue for the NFL dwarfs that of the NBA). But didn’t we just spend a summer listening to NFL owners say they weren’t making enough money? Instead of trying to convince us that you aren’t getting your fair share of revenue, please spend more time getting to know your consumers and delivering us what we want.

- Connor Child

Honor thy consumer

2011-09-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

Eric Schulz

I wish I had a dime for every time someone called me up, bursting with excitement over some brilliant new product idea they just had. Inspiration strikes in some strange and wonderful places: washing the dog, looking for car keys, flipping the remote. The thought emerges, “Gee, I wish someone would invent something to make my dog smell better, or find my keys, or keep my remote handy.” Presto, the idea is hatched, and the product begins to take shape.

Sometimes the ideas are pretty good, and often the inventor has already dreamed up a catchy name, like “Smooch Your Pooch Sweet Smelling Shampoo.” But marketing a successful product should never begin with a focus group of one. The problem with many of these home-grown inventions is the inventor becomes so intoxicated with his idea that he starts building momentum before he tests the concept. He violates the most important rule of the marketing game: Honor Thy Consumer.

Everything in marketing begins and ends with the consumer. Before you can sell your product -- before you even develop a product -- you must understand what the consumer wants and design your offering to meet his or her needs. You may want a dog that smells like the Rose Queen, but do other consumers share your desire -- and will they pay for it? If your product concept is on the mark, then your job is simply finding the best way to communicate that you’ve got the goods consumers want. It’s a basic concept: you can’t create a need that isn’t there, and you can’t argue consumers out of what they want.

Knowing that the consumer is at the heart of every marketing decision, researchers have invented ingenious techniques to get in tune with the consumer, from focus groups, phone & mail surveys, concept testing, in-home trial and mall intercepts to proprietary panels, Internet panels and purchase diaries. Consumers have been ambushed, bar coded, spied upon and even hypnotized in the quest for information. Companies pour millions of dollars into research every year to help them understand what consumers are thinking and how the marketplace is changing.

But here’s the big question: if you are looking at the same studies and doing the same types of research as your key competition, how is it possible that you will gain insights different -- and better -- than theirs? The answer: you can’t.

Top companies understand this fact, and force their marketing personnel to go farther than standard methodologies to gain broader and deeper consumer understanding. This is where they create competitive advantage. They teach their marketers how to beat competition at the consumer learning game, where all good marketing begins.

So how do the top companies get better information than the competition? By spending millions, right? Wrong. Top companies teach their marketing personnel to gain strategic consumer insight through everyday life…watching TV commercials, browsing in stores and talking with friends and family.

It sounds too ordinary to be true, doesn’t it? Paying attention in everyday life is nowhere near as exciting as launching a half-million dollar research project, complete with one-way mirrors and hidden video. But don’t be fooled by the trappings of research. Top companies know the best way to gain real world experience is in the real world.

- Eric Schulz

A shared vision is born

2011-09-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ken Snyder

Last week representatives from all the groups involved in planning our new building got together for what I will call a “visioning meeting.” We talked about the things we want to be sure this new building will do for the school. We created a comprehensive list of our “vision.”

• It’s more important to invest time to carefully assess the needs of our students and to design the building properly than it is for us to work on an accelerated design and construction schedule.

• We’d prefer a smaller well-designed building to a larger one that fails to meet our needs.

• The building should have an open feel and design that helps create a sense of community.

• We want to let the sun shine in. The design should take full advantage of natural lighting.

• It should be designed to best meet our student’s needs. We want to keep that idea foremost in our planning.

• We need to have more student-centric places available.

• We want to take advantage of the opportunity to build an iconic structure.

• Huntsman Hall needs to fit among the other buildings on campus so that it will contribute, not detract, from what makes the Utah State University campus remarkable.

• The building should effectively connect with and integrate into the existing George S. Eccles Business Building so that they feel like one complex.

• We are becoming a top-tier business school and we want to be sure our building reflects that.

• The building should be a recruiting tool to attract faculty members and new students. It should entice people to come join us.

• The design should promote collaboration between students, faculty and staff. It should feel inviting to the local, state and world leaders who will come to visit and meet with our students.

• The design should take advantage of the latest technology and be flexible to adapt to developments in the future.

• The design should support our “global vision” pillar and invite students to explore how they can “change the world.”

We realize this is a preliminary list and that it may change, but we think we are off to a good start.

- Ken Snyder

Applications now open!

2011-09-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

The Fall 2011 session of Great Work Great Career is almost underway! We have our speakers all lined up for this semester and have some really great people coming to speak to us.

To recap for those unfamiliar with the course:

Great Work Great Career is a career and professional development workshop that will help you identify and develop your unique skill set, learn how to take charge of your life and get the work you want. We will also teach you how to create a custom résumé and cover letter, and you will learn how to deliver an engaging interview. So much time and energy is put into 4+ years of education, now is the time to learn how to put all of that into practice and apply it to the real world!

Applications are now being accepted, and the process will close Tuesday, September 20. The first class begins Thursday Sept. 22, and will be held every Tuesday night thereafter from 6:30-8:00 p.m. until November 15. There is a course fee of $99, which includes a copy of Dr. Covey's book, Great Work Great Career, access to Dr. Covey's online community, a certificate of completion, and a delicious closing social dinner.

For more information and to apply, go to huntsman.usu.edu/greatworkgreatcareer.

Any questions can be emailed to greatworkgreatcareer@gmail.com.

We hope to see you there!

Are there too many A grades given out in college?

2011-09-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

My boss keeps telling me I should write a blog about how there are too many A’s being given out in college classes these days.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

I haven't yet taken his advice. Obviously. Until now, kind of.

With the new school year, there comes new students, new classes and new teachers. One of these new professors teaches one of the lower division classes in my major and has declared that his class will be graded harder. He said most kids will get a “C”, the same amount will get a D as will get a B, and very few will get an F or an A.

In statistics, this is normal. Actually, according to all the grading standards I’ve ever heard of, this is normal. I was taught to expect a C if I met the expectations, a B was for exceeding expectations, and an A was for being outstanding.

It seems as though in my grade school days a D was a passing grade. It wasn’t a good thing, but it was acceptable. You got credit. Frankly, I was a B student. That doesn’t really sound that great, but it was 10 or 20 years ago. It was better than most. Now it’s just okay. Now it seems that most people who read and bother to show up for the test can get at least a B. Statistics says that 13.6 percent of people should get a D, and the same should get a B. But things have shifted. Now you don’t pass a class if you get a D.

I don’t disagree with that, but I think that when you raise the bar like that, you shouldn’t lower your expectations for the other grades. Now everyone expects to get an A, where before only about 2.3 percent got an A.

Growing up I was told that college was going to be harder than high school. I think it’s easier to get an A now then it was back then. In fact, after about the 2nd grade the only 4.0 GPA’s I’ve ever had were in college.

Growing up I was told that college was going to prepare me for real life and a big-boy job. Mostly it does, but only because I chose a major with classes that are based more on my skills and that really train me to do my general profession. However, if students had to compete against one another to get good grades, it would be more like real life. If there were only so many openings for graduates, it would make us better. Either that or we would drop out.

Growing up I was told that college was going to expect me to write in cursive. Now everybody types everything, and it mostly looks like cell phone text shorthand.

So there’s my soapbox, and my hope that my boss will stop suggesting the same thing to write about.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

A customer makes an airline pay for breaking his guitar

2011-09-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

Dave Carroll and the other members of Sons of Maxwell
mourn the broken Taylor guitar

Recently I had the opportunity to review a public relations case study and a very funny trilogy of YouTube videos that took place in 2009 called “United Breaks Guitars.” Now apparently this is a very popular video (Time magazine named "United Breaks Guitars" #7 on its list of the Top 10 Viral Videos of 2009) and it enjoyed enormous success. It gave Dave Carroll, the man affected by the incident, many more gigs and now he is a featured speaker on customer service.

For those of you who aren’t acquainted with the incident, Dave Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, were taking a plane to Nebraska from Halifax to do a show and they had a layover in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. While on the plane they saw the baggage handlers on the tarmac man-handling their luggage and, as a consequence, breaking his $3,500 Taylor guitar. He tried to file a claim with the airline; however, he didn’t make it within the “standard 24-hour timeframe” so there he was, stuck with a broken guitar and no help. This rejection to replace his broken guitar went on for nine months.
So what did he do? He gave United Airlines an ultimatum to replace his guitar or he would write three songs about how terrible their customer service is. Well, you can imagine what happened. Big company like that has no reason to care about one passenger. Or do they?
Dave Carroll released the first video, “United Breaks Guitars,” and it went viral immediately. It amassed over half-a-million views within the first three days.

That got United’s attention. They tried to right the wrong but it was too little too late. Carroll responded that he would continue to release the next two videos and that United could go ahead and just give the money they were offering to a charity and then to let him know which one it was.

This was a terrible public relations move on the part of United Airlines. First of all, the age-old saying is that, “If you break it, you replace it.” Especially when there are so many people to attest to the fact that “Yes, we saw you break it, we all saw it.” I think the worst thing United Airlines did was to continue to ignore this man for nine months and then to act repented about it after the fact. It was a very easy fix, something that could have been taken care of in no time at all. United just decided to press their luck and, in this round, they ended up losing big time.
Now in regards to Dave Carroll, I believe he took everything like a champ. I don’t think he could have had any better PR to improve his image and the subsequent happenings attest to that. I think that even in his follow-up video to “United Breaks Guitars” where he says the people that work there aren't bad people, they just followed the rules when they should have been caring about the person.

I’m sorry if this seems like a tangent but today I had the opportunity to go to the Dean’s Convocation with the Huntsman School of Business up here at Utah State University. The speaker was Michael Glauser, the new Executive Director of Entrepreneurial Programs, and he gave a stellar presentation. During this presentation he spoke about how business needs to be more about the people and that once we put people first, the rest will follow and we will find success. Here in this case study it’s evident that United Airlines failed to put people first, instead deciding to stick to its guidelines and, in the end, suffering the consequences (whether its stock was directly affected by this or not is still up to debate, but there is no denying that soon after the event it went down by 10 percent, or $180 million).

If we look on the flip side, what a great learning opportunity for United to take away from this and to use in future trainings. There is a silver lining to every cloud; with this one we can rest assured that United is going to take this experience into account and build off of it. Why? Because United is a smart company and they haven’t been around as long as they have because they are bad at doing business.
Every big company make big mistakes sometimes; this just happened to be one of them.

- Rob Goates

Huntsman School's Campus-Wide Text Messaging Club

2011-09-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

Many of you may have noticed these green ads in various locations throughout campus. The Huntsman School is developing a campus-wide text messaging club where students will get updates on major university and Huntsman School of Business events. This will help improve communication between the Huntsman School and its students.

When students send a text to the number 88222, their phone numbers are entered into the text messaging club, and they become eligible for the drawings. In mid-September, the Huntsman School will randomly select two individuals who have entered the drawing for the awards. One student will win a $500 gift card to USU's bookstore, and another student will be awarded Aggie Ice Cream for one year.

Entrepreneurs and how they can benefit those around them

2011-09-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

Students interested in entrepreneurship should know that the Huntsman School struck gold with the recent hiring of Michael Glauser as the executive director of entrepreneurial programs. He was the featured speaker at the Dean’s Convocation today, and his experience, knowledge and passion for entrepreneurship were on full display.

Michael Glauser

Dr. Glauser is especially fond of organizations that seek to satisfy a social need in the community. He talked about Henri Landwirth and how he started Give Kids the World. He spoke of Mimi Silbert and the lives she has touched with the Delancey Street Foundation. It didn’t take him long to talk about our school’s namesake, Jon Huntsman, and all that he has done in cancer research and education.

Dr. Glauser was emotional at times as he talked about the great things these people have done, and his sincerity and passion made it impossible not to get on board with what he was saying. He has extensive experience starting up successful businesses of his own, and he has been exposed to many of the world’s best entrepreneurs.

He closed with a list of what makes a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial leaders:

Work in the boundary of their organization
Apply creativity and innovation in problem solving
Pivot to opportunities from being in market
Engage a "Brain Trust" of helpful mentors
Build powerful entrepreneurial teams
Establish networks to commercialize ventures
Create more with less resulting in lower costs
Build extraordinary customer service systems
Serve a broader purpose in their community

Huntsman Hall East, meet Huntsman Hall West

2011-09-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

When we talk about our new building, Huntsman Hall, we are still at the stage where we are envisioning the possibilities. There are no bricks to kick or windows to open. And yet, did you know that there’s already a Huntsman Hall in place that is home to more than 4,000 business students?

Ken Snyder

The Jon M. Huntsman Hall, which cost $139.9 million to build in 2002, is at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The 324,000-square-foot building features 48 classrooms, 57 group-study rooms and two cafes.

Just like us, they put some thought into their building; in fact, they held more than 100 focus groups as they were deciding how to design their facility. Their careful planning shows. The iconic building is one that will prove functional and attractive to generations of students long after the faculty and staff who serve there now have retired.

We have something else in common with the Wharton School. Jon M. Huntsman, our namesake, is an alumnus of that school. In fact, when he came to Utah State University in 2007 to be recognized for his $26 million gift, he brought with him Thomas P. Gerrity, a former Wharton dean who spoke at the event. Since that day, when we changed our name to the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, we have paid several visits to Wharton, establishing a connection to that great school that continues today. In fact, in just a few days I will visit that school with our architects to see what we can learn from them about building our Huntsman Hall.

Even though the Huntsman Hall at the Wharton School is much larger than our Huntsman Hall will be, we look to it as an example of how to carefully plan and design a building that will best serve our students. Take a tour of the Huntsman Hall East, as I call it, and comment on this blog, telling me what you like about that facility and what you think we should adopt in Huntsman Hall West.

Ken Snyder