Ciocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society Blog

August 4, 2014

HCEG: Leveraging One’s Network Effectively in the Technology Sector

The Holy Cross Entrepreneurs Group of New York City held its second networking event of the year at Bryan Cave on Wednesday evening, July 23. The evening was a great success, as many alumni and students attended. Professor David Chu, Director of the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-Business Adviser, also attended the event.

Many thanks to those who participated on the panel, including Michael Barrett ’84, CEO of Millenial Media, Chris Nace, ’06 VP Executive Search at Connections NY, Colin Cunningham ’09, Manager at Axial, and moderator Andrew Cialino ’10, Senior Account Executive at Axial. A hearty thanks goes to Patricia Werner ’97, Counsel at Bryan Cave LLP, who hosted the event at the law firm. Patricia is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Holy Cross Entrepreneurs Group of New York City, along with Daniel Barrett ’93, Andrew Cialino ’10, Colin Cunningham ’09, and Chris Nace ’06.

The alumni panelists focused their insights on leveraging one’s network effectively in the technology sector. With today’s growing tech space, whether pertaining to startups or to the field in general, it is important to understand industry basics. More importantly, both students and alumni should know how to recognize and utilize technology’s benefits in an entrepreneurial way.

The panelists addressed various issues under this umbrella topic, such as how to secure a job in the tech industry, how to reach out and successfully network within the field, and what kinds of tactics both students and alumni may leverage when acclimating themselves to the tech sector.

As always, this networking event successfully fostered that famous Crusader spirit and alliance, as alumni and students were brought together under the same passion for entrepreneurship. The goal of these events is to further the mission of HCEG of creating more entrepreneurial relationships, so that the Holy Cross community is not only a group of “men and women for others,” but also a community of men and women for each other.

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Thanks to Sydney Pugliares ’16 for covering this event and to all the alum sharing insights to the tech industry! As always, don’t forget to “like” us on FACEBOOK and follow us @HCPrebusiness

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

June 24, 2014

HCEG: Boston Networking Event Summary

The Holy Cross Entrepreneurs Group of Boston held its spring networking event at McGladrey on Thursday evening, June 12, 2014.A remarkable number of Boston alumni attended the event, along with the students participating in the Holy Cross Summer Business Program. This opportunity gave students the opportunity to practice their networking skills and expand their alumni circle in a professional setting. Professor David Chu, Director of the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies and HC’s Pre-Business Adviser, also attended the event accompanied by several other members of the College administration and the Pre-Business Office.

While the event cultivated that classic Holy Cross spirit, the evening’s host, Bob Allard ’91, proved most energetic of all, with his insights on Servant Entrepreneurship: How to Survive in a Not-Just-for-Profit World. The Managing Partner of ExtensionEngine LLC explained how “Servant Entrepreneurship” is in fact NOT an oxymoron, but rather a strategy that all successful business gurus recognize and utilize.

Allard placed significant focus on the benefits of networking, giving anecdotes and valuable advice that have aided him in the ongoing process of entrepreneurship. He explained how it is often “who you know” along with (and sometimes more important than) “what you know” that will help you succeed in business. However, Allard took this philosophy one step further to note how it is also “who you help” that will lead you to success. He explained how “paying it forward” in the world of networking will come full circle — a sort of entrepreneurial “karma,” per se.

After Allard’s discussion of “Servant Entrepreneurship,” the alumni and students returned to more networking fueled with even more enthusiasm than before, as his insights gave more purpose to the event. Alumni Tom Brennan, CFO of AbilTo, Inc and Ray Jorgensen, Co-Founder & CEO of Priority Management Group, Inc. (PMG), also helped to facilitate discussion regarding these topics of entrepreneurship and networking.

Many thanks to those who helped in organizing this successful event. A big thank you to Bob Allard ’91, Tom Brennan ’86, and Ray Jorgensen ’91 for facilitating such valuable discussion of entrepreneurship during the event.

It is always an honor to host such successful alumni at events that bring together a variety of stories and passions, as each attendee is linked with the same drive of entrepreneurship and Holy Cross identity. The connections made during these events are instrumental in furthering the HCEG mission of creating more entrepreneurial relationships. Our goal is to foster the Holy Cross community as not only a group of “men and women for others,” but also a community of men and women for each other.

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Thanks AGAIN to Sydney Pugliares ’16 for helping to organize, attending and writing this summary of the event! Be sure to like us on FACEBOOK and follow us @HCPrebusiness!

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

May 15, 2014

HCEG: NYC Networking Event Summary

The Holy Cross Entrepreneurs Group of NYC hosted its inaugural event on Thursday evening, April 3 at the Time Warner Center Screening Room in midtown Manhattan.

The event was bustling with alumni representing classes from the 1970s to 2013. Also in attendance were members of the College administration, and Professor David Chu, Director of the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies and HC’s Pre-Business Advisor.

Many thanks to those who helped organize the event, including Kristen O’Hara ’92, CMO of Time Warner Media Group, who generously secured the Screening Room, HCEG-NYC co-founders Andrew Cialino ’10 and Colin Cunningham ’09 who managed marketing and social media outreach along with the Holy Cross Alumni office. The event was financially supported by a number of individuals and two company sponsors. Those sponsorships were arranged by J.D. Rehm ’88, co-founder of Mercury Group and Patricia Werner ’97, attorney at Bryan Cave LLP.

HCEG-NYC co-founder and the event’s host, Dan Barrett ’93, opened the event with a question: Why a Holy Cross Entrepreneur’s Group? In response, he expounded on two points. First, that alumni involved in entrepreneurial activities or servicing entrepreneurs have lacked a networking organization that has so long existed in other fields, such as law and finance. And second, alumni and students would greatly benefit from efforts to raise the profile of the College among entrepreneurial leads in the NY Metro area. HCEG-NYC would provide a professional networking organization in to help fulfill these goals.

Dan also shared interesting data on entrepreneurship among HC alumni. Using information gathered from the alumni office database, he noted that approximately 200 alumni have ‘founder’ or ‘co-founder’ in their job title. These individuals come from classes as far back as 1945 and as recent as 2013. The majority of these alumni reside in Metro NY, Boston, California, Maryland/DC and Florida as the top five locations. The list also revealed a wide variety of fields in which these alumni worked, including non-profits, finance, and consulting in addition to traditional entrepreneurial fields, such as technology and communications.

The evening culminated in the hour-long discussion with Tom Keirnan ’92, serial entrepreneur and currently co-founder and CEO of ClickPay, and Jack Hanlon ’06, co-founder and VP of Product and Data at Kinetic Social. In January, Jack also received the distinction of being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for the Marketing and Advertising industry for his transformational work at Kinetic.

Tom discussed how his early involvement in web development during the early days of the internet played a transformational role in his career and development as an executive or founder of several digital ventures over the past two decades. The concept of working for himself came as a result of advice from his father, as well as the training he received as a student. He stressed the value that a broad-based, liberal arts education provides an entrepreneur not only with the ability to think critically, but also with the skill set to solve problems and learn new tasks quickly. These skills, he claimed, were instrumental to his success thus far.

Jack added that his time at Holy Cross allowed him to explore various avenues which jumpstarted his passion for entrepreneurship. He was one of only four Music majors in his class, and he organized a thriving Ultimate Frisbee club on campus. These activities at Holy Cross required many of the same skills he leverages today at Kinetic.

It was a privilege to host such successful alumni speakers and hear their entrepreneurial stories. It is our hope that they provide an inspiration to all in their efforts, and that HCEG as a community can in the future cultivate even more talent and ideas to further our mission of connecting with each other on a professional, entrepreneurial level.

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Thanks to Sydney Pugliares ’16 for attending and adding to this great review of the event! Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the HCEG: Boston Networking Event on June 12th, 2014. Be sure to like us on FACEBOOK and follow us @HCPrebusiness!

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

March 26, 2014

SAVE THE DATE: Women in Business Conference 11/1/2014

On March 12, students came together to kick off the 2014 Women in Business Conference in the Dinand Browsing Room with sweet treats and great conversation. The guest speaker for the evening was Sheila Cavanaugh ’81, School of Theology and Ministry, Boston College. Sheila took students through her career path as a member of the Holy Cross community and offered her profound wisdom to attendees.

Sheila has had a very exciting career. She has worked as a banker at The Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, The Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, and the Union Bank of Switzerland in Zurich. Along with additional international experience and volunteer work, she was a Senior Vice President at Fidelity Investments. Currently, Sheila is pursuing a graduate degree in Theology and Ministry at Boston College.

As a Student Organizer for the conference and a graduating senior, Sheila gave inspired advice for my remaining time at Holy Cross. Her perspective on creating a fulfilling life was both motivating and promising, as all students were able to connect to her compassion and optimism.

Key Takeaways

Set goals –First and foremost, have a plan. Sheila had three main goals that she wanted to accomplish before her thirties- go to graduate school, live aboard and move to New York City. She encouraged students to set their minds on something and continue to work toward every day.

Network – With her set goals in mind, Sheila used the Holy Cross network to land an incredible job in New York City. She advised students to form relationships and to take advantage of the purple pride that is fostered at Holy Cross.

Take risks – Sheila inspired students to take a chance and do something that will yield great benefits as a result. By taking opportunities in both Asia and Europe, she was able to pursue her life ambitions and become adaptable to different cultures. In the long run, these risks have contributed to the fulfillment of her personal and professional life.

Everything will work out – Although there are times when things do seem to be going the right way, stay positive and life will work out how it is supposed to.

Thanks for a great guest post from Christie Cannone ’14 – a WIB student organizer! Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the 9^th Annual Women in Business Conference on November 1, 2014! Follow @HCWIB and “Like” WIB on Facebook!

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

March 13, 2014

For the Love of Buildings

On February 24, Holy Cross alumni who have distinguished themselves as leaders in the commercial real estate business shared their wisdom, advice and experiences in a COES event focused on educating students about careers in real estate.

James Whelan ’00, Senior Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Colin Blair’00, Account Manager in the Corporate Services Group at Cushman and Wakefield, described some of the opportunities in the industry before introducing keynote speaker John Power ’80, Principal and Co-Founder of Fairley, White. Four panelists, Matt Harvey ’02, Principal at Cresa Partners ; Sean Duffy ’86, Executive Director, Brokerage, at Cushman and Wakefield; Catherine Britt ‘04, Senior Project Manager at Northstar; and Tim Mulhall ’10 of Colliers International also offered advice on how to stand out as a potential intern and job candidate.

As someone who has been knocking on the door or real estate companies for the past several months, I was especially interested in hearing their views on what it takes to break into, and succeed in, the industry. Their response: passion, persistence and networking.

John Power, who has more than 30 years of experience in the field , sought advice from another Holy Cross alum, Bill McCall, and described how standing in McCall’s office, he became fascinated by the buildings he saw through the window. He began to imagine the possibilities for the building and knew from that moment that he wanted to be involved in commercial real estate. “Commercial brokerage is the best profession. It involves no risk, and it offers high rewards. But you must be willing to invest your time,” stated Powell.

Here are some other insights:

— All majors can apply. Both Whelan and Blair pointed out that commercial real estate offers opportunities for students of all majors and with a variety of interests, whether it is sales, finance, law, or marketing. Work ethic and personality matter more than major.

— One building, many opportunities. Every building offers a range of transaction/business opportunities: sales, rentals, leasing, purchasing, financing, management/operations, etc. This is what makes the industry so dynamic.

— Learn the business first. Harvey stressed that new recruits should take the time to learn the business and not be frustrated if they aren’t involved in big deals right away. Knowledge about the business will help you in future deals.

— Sell, grind and build relationships. Duffy emphasized that every day you need to sell both yourself and the product. He reminded attendees that relationships matter, always – and that persistence pays off.

— The Holy Cross advantage. Power pointed out that Holy Cross students have an advantage in the field because of the school’s high reputation in the real estate industry. Mulhall added that his Holy Cross education boosted his confidence and gave him an edge because his writing was stronger than his peers.

The lesson? Holy Cross’ liberal arts curriculum and the reputation of its alum can help open doors to a vast array of career opportunities in commercial real estate.

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Thanks to Kevin Kennedy ’16 for covering this event and to all the alum sharing insights to the real estate industry! As always, don’t forget to “like” us on FACEBOOK and follow us @HCPrebusiness Watch for our next blog post…

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

February 10, 2014

Holy Cross Students Meet Warren Buffett on Trip of a Lifetime

Another guest post, from Kevin Dufault ’14. who reflects on a once in a lifetime opportunity – meeting Warren Buffett!
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Just a week ago on January 31, 2014, Warren Buffett welcomed 18 Holy Cross students into Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Warren Buffett, widely recognized as the world’s greatest investor, is admired by aspiring financers across the globe. He is a true source of inspiration for the millions of motivated students who see investing in their future. Smart, motivated, and driven students look up to Warren Buffett as an example of just what can happen when you dedicate yourself to your true passion in life. As Mr. Buffett tells undergraduate and business school students, “Find your passion in life and never stop pursuing it. If you haven’t found it yet, don’t stop searching”.

For me, it all began in mid-August when I received an email notifying me of the opportunity Holy Cross received to take a trip to Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha and spend a day with Warren Buffett. Bobby Sullivan ’08 initiated the event by contacting Professor Chu, Director of Entrepreneurial Studies. At this time, I was not officially selected to attend the trip but rather, simply considered a candidate. All I can remember is immediately grabbing my cellphone and texting my family about this amazing opportunity. Flash forward to today, when I find myself reflecting back on the experience I and eighteen other students recently had. There was one particular theme I began realizing throughout all the preparation our group had in anticipation of our trip to Berkshire Hathaway – defining the experience of meeting Warren Buffett. Personally, I could not synthesize a sufficient title for this opportunity. After all, how do you label something that so drastically exceeds your deepest desires and highest expectations? Eventually, however, “Once in a Lifetime Experience of Meeting Warren Buffett” seemed to catch on with the group.

Our trip to Berkshire Hathaway speaks volumes of the Holy Cross Pre-Business Program. The Pre-Business Program, led by Professor Chu and Associate Director, Cassie (Murphy) Gevry, has certainly put Holy Cross students on the map in the business world. It is truly amazing to see how far the program has come over the past few years. As a member of the advisory board to the program, it has been very exciting to be a part of the growing success. Holy Cross has always had a strong presence of graduates in business and in finance. Take a stroll down Wall Street, the finance capital of the world and you are sure to meet a number of alumni from the College. Still, many Holy Cross students graduate without ever realizing the value that can be derived from a liberal arts education upon entering business, finance, or investing careers. That is exactly the issue Professor Chu has worked so hard to solve through his work with the Pre-Business Program. “Businesses are about people”, Professor Chu consistently preaches to members of the program. The Holy Cross curriculum teaches students to think critically in a variety of subjects, solve problems, communicate effectively, and harness good ethics. These are traits every business needs, especially in managerial roles.

From Wall Street to Omaha, Nebraska, Holy Cross continues to make its presence known in the financial services industry. The lessons Mr. Buffett taught us during our time at Berkshire Hathaway are ones that we will never forget. He continuously expressed the value in his relationships with friends and colleagues. When asked what the greatest investment he ever made was, Buffett replied, “My marriage”. The friendships he has built with people such as Charlie Munger and Bill Gates, and the love that can be found in his home are Buffett’s most cherished possessions.

After spending a couple hours in Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters, where Mr. Buffett answered the questions students never thought they would have answered by the finance guru himself, we were invited to tour a few of Berkshire’s largest subsidiaries. The tour included an inside look at Nebraska Furniture Mart, Oriental Trading Company, and Borsheim’s Fine Jewelry. In addition to our tours, we were lucky enough to be invited for lunch with Mr. Buffett at Piccolo Pete’s. The entire day was truly amazing. It’s one of those rare occasions when the reality of what you are experiencing does not fully register with you until it’s over.

The trip would not have been possible without the hard work and great leadership of a few people. They were the cornerstone to this entire journey and deserve great recognition for their long hours of commitment. Andrew Marzo ’14, President of the Holy Cross Finance Club, and member Christina Rudolf ’14 led the way as organizers of the trip. They were outstanding leaders throughout the months of preparation. From the beginning, we knew we could count on Andrew and Christina to keep us well informed, prepared, and supported on our journey to Omaha. Dan Riccardi ’06, from the Holy Cross Investment Office prepared us with an introduction to Berkshire Hathaway’s finances, and background on Warren Buffett’s life and career. Dan joined us on the trip and was always available to help make our trip the best it could be. Lastly, and perhaps most important to me, I cannot say enough about the group of students we had on this trip. As a senior at Holy Cross, I have met some great people over the past four years. And, I am happy to say that I recently met some of the kindest and most driven students on campus. I think we all gained some of the greatest memories we will ever have and it was a pleasure to enjoy this experience with them.
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Always great to hear directly from the students -Thanks Kevin, for your gracious post!

Don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and Follow us @HCPrebusiness and be on the lookout for our next post.

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

November 22, 2013

Pitch It!

Inspired by alum who wish they had more experience in public speaking while on the hill, Pre-Business decided to host a workshop. Professor Pat Bizzell of the English Department, who specializes in rhetoric, was happy to work with the Pre-Business students. In the interest of time, we asked students to rsvp with either a product or personal pitch already prepared. After a short intro regarding style, arrangement and delivery, Prof. Bizzell gave the students time to apply these techniques to the pitches they brought to the workshop.

We set up the video camera and one by one the students stood in front of the room to deliver their pitch. Rather than show the footage in front of the group, it was emailed to each student to watch themselves on their own time. This would bring Prof. Bizzell’s constructive criticism to the next level!

Do you have a personal or product pitch? Keep an eye out for our next public speaking workshop!

Cassie
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

September 25, 2013

HC Shark Tank Winner Ben Kaplan ’16 Set to Launch New Social Networking App

As those of you who are avid readers of this blog might remember, last spring the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies and the Entrepreneurship Club co-sponsored the inaugural Holy Cross Shark Tank competition where Ben Kaplan ’16 took home the grand prize for his original social networking app: WiGO.

Well, we are excited to announce that since last spring Kaplan has taken serious strides towards making WiGO (Who is Going Out) come alive and he has the initial launch slated for this early October. Holy Cross just might have its very own Mark Zuckerburg on its hands.

The goal of Kaplan’s app is to simplify the process of making social plans for college students. As a freshman at HC, Kaplan felt that making social plans and figuring out “who is going out?” was unnecessarily challenging. College students didn’t want to constantly be sending out group texts and no one wanted to always be posting all the details of social plans online and so WiGO was born.

The app creates networks based on a users’ college or university email address so that, for example, when an HCer logs in their homepage will show all of the other HCers who are users and indicate who has – or has not – said they’re headed out that night. There’s no specifics given, just “I am going out”, and there’s no friending process like with Facebook. Rather, if you go to HC you can see everyone else in your network and vice versa. From there, Kaplan believes that this app will make it easy to see who wants to go out and then utilize the app’s chat function to make plans. Additionally, if you see someone on the app who you’d like to encourage to go out you have the option to “shoulder tap” them, which lets them know you’d like them to see them out.

I had the chance to sit down and talk to Kaplan last week, as he prepared for the upcoming app launch, and what I was really struck by was the way he has developed an initial idea he had last spring into a real live app. He explained to me how he’d started the summer interviewing web developers and coders and ultimately settled on a team from Green Mountain Software, located in his hometown of Burlington, VT. He then spent the rest of the summer working with them to take what was initially an idea in his head and turn it into something that’s accessible and user friendly. We discussed why he decided to hire a local team, rather than outsourcing the coding as many app developers do, and he said that the opportunity to actually meet with, and have easy access to, his coding team was ultimately one of the best decisions he made. It allowed him to take real ownership in the creation process and meant that he could be involved making changes and decisions during the course of development.

Kaplan also credited the Holy Cross alumni network as being indispensable in this process. The time and feedback that he said so many alumni were willing to give him was very beneficial in the development of this app. Last spring, Shark Tank judge Chris Stephenson had told Kaplan that if he brought his idea to Seattle he’d meet with him to discuss. Kaplan cashed in on this promise over the summer, flying to the West Coast to meet, and also said that there were many other alumni who connected him with local entrepreneurs, weighed in on questions of copyright and intellectual property law and offered feedback as he moved through the process.

Obviously in launching an app, the marketing efforts are, in many ways, as important as the actual coding and Kaplan explained that he had a clear game plan for that too: he was starting by focusing on sports teams here at HC, because such a larger percentage of students are involved in them, and had reached out to individuals on the various teams to get them onboard as ambassadors. The plan is that these individuals will encourage their teammates to download, and use, the app thus creating the initial injection of users needed to get WiGO off the ground. From there the hope is that it will catch on organically and as students see how easy and effective it is to use they will encourage their friends to use it, too.

What’s the plan long term? Well, Kaplan is initially launching the app exclusively here at Holy Cross and you need to have a verified Holy Cross student email address in order to register. But, looking forward, Kaplan said his next step would be to roll it out to a handful of additional colleges, continue to monitor its growth, and then allow it to continue to spread to schools across the country.

Towards the end of our talk Kaplan said that he thinks no matter what happens with WiGO – whether it gets off the ground or not – the process of creating the app and bringing it to market has been incredibly valuable in and of itself. That being said, after listening to him for an hour – hearing where the idea came from, how he built the app, and how he plans to roll it out – this blogger has a hard time believing Kaplan isn’t going to make this a success.

September 18, 2013

HC students participate in “Building Your Brand” workshop with Mimi Doherty ’02, President of Future Steps, LLC

For this week’s blog post we have guest blogger Chris Muzii ’14 filling us in on last weekend’s COES Professional Programs workshop…

My name is Christopher Muzii, and I am a sophomore. This past Saturday, I attended the Building Your Brand Workshop hosted by Mimi Doherty ’02, President and Founder of Future Steps, LLC. After my wonderful experience participating in the Summer Business Program, I was interested in taking advantage of the many opportunities available to students through the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies. In addition, one of my good friends had participated in the Building Your Brand Workshop last year and highly recommended that I attend. The workshop proved to be a truly rewarding experience.

The first activity involved looking at what defined and individual’s brand. We used Jay-Z and Steve Jobs as examples of individuals whose personal brands have had a tremendous impact on society. Individually, my group discussed the factors that helped shape the personal brand of Jay-Z. Mimi asked us to consider not only the attributes of the individual, but also how these attributes are portrayed to the general public. How are we able to characterize Jay-Z as musically innovative without having ever met him? What does Jay-Z do or what impact does he create that allows us to identify his personal brand? We discussed with Mimi why we attributed certain traits to these individuals. Through thoughtful collaboration, Mimi helped us to redefine certain words that we were using to describe Jay-Z and Steve Jobs.

After the conclusion of the first exercise, Mimi asked us to consider our own personal brand. What attributes or skills do we possess that help define who we are as individuals? Through a similar process, we came to understand how to better distinguish ourselves individually by examining our own attributes and skills. We then edited our personal résumés, at this point having a better understanding of our personal brand and how to portray this brand to potential employers.

I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in this workshop. The advice and questions that Mimi presented us with were both informative and valuable. The exercises that we completed throughout the day allowed us to gain a better understanding of what constitutes a personal brand. Having this knowledge, I feel that I will be able to relate my attributes to the past experiences that I have had appropriately in a professional setting.

Thanks Chris! We’re glad everyone found the workshop beneficial and hope to see many of you at the information session for the Executive Leadership Workshop on Monday, September 30 at 5P.

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK, follow us on Twitter and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN.

Helene

Helene Horan ‘06
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

June 25, 2013

Congratulations Team Brennan! Winner of the 2013 SBP Team Competition.

It’s hard to believe that the 4 weeks of the 2013 Summer Business Program have already come and gone! It seems like just yesterday that the group was gathering for their first session, most of them not knowing one another, anxiously awaiting to see what exactly they’d gotten themselves into when they applied for this program…

Last Friday, during the final presentations of the team projects, none of that anxiety was present (or, at least, they did a good job hiding it!) and all of the teams impressed the judges with their presentations!

But, first, to rewind…

The first three days of Week 4 of SBP were focused on more technical skills. Spearheaded by several GE employees the SBP students spent Monday afternoon learning about personal branding, Tuesday focusing on Excel and Wednesday exploring PowerPoint. It was great to have the opportunity for the students to hear from some recent alum, many of whom are in the GE rotational program, and get a day of intensive training with these various programs. Coming out of the Excel day many of the students were indicating they definitely wanted to take the fall Excel workshop – while they learned a lot in one day, it was clear there was so much more to explore and all the alum from GE emphasized how important it is to be able to use Excel if you’re interested in a career in business!

The students had Thursday to work as teams, putting the finishing touches on their projects, and then Friday was game time. Every team had a slightly different project, based on their team exec’s assignment, but the common denominator was that they were all very impressive standing in front of the room. In spite of having to present in front of all their classmates – something that some of the students weren’t thrilled about – watching the presentations it was clear how much time and effort all the groups had poured into their projects. Team Schiffmann put together a marketing pitch for a new wall siding product that’s ideal for DIY home owners. Team Malley presented a pitch to secure funding for a new drug that the group thinks can cure Crohn’s disease. Team Correia came up with a new brand of Irish-American whiskey and Team Villa created a pitch to secure funding for their bicycle company. Lastly, Team Brennan – which ultimately ended up winning – pitched a business plan for a new app that would help facilitate students’ study abroad experiences and allow for parents to more easily track and communicate with their children.

All five were very impressive! But, at the end of the day, the judges felt that Team Brennan was the best developed and the best presented so they walked away with the prize.

I think I speak for all the alum who participated in SBP when I say that this year’s group of students really took advantage of the Summer Business Program and it will be exciting to see where their interest in business takes them in the future! Who knows, perhaps in a few years some of them will be back on campus teaching a session rather than sitting in the audience.

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK, follow us on Twitter and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN.

Helene

Helene Horan ’06
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies